Best Independent Restaurants Association

Dear Friend:

It is time to stand up and fight to take our industry back from the huge chain restaurants that use their buying power and multi-million dollar marketing campaigns to muscle family-owned restaurants out of business.

Restaurant chains are opening up on every corner, on every road and even across the street!

Those huge companies sell stock to get free money to finance their nationwide expansions. They don’t need to worry about bank loans and personal guarantees when they open a new unit. They can buy the best real estate before local, family-owned businesses even have a chance!

Meanwhile, costs are increasing. Rising gas prices are forcing food service companies to increase all of their prices. This impacts every cost center, equipment, food and supplies are all going up.

Between food costs, labor, workers’ compensation, smoking bans, government employees and everything else, it’s a wonder how restaurant owners have any time to focus on guests, take home any money and spend time with their families.

Over the past few years the competition in our industry has more than doubled. I used to think there were more lu

When Will Independent Restaurants Be Put Out of Business by Restaurant Chains?

The reason for the proliferation of chain restaurants is our own laziness. Consumers aren’t confident that they are going to have a “consistent” meal at an independent restaurant. They may not be thrilled by the huge chains, but they are confident they won’t be disappointed. (Ironic, isn’t it?)

Not only do we need to convince consumers that independent restaurants won’t disappoint, but we have to let them know the BEST family restaurants are always a terrific choice.

Unfortunately, no one else has taken up this fight. The weak-kneed trade associations won’t do it. The big chains fund those associations so they can control the lobbying efforts. They have no incentive to fix the problem. Those associations won’t do anything to promote the little guys. Their bread is buttered by protecting the status quo.

Who Else Stands Together
With Independent Restaurants?

Sure, it is easy to complain about the problems. However, true leaders stand up and do something about them.

That is why we have created a new organization, the Best Independent Restaurants Association. This will be very different from any other association within the restaurant industry.

The Best Family Owned Restaurants Association, or BIRA, is an association comprised exclusively of small, independent businesses. No suppliers, no food-service companies, no beverage companies and no chains are allowed to join. We will only admit family-owned restaurants that agree to fulfill the necessary education and agree to the strict code of ethics.

BIRA has a three-tiered goal:

1. Ensure consumers know about the unique dining experiences within our nation’s BEST independent restaurants
2. Ensure the highest possible level of ethical consultation, government compliance and customer service by independent restaurants
3. Aggressively promote the positive economic contributions independent restaurants provide to our nation’s economy and the public

Whose Fault Is It When a
Customer Chooses a Chain Restaurant?

The Best Independent Restaurants Association is committed to grass roots public education about the unique hospitality and original cuisine within our nation’s family-owned restaurants. Guests will be excited to visit your restaurant when you are a member of the BEST.

The Best Independent Restaurants Association invites you to complete an application and become a member today.

BIRA is conducting an aggressive public information campaign. BIRA has taken advantage of the public’s need for something new and different to focus on the opportunities at your restaurant.

In various news stories, BIRA has given consumers information about the exquisite opportunities to experience independent restaurants and the BIRA member directory where they can find the country’s BEST restaurants.

Consumers everywhere, looking for a new experience within their own hometowns, have turned to the BIRA member directory to find an independent restaurant, because they know our members provide a unique atmosphere and the BEST dining available. Just one night of increased business pays your membership dues for several years.

But that’s not all, because when you join the Best Independent Restaurants Association, we’ll send you the BIRA member logo for your advertising and website. This way you can let your guests know you are part of a team of restaurant owners that are working together to provide unique dining experiences.

More Benefits for BIRA Members

I am not asking you to join the Best Independent Restaurants Association based on our public relations program alone; in addition we provide the following benefits to you:

• Restaurant Marketing Systems Monthly Inner Circle Newsletter - Through a special arrangement negotiated between BIRA and Restaurant Marketing Systems, this newsletter, which by itself costs $576 a year, is included in your BIRA membership. Every newsletter is full of “hot,” timely, exciting, proven income generating strategies, how-to articles and questions and answers to your most difficult problems.
• Communication - Advance notice on critical business information and industry trends, so you will know about legal or regulatory changes months before your competition. That lead time can mean extra profit for you!
• Legal Support & Information - On demand answers from industry experts. As our restaurants grow, there aren’t many professionals educated about our legal details. Through the association you will have access to a team of professionals, educated on your business, ready to help you succeed. Imagine no longer having to pay hourly fees to bring someone up to speed before they can begin to help you. You get the best experts, FREE, as part of your membership.
• Educational Programming - Through our education partner, Restaurant Marketing Systems, you have access to the very best educational programming available anywhere. Rory Fatt of Restaurant Marketing Systems has taught 3,853 restaurant owners and mangers how to dramatically and very quickly improve their businesses AND create a predictable stream of new customers flowing to them.
• Networking Opportunities - Get to know your colleagues in the industry and learn the secrets of their success. These are the badly needed opportunities for those of us within the industry to come together, meet about common issues, discuss challenges and leave with a handful of good ideas to improve our businesses. There are so few of us around the country, it is critical for us to get together to share ideas on our unique business needs.
• Discount programs - Access to discount programs and exclusive suppliers so you can lower expenses and watch more money go to the bottom line.

