Our first business venture - The Red House
- Thread starter wez130
- Start date
Well, it's been a weird weekend of ups and downs, Sunday was a bit disappointing, there was an oyster festival on, as well as Bathurst, but tonight, we were expecting to be quiet, we were full with only one member of staff as well as my wife and I! We're getting some great feedback already, and we have three 5* reviews already on google maps 
I think word is starting to spread now and more locals are trying us out, i think next week should hopefully be better than this week though, it's encouraging though that a lot of customers that have been in have said that it was always really busy in the summer and that they are really happy that we've opened again.
Oh, and i've also found a chef! He's a head chef at the moment in Grey Lynn in Auckland, who is sick of the commute to Auckland every day (i can understand why too), and we are closer to him, he's an English chef too and he seemed really nice, and has been a NZ resident for 8 years. I've got him coming for a trial on Thursday and i've offered him a decent wage if the trial goes well, so it will free up some of my time to do other business stuff too.
So, overall, a good week to start, one which we can only grow on, lots of good feedback from the food and the service. I think we've found a recipe for success with this place
I think word is starting to spread now and more locals are trying us out, i think next week should hopefully be better than this week though, it's encouraging though that a lot of customers that have been in have said that it was always really busy in the summer and that they are really happy that we've opened again. Oh, and i've also found a chef! He's a head chef at the moment in Grey Lynn in Auckland, who is sick of the commute to Auckland every day (i can understand why too), and we are closer to him, he's an English chef too and he seemed really nice, and has been a NZ resident for 8 years. I've got him coming for a trial on Thursday and i've offered him a decent wage if the trial goes well, so it will free up some of my time to do other business stuff too.
So, overall, a good week to start, one which we can only grow on, lots of good feedback from the food and the service. I think we've found a recipe for success with this place
Update time....
We had our best day on Sunday just gone, but it still didn't seem too busy, finished the week about $800 up on my forecast, which is good. We have been getting some fantastic reviews on our facebook page, and on google maps, a straight 5/5 of a total of 18 recommendations so far! We are picking up a few bookings now, and trying to push xmas bookings too. We have our big family fun day this saturday which we are hosting for free, so that should attract a lot of new trade and further bookings etc. Hopefully the weather holds up. we've got bouncy castles, face painting, a kids disco on the outdoor stage, loads of classic outdoor activities etc, so that should keep both the kids and parents happy The weekend after, we've got our first live music event, we've got 3 bands playing, we are the official venue for the Kowhai festival afterparty
Will report back once these are out of the way as i'm going to be a busy boy! Still no interest in the chef position i am advertising
Will report back soon...
We had our best day on Sunday just gone, but it still didn't seem too busy, finished the week about $800 up on my forecast, which is good. We have been getting some fantastic reviews on our facebook page, and on google maps, a straight 5/5 of a total of 18 recommendations so far! We are picking up a few bookings now, and trying to push xmas bookings too. We have our big family fun day this saturday which we are hosting for free, so that should attract a lot of new trade and further bookings etc. Hopefully the weather holds up. we've got bouncy castles, face painting, a kids disco on the outdoor stage, loads of classic outdoor activities etc, so that should keep both the kids and parents happy
The weekend after, we've got our first live music event, we've got 3 bands playing, we are the official venue for the Kowhai festival afterparty Will report back once these are out of the way as i'm going to be a busy boy! Still no interest in the chef position i am advertising
Will report back soon...
that's great news, good to see it going well after the launch.
