Don’t get too frustrated if your sales have gone down in your restaurant. This is the norm for right now. It is tougher on small independents because those big chains do a lot of advertising and that gets them tons of attention. You have to think of different ways to get some focus on your place that won’t cost you an arm and a leg. There are some oddball ways to do just that. You can also consider using promotional advertising too.

The way you pull in customers will depend on the demographic that you are after. If you have a cute little tea room then perhaps a band on Friday night may not be your best bet. If you have a pizza joint then some unplugged musical action may be just what you need to get some people to hang out and have some beer and dancing after their pizza. This works really well if you have a courtyard and people can spend some time outside.

You need to have company t-shirts for sale at your place. If you have a cute restaurant then you need to have some promotional products that are just as cute to offer people. If people like your place they will want to wear the shirt. You could have certain nights of the week that are for wearing promotional items. If someone comes in wearing one of your shirts, or hats then they get a free dessert with the meal. Give it a time limitation too so people come in early for this.

You could probably use a little freshening at your place too. If you have had the restaurant for a long time then it could no doubt use some sprucing up. You don’t have to do it all at once. Pick out several projects and see if your employees are interested in earning some extra money to help you with it. A new coat of paint will do wonders to a faded looking place. Make sure that your sign looks good too. A broken sign will not attract new clientele.

If you have all those ideas taken care of then it may be time to reach out to the community. Good deeds make for good publicity. You can open your space for neighborhood meetings. You could do toy and food drives around the holidays too. You could sponsor a neighborhood clean up day and organize people to go out and pick up trash, if they wore your shirts and hats then you would get some nice publicity too.