We often like to watch the excitement in the Internet industry, but have you ever thought that the catering industry is not quiet either?

Old catering people make a lot of money in silence. They don't complain about the times, nor are they cynical. They quietly accumulate a lot of primitive wealth. And new catering people come from different industries, vowing to change the industry and save the catering industry. At the beginning, they played with great scenery. In the end, there are very few things, and a large number of new catering people die quietly.

so how deep is the water in the catering industry?

I think everyone has heard the story of the pony crossing the river. In the eyes of many laymen, the industry threshold of catering is low and easy to surpass. Only after entering this industry will we find that it is in dire straits. In recent years, more and more people do cross-border catering, but fewer and fewer people really understand catering. At the beginning of entering this industry, everyone wanted to realize their own industry ideals with different purposes and initial intentions, but in the end, countless initial hearts lost to the cruel reality.

I. Nostalgia

As the saying goes, in how much brighter the moonlight is at home!, water is sweet in hometown, and what is native in hometown is the world, so many people are used to treating snacks as the most delicious food on earth. And this is similar to Lao Tzu's self-confidence and heroism.

Of course, the birthplace of every successful product is fixed, such as the hot pot in Chongqing, Sichuan, the Lamian Noodles in Lanzhou, the noodles in Chongqing, and the cold noodles with Chinese hamburger in Shaanxi ... Even the famous KFC was originally just a country snack in the United States.

but the catering industry can't be developed by relying on a nostalgia. For example, Funiutang, whose starting point is "never leaving home", finally got on the right track and began to embrace the market after several years of trying to "refuse to eat delicious food and insist on authenticity".

After careful study, we can find that those successful snacks all have some common features:

1. There is no obvious regional flavor. Just like the steamed buns with cold skin in Shaanxi are universal, they can enter the market wherever they go, but the mutton steamed buns in Shaanxi are not acceptable everywhere. In many places, the mutton steamed buns are improved before they enter the market, because the cakes in its technological process are broken and soaked, which is not universal, and its regional characteristics are too obvious.

2. The process is simple and the ingredients are common. ? There are many local cuisines in the tip of the tongue program, which can only be found in the local area. First, the production process is cumbersome and difficult to teach. Second, the geographical conditions are limited. Third, the raw materials are not universal, so it is difficult to enter the mass market. The most typical one is Huaiyang cuisine, the representative dish in the state banquet. Although it focuses on health and conforms to high-end consumption habits, it cannot be popularized nationwide due to its production technology and taste.

3. It has a certain foundation in the market. Only when there are pancakes can Huang Taiji transform pancakes to survive and develop; And master Xi made meat buns because meat buns have long been widely known; Because this casserole is in a state of category and no brand, it is successful to choose casserole to enter the restaurant. Usually, many new catering people want to make their own unique hometown food as soon as they enter, but before the masses know and understand this food, the market can't do it, so they can only die.

second, feelings

although there is a saying that feelings can't be eaten as meals, diners often make products based on feelings. Many catering people started their business because of their preference for a certain food, hoping that the whole world can understand and like this food.

So, people who like milk tea have opened milk tea shops, people who like desserts have opened dessert shops, and people who like Japanese food have opened sushi shops. Many people who like certain things finally open a shop of their own, usually facing the cold business and why the market doesn't pay the bill, so they can't survive.

In Xi 'an, there used to be a "Yikouxiang" shop. The steamed buns in this shop were only as big as fingernails, and each was two, which cost eight yuan. The founder's idea is to make the majority of female compatriots eat Chinese hamburger more elegantly, and they don't have to blame themselves for not eating a Chinese hamburger. But how many women are there in the audience of Chinese hamburger? How many female compatriots who eat Chinese hamburger can't finish eating a Chinese hamburger? The founder didn't consider this, so the market prospect can be good.

so, at the beginning of starting a business, we should first know whether the market will be interested in this product, instead of carrying it out on a whim.

III. Stories

What made the Chinese hamburger brand famous for a while was a story by Master Xi, and an article by Mr. Zhang from Funiutang pushed the brand to the altar of Internet catering. Since then, having a good story has become an essential element of starting a business. So there is a truth: it is better to tell a good story than to have a good product.

and the problem is that some stories are really just stories. People who really have stories never tell stories, but will integrate every word into every bit of action. People who don't tell stories are often the ones with the most stories.

IV. Ingredients

In the food and beverage industry, there was a sudden wind of competition for ingredients, which attracted the attention of catering people and began to make a big fuss about ingredients. Therefore, many catering entrepreneurs also use ingredients as the initial intention of starting a business. For example, in the barbecue industry, mutton is said to come from Hulunbeier, Inner Mongolia. And those who make western food, beef all claim to come from Japan and Australia. The ingredients for making hot pot are all airlifted from Chongqing and Chengdu.

Supply chain and production capacity are irreconcilable contradictions, especially for many small catering entrepreneurs who have just entered the catering industry. Even if this problem is solved, it is difficult for consumers to pay for your ingenuity and pay high fees because of your "good intentions". Catering is a matter of conscience, and the catering people who do it well must be sincere. However, it is not very friendly to show your sincere heart to everyone.

Many people only know Do not forget your initiative mind, but they don't know the latter part, and they are not afraid of the future. And there is another sentence behind, the initial heart is easy to get, and it is always difficult to keep. At the beginning of many people's business, they just went with one goal, for example, to own a small shop of their own, for example, to bring their hometown snacks to more people. However, they didn't think about the following problems. What about after having a small shop? What about hometown snacks after they entered the city? It is the truth that it is easier to have a baby than to raise it. A book by James Cass of the United States called "Finite and Infinite Games" points out two kinds of games in this world: limited games and infinite games.

limited games aim at winning, for example, they choose to start a business in order to own a store, while unlimited games aim at continuing the game. For example, those people who work in the catering market in obscurity will choose to forget to start a business, not set up a flag, open a shop well, prove their feelings with their feelings, and beat time with time, just like Lao Luo said: they don't care about winning or losing, just be serious, which may be enough.