April 2017 | Business View Magazine

118 119 keeping the place clean; keeping the place trendy and buying good, quality products versus cutting corners. One of the best promotional ideas we ever had was our taco special; 26 years before there was taco Tuesdays, we de- veloped Monday Taco Madness. It was a huge hit with the college crowd and the community. We started at 49 cent tacos to our current 99 cent tacos all day on Mondays. Now, having said that, we do advertise with Google AdWords. A lot of traditional advertising has moved to the internet.About 25-30 percent of our business is delivery, so we use the E24s and GrubHubs of the world to get the word out that we’re here.We use the Rewards Network that sends word to credit card users that they’ll receive points on their cred- it card if they come in and eat at the restaurant. So, those are some easy things to get the word out that we’re new and in the area.” As Taco Rico continues to expand,Neal is con- fident that the brand can hold its own against the competition–both big and small.“We’re a value-oriented establishment and our prices are very competitive,”he states.“There are a lot of taco shops throughout the nation and we’re nothing like them.We’re a restaurant with quick service, so customers order at the counter and we bring the food out to the table. But,we cook like a real restaurant on real plates.And we compete ex- tremely well with the Chipotles,Moe’s, and Lime Fresh Grills of the world, too,”he adds.“We cook fresh everyday fromscratch and the friendliness of the service in the dining room is another key to our success.Our recipes have been developed over 26 years,with fresh food cooked like nobodyelse is cooking.The uniqueness of our concept differenti- ates us from the big boys in theMexican food space.” Once a franchisee is selected and a property developed, training begins. “We train them in the stores for three or four weeks at least, or until they’re ready,” Neal says. “And then, I send an opening team out, including myself and my partner, and we open the store with them. We will have had signage out for quite a bit of time before the store’s actually opened, so that people know we’re coming. Initially, a restau- rant gets a honeymoon period, where there is a large amount of people who come to try you out. And it’s extremely important that the restaurant is operating correctly and all our programs are in place to give great service and great food, so that a person becomes a regular customer of yours immediately, versus, ‘Oh, I’ll try them in a year, because they don’t have their act together.’ So, we’re there from four to eight weeks –whatever it takes for that franchisee to be successful.We’ll hold their hand until they’re ready to go on their own, because I want that initial business to stay.” Neal adds that once a restaurant is up and running, its advertising regimen remains lim- ited. “We hardly advertise at all,” he maintains, “because I believe that if you put out really good service and a really good product, you shouldn’t need to advertise – that’s generally our philosophy, and it works. So, my advertis- ing budget is very small; I prefer to put it into Taco Rico Tex-Mex Café Preferred vendor n Cheney Brothers www.cheneybrothers.com