There’s nothing quite like the simultaneous feeling of genuine shock and resigned inevitability brought on by the realization that your business is going to close.
Perhaps it’s the careful consideration of a lease extension or the slow yet ultimately dramatic changes to the neighborhood that prompt that realization. Maybe it’s mounting debt, cash-flow issues, or just the vagaries of a drinking populace dead set on generational change. Whatever the cause, proprietors eventually will see the need to close the books on a brewery, taproom, bar, restaurant, or retail outlet—even when they can’t imagine a world without it.
In an instant, the memories of build-out and opening—all exciting, exhausting, and exhilarating—flow into those initial feelings of true staff camaraderie. Next come the moments that made you recognize a bourgeoning team-wide commitment to excellence, culminating in the creation of truly memorable experiences for your guests. You remind yourself that—even before the pandemic wreaked havoc on our industry—20 percent of businesses never make it past one year of operation, 50 percent don’t make it beyond the five-year mark. Yet it’s a struggle to focus on the present before finding a way to the future.