God-Given Business Genius

“My goodness, Woo-yeon~. What’s all this?”

Han Mi-ae’s eyes sparkled as she looked around the office, immediately upon entering.

After meeting several times a week while learning to cook, she now speaks quite comfortably.

“The office is decorated so nicely!”

“Isn’t it?”

I grinned, and Han Mi-ae kept nodding.

“Who’s this?”

“This is Jo I-ruk-ssi. He’ll be working with us from now on. Jo I-ruk-ssi, this is the owner of the main branch. It’s also the brand we’ll be building together.”

Jo I-ruk stiffened once more and bowed deeply.

“It’s an honor to meet you!”

“Oh my. What an enthusiastic young man. I’m pleased to meet you too.”

Han Mi-ae smiled, looking slightly embarrassed as she shook hands. She seemed a bit uncomfortable with Jo I-ruk’s formal demeanor.

The difference in the bosses’ personalities is quite apparent.

“Please, have a seat over here.”

“Alright.”

It’s a bit tiring to have two meetings in one day, but I opened the PPT without showing it.

Jo I-ruk, having observed once before, had perfectly set up the laptop. He really does have a knack for work.

“You’ve looked over the proposal I sent in advance, right?”

“Yeah. I did look at it, but….”

Han Mi-ae hesitated for a moment before speaking frankly.

“I think it’s a good idea to give and the interior a unified look. Since we’re now sister brands. Being on the same street, it might be interesting for customers to see.”

As I nodded and listened, Han Mi-ae added one more thing.

“However….”

Good. This is the main point.

“About this ‘retro’ concept.”

Han Mi-ae’s eyes darted around nervously. Seemingly uncomfortable with contradicting my opinion, her gaze naturally drifted towards Jo I-ruk.

Hmm.

“Um, Jo I-ruk-ssi, was it? What do you think? Do you think young people these days would like this kind of thing?”

“M-me?”

“Please, take a look. Hmm? I’m curious about a third party’s opinion.”

“Ahem. Well, if you’ll excuse me….”

Jo I-ruk received the materials from Han Mi-ae. There are quite a few reference images I included in there, so he probably immediately caught on to what I meant by ‘retro’.

“Ah~. This kind of feeling. How should I put it, like a food stall…?”

“That’s right.”

He pinpointed exactly what I intended.

“This kind of design evokes nostalgia for older people and feels new to younger people. It’s perfect for targeting both groups.”

“Don’t young people these days prefer something cleaner and more sophisticated? If we decorate it with this food stall vibe, won’t it appeal more to middle-aged folks like us?”

I shook my head at Han Mi-ae’s words.

“Trust me. A sophisticated restaurant? Sure, there’s demand for that, and there’s supply too. But our target is completely different.”

At my gesture, Jo I-ruk flipped to the first page of the prepared PPT.

“Our brand’s basic motto is ‘A place anyone can drop by on their way home.’ For students, it’s grabbing some tteokbokki with friends on the way back from school, and for adults, it’s having some chicken feet with soju after work.”

For that, there’s one essential preparation.

“A restaurant aiming for ‘high turnover, low margin’ needs to have a low threshold.”

“Threshold?”

“I don’t mean the literal threshold, but rather that there should be low psychological resistance for customers.”

It’s the same principle that makes it difficult to casually enter a restaurant with a clean, sophisticated building and an English sign in cursive writing.

Consumers’ psychological resistance is determined once by the store’s exterior and again by the menu prices.

“The reason was able to succeed quickly was largely due to this. The exterior is clean yet approachable, and the reasonable prices are displayed outside, making people think, ‘Oh? The prices here are pretty good. Shall we go in?'”

“I see…!”

“ will use a similar approach.”

A friendly exterior, with kind prices.

Just doing that will attract curious customers. And the real competition starts from there.

“But if we sell too cheaply, we won’t make a profit… Will it be okay?”

Han Mi-ae asked worriedly. Right. I knew you’d ask this.

That’s why I prepared something in advance.

“Alright. Let’s do a simulation then. Let’s say you’re a customer who happens to pass by the shop, sees the promotional message about low prices, and becomes curious enough to visit for the first time.”

“Oh, oh. I see.”

Despite the sudden role-play, Han Mi-ae followed along well.

“After the customer comes in and sits at a table, we’d give them this menu, right?”

“Ah!”

I took out the prepared menu and handed it to Han Mi-ae.

The menu featured the logo along with a design that appropriately mixed yellow and red colors.

It exudes a strong snack shop vibe while harmonizing with the spicy chicken feet.

“When did you make this?”

