It’s really disheartening when you’ve already opened up shop after all the excitement and the preparations, but no one is really coming in. Or, In the case of those who are trying to adapt their food businesses to the new normal, people are messaging your site or social but no one’s placing orders yet.

We’ve been there. When we first opened up our Steak House 9 years ago – our very first restaurant venture – we had high hopes that people will quickly notice us and continually support us.

At first, there was bit of an opening hype. Our families were there on the first few days. Then came our friends to fill in the next few weeks. We even had some local writers come down to try out our food and let their readers know about us. Months passed and we were faced with a dilemma – why isn’t there anyone walking in anymore? Oh we had no doubts that our product was delicious, our ambiance was attractive enough, and our service was on point. Seeing those empty seats, however, was so unsettling.

This was that very moment that cast serious doubt in what we were doing as a business. The fact that we were Nursing Grads with no experience at running a restaurant just added to the anxiety. We were just some kids trying our luck in the hospitality and food industry and now we’re faced with a problem we have no clue how to deal with. Our inexperience was seen in how bad we were examining this problem in our hopes to find a solution.

Our first skewed realization led us to believe that foot traffic has lowered because our families and friends weren’t supportive enough. Before you even start using this excuse for your weak business, let me be the one to tell you “DON’T DO IT”. Businesses are supposed to be built to generate income by getting as many customers as you can to purchase from you and love you. You didn’t go risking it all just to rely on your family and friends to support you all the way. They are just like regular consumers. In some cases they decide to eat at your place and in other times they just want to go elsewhere. You need to understand that you do that too when you have the chance – jumping from one restaurant to another depending on how you feel or what you want to have on that time of the day. The problem is not in your family and friends’ poor attendance but in the number of potential clients who knows your restaurant or your online food shop exists.

Our second mistaken idea had us thinking we should have something to encourage the customer to return sooner. This way of thinking got us scrambling for new menu additions that we hoped would keep customers interested and get them to come back sooner. Later on we realized, while looking at our own dining behavior when eating out, that we too don’t go back to the same place ever so often even if we love that restaurant to death or they’ve got a lot of interesting choices in their menu. There are just times when we’d prefer to have another type of food for our lunch or supper. This just means having a specific or limited menu is okay because if it’s indeed good enough to come back to, your customers will return to you when the craving for your type of food comes along. The problem is not in the wide gap between your customer’s return visits but in the number of potentially new clients who may come in and fill the empty seats when your regulars aren’t around.

The third misconception that we loved to use as an excuse for our lean days is the assumption that people are only there as long as the hype lasts. Now this way of thinking almost got us into a state of laziness and inactivity. It felt like we finally found an scapegoat that we can blame when things go bad. At least when we get to decide to close and get asked why we did it, we can always blame the consumers for only being there as long as the hype lasted. As a concerned restaurateur, I discourage you to think of things this way. Restaurants should not solely be built on hype. They are built on a brand’s unfailing commitment to fulfill a promise. That consistency then shapes customer loyalty that drives them crazy enough to keep coming back and creating a buzz about it. The problem is not in the inability of your audience to sustain the hype that surrounds your new brand but in the number of potential clients who can keep the hype going past the first few weeks or months.

I assure you, if your reason for deciding to start your own business is because you were confident that your food is delicious, your ambiance is acceptable, and the service you’ve designed is on point, the problem of having no steady flow of customers might simply lie in your lack of a strong marketing plan.

No matter how many new dishes you put in your line up that you think will impress people, if there’s no marketing plan to let them know your store exists, no one will walk in. No matter how many design changes you make in your store to keep they hype and interest going, if you don’t have a solid marketing plan to let people know you’ve opened up shop, no one will walk in.

As human beings capable of deciding for themselves, there will be days when people will not choose to eat at your store because they’re looking for something else. Eventually, however, they will return when they start craving for your specialties. But, until that day comes, you have to market to and persuade more people to order from you and fill in for those people who have decided for an alternative for the meantime.  And it goes on and on just like that.

Marketing never really stops or sleeps no matter the size of the company. If it was something only done for beginning businesses, then the big international food chains wouldn’t be doing any of it now, would they? If they’re still at it so many years and fortunes later, what excuses you from doing the same?