Stay Open For Business And Compete

I live in an upscale city that is known as a destination location. There are lots of restaurants, art galleries, nice shops, etc. This past weekend was graduation weekend for a few local colleges and, of course, there were all sorts of extra people around which means additional commerce, especially for restaurants. I went into town to pick up some food “to go” and while waiting I could not help but notice that one newer restaurant was closed. Not open on Sundays! What were they thinking? How can a restaurant possibly be closed on a Sunday? It seems ridiculous to me.

Earlier in the day I was out with my wife as she was doing some shopping and I was accompanying her as I often do, blogging in the car as she shops. (Thank God for my iPad!) We were heading to the next city and I noticed a furniture store we like and frequent, and it was also closed, this being Sunday. I thought, what was the owner thinking? When else can working people shop if not on weekends? How could either of these establishments be closed on Sunday? It makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

I received a newsletter today from another upscale restaurant we frequent and noticed that they advertise that they’re open seven days a week. This caught my eye because I frequently fly potential clients into my office to visit us and prefer taking them to this restaurant as it is excellent, and have in the past been forced to choose another location on Mondays because they have been closed. Though I disagree with the practice, I understand it; sometimes a business needs at least one day off and Mondays are the preferred day off for restaurants. However, now they are open seven days per week, a good move. Get all the business you can. Figure out how to do it and use your resources as much as possible. Be available for your preferred customers, compete with the others that are open and earn more as it does not cost more fixed overhead to open one more night, just payroll and cost of goods, thus it is a valuable decision.

The other businesses I mentioned have made a decision to forgo revenue and allow the competition to take some of their business away. Why would any business owner make such a decision? I have no idea, but it is the wrong way to go. Simply stated, I would stay open as many hours per day and as many days per week as I could to promote availability to the market and to steal market share from the businesses that chose to close and go home while I stayed open to serve their customers. That’s what I would do. What would you do?

Figure out how to make it work. Don’t just go home and watch TV and let your competitors take your market share for that evening or day. I know, some say there is not enough business on any given day to remain open. To this I reply, build your business, don’t just give in. Market better, use your resources, stay open or your competitor will. And if they don’t, you will take their share of market from them while they sleep in.