Most car valeters are brilliant at winning a customer once and hopeless at getting them back. That’s the whole problem in a nutshell, and it’s a proper shame, because the real money is in the fifth wash, the tenth, the one next March. The first wash is the easy one. Someone spots your van, catches…
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Your dry-cleaning customer rushes in on a Friday, drops off a suit and three shirts, takes the little paper ticket, promises to collect “Tuesday-ish”, and then vanishes into the fog of modern life. The clothes are pressed and bagged by Monday. They sit on the rail, and they wait…. And wait…. Meanwhile you are making…
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Right, let’s talk about the best-kept secret in British golf: your driving range does not go quiet in winter. It goes the other way!! While the member down the road stares out at a waterlogged course and cancels his fourball, your heated bays and Toptracer screens are the only game in town. The weather that…
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Picture the next six weeks. Your diary is a wall of back-to-back bookings, every bed is warm, the spray tent is running from open to close, and the till is very happy indeed!! Party season has arrived and every customer in town wants a glow before the Christmas do, the New Year bash, and the…
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Here is a typical Friday-night for every music venue owner: the gig sells out, the bar is three deep, the room is electric, and you are still one very quiet Tuesday away from a knot in your stomach. Live music is the best job in the world and the most nerve-shredding business on the high…
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Picture it: It is the second week of January, and your mats are packed. Twenty new starters who got a gi for Christmas, three dads reliving their glory days, a handful of nervous teenagers, and that one bloke who has “always wanted to try this.” Signup sheets everywhere. The energy is unreal. Now picture the…
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Here is the thing about running an independent opticians: You have one of the most beautifully predictable businesses on the high street. Someone walks in, gets an eye test, buys glasses, and then science itself more or less guarantees they will need you again in roughly two years. The NHS even recommends an eye test…
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Let’s be honest about the current state of padel in Britain: you could fling a racket out of your clubhouse window and hit a waiting list. The sport has gone from niche import to national obsession in about the time it takes to lose a tie-break, and if you run a padel club right now,…
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Let’s start with the thing you already know in your gut… That gorgeous Cockapoo you spent two hours de-matting last Tuesday, the one whose owner gushed “you’re a miracle worker” and tipped you a tenner? There’s a decent chance you will never see that dog again. Not because you did anything wrong. Because the owner…
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We are now mid-October and the diary starts looking like a game of Tetris! Every regular wants a full set before the office party, their mum’s “do”, the New Year’s Eve thing and the Boxing Day family photos. Then on the day, two of them “forget”, one texts “so sorry hun, can we move it?”…
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