I spent Labor Day Weekend manning a tent at a three-day art festival, selling my paintings to passersby. In the heat of the weekend (the average temperature was 95 degrees), I was able to connect with many friends and acquaintances and learn about their weekends, as well.
One theme from many of them that struck me was how ill-prepared so many small businesses seemed to be for the long weekend. An example is a local ice cream shop that opened in the past year or so, that is very popular because of the unique way they present the finished desserts. My nephew and his dad went in to get a special treat at 630pm on the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend and were told, “Sorry, we’re out of milk.” And, that was it. No apology for the inconvenience, and no attempt at all to try to keep the customers entertained while somebody ran out to refill their stock. They were just out.
And, that’s just it - not only were the kids and families out the ice cream, but the business was out all of the sales from that evening. And, what they might have failed to recognize is that they lost much more sales than just Sunday’s, because there are definitely many consumers who won’t be returning because of the bad experience. All is takes is one bad experience to turn a person’s opinion sour for a lifetime.
Businesses suffer, and ultimately fail, because of this simple lack of planning. Yes, there should have been plenty of milk going into Labor Day Weekend, but perhaps because this was the first year they were open the owners didn’t fully understand how busy it gets and nobody expected the super high temperatures. However, all excuses aside, there should be procedures in place for when something as simple as milk - the key ingredient to make ice cream- runs out. Somebody should have been to the store and back with loads of milk HOURS before the last drop was poured.
And, this is why Launch Pikes Peak is here. Because so many businesses fail due to lack of simple planning, and then follow-through. We know how busy an entrepreneur is, and that it can be hard to think through every little detail heading into the busiest weekend of the year for an ice cream store, or high season holiday for retail. We get it - details suck the life out of you. But, at Launch we are good at the details. We thrive on thinking through every possible scenario and creating a procedure to react, or better yet - create a procedure to be proactive so every action is taken before an emergency like The Great Milk Run Out of 2019 occurs again.