Leighton Hubbell - Illustrative Designer

About two years ago, a new owner had purchased the place, seemingly to get in on the world of restaurant ownership and make a good living with an established business. Now, Ted’s Burgers was not what I would call a hoppin’ burger joint. A somewhat approachable corner location with a decent menu, but nothing that would get it featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Now, if it were me and I had just purchased a business like this, I would give it a few months to work out the kinks and see the lay of the land. You know, really see what kind of customers are coming in and what are they ordering. Maybe get creative with the promotion and advertising—especially if things started slowing down. With an established business, you don’t want to alienate your core audience, but on the other hand you want to attract new customers. But then, the recession came tumbling down on all of us.

Well, as one might imagine, the customers were not coming in and the parking lot often looked empty. So, the owner tried changing it up. How about try serving breakfast? Not a bad idea, you could get folks on their way to work. The location is right near some industrial parks, so it makes perfect sense.

Still, the parking lot was vacant.

Soon, you start seeing full-color banners for Teriyaki platters, lettuce wraps and even dare I say it—sushi. And the grand daddy of them all, Free Wireless Internet. The final indication we were all struggling and that things had gone very awry was the banner announcing that Chef Ricardo was back. Hopefully, HE will bring back the local business.

Seemingly, only Chef Ricardo’s car is seen in the lot.

Then, the sign change–sort of. They kept the Ted’s Burgers sign on the building with a new sign with a different name on the corner. What the…? So, who are you? Is this Ted’s or what? Obviously, no one wanted to alienate anyone–new or old.

First of all, what the heck is sushi doing in a burger joint? And am I going to hang out in a bastion of fine beefdom with my laptop? All the really great burger places I’ve been to don’t encourage you to hang out with your Twitter buddies taking up valuable table space. They’re crankin’ people through as fast as they possibly can. Besides, do you want savory burger drippings clogging up your keyboard? I don’t think so.

So, what exactly is my point with all this? Even in this nasty recession, you need to keep it simple. It’s very tempting to try and offer additional goods and services, but you need to be careful.

By trying to attract nearly everyone, you end up attracting no one. Ted’s Burgers restaurant may have been flawed, but at least it had a focus. Why not try and grow that business and elevate the food? Or spin off your other skills into a new or different business altogether?

Don’t get me wrong, adding things to your own menu is not a bad idea—if they are somehow related. Burgers and sushi go together like poodle grooming and accounting. They attract two completely different types of customers that rarely ever converge.

You’ve probably heard the term ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’. When your customers see that you offer all of these different and unrelated services, there doesn’t seem to be a specific skill. Your offerings are all over the board. They want something that you’re really good at—like an expert. And they’ll be willing to pay for it.

In these trying times, people want to know that they’re spending their money wisely. They want to know that when they lay down their hard earned cash that they’re getting a damn good burger. And it was worth every penny.