Casa Amaretto, Cafe World, Facebook

Have a seat. Your server will be right with you

To preface this, I have a kind of compulsive personality. If I start a book, I read it until the end, sometimes going without sleep. I get an idea and I follow it through until it is as developed as it can be. So I was really nervous about getting involved in this.

I was right. What looks like a silly little game is actually kind of complex. The design makes it look deceptively simple- it looks like the Webkinz online game that my daughter used to play.

But on the level of business, you have to think a little. The default arrangement of tables is counterproductive- my waiter (the friend who introduced me to this)  could only handle 5 tables with that arrangement- and I couldn’t get my rating over 10 because people were either waiting for tables of waiting to be served. And while you need “fast food” initially to build working capital, the food that takes the longest to cook returns the best on your investment.

You can draw all kinds of parallels between the actual setup of Cafe World and social media, real estate, and/or the use of social media in real estate. If you want, you can plunk down a chunk of real change to set up your cafe, add tables, flooring, disco balls- whatever. Until you put in the time, however, you can’t add to your waitstaff or upgrade the kitchen. You have to put in the time to upgrade food choices. Tell me that isn’t different from twitter- those first 1000 followers are the hardest. Same thing with real estate leads- you can sink all kinds of money into the trappings of the business but you need to make connections- and this happens through time- to be successful.

Top  lessons in Cafe World:

1. You can start out as a generalist, but finding your specialty makes you more efficient.

2. Look at the market and the numbers and use that to guide you to this specialty. No one is a one-trick pony; everyone has more than one specialty in them.

3. Switching specialties is costly- in terms of time and money. Make sure there is sufficient ROI before making a change by analyzing the numbers.

4. Plan on spending time building! Plan on revisiting your plan frequently to see if it needs tweaking!

5. Look at other people’s “cafes- you will learn something whether it is how to do business, or how NOT to do it. I have seen Cafes that look fabulous but are clearly inefficient.

6. It doesn’t always make sense to hire your friends.

7. Keep your eyes on the numbers and the trends! They will tell you where you need to improve.

8. You might be able to do it without relationships but it is a hell of a lot harder.

9. Businesses don’t run on autopilot.

10. Serve the people waiting first, and clean up the tables second. Without prompt service, you will lose a customer.

An unhappy customer is a business karma thing. In Cafe World, your rating goes down when customers walk out the door because they weren’t served. In the real world, chances are the same thing is happening. An unhappy person is not usually a quiet one, and the noise is bigger on the ‘net:

This video got over 7 MILLION views.

So, stop by my Cafe. It doesn’t look that great, but the service is excellent. Come be my friend, and I will stop by yours. The name is Cafe Amaretto, and I am on Facebook here.

Now if you will excuse me- I have some ham to check.

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