Our first business venture - The Red House

[FnG]MUGnolia said:
Hey dude. I can't remember how well versed you are in Kiwi holiday periods but the summer holiday silly season hits NZ between mid December through to at least mid January. People are simply not around - they've gone abroad or up north or down south or wherever, and those who have returned to work will be in jandals and shorts for another week before things get almost back to normal by the end of Jan. I'm not at all surprised that you're not busy because even those people travelling will be be doing cafes on their trip back/away rather than anything like your place.

Now, if come February things are still quieter then you might have an issue but everything seemed to be going well, Christmas hit, and I'm sure you'll be back up and running like normal once everyone is back to normal :)
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Really hope so!

We put an offer on tonight on our facebook page offering a free beer to anyone who can finish our full rack of ribs. Not had a single customer tonight, it's really worrying.
 
Hades said:
Whereabouts are you located? Is there any other trade you could attract? For example renting the space out during the day to someone to host a yoga class, etc? Or offering coffees and sandwiches for commuters passing in the mornings? There is quite a trend for digital nomads nowadays so how about advertising to that market to get some people using your tables and wifi during the day while selling them food and coffee? Is there any spare storage space you could rent out?
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We are trying all sorts of ideas, i'm hosting a poker night next Thursday which should be fun, had some interest in that so we'll see. We've been doing flyer drops and we are trying our best to improve the kerb appeal outside on the road too. We're reaching out to mums, looking at a 'doggy day care' thing for dogs and their owners, anything that will work.

Had a bit of a better day today, still nothing to shout about but on a par of what we'd usually do on a Thursday i guess. Social media interest is up there but not many seem to follow through for some reason, maybe i'm spamming it too much! We had a guy come in before xmas enquiring about subleasing some land off us which would have been great for us but the landlady has put a top to that for some reason.

Beren said:
Yeah that was muppet features truly. Going to head up to you in the weekend instead all being even.
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Haha

Just be aware, we've got 2 massive 30+ cover tables on Saturday so i'm going to be really busy. However, we've got live music on Sunday afternoon from about 4.30pm if that interests you :)
 
dirtychinchilla said:
Regarding the karaoke, I'm no business expert but would it not make more sense to hire someone to do it once or twice, and if it builds traction then purchase the gear yourself? Could be a $700 investment instead of $2k, and someone professional to show you the ropes.

With regards to your signage, personally I'd just reach out to the landlord and tell them what effect you think it's having on you. Presumably it's in their interest that your business is strong because it ensures that you'll renew the lease next year or whenever your tenancy ends.

Very nice of you to drive people home btw. I'm convinced getting back from the pub is what motivates the self-driving car industry.

I hope it starts to build up again for you.
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The investment - or return on investment would still be better than hiring someone a couple of times, one thing we are definitely doing is open mic, it is popular here so the gear will get used. We've been quoted from a friend $200 a time for them to host the open mic, so even that on it's own would still be worth purchasing tjhe gear. Then we've got brewers coming in to talk about their beers, and we're talking about battle of the brewers where the brewers compete against each other. There are 4 local breweries which we use, and all the brewers live in the same house so they know each other and have a good craic so that will be interesting. So all in all, the $2k investment will be worth it rather than hiring people for different events.
All in all, even if it doesn't work, we would still not lose more than $700 it would have cost to hire someone twice if we sold the gear, it holds its value very well, going from experience.
 
Beren said:
Definitely, you have a really great spot there and the food was awesome.

You know about the signage, you need to get a sign up at sheepworld...

Also it doesnt cost much to print an A2 sign, the traffic really backs up into Warkworth and people are driving slow enough to read them. Pick the best review or your lunch deal and stick it far enough up the road that someone can have a quick chat with anyone else in the car (or themselves!) and decide to come in. It might seem a bit wierd to a Pom... But everyone else down SH1 is doing that.

Otherwise you have a good team a good menu and you definitely know how to cook.

Keep the faith, I know you have had a hard couple of weeks but I think you will do ok there. We will definitely be back and bringing some friends to spread the word.
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Cheers for the kind words, we try haha. We've had a pretty good day today, it's been fun, but more importantly, we're generating more business from family of those that came today as they are planning to come back for parties too, which is great!

