I have learned one simple thing. Ready? Here it comes… absolutely earth shattering advice, I know.

Raise revenue and reduce cost.

Ta dah!

Truthfully, I am often amazed at how often I forget this simple fact.

And, if it were only that easy.

The Flying Banzini still struggles. We are very, very close to breaking even. Ultimately, we still need to go back to basics and increase revenue and/or reduce costs. I am working on the latter – whittling away at small things that do not diminish our customer experience. Less expensive napkins, for instance. There is only so much that can be done, though, as I will not compromise on the core of my vision for what The Flying Banzini experience should be.

The former, raising revenue, is more difficult. We need more customers. Not a lot more. Just a few more. We need to continue to get the word out. Easier said than done of course. The key is effective advertising and promotion. My best source of promotion is my customers, of course. The people taking the time to read this blog right now are my greatest resource. Recommendation of friends matters above everything, I think. There is a cost to this but the cost is only my time, not cash.

The conundrum of advertising is that it costs money at a time when cash-flow is king. And, thus, I am really, really picky about where to spend my advertising dollars. And, it’s really really hard to determine where they should go. Therein is the conundrum – you must advertise to raise revenue but without an increase in revenue, advertising is an expense this is hard to find the money for.

Frustrating…