Seven Years Past and Kickstarter

Yesterday morning, which was Saturday, I was once again multi-tasking. If you'll remember, this is a weekend of no-call at Manattee Memorial Hospital. I was loving life and also multi-tasking on Friday afternoon.

A lot of good and fun things have been happening and I notice I get a lot done during my episodes of multi-tasking. Hmmmmm, wait. Let's spend some time discussing multi-tasking. I know it was big in the 90s and for about 10 years thereafter. Personally, I'm really not a fan. I think it allows one to get many things done at the same time in a haphazard fashion, none of them 100%. I hear the screams. I know multi-tasking has its place and its followers.

Oh forget it. The screams were from the multi-taskers who drink coffee, talk on the cell phone, apply make-up, read the newspaper/map, and text while driving. I'm thinking those were the screams of death I just heard as they collided with that tractor trailer right in front of them that they didn't see. You know how it goes. I'm not talking about that type of multi-tasking. I'm not even talking about the type of multi-tasking that occurs at the restaurant or the hospital. We have to multi-task at Manatee Memorial and my staff has to multi-task at Carmella's Casa Italiana. It's a necessary evil.

This is the type of multi-tasking I do. I work on back of the house restaurant activities, I check to see what's happening with my friends and restaurant contacts on Facebook, I drink coffee, I do a little dusting and vacuuming, I play Words with Friends....and so on and so forth. Nothing life threatening or critical....well, the back of the house restaurant accounting is critical, but it's hardly life and death, like texting and driving! Hmmmmmm, you know who you are.....but once again, I digress.

Yesterday, during one of my log ins on Facebook, I noticed that a friend and former co-worker commented on an entry I made about nurses. From there, I went to her page to see what she's been doing. While there, I noticed that another friend of ours had posted a link. I did what any normal entrepreneur would do, I followed the link. I'm really glad I did.

It was a page created by Seven Years Past. They are a local band who cut their first album in 2010, 24 Days in May, in California. They are very active in the Sarasota/Bradenton area and they are planning to cut their second album in New York.

They are currently raising money for their trip and expenses. I think it's a worthy cause. Follow the link and see what the buzz is all about. As a struggling restaurant owner/entrepreneur in an unstable economy, I certainly understand their plight. Just like we have to support our restaurants so that they stay in business for when the economy recovers so that we have some place to go to celebrate, we also have to support our musicians so that we have new and great music to listen to during our celebrations. Yes, the economy is going to recover...and I hope to still be here with Carmella's Casa Italiana and Seven Years Past.

Check it out. What do you think?

Not your typical Friday afternoon

There I was yesterday afternoon, lying on the sofa, sort of multi-tasking and just generally loving life. It was Friday and I got out of Manatee Memorial Hospital at a decent time and I'm not on-call. I was Googling my restaurant to see how it's doing in the search engines. I was marveling at the smooth transition of moving from Verizon phone service to MagicJack Plus. I was playing Words with Friends. I was doing a few other things...all from the comfort of my sofa.

Suddenly, I saw an older partially balding grey haired man with a brown leather carry-all walking along my front patio to the front door. You might be asking yourself, "What is a brown leather carry-all?" I don't know! A man purse? Anyway, he proceeded to the front door, rang the door bell, looked in the front window, then started pacing around the patio.

I know all this because there are no curtains on my front window. I have beautiful Jasmine, which at this time are in full bloom, growing up two trellises that act as a barrier from the street. Once you're on the patio, though, there's no barrier...but the windows are tinted, so people can't see in.

Ralph wasn't home. I just wasn't sure I wanted to answer the door when a stranger was on the other side. I toyed with the idea of going up to get my 9mm; but really, on a beautiful relaxing Friday, was I really ready for a gun fight?

Of course, we're talking older grey haired partially balding stranger. If he was tall, 10 or 20 years younger, and handsome with long hair, I might have answered the door...in my negligee. Does anyone wear a negligee at 5:30 in the afternoon? Oh, I digress.