I hear what you're saying about the review, and we have taken it on board and it's something we will do very soon.
 
Beren said:
Awesome, also saw that dumb review sometimes people are just idiots and the internet lets them have an opinion. Dont let them grind you down!

Jen said that perhaps you need to focus on the place having one crowd, the toys in the corner and the family fun days are pushing one way and perhaps the live music etc is going another. Not sure myself, but she is sometimes good at thos stuff.
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Yes, that review! The guy that left that is a relative of our waitress, they were part of the 1st birthday party we had yesterday! Even the waitress was gobsmacked lol. I clicked that the review last night was yours too. Cheers @Beren
 
Beren said:
Awesome, also saw that dumb review sometimes people are just idiots and the internet lets them have an opinion. Dont let them grind you down!

Jen said that perhaps you need to focus on the place having one crowd, the toys in the corner and the family fun days are pushing one way and perhaps the live music etc is going another. Not sure myself, but she is sometimes good at thos stuff.
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I get what Jen is saying, but we don't get many evening drinkers in and it's a market i want a share of. It wouldn't affect our daytime trade, i.e families. No harm in trying anyway lol
 
Hi, things have been steady for the last couple of months, though we had our quietest week last week, which was a bit scary, but that may be because this week is a long weekend. Yesterday and today have been fantastic days for us, i've cooked over 200 meals on my own in the kitchen today! That was extremely hard work! But worth it in the end. Sundays are normally our busiest days, but they can be weather dependent, and tomorrows weather isn't looking too flash. Long story short, we're getting by, paying all the bills and we've reinvested into the business quite a lot. We bought a whole PA system to host open mic nights, and for private parties etc, i've jsut invested in a commercial vac pac machine and sous vide to improve recipes, and to make life a little easier for me.

However, the next 3 months are going to be a huge test as it's winter, we've got plenty of ideas though to bring in trade throughout the winter though, we've started a gold plus card discount for OAP's and dropped flyers at retirement villages. We're planning a weekly quiz night, but making it into a league with the winner at the end of 12 weeks taking home $500 prize, hopefully that should pique interest. I'm planning a big 80's disco complete with LED dance floor and loads of 80's relics for decoration for the end of July, which coincides with my birthday, so secretly a birthday party for me :D. We're looking at a mid winter xmas night, open mic nights, and we have a karaoke night on every month already which is great. We've got a couple of 'meet the brewer' tap takeovers planned too. We've also had a couple of enquiries about wedding receptions, though no set bookings yet.

I just can't wait to get this winter out of the way though, because next season should be bigger and better, now that we're settled and have a bit of a following. For our first birthday (4th October), we're having an Oktoberfest party. So plenty to look forward to, but plenty to worry about too haha!
 
Diddums said:
Sad as it is, the thing I'm looking forward to the most in kiwiland is tasting your lovely sous vide steak you're gonna cook my wife and I :D


Glad it's all going well, I love reading your updates!
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Start salivating ;)

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Haha, of course i have plates!

May has been the worst month so far, barely broke even, not worried though as this month and July are looking promising with big party bookings, with a couple of them potentially enough to bring in a whole weeks takings in one day. We have a party booked in today of around 40 people which is needed! Can definitely tell winter is coming now though. Without these group bookings i'd probably be worried, but we just need to get through to September when it'll start picking up again. We decided we would close for a week in August and treat ourselves to a well deserved holiday, a 4 night cruise and 4 nights on the Gold Coast!

We have been developing the business over the last few months to be more of an entertaining venue, we have our own PA system now, we've just bought our own bouncy castle, as our ethos is to be the best family friendly place in our area, also bought a projector and 133" screen for the rugby world cup in September, we purchased the rights to show every match too. Hopefully that'll get more drinkers in. We have our new open mic night starting next Saturday from 4pm, we did trial it on a Wednesday night for a few times, it was quite popular, but people wanted it to be on a weekend, so we changed it.

Next year i want to concentrate on getting bigger events here, i'd love to do something similar to the 'Stand up to Cancer' thing in the UK, get some comedians in for a charity event. I also want to plan a big 80's party complete with a light up dance floor, lava lamps and loads of 80's memorabilia lol. We are also planning an Oktoberfest event for our first birthday, that should be fun.

