Last night I arrived home from a trip to Breckenridge, CO with seven of my buddies. Here I am at 12,840 feet. My five year old son saw this pic and said, "Cool! Daddy, you look like a black Power Ranger!!!"
Not my intent of course, but I like the description. It was around two degrees Fahrenheit when that pic was taken. The wind chill was well below zero. Nevertheless, I am an avid skier and I'm passionate about every site and sound and aspect of the sport. The hard snap as you fasten your boots. The crunching sound of the snow as you walk towards the lift. The sharp click of your heel locking into the bindings. The deep breaths of fresh mountain air. The morning chill biting into your fingers and toes. The anticipatory sound of the chair lift rolling over the wheels at each pole. Feeling your skis glide down the ramp as you exit the lift. The feeling of placing your hands through the straps of your poles. The calm that surrounds you as you stand nearly 13,000 feet above sea level and carefully pick your line. And the adrenaline that engulfs you as you drop in and begin your descent. For me, there's nothing that compares.
But enough about all of that! Because this morning I woke up and read this article over a cup of coffee, and I believe it's biased. Tomorrow I'll share why I believe that, but first I'm going to try to get ahold of the author to ask a few questions. More to come...
I stumbled across this really cool word cloud creator called Wordle. It lets you enter in a bunch of text or link to a blog feed and it will create a “word cloud” of the text - which like a tag cloud – make the words that appear more frequently in the text bigger. I thought it would be cool to put in the cities of our customers and see which cities came out the biggest. Mostly useless, but partly cool. Here it is...
Jeff Gigante and I spent 15 minutes talking about how is restaurant group, Ciccio & Tony's, is exploring ways to use hyper-local ingredients. Jeff discusses the pros, cons, myths, struggles, and successes of his efforts to source fresh, organic local food for his six restaurants.
All consumers who expect their restaurants to use local food should listen to this...
If you have additional thoughts or advice you'd like to share on this topic, hit me at wbrawley [at] schedulefly [dot] com. I'd love to do a follow up interview with you or share your written thoughts here on the blog.
I recently posted about why Joe's Real BBQ gives away over 6,000 meals in a single day. One day per year. With no strings attached.
Here's the audio of a conversation I had last week with Tad Peelen, co-owner of Joe's Real BBQ and Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert, AZ. We discussed the free meals as well as other unconventional yet successful marketing strategies his restaurants have used. If you like learning how other restaurants are using non-traditional marketing to achieve results, spend 15 minutes listening to this...
If you are doing something unique or unconventional at your restaurant and it's working brilliantly, I'd love to record a 10-15 minute podcast with your owner and stick it up on our blog. Lemme know. I'm at wbrawley [at] schedulefly [dot] com.
Today was a good day at work. I got a bunch of really great stuff done. I worked today on the bed in the guest room in our house. I had actually planned to work in the dining room but realized that the 15mo old boy tugging on my pant leg and the 4yr old boy playing a plastic trombone was making it tough to focus. So I ran upstairs with the laptop and found myself in the guest room for 1/2 the day and cranked it out. I wrote some code and even launched some new code to our data center and all of our 1,700+ customers at once – while on the bed – in our guest room. Today was not an unusual day. In fact, it was a typical day for me and the last 4 years have seen many like it. Without having to get dressed and go to an office where the distractions start in the parking lot on the way in – I flat out get meaningful things done. I love it. I love the lonely, quiet, meeting-less productive work days and I will never go back. I get too much done now and have too much good quality time to think to ever go back to the conventional business environment.
So anyway – today made me think of this talk that Jason Fried (37signals) gave at TEDx Midwest a few years ago. It’s really great – and thought provoking too - so I thought I would share. Enjoy!
Wes
Schedulefly
p.s Have you been in the guest room (or spare bedroom) in your house lately? Try it! Do a little work. Take a nap in it. It's like being in a hotel or something.
I always enjoy learning the various philosophies and strategies restaurant owners/managers use to hire the right people for their teams. On that topic, here's an exchange I with Jeremiah Higgins during his interview for Restaurant Owners Uncorked. He is co-owner of Arch Rock Fish in Santa Barbara, CA and partner with HJL Restaurant Advisors.
