Always the last one out of your business in the evening? Why? It doesn't have to be this way.

Hey there,

Are you always the last one out for your business? Why?

Closing for business is an activity that is even more underrated than opening. We really don't think about it. More often than not everyone (including the boss) seems desperate just to stop work and get away.

But what if you did think about it? What if you designed the way your business day ends on purpose? What if you designed it to maximise the benefits of an evening or weekend off for your team and yourself? What if you designed it so it could actually make starting up the next day easier? What if you designed it so that it doesn't always have to be you that tidies up after everyone else?

That's what this newsletter is about - designing the way your business ends it's day on purpose. To do that we need to cover:

• What does it mean for your business to be 'Closed for Business'?
• When does everything and everyone switch to 'Closed for Business'?
• Who should do the work of 'Closing for Business'?

Depending on your business, there can be a lot more to closing for the day than simply reversing your actions of the morning - flipping the sign from 'Open' to 'Closed', locking up and leaving.

So, what does it really mean to be Closed for Business?

Some questions to get you thinking:

• How do clients know you're closed?
• How will you deal with 'Out of hours' questions and enquiries?
• What could be done before you leave for the day to ensure that opening up tomorrow is as straightforward as it can be?
• What needs to happen before you leave to ensure that everyone can forget about work until the next morning?

As always, examples help. We'll use the indie gift shop from the previous Newsletter:

How do clients know you're closed?:

• The A-board is inside the shop
• The shop door is closed
• The door sign has been turned from 'Open' to 'Closed'

How will you deal with 'Out of hours' questions and enquiries?:

• all phones are diverted to an automated answering service.

What could be done before you leave for the day to ensure that opening up tomorrow is as straightforward as it can be?:

• All merchandise is in the right display
• All displays are tidy

What needs to happen before you leave to ensure that everyone can forget about work until the next morning?:

• all outstanding web orders have been dealt with
• cash has been banked
• rubbish has been put outside for collection
• the heating is off
• lights are off
• the door is locked

For an office-based business, such as our virtual office service:

How do clients know you're closed?:

• all phones are diverted to an automated answering service.

How will you deal with 'Out of hours' questions and enquiries?:

• all phones are diverted to an automated answering service.

What could be done before you leave for the day to ensure that opening up tomorrow is as straightforward as it can be?:

• All desks are tidy and clear of sensitive client information
• All crockery is in the dishwasher
• The dishwasher programme has been turned on to run overnight

What needs to happen before you leave to ensure that everyone can forget about work until the next morning?:

• everyone knows what they plan to work on in the morning.
• rubbish has been put outside for collection
• the heating is off
• lights are off
• the alarm is set
• the door is locked

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Now it's your turn.

As before, to help you, I've created another checklist template for you to copy and download, this time for 'Close for Business'. I've kept these sheets separate to avoid confusion since it may not be the same Role or Roles, that carry out each activitiy.

Ready?

Step 1) Think through what it means to be 'Closed for Business':

Make a list of the things that need to be true in order for all of the following questions to be answered for your business:

• How do clients know you're closed?
• How will you deal with 'Out of hours' questions and enquiries?
• What needs to happen before you leave for the day to ensure that opening up tomorrow is as straightforward as it can be?
• What needs to happen before you leave to ensure that everyone can forget about work until the next morning?

Now for each item on this list, turn the thing that must be true into a task to be done.

For example, 'The A-board is inside the shop' becomes 'Bring the A-board inside the shop'; 'All phones are diverted to an automated answering service.' becomes 'Divert all phones to the answering service'

Add this doing phrase as the name in the 'Task' column of your 'Close for Business' spreadsheet.

Then, put how you carry out the task into the 'How to do it' column. This doesn't need to be too detailed, something like 'bring the A-board in, and store it behind the shop counter' would be enough.

Next, estimate the amount of time it will take to do each item on the list. Assume it's all going to work as expected. The aim is for the checklist to be reasonably quick to do. We're talking minutes here.

Add this to the 'How long it should take' column.

Step 2) Think through when your business needs to 'Close'?