It is apparent now though that we are a destination venue rather than a 'local', nobody just comes for a drink really which is a shame. However, in the next 2-3 years, that shouldn't be the case as in the direct vicinity, over 7000 homes are to be built within walking distance, and the new Northern motorway ends about 600m south of us, bypassing the whole of Warkworth, meaning we will be the first stop off the motorway! The future is looking bright, we just need to survive the present! We do have contingency plans in place if things do look like they might fail in the next 3 months, but to be honest, i'm happy with the buffer of parties we have booked in the next 2 months! Might be tight, but we'll get through :)
 
It's over and we're getting screwed over :(

We've had nothing but bad luck over the last year. We've tried all sorts of different things to try and grow but nothing has worked, about the most successful thin we tried was open mic nights, which started great, but soon fizzled out. It's so frustrating because we get so many comments saying 'wow, what an amazing place' and 'we'll definitely be back', backed up with great reviews on FB / Google maps, there's definitely nothing wrong with our product!
It all started back in March last year when a major roadworks project started on the road we are on, we immediately saw an impact, we went from sales of $50k/month straight down in April to half of that, and it has steadily declined since, not even rising for summer. We've ridden the wave for as long as we could but finally, we're at a point where we cannot sustain it. We've done a lot for the community, we've been very selfless, not taking a pay packet at all since we opened, yet we've held fundraising events for local charities, (one evening we purchased food for a full 'pay what you want' menu out of our own pockets and gave all the money they paid to the community trading post, a local charity). We gave 10% of our Waitangi day proceeds to the recent bush fires charities etc. Yet here we are, really struggling financially with nobody to turn to. Not a problem in itself, however, we still have 6 months left on our lease, we have found somebody willing to take over the lease meaning that the landlady wouldn't be out of pocket, but she is insisting that we can't pass it on to a new lessee, but she is insisting that we forfeit our $10k bond as we will be inevitably breaching our lease, she said that we will have no other obligations but we will be liable for any legal fees. Then she's said that she will negotiate a new lease with the people we have found to take over. Basically, being very awkward with us, sticking the knife in and twisting till she can't twist it any more. We don't want to go down the bankruptcy route if we can avoid it, but they way she's going, it's looking inevitable, we're gutted!

We didn't want to make a fortune in this business, we just wanted to provide a service to locals, somewhere for families to spend time together, nothing made us happier than being able to give over $1000 to local charities and bush fire aid. It's true, giving is just so much more rewarding than receiving. Yet some Chinese investor is trying her damn hardest to seep out every last cent that she can from a young & naive couple who had a dream.

RIP The Red House
 
I'd rather deal with things my own way @RxR. Thanks for your concern. We are still trying to find solutions to this situation, it should be so simple, we can't afford to stay open, this other big company want to come in and start a new lease from now, they even offered to start paying from March 1st and let us stay till 18th March to honour our last couple of bookings. It's just the landlady making everything 10x more difficult. We just want some closure to this whole ordeal.
 
The company has already emailed the landlady expressing their wishes to take over the building and land with the current terms etc and extend it for at least another year after our lease would have ended. They have offered to pay any legal fees required to get it sorted too. We're still waiting on a response. If by some miracle she becomes human and lets them take over, then we'll make some money from all the assets, even if we do still lose the bond, (legally we shouldn't, but for now, i'm preparing for the worst), we will buy a food truck / trailer, we've already seen one we want but we aren't in a position to buy it yet, but once assets are sold, we could. We hope it doesn't sell before we have the money for it.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/business-...tail/mobile-food-drink/auction-2555467676.htm

A lot less risk, we can travel all over the country to events, much more profit too.
 
We were always fighting a losing battle in the last year, Covid inadvertently finished us off. I'm currently working part time again as a chef but I do have other ideas, one being a competitor to HelloFresh but with my USP being supporting and using local businesses and suppliers all over NZ. It's just a pipe dream at the moment though, could use some support, knowledge and investment to build a business plan and work out the logistics of it all. Already come up with a name though and currently playing with a logo, though it definitely needs work.

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