Wil: "How do you find people to hire that will convey the same passion and love you have for your business to your guests?"
Jeremiah: "I’m glad you asked that question, because hiring the right people is one of the most important things that restaurant operators do. Here’s what I do personally…
I think the interview process has to be a structured, minimum three-part process. Over the years I’ve noticed that when I like somebody right off the bat and I give him or her the job, they usually end up being the first to go. They either don’t want the job, or they don’t show up for their shifts, or they take advantage of it when they do. They’re not the person I thought they were when I hired them. Over the years I’ve learned that people will do better if they earn the position.
I like for them to speak to an assistant manager, then to a manager, and finally, to an owner. So far, I’ve always asked that I have the last decision on who gets hired. You’re never too busy to take 10 minutes to spend with that employee before you hire them. Most owners don’t do that. They leave it up to management to decide. But management may not have the same outlook as an owner does.
So, number one is I would put them through an interview process that’s structured. Number two is I would meet everybody before they are hired. And the third thing is the easiest. I don’t care what’s on a resume. I go off of personality.
If that person engages me in the first two minutes, with a twinkle in his or her eye, or a smile, or a good story, or whatever it happens to be, they’re going to engage my customers. If they don’t have that personality, if they don’t have that enthusiasm and that twinkle in their eye, I can’t teach them that. It doesn’t matter what concept I have, I can teach them the procedures, the menus, the wine lists. I can teach them how to serve a table correctly, and how to say goodbye, and all of that. But I can’t teach personality. So the number one thing that I look for is personality.
Hiring the right people is so important. The nationwide average is about $2,200 to hire and train somebody. Why make a mistake? Why spend all of that money, and then have to do it all over again a week or two later? And that $2,200 doesn’t even account for the cost of lost customers if that server is not the right person at your table, and it’s turning off customers."
Jeremiah's comments underscore how important it is to find the right people, and how little he leaves to chance. Let me know if you have other philosophies or processes you use when you hire. I'd love to include them in a follow up blog post. I'm at wbrawley [at] schedulefly [dot] com.
I'm turning myself in. Busting myself. You see, I've mentioned many times on our blog that we don't have any sales people, and we prefer that people find out about Schedulefly from word-of-mouth, or through our book, or perhaps from one of the articles we've written, etc.
But last night I hung out with a buddy and watched N.C. State blow a 21-point second half lead to Duke. Really? No, seriously...Really???? Anyway, we went to a new place in Charlotte and it's just a plain 'ole cool joint that has a great staff and I'd be lying if I said I didn't hope they'll become a customer. So I sent this email to the GM today...
Brandon,
My buddy and I ate dinner and hung out at your bar last night. Ryan and your crew took great care of us - that's cool how they are good at remembering names, and I appreciated the generous amount of Woodford Reserve in my glass.
If y'all ever need a simple solution for staff scheduling and communication, check out www.schedulefly.com. I'm one of the owners of the business, and while we take pride in not having a sales force and growing instead by word of mouth, when I visit a cool place like yours I sometimes mention our app. Other local joints that use it are Mez, Duckworth's, Bricktops, 131 Main, American Roadside, and a handful of others.
Anyway, keep up the great work and I'm sure I'll be back.
Wil Brawley
So there you go. We are transparent on this blog so I can't say that we don't ever try to sell anybody on Schedulefly. In fact I'll post an update each time we do. Though that email is not exactly a very strong sales effort, and I will promise that Brandon won't hear from me again. I figure if staff scheduling and communication are a headache for him, he may check out our site. If not, he won't. Either way, if and when he does need a simple solution, I'm confident he'll find us and then we'll let the chips fall where they may as to whether he decides to become a customer, because one thing we will never do is apply any sales pressure to anybody using our free 30-day trial.
Yesterday I conducted the first interview for our upcoming book of interviews with successful coffee shop owners. I spoke with JD Merget of Oslo Coffee in Brooklyn. JD has a palpable passion for coffee, and since he opened the door of his first location eight years ago, he's opened two more locations and started roasting his own coffee.