Han Mi-ae couldn’t hide her surprise. When did I make it? I hurriedly made it yesterday.

That’s why I had to throw a pile of books at Jo I-ruk and leave him be.

“I went out yesterday to get some interior design ideas. I stopped by a print shop and had these made then.”

“Wow. It looks so much better when printed out like this…!”

Han Mi-ae kept expressing her admiration, unable to take her eyes off the menu. Her reaction, like a child receiving a new toy, unconsciously brought a smile to my face.

“I thought you just went out for fun yesterday….”

“What did you say, Jo I-ruk-ssi?”

“Hup. Ah, nothing.”

Oh ho. So that’s what you were thinking.

As I narrowed my eyes, Jo I-ruk cleared his throat and tried to avoid my gaze.

“Anyway. Now, Boss Han? Could you look at the menu as if you were a customer entering the shop for the first time?”

Rustle.

Han Mi-ae opened the menu.

“Wow~. It’s so clean.”

“Isn’t it?”

“The photos look appetizing too. The descriptions of what’s in each dish are well-written. Even allergen information…. This isn’t amateur work, is it?”

Han Mi-ae added that she felt embarrassed about her own snack shop’s hastily printed and pasted menu.

“Of course, for urgently added or seasonal menus, you might have to do that. But it’s best to keep everything within this as much as possible. When the menu is visible at a glance, orders are faster, which leads to better turnover rates.”

“Gasp. I didn’t realize we had to think about all that.”

“That’s what we’re here for, isn’t it?”

Han Mi-ae looked at me with admiration before suddenly seeming to come to her senses and turning back to the menu.

“Basic snack foods and chicken feet. The menu is simple.”

“Since you’re handling the kitchen alone, the simpler the menu, the better. I’d like to cut it down even more, but we need to maintain the basics of a snack shop, so we’ve reduced it to this much.”

“Should I be thankful?”

Han Mi-ae smiled softly as she ran her hand over the menu.

“People get attached to the smallest things. Each of these menu items feels like my child.”

How could I not understand that feeling?

I felt the same way when I was running a business. When a new menu item I had carefully crafted and researched was rejected by people, it felt like my own child was being disrespected, and it hurt.

“I’m getting sentimental in my old age, aren’t I?”

“It’s a good thing for an owner to be attached to the food they’re selling. No need to speak like that.”

“Haha. I appreciate the kind words, at least.”

I mean it, though.

Han Mi-ae calmed her welling emotions and looked back at the menu.

“You’ve looked over all the menu items, right?”

“Yes.”

“If you were a customer, which menu item would you want to order?”

“Me? Oh, well, if it were me….”

Han Mi-ae briefly scanned the menu, seeming to contemplate.

“I’m not really hungry since lunch hasn’t settled yet, but if I were eating lunch, I’d probably go for the snack set?”

“Right?”

“Yeah. But why do you ask?”

“Think about it. When you entered the shop, you were probably thinking, ‘Wow, tteokbokki at this price? It’s so cheap!’ right?”

Uh-huh, that’s right. Han Mi-ae nodded.

“But what you ordered wasn’t just tteokbokki, but a set menu.”

“Well… when you’re eating tteokbokki, how can you just eat one thing? You’ve got to have some fried food and sundae too.”

“That’s exactly it.”

I snapped my fingers.

“Hmm?”

“This is why it’s important to lower the store’s threshold.”

I added an explanation for Han Mi-ae, who still looked puzzled.

“The single tteokbokki item becomes a kind of ‘loss leader.’ It’s meant to catch people’s attention and pique their curiosity. Once you get the customer to sit at the table, most customers end up spending more than they initially intended.”

You might come in for the cheap pork ribs, but once inside, you find yourself wanting sirloin too. Isn’t that how people’s minds work?

As they say, seeing is wanting. The moment you look at the menu, you forget your initial goal of ‘eating something cheap’ and focus on ‘what else you want to eat’ and ‘what looks more delicious.’

“So, the common worry among owners like ‘How can we make ends meet selling things this cheaply?’ is almost meaningless.”

Of course, if you make the loss leader ridiculously cheap, or if the other menu items are so poorly composed that people only order the loss leader, that would be a problem.

But that’s something you can adjust and fix by observing the order ratios between the loss leader and main menu items.

“I see…!”

Han Mi-ae marveled once more.

“As expected, Woo-yeon, your way of thinking is truly extraordinary. Don’t you agree?”

She turned to Jo I-ruk, who was sitting next to her, seeking agreement. However, Jo I-ruk, who was supposed to answer….

“…Jo I-ruk-ssi?”

Was staring at me with a blank expression.

As if he’d never seen such a monster before.