Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Time is up! And the verdict...

Its the 25th of March, 2009. Thus, 6 weeks has passed. Phew... Lets have a quick look on how the sales were like.

















Yup, the sales skyrocketed big time towards the last few weeks. However, there is a part of me that is disappointed. I didn't reach the RM20k target of monthly sales. At the end of the day, I only reached RM18k. 2k short... Damn... But honestly? I'm still very happy and proud. Compared to the previous RM8k of monthly sales before my 6 weeks started, RM18k is a dream come true. An impossible dream to some others but now a reality. Lets do a quick recap of the important bits of what has happened for the past 6 weeks.

























The launch of 'The Roof: 6 weeks of change' blog - I gotta hand it to my master coach Kelvin from the TCC course I took for this great idea. The blog has became such a huge strong tool as part of my online marketing campaign for The Roof. Every time a new post is up, the blog gets at least 50-100 views. Those are pretty good numbers for a new blog. Numbers aside, I also get a lot of good and bad feedback, which are vital to make The Roof a better restaurant. The blog also allows me to be more up, close and personal with those who support The Roof.




















Set lunch and signature dishes promotion - Simply the items that revived The Roof into a restaurant known for its dishes. Both set lunch and signature dishes still selling pretty well till this day. Star of the show is the Kota Belud Nasi Goreng as the most ordered dish.















Mangan Hi-Tea - What started as a promo for a public holiday has now become an every Sunday event. The turnout during the promo was really good and The Roof received requests to have the Mangan Hi-tea as a weekly event. However, last Sunday's Mangan Hi-Tea wasn't as packed as the previous one. Learned this is because of an error that caused the scheduled Mangan Hi-Tea ad for the newspaper displayed on the next Monday instead of last Thursday. Yup, newspaper advertisement is quite critical for hi-teas. Other than that, Mangan Hi-Tea is here to stay as the one of the star of the show for The Roof.




















Sunset Hour promo - Jacquelin of KK Food Reviews took a wonderful shot of the sunset at The Roof. Simply spawned the idea for the Sunset Hour promo. The promo hasn't been fully advertised yet but will do so next month. Till then, you peeps should really check it out. Steal promo and amazing sunset view!




















Mangoui Hawker Night - Didn't go well despite the heavy promotion. There was a low turnout for both weeks this promo was happening. This pretty much means at the moment, The Roof won't be having any future dinner buffets. There was one night when 10 people came to The Roof and only 4 went for Mangoui and the other 6 ordered dishes from the ala carte menu. Thats just one of the reasons to tell you the majority of customers are not that keen to spend RM38 on dinner buffet. And Mangoui is one of the cheapest dinner buffet in town. To simply put it, I figured out the majority of customers that came to The Roof are only willing to spend RM20-RM30 max.

Functions - My sales team and I are always chasing functions to be held at The Roof. Functions are currently the money-making machine for hotel restaurants. At least half of the monthly sales I got for The Roof came from functions.













Work hard, play hard and more importantly, REST WELL - In the beginning period of the 6 weeks challenge, I pushed myself a bit too much on The Roof until I lost track of my personal life and health. I fall sick easily and restless most of the time due to lack of sleep. Only made me less productive at work. Since then, I learned to balance my life more and I'm doing much better at work now.



















Special thanks to all who had helped out to make The Roof a better restaurant during the past 6 weeks. There are way too many names to mention. I just want you all to know that I really appreciate all of your support. Promised you all a party if I reach RM20k but such is not the case for now. Lets look forward to April to achieve that RM20k. ;-)

So is this the end? Absolutely not! I still want to reach that RM20k. In fact, this is just the beginning. There are still a lot of work to be done. Till then, this blog will still continue as too my journey to make The Roof one of the premier restaurants in Kota Kinabalu. Stay tuned!

Monday, March 16, 2009

The story so far...

With the dateline 25th of March just a week away, I'm short of 5k before reaching my target of a monthly 20k profit for The Roof. At this point I already broke the barrier of the previous month's 8k profit. Its been costly but its been worth it too. A whole lot more of people now know about The Roof and there has been a dramatic increase of people dining in at The Roof. Still it has been quite an emotional ride of ups and downs. Here is what I'm looking forward to this week...




















