Jon Lowder

Not a Good Time to Be in the Restaurant Biz

Two weeks ago I posted a rumor I'd heard about South by Southwest, closing its doors (I had a VERY reliable source) and that post was picked up by Smitty who confirmed that the restaurant had indeed closed.  Today I read in a post by Laura Giovanelli on the Journal's food blog that in addition to South by Southwest the Cotton Mill had also shut down. I never made it to the Cotton Mill, but based on Laura's opinion of it I'm truly sorry I missed it.

The restaurant business is brutal any time, but during tough economic times restaurants, particularly higher end restaurants, struggle even more. When money is tight the first place most people will cut their expenditures is eating out, and when you have the combination of higher food prices and higher gas prices like we have now a restaurateur has to work very hard to get people through the door.  As Laura says in her post:

Sometimes, I try to brush off all the economic gloom and doom. Maybe I’ve listening to too much NPR, I’ll think. But it’s been obvious for months now that local restaurants are struggling, particularly the higher end ones, the ones with white tablecloths and the like.

I'm fairly certain we're going to see quite a few more "white tablecloth" restaurants close their doors in the next year or two.  Of course others will eventually replace them, but that doesn't help the many owners who have worked so hard to build their businesses and develop a loyal fan base.  From a selfish point of view it also doesn't help the customers who lose their favorite dishes, or the places that house so many cherished memories like anniversary dinners, graduation celebrations, etc.

To end on a positive note I recommend that you check out the Journal's food blog Dishing it Out.   It's coauthored by Michael Hastings and Laura and they do a great job of keeping it fresh. Personally I think it's the paper's best blog now (sorry Ken).

We Have a Weeener

Well, we have a winner for the "And I Mean Kinda Close" contest from Tuesday.  It's Andrea Burke who emailed her entry just minutes before the next entry yesterday.  She'll be receiving a nice, 10 year old, coffee stained mouse pad that's been stuffed in a closet for a few years.

Andrea's correct that the house pictured for the contest is on Styers Ferry Road just across from Runny Mede in Lewisville about two miles from the Shallowford Road exit off of  421.  Rumor has it that the owner of La Casa Elefante Rosa is also the owner of the Mi Pueblo restaurants, and as Esbee mentioned in the comments of the contest post the design elements of the house and the restaurants are more than a little alike.

Immigration Reform

You read the title of this post, Immigration Reform, and thought you'd be reading a rant involving leaky borders and illegals from south of the border overwhelming our society didn't you?  Gotcha!  Actually I'm writing about the illegal immigration of our tax dollars to offshore accounts, to the tune of $100 billion.

The Wall Street Journal has an article about a US Senate investigation into allegedly illegal tax shelters that are sold by European firms UBS AG and LGT Group to wealthy Americans.  From the article:

The U.S. loses about $100 billion annually due to offshore tax evasion, according to a Senate probe that is taking aim at Swiss bank UBS AG and Liechtenstein's LGT Group for allegedly marketing tax-evasion strategies to wealthy Americans.

U.S. clients hold about 19,000 accounts at UBS, with an estimated $18 billion to $20 billion in assets, in Switzerland, according to the findings from the Senate probe and Justice Department prosecutors.

It seems that the IRS and their counterparts in other countries are finally getting serious about going after the tax shelters that the rich have enjoyed:

The probe adds fuel to a burgeoning effort by tax authorities around the globe to shatter the veil of bank secrecy that tax havens hide behind in catering to the world's elite.

Two years ago I was putting myself through a self-education program on taxes and reading David Kay Johnston's fine books and articles on the subject of tax reform, and back then he wrote an article for the NY Times on a Senate investigation into tax cheating by the super-rich.  This has been going on for a long time and it is having a very big impact on our society.

It's not fair to lay everything at the feet of the rich, but it would be equally unfair to not acknowledge the role that their active tax evasion has in the breakdown of our tax system. In his books Johnston does a fine job of explaining how tax reform could actually result in lower effective tax rates for everyone, but with the vested interests in just isn't happening.  Unfortunately the entire tax system is so opaque that we average citizens don't have the ability to see how royally screwed we are, but maybe, just maybe, with more investigations like those the Senate is undertaking we can get some sunlight on this problem and get it fixed.

Or hell can freeze over.

links for 2008-07-17

• Seth's Blog: There it is again
  Seth provides some important observations about the Long Tail theory.
  (tags: marketing strategy)
• Seth's Blog: Should small businesses whine?
  Best line from this post about small business: "Small is a weapon, not an excuse"
  (tags: smallbusiness)
• Seth's Blog: The statesman, the lawyer and the marketer
  Seth's point: Don't be afraid to be honest as a marketer. If your competitor is a better fit for a prospect, help em out. In the long run you gain credibility and great word of mouth marketing.
  (tags: marketing)

links for 2008-07-16

• EdCone.com: Roubini the whiner
  Ed covers Roubini's coverage of our economic screwedness. Big gulp.
  (tags: economics)

Loving the BTV, Headed to GSO

I flew up to Burlington VT for my first all-hands meeting with my new employer, Fletcher/CSI.  I'd never been up here before, despite having siblings who attend(ed) the University of Vermont (I know, shame on me) and I have to say I should have made it here a lot sooner.  We had meetings all day yesterday and today, and my only glimpse of the town was when we had a company dinner at Sweetwaters downtown, but even based on that limited experience I can tell you I very much look forward to returning.  This is truly a beautiful place, and it's a travesty that I never visited my brother or sisters while they were in school here.  Actually I have one sister still in school so hopefully she'll be seeing me here a few times before she graduates.

