Little Johnny gets a good mark every time he gives a memorized answer (the only possible “correct” answer) to the teacher’s question.

Little Johnny doesn’t get a good mark for asking the right question in the first place. The kind of question that may have more than one correct answer. Or the kind that cannot be answered today (but it’s essential that you keep asking it because if you do, the answer will one day find you — and that will be the day of a major breakthrough in your business).

Henry from Nova Scotia is asking,

“How am I going to compete in this economy?”

This is a very good question.

Because the question that most other restaurant owners are asking right now is, “How is my restaurant going to survive in this economy?”

And it is my utter hope that the question Henry is really asking is, “What can I do today to win in this economy?”

You see, much as a sports team that plays “not to lose” has absolutely no chance of winning, a restaurant that is just trying to survive is certain to go under.

You gotta play to win!

The restaurants that are going to win are the ones that demonstrate the following traits:

• They work on the basics every day and, no matter how slightly, they consistently outdo their competition.
• They treat their regular customers as kings and queens, create good reasons for them to come back, and have a process in place of turning first-time guests into regulars.
• They have created several reliable and measurable ways of attracting new restaurant customers.

And since we’re talking economy here, it’s important to understand what this whole Fed Bailout deal really means to you as a restaurant owner.

Here’s the skinny:

There are issues in the economy that have not been created overnight and it’s going to take time to get them undone. Most likely, we are yet to see the worst of it. What the Bailout Package did was prevented the really bad things from happening to us really fast. It gave us more time to fix our businesses so as we could come out on top, no matter what the future holds for us.

Here’s what Napoleon Hill wrote in the 1930’s:

THE “depression” was a blessing in disguise. It reduced the whole world to a new starting point that gives every one a new opportunity.

And this could be your new opportunity.

Little Johnny asks straight questions that everyone else finds awkward or is afraid to ask. Maybe it’s time you did a Little Johnny on your restaurant business:

• “How can this crisis be an opportunity for me and my restaurant business?”
• “What can I do right now to insulate my restaurant business and customers from the competition?”
• “How can I make my restaurant truly unique and special?”

See how this works?

Alex Makarski is Chief Commando of www.RestaurantCommando.com, a restaurant coaching and consulting firm.