Deluxe Small Business Profile | Eat! @ 5th and Banning

SMALL BUSINESS Advice

Local searches are 2x more likely to lead to a purchase or visit

A well-designed, search-optimized new website took a big burden off this restaurateur’s shoulders – and is helping to drive sales in a competitive environment.

Small Business PROFILE

Eat! @ Banning & 5th

An interview with business owner Shawn Smith

What inspired you to start a restaurant?

I was raised on a farm, so I've always dealt with food. Growing up, the women at our church made the best food, long before we had grocery stores that carried 19 kinds of olive oil. Matter of fact, I don't remember olive oil as a kid. What I like is how passionate people have become about their food. That personal interaction is what’s always attracted me to this business.

How rewarding has it been to own your restaurant?

The rewards are tremendous. The restaurant business is unique because it is so up close and personal. You're providing people with something more than just food. Anybody can do food and that's why I'm so proud of my employees. They really take seriously the people who are coming in and take them into their confidence, into their family, they become part of who you are. And that's just really, in and of itself its own reward.

Business Details

Eat! @ Banning & 5th

2202 5th Street
White Bear Lake, MN 55110

(651) 653-1225

Website

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The best compliment that I get is customers come in all the time. They don't have to say anything. They're just here in the seats spending their hard earned money.

Two women serving food at Eat @ Banning & 5th

What are some of the challenges you’ve found in running your restaurant?

Restaurant businesses are tough. Your time is never yours. It’s always somebody else’s – your employees or your customers. One of the biggest challenges I have is family life, especially because I spend close to 80 hours a week in this building. The Internet, regulations and labor laws change all the time, and it's really hard to keep up. It's at a point where as a small business owner, you can't take care of those things yourself. You need to find somebody to do those things for you.

How did you approach marketing in the past?

For 23 years we didn't really do much of any marketing and depended on word of mouth. But social media has really changed the food industry. It’s nearly impossible to keep up with Yelp, TripAdvisor and all those other places on the web. I think that’s where a lot of restaurateurs tend to make their mistakes. They forget about all those things. That's one of the reasons why what Deluxe is doing for us online has been really important.

Deluxe Small Business Survey

Social Media & Review Sites

#1 space in which small business feel they lack knowledge or know-how

How has Deluxe helped market your restaurant online?

Having a company like Deluxe rebuild our website has been fantastic. They understand how to do that. I don't: I make sandwiches. I built my own website the first time, and suffered many hours trying to make updates. I got frustrated because I couldn't do it. Having Deluxe help has just been the easiest thing to do. And dumb of me not to do beforehand.

Deluxe Small Business Survey

Website

#1 effort small businesses created themselves and wished they would have gotten professional help building

Old Website

New Website

Have you seen any improvements online?

When Deluxe got our Google listing straightened out, we saw the number of searches increase almost exponentially. They updated our hours, our company description, a link to our website and other important information. It’s one of those self-replicating things – the more of those things you do, the more you realize how important it is.

Our website is now optimized for search. Deluxe made sure the right words were on the right page and had everything lined out for me. Deluxe took great care to make sure our website had the best chance to be found when people were searching for restaurants in our local area.

Old Google Listing

Improved Google Listing

What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

You need to surround yourself with people that know what they're doing. Have a vision, watch the trends, be part of the trend that’s changing. Our industry is completely different than it was 10 years ago. It just is. And what we found was that as your business grows, you need more help to uncover all the opportunities.