To view more information from the Job Creators Network, please click here.
Join Us In Supporting Small Business Saturday!
The Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association is proud to support Small Business Saturday®, the day dedicated to celebrating small, local businesses like yours. Make Nov 28 a day to remember for your business by being a part of it. So stand out and get involved. Here’s how:
PLAN FOR THE DAY: Learn how to take advantage of the free downloadable marketing materials on ShopSmall.com to help you make the most of Small Business Saturday.
MAKE YOUR SHOP IRRESISTIBLE: Plan an in-store event to help attract more customers on the day.
BUILD BUZZ BEFORE THE DAY: Show your love and post about Small Business Saturday in your social channels to help drive awareness for your event and bring customers through your door using #ShopSmall.
Be a part of Small Business Saturday 2015 and help our communities grow and prosper. Go HERE to learn more.
Announcing Great Florida Events!
FRLA’s In-State Marketing Program, newly re-branded as Great Florida Events, is sponsoring several events in 2015 – 2016 designed to draw Florida residents to unique events happening across the state.
Bulls on the Beach kicked off our event series with a rodeo featuring professional cowboys for two nights on Perdido Key hosted by the Flora-Bama Lounge and Oyster Bar. Next up, was the Island Hopper Songwriter Fest in Southwest Florida. Captiva Island, Ft. Myers Beach and Downtown Ft. Myers showcased more than 70 songwriters in 138 performances throughout the area over ten days.
The Sixth Annual Endless Summer Music Festival was held in Sandestin at the Village of Baytowne Wharf. This songwriters’ festival boasted 14 songwriters at numerous venues throughout the village. Our latest event, Blast on the Bay was held on Florida’s Forgotten Coast during a glorious weekend of cool nights and warm days. More than 30 songwriters played in Port St. Joe, Mexico Beach and Indian Pass.
Attendees at all of the songwriters’ festivals were treated to some of Country’s biggest hits, songwriters and the stories behind the songs. In addition, the Official FSU Seminole Tailgate is happening every Friday night before home football games and with live music, onsite vendors, and special appearances by celebrities and musicians, it has been a blast so far! Coming up, we have planned several more events that will be certain to thrill you.
December 30, 2015: The Florida Citrus Parade in Orlando is one of the largest parades affiliated with a sporting event in the nation! High school marching bands, participating bowl game college marching bands, floats decorated with citrus, and other exciting happenings are all part of this awesome parade through downtown Orlando. Learn more here.
January 24, 2016 – The Crab Smash & Oyster Bash Seafood Jubilee will be held in Port Canaveral. The kids are the stars at this fundraiser for Brevard County’s High School Culinary Programs as they prepare a seafood feast for visitors at the historic shrimp dock at Port Canaveral, FL. Enjoy Live Cajun Zydeco music while dining on Florida seafood!
February 6-7, 2016: Clearwater Beach Uncorked is “touted as the hippest beachfront gastronomic event on Florida’s west coast.” Microbrews are also featured during this fabulous weekend on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Get all the details.
February 27-28, 2016: The Downtown Food & Wine Fest is a two-day food and wine festival in the streets of Orlando, and trust us, this is where you want to be the last weekend of February! Signature dishes and bites from 30 of Orlando’s top restaurants will be featured along with domestic and international wines and live entertainment. If you need a break, stop by The Liquid Lounge to listen and dance to the music of Orlando’s hottest DJs. Find out more!
Stay tuned to FRLA for more information about our upcoming events!
VISIT FLORIDA Unveils New Industry Website, Partner Benefits
This month, Florida Restaurant and Lodging Magazine featured VISIT FLORIDA’s new partner benefits. Check out the full story below as it appeared in the magazine. Plus be sure to visit VISITFLORIDA.org, the organization’s new industry website.
