Business Failure Beyond Your Control?

You might think this sounds bizarre - but it happens every single day.

This is a story about John and Lucy, a couple both in their late 30s. They are both hardworking individuals with a strong focus on their financial future, their long-term security.

John works as head chef in a local Italian restaurant. He loves to cook, and to create beautiful dishes that tantalise even the most discerning taste buds. He dreams of one day owning his own restaurant and serving the finest Italian cuisine to the rich and famous. It’s a grand dream, but he’s sure he can do it. He has the motivation and the skills and he’s sure people love his food. It seems like an easy choice.

Lucy has worked incredibly hard in her accounting role for many years now. If there’s anything she knows better than most, it’s numbers. Her hours have often been very long, helping others and finding ways to keep her clients in the black. She’s a real master at her job. Trustworthy and solid.

John and Lucy have been married for 10 years. They often talked about starting their own business. With John’s skills in the kitchen, and Lucy’s command with numbers, they were sure they could make something work, so they decided to make plans for their restaurant.

They researched for several months on who they should contract to build their restaurant for them, and eventually settled on a restaurant outfit specialist by the name of Mark. They chose Mark because he had built many restaurants and his portfolio was full of beautiful examples, ranging from corner bistros to grand affairs to serve hundreds. He certainly seemed to be the right pick.

John and Lucy interviewed Mark several times before contracting him for the work. Mark was very clear that he was immensely experienced in the art of restaurant design and construction. He knew precisely how the kitchen ought to be laid out, how the dining areas were best designed for comfort and intimacy, and how best to create the look and feel of premium style through expert construction, quality materials and smooth execution. It was going to be perfect! John and Lucy trusted Mark. He was the master of the restaurant building business.

After plans, costs and timeline had been agreed on it was time to start.

Mark swiftly created a design plan. It was wonderful! John and Lucy were so impressed with Mark so far that his expert design work had them completely convinced in his ability. John and Lucy were still very busy with their current jobs, so they let Mark, the expert, begin construction soon after the final plans were agreed.

Ground was broken, foundation laid, and walls erected. John and Lucy’s work got busier. They didn’t have time to inspect in person, so they allowed Mark to project manage himself. Mark would bring them pictures of progress every week, and John and Lucy continued to be thoroughly impressed. What a wonderful job Mark was doing! The building was looking amazing. The kind of place that the rich and famous would want to visit for sure.

Week after week, Mark brought new pictures showing the latest work undertaken. It was going so well. John and Lucy had been so busy, they were relieved to be able to rely on such a true expert. It took a lot of pressure off their shoulders. They didn’t have to learn about the details: plumbing, gas, electricity. The type of stone used for the benchtops, the style of tables and chairs needed for the dining area. All in Mark’s expert hands.

After 6 months of construction, it was finally done. So exciting! Mark was to take John and Lucy to the site to view their new business. Mark was thrilled too. He’d worked so hard on their project, and it looked superb. He couldn’t wait to reveal the final build. This would be a wonderful addition to his portfolio of restaurant projects. It was sure to win him many more construction jobs, and he felt so proud to be able to deliver this fine work to John and Lucy.

Mark collected John and Lucy and took them to the site. “I want the final reveal to be a big surprise” said Mark. “Will you promise not to look until the last moment?” he asked. “Certainly!” said both John and Lucy, it was only going to add to their excitement they thought.

When Mark finally said “OK, you can look now”, the sight took their breath away. The couple were thrilled. It was everything they ever dreamed about and more! Looking about the dining room and kitchen facilities, John and Lucy were once more convinced they had invested in the right contractor.

It wasn’t time to open just yet though. John and Lucy had the small task of easing off their hours at their current jobs, so they could make a real commitment to the hours they needed free for the new business. Opening day was set for another month away. Meanwhile, they gave Mark a glowing testimonial for all his work. It couldn’t have been better.

When opening day finally came, John and Lucy waited patiently for customer to begin arriving, but in the first day there were no customers. “I guess this is normal” said John. Lucy agreed. “Yes, it will take a few days for people to figure out we’re are open I guess. We’ll just have to be patient.”

After 2 weeks of no diners coming to the restaurant, John and Lucy resolved that it must still be ‘early days’ and to ‘hang-in’ before getting too worried about it. After all, they still had some savings to see them through. The restaurant was amazing after all, and it was sure to get attention from the rich and famous soon enough.

By the 3-month mark it was starting to worry Lucy as she had been watching the figures and knew that they had to start making money soon to able to get through. She suggested that they might want to reduce the prices a little to entice the ‘not-so-rich-and-famous’ to come and dine just the same.

Another few weeks passed and still no customers. Something was terribly wrong. John and Lucy were starting to get a horrible feeling that they had missed something important. They tried to get in touch with Mark to find out if he had any experience with drawing in customers, but Mark said he didn’t know about that at all. He did design and build – and such a wonderful job he did too. So, John and Lucy sought advice from a marketing consultant.

“What could possibly be wrong?” asked Lucy. “Our restaurant is amazing, and our construction company did an incredible job!” she exclaimed. The marketing consultant offered to review all aspects of their business to try to figure out why there were no customers after all this time. It would take him a week to write his report and present it to John and Lucy.

