January...

January is a horrible time of year. It's right after the consumerist holidays and it's budgeting time for a lot of different people. Money's tight even without the economic mudslide.

Even though a liquor establishment will always do well no matter the economy; sometimes it gets slow. It'll get slow just long enough for people to get used to their new financial limits and then it will pick back up again. This could take a couple weeks or it could take a few months but it always goes back to how it was before. Some establishments try to make it easier and offer drinks specials and some just plow through it like nothing's in their way.

The ones that like to plow through it tend to either cut hours or cut man power just to help themselves through it all. I for one don't like the idea of either one, especially when it comes to my hours or my man power. I like being fully staffed and I like keeping my people at their maximum hours so they don't think about looking for work elsewhere.

Coming from a business point of view, I'm fully supportive of drink specials and coming up with ideas to get people interested. It helps bring in new people and it helps to keep my man power and hours right where I like them or even a little more. As it looks now, I might have to cut a couple shifts only due to it not being busy enough to deem it necessary for all the guys.

The thing that perplexes me is how the establishment doesn't want to do anything to get people in the door. They don't want drink specials and they don't want to bring in any entertainment. They just want to rest on the club's reputation for being a good time. Which doesn't seem so appropriate anymore considering no one's here.

I've heard that they've recently obtained a guy to do online advertising and promotions. My question is, "What is he going to advertise or promote if there's no entertainment?"

It might possibly be a sinking ship at this point. But like a Captain, I'll ride it down until I find a life boat to skip off in.