Well I guess you have some extra graft initially but also get to put aside a bit more cash as a buffer for yourself
Will report back once these are out of the way as i'm going to be a busy boy! Still no interest in the chef position i am advertising
Well I guess you have some extra graft initially but also get to put aside a bit more cash as a buffer for yourself
Another week over, another record breaker for us! We had live music arranged for last night, three bands, however the weather didn't play ball and it pee'd down all night , we put on a free shuttle from and back to Warkworth town centre, which not many people took advantage of, guessing it was to do with the weather! Still a quite a few people did turn up, it was more of an intimate gig too as they played on our deck area, it went down well, but we took about $1.5k less than we hoped for! However, today, has definitely made up for that, it's been our busiest day so far by quite a bit, i literally haven't stopped cooking since about 8am, all day! Overall, we have taken what we hoped for for the weekend, which is good
, we put on a free shuttle from and back to Warkworth town centre, which not many people took advantage of, guessing it was to do with the weather! Still a quite a few people did turn up, it was more of an intimate gig too as they played on our deck area, it went down well, but we took about $1.5k less than we hoped for! However, today, has definitely made up for that, it's been our busiest day so far by quite a bit, i literally haven't stopped cooking since about 8am, all day! Overall, we have taken what we hoped for for the weekend, which is good More hit than miss in the last week, we've decided to open 6 days from this week now, we finished last week about $3.5k over forecast, although we still aren't paying ourselves yet, still a lot of initial setup bills to finish paying, but importantly, we are managing to pay the bills and wages lol! we're picking up quite a few xmas party bookings now too, some of these are 50/60 people at $50 a head plus drinks, we'll be taking the weeks forecast takings in one sitting
However, we aren't sitting on our laurels, we're constantly planning new events etc, we've certainly got the attention of the local competition, they are taking us very seriously from what we've heard
Bit late and all but did Bathurst weekend effect you even over in NZ?
Yes it did, it wasn't just Bathurst either, the Connor Mcgregor fight was also on that day, as was the All blacks vs South Africa game.
Fantastic. Well done!More hit than miss in the last week, we've decided to open 6 days from this week now, we finished last week about $3.5k over forecast, although we still aren't paying ourselves yet, still a lot of initial setup bills to finish paying, but importantly, we are managing to pay the bills and wages lol! we're picking up quite a few xmas party bookings now too, some of these are 50/60 people at $50 a head plus drinks, we'll be taking the weeks forecast takings in one sitting
However, we aren't sitting on our laurels, we're constantly planning new events etc, we've certainly got the attention of the local competition, they are taking us very seriously from what we've heard
Hi, yes, things are going great, really busy at the moment with xmas parties and we're getting some great reviews on facebook and Google, really need to sort our website out but literally have no time to do it. Only updates to add are that we have live music every sunday afternoon in our summer sessions season, we've also bought a 'luxury' van to use as a courtesy shuttle which we are waiting to have sign written. It should look like this...
Is that sort of van common in bars in NZ or is it a new thing you're trying?
How does it work - is it for picking up and returning pre-booked groups with dinner reservations etc... or is it potentially an ad hoc taxi for random people who've had a few at the bar and/or are unable to drive safely too?
How does it work - is it for picking up and returning pre-booked groups with dinner reservations etc... or is it potentially an ad hoc taxi for random people who've had a few at the bar and/or are unable to drive safely too?
See you shortly
Are you coming or have you been? If you've been, you never said anything!
Yes, it's quite a common thing, a lot of pubs have them. We've only used it once so far though for taxiing people home!
I guess it's time for a little update.
Things have gone pretty quiet since xmas. A lot of people are travelling to and from holidays, locals have gone away and to be honest, it's a bit of a low, and it's probably nothing to do with what we're doing, but it's making me wonder what we're doing wrong
. I hope things pick up in the next week or so. We're trying new offers to try and entice people and hammering social media. One problem has become apparent in the last week or so, there are still 'for lease' signs outside the front of the property for the other building on the shared complex, and we had a customer come in last week and say to us that she didn't realise that we were open! Not sure how to approach the landlady about it as if that's the case, there could be many more that have just driven past thinking we aren't open. Another issue which is my own fault, is the signage, it just doesn't stand out! WE have had another logo designed which is much better, but are trying to work out the best way to go with it now so it has maximum effect! We are going to use the logo that's on the van but i want to carry the recycled pallet wood theme on and paint it onto the wood (black background, red house outline in wood with red LED around it) Then text in white with red outline).
We're looking at starting a poker night which seems to be gauging interest, and also karaoke / open mic night, it costs $115 inc gst per hour to hire someone to come and do it, so we're going to buy the gear ourselves as an asset to the business as it'll only cost ~ $2k for a pair of Peavey DM115 speakers, a mixer, mics and a subscription to Sunfly Karaoke service. Hopefully, along with the free taxi service, it should bring people in, especially with the offer of a free beer to anyone who gets up to sign for the first couple of weeks
Apart from that, we're still getting great reviews on facebook and google, but nothing on Tripadvisor!
Oh well, i'll udpate again soon, hopefully we'll get ourselves out of this little post xmas rut soon!