As you can imagine, funding a national association is resource intensive. Luckily, we have a team of committed volunteers that stand ready to contribute their time when necessary. Although our efforts to promote the BEST independent restaurants alone are worth an annual investment of $5,000 or even $25,000 from each of us, we understand that small restaurants cannot afford that investment.

It Seems Incredible That BIRA Can Offer So Much for Just $49.99

Yes, because you are a founding member you can lock in the discounted rate of $49.99 per month, available for only the first 1,500 restaurants that join. You can access all of the benefits and fund the nation’s only aggressive public information program for restaurants. Distinguish yourself from cookie-cutter chain restaurants. Ensure that your guests know you are there and understand they can find something new and different at your independent restaurant.

Just one table that you wouldn’t have already gotten from your existing marketing efforts could pay for your entire BIRA membership for the month! With BIRA’s public relations efforts, signage for your restaurant and logos for your advertising and marketing efforts, you’ll discover you are receiving a lot more customers.

With BIRA you are not required to pay in advance for a full year of membership. You can simply pay one month at a time, conveniently billed to your credit card, and cancel at any time you feel your membership isn’t paying for itself with increased exposure and more guests.

But that’s not all.

Join Today & We’ll Send You THREE
Profit Building Guides Absolutely FREE

How to Re-invent Your Restaurant for Maximum Growth, Profit and Success

Dan Kennedy, one of the most astute business geniuses of current times, has created a report specifically for members of the Best Independent Restaurants Association. What you’ll get from this report are marketing techniques that have been proven, documented and measured for success. Entrepreneur Magazine says Dan has “at least 101 marketing ideas for any business owner.”

In this special report for restaurant owners, he will reveal:

• How to Double Sales Without Doubling Overhead
• Re-invention … Fast Food Style
• The Single Greatest Re-invention Tool
• How Independent Restaurants Can Whip New or Bigger Competition
• Why, When & How to Reach New Move-ins
• How to Identify the Best Dining Guests and Get Them Into Your Restaurant (a lesson from Pizza Hut that you could also use!)
• How a Cafeteria Used Direct Mail, Telemarketing and Business-to-Business Marketing to Re-invent Its Business
• How to Identify if You Have a Sales Prevention Department and Fix It

This report is our gift when you join the Best Family Owned Restaurant Association today.

How to Get Guests Flocking to Your Restaurant With FREE Media Coverage

The huge chain restaurants use their free stock market money to buy television, radio and newspaper coverage throughout the country. Independent restaurants like yours cannot afford to sponsor a televised college bowl game to get exposure. That’s why it is important for you to get on TV and radio, using free methods of generating publicity for you restaurant.

Of course, getting on TV sounds terribly difficult, and it can be intimidating to show up at a television station and give an interview. However, the credibility and influx of leads you will receive from this exposure are extremely valuable to your business. With our publication How to Handle a Live TV Interview & Look Like a Pro you will learn just how easy it is to get on TV and give an interview that inspires people to call you!

Everyone wants to do business with people they see on TV. They’ll come into your restaurant to eat just so they can see the TV star, you! Television interviews will make you the leading restaurateur in your area.

• Learn how to get TV exposure for free instead of paying thousands of dollars for airtime.
• This program is written in concise, easy-to-understand language that walks you through every step of the interview process.
• This unique preparation process will help you get ready for any interview in only minutes.
• Mistakes in a TV interview can cost you thousands and thousands of dollars in marketing costs to correct the problems. This program will show you how to prevent problems in the first place.

By itself, this publication, How to Handle a Live TV Interview & Look Like a Pro, sells for $97.00; it is yours FREE for joining BIRA today.

In today’s competitive, regulated environment, can you afford not to join? You have nothing to lose.

With BIRA, You Can’t Lose

BIRA’s policy, for all of our members, is that you must be completely satisfied, in fact, elated with what you get. So here’s our clear and simple guarantee.

Everybody Wins Guarantee

Join today and put us through our paces. You can “test drive” every membership benefit and keep the Free Reports as our gift. You be the judge—if we don’t deliver everything we have promised, or if you’re unhappy with us for any reason, or for no reason, just send us a quick request, and we’ll immediately cancel your membership. You’ll pay no more. And the Free Reports are yours to keep. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

There is a big difference between expressing dissatisfaction and doing something about the problem. It is time for restaurant owners to pull together and stand up to the huge chain restaurants!

If you’d like to take advantage of this inexpensive offer, please act immediately. For there’s no telling how long we can keep making it. And it may not come to your attention again.

Why not return the membership application invoice today before it slips your mind? We’ll rush y ou the Free Reports and member recognition materials the moment we hear from you.

Sincerely,
Robert Skrob, CAE
Executive Director
Best Independent Restaurants Association

P.S. Enough is enough. We must stand together to defend independent restaurants throughout the country. Stand with me and join the Best Independent Restaurants Association today. You’ll receive money-saving benefits, more customers, and you’ll help fund the industry’s only proactive public information campaign.