Getting settled in
After my second full day in Denver, I am starting to feel settled in. Although none of my furniture has arrived yet, its hit me that I am living in Colorado now. Tomorrow I am heading to Las Vegas for the weekend with my brother and some of our friends from the birthright trip we went on in June. I am looking forward to a couple days without thinking about menu guides for awhile. However, I am eager to start fresh on monday morning and hit the ground running without looking back. Today I placed an order for business cards, and window decals for restaurants. I also set up a proof for our restaurant bags which will be ordered on monday. All of our welcome back specials for Btownmenus are now finalized thanks to Corey and I collaborating over the past couple weeks. The year ahead is looking very promising in Bloomington, Boulder as well as in Denver with our soon to be new website. I was thinking about calling some restaurants and setting up meetings for next week, but going in there out of the blue is a much better plan of attack. That way there won’t be any bullshit excuses. The hard part isn’t convincing the restaurant to work with us, its more about being able to get in touch with the general manager or owner and setting up a meeting. I am going to have to spend probably the next 3-4 weeks just non stop signing up restaurants. September 15th is our target launch date, and between my brother and I we should easily be able to have at least 30-40 restaurants signed up by then. Then the real fun begins and we will be able to start marketing milehighmenus all over the place. Marketing is my favorite part about this business, as I really enjoy going out and meeting new people. These websites help me engage with activities and individuals that I probably never would have if I didn’t run a business like this. Tonight I am probably going to go and hit the town and explore my new surroundings. Maybe I’ll check out one of the many micro breweries that Denver is well known for. Until tomorrow…
The Fear of Complacency 
COLD CALL COLD CALL my man! I am pumped for you guys, but if there is any advice I can give going into the new big market….COLD CALL and alleviate all risk in signing up! (I know you know all this) but I have discovered, even as skilled and knowledgeable as we are in our industry/market, they don’t care about anything but how much it costs at the end of the day and even if you are selling your soul, they still might say no!
We have 7 signed up for our launch and that was biting and scratching (believe it or not)
Good luck brotha! Keep me posted on your progress!
Are you saying to cold call the restaurants before going in. I have had a lot of success by just going into restaurants on the spot and seeing the restaurant owner face to face. I usually go into a restaurant and eat a meal and strike up a conversation with one of the employees and go from there. When has Cold calling worked best for you? I am curious to hear more about this and combine what I am doing with that. Keep killing it in Boise buddy and thanks for the advice!
No I mean cold calls as just walking in, sorry I wasn’t more clear! We are one the same page, much better to walk in, get a bite to eat, scope it out and go from there. Calling doesn’t work at all, you only get a wall thrown up in your face!
Michael–
Denver is one of my favorite towns. It’s original brewpub is called Wynkoop and it’s at 17th and Wynkoop in LODO. Definitely check it out and drink a pint of Railyard with a big plate of shepards pie for me. Check out the pool hall upstairs too, it’s magnificient. Wynkoop was the first craft brewery in the rockies and it was started and still owned by your governor, John Hickenlooper. Enjoy the sunshine!
thanks alot Jeff will do! Let me know if you are ever in Denver and we can grab a couple…hope all is well!