Here's the recording of the interview. You'll hear JD start talking at about 20 seconds in - I messed up and forgot to push "Record" until then. Oops! Anyway, the interview is about 38 minutes long and if you like coffee, you'll love listening...
My sister, Holly Aiken, made us some really cool Schedulefly coasters. She is a handbag designer and makes great looking, indestructible products! Like the rest of the stuff she makes - these coasters are simple, unique and crazy functional. They are made out of vinyl so they can literally be hosed down if needed. We made them to share with customers and if you'd like a 4-pack to use at your bar - give us a shout!
Wes
p.s the only problem with these is they are so cool that people might walk off with them...so keep an eye on em!
The Noise is everywhere these days. Emails. Texts. Facebook. Twitter. 500 TV channels. 1,000s of magazines.
It hits you everywhere you turn, doesn't it? Like a weary boxer, you tire from all of the blows. You can barely defend yourself any longer. It overwhelms you. It's just too much.
The Noise is especially strong in emails. It comes at you with a series of jabs. Never a big right hook. Just jabs.
Today I decided to start fighting back. I unsubscribed from probably 15 different emails. I don't even know how I got signed up for all of them. I bought something at REI, they got my email address, and ... jab, jab, jab, they hit me weekly. Facebook constantly emails me to remind me that I haven't logged in for a while (yep, it's been about a year) but, nevertheless ... jab, jab, jab, they hit me almost daily. And so on.
So I sat down and started hitting "Unsubscribe" this morning. Unsubscribe (jab). Unsubscribe (jab). Unsubscribe. (jab jab). And with each jab, The Noise gets a little weaker, a little less intimidating. And you start to realize you can win.
Eventually, The Noise starts to dissipate from your email inbox. Make no mistake, it will not give up. It will re-group and it will keep hitting away. But today I landed a few jabs. And life already seems just a little easier.
We don't ever want Schedulefly to be a part of The Noise. That's what everybody else does. "Buy now!" "Save today"! "50% off!!!" "Lose weight!" "Gain muscle!" "Reduce stress!" "Look cool!" "Don't miss out!" "Today only!" Ahhhhh!!!!!!!!!! Just leave me alone!!!
We try very hard not to create noise. We don't run email marketing campaigns. We don't email customers about product updates (we can do that in the Alert Center in the app). And while it's nice to see lots of people subscribing to our blog post emails, I hope if the posts aren't adding value to you in some way, that you will unsubscribe. The last thing we ever want to do is be a part of The Noise.
Wil
P.s. Any time you'd like to shoot me your thoughts on anything I post, hit me at wbrawley [at] Schedulefly [dot] com. I of course view your comments or questions as anything but noise!!!
Phil Sciortino, Jr. has been surfing most of his life (that's him in the pic), and during a vacation to Hawaii in 2006 he noticed that the north shore of Oahu has its fair share of “shave ice” places, and thought the concept may work well at the surfing beach in Long Branch, N.J. He recruited his best friend, Lance Redaelli, and they opened a battery-operated, shaved ice push cart on the beach in front of Long Branch Pier in May, 2007. They rolled their cart up and down the beach every day that summer. Their business, SHAKA (“shaka” is the familiar “hang loose” hand gesture Hawaiians give when paddling out on their surf boards), was born.
He realized early on he didn’t want to get out of the water from surfing and see his business's cups and spoons littering the beach. And if there were litter, he wanted to make sure it was eco-friendly, so he and Lance used only cups, spoons and straws that were made from corn and were biodegradable. “They would sometimes melt away in the hot sun, so we knew it was the right thing to do. Our costs were higher because of that, but we said we cared about the environment and we were proving it! In fact, many of our customers tell us that is exactly why they first visited us, and they came back for the same reason, as well as our great service and food. They care that we care!”
In fact, those customers came back in droves, and when a well-known local restaurateur saw Phil and Lance with their Hawaiian flag flying and their SHAKA banner waving and the line down the street, he suggested they start a restaurant around their eco-friendly, “aloha” theme. They agreed.
