One thing I learned about my pop-up restaurant murder

At the end of 2015, I decided I didn’t want to stay in Venezuela any longer. I was tired of food and water shortages, unreliable internet, unreliable electricity, criminality, and simply feeling there was no future. 

All of these led me to start planning my move to Colombia. There, my husband and I had built a house, and I thought I could do something in the food industry.

In January 2016, I began my lessons to become a chef. While fighting with organic chemistry and plating, I came across the concept of a Pop-Up restaurant. 

A PUR is basically this: a chef cooks for a group of people in his house, sets up a menu, sends emails here and there, and presto, people from all walks of life come to eat at the same table and get to know each other. 

I arrived in Cali full of energy, joie de vivre, and a determination to make it in a city that ranks third in size after Bogotá and Medellin.

When I first conceived the idea for my pop-up restaurant, it was in the once bustling city of Caracas, where there was a greater population and a more diverse culinary scene in spite of shortages and blackouts. I had been to many of those eateries, and I was excited about the whole thing.

When I decided to establish it in Cali, I underestimated the impact of the city’s smaller size.

I was born in Colombia, where I studied in high school, and received my law degree. I had many friends and family. It couldn’t be that hard. Right?

Wrong.

While Cali had its own enthusiastic foodie community, reaching a broader audience required a well-thought-out marketing strategy that targeted both locals and tourists. My friends and family didn’t know me as a cook.

The smaller population and less cosmopolitan atmosphere, didn’t mean that word-of-mouth promotion alone would generate enough traction to sustain the place. 

And yet, I was adamant. I thought that if I tried hard enough and stayed focused, I would succeed.

I had a fantastic logo designed, I called it EL TENEDOR CLANDESTINO, I set up my menus, sent some surveys, and that was it. 

I knew there had to be some sort of promotion. I knew social media was very important, but I knew zilch about how to go about it, and I was certainly not in a position to invest in a social media manager.

I started contacting my friends by email. That flunked immediately because they weren’t  subscribers. They hadn’t opted-in. I didn’t even know what that term meant.

I hired a small agency just for social media. They posted on Instagram once a week about my menus and products. Not a new follower in three months, and they never told me about email lists or how important email campaigns were. I have the feeling they knew even less than me about marketing. 

I showed them the door. 

In addition,

• I didn’t have a website,
• I didn’t have a content strategy. Or much content, for that matter.
• I was the one in charge of cooking so there wasn’t much time left to engage in social media platforms. I was having some groups, basically of friends and families wanting to celebrate something, but not enough to sustain the operation.
• I also did all the photography for my posts.
• I was in charge of the administrative part; I didn’t know how to set prices properly, so I had to handle that learning curve too.

It was pure chaos.

Then the pandemic hit, and I couldn’t offer dinners in the house anymore. 

So, I resorted to take-out food. Breads, quiches, and cakes. For a while, that went well. 

I began writing ads and posting two times a week and increased my followers by 70%. But with the cooking, sales, and administration, I was on the brink of burning out.

In the meantime, I kept preparing my numbers and was very proud of all I had learned in the process. I still thought I could crush it.

When my numbers were ready, my husband, who was the CFO of his company, looked over my Excel sheets.

The truth exploded. I was not making much money, and there was no way I would, not even by increasing my sales by 200% while keeping my costs in check. 

Understanding the unique preferences and dining culture of the city would have allowed me to tailor my offerings and promotions to better resonate with the local tribe.

Establishing a strong online presence through social media platforms, creating enticing website content, and engaging with the local community could have helped overcome the challenges posed by Cali’s size and fostered a loyal customer base. 

When I folded, I came across a book by Allan Dibbs titled The One-page Marketing Plan. It blew my mind away when I read:

“Whether you’re selling freshly baked bread, accounting services or IT support, the way you market yourself will have a dramatic impact on the clients you attract and the amount that you can charge for your services. 

A commonly held belief is that “it’s all about the product,” so if you have a better product or service people will automatically be more likely to buy from you and pay more for it. While this is true to some extent, the law of diminishing returns comes into play when your product or service reaches a “good enough” level. 

After all, how much better can your IT support, accounting services, or bread be than that of your competition? Once you’ve reached a level of competence, the real profit comes from the way you market yourself.” 

—Dib, Allan. The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand Out From The Crowd (p. 135). Successwise. Kindle Edition. 

He was speaking to me and to me alone. An Aha moment I will never forget. 

Allan’s book was a game changer for me. It is one I will read again because I know I can gather new insights from it.

Now, with The Analytical Wordsmith, I am ensuring that my concepts align with a target market and its preferences. In order to be fully prepared, I took a certification in digital marketing, basic SEO, and copywriting.

I am fleshing out my buyer’s persona, and I offer my services in copywriting in the sense that I help small businesses create content that sells their products. I post consistently on LinkedIn, Medium, and my website and have built a small online presence.

This time, I will prevail.