If you are new to the restaurant business then you have an important decision to make. You have to decide whether or not it is beneficial for your restaurant to stay open for Thanksgiving Day. You can be sure that your staff will not be happy with having to work on a holiday if you decided to keep your doors open. It may cost you more pay due to labor laws. Your cost for food will increase because Thanksgiving meal items are typically more expensive. However, for many businesses, this is one of the busiest and most profitable days of the year. So how do you decide if it is worthwhile for you to stay open or if you simply need to take the day off and enjoy it with your loved ones?

The first thing you need to do is find out if there are any other places that are going to be open. If you discover that all your competitiors will be closed for the day, them you can assume that it stands to reason that they have established the day is not profitable enough. If you have too many places open for business, it could also hurt your profitability. You have to get a good feel of who is open, what their prices are like, what they are serving and what would make you stand out on Thanksgiving day.

Your second factor to consider is whether or not you can acquire enough staff. If you are as busy as many places are then you will need the ability to handle the business. This can only happen if you have the restaurant properly staffed. You will find that your staff is not necessarily happy about working on Thanksgiving. While you can schedule them and attempt to make them work, you cannot force them to show up. Of course you could let them go, but that will not help your Thanksgiving needs. So you need to know ahead of time that your staff will be there and that you can afford to pay them.

That brings up the third issue. Do you have the necessary resources that will allow you to stay open on Thanksgiving? Thanksgiving Dinner can be pricey. The turkey alone can get quite expensive. If you are serving a buffet style, it can be even more costly. So before you can decide if you are going to open, you will need to examine the choices for food and other items and ensure that your budget can handle it.

If you do decide to open on Thanksgiving, you can use this opportunity to establish yourself as a great place for Thanksgiving Dinner. Come up with your own take on standard holiday fare and give your customers something to remember. If you open, make sure that you can handle a possible loss for a day. As a new business it could happen and you do not want one day to cost you the restaurant you have worked so hard on. If you have the business you hoped for then enjoy it and begin planning next year a little sooner this time.

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