Over the course of my tenure as a restaurant owner and manager, I’ve had multiple pieces of equipment fail. Luckily, my equipment supplier has been able to keep things running smoothly in the kitchen by giving me advice on repairs or providing replacement units in a timely fashion. More than that, however, my supplier has helped me to set up my kitchens in such a way that makes food prep easy for my staff, which helps me to get the food out to my customers as quickly and efficiently as possible. For the few years before I formed this business relationship, I just always assumed that people stepping all over each other to get from one station to the next was just an unfortunate cost of doing business in the restaurant industry.

I had no concept of how a kitchen should be properly set up and had simply left things the way they were when I took over my first restaurant all those years ago. At one point, I decided to replace some equipment and contacted a supplier with a good reputation in my area. I thought I would simply make a purchase and wait for it to arrive. When they asked me if I wanted a kitchen evaluation, I thought it couldn’t hurt, so I had them come by the restaurant. That phone call changed everything for me.

They showed me how I could set up my kitchen with my existing equipment and streamline all my processes. It made a big difference, one which both my staff and customers immediately noticed. Each time I opened a new restaurant with different kitchen space and equipment requirements, I had them come down to the new location and do the same. My kitchens run as smoothly as ever, and I have my equipment supplier to thank for it.

The thing that impressed me the most was that I had found someone who wanted to work with me, someone who wanted me to succeed and was willing to offer me their expertise in kitchen structure management to get there. I never expected this service to even be available, nor did I have any idea of just how important it is to get your kitchen set up the right way. If you have a kitchen arrangement that makes things difficult for you, I encourage you to contact a qualified restaurant equipment supplier that offers this service. Trust me; you’ll be glad you did.



Quick House Sale

Once you’ve written your E-Book, got your Website up and integrated your shopping cart, you can sit back and start waiting for the money to come rolling in, right? WRONG! When it comes to starting a work at home business, These days it’s getting harder than ever before to be able to get people to notice you - and just because “you build it” doesn’t mean that they’re going to come. That being said youd want to start something in great demand and useful and at the same time something that doesn’t require a lot of money.

Thats a pretty big agenda or it may seem so anyway. Fact is there is one work at home business thats been around since the very beginning of the internets debut and has held its own then and to this day still does. Im talking about selling

information products. Its the internets #1 best selling product and it comes in many different forms all of which are very affordable. You actually can spend a little and get a lot in this work at home venture.

Fact! Anything useful is worth selling in the information products industry. And the more useful information is, along with the demand, the better your chances are to produce a wind fall of income with it considering that everything is structured correctly. Its really not hard or too expensive to

start a work at home business by selling information products after all you are reading this arent you? So do thousands of other people daily, monthly, yearly and in doing so get inspired to do just this and go on to make millions selling an idea in the form of how to guides, writing e-books, and in the many other forms that information products take.

Should you decide to start a home business in selling information you should know that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel by no means. Remember that You can write about anything useful, it could be as simple as something that you know a lot about. Everybody knows something. Research something if you dont know anything to write about, research hand knitting, Do you think that someone would like to know about knitting? Go and search out the top 20 searches and see what the terms were. Find an information product (write something about the aspects of that product that you think that someone would most probably like to know) connected to that search term.

There are lots of ways available to help in marketing and getting traffic to your information product site such as articles, S.Engines, blogs, directories and many many more. Actually, thanks to all the tools that are available to you including Web 2.0, marketing information products, and ramping up your sales, is not as hard as you might think. You just have to stick to your guns and do a little something everyday until you reach your goals.

In fact, here are a few ideas to get your juices flowing. Add them to your sales plan, and use them as a jumping off place to help you make even more sales.

Create a long-term plan before you write even one word of your first ebook or other information product. The truth of the matter is that you’re probably never going to get rich from writing one E-book or selling just one info product. So before you start writing your first information product start thinking about your second e-book info product. And the first product that will tie into your first ebook. And the second. And then the third. and just continue to grow by tying all of

your products together from the same platform.

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Come up with as many different income streams as you can and plan to build them into your plan. For example, can you create a workbook from your E-book? What about recording some audio files that go into further details or give more information. What about doing a joint venture with other experts in your industry?

Sell more e-books at one time. If your book covers any one of a number of popular subjects self-help or development, home improvement, business, religion - there are probably corporations, organizations or niche markets that are always on the look-out for inexpensive gifts or bonuses for their employees, clients or associates. Your e-book info product could be just the ticket. Although you might have to go down in price - whatever you think sounds better? The Idea is

selling one or two books at a time or selling box loads of them?

Once you’ve built up your credibility as a published author, it’s time to take things to the next level. Have you ever dreamed of attending seminars or workshops as a presenter? What about having a speaking career and being flown all over

the world speaking to people in your niche market? If you don’t like traveling or crowds, consider putting together teleseminars or holding intimate bootcamps.