SHAKA Big Island Burrito & Hawaiian Shaved Ice opened at Pier Village on the beach in Long Branch in 2009. Here are a few of the creative products Phil and Lance use to live up to their eco-friendly theme:
- Shaka’s interior is mostly Bamboo. Phil says, “Chop down a tree and it takes 50 years to regenerate. Bamboo grows back in 6 months.” Bamboo plywood, paneling, poles, etc. from Cali Bamboo (www.calibamboo.com)
- Outdoor dining tables and chairs all made from recycled plastic bottles, from Seaside Casual (www.seasidecasual.com)
- Web-based staff scheduling & communication – no paper schedules, memos, etc. Schedulefly (www.schedulefly.com)(I would argue this is the coolest thing on the list, but I'm biased).
- Take Out Boxes - 100% recycled, unbleached paper board lined with PLA Biopolymer. Biodegradable. Bio-Pak (www.fold-pak.com)
- Salad Boxes - Unbleached pulp. No trees. Compostable. Be Green Packaging (www.begreenpackaging.com)
- Rice Bowls & Shaved Ice cups - Made from renewable resources. Compostable. International Paper “ECOTAINER” (www.internationalpaper.com)
- Portion cups for Salsa and sides & cold drink cups for fountain service - Made entirely from plants. No petroleum. 100% compostable. Fabri-Kal "Greenware" (www.f-k.com)
- Forks, Knives, and Spoons- Biodegradable. WNA Comet "EcoSense" (www.wna.biz)
And when they can’t find an eco-friendly product to buy, they Phil and Lance come up with their own creative solutions, such as:
- Reclaimed Church pews as bench seats. A local church was getting new pews and throwing the old ones out.
- Recycled Washers and dryers for trash cans and recyclables. These were taking up "loads" of cubic feet in a landfill.
- Recycled stainless table tops. Recycled ash, glass and seashell counter tops. (The ash is a waste product from steel manufacturing.)
- Reclaimed wood from local construction sites for surfboard bar tables.
- Solar powered faucets, water saving toilets, waterless urinals, no paper towels, energy saving lighting.
- No dishwasher. Re-usable trays are wiped down.
When Hurricane Irene made her way up the Atlantic coast this summer, I worried about Phil and SHAKA. Would bamboo hold up to hurricane force winds? But not long after I emailed him to ask if he and SHAKA were o.k., I received this note:
“All is good! No problems...I am surfing Hurricane swell in Nantucket right now!”
Turns out the restaurant was fine, and while Mother Nature may have damaged herself with a destructive storm, Phil and Lance and their eco-friendly restaurant are taking great care of the world around them, and making lots of customers proud to eat at their establishment along the way.
Wil
P.S. I'm interviewing Phil on Thursday for our Restaurant Owners Uncorked podcast series. Can't wait! I'll post the interview to the blog next week. If you have any questions you want me to ask Phil, send 'em on over to me at wbrawley [at] Schedulefly [dot] com.
Starting around Thanksgiving of 2011, I stopped shaving a few days. I just got lazy about it. Next thing I knew it had been a week. Then two. And by that point I realized I'd need my clippers to trim down my budding beard before I took a razor to my face. Being that it was the beginning of winter, I decided to just let my beard grow. I've never gone longer than three weeks or so, because it has always started getting itchy and I get sick of it.
But this time was different. This time I decided to stick with it. I was going to grow a full beard for the winter. And of course it wasn't a big deal. It's just a beard, right? But little did I know the kinds of comments I'd get, which has made it all the more worth it. Here are a few....
High school friend: "Are you bringing your ridiculous beard with you to our 20th reunion in April?"
My 8-year old daughter's friend: "You look like a young Santa Claus."
My friend's reaction when I walked into a bar: "Oh man, that's hilarious. You look like a Special Forces guy." He then proceeded to email this pic to all of our former college buddies and told them this is what I look like now:
My wife: (trying to be nice first) "I like how it looks. I really do. (Pause) But I thought it would get softer when it got longer. It's....uhhh....prickly. I don't like kissing you when it's prickly like that."
My daughter: "I agree with mommy."
