Junk mail can be a gas

When I first started as manager here at Towle's nearly 14 years ago, I had this naive belief that two or three hours a week in the office would keep me on top of all paperwork required in the running of a privately owned restaurant. A couple of hours to keep the desk clear, everything tidy, everything neatly filed away.

I found a pending tray that my predecessor had kept. I threw it out thinking: "I won't need that. What am I going to need to put in there? I mean, it's not like a hotel where guests write to reserve a room. In a restaurant they just turn up, don't they? Where's the paperwork involved in that?"

I learnt of course. The two or three hours a week very quickly became three or four hours a day, plus several hours on closed days.

The pending tray was resurrected and seems permanently full.

And tidy? The only time the office here gets a thorough clean is before I go on holiday.

When that time comes, I leave the person taking over a five-page checklist of the tasks I do. I can never find this list from the last time I went away, and it's not on the word processor. It's got to be easier turning the entire filing cabinet out to find it rather than produce another one.

The filing cabinet gets an overhaul in the process.

Unsolicited demands

There seem to be so many people or other businesses demanding time and attention, that have no real bearing on the business itself. Very often these demands are quite unsolicited. They can come in the post, on the phone or even by fax.

I am vexed that I have been dragged away from the main routine of running a successful restaurant to listen to someone's spiel, when I know from the start that I am going to say no.

I find it very difficult, for example, to deal with the increasing number of begging letters we receive. These are not letters from national charities asking for donations, but requests from local playgroups, rest homes, sports clubs and scout groups.

I've just returned from holiday to find three such letters. Three in a fortnight is about average. One asks for straight cash, one for a raffle prize of anything we like, and one for a voucher for dinner and wine for two.

None had a stamped-addressed envelope for a reply, thank goodness, as some do. Isn't it difficult to say no out of hand if they've taken the trouble to pay their postage back?

I can file one in the bin because it starts "Dear Sir or Madam". I reckon if they don't know your name we probably don't know theirs.

The second letter is a standard one from someone we don't know and ends: "If you can offer anything for the tombola we would be pleased to hear from you". That type of letter can be ignored.

The third is from a local businessman who we do know. He needs help for a fireworks night celebration in aid of the local hospice. We will certainly give something to help him.

We like to support our local hospice. We arranged the first fundraising event for it before it was built - that was over five years ago. We have raised money for it since and pay its monthly newspaper bill so that a selection of daily newspapers is available for patients and visitors.

It's no big deal, just a small contribution towards the running costs. But at least we feel able to say no to some of the other requests for one-off raffle prizes without too much soul-searching.

These are domestic forms of mailshots, I suppose. If you have access to a personal computer and you're on the school parent-teacher association, a member of the cricket club pavilion rebuilding committee, or a nursing-home matron organising a Christmas Fayre, it's easy to compose a standard letter and print off a couple of hundred copies.

It's also easy to post them to every restaurant or hotel in the area, rather than those people actually know and patronise.

I know from the way some of these letters are written that the writer has simply trawled the local Yellow Pages for names.

Are catering outlets any more susceptible to this form of begging than other industries?

Falling bills

Earlier this year we signed a contract with one of the private gas suppliers. Back in the summer of 1994 I had begun asking for quotes from the new companies offering cheaper gas.

As each one submitted a quote and I thought we'd hit the lowest figure obtainable, I'd come across another new company advertising in the catering and general press. New, even lower quotes would arrive.

I held back from signing up, still thinking I'd yet to come across the lowest possible quote. Companies who had quoted earlier were phoning regularly to see what decision I had made. Several phoned at least six times.

Eventually, I signed a contract with Mobil Gas Wessex, who supply our gas at 1p per Kwhr/29.3p per therm.

This is a saving of up to one-third of what our previous gas bills used to be.

The good news continues: prices are falling all the time. Two or three companies who quoted earlier have been in touch again, saying they will make contact around the time our existing contract expires and will offer a better price per unit than our existing supplier.

It seems to be a buyer's market.

Next diary from Graham Webb is on 7 December