Comment by jcadam
3 days ago
It's not just software -- My wife owns a restaurant. Operating a restaurant you quickly learn the sad fact that quality is just not that important to your success.
We're still trying to figure out the marketing. I'm convinced the high failure rate of restaurants is due largely to founders who know how to make good food and think their culinary skills plus word-of-mouth will get them sales.
My wife ran a restaurant that was relatively successful due to the quality of its food and service. She was able to establish it as an upper-tier experience, by both some word of mouth, but also by catering to right events, taking part in shows, and otherwise influencing the influencers of the town, without any massive ad campaigns. As a result, there were many praises in the restaurant's visitor book, left by people from many countries visiting the city.
It was not a huge commercial success though, even though it wasn't a failure either; it generated just enough money to stay afloat.
If it paid for people's lives and sustained itself, that sounds like a huge success to me. There's a part of me that thinks, maybe we'd all be better off if we set the bar for success of a business at "sustains the lives of the people who work there and itself is sustainable."
> There's a part of me that thinks, maybe we'd all be better off if we set the bar for success of a business at "sustains the lives of the people who work there and itself is sustainable."
This would be beautiful in a world where retirement was better and it didn’t feel like inflation or financial crashes are looming around the next corner most of the time.
For many folks, trying to get savings and putting money into investments is less about wanting a lavish lifestyle later and more about just wanting financial security in case something bad happens.
If only. So much of the constant churn in big corporations is killing units that are profitable but just aren’t profitable enough.
> you quickly learn the sad fact that quality is just not that important to your success.
Doesn't that depend on your audience? Also, what do you mean by quality?
Where I live, the best food can lead to big success. New tiny restaurants open, they have great food, eventually they open their big successor (or their second restaurant, third restaurant, etc.).
In my experience, the landlord catches onto the restaurant’s success and starts increasing rents and usually that means cuts in quality.
Might well be why McDonald’s is more of a real estate company than it is a food company: https://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/mcdonalds-beyond-the-burg...
I believe this is called something like the 'Michelin Curse' but my google is not returning hits for that phrase, though the sentiment seems roughly correct [0]
[0] https://www.wsj.com/style/michelin-star-removal-giglio-resta...
Interesting; thanks.
In the restaurant business, the keys are value and market fit.
There is a market for quality, but it's a niche. Several niches actually.
But you need to attract that customer. And the food needs to be interesting. And the drinks need to match. Because foodies care about quality but also want a certain experience.
Average Joe Blow who dines at McDonald's doesn't give a flying fuck about quality, that's true. Market quality to him and he'll probably think it tastes worse.
If you want to make quality food, everything else needs to match. And if you want to do it profitably, your business model needs to be very focused.
It can't just be the same as a chain restaurant but 20% more expensive...