Inn Economics

[2B]

I really do wonder about some businesses. Money laundering is my explanation for many of them, like the gas station that charges over a dollar more per gallon than it's neighbors, or the restaurant that is open every day but only has customers one night/week. If there's another reason for them to be like that I can't figure it out.

There was a gas station near where I worked several years ago. Their gas was about 50 cents over the competition and I hardly saw anyone there getting gas. There were a number of people that went into the "quickie mart" section to get something. The police raided it one night and busted a thriving drug business.

 

[braumeister]

Almost 3/4 of all new businesses opened in the US will fail in 10 years.

At a previous address, our next door neighbor was a great guy who was in charge of small business lending at a prominent local bank.

While idly chatting one day, I mentioned some suicidally stupid move made by a little local outfit, and my neighbor's response was a smile and "That's why most small businesses stay small."

Slightly up the ladder, I once w*rked for a very small company (16 employees when I joined) where the founder/CEO was simultaneously his own greatest asset and his own worst enemy. Extremely charismatic and a natural salesman, but unable to grasp the concept that someone else could have a better idea about any issue. That company did great for a while, and grew to over 50 employees before imploding in the dot com bust.

What I got out of it is that transition from small company to medium size is just as difficult as from startup to small company.

Al's attempt to nudge the owner into more effective advertising is a perfect case in point.

 

[Nords]

My the write up makes the place sound really nice. If I am ever in Eureka again I'll have to check it out.

I'm not sure there's much competition for the title of "Best inn in Eureka!!"