Wednesday Wisdom: Reopening Sights

Friday night in bustling New York City, with pop-up outside dining cubicles adorned with white hanging lights, live plants, and candles lit our way down old, cobblestone side streets in the West Village. After leaving a 7-course sushi restaurant with only 24 person capacity, it was easy to tell pandemic restrictions were both in place and being lifted. What hasn’t changed is the electricity in the air on a busy, warm, blustery end-of-work week tradition eating out in the heart of the Soho.

Governor Cuomo’s lifting of restrictions for restaurants, pubs, and breweries were evident and yet rules were still being followed with temperature checks at the maître de station, providing contact information for tracing, and sitting in a 4-person pod with a see-through barrier between our party and the next. Did any of this continuing safety precautions change the buzz in the air? No and it was amazing to see New York City so vibrant again.

May is a month of blooming floral trees, lemon-lime colored tree leaves, singing birds, and fresh breaths of air as nature comes back to life in its most brilliant hues ready to stimulate our senses – even our noses and eyes with pollen. May 2021 is the month when WE come back to life after a year or more of closures. As we inch out again, one step or Friday night at a time, we embrace the familiar freedom, sights and sounds that went dim a year ago.

How will your clients or community know you are also transitioning safely from Covid times to “the good ole days” prior to March 2020? Are you allowing customers back into regular event spaces, announcing your reopening on social media, or even taking out a big bold billboard with lights and sounds showing your plans? Beautiful colored plants don’t need marketing to showcase their happenings, but women entrepreneurs do – even if it is a slow roll-out as you tenderly dip your toes back into the “we are open” waters.

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to illuminate what is happening in cities like the Big Apple, where life isn’t as bad as the media makes it out to be and to trust the community is ready to visit again and engage in familiar actions. They won’t know you are opening up again, if you don’t keep sharing your plans with them via direct marketing, mailings, social media shout-outs, or even phone calls. If you can hang an open sign for all to see, you’ll start reawakening your audience to purchase your products and services.

Stop and smell one of those beautiful flowering trees or visit New York City or some other large city to be inspired on ways to attract attention and business.