Creating Business Personality with Cory Bass of Backwater Jack’s
I don’t know about you, but I think the restaurant business seems like a tough business, even in the best of circumstances.
So imagine this situation: You’re the chef and manager of a little waterfront restaurant in beautiful Southwest Florida. But you’re located deep inside one of the largest gated communities in our area, but you’re not associated with the community or its club.
So you’ve got to figure out how to make it on your own when most of the town doesn’t even know you exist.
That’s the situation I talked about with Cory Bass, the executive chef and general manager at Backwater Jack’s. Backwater Jack’s is located inside Bonita Bay, but isn’t part of either the Bonita Bay Club or the Bonita Bay Community Association. (There’s a whole history to how that happened back during the last recession,—ask one of our longtime locals to explain it).
Cory and I talked about:
- How a business that’s off the beaten path has found ways to survive and grow
- How he uses email marketing –but with personality!–to drive traffic to the restaurant and build relationships with his customers
- How he approached a major turnaround in a restaurant
- Challenges–and lessons learned–about construction & expansion projects
- The surprising little product that’s costing more than you’d think today
“Inflationary hikes on all goods have gone through the roof. It’s become so expensive to buy products that you either run an exceptionally high cost of goods where you’re losing money, or you pass it along to the customer who’s just as unhappy. . . it’s going to effect lots of the smaller restaurants in the area.” –Cory Bass
Enjoy my interview with Cory Bass at Backwater Jack’s, at Bonita Bay Marina.
More resources for you:
- More about Backwater Jack’s (and you can sign up for Cory’s email on that page).
- Want to see how Coach Darcy is using email to keep in touch? Add your name to our insider list here.
Thanks to our sponsor for this episode, Audible
Today’s show is brought to you by our friends at Audible, who is offering our listeners a free audiobook when you sign up for a 30-day trial membership. Just go to AudibleTrial.com/CoachDarcy, and you’ll get started today. Here are a couple of my favorites to get you started:
- This is Marketing: You Can’t Be Seen Until You Learn to See, by Seth Godin
- In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
- Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller
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More about your host, Bonita Business Coach Darcy Eikenberg, PCC
Additional Appreciation
Our thanks to Antonio Correia at Bonita Video for editing expertise and to Jahann Cherubin for podcast artwork design. Please visit both of these great Southwest Florida businesses!
Find out more about your host, Bonita Business Coach Darcy Eikenberg