There is a big difference between an employee and an owner of a business.
A prime example of that would be coffee shops and restaurants.
I know someone who used to work for one of the big high street chain coffee shops who would always moan about people coming in to order drinks and food during the last half hour of the day as they were preparing to close.
She would often avoid going into other people’s coffee shops close to closing time because she didn’t want to be ‘that person’ who annoyed her and the rest of the staff.
The reason she and the rest of the staff used to get annoyed is that the chain that she worked for, didn’t give them long to clean down after a busy shift and prepare for the following morning.
There was a long list of things to do and as soon as the day ended, they were to vacate the store as soon as possible.
They were given half an hour to clean up at the end of the day which was not long enough and they were not paid to stay behind any longer, so I can understand why they resented people coming in and ordering food and drinks when they were trying to clean and wind down for the day.
The problem is that the opening times are serving times and if they say they are open to 8pm, then the company expects its staff to serve drinks up to that time.
I do think it is a little unfair that the staff are not given a decent time to clean up and prepare for the following day and are not paid to stay behind longer, but that is their choice and it is what it is.
As an employee of that company, the staff do not want to be staying behind to clear away and prepare for the following day if they are not getting paid to do it.
After all, they don’t see their work as their ‘baby’ in the same way many business owners do.
They want to be cleaning during the time they are getting paid and so when the end of the day is closing in, the last thing they want is an influx of people wanting to be served.
I understand that…. But unfortunately for them, it is what it is.
It is different if you are the owner of the establishment.
The other day, Andi, our remote worker in Portugal, went to a small coffee shop with less than half an hour to go.
It is not a big chain store and the two people working there are partners in the business.
There was no one in the coffee shop as Andi and his good lady arrived, they were clearing up for the day and winding down.
Thinking that they would only get a quick drink because they were ‘those people’ who turned up late, they were pleasantly surprised when they were offered the food menus.
They ordered something to eat and a couple of drinks. They finished their food and drinks on the dot the store should have locked its doors.
As their plates were taken away, they were asked if they wanted dessert.
“Don’t you need to close now?” They asked.
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“It’s ok,” replied the person serving them.
They ordered two choc brownies with ice cream and strawberries, which they finished within five minutes. They paid up and left leaving the owners to close up and finish for the day.
The coffee shop had stayed open for no more than an extra ten minutes but because of that, they had taken an extra £30 in sales.
They were able to serve and use up food which could spoil as they were closed the following the day.
The fact that they were welcoming and willing to serve beyond their closing time meant they earned more money.
Obviously, they cannot stay open for hours after closing time, they have family to go home to and lives to live, but the whole point of a business is to make money and as owners, they were not going to miss out on a few extra pounds by being inflexible and insisting that customers had to be out of the door by time of close.
The employee who worked for the coffee shop chain here in the UK had said that some staff would even tell people that the coffee machines were turned off and throw people out of the store before the official closing time.
As much as I sympathise with their problem of not wanting to get stuck cleaning up at the end of the day and not being paid for it, if staff in stores all across the UK chased customers away before they actually closed, they are losing the company a lot of money.
I’m not going to lie, I think the idea of owning and running a coffee shop or any kind of place selling drinks and food is a nightmare.
There is far more hard work than what I am prepared to do.
Also, the profits are small compared to what I make selling information products.
Where coffee shops make pennies on each cup of coffee, I make pounds on the manuals I sell.
Yes, they may sell more cups of coffee than the number of manuals I sell, but they need to sell a lot to match what I earn and all of those coffees need to be served by staff.
If I decided to sell just eBooks and online digital products instead, I wouldn’t need any staff at all.
With digital products such as eBooks, there are no physical materials required. No ink and no paper.
A cup of coffee needs a coffee machine, a cup, a spoon, coffee, water, possibly milk and sugar, and someone to make and serve it.
Digital products need nothing once they are online and ready to be bought other than a platform to sell them from, and thanks to companies such as Amazon, Gumroad, Warrior Plus, and Payhip, you don’t even need to have your own website.
EBooks don’t even have to be long either. I have seen people publish stories that are no longer than 15,000 words. The shortest stories are often just 2,500 words long.
They can be written in a day or two.
The ones I have seen were not brilliantly written either, but the authors were making money selling those eBooks for £2.99 or more.
This is something that I think more people can do as a way to make money without a lot of hard work or expense.
Learn more here:
eBook Publishing From Home
Kind Regards
John Harrison
PS… EBooks are not hard to create and there are no limits to how many you can create (have created) and sell, especially if you create a lot of short easy-to-read eBooks.
The more eBooks you have listed for sale means you have a greater opportunity to earn more.
Here’s that link again: