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Client Story: Grand Palace Restaurant

5/30/2023

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Christina Ng Positions Restaurant to Welcome New Business

Seafood comes fresh out of the fish tank, makes a trip to the kitchen, and then ends on your plate. Whether you’ve come for lunch, dinner, or a special occasion, the food at Grand Palace is always the focus.

The Business
Christina Ng, owner of Grand Palace Restaurant in South San Francisco, needed to add additional marketing capabilities to meet the challenges of the post-Covid environment.

Grand Palace restaurant has been in business since 1998. Focusing on a daily dim sum menu and banquet space, Grand Palace is known for its welcoming atmosphere, authentic Cantonese food, and always fresh cuisine. Christina, a passionate and hands-on business owner, is onsite daily. She’s also involved with her community and the local Chamber of Commerce. 

The Issues
Christina reached out to TAP for guidance on marketing that would help replace revenue lost due to the pandemic. She was extremely interested to learn how to market to the corporate segment. South San Francisco has many offices, so she wanted to reach out to corporate customers in order to stabilize her revenue stream in a difficult economic environment. TAP consultants May Lee and Ping Yu focused on three areas:
  • Identifying potential corporate customers in the vicinity.
  • Determining the right product offering and designing special menus for corporate customers.
  • Experimenting with different communication channels to reach her potential customers and strengthening the restaurant’s web and mobile presence.

What did TAP do?
TAP did extensive research for Christina in order to create an effective marketing plan for corporate customers. First, TAP identified which corporate customers to go after. Second, TAP did a careful review of Grand Palace’s website. Third, TAP developed guidance on how to use various marketing channels to grow the business. The resulting plan included a target customer list that was focused on the growing biotech industry in South San Francisco; specific recommendations for changes to the website to better represent the brand and reach current as well as prospective customers; and guidance on how to meet customers through Doordash, UberEats, and Yelp.

As Christina incorporates TAP’s work into her restaurant planning, she looks forward to welcoming new and existing customers to Grand Palace for a delicious meal.

​​This project was part of a partnership between The Acceleration Project (TAP) and San Mateo Economic Development Association (SAMCEDA). The Women In Food Boot Camp program provides local businesses with high-impact strategic, financial, operational and marketing support to fuel their growth and thereby strengthen the local San Mateo County economy.

#AAPI #womeninbusiness #AsianAmericanPacificIslanders #AAPIHeritageMonth #AAPIMonth #entrepreneurs #smallbusiness #food #restaurants #California #SanMateo #SAMCEDA
 


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Client Story: Benesafe

5/30/2023

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Esther Salata and Benny create a safe outdoor environment with Benesafe Solutions

What do you do when you want to send your dog, Benny, out to play but you don’t want to use harsh or toxic chemicals in your yard to keep away mosquitos, ticks, and fleas? If you are Esther Salata AND you have degrees in Conservation Ecology and Environmental Science and Ecology, you create a natural lawn and garden spray. Of course you name it after Benny!

Enter Benesafe Solutions. Benesafe uses a proprietary blend of non-toxic ingredients to keep outdoor areas free from annoying pests. Best of all, it doesn’t harm people, pets or “good” insects like bees and butterflies.

The Issues
Growing a small business has many challenges. For Esther, her current distribution channels were not driving sales to the level she wanted. She knew there were better ways of thinking about sales, marketing, and branding, so she turned to TAP for guidance.

What did TAP do?
TAP consultants Jessica Ziegler and Jessica Mashkevich worked with Esther to do a deep dive into branding, distribution channels, and marketing collateral.  
  • They created a competitive analysis for Esther and discussed how the non-toxic ingredients, coupled with its effectiveness, were Benesafe’s unique value proposition and competitive advantage.
  • They conducted a distribution channel analysis and also reviewed Esther’s sales presentation. They looked at what was, and wasn’t, working and evaluated potential  distribution channels for Benesafe. 
  • They reviewed label design to ensure that potential customers were getting the right message when seeing Benesafe on store shelves.
Esther also faced a common problem for entrepreneurs. It was hard to get the word out about a great product. So TAP created a calendar of activities to help guide sales and marketing, and made recommendations for better use of social media and public relations. TAP consultants also suggested how local ‘guerrilla marketing’ tactics could boost awareness.  

