Restaurant VARs: 3 Ways To Inject New Life Into Your Business

By The Business Solutions Network

I'm going to give you a sneak preview of a feature article in next month's issue of Business Solutions because the VAR we highlight is doing some great stuff that's really impacting his business. The VAR is Andrew Strickler and his company is Tampa Bay POS. We featured Andrew in our magazine back in 2007. At the time, his company was four years old and business in the hospitality space was absolutely booming.

Then the recession hit.

As Strickler explains in next month's article, his company wasn't immune to the effects of the economic down turn. As 40% profit margins disappeared, he was forced to take a good look at his company and make some adjustments. According to him, three things that have given his company new life are: Our mobile surveillance solution sells itself.

1. Selling bundled subscription-based solutions -- “We stopped slinging boxes and annual support plans and started selling bundled solutions on monthly contracts,” says Strickler. The bundled solution includes POS, complete with credit card processing, which Strickler says yields more money over time than Tampa Bay POS could have earned operating in it’s old model.

2. Adding video surveillance to his line card -- “When a restaurant or store owner sees another restaurateur or store owner accessing live video of their establishments on an iOS or Android device, they simply have to have it,” he says. “When they realize they can monitor a live feed from their home office or while they’re on the road, our mobile surveillance solution sells itself. Then we find that the owners want to cover every cooler, every liquor lockup, and every entrance and exit, which drives camera sales.” He adds that 30% of his customers have purchased surveillance from him.

3. Expanding into other verticals -- When we spoke to Strickler in 2007, his business was all in the hospitality space. Today, he's expanded into niche verticals like salons and other service-oriented retail industries, adding the appropriate software packages to his portfolio. Today, 25% of his business is non-hospitality, filling in the gaps created by the recession.

Be sure to check out next month's issue to read more about Strickler's changes and how he didn't just recover from the recession, but remade his company into a more profitable business.