Create joint ventures. Now you are in the big times. This is the fastest and easiest way to leverage your expertise and start raking in the cash. Find people who are in similar but not competing industries as your writing information

product industry or whatever industry that you happen to be in. Explore ways for you to provide value to both of your customers while you’re cross-selling or upselling. For example, if you own a restaurant, what about creating a special Valentine’s Day promotion with the local florist.

Offer free drinks or desserts to any of the florist’s customers who bring in a special card (that you’ve provided to them) when they come to your restaurant. And your joint venture partner (the florist) gives you roses or carnations that can be given out to any women when their companion gives you the special dessert card. See how simple that is? Real value that makes your customers happy, and builds loyalty and trust - and positions both of you as the first people your customers think of when they need flowers or want a romantic restaurant or a place to eat during a special occasion.

Perhaps in the e-book or information product industry you would just offer your subscribers a free e-book or any information product of yours at no cost to them. Advertise your main product with the free item on the same opt-in advertisement, they get a free product, and you get a new

subscriber to ad to your prospect data base to keep in correspondence with over and over via a weekly, monthly news letter, or another free product from time to time. Youre bound to make some sales along the way as your data base continues to grow and grow. youll make some sales on the very first time and others after several correspondences, nevertheless youll have an endless supply of customers to mail to so long as you remain resourceful and most of all consistent.



Repossession

Alvin Starkman, M.A., LL.B.



 

Swing open the saloon doors, walk down a few steps, and have a seat at one of the ten or so orange arborite tables.  Clint Eastwood might have parked himself on a wooden stool, instead of a matching 1960’s vinyl covered stainless steel padded chair, but you get the idea. And yet somehow, the shiny, brand spanking new digital juke box does not seem particularly incongruous.   

 

El Faro is a small bar in Colonia Reforma, about a ten minute taxi ride from Oaxaca’s zócalo.  It serves nothing but liquor and the finest in typical, filling, and usually fried finger foods and other quickly prepared local fare.

 

The purpose of this visit was to try the reknowned marinated onions…and then have co-owner Marta provide our pre-arranged lesson on how to prepare them.  But our hostess was so gracious and accommodating, and more importantly willing to sell the preparation to us in bulk, that the working part of the adventure thankfully fell by the wayside. 

 

Now down to indulging…nothing left to do but munch away and imbibe.  But be careful with the latter.  Liquor is served clearly without any consideration given to portioning, and a couple of drinks will leave you feeling like four.

 

Drinks arrive promptly, alongside shelled peanuts, made on the premises with course salt and spices, a Oaxacan staple.  Of course quartered limes, sal de gusano, and other accompaniments arrive depending on choice of beverage. 

 

The parade then begins, starting with a burst of smoky flavor and spice constituting our marinated onion slices.  While vinegar is the main ingredient, the unique and appealing flavor of chile pasillo, with a mixture of spices, predominates, creating an appealing uniqueness.  Certainly it bears some similarity to piedrasos, often sold on street corners in large glass containers and served with marinated vegetables over giant chunks of toasted bread.    So encountering this tart treasure in a sit-down environment was indeed a true find.

 

A tlayuda is set before us in short order, prepared without any excess baggage.  The large crunchy oversized baked tortilla is made with requisite asiento (schmaltz, as my grandmother would say, but this fat isn’t from a chicken) and a thin paste of chile de arbol, topped with queso.  Forget the vegetables, refried beans and meat typifying most tlayuda toppings. All in due course. 

 

Marinated serrano chiles with onion slices (rajas), additional salsas, and guacamole follow, rounding out the sides.    

 

A plate of fast-fried potato pieces known as bolas de fuego (fire balls) is placed before us.  Seasoned with some type of chile, perhaps paprika, and without a doubt garlic, these crisp-on-the-outside golden goodies do not disappoint, being true to their name. 

 

Frijoles con pata is black beans served in a bowl with boiled pork foot.  It’s a traditional dish, and in fact our Oaxacan friends ate the gelatinous vittles with great gusto.  But it’s equally a taste, and texture, which many North Americans take time to acquire.  Fifteen years later, we’re still working on it. The salsas do help.

 

The empanadas de seso (beef brain) are the best we’ve had anywhere, anytime.  While fried as is the custom, these little filled turnovers are lacking the customary double dose of oil, making them as close to a baked botana as one can find.  Guacamole is the preferred dipping sauce, since there’s already a bit of spice in the stuffing.

 

We rounded out our experience with two meat dishes combined on a single platter:  costillas enchiladas (spare ribs coated with a chile mixture) which were well cooked as I had requested, and had plenty of meat on and off the bone; and tasajo (a thin filet of lightly seasoned beef) which arrived tender and juicy, and not at all over-cooked (often an issue in Oaxacan eateries), already cut into (large) bite sized pieces.

 

El Faro isn’t for every traveler.  But there are many who walk by such establishments, take and quick peek in, are clearly intrigued, and then say “no, we’d better not.”  At El Faro, you can. 

 

El Faro.  Jasminez 222-B, Colonia Reforma.  Mon to Sat, 9am to 10pm

 

 

 

 



Repossession