The important thing to remember here, is that just as everything you need to do to be open for business has to be done BEFORE clients start calling, everything that needs to be done to close up must wait until AFTER you are closed to clients.

To spell it out, right up until the time you say you close, you have to be open and ready to serve clients or customers:

• Someone and/or something needs to be available to serve them.
• Your product or service needs to be available for them to buy or use.
• Your space needs to be attractive and safe for them to enter.
• Everything you and your team might need to deliver the service must be in place, and up and running.

Have you ever been into a cafe that says it's open until 5pm, but has all the chairs on the table and nothing to serve at 4pm? Have you ever snatched time from the end of your working day to attend an exhibition, only to find nearly all the stands cleared and the people gone?

There is nothing more frustrating as a customer than to find that the business that promised to be open when you want it, isn't.

Fortunately, the preventive for this kind of customer frustration is simple.

If it takes an hour to close up, and you only want to pay people up to 5pm, close your business to clients at 4pm, and advertise that fact, so everyone knows.

Step 3) Make sure your Open for business times, reflect what really needs to happen.

So, now you have an idea of how long it actually takes to properly 'Close for Business' adjust the times on your Open for Business and Close for Business checklists to reflect this reality:

Your working day probably doesn't change, but your opening hours for Clients might well be different from what you originally thought.

Add in your new values to the 'We open for Clients at:' and 'We close for Clients at:' fields of the spreadsheet.

Allowing time to properly set up and wind down your business doesn't just benefit customers or clients, it also benefits you and your team:

• You all get time to properly prepare for the next day and make the job easier tomorrow:
  • to re-stock shelves, fridges, printers
  • to clean and tidy the van, or your desk
  • to physically and mentally clear your desk'
  • to be mindful of the day's activities, reflect on what went well, what could be improved and what you want to focus on tomorrow.
• You all get time and headspace to properly wind down from the working day so you can properly switch off before leaving.

Plus it still leaves opportunities to delight the occasional client who calls or arrives 'out of hours' with an urgent problem. Just make sure this is the exception, not the rule.

Step 4) Think through who can do the work of 'Closing'

I'm betting that at the moment, just as you are the first person in in th emorning, you are the last out in the evening. And if anyone is checking off your list of things that need to happen in order to stop serving clients and close up for the day, it's you.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

Now you've written down what needs to happen to close up, your team can share the work of getting ready for tomorrow. Even better, some of them at least, can do it instead of you.

All you need to decide now is who?

Here are the questions to ask yourself?

• Should one Role Close for Business every day? If so, which Role?
  • Could it be whoever leaves last?
  • Could people take it in turns?
  • Could you have a rota?
• Or, could you split the list? Do some of the tasks fit with certain Roles rather than others?
  • For example, could one Role take care of 'Closing to Clients', and another do the final 'Closing up'?
• Or are some of these tasks done by everyone, as and when they finish for the day? E.g.
  • 'Tidy desk', 'put mug in dishwasher', 'decide what to focus on tomorrow', are all tasks that could be done by each person, regardless of their Role.

Whatever you decide, put the Role name into the 'Responsible Role' column of the spreadsheet against each Task.

And that’s it.

Here’s what you learned today:

• You can design the way your end your business day on purpose, to maximise the benefits of an evening or weekend off for your team and yourself, and to make starting the next day even easier.
• When you close for business isn't written in stone. You can choose whatever works for you, your team and your clients. Just remember to make sure your clients know the hours you are open for them. And remember that if you expect your team to be there after you close, they need to be paid.
• When you capture this as a simple checklist, you can get other people to do it instead of you. That doesn't have to mean offloading it all onto one person, you can be creative about sharing the load by taking turns, or splitting responsibilities across Roles.

What's more, once you've defined how your business opens and closes, you've started to get everyone used to the idea of following simple, flexible processes. Processes that actually makes everyone's lives easier.

So, if you haven't already created your Open for Business checklist, do it now, following the instructions in the last Newsletter.

If you have, why not have a go with your Close for Business checklist?

And if you'd like a quick review of anything you've done, or you'd like to discuss any of your ideas, book a quick 20-minute chat with me. I'll be happy to help.

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Thanks for reading!

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