I was speaking In New Zealand recently to a group of men who were all in the construction industry.

After the talk we got into some buses to travel to another resort for dinner & drinks. Well the resort knew we were coming and they only had 1 person behind the bar for 100 thirsty men!

It was not a good sight and after a while another bar person turned up, but they still needed at least 2 more staff. No one was very happy. The organizers weren’t, the bar staff weren’t and neither were  100 customers.

That resort missed out big time on making a lot of money!

We have also been guilty of being short staffed at times. But when we know we have large groups booked in, we always have to make sure we have plenty of staff and we then gets heaps of repeat business.

 Tom

Once a week we put out a newsletter to all or our staff. This was something I put in this week.  It's always good to be able to give your people  great positive feedback!

"While travelling this week I have been told a couple of great stories by ladies that were at a conference I was speaking at. The first one was a lady who loved our window display of Valentine Biscuits. She went into our shop to buy one, but we didn’t have any for sale, only enough had been made for the window display. Our staff said to this lady, come back tomorrow and we will have one done for you with your name on it…but this lady was just passing through, so our staff got one out of the window display for her. This lady was so impressed at the level of customer service she received, and she is a lecturer at TAFE and she tells this story all the time to her students.

Another lady from Sydney was also there at this conference telling everyone how she always detours off the highway to come into Beechworth to visit the bakery. She really loves our sausage rolls. She then goes on to tell the group how she asked for our sausage roll recipe and you gave it to her! She is still using that recipe, plus she is out there telling everyone about the great service at the Beechworth Bakery.

Keep up the great work!

Thankyou

Tom

This is a great story. My son-in-law Adam has just started up his own business called Beechworth Ghost Tours. Adam & Sharon (our daughter) have 4 kids. The eldest is 5 and the baby is 8 months old. It's a real madhouse!

Adam did his baking apprenticeship with us, and for a while Adam & Sharon had a share in our business. But for different reasons that did not work out (having 4 kids didn’t help). We bought back their share and Adam continued working for us for several years and Sharon stayed home having more babies.

Adam’s passion has always been with history and  baking was not really for him. So he left the bakery a few months ago and he started his own business “Ghost tours”  (taking groups on a tour at night time through the former Beechworth Lunatic Asylum. And he has been flat out. Not a night off since Easter.

What a difference passion makes. ”Enthusiasm” - when your hearts in it the sky's  the limit!!

I say at every talk I do, “If your not getting what you want out of life, check your bloody level of enthusiasm” . That's the secret ingredient.

Get in there boots and all.

It is wonderful to see the happiness in Adam  Passion makes all the difference

Tom

 
Front page of The Border Mail

I'm doing a cooking demonstration at the annual Harvest Festival in Beechworth this Sunday the 18^th of May. It is a terrific festival, giving all our local farmers, restaurants, wineries, olive & chestnuts growers etc. an opportunity to showcase and sample their produce under one big marquee. I find it really hard to do these demonstrations. I am not a really such a great baker and it's also hard to be a hero in your own town. Then again I would probably find it hard to do it in any town!!

This festival usually attracts a big crowd from far and wide and is well worth visiting. Beechworth has a quite few festivals each year. They are a big part of our community.

Tom

  Tom in action last year

In our BBREAD workshops we do a unit on goal setting. Easy to talk the talk. But here was my wife wanting to buy a secondhand car for our son Matthew who has just turned 18. Well she was looking all over the place, looking at every different model under the sun; I thought this is going to take weeks if not months!!

So I asked her what did she want?? … She was not sure. With goal setting, the hardest thing knowing what you want in the first place.

So the first thing she had to do was decide what make and model of car she wanted…how much she wanted to spend…how many air bags…the fuel economy etc etc. Once Christine did all this stuff, it was so easy to find what she was looking for.

Goal setting has changed my life, but as I get older it not as easy. You still have to do the work….and sometimes it is hard work!! But put it on paper; break it down into bite size chunks, date it and you will be on the way. 

Tom 

We have just had a pizza night at our home for our staff from Beechworth & Albury. It was done to say “thank you” for the great job they do.

Not all the staff attended, it's nearly impossible to pick the perfect night that suits everyone. Some had church, some had meetings, footy training etc… But if you wait for the perfect time it will probably never happen. The night went really well, Christine, my wife was run off her feet making pizzas. (even though I'm in the picture). All up she made 30+ pizzas. They were beautiful. Some gourmet and some very simple. We have a fantastic wood-fired pizza oven at home; you can cook anything in it.

It was great to see the staff mixing and having fun. We do these  functions a few times a year. We want to keep our staff and if they are enjoying each others company, they won’t want to leave.

”Happy Staff – Happy Customers” 

Tom

Christine made the pizzas but I had fun with our woodfired oven!