How life has changed with the Internet

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We all know that the way we take in content, shop and communicate has changed significantly over the past decade thanks to technology and the internet. 

I was talking to Dan Delaney of Delaney BBQ this past week about a change he made in his website and the impact on the business. 

Dan owns a killer BBQ restaurant in Williamsburg.  He has gone through many of the frustrations that a first time restaurant owners goes through.  Somethings work and others do not but the key is being able to change when things need changing.  Dan has learned on the ground through trial and error which is a true credit to himself.

He has had a hard time growing the catering business.  He has gone through two sales people.  The last one had made hundreds of cold calls.  Nothing stuck.  This sales person was extremely frustrated and they decided to part ways. 

Dan's office is out of his apartment right now and he took a few days to redesign the website.  He highlighted catering at the top.  When he was finished he relaunched the website.  Within a day someone had filled out the information for a wedding.  He landed a catered event.  Dan is a curious guy and he knows something about the web so he took out a few ads on Facebook.  Within two weeks he had over $100K in the pipeline on catering. 

I keep thinking about this.  There is no doubt that teens have stopped going to the mall because the mall is in their phone.  People are buying more on-line than in stores because it is being made easier every day.  People are also pulling together their events on-line with pure ease vs having to call and actually talk to someone.  Venuebook is making it easier for people to just book their event spaces on line.  People who book online generally make the transaction within 24 hours of deciding on the space vs a week or more with several follow-up phones calls off-line. 

Dan proved that he can do more business on-line than with a person dialing for events and that effort shifts his entire work organization chart.  It also adds to the bottom line. 

I just love the Internet. 

Comments (Archived):

  1. William Mougayar

    Definitely. When you go on-line, you expect efficiency and productivity. It’s a win-win for the business and the customer.

  2. Brandon Burns

    I’ve tried Delaney. But I gotta say that I’m still hooked on Fete Sau and Mable’s for BBQ in Williamsburg. I think a lot has to do with in-restaurant experience. Mable’s feels like you’re right in Texas, and Fete Sau’s picnic / cafeteria setting is one of the most popular restaurant experiences in Williamsburg, BBQ or not. Hour+ waits almost daily in summer.Things are moving online, but the vast majority of commerce, retail and food, is still offline. Brick & mortar experiences still count for (more than) something.Comparative quality counts, too. And the BBQ bar is set real high Williamsburg. But those pickles at Delaney are damn good!

  3. LE

    Within a day someone had filled out the information for a wedding. He landed a catered event. Dan is a curious guy and he knows something about the web so he took out a few ads on Facebook. Within two weeks he had over $100K in the pipeline on catering. Seems obvious that there is an opporunity that one of your angel investments http://venuebook.com/ could exploit or take advantage here (either now or going forward).At the local sushi place they have a tent sign that says that they cater of course the various parties but also shivas. [1][1] In short a jewish mourning event that is also somewhat of a defacto party with food.

  4. LE

    Nice site. They should work the image below into the logo at the top.

  5. awaldstein

    There’s a big difference to between selling to those who don’t know you, and creating a site that does a great job of letting you order and buy online (including delivery).New York is filled with loads of great little businesses that can prosper just by doing the later well.

    1. Gotham Gal

      very true.

      1. awaldstein

        Someone must be working on the step beyond Seamless. Ripe for big change innovation here.

        1. Drew Meyers

          I had never used seamless until this past trip to NYC…i love it.

  6. kathryn jones

    Love this story. And inspired – I use Facebook ads all the time – but hadn’t planned to for an upcoming project – building new ads now…