Interview with:NewUser [smallhotelier]
BUSINESS
 | What business are you in and what is your position? Are you an owner or an executive? Hotels |
| Can you provide a link to a site where we can get to know more about you or your business. Www.vaughanlodge.ie |
| What is your story? How did you come to run a business? I'm a fourth generation hotelier |
| What are the most recent changes being carried out in your business, and why? Adapting to the new economic reality of Ireland and Europe |
| A business is based on creating relations of trust with clients, suppliers, employees... How do you create and maintain yours? I work hands on in my business as a colleague and hospitalier keeping close to my suppliers and customers and learning their backgrounds and needs and seeking to match them to service delivery to my guests in an ethical and Christian way |
| How do you attract and retain the best talent? I recognise achievement and good customer and employee care and share it as much as possible |
| What is “selling” for you? What is your technique? What is the greatest lesson you have learned about selling? Selling for me is creating a personal relationship with my guests and intermediaries and delivering service with my colleagues to a standard and price that matches the expectation |
| What techniques do you use to obtain customer loyalty? Rewarding guests with recognition, complimentary hospitality and gestures |
| How do you generate ideas for your business? Are you used to brainstorming with someone? Focus groups of colleagues and customers and reading journals etc |
| Do you see in your business a margin to optimize processes and reduce costs? How would you do that? Outsourcing back of house functions and automating many routine functions is possible but I still have a labour intensive business due to the high level of customer care |
| How does one develop the instinct to detect business opportunities? If you develop many different business experiences in your formative career years and extending relationships with other business networks. Membership of trade groups and active online presence and monitoring of feeds |
| Clients do not always know what they want. How do you correctly interpret their comments and requests? I stay close to the point of service and open channels of communication to them on facebook twitter etc |
| Do you have a well defined future plan, or is it in your head rather than on paper? Like all micro enterprises my plans are in my head and under review with my business partners constantly |
| What types of promotion or advertising have you tried? Which have worked best? I've tried adwords newspaper radio journals banner ads but best of all has been in house reputation building and word of mouth |
| Are the words "New" and "Free" magic in your sector? There is no magic word in our sector but these terms are good impostors!! |
| What role does technology play in your business? Do you believe that you are where you need to be technologically speaking? Technology is big in our sector I am where I can afford to be not where I want to be!! |
| How do you make use of the Internet? Have you already tried all the possibilities that the Net can offer you? I'm always exploring the net for possibilities but time and resource are my nemesis |
| What opinion do you have of the tax system your business operates under? Tax has been a hindrance since the time of Ages however our poor country needs tax and more to get us beyond the servility of EU IMF strictures currently imposed on Ireland |
| What is the competition like? Have you have learned things from them? My competition is professional and keen but we are good friends and we share nuggets of information regularly |
| What are your criteria for buying insurance? What has been your experience with this? Cover all possibilities and then some extra but get the best price possible |
| What do you expect of your bank? Does it respond to your needs? I am my bank s vassal |
| At times it is necessary to take on debt to get ahead. How do you distinguish between good and bad debt? You find the answer to this question too late when deep recession hits!! |
| How indispensable are you? Would your business survive if took you a year’s sabbatical? I'm good
My business would survive a long break but I don't think I would recognise it on my return |
| Which decisions turn out better: the immediate, visceral ones, or the ones reached after mulling the matter over for a few days? Immediate visceral decisions are best made in a sweet shop or answering a call of nature all others require at least one good nights sleep |
| If you wrote a book about everything you have learned doing business, what would the title be? I never knew that |
| What is your advice for surviving the economic crisis? Trust your instincts and your best friend, work hard , keep your perspective but be honest in reporting to your bank but do not let your customers in on your inner angst |
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NewUser
LAHINCH Ireland
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