Thinking of moving to an ‘open all hours’ business model? While there can be many advantages to operating a 24/7 business, running such a business comes with added challenges. Below are some tips on how to run a successful 24 hour business.
Make sure there’s a demand
Before switching to a 24 hour business model, consider your purpose for doing so. Can you truly benefit from opening hours enough to afford the extra costs and make a larger return?
There are a few possible motives for switching to a 24 hour business model. A few examples are below:
You want to take on international clients in different time zones. Communicating with these clients could be much easier when running a 24 hour business.
You provide a service that people may still need to use at night. While it may not be necessary to provide your service at night, it could set you apart and help you win extra business. Examples include convenience stores, gas stations, emergency plumbers, breakdown services and locksmiths.
You find that there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done that needs to be done. While you may stop serving customers at night and on weekdays, it could still be a chance to sort out admin. For example, large superstores and warehouses use the night to carry out cleaning and organizing stock.
Listen to your customers and employees when it comes to switching to a 24 hour business model - if they are urging you to stay open later, this could be a sign that there’s a demand there.
Learn the art of rota building
Managing a 24/7 business means having to manage staff working around the clock. Obviously, you cannot have staff working 24 hours per day, so you need to establish shifts. You could have employees working set shifts, or you could provide flexible shifts that change every week so that different employees get to work different shifts.
In each case, you’ll need to build a rota to help organize all of these shifts. This involves making sure that everyone is getting enough hours and that all shifts are covered. At the same time, this rota needs to fit around everyone’s needs and preferences - which is the difficult part. Rotas can be shared digitally via WhatsApp or specific company apps. It could be worth doing some research into successful rota building tips or even taking a course/workshop.
Offer incentives to work night shifts
Most people don’t want to work night shifts. Even if the workload is reduced at night, it is still unnatural and unsociable to work at night.
To encourage people to take up shifts at night, many companies have to offer incentives that make it worthwhile. This typically involves extra pay or providing extra luxuries to boost morale. If employees are eager to work night shifts, it’s clear that you’re doing something right.
Hire remotely
A lot of office jobs can be done from any location. This means that you don’t necessarily have to keep your physical office open all hours - you may be able to have employees working at night from home. Some employees may find that this is easier to fit around commitments like raising kids.
There’s also the option of hiring remote workers in different time zones (which could include different countries). If you need an employee to communicate with clients in Asia, why not hire an employee based in Asia? This could be more convenient than hiring someone based locally to work night shifts.
Outsource support
Some companies that operate 24/7 with reduced services are able to rely on outsourcing when it comes to handling work out of normal working hours. For example, some companies close their offices at night but keep a phone line open all hours by outsourcing a 24/7 phone answering company to take calls for them.
Outsourcing could also come in use when it comes to tasks like security and HR - the workload of which can be increased by switching to 24 hour working operation. Rather than having to hire in-house IT specialists to work around the clock, it may make more sense to use managed IT services. Outsourced HR services can meanwhile be used to provide a 24 hour point of contact for employees or for helping with tasks like rota building.
Know when to schedule maintenance
Many companies like restaurants and offices schedule maintenance tasks like cleaning and repairs out of working hours so that they do not disrupt work. If your business is open 24/7 and constantly serving clients, you won’t be able to do this and will need to find a way of scheduling maintenance around serving clients.
This typically involves scheduling maintenance during your quietest periods. For example, an all night convenience store may find that they receive fewer clients between 3am and 5am. This could be the best time to carry out the tasks that would usually be done upon closing like cleaning and counting cash.