Signature dishes and set lunch launched!

That's right people, The Roof's new & improved signature dishes and RM12nett set lunch has officially launched today. Check out the flyers and posters designed by SILVERHAND Events and Creatives.

The first 500 flyers are now being distributed to nearby shops and offices. There will be a new batch of up to 5000 flyers coming hopefully within the next two days that will be distributed key locations all over Kota Kinabalu and surrounding districts. Any particular locations recommended to distribute flyers? Please do leave a comment about it.

Currently, I'm focusing on the special signature dishes launch happening tomorrow afternoon. The launch will compromise selected bloggers/photographers and people from the media along with other key figures. Online marketing for signature dishes and set lunch is already ongoing in facebook and emailing everyone in the mailing list. Any suggestions on online marketing is also much appreciated.

If you people manage to be at The Roof and try the signature dishes and set lunch, please do give feedback good or bad. Much appreciated! Special thanks to SILVERHAND for the extreme effort to get the flyers and posters done in time. *fingers crossed* Hoping number of customers increase this week.


p/s : Also a quick thank you to those who have been talking, calling and messaging to me ideas/suggestions to improve The Roof. This means a lot to me and I'm really grateful.

photo shoot - 18/02/09 to 20/02/09

One thing about photographers nowadays is that you can find a lot of good ones around. They're booming like mushrooms and each day you'll get to see more and more people carrying SLRs to take photos. Since last Thursday until today, my team of photographers has been doing photo shoots for The Roof. Talented and proven, these are photographers I can count on to take good shots to promote The Roof.

Jacquelin Ajuni - Photographer and blogger, Jacq of http://caneeliea.com/ has been taking food photos for quite some time. She is pretty good at it and has a well known food blog at http://kk-food.blogspot.com/. In fact, Jacq will also be featured in next month's issue of Breeze magazine as blogger of the month. I have high confidence in her work and recruited her to take shots and help promote The Roof's upcoming signature dishes and set lunch in her food blog.

Julian & Fara - The dynamic duo behind SILVERHAND Events And Creatives, this couple is a powerhouse combination of photography, graphic design and managing events. Both of them are also famous bloggers. Having them on board creates an opportunity to promote The Roof at SILVERHAND's popular website at http://silverhand.com.my/ and their blogs. More importantly they are taking shots to complete and publish the new flyers, posters and ala carte menu that I require to promote The Roof and it's promos.

Radzie Rahman - Now a familiar face as a photographer in almost every major event at Kota Kinabalu, Radzie is one of the masterminds behind Life In Borneo.

"Life In Borneo is one of the fastest growing informative portal providing you information about Borneo and the lifestyle in Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei. Ranging from the events going on, good places to eat, the most happening spots in town, adventurous places to explore, places to relax, shopping.. and much much more. - http://lifeinborneo.com/"

As quoted, Life In Borneo makes a perfect spot for me to advertise The Roof. Radzie is currently helping me to take extra shots that i might need during this period of photo shooting and agreed to have Life In Borneo to do coverage for next week's launching of The Roof's signature dishes(more details on this later).

So the photo shoot started last Thursday and everything went well so far. Many good shots were taken and I should be uploading them in The Roof's facebook page soon. Here are some photos of the photographers in action...

Today is the last day and for the remaining photo shoot, it is down to Julian & Fara to take the last shots to be included in The Roof's new ala carte menu that they will design and publish. Salute to them as they have been working around the clock last night to finish up the design for flyers and posters for signature dishes and set lunch promotion. Once the photo shoot today is done, the design for the ala carte menu should be completed latest by tomorrow.

All the design will be used for advertisement in newspapers, magazines, etc. SILVERHAND will also print out the flyers, posters and menu. So far according to Julian, the posters should be done by today. Can't wait! Will post them up. As for the flyers, there will only be up to 500 pieces printed by Monday morning. That would be sufficient for now for me to ask my sales team to distribute to nearby shops and offices. The ala carte menu however will only be done printing by next Friday due to the quality of material I requested. I'm hoping the menu can be printed earlier but that will do for now.