A friend: "You can now fit in perfectly at Widespread Panic concerts."
A friend: "Hey man, you had a baby face, and now you look old." (Dude doesn't have much of a filter)
A friend who saw me at the Father Daughter dance at my daughter's school: "Hey professor!"
Another friend. Same dance.: "Dude I didn't recognize you at first. You, look like a professor."
A pic taken prior to the dance...
Our pharmacist: "You look like Long John Silver"
Our banker: "You look like Dave Grohl"
Every time I see somebody who I haven't seen in a while, I can almost guarantee I'll get some sort of funny comment or reaction, so it's making this a fun process.
So there's a lite post for a Friday. Enjoy your weekend...
Wil
P.s. I just walked into the gym. A dude stared me down as I walked toward him. Finally he looked me in the eyes and smiled and said, "Ken?!" All I could do was laugh and tell him no.
I'm considering a second book as a follow up to Restaurant Owners Uncorked ("ROU"). But this time, I'd like to interview coffee shop owners. A few thoughts on why I'm considering it...
First, the book would help tons of people who are considering entering the coffee shop business. We like helping people, and the people who read this book are also the audience for our app. So there you go, it's a way to help people that may one day be customers.
Second, the idea of owning your own coffee shop is cool. Lots of people think it would be fun. Many people dream of doing it. But I bet most people don't realize how hard it really is, and what you need to do to be successful. Meanwhile we have a lot of successful coffee shops as customers, so we can find out from their owners what it takes to make it in a highly competitive business.
Third, I'm a huge coffee fan. I've been drinking it for years. For my money, there's no better smell in the world than fresh ground coffee beans. I'm so into it that I've graduated from coffee to espresso. I love it. I make some at home when I wake up, then after the kids are off to school and I'm out the door, the first thing I do is hit my favorite local shop for more. (I know what you're thinking by now if you're reading this, so here's my confession: "Hi, my name is Wil Brawley, and I'm addicted to coffee"). Anyway, I have no plans to open my own shop, but I would love to learn more about the business side of it. I guess this a selfish reason, but I suspect there are tons of other people like me that love coffee and like learning about how the retail side works.
Fourth, a cool book would help Schedulefly further build our brand in the coffee shop community. We already have a lot of customers in that niche, but my hunch is we could have a lot more if we published a good book and people started to take notice. Coffee shops don't tend to have tons of staff and lots of scheduling headaches, but they do tend to employ relatively young, web-savvy employees that view Schedulefly as a cool benefit. And effective team communication is always critical, even with just five team members. So we're a good fit for coffee shops, and we'd love to serve thousands of them.
Fifth, I already learned what it takes to put together a book. I know the costs. The time involved. Etc. And I also know what I would do differently than I did with ROU. I'd probably interview 5-10 owners, not 20. I'd try to keep the book to 100 pages or less. I believe the book could be a lot simpler, though no less valuable, than ROU, especially given that it's such a narrowly focused subject.
Anyway, I had this idea last spring and I bagged it to focus on other stuff. But having sat down today and written this blog post and listed out the reasons to do it, I think I might push my chips in this time. I'm not committing just yet - but I like the idea a lot.
If you think it would be a fun book, let me know. I'm at wbrawley [at] schedulefly [dot] com.
Wil
P.s. Restaurant Owners Uncorked has been very well received. It has great reviews on Amazon, and we keep selling lots of copies nearly a year after it was launched. It's a great read! Check it out.
"Keep it simple, stupid!" I don't who first uttered that phrase, but I like it. And yesterday, I was the "stupid" one. I suggested a change to our app, Wes pushed back. He told me he thought it would create more noise. And you know what? He was absolutely right. He was our guardian of simplicity, and that's an ever more critical role to play in any business.
Our scenario got me to thinking about how hard it is to keep things simple. Whether it's your web site, our your app, or your menu, you have to make tough decisions to keep it simple. It's easy to give somebody 50 options. Or 50 links to click on. Not so easy to narrow those options down to 10 by making the decision to cut out 40 of them. Not simple to make the choices that result in simplicity.
