I wrote a blog post once, entitled The sandwich shop that closed for lunch. Of course, it was just a title. In reality, no shop owner would close during their busiest period.

Actually, it turns out they would!

Here’s what happened, along with a useful lesson and a free resource.

The gift shops that closed for Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, I visited a local shopping area. I quickly noticed that lots of the shops didn’t bother to open. Amazingly, this included several gift shops… gift shops that closed for Christmas Eve!

The town was packed with Christmas shoppers and the shops that did open, were doing brisk business, with queues everywhere. I have never seen so many shoppers there.

It makes perfect sense to have a break, relax and close the doors after the festive rush. However, to close them the day before the busiest shopping day of the year, shows a jaw-dropping lack of commercial acumen.

Sale time!

This morning, I noticed one of the gift shops that closed on Christmas Eve, was open. They had a huge sale on. Merchandise, which the business owner could have sold at full retail price just 2 days ago, was being offered at up to 50% off. Ironically, the town was almost empty.

I know the business owner quite well and asked why he had closed on such a busy day. His answer was that he always closed on the 23rd. He then went on to complain that he hadn’t made a sale all morning and how bad trade had been this Christmas!

The lesson here

The worst reason to carry on doing anything, is because we have always done things that way.

Here’s an alternative approach: Why not use today, as an opportunity to look for any areas of our business, where we can make improvements? Usually, the best places to start looking are the areas of our business, which we tend to take for granted.

PS: This should help you. Here are 15 Powerful ideas to help you grow your business!