Making Technology Work For You
Technology has been and can be a huge asset to many businesses. In today’s society, there are so many different technological tools and resources to make your business better. Oftentimes what businesses don’t consider is how these tools can help retrieve the information they need to increase productivity and customer communication which will ultimately increase their profits. Examples of these tools include, loyalty programs, gift cards and email marketing. These different options help to benefit your company by extending reach, creating engagement, retaining customers and receiving feedback. Loyalty programs, gift cards and e-mail marketing are ways to help to focus on your current clients by retrieving information about their visit and notifying them about potential offers and deals. The goal is to keep your current customers loyal and happy which will result in increased sales and revenue.
Another benefit of these technological tools is that they provide vital customer data which can be used to help to grow your business. Wi-Fi is an example of a technological tool that provides customer data which can help grow your business. Wi-Fi is no longer and “added plus” but is something that is expected to be included in most operating businesses. This form of technology will not only benefit your customers but will benefit your business as well. According to the media company, Examiner.com, “There is no better purpose for an organization to provide a good experience to their customers and information technology helps provide the infrastructure to manage customer data.” When customers connect to a supplier’s Wi-Fi it gives the customer a good experience and in return the supplier is able to retrieve and manage customer data and customer feedback. This new information is a huge asset because now as a business you are able to use the collected data to conduct market research. The market research will help to inform your business what you need improve upon and where you need to move your focus to keep your customers loyal. Without having this data as a business you are lacking vital information that has the potential to help maintain and grow your company.
Almost all businesses want to use technology; however, most of them don’t want to deal with the labor that comes with it. Unfortunately there have not been many efficient ways when it comes to growing a company’s user base due to the manual process it takes to collect and enter this data. There is no need for a business to hold the responsibility of manually collecting and calculating the loyalty, proximity and usage of a customer. Oftentimes this leads businesses to avoid these tools altogether. What they don’t understand is that by avoiding these tools altogether; they are lacking vital information that has the potential to help their business grow tremendously. Luckily, there are companies like Captive Eyes who help to create that interactive experience for your customers, while automating data collection for third party systems. Technology is a beautiful thing and if used efficiently can benefit your business greatly, increasing sales and profits.
What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You
Have you ever watched a late night show host or a comedian conduct a “man on the street” interview? It’s always great for laughs as the interviewer asks the person questions about current events or politics. Sure, it can be hilarious but it can also be troubling.
With as much information we are exposed to on a daily basis, you would think society would be better informed. The truth is, unless you are a political junkie, if the issue doesn’t directly impact you or harm you economically, it’s just part of the incredible loud “breaking news” background noise we are all exposed to, and we tend to ignore it. That spells trouble for all of us.
The reason it spells trouble for us is that we begin to “tune out” a lot of information that can eventually impact us in a negative way. Take our nation’s capital. We all get wrapped up in what happens in Washington, D.C. There are endless reports, exposés and articles about this bill or another. The bill at issue always causes great anxiety between the major political parties.
Here’s an ugly truth about politics…it’s rarely the bill itself (regardless of its content) that is the real danger. It’s the agencies that promulgate the rules that implement the bill that are the real danger. Each year, the agencies of government churn out thousands of pages of rules and administrative regulations that all have the force of law.
The real danger is not the actual law, but is more often the unelected agencies and bureaucracies that enforce the ever increasing rules and regulations they churn out at astonishing rates. But that’s not the really scary part. It’s happening at all levels of government. If Washington doesn’t get you, the state might. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at what our counties and municipalities are doing in areas like wages, labor and paid leave.
The biggest threat to you and your business is tuning out the “political stuff” because it’s what you don’t know that can hurt you and that’s why being involved in FRLA is worth the price of admission.
– Richard E. Turner
General Counsel and Vice President of Government Relations
The View From Membership
Suffice to say the first seven months of 2015 have been busy for our Membership Team. But, I’m not going to drone on about every single thing we’re doing instead I’d like to point out four key triumphs.
- We’ve forged new partnerships with several like-minded hospitality groups including the Asian American Hotel Owners, the Florida Bed and Breakfast Inns Association, and Ocean Properties LTD. Our broad-based approach has allowed FRLA to expand not just its membership but it’s also created a larger footprint in key areas throughout Florida giving the Association strategic alliances we can tap in the near future.
