This week was time to get back onto the streets of Kingston to get talking to the restaurants who will hopefully provide us with much needed revenue! After a brief team meeting for half an hour, AC and I got out there to pound the streets of Kingston. After a couple of hours we had spoken to a few of the independent restaurants and had some pretty positive feedback. As ever the major hurdle to any immediate result was that the absence of senior management who are going top be the decision makers. That said we managed to speak to some middle management who were upbeat about the prospect of us putting on a night on a Monday or Tuesday when business is traditionally quieter.
I feel that the difference this time was that the restaurants were able to see this venture as a guaranteed source of income. With the advertising there was too much uncertainty as to whether they would get a return on their investment. This time it felt like a collaboration and I think that the benefits to both parties was far more evident. We are in a position now where we have to wait for a couple of days to see if they get back to us and if they haven’t by the end of the week then it will be a case of chasing them up on the phone with a view to securing a meeting with the relevant decision maker.
Following on from our afternoon in the town centre, we met up back at the library to discuss what we had discussed and to see what the plan was going forward. Alice and Jam had spent the afternoon touching up the content and the format of the website so any of the clients we met today should be impressed when logging on. Other than that it was a case of uploading our job descriptions which was a useful chance to reflect on our individual roles.
I also had the opportunity to spend an afternoon with a friend who is currently driving a start-up. I found this both useful and interesting to discuss the various challenges and problems of starting up a new business with somebody outside of MACE. It always helps to get an entirely fresh perspective on an existing project and definitely helped to fire up my excitement for the present semester’s work on Temptation.
