The Best Restaurants in Lubbock Are Not Closing

I have no idea why a recent restaurant's closing was presented as big news.

It's sad when any local business closes. It sucks and that's the end of that. Let's get into this, though.

First, I had never heard of the restaurant that closed. When I looked it up, I saw it was located in the same location as a previous restaurant that failed. In fact, it served up the same type of food. That, to me, would be a warning sign, because the restaurant before was very well known, but just could not generate traffic at that location.

The bottom line is, you can have the best product in the world and you still need advertising. I'm not just talking about buying airtime; some businesses are able to make word of mouth work. If you go that route, you better be stellar at all times and be able to wait for the word to get out. You also need to be lucky and hope that someone else in your category doesn't build better or even competing word of mouth.

Next: Business Openings and Closings in Lubbock

All of this gets amplified in a coronavirus environment. If the average family isn't going out as much, you need to make sure they think of you when they're in the mood. Folks who are pulling back at this time are going to be crushed by those who stepped forward.

I'm dealing with this same issue in the expansion of my business in Austin. My partner and I are on the fence about opening in 2021 or 2022 based on our available advertising budget. We flat-out know we have to get the word out or we're going to be a huge dud.

So the point here was not to sell you advertising, but to let you know that it's not all gloom and doom out there. In some cases, it's just a poor business plan, and coronavirus just accelerated what was probably inevitable. In other words, you guys should remember that before COVID-19, restaurants were also folding as quick as they opened around here.