One of the coolest things about our small business is that it has grown primarily from happy customers spreading the word. As you can imagine, many of our customers employ part-time people that change jobs often, work at multiple restaurants and also at other businesses that are not restaurants. Over the years we’ve welcomed many customers that are not restaurants and a big reason for this is because people take it with them when they start working in/on other kinds of businesses. Every month we get new trials coming in with comments like “I used you guys for years at restaurant abc, and think it will be perfect for scheduling trainers at the cross fit gym I’ve opened.” And since Schedulefly is so simple, they are right – it almost always works well for them and we are happy to serve them.
So if I had to guesstimate, I’d say roughly 10% of our customers are not restaurants…which would currently be around 700 businesses and growing. These businesses are in every industry under the sun that schedules employees. We serve some really cool small businesses out there – like Dogwalks Dog Care in San Fransisco. They schedule dog walkers, day care and office staff. It’s a great looking business and we are proud to serve them. Another cool one is the Toronto Star Newspaper, which is one of the highest circulating newspapers in Canada. They schedule more than 200 editors and reporters and news desk staff. They’ve been using Schedulefly for almost 10 years! That’s amazing. And the list goes on…fun parks, retirement communities, gas stations etc. But the main reason for this post was to call out a few industries we serve that, like independent restaurants, are sort of a sub-culture where word spreads within the industry once the first happy customer is served. And here they are…
Hemp shops
Yes, weed shops. For no specific reason – we are starting to serve more and more businesses on the west coast that sell marijuana. They have great names like Kush Alley and they schedule bud-tenders instead of bartenders. I was recently telling a buddy about some of our customers and he recommended a version of Schedulefly just for these businesses called “ScheduleHigh”. It’s actually a fantastic idea, but of course we will leave that idea to someone else to bring to life.
Breweries
Wow, breweries are popping up everywhere, in cities all over the U.S. We seem to get a new brewery customer every week and we are making some great relationships with people in this industry. Once such example is Abita Brewing company. They were so happy with our customer service that they mailed Hank a 6-pack of assorted Abita beers. How bout that! I think he felt obligated to drink them that afternoon, because I never saw one.
Golf Courses
Now this is one I love, being an avid golfer. We serve a bunch of golf and country clubs. Of course, many of these have a food and beverage schedule – but we also help them schedule golf pros and maintenance crews etc. If there was one industry that I’d love to spin off a more focused version of Schedulefly it would be golf clubs. But whenever I actually give that any serious thought, I quickly realize it would mean more work and less golf. So golf courses…come as we are!
Ski Lodges
This is one that it dear to Wil’s heart. He is a avid skier and really enjoys chatting with the owners and staff at these lodges out west to hear about their business and the current mountain conditions…enticing him to hop on a plane for a few days to go “visit” some customers. Actually I think that’s the only reason any of us at SF have traveled in the last 10 years. To ski.
Hotels
There are so many amazing independent boutique hotels in our country and it’s fun to see them trickle in as customers and to read about their amenities. I’m a bit of a sucker for amenities and fancy any chance I get to write code in a plush bathrobe and slippers. Again – there is a food and beverage angle with many of these having restaurants and bars inside – but we also see many schedules related to room service, events, concierges, meetings and roof-top pools. One of my personal favorites is the NoMad Hotel – in NYC and LA. I love this short film the NY location made. If it doesn’t make you want to go there, it means you didn’t watch it.
https://vimeo.com/45972893
We love our focus at Schedulefly and will never change it – but it is really cool to be right for many other kinds of businesses too.
Wes