Tag: idiot

Questions

Pierre seemed interested in buying me out. I was shocked. Why would he even want this restaurant? He never helped do the work. In fact, as I found out later, he never got his TABC certification, never got his Food Manager certification, never even got his Food Handler certification. Clearly, he had no intention of being involved. Pierre never put in his seed money, never stood up to protect our profits, never fully engaged in marketing our bar. Why in the world would he want to take over ownership and management?

Millions of questions started bouncing through my brain. Was Pierre a con man? Did he lure me in with the idea of having me front the startup costs of the cafe and bar? Was Todd actually his partner in a good cop/bad cop game to get as much money from me as possible as they pushed me to quit? Was Max in on it, too? Am I the biggest idiot on the planet? Do I have an ‘idiot’ sign taped to my forehead?

Cyber Monday, I went to the bank and took Pierre off of the cafe checking account. After all my stupidity, I didn’t want my story to end, ‘then Pierre emptied the bank account and disappeared.’ For once in my life, I did something right.

What is Marketing?

The dictionary says marketing involves promoting and selling goods and/or services. Pierre told me over and over that he was Marketing. When we first opened, Pierre spent some time taking free pizza to the businesses around us to let them know we were open for lunch and dinner. Since we were in a relatively undeveloped area, that didn’t take much time. Pierre gave free coffee to coaches and parents to let them know our coffee was good and encourage them to buy from us. That was definitely a good start. After that, we saw little evidence of him doing anything.

Our building was right next to a bunch of baseball diamonds. I took pizza to the owner one day and told him we would like to advertise to their teams. He invited Pierre and me over for a tour and gave us 3 options – give him flyers to put in the tournament packets, pay to put up banners, or take over their food stands. Pierre never did any of these. We did get a little business eventually but not much. I also researched online and found a list of local clubs with their phone numbers. I gave it to Pierre and asked him if he would call one a day to let them know we could do club meetings and parties. He said he would call at least 2 a day, but I don’t think he ever called any. He did bring in 1 private party in 2.5 years and he paid for a bunch of his friends to come watch a football game once.

We finally got our liquor license in October, 2015. Kyle was all gung-ho to get the bar hopping, but not much happened. Kyle got Pierre to spend about $200 on some signs, but Pierre never got the city permits to hang them. It was clear Pierre’s idea of marketing meant to doing nothing. I got the sign permits in less than 2 weeks. Kyle and I partnered with the Allen Americans so our name would be on the banner during their games. Kyle and I started finding places to list our bar online. Kyle and I started contacting groups to let them know we could hold meetings and parties. But it’s hard to do all the day-to-day business and marketing too. Pierre could have done all of this from the comfort of his own home at times convenient for him and yet he did almost nothing.

Every once in a while, Pierre would man the cafe so I could do something else. If I came in that day, I would find him sitting in the bar talking to students and parents. He didn’t set up for business by turning on all the machines and prepping the stations. I guess he made a few sales because people would come to me later and say they needed to pay for some food because the cash register wasn’t working when Pierre was there. Who knows how many people didn’t come back and pay, as Pierre made no list or notes. Nothing was broken, Pierre just didn’t want to remember his training on the equipment.

Pierre told me over and over, that we just didn’t understand his role. He was Marketing. Obviously, that didn’t involve sales. And if you ask me, it didn’t involve promoting either. I partnered with a guy who didn’t put in his seed money, didn’t work in the cafe or bar, and didn’t promote our business. Mistake, mistake, mistake. I’m an idiot.