With the coronavirus impacting the economy the way it is, it's forcing many industries to switch their offer or even worse shut down.
Restaurants are one of the hardest-hit industries. I don't want to go into the facts because looking at them now its already scary and unfortunately, its gonna get scarier.
No one, especially not a fortune teller (Although they have seen an increase in business) can tell you or me when this is going to end.
So in the meantime, we have to adapt or face the consequence of being out of business.
However...
We are in the 21st century, meaning we have the internet, which allows anyone from anywhere to make a huge profit as long as they know how to and will do the work.
Although restaurants can't serve people in their building right now, they can still generate a lot of revenue using these methods I'm going to talk about.
These are just a few things I've seen around the industry, the point is you have to be creative! With the internet, anything can be done. So don't throw in the towel just yet!
1. Set Up Delivery/Takeout for your restaurant
This one is the most obvious, but I do want to give some tips about setting up your delivery online.
You can set up delivery with popular delivery apps (Ubereats, GrubHub, etc) But of course, they would charge you fees and will cut into your profit,
The next best thing then is to set up your own online delivery order form for people to fill out! If you don't have one on your website already, you can actually use Wix and the Wix for the restaurant app to set it up in a day.
These multiple other platforms/other ways to set up your own delivery system too
Now how do you get people to go on to your website? Should you cry back to those delivery apps and pay those dang fees?!
No, you can just spend $5-15 a day with local Facebook ads!
Since you're in a local area there's no need to spend lots of money on Facebook and the targeting can be set up easily!
If you want help setting that up you can have me help you for free by clicking here!
Also, Facebook ads are cheaper than ever now (since there's not as many advertisers on it ) and at a time where more people are online than ever.
2. Make a How-To-Cook Our Food Online course
If you wanted to make an online course now you can! And you can make lots of money doing that as well.
The best part is the way you cook your food is different than how any other restaurant cooks it, meaning that you already stand out.
Especially now that people are at home, they want to pick up a new skill, one of those being cooking!
The quality does not have to be the greatest, the content is what matters most (People can handle bad quality, but they can't stand bad audio)
Talk about the ingredients you use, how long you cook it, the technique you use, and all other aspects that are involved in making the dish.
Then you can go and sell these videos to your current customers on your email list or attract new ones again using cheap Facebook ads.
3. Use Affiliate Links/Set Up A Ecommerce Store
With people online now and starting their new passion for cooking, they're gonna need new kitchen utensils to use to cook with. Most people don't want to go outside to buy these utensils either so they will go online!
If you have your own utensils/ sell anything in your restaurants (T-Shirts, mugs, other swag) Then you can set up an online store! It's quite easy now and Shopify is having a 90-day free trial so its no better time to try.
Once you set up your store, again run Facebook ads (Hope you're seeing a theme here) to get traffic to it.
Share it with your friends and email list too!
A cute item you can sell is a cooking isolation kit that has everything a person needs to start cooking tasty dishes.
If you don't sell any of your own merchandise, sell others and get paid a commission for it. You can practically do the same thing and set up an online store for people to buy it.
This can go along perfectly with your online course! As you can have affiliate links on the same page you have your videos.
4. Have a Paid Live-Stream showing you cooking a dish
If you're already making dishes for patrons for delivery, why not live stream it any people can pay you to see it?
People love seeing stuff behind-the-scenes and backstage. People pay thousands to see how a movie is made, why not get people to pay you to see you cook?
You can also think of this as a live cooking show for your audience! This can be an add-on to your online video course too, allowing to have people pay for a recurring membership.
This does not have to be every day too, you can do this live stream once a week! Be sure to chat and communicate with people to as that's how you build loyal fans.
5. Just Ask For Help
People are generous and understanding during this hard time. They know that restaurants are struggling, but they don't know that you are struggling.
So take some time and make a post on social media and tell your story. Don't be scared, be honest and vulnerable. People will connect with you and understand.
By simply posting it, you will get people reaching out and asking how they can help. A restaurant in California did this and became famous overnight.
While fame isn't the goal it gets people to be more aware of your situation and by just telling your story people will feel empathy and help you out from buying from you or buying your online products.
Conclusion
So That's 4 ways you can still make a profit online as a restaurant, but the hardest part of doing everything is setting it up all this up for example.
How do you set up a Facebook ad that works
How do I set up the course? How do I structure the videos?
How do I set up an eCommerce store/an online membership?
All this takes time to learn and set up effectively. If set up in the wrong way it could end up being a waste of money.
As a certified Ecommerce marketer with experience in selling digital products and social media ads, I can help you make a profit online during these times, allowing you to actually feel safe during this time for uncertainty.
If you would like to for me to help you set this all up Contact me here
Please stay safe, healthy, and strong. We will get through this.