But if you are bold enough to make those decisions, bold enough not to worry that you'll leave somebody out, that you'll lose somebody because you don't have the option they want, you'll completely win over the people who are tired of too many choices. Tired of so many decisions all day, every day. The people who are craving simplicity because their lives are so busy and full of noise and, yes, too many choices. So for every one customer you lose, you'll gain 10 who are so thankful that you've made their life a little easier that not only will they be your customer, they'll be passionate fans.
More on this...
We get lots of emails and videos from people telling us how much they love Schedulefly. It's not because our app has so much stuff in it. It's because we work hard to keep it simple for them.
It's always fun to receive emails with comments about our posts. If you'd like to share yours, I'm at wbrawley [at] schedulefly [dot] com.
KISS,
Wil
P.S. You may not be able to hear me as well as in my other video posts. The walls at my office are paper-thin, and the lady next door can hear everything I say. She's normally on the phone, but today she is just typing (I can hear her keystrokes), and I guess it made me feel like I need to talk softer than normal. I bet she thinks I'm weird. I have a tripod sitting in the middle of my office with a Flip cam on it, facing a white board. It bet it looks shady. Anyway, sorry if you can't hear me well in this vid.
P.S.S. I just noticed that I'm partially off screen during some of the vid. It's too long to re-record it. Close your eyes if it's annoying, because I think the message is still worth listening to.
We wanted to know what independent restaurant owners are thinking about going into 2012, so we asked a bunch of them, "What's on your mind?"
Having read through all of the responses, it’s clear that they generally believe the effect of group coupons is training customers to expect to never pay retail, which is bad; they are concerned that food, gas and other commodity prices are going up; they think online reviews and social media tools can be great to create awareness, but are often being intentionally misused; and they are excited about the opportunities they have to use local ingredients, which is something they are better set up for than chains.
Here are a few of the verbatim responses that we believe best capture what indie owners are most concerned with right now:
“Trend I like: Due to Food TV, Whole Foods, Farm to Table, etc., people are slowly but surely becoming more interested in quality food and beverage, and they're becoming more educated. That is an advantage for independently owned restaurants. Trend I dislike: The new expectation of many restaurant patrons to ‘never pay retail.’ This industry is not set up for deep discounting, but we've conditioned our guests to expect deal after deal.” – Jon Myerow, Tria Cafe, Philadelphia
“I'd say I'm most excited about the emerging trend of hyper-local meats and veggies that independents are looking towards adapting. Most concerned about the sites like Yelp! that are being compromised by fake bad and good reviews put out by competitors and restaurant owners. Very alarming.” – Jeff Gigante, Ciccio Restaurant Group, Tampa, FL
“We're a small-batch, artisan coffee roasting company in Brooklyn. We are focused on sustaining our community, sourcing from local businesses, and supporting local organizations, so the trend that excites us the most is a growing one that focuses on slow food and smaller, craft approach. This allows us to remain a family-run business, and focus on a high quality artisan product. It is a very nice trend to watch grow, especially here in Brooklyn, where family business was so much a part of the history and roots of the city. Small business is rejuvenated here and making a comeback and it’s exciting to be part of that. What concerns us the most is the rise in production costs. We've seen green bean coffee prices rise 80 percent in the last year. Combined with a rise in shipping costs, milk/food costs, fuel/ gas prices, this presents a challenge for us going into 2012.” – JD and Kathy Merget, Oslo Coffee Roasters , Brooklyn
“Looking forward I see a lot of opportunity in the social networks and smart phones. Apps will lead people to our restaurants. But the same trails that will lead people in, will also hinder people from coming in, if they read biased reviews that turn their attention to the negative. – Vince Zavala, Dogz Bar and Grill, Long Beach, CA
My personal favorite response came from Tim Creehan of Cuvee Bistro in Destin, FL, who wrote: “Simple well prepared quality products with great attentive service will just about guarantee a success.” I love this philosophy. Reminds me of how we view Schedulefly. Besides, with so many things being outside of restaurant owners’ control and so many potential distraction, this focused approach seems like a great way to be successful no matter what trends surround you.