*fingers crossed* Now I'm just hoping SILVERHAND will get everything on their side done in time while I concentrate on the next plan of action.


p/s: Special thanks to my buddy Wei Chuen for helping around during the photo shoot and giving me valuable tips to market The Roof.

media meeting - 7.00pm onwards - 18/02/09

from left: Melissa Leong, me, Julian, Fara, Beatrice, Yaakob

After done discussing with my fnb manager Liamis and sales director Yaakob, we managed to come up with a rough plan within 3 days to achieve the RM20k target. Our main goal at the moment is to launch new and improved signature dishes and also set lunch. As Liamis cooks up what he needs to do on his side, Yaakob and I made our first move to meet a bunch of media people that will help us with our marketing plan.

Before meeting Yaakob and the rest at San Francisco Coffee, I met Melissa Leong for dinner at The Roof. Melissa is a dear friend of mine who works as the editor of Sabah Tourism magazine. She is an extremely busy woman and I'm very lucky that finally she managed to allocate time to meet me up for dinner. I discussed with her about my plans and ask how she and I can work something out to help me advertise through Sabah Tourism. Unfortunately regarding the signature dishes and set lunch, Melissa can only help me promote in the April issue of Sabah Tourism magazine. Not gonna help me with my 6 weeks challenge but still a good exposure for the restaurant. The good news is that I can at least put flyers at the Sabah Tourism office. Not only that, she also gave me a good insight and tips on how to improve my plan from price adjustments of the set lunch to the quality of food.

Melissa and I went off to San Francisco Coffee after dinner. There i met Yaakob, my dear friends Julian & Fara from SILVERHAND Events And Creatives and Beatrice of A La Page magazine. All of us had a joint discussion together on how to market The Roof. Julian & Fara has agreed to help me to design and publish a new menu and ads to promote The Roof. The rates they gave me for helping is really good and I couldn't ask more from two close friends who has helped me a lot for the past few years. Its gonna be a tough one because I need everything done on their side latest by Monday. On the other hand Beatrice offered a good price for me to advertise in A La Page for March issue of the magazine. A La Page is a good investment because the magazine is distributed at major districts in Sabah that is vital to promote The Roof.

The media meeting ended pretty well and Yaakob and I just can't wait to see the new menu and ads done so promos for The Roof can be advertised asap. Discussion with the media doesn't just end here. Yaakob is doing his part to keep in touch with newspaper companies and I'll be seeking at least a few more valuable contacts to help me with my plan.


p/s: Kept in touch with my buddy Jonathan Bong of Breeze magazine and all looks good for The Roof ad to be featured in Breeze's March issue. Breeze magazine is a major advertisement tool now as it has distribution in Brunei and Sarawak as well.

Within 6 weeks, I must...

... change The Roof into a successful restaurant in the heart of Kota Kinabalu city."

Hey people, I'm Dinoza. I basically run two hotels(Imperial International & Imperial Boutec) located at Warisan Square, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Past two years since running the hotels has been crazy and full of ups & downs. Nevertheless, the experience is rewarding. With the two hotels looking pretty stable for now, I have a new target in my mind that I must accomplish in 6 weeks. I'm talking about bringing success to my hotel's The Roof restaurant. Located at the roof of the building where the hotels are located, The Roof has been doing well in terms of functions, special packages and room service. The problem lies within the number of walk-in customers, which is VERY POOR. I'm talking about only an average of 3-5 tables per day. So my challenge to myself is to double the monthly profit from walk-in customers and achieve RM20,000 before 25th March 2009. I want to see more customers sitting down and enjoying their session at The Roof. Easy? Hard? Impossible? I just know its achievable so long as i do my best to make it work. Join me in my journey to win this challenge in this blog. I need all the support I can get. Other than my team of staff, close business contacts and friends, your support too will be much appreciated. Throw in your comments/suggestions regardless good or bad so The Roof can improve. I'll do my part to reward you people if I win the challenge. Let the challenge begin!


p/s: Be in The Roof's mailing list by joining the facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53345708484.