My wife and I used to love this little coffee shop in the heart of downtown Oakville (a small suburb of Toronto).
The location was fantastic, right in the heart of Oakville Square, a block from Lake Ontario.
The coffee was great. The pastries were unbelievable. And the kids loved the ice cream.
We showed up one fine summer day to find they’d closed their doors.
Apparently the owner wasn’t feeling the coffee shop and wanted to open a restaurant.
The place was closed for months until finally they reopened as a modern French restaurant featuring one of the city’s up and coming young chefs.
Bold move, but why?
The owner of this restaurant was carrying an asset that was underperforming.
This was an expensive piece of real estate.
And the coffee shop was probably only earning ~$10/customer.
With the new restaurant, the average transaction is more like ~$100/customer.
He 10X’ed his average customer value.
Smart move if you ask me.
This business owner knew what his greatest asset was, the real estate, and he made investments to earn a higher return on that asset.
Which raises an important question for you…
What’s the greatest asset in your business? And are you investing in it?