Unfortunately on this trip I didn't have any free time to do any visiting, but I'll make sure to schedule extra time to visit when I return.  For now I'm sitting at my gate at the airport (BTV) and it looks like my flight to LaGuardia will be delayed 1 1/2 hours, which ought to make trying to get my connector to GSO a little interesting.  I just checked that flight on FlightStats and it's delayed too, so hopefully I'll be okay.

I know all this because BTV has free wi-fi and their landing page when you log in is a nice mix of local weather and updated flight status for all upcoming flights.  Since the flight status section is a feed from FlightStats it's easy to connect through the site to check the status of connector flights.  Very cool, and I wish GSO would offer the same. 

And I Mean Kinda Close

In homage to Esbee's "And I mean EXACT" contest I've decided to try my own.  I call it, "And I Mean Roughly".  I named it that because I can't figure out north from south or east from west even with a compass, so I can't ask for specific locations of things if I can't provide them myself.  Just give me an approximation of where the house pictured to the left is located (click on the picture to enlarge), including the name of the street it is on and the neighborhood that it is across the street from and you'll win.  (Entries should be emailed to jon.lowder AT gmail.com).  First person to send me the correct location will win the wonderful mouse pad pictured below.  Hey, Esbee's not the only one with junk that needs to be gotten rid of.  Last thing: don't forget that Esbee's next iteration of "And I mean EXACT" is tomorrow.

 

links for 2008-07-14

• reveries.com :: marketing insights + ideas » Blog Archive » Starbucks Science
  According to this one reason that Starbucks may have to close 600 stores is that it got sloppy in determining where to put stores, ignoring the "exacting real estate" science it used in its successful first wave of expansion
  (tags: realestate business businessmodel)
• A VC: Thinking About Blackberry Apps
  Looks like Fred Wilson uses his blackberry in much the same way I use mine.
  (tags: mobile)
• Seth's Blog: Scarcity
  I'm not an iPhone guy so I wasn't aware of Apple's crapstorm this weekend with the launch of the 3G iPhone. Here Seth explains exactly how they screwed the pooch and lessons that can help other companies avoid their own crapstorms.
  (tags: business management marketing)
• Cool Tool: BodyGlide
  I need this stuff! Looks like you put it on like deodorant, but in places that tend to chafe (like inner thighs, or your nipples) when you exercise. This stuff also seems like it would be a lot less messy than the Vaseline that is often prescribed.
  (tags: exercise running bicycling sports tools wishlist)

Justin's Worst Tooth Fairy Experience

The youngest had some baby teeth that just didn't want to come out and the adult teeth were coming in under them.  We found this out when we took him in to get his braces and they said they couldn't do it until his baby teeth were out, so we scheduled an appointment at Kingery & Kingery to have those stubborn baby teeth forcibly evicted from his mouth.  You can see the result to the left (hope you didn't just eat).

The weird part was seeing the adult teeth in the holes left after the baby teeth were removed, and also seeing how long the roots on the baby teeth were.  I shudder to think what would have happened if we hadn't had the teeth removed.

Sadly for Justin he's old enough that the idea that he would be remunerated by some tooth fairy for his ordeal never entered his head, nor the heads of the tooth fairies themselves.  The way this tooth fairy looks at it those funds have been banked for the orthodontist, who I believe has been able to finance a boat from the braces my three kids have endured (are enduring).

PaidContent Bought

Back in early 2002 I was working for a b-to-b publisher in Washington, DC and was very tired of the commute in and out of the city.  I decided to go out on my own as a consultant and my first client was MarketingSherpa, which had been launched by Anne Holland not too long before that.  At the same time PaidContent.org was launched by Rafat Ali and since they were in similar businesses the two companies bumped into each other on occasion.

PaidContent was more of a "newsy" operation while MarketingSherpa was more of a "how-to" for marketers.  I haven't talked to Anne in years, but by outward appearances MarketingSherpa is doing very well and I think she's built a sustainable business based on email newsletters that are free (content is put behind a firewall after a couple of weeks, so it must be purchased if you want to see it after that), and then selling premium content like reports and events to the large base of free subscribers.  From what I can tell PaidContent went more in the direction of ad sales as a revenue stream, although they also sell ads and host events, and they too seem to be doing very well.  So well, in fact, that PaidContent is being purchased by the Guardian Media Group out of the UK.

Nice to see all the hard work has paid off for Ali and his crew, and I'm also glad to see Anne continuing to do so well.  They also have shown that there's more than one way to skin a cat in the online media world.

Back in early 2002 I was working for a b-to-b publisher in Washington, DC and was very tired of the commute in and out of the city.  I decided to go out on my own as a consultant and my first client was MarketingSherpa, which had been launched by Anne Holland not too long before that.  At the same time PaidContent.org was launched by Rafat Ali and since they were in similar businesses the two companies bumped into each other on occasion.

PaidContent was more of a "newsy" operation while MarketingSherpa was more of a "how-to" for marketers.  I haven't talked to Anne in years, but by outward appearances MarketingSherpa is doing very well and I think she's built a sustainable business based on email newsletters that are free (content is put behind a firewall after a couple of weeks, so it must be purchased if you want to see it after that), and then selling premium content like reports and events to the large base of free subscribers.  From what I can tell PaidContent went more in the direction of ad sales as a revenue stream, although they also sell ads and host events, and they too seem to be doing very well.  So well, in fact, that PaidContent is being purchased by the Guardian Media Group out of the UK.

Nice to see all the hard work has paid off for Ali and his crew, and I'm also glad to see Anne continuing to do so well.  They also have shown that there's more than one way to skin a cat in the online media world.