Taking advantage of growing environmental awareness, each of these small steps added up to an actionable marketing plan for Benesafe, allowing Esther and Benny (the official Benesafe mascot) to get the word out and build sales.

Esther wrote this in a post-project survey: “TAP provided me with two women mentors who were a perfect match for my business. They provided great perspectives that no other mentor has provided. I also feel more empowered to have such successful consultants who believe in me.”

#AAPI #womeninbusiness #AsianAmericanPacificIslanders #AAPIHeritageMonth #AAPIMonth #entrepreneurs #smallbusiness ​


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TAP and iRelaunch

5/19/2023

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Volunteering is sometimes a path to re-entering the workforce. Check out this blog we wrote for iRelaunch about the path of strategic volunteerism. 
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TAP Client Stories

5/10/2023

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TAP clients are experts in their business. They run restaurants and make packaged foods. They have retail stores and sell amazing products. They're personal trainers, landscapers, aestheticians, manufacturers, wholesalers and run non-profits and after school programs. So how does TAP help? Our consultants know how to increase sales, improve margins and operations and market a business. Watch these stories to hear what clients have to say about working with TAP.
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Client Story: Que SeRaw SeRaw

5/5/2023

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We have our final #smallbusinessweek story to share. Meet Que SeRaw SeRaw, a vegan restaurant in Burlingame, California. Owner Kerry Bitner talks about what it was like to work with her TAP consultants. #entrepreneur #womeninbusiness #smallbusiness  
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Client Story: Crespo Whiskeys & Wines

5/5/2023

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Crespo Whiskeys & Wines in Dobbs Ferry, NY is next up on our #smallbusinessweek features. Watch this video to hear owner Jershom Osheaf talk about how TAP consultants helped him with critical aspects of running the business. This video was part of our annual April benefit. To see other client stories, be sure to visit this page. #smallbusiness #entrepreneur
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Client Story: Eve Milan New York and Spa

5/4/2023

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Eden Gilliam is the owner of Eve Milan, a beauty business. Working with TAP was a game changer for her. ​As National Small Business Week continues, we bring you this video from our April benefit. To see other client stories, be sure to visit this page. #smallbusinessweek #smallbusiness #entrepreneur
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Client Story: Tech Valley Hospitality Shuttle

5/3/2023

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It's National Small Business Week, so we continue to celebrate the entrepreneurs we featured in our annual benefit in April. Meet Trent Griffin-Braaf of Tech Valley Hospitality Shuttle in this video, and learn about the work he did with TAP. To see other client stories, be sure to visit this page. #smallbusinessweek #smallbusiness #entrepreneur
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Client Story: Lorena Mardones of Jade Garden Design

5/2/2023

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Today we continue our series of client stories from TAP's annual benefit in April. You can watch the full replay here. But now, let's take a close up look at one client, Lorena Mardones, of Jade Garden Design. To learn about other TAP clients, please visit this page. #entrepreneurs #smallbusiness #smallbiz #smallbusinessweek
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Client story: Meet Freddie Lee's Gourmet Sauces

5/1/2023

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TAP's annual benefit in April featured a series of client stories. You can watch the full replay here. But now, let's take a close up look at one client, Freddie Lee's Gourmet Sauces. To learn about other TAP clients, please visit this page. 
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    All
    AAPI
    Annual Benefit
    Beauty
    Black Business Owners
    Food
    Hispanic Business Owners
    Meet TAP Clients
    Meet The TAP Team
    Retail
    Skilled Trades
    Transportation
    Video
    Women Business Owners


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  • ABOUT
    • MISSION & HISTORY
    • MANAGEMENT TEAM
    • Leadership Boards
    • CONSULTANTS
    • CAREERS AT TAP
  • SMALL BUSINESSES
    • OUR CLIENTS
    • APPLY TO BE A CLIENT
  • PARTNERS
    • WHY PARTNER WITH TAP
  • NEWS & EVENTS
    • 2023 SPRING FOR SMALL BUSINESS BENEFIT
    • SUBSCRIBE FOR UPDATES
    • MEDIA
    • TAP BLOG
    • 2022 Year in Review
  • SERVICIOS EN ESPAÑOL
    • CONVIÉRTETE EN CLIENTE