{"id":766,"date":"2009-11-01T19:20:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-01T19:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/?p=766"},"modified":"2014-08-27T07:47:08","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T12:47:08","slug":"tips-for-setting-business-hours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2009\/11\/tips-for-setting-business-hours.html","title":{"rendered":"Tips for setting business hours"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every so often, we feature common small business mistakes, so you can learn from them.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/bjmccray\/4065409374\/\" title=\"Business Hours by bjmccray, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Business Hours Friday 12 to 5, Saturday 10 to 4\" height=\"180\" src=\"https:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2584\/4065409374_07288372a4_m.jpg\" width=\"240\"><\/a>Lots of small business make a mistake in setting and keeping their business hours.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s an example from a retail business, open only 11 hours per week. But hey, they do say you can call and they&#8217;ll come open up. This may be more common in small towns, where we&#8217;re more informal. It&#8217;s still a mistake. How many potential customers are you turning away?<\/p>\n<p>Two years ago, I wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2007\/09\/common-small-business-mistakes-setting.html\">a couple of other local business<\/a>, one with inconsistent hours that were always changing and one that wasn&#8217;t always open when it said it would be. <\/p>\n<p>The tips on setting business hours that I offered in 2007 are just as good today. <\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Think about your target customers when you set your hours. Ask them when they want you to be open.<\/li>\n<li>Set an incredibly easy to understand schedule.<\/li>\n<li>Publicize your business hours in all the media you use.<\/li>\n<li>Be open when you say you will. Open on time, and don&#8217;t close early.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I know, emergencies will occur, but do your best!<\/p>\n<p><i>New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2006\/05\/tour-of-small-biz-survival_29.html\"> Guided Tour<\/a>. Like what you see? <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/get-updates.html\">Get our updates<\/a>. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every so often, we feature common small business mistakes, so you can learn from them. Lots of small business make a mistake in setting and keeping their business hours. Here&#8217;s an example from a retail business, open only 11 hours per week. But hey, they do say you can call and they&#8217;ll come open up. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,17],"tags":[49],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=766"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5163,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/766\/revisions\/5163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}