Sataysfied

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, running a catering business is an honest way of living. So we are just hustling as hard as we could to keep that alive. We'll keep you posted.

Thanks for the feedback. I am definitely going to do those things immediately. Appreciate it.

I definitely appreciate the feedback. I am planning to work day and night at the moment on reaching out to people online in many different sources from email, twitter, facebook, etc. As it is the weekend and many business are closed, I wanted to maximize my time in this way and also make a list of things to prepare for next week, so I can hit the ground running on Monday.

I definitely agree.

I was recommended by a friend to ask for help in HN and I have to say the turnout has been amazing. I am so grateful for the comments, advice and people coming out to help out. I am looking at a other channels and I am definitely going to be hitting up the streets door to door. I did have some press coverage previously but not sure how relevant that is. It is something I am thinking about deeply right now but know I can't depend on it entirely. Thank you.

Thanks for the advice. This was definitely in my mind, in order to continue the business as long as I can, I have to reduce the burn rate as efficiently as possible. I have talked to my crew about the matter and they are disappointed but understand the magnitude of the situation. I already apologized to them that their hours are more likely to be cut due to the lack of business. I am blessed to have people be understanding and are making the sacrifice in order to keep this business afloat. However, this can only last so long and I still need to hustle. Burn rate is high due to a commercial kitchen that I am on a lease in. At the moment I have renewed a Craigslist ad of renting the kitchen space out, for extra income. Could use to push that a little more.

I do agree that going to meetups and connecting with people using these leads generation tactics with a sense of fear and panic will not be good for anyone. As a dire situation this might be, staying calm in the storm is going to be a key to my success. The analogy of the dish being simmered slowly is spot on. Initially though of simmering of any dish requires hot fire to get it going and going out there talking to people is that fire, but my business name with goodwill will make it come together.

Deep discounts wasn't what I was going to rely on for bidding customers. I plan to give discounts reasonably so that they have a chance to taste what we have to offer and that I have decent amount of profit margin to make it work. I do appreciate the great advice and everything you mentioned is definitely something to think about.

Wow, at 16 you were hustling way more than me at your age. Nice. I agree that orangethirty sales tactic is very good and that it has worked for you. So it's all about executing on it on my end. Which is definitely not an easy task for me, but clearly it needs to get done to get this business afloat and survive.

Thank you for the kind words. I am definitely going through a stressful time right now and yes you are right that I have an aching feeling of huge disappointment of the people that has supported me along the way and customers that lover our food. I know the biggest way to solve that is getting out there and connecting with people about our food and our story. I already got a tremendous amount of advice on this thread. so its really about taking massive action. I'll do my best to turn things around, be strong and have the faith to keep going.

Really? I will totally check this out. Thank you.

Thank you for your suggestions

I am open to giving discounts to anyone that is willing to take a chance on me right now even though I'm in a serious bind. I appreciate anything I can get. Thanks for the suggestion.

Sorry, is this you? http://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchellabdullah

Maybe its easier if you add me: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/feldo-nartapura/7/b85/494

Thanks

I have only watched a few US version. I am definitely going to put more samples out there, starting by hitting up meetups and getting people to try my food. Thanks a lot for the suggestion.

I totally agree. I understand being open to test things is important. Unfortunately where I am, I don't have a whole lot of time left much less pivot the entire menu. If this doesn't work out or turn around, I can't afford to even pivot anymore. I am doing my best to stay afloat but as I have pivoted twice, I am definitely open to change if we can manage to survive long enough for that.

I deeply appreciate the suggestions and will look into it. Thank you.

Thank you soooo much.

Thanks for your suggestions. We did Satays because it was a family recipe and customers loved our food back when I first started out as a solo guy selling on the streets. From there I expanded the menu around this. I do not know much about cooking to be honest and I think what we have, customers currently love. While I realize we could tangent off to other foods, thats not really our business or goal. We want to grow our current business to reach more customers. Those that have tried us have in the past re-ordered (but this was all through the catering agencies). We are now working to go direct.

Our goal is not to become another catering agency. Our goal is to grow our business to cater to as many companies that will have us. I think its important to focus at what we're good at and I firmly believe in this model.

We have considered selling Satays frozen and ship it but that isn't easy and there is a lot of issues around this. We can't ship cooked food due to lots of regulations and laws. Its an incredibly difficult path as we have considered in the past (before the current pivot) to be the Omaha Steaks of Satays or be in stores like Costco. I have explored both extensively and landed to the conclusion that the business we are doing now was the best for our future.

We have had a few press coverage in the past to be honest but I don't know how much that has helped us as a whole. Especially since we have pivoted but I will reach out to them again soon.

We did do festivals and events before and it was very hit or miss and the total revenue was actually less than what we were doing now.

No race tracks nearby that I can think of. I am definitely going to do a meetup as well as reach out to current meetups soon. Not sure if there are many movie productions that are around here but we are definitely open to any business that would love catering.

Our menu is tiny so we don't have an overly complex menu at the moment. We started on the street with just Satays and expanded the menu there before pivoting twice to the current model. Our customers have definitely been satisfied with our food, it really is more about reaching out I believe.

I greatly appreciate you taking out the time to offer suggestions and will look at the other stuff mentioned. I am willing to try anything at this point and will think it over for future implementation if we survive long enough. Above all, I appreciate your kind words. Thank you.

Thank you so much. I will do so right now. I truly appreciate this.

Thank you for your suggestions. When I can afford to do so, I will have it redone. I know it needs vast improvement. In the meantime I'm going to focus on getting as many customers as I can on foot and through reaching out to people online hoping I can pass this storm.

Thanks. I will do my best and post again.

Oh, interesting. I actually moved from LA to the Bay Area and started this business here.

Thank you

I don't have a food cart. I did something similar where we had a booth before at a food area in SF called Off The Grid where there were a bunch of other food carts, booths, and trailers but it was base on those that get accepted and we only got business once a week. During the rest of the week we did festivals and events to gain business on the other days. It wasn't very much and unstable at best. We pivoted to catering as it was more sustainable as a business and one that we could grow much larger. And over the last year we did move revenue than we did when we were doing the booth and festivals combined.

I've visited Portland recently and saw one of the food truck areas in downtown near 10th. It was nice.

Thank you so much for your kind words.

Thank you. Please email me a reminder. I will be sure to give you guys a discount for helping us out at this time.

Thank you so so much. I appreciate it more than you know.

We definitely do Mountain View. Will email you right now. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for your kind words. If you are able to spread the word, that is more than enough. If you guys would love for us to cater for you again, just say the world. I truly appreciate it.

I agree. We are just bleeding money right now and this has definitely set us back even more. I have debt right now and if things don't turn around soon, I may not only not have a business, I may be in deep debt trying to keep things afloat, so I promise you this is pretty dire. Its quite difficult for me to admit this publicly or even put all my cards on the table the way I am. I would not do this if I didn't felt like I honestly need the help. I definitely am trying to keep a calm mind and the comments here have been greatly helpful. I appreciate everything and I agree with what you've said. I will do my best to survive and hustle right now.

Thank you Matt, appreciate this so much. Will email you right now.

Thank you so much for pointing these things out. I realize my site needs a major overhaul. I would love to cater to your husband's startup if he would like to give us a try. I would be willing to give him a discount to take a chance on us.

Will definitely reach out to the Hacker Dojo and other hacker spaces per your suggestion. Thank you so much!