The return of Mangan Hi-Tea
- Yup! Its back this Sunday as a weekly event! By popular demand! Whatcha waiting for??? :-D


Mangoui Hawker Night - The promo dinner buffet didn't go as well as I hoped last week. Not a lot of people turned up but those who did enjoyed the buffet. This is the final week for Mangoui so hope you ladies and gentleman give it a shot and tell me what you think. The results this week will determine whether The Roof will do a weekly dinner buffet.

Government & Bank special discount - For government and bank staff , enjoy 20% discount for any order from the ala carte menu except promo items every Tuesday (government) and Thursday (bank).


*fingers crossed* This is the final week to achieve the 20k target that seemed impossible to some in the first place. This is it! Ganbatte!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The return of dinner buffet... Lets Mangoui!

The Roof used to have weekly dinner buffet that didn't really turned out great. Promotions and marketing didn't go as well as expected and most of the time the dinner buffet had zero guests. It was a sad period for me to be at The Roof looking at an empty restaurant with the buffet food gone to waste. Thus, the weekly buffet was canceled and no longer available at The Roof.




















However, I received quite a number of requests to have the dinner buffet back at The Roof. So guess what. Dinner buffet is back! In conjunction with the upcoming school holidays, there will be a Mangoui Hawker Night special on the 13th, 14th, 20th and 21st this month. Price per head is a mere RM38nett. The success of Mangoui will heavily determine whether dinner buffet will return as a weekly event. So I hope you peeps please give Mangoui a shot and tell me what you think. Your feedback is everything as there were none before since hardly anybody came for the weekly dinner buffet. Hope to hear from you!

Mangoui facebook page ---> http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=56120917671

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Sunset Hour















photo by Amie Stan


One of the best things about being at The Roof is to enjoy the magnificent view of the sunset. Stay long enough at The Roof during late evenings and you'll see the sunset with different interesting colors and looks. So I came up with a new promo for The Roof called Sunset Hour. If you order anything from the ala carte menu at The Roof during 5.00pm to 7.00pm, you're entitled for a 10% discount from the bill. Not only that, the order also entitles you to get a free complimentary cake and coffee/tea. Simply a steal.




















photo & artwork by Jacquelin Ajuni



I highly recommend this promo to those who want to relax and enjoy the sunset after work. Especially photographers/bloggers. The sunset view is really amazing to take photos of and something to enjoy while going online with the available free wifi services. Give it a shot and you'll see what I mean. :-)

Monday, March 9, 2009

Mangan success!

I'm very happy. The Mangan Hi-Tea was a great success with a total of 126 people showing up for the event. Here are some photos...










































































































































Check out the rest of the photos at Mangan Hi-Tea facebook page ---> http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=66311492532.


Thanks again to all who showed up. I got some useful comments how to make the event better. Overall the turn out is good and everyone in general are happy. I'm now considering to make this an every Sunday event. What say you? Do leave your comment.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Mangan fever!



It is good to have friends around you that gives support. Most of them are already supporting me by coming over to the Mangan Hi-Tea promotion this coming Monday. Thanks guys! You're the best! Also, gratitude to the rest of the people online that I haven't met or chatted before who will come over. Things look great for now and even better, I just got this email from my f&b manager Liamis directed to my sales director Yaakob...

Dear Mr Yaakob,

Just to inform current reservation on 9 March 2009 at 11am "Mangan Hi Tea" we had 48 paxs, Kindly if any reservation from your side, kindly please let me know by today.

Thank you for you help.

Have a nice day... :-)

Regards,

Liamis Laikau

Simply really good news! Praises to Yaakob and his team for doing a great job promoting the Mangan Hi-Tea. Now its up to Liamis and his team to make sure everything goes well on Monday. If you haven't made reservations, please do so by calling 088-522888 and ask to be connected to The Roof restaurant.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Mangan Hi-Tea @ only RM18nett!



