- Thanks to strong efforts by our Regional Directors and Managers, overall membership is up and we’ve seen an uptick in attendance throughout our chapter events. Additionally, we’ve been able to hire two new Regional Directors including a renewed effort in Pensacola – an area that had been dormant for too long. We’re excited to see what the future holds!
- In Central Florida, Broward, and Palm Beach we’ve rolled out new grass root efforts to truly bring our influence to the local level and help identify key issues we can address in our members’ back yards. We anticipate continuing this program in several cities soon.
- We’ve successfully revamped our entire website. This massive project was a long time coming and we couldn’t be prouder of how it turned out. With our friends at Sparxoo’s help, we truly believe we’ve now established the best hospitality association website in the country and we look forward to using it to better serve our members at every turn.
As I noted, this is a small glimpse at what we’ve been working on throughout the year. There are several on-going projects and day-to-day work we’re thrilled to do on your behalf and it’s an honor to represent more than 10,000 hotels and restaurants on a daily basis. If you ever have any questions or need anything at all, please don’t hesitate to contact us directly at 850-224-2250.
Sincerely,
Dan Murphy
Vice President, Membership and Corporate Relations
Are You Living Active Managerial Control or “Oh No! the Inspector’s Here?”
As former head of Florida’s restaurant licensing and inspection system, I get frequent inquiries from food service operators that have either had a poor inspection, or are struggling to avoid one.
My response to these folks always starts with a question: “Can you tell me about your food safety system?” Too often that is met with awkward silence. The reality is, it’s not that hard. An effective food safety system starts with Active Managerial Control, which is just a fancy way to say “managers are managing.”
The formal definition of Active Managerial Control is “the purposeful incorporation of specific actions or procedures by industry management into the operation of their business to attain control over foodborne illness risk factors.”
Operationally, this means restaurant managers – and supervisors, key employees, shift leaders – anyone in charge of food receiving, storage, preparation or service, emphasize preventive rather than reactive thinking to drive food safety.
Active Managerial Control occurs when a methodical approach is in place to control food safety risk factors, all employees are trained on it, and persons-in-charge observe, coach, correct, and ensure the behavior needed to execute food safety. Most importantly, this occurs every shift, every day – not just when the inspector is expected.
Many tools and resources are available to learn and implement Active Managerial Control. Contact the FRLA Education & Training Department to start living it, protect your business and guests, and avoid your “Oh, %@#&!” moment.
– Geoff Luebkemann, VP of Education and Training
FRLA’s Fresh Feeling
Here in Florida, we’re continuing to break tourism records. This past year, we welcomed 98.9 million people! They came here to experience our fantastic hospitality industry that offers unique amenities, exceptional meals and outstanding service. Plus, the scenery is not too shabby. Florida is home to picturesque beaches and sunny weather.
We want our website visitors to share that same Florida experience. So, we freshened up a bit. Welcome to the newly improved FRLA.org. We redesigned it to better reflect our remarkable members who help make our great state a wonderful place to live, work and play.
In addition to the revitalized aesthetic, we truly believe this website will help you easily navigate through all of FRLA’s offerings. We worked to develop innovative features that are new to the user experience. The Government Relations tab offers legislative advocacy resources developed exclusively to safeguard Florida’s hospitality industry. The Newsroom provides the latest industry updates and showcases FRLA’s originally produced digital media. The Events section easily filters all FRLA occasions to give members a chance to attend all corporate, chapter and sponsored events. Our Education and Training tab continues to provide you with wonderful business resources. Plus, a revamped Educational Foundation site is now integrated with FRLA’s main page.
We want to make sure you have access to all of the tools you need to remain engaged with FRLA. After all, our association was created by and for restaurateurs, hoteliers and industry leaders. We hope you’ll enjoy your tour through our new site and get that same fresh feeling we have.
As always, we are here to protect, educate and promote the hospitality industry. Thank you being a part of the FRLA.
– Carol B. Dover, FRLA President and CEO