[caption id=“attachment_561” align=“alignright” width=“300” caption=“The cafe in question. It's pretty good (though the caramel latte could of received one extra stir of the spoon)”][/caption]

I’m sitting in a cafe writing this blog post, in the extremely busy and especially nice town of Margaret River. It’s the time of year that many tourists flood the town of 12,000 people and the local retailers are sure to benefit from the onslaught of visitors to the town.

The cafe is currently turning people away because their front door sign says they close at 4pm. I’ve seen them knock back at least 20 people who would spend approximately $10 each, not mentioning those that didn’t come in because it looked like it was closing.

My opinion is that if you would take hold of the opportunity and stay open until the customers stop, not when the sign says 4pm. Customers after that time may notice this and think of themselves as receiving special service and being served and buying what you want to buy, opposed to being knocked back, is an overly positive experience - a dark contrast to the disappointed faces I saw leaving the cafe in the last hour I’ve been sitting here.

What’s your opinion? What kind of business and culture does it create to run your business “by the book” everyday or do you think that a looser operation is not favourable?

All of the great things in my life have come when I’ve read the book, closed the book, then gone out and done something crazy and opportunistic.

Comment and leave your thoughts.