Prophet Muhammad's birthday is on this coming 9th of March, 2009. It'll be a public day and The Roof will have Mangan Hi-Tea(12pm to 4pm) that costs only RM18nett. Here is the menu...



APPETIZER

SALAD BAR ON ICE
LETTUCE, JULLIENE CARROTS, JULLIENE GREEN PEPPER, JULLIENE RED PEPPER, SLICE RED CABBAGE, SLICE ROUND CABBAGE, SLICE CUCUMBER, TOMATO WEDGEH,
POTATO CUBE, SLICE CELERY, HARD BOILED EGG
CONDIMENTS
RASINE, WALNUTS, STUFFED GREEN OLIVE, BLACK OLIVE, CRUTTON,
CHOPPED BEEF BACON, SLICE SAUSAGE, CAPERS, ROASTED JULLINE CHICKEN, PRAWN,
THOUSAND ISLAND SAUCE, MAYONNAISE, COCKTAIL SAUCE, ITALIAN DRESSING,
FRENCH DRESSING, BALSAMIC DRESSING
ASSORTED FINGER SANDWICH
EGG, TUNA, SARDINE AND VEGETABLE
TOMATO SAUCE, CHILI SAUCE
PEANUTS, KEREPEK-KEREPEK, AND MARUKU


SOUP

SOUP OF THE DAY


HOT ITEM

STEAMED WHITE RICE
FRIED RICE BELACAN STYLE
AYAM MERAH DELIMA
BRAIDED FISH FINGER
DEEP FRIED PANDAN CHICKEN
HOT AND SOUR CRAB BALL
STEAMED MINI PAU
OTAK-OTAK SPRING ROLL
MINI PIZZA RENDANG
MIXED VEGETABLE


STALLS

LONTONG WITH CONDIMENTS
NYONYA CURRY LAKSA WITH CONDIMENTS
PORRIDGE WITH CONDIMENTS
ABC WITH CONDIMENTS
TEA TARIK DANGDUT


DESSERTS

FRESH FRUIT PLATTER
HOT CHOCLATE MOUSSE
BUBUR OR PENGAT OF THE DAYS
ASSORTED MALAY KUIH
ASSORTED FRENCH PASTIES
ASSORTED JELLY AND PUDDING
PASTRY'S SELECTIONS



Give it a shot people and tell me what you think . I will personally be there as well. If Mangan Hi-Tea becomes a huge success, I'm planning to make it a weekly session during the weekends. See you on Monday!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Fantastic week!

It has been at least a week since my last post and I've been extremely busy. 3 things were the highlights of my past week...




The media launch for signature dishes and set lunch. Selected people from newspapers, magazines and blogs came to try out The Roof's promo dishes and do a write up. Feedback was good and valuable comments were given on how to further improve the taste of the dishes. Since then, I had a bunch of customers coming to The Roof on a daily basis to try out the promo dishes and got nothing but good feedback from them. Some of the customers came to The Roof after hearing about the place from friends and the rest received the promo flyers and saw the write up & ads from newspapers. Hearing that, I'm so happy that my marketing plan worked. In fact, profits and number of customers last week was triple the amount from the week before! Now I need to give that extra effort to keep up and improve the momentum.


A very important Koperasi Pembangunan Desa (KPD) dinner function. Thanks to my dear friend Natalie Chow from KPD, I managed to get a special karaoke dinner function for KPD staffs last Friday. I was a bit nervous because there was a bunch of very important VIPs plus one that had a bad experience at The Roof before. To my relief, the dinner turned out great and now KPD staffs are looking forward to dine at The Roof again. Score! Working closely with my sales team now to get more functions done at The Roof.




Having an active and healthy personal life besides work. It was so tough 2 weeks before when I started to get really busy with The Roof. My personal life was almost non-existent and I find myself spending very little time with my close ones especially my daughter. I didn't even get to exercise or do any sports. Overall, I easily get stressed and unhealthy. I got into a breakdown at one point because of this. So for the past week I've been squeezing more time for my personal life and felt much better. I even joined a KK Open paintball tournament last weekend with my newly formed team Hoodlums 21. We got 2nd place! Bottomline, I need to keep that balance between work and personal life.