ARE you, like me, in a business where you get people telling you how to do your job? From pricing on the menu to the contents of the dishes, from sourcing of our food to how we cook it, we get enough advice to write a book.

It doesn’t really wind me up, though, because we all do it. I used to do it before I had a restaurant. I’d sit and watch the operations and tell myself that I could do so much better; that it was obvious where they were going wrong.

It’s so easy being a spectator. Just listen to the advice given out from the terraces of a football match.

Everyone’s an expert. And they’re usually wrong, just like most of them are on the terraces.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached a talk I’d been asked to give, telling small local food producers how to sell to and supply restaurants.

Of course, I understand what restaurants need, or at least what our restaurant needs, but it’s not my job to tell people how they should be running their businesses. But that’s what I did. And I did it with some confidence because I picked on a few things that are common to all businesses who are dependent on repeat business from their customers.

Number one: answer the phone. This may seem obvious to everyone, but it’s amazing how many small businesses just let a phone ring due to the fact that the sole proprietor is otherwise engaged. OK, but in this technological age it’s not beyond the wit of man to put an answer phone in place for those times the business owner’s on his tractor. Or the toilet.

But even with an answer service, you still get the “Welcome to the BT answer blah, blah, blah”. Why not a proper message? Imagine if I greeted everyone who called the restaurant with “Welcome to 18 Claypath, Durham DH1 1RH. Please leave a message”.

It appears that the sole business owner is not putting himself in the shoes of the people who may be trying to buy things off him. It’s an indication of how little he may be thinking about his customers which isn’t really good enough.

So that brings me on to the second easy one: understand your customer’s business. I get really disappointed when specialist food suppliers call in trying to sell very specific foreign items. We’re a British restaurant for goodness’ sake. It’s plastered all over our walls even to the extent of us having a map of the British Isles we designed, made up of the names of dishes from within our islands, bang in front of you when you walk in. It still doesn’t stop salesmen coming in and asking if we’d like to sell their 20 different types of olives.

It’s almost as frustrating as the energy salespeople who invariably phone during lunchtime who usually get the response: “Do you know you’re phoning a restaurant at lunchtime? No? Well you should”. I have a very short-tempered colleague.

And three? Well that’s really all I said. Think about who you’re selling to and try to understand their needs. And, answer the damn phone.