A week later he returned. “I feel terrible” said the consultant after considering all the facts about the restaurant. “I have terrible news for you, and I’m not sure where to start” he said. John and Lucy had a sick feeling in their stomachs. They didn’t like the sound if this, and they didn’t like the look on the consultant’s face. “OK, tell us what you found” said John. “Please, take a seat,” said the consultant, “this may be upsetting for you”….

“All this time, you have been waiting patiently inside for customers to arrive” he said. “I know you come to work every day, via the back door, but it’s out front where I found several problems, and you may not have noticed them.”

The consultant produced a sizable list of issues. It was the sight of the first item on the list that was so shocking to John he became visibly upset, with the anger flushing his face red.

• Item #1 on the list was: There are no roads that lead to your restaurant.

“What?” exclaimed John, utterly flabbergasted.

“Yes, that’s right, John” said the consultant. “It’s terrible, I know, but all this time, there has been no way for anyone to get to your restaurant – little surprise they didn’t come inside to dine. And I discovered more…” he said, while pointing to the rest of the list.

Going through the list was truly painful for all concerned.

• Item #2: Your restaurant is not listed in the directory of restaurants
• Item #3: It’s difficult to figure out where the front door to your restaurant is
• Item #4: None of your signage states clearly that this is a restaurant
• Item #5: Your restaurant doesn’t appear to have any menus
• Item #6: All the chairs, which seem to be bolted to the floor, are also pointing away from the tables
• Item #7: …

The list was incredibly bizarre, and seemed to go on and on, but on reflection John and Lucy could see that each point was correct.

“How could this have happened?” asked Lucy. “We had the very finest restaurant construction engineer on the job. We made sure we hired only the best”.

“There’s no doubt about it, Lucy. The restaurant is truly beautiful” said the consultant. “It’s very appealing to the eye, but this design is seriously flawed” he explained. “It appears to have ignored some very fundamental business needs.”

“You could probably solve the issue of people getting here by providing transport” said the consultant, “but be aware that would cost you every single time – it’s a good immediate fix.”

“I suggest you consider weighing up the expense of building your own road and addressing the other matters on the list in order” said the consultant.

“How long will that take and how much will it cost?” asked Lucy, wary of how far their savings had slipped already.

“I’m guessing it will be in the hundreds of thousands and take 6-12 months to complete. But even then, I can’t guarantee people will come” explained the consultant.

John and Lucy were both terribly depressed by this stage. Feeling down and desperate, they opted to hire the consultant to try to help build the road and solve all the other issues that customers would face in coming to dine at their beautiful restaurant. They spent the last of their savings, in bitterness and anger. Who could they blame for this mess? Surely Mark had done his best. Should he have known to tell John and Lucy that the plot of land he chose had no road leading to it? Wasn’t it his job to make sure the restaurant got listed in the directory of restaurants? The many times that John and Lucy argued over this point, they could never quite figure out where to point the finger. They trusted Mark, because he was the best restaurant design and constriction expert they could find. But somehow, they felt angry at him for failing them, and angry at themselves for trusting that Mark would take care of absolutely everything.

By the end of the second year, a road had finally been built, and while essential items on the list had been resolved and meals had been served to happy customers, the money had run out. The restaurant closed, and John and Lucy resigned themselves to going back into employment.

A sad, sad story about failing to see the bigger picture.

• Did this story sound somewhat bizarre?
• Who was to blame for the loss of the business?
• Should John and Lucy have involved themselves more deeply through every step of the way?
• What ‘due diligence’ do you think would have been reasonable?
• Whose advice could have made a lot of difference right from the beginning?
• How could such an experienced restaurant builder not know about John and Lucy’s fundamental business needs? And if he did know, should he have given them some advice even if he didn’t get paid for it?

Many of these questions should be obvious when examining a story like John and Lucy’s, but when the job of construction is very technical and requires advanced skills. Is it fair that John and Lucy should just trust the expert?

Now exchange ‘restaurant’ for ‘website’ and you have the typical story that happens to a disproportionately high percentage of web projects. The overwhelming number of businesses that launch websites are saved by finding other channels, such as traditional retail, to make their bread and butter, or at the last-minute turn to the investment in SEO or Ads to generate leads. It’s disappointing to keep discovering that many businesses launch their website without having first considered how it will satisfy the underlying performance requirements.

Preventing more stories like this from becoming a reality is my motivation to reveal as much as I reasonably can in such a finite way as sharing content on my website.

Unfortunately, arguments about who is at fault often don’t play out, and neither side ends up learning much from the experience. A year, or even two might have passed once the realisation sets in that the website isn’t going to work. By this time, the web developer might have reasonable cause to say it’s no longer their issue – if it ever really was. And the bitterness of failure makes the business owner shy of hiring yet another web developer to fix the issues or start again, now somewhat more fearful of being ‘duped’ by someone masquerading as an expert.

But the real problem is that neither party are making their limitations clear.

This story is not about laying blame. Instead, I’d like to focus on the fact that both parties are probably very good at what they do, but also not that great at what they don’t know. After all, how could anyone possibly provide insights into something they are not even aware of yet?

Instead, this story is about reminding business owners and web developers to be open, honest and confident enough to freely admit they don’t know and feel OK about it. It’s about highlighting areas where I have seen communication go wrong, wires crossed, or expectations not expressed clearly.

So, Is This Your Story?

Reach out to me - I can help.

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https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/perrybernard/