INSIGHT
Monthly Success Newsletter May 2021 Edition
A Difference Between You And Your Competitors – Sunday Hours A Message From Our CEO, Charles J. Bonfiglio A question was recently asked to me by Xan Owens of Gilroy, CA (Store 045) about Sunday hours for her store. It got me thinking about my time as a franchise store owner and how my Sunday hours were able to help me differentiate from my competitors and maximize my growth. There is no set answer of “Yes, everyone should be open on Sundays!” because in all reality it may not make sense for your store to be open on Sundays – BUT – if you do start opening on Sundays, you should stick with it! Soon enough, your customers will learn about your Sunday hours, and I guarantee you will be able to count on them coming in. Summer is right around the corner and that means it is going to be busy, busy, busy! Giving yourself, and your staff, an added day of productivity, can help manage those incoming sales and turn products around faster. If you’re thinking about opening on Sundays, also consider keeping your store open, twice a week, an extra hour in the morning or evening as well as split shift for early opening staff and late closing staff. You don’t need every employee at the business all the time. It’s best to have a full staff during busy times and have an overlap between the early and late shifts. Here is a sample employee shift schedule I made as a business owner which I think can be very helpful: Employee Shift Schedule Each employee can work 5 days and then rotate to have AT LEAST two employees on during the first few Sundays you’re open. Adding 2 extra hours a day to your store will also give you 20 additional productivity hours to your work week without any additional fixed expenses increase. Typically for Sunday hours I would suggest opening from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Depending on the area, Sundays may be more of a later-rush kind of crowd. It will be people who are heading out for Sunday errands or coming back from Church. It’s important that before you decide to open on Sundays, you look at your local area to see if/how this will work. Since your local area won’t know about the new Sunday hours, it would be smart to run a social media awareness campaign, to help get the word out. Having a local car show on Sundays is another great way to get people to stop by on a day they typically wouldn’t!It can only take a few Sundays to really learn how to optimize your sales, and now is the time to start thinking about this. Getting the word out now about Sunday hours will put you in the best position to differentiate from your competitors before the summer season heats up!
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