Here's the skinny... let's say you decide to take advantage of our business opportunity and join the Takeout Online effort.
The first thing that'll happen - we will sign a mutually beneficial agreement, where the details of our relationship will be fully spelled out, so both you and Takeout Online can know precisely what is expected, what will be done and how each will be compensated for the effort. Then we proceed to training, where we spend some quality time with you (phone, online) and show you precisely how we made this happen. This isn't rocket science, nor do we insist you use our approach, simply sharing with you what has worked for us over the years. The rest is up to you.
The business involves doing face-to-face with restaurant managers/owners. If you're not a people person - we don't recommend you jump into this opportunity. If you are (and you don't need to be a salesperson btw), then you have what it takes to succeed. You simply present the concept of online ordering as a possibility to the restaurant & ask them if they have a fax machine while you're at it (vast majority of restaurant do, but it helps to make sure).
The above approach takes us about 2 minutes or less to complete. It's not rocket science, it's not something blindingly new, even non-computer folks understanding the concept of ordering online and ordering takeout online isn't a stretch from there, so describing it doesn't take much time at all. If the person you're talking to likes the concept and wants to talk more - simply schedule a 15-20 minute gathering, at their convenience (many times they'd want to do it immediately, since it's so short).
In that 15-minute meeting you go through specifics of how our system works, if you/they have a computer - you can show them right then and there (although not mandatory). To me - this is trivial, but people like to hear the details, so you take them through the steps. Explain the benefits (there are a number and to help you - we have a flyer that you can use and hand to them) and drawbacks of traditional approach (there are a number as well) and explain the financial end of exactly how much we charge etc. Very basic stuff, anyone can do it (ANYONE).
If they see how great of a deal we're offering (and considering the fact that they could have it at little or no cost to them, considering all the benefits they get, and that we charge based on our performance) - it's a no brainer for most restaurants. However, some may reject it (which is ok, there are unreal untapped potential without them), the main thing is to just move on without dwelling on it (but don't be surprised if they call you later to say they reconsidered and want to be on Takeout Online after all... happened to us).
The next step is you gather some basic info, such as hours open, payment methods accepted, specials and any other relevant info and last (definitely not least) - don't forget the menu :) And you send us this info, along with logo, photos.
We proceed to put their menu together and put it online, invisible to the public at this point. You show them the fully functional menu and once they approve it - it goes live for public consumption.
We then provide you with some designs for doing in-store promotion via business cards, post cards etc. to get them going and you help them with some marketing ideas to promote the service, and of course any effort you can project locally to promote your restaurants would also be beneficial and speed things up, but not mandatory... most restaurants advertise, so you simply have them point out in their ads what to say.
One more things we encourage is to augment their web site to offer online ordering with a simple click. For those restaurants that have web sites - we can make the needed changes, at no cost to them. For those that don't - we can build one for them at little or no cost. Again, this is something we handle, so you don't need to worry about any of the technical aspects.
Once their orders start coming in - you get a percentage and we get a percentage... and continue to do so for as long as we have a relationship with you. If you are now asking what else is there to do? I'm getting paid for all these orders coming in from now on and there's nothing to do? And you're right - you WILL BE getting paid just as stated from that point on, from every single order coming in, from every single restaurant that you helped to put on Takeout-Online.com!
Well, there is one more thing we'd like you to do - continue to be a liaison between your restaurants and us. In other words, check with them perhaps once or twice a month, just to see if everything is ok. We mean that literally, once in 2-4 weeks you either drop by or call or e-mail (depending on their prefences) and just say 'hey John, is everything ok?' and they'll say 'yes' (since we'll know if there are any issues when those occur) and that's it. Typically once or twice a year a restaurant may want to change their menu. So, you get the new menu and e-mail it to us. We make the changes - done deal. We bill them, and if they are slow here and there - we may want you to intervene and see what the problem is. Out of many dozens of restaurants we dealt with - this problem happened once and the restaurant was taken offline, certainly irritating their customers and diminishing their takeout possibilities... so it's not something any restaurant of value would want to do. They might open another restaurant and would obviously want to talk to you about getting that onboard as well... simple enough.
That's really it. Initially you put some legwork into going around and talking to many people and getting many restaurants onboard. As time goes by - you do less and less of that (since clearly each local area only has so many restaurants), but continue to get more and more income, since more and more people find out, order and continue to order.
We will help you with every aspect of the business, as much as you'd like to be helped. What we won't do, since you're a business partner and not an employee of ours, is tell you how to live, if you will. We won't tell you where to work, when to work, whom to sign up and whom to reject - that's entirely up to you. With a certain volume of business, after 2 years we would be sharing the revenue 50/50.
So there you have it - the business opportunity on a plate ;), no gimmicks, no signups, no purchases of how-to tapes or e-books. Just the details spelled out. Obviously, the details involving info on how to sign up restaurants, and the compensation details are between you and us, so we'll deal with these details when we discuss them directly, but you should have a good idea of what this is about and how it works.
Feel free to contact Takeout Online if you have any other questions and/or if you would like to put your local restaurants online. You can e-mails here or Google 'takeout online', we'll be showing respectably high on Google (and thus all of your restaurants), in fact try it with "I'm feeling lucky" option to see just how respectably high we (humbly speaking) are.
No comments:
Post a Comment