But I'm not surprised that it keeps selling very well, because it contains incredible wisdom and advice from restaurant owners who know what they're doing. Owner like Phil Roberts, who is a legend in the restaurant business. He started two restaurants that he eventually took public (Buca di Beppo and The Oceanaire Seafood Room), and he currently owns Parasole Restaurant Group, and incredibly successful group in Minneapolis.
Here's the raw, unedited interview I conducted with him. He talks about all kinds of interesting stuff. Why you should be great at a few things, not average at a lot of things. Why edgy marketing can lead to free PR. How running a restaurant is like staging a Broadway play. How to see things from 30,000 feet so you can come up with concepts that work. And more. Plus he's hilarious!
If you are truly interested in learning from a man who has proven himself to know exactly what it takes to succeed in the restaurant industry, sit to down and give this a listen. You won't regret it. Enjoy...
We are stoked to welcome Charles Short to the Schedulefly Crew! Charles will be our IT leader and will focus on scaling the technology side of our business as we continue to grow. Of course – since we are just a team of 4 guys we all help each other do whatever needs to be done. That’s what makes running a small business so much fun. We work on stuff that matters, nothing else, and cover for each other when needed. There are no fancy job titles or offices. We keep it lean, simple and fun.
Tyler, Wil, Charles and I worked together at a previous company and are thrilled to be back together again. We make a great team.
Wes
p.s I've included a photo of Charles' home office. It's like a gateway into our Raleigh Data Center. It also looks like Charles must be winning a lot. Maybe those are karate trophies or something.
We decided to change our pricing(for new customers only - it won't affect you if you are already a customer) tiers from $29.95/$39.95/$49.95/etc. to $30/$40/$50/etc. Here's the story behind the decision...
I was flying home from Boulder last week, thinking about our business. I was thinking about how we enjoy taking the road less traveled. How we like to do things our way, not the way you are supposed to do them. And how we're trying to be very honest, straightforward and transparent about Schedulefly.
Suddenly it occurred to me that our pricing had to change. While it had worked great for five years (meaning it wasn't broken), it was the manifestation of not only a retail model, and it's the same formula everybody else uses.
The question I kept asking myself was, "Why did it need to be $29.95/month? Why not $30?"
The former works great in a retail environment for impulse buys. Apple prices songs at $0.99 and not $1.00 for a reason. We're all more likely to buy at $0.99. Period. It's been proven time and again, and it's the reason most retail prices end with "9"s.
But we're not here to sell quick impulse purchases. Rather, we're here to provide a long term solution to help restaurants run smoother. To make life easier for years and years for restaurant owners, managers and staff members. We don't sell trinkets at the check out line. We sell a tool people will use every day. And being that we provide a free trial to enable restaurants to make sure they love Schedulefly before they subscribe, there is simply no reason to use that impulse-based pricing model.
But still, it wasn't broken. Nobody was complaining about it. Nobody said anything about it. So why fix it? Did it really matter that much? At first we thought, "Heck, the above stuff is true, but it's no big deal, right? It's fine. Let's just leave it and move on." And then we slept on it, and remembered that even when things aren't broken, sometimes they need to be fixed.
You see, we want people to have a different experience when they come to Schedulefly. We don't want it to be the same ole' stuff. Same ole' tag lines. Same ole' About Us page. Same ole' pricing. Every page on our site should be memorable. Straightforward. Honest. Unique. A breath of fresh air.
Ultimately, we want people to smile with every interaction they have with us. We give them that with our simple app. With our excellent service. With how we present ourselves elsewhere on our site and on our blog. So we decided we should give them that with our pricing as well.
If you have any thoughts on this you'd like to share, I would enjoy hearing from you. I'm at wbrawley [at] schedulefly [dot] com.
My sister, 
We are stoked to welcome Charles Short to the Schedulefly Crew! Charles will be our IT leader and will focus on scaling the technology side of our business as we continue to grow. Of course – since we are just a team of 4 guys we all help each other do whatever needs to be done. That’s what makes running a small business so much fun. We work on stuff that matters, nothing else, and cover for each other when needed. There are no fancy job titles or offices. We keep it lean, simple and fun.
