Marketing will help you in each of these areas and we recommend that you always run your restaurant as though a new competitor was right now planning to open down the street.

You need to always be on the lookout for individuals who eat at your restaurant who are small business owners that you can do Cross-Promotions with. These individuals are ideal candidates and are easier to work a Cross-Promotion program with because they are already familiar with your restaurant.

The best part of the "Lunch" Drawing is that the restaurant owner is the real winner because he has all the information on potential Cross-Promotion merchants he can market with and he can market to the participants of the lunch drawing since he has addresses for them.

Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Drawings:

"Please drop in your business card and e-mail address for a daily drawing for a FREE lunch and/or Dinner. Add your date of birth and anniversary for a special gift."

The cards should be thoroughly reviewed before choosing a winner. Ask yourself "Which person is likely to bring me the most business?" and/or "Which business is a good candidate for a Cross-Promotion?"

If you have a card from a decision-maker who has a lot of employees that is close to the restaurant, declare a winner. Then draw a truly random card and declare them as another winner. The idea is to bring in as much business as you can. Have daily drawings for a week. As business picks up you can have weekly drawings.

Since you have identified potential businesses to have a Cross-Promotion with, record their names onto your potential Cross-Promotion List. Record all the names, businesses, e-mail and dates of birth for future references and enter the information into your database. Then start collecting again for the next week.