In this interview, Kathy Kirkpatrick, proprietor of Life Cafe in New York City's East Village, talks about how the economy impacted Life during the holidays and into the winter. Kathy is unflinchingly honest, showing a positive attitude that has served her well in managing her successful Cafe over the years. Yet it takes more than a positive attitude to survive your business in New York City and Kathy explains how good financial planning and cultivating her loyal customer base have made all the difference.

mcintron: How did Life do during Christmas? Did you notice any difference between this year and last year? New Year's Eve?

Last Christmas and New Years was alright. In general, we had people trickling in. We noticed that during the Christmas season in New York City in general there seemed to be a lot less people hanging out. But fortunately our business was about the same as the year before, slightly better, but barely. We took advantage of this in Brooklyn when we closed an extra day to refinish our wood floor AND take our usual two-day Christmas break afterwards. In my line of work, every hour closed is money lost. We don’t close much, let me tell you!

mcintron: I imagine things slow down a little bit after the holidays, is that true and did they slow down more than usual, the same, or not at all?

We’re so busy in the summer, that when we hit the height of our slow season, it feels tortuously slow. Yes, we were down incrementally. It was brutally slow in the winter compared to the summer. When we analyzed where we were the slowest in January, interestingly it was Thursday nights. Last year we had a fantastic duo doing a game called Quizzo on Thursday nights. They were politically savvy, very smart and naturally funny, happy guys. They had a huge and wonderfully happy following of friends.

They happened to come in during one of the nights of the presidential debates with a large group of friends. I took notice and approached them to see if they’d consider doing Quizzo at Life Café. It’s a kind of trivia game, but they made their own take on it using current events in the news. They were wonderful and brought so much positive fun and energy to the Café. Well, they just couldn’t keep it up every week after many months and had to stop. Losing them during the winter, even what they did for those couple of hours, had an impact.

But you have to understand, profit and loss – for the small business owner – comes incrementally. At few hundred saved here and there in costs adds up. Several hundred in revenue each week does too. By tending to each little segment, it’s the difference between success or failure, Life or death.

My accountant told me most all of his clients reported the worst January (2010) ever in their business. It wasn’t the worst for me. In fact, we had a record January in our Brooklyn location. It’s because out there we’re paying attention to customers’ needs and expectations in a big way. And that’s because it’s a heck of a lot easier out there where that business is relatively new and you don’t have the intense competition that you do in Manhattan, by virtue of the tremendous number of other eateries and bars stacked on top of one another. And you’re able to address operational issues more easily because the occupancy costs are much more manageable than in Manhattan. Everything you make isn’t going to pay “The Man.”

mcintron: You may have answered this question somewhat when you mentioned in your email to me that the Cafe's are doing well while the E Village is going through the usual 'winter doldrums'. Can I use that quote?

Yes, please do. And while revenues are flat in Manhattan for us, we’ve done a bang up job cutting costs there the past year. That means real success in my mind. Our revenues were down in the single digit percentage point in 2009, thankfully. And I’m watching them approach zero. In other words, we’re catching up, turning sales around bit by bit. It’s an amazing process to see. And I’m very fortunate to have management in place that understands this and makes it happen. They are motivated by every, small, incremental improvement made. I’m pleased they understand this.

I’d say this recession has been beneficial overall for us. We’ve really learned how to knuckle down and make critical decisions and improve how we’re doing business.

mcintron: And to what would you attribute this? I imagine having regular, loyal customers is one of the reasons, and of course, you have the very healthy and popular brunches. I don't want to make assumptions but those would be my guesses.

You guess right. I am thankful everyday for all the loyal customers we have. The brunches are excellent and full of high energy. I’m so pleased our customers enjoy them. And what’s interesting are the celebrities that come in regularly, like Matt Dillon and Patrick McDonald (Launch My Line). Moby came in with a large group the other week and enjoyed one of our vegan dishes, a favorite of his from back in the 80s.

You know, it’s been very hard for me to keep it up after 30 years and I’m the first to admit, we could do better. Besides a personal tiredness, the recession has made me cautious of the eggs I do have in my basket. It’s very chancy right now in Manhattan. I’ve become very cautious and extremely patient before moving ahead with anything. No one knows what the future, near or far, holds. I don’t have the time in front of me to take any more risks like I used to. I have to be realistic.

This winter season, we slowed down like we do every year. Considering how cold the winter has been, we held up rather well. In fact, we’re seeing a slight up tick. Still, we run below breakeven a couple of months each winter. We’re fortunate we had a reserve going in this year. Let me tell you, this helps relieve my stress! And our deliveries have ticked up a bit. People are staying home a lot more and ordering in. We’re at the right price point.

Oh, yes, and we have the right attitude: everyone welcome – good company guaranteed. There’s no pretension, something for everyone, reasonable prices in a safe, friendly environment. During this very difficult time in our history, these intangibles mean everything.