Rule #2

Open the door.
Or, if you can't open the door (yet), tell me when it will open and what I'll be able to find at the time.


It's disappointing to see businesses that are uninviting and drab -- the sort of places a new customer doesn't want to bother entering. But I'm talking about something even more basic.
Literally, just open the door.

In Spain, if you walk through a town during siesta or any other time outside of business hours (and there are a lot of times outside of business hours), you'd swear that certain streets must be purely residential, or perhaps all the shops and restaurants have gone out of business. Doorways are blocked by big metal shutters. All the lights are turned off and blinds are drawn. Neon signs are turned off. Not a single "Back in an hour!" sign is hanging on a door. And worse still, even during business hours store after store looked closed.

During a recent trip there, I was constantly encountering difficulty in simply window shopping. I had no idea which businesses were open. I couldn't tell (from the street) what many of them even sold. Very few restaurants placed their menus in the window for future reference -- nor did they indicate when I should return for dinner.

Openness (again, quite literally) should be a key feature of almost any brand. Hiding from your customers just doesn't seem like a good idea. (Maybe with the exception of a ultra-exclusive, members-only, high-end brand).