We're going on our second year, and I've been crunching some numbers. We are open 7am-6pm, and I'm starting to realize that we really only make $30-40/hour after 4pm. So I'm thinking about closing at 4pm, but I'm a little scared of turning away potential customers. But I've got to think about the bottom line. My labor rate is a touch high I believe from these slow hours bringing up the average. I currently have two shifts/day, 6:30-12:30 and 12-6:30. I am thinking of moving those to 6:30-12:30 and 10:30-4:30, so same amount of labor, but more overlap meaning potentially better ability to handle more customers.
My question is what is your philosophy about being open? Do you think it's better to maximize all hours, or take the bad with the good and average it all out?
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