OK, in fairness to Ralph, we practically never answer the door. I don't want you to think I put Ralph in jeopardy by having him answer the door to strangers. We especially NEVER answer the door on Saturday morning when those three women are out there. We know who they are and what they want. No, they aren't dangerous. Well, at least not physically dangerous.

So, I didn't answer the door. I just continued to lie on the sofa and watch him. He eventually turned away, made a call on his cell phone, and started talking. Then he got in his car, which was parked on the street and not in the driveway, and drove away.

My philosophy is this: if you are unexpected and uninvited, you are unwelcome...unless you are family or friend!

What do you think? What would you have done?

No, I wasn't on a vacation

I've really been gone for a long time.....well, gone from blogging, not gone as in out of town or on a vacation.

Just to wrap up the break-in issue which was my last blog post, the Manatee County Sheriff's Department captured the young man responsible for that episode. He went to trial, pleaded guilty, and was fined and so on and so forth. He was mandated to pay the costs I incurred as a result of the break-in. He even wrote a letter of apology. Haven't received any money yet, but I think that will take time since he's a teenager and probably isn't working on a regular basis. 'nuf said!

On another note, both Manatee Memorial Hospital (MMH) and Carmella's Casa Italiana (CCI) enjoyed a busy season. It seems like I've been burning the candle at both ends;  but really, what else can I expect? I work full time plus take call at MMH and CCI is my business which classifies me as a "busy restaurant entrepreneur." There's a chuckle in there somewhere...... And right, if I could only master  "entrepreneur" I could hang up my scrubs and scrub hats once and for all. We'll see.

We started a Loyalty Program that is really well accepted. We had another loyalty program about 18 months ago. Leasing software was involved and there was a steep monthly fee. The return on investment was minimal and the customers complained about various aspects of that program, so eventually I cancelled it. I devised this new program, it's free to initiate and maintain, and so far, no customer complaints. I call that a win-win situation!

Most of the tourists left. I hate to see them go. They are a pleasure to serve and their loyalty and word of mouth recommendations are priceless. They are the backbone of my business during the winter months and I am always eternally grateful for their arrival and extremely sad over their departure.

It looks like the price of gas peaked and currently it's down to $3.80 in some places. Since the tourists are gone the traffic is less congested and with price of gas dropping, it seems we're acquiring more business from the locals. Before the economy took a dump in 2008, we had a booming business from the locals. It's going to be great when that happens again. One of the guys who used to be my dishwasher stops in periodically. He said, "You're name is out there." So, apparently we're doing something right.

Besides focusing on retrieving business from the locals, we're also focusing on catering. CCI is really small, so if we ever really want to make it to the big time, we have to develop our catering business. We recently catered a golf benefit in Bayshore Gardens. The food went out on time and there was enough of it. The golfers were pleased and promised to use us again next year.

I'm also creating a new website and we have a new domain name. The old website and domain name will soon be gone. I started the new website but it's taking long to build because I have to learn my way around the software. I purchased the template this time so that the next time the web hosting site changes, I can take my entire website with me.

Learning never stops, so I am not complaining. It's a process and slowly but surely I'm getting there. I'm going to set this one up a little differently and I'm going to do more of a separation between the menus. If this is Greek to you, eventually it will all make sense. Feel free to visit the new site. It won't be helpful as far as ordering food, but you'll be able to watch the construction, so to speak.

I always have fun doing these sort of things, and typically as time goes on, I get more creative. Maybe too creative......Deborah mentioned that possibly this new website will be classy. I agreed. Good idea. Then it occurred to me that perhaps she didn't exactly appreciate all the sexy girls and all the other craziness I incorporated into the old website. Actually, it was all well and good and fun and games until the day she was talking to our good customers who also happen to be priests. She was showing them the site and decided to scroll down, right to the place where some scantily clad women had happy new year written across their collective butts. Oh well, sex sells and it was fun while it lasted!

The only difference between the two domain names is the hyphen. The old site was http://casa-italiana.info/. The new website is located at http://casaitaliana.info./

So, it's a matter of letting go and moving on. I can do that. What do you think? Can you?