Restaurants: Now’s The Time To Plan For Fall Profits A Great Awning-Covered Outdoor Space Is A Money Maker Nothing beats dining in the great Colorado outdoors. So why don’t more restaurants offer outdoor dining to their customers? Many do – and the restaurants that do outdoor dining right make a lot of money with it. Some restaurants make an effort at opening up a dining patio, but don’t really think it through… they toss some high-top tables and cheap umbrellas out there, and soon find customers complaining when a Colorado wind storm or rain cloud passes by. Before long, they’re right back to keeping a waiting list for customers who overflow their limited indoor seating. Still others don’t [...]

Springtime In Colorado: In Like A Lion Today’s Best Awnings Can Protect Themselves From The Wind Let’s shoot the breeze about a subject that gets a surprising amount of “air” time here in the Rocky Mountain West. I’m referring, of course, to the wind. According to The Denver Post, it’s not unusual for the Colorado Front Range region (including the Denver area, and particularly the western suburbs) to experience winds of 100 miles per hour (or more) at times during the stormy seasons. Citing information from the Colorado State University Climate Center, the Post notes that, while often presented in the form of brief gusts, strong (and even severe) “down slope winds” are common when air [...]

Do Retractable Awnings Work? You bet they do! But you need a good product, professionally installed. A good retractable awning is designed to operate reliably to enhance the comfort and beauty of your outdoor space, whether at home, your office “break area,” or your restaurant’s outdoor dining space.  Some of the best recent designs include weather-sensing technology which can close the awning during damaging wind storms, even if you’re away from home. And with the variety of awning products available today, you can have everything from a standard retractable deck awning, to a simple sun shade, to a retractable pergola cover, to a fully-enclosed outdoor “room.”  Awnings also form an excellent investment. They add value to the property [...]

Now’s The Time To Get Your Awnings Repaired Take A Look – Your Awnings May Have Suffered Fixable Damage With the approach of spring, homeowners and business managers will be uncovering and testing their awnings. Whether it’s a retractable awning lending shade (and energy efficiency) to your home’s patio or deck, or you have an awning or enclosure for your restaurant’s outdoor dining area, the time is fast approaching when you’ll want to inspect your awning and make sure it’s warm-weather-ready. (Don’t let the current cold temperatures fool you… we all know how fast things change here in Colorado!) Those final big storms of last season – wind, hail, rain, even snowfall that sometimes catches us [...]

You Can Afford To Expand Outdoor Seating With New Financing Options, Maybe You Can’t Afford NOT To! In a couple of months, many restaurants in Denver and the surrounding area will be preparing for the lucrative outdoor dining season. The smartest restaurant owners will already have been ahead of that curve! From cleaning and refurbishing outdoor tables, chairs, fixtures, and equipment… to making plans for adding additional service and prep staff… to keeping an eye on the forecasts and promoting the outdoor dining experience Colorado patrons love… just about every restaurant with any outdoor space will be doing what they can to capture their share of the market. It’s not unlike ski resorts in the fall… [...]

Local Awning Experience: Does It Matter? Yes! Local Knowledge Can Make ALL The Difference For Your Project Even during the cold winter months, your neighbors in Denver and all along the Colorado Front Range are making the smart choice to add an awning or enclosure to their outdoor space. Why? Several reasons: Now’s a great time to start an awning or enclosure project at your home or business… awning installations are easier to schedule than during the busy spring and summer months, and you can often get a great deal this time of year on some of the best awning products on the market. Enclose or cover a patio or other outdoor space this time of year, and [...]

Cover Your Restaurant Patio With A Beautiful New Awning Today’s Best Awning Products Are The Perfect Winter Solution Got a restaurant, coffee shop, or other serviced business that could use more revenue?Having more seating available for customers is the fastest way to grow your service business’s bottom line.  More seating means more tickets, of course, and that means more cash flow.But who’s got the time, the capital… or even the space… to tear down walls and expand the dining room?Many of your fellow Denver and Colorado business owners have discovered the wisdom of expanding their customer seating without an expensive remodel.With the great selection of amazing new awning products available on today’s market, you can add seating by enclosing [...]

Enjoy Your Outdoor Living Space Well Into The Autumn Enclose Your Deck With A Great Retractable Awning Product There’s no getting around it: Even in the warmest parts of the Rocky Mountain West, summer is well and truly over for this year.The high temperatures are not as high as they were a couple of months ago, for sure… and the lows are much lower.Cookouts and picnics – a regular feature of the weekend just a few short weeks ago – are now looking “iffy” at best.But before you stow the grill and cover the patio furniture, you might consider a way you could get more enjoyment from your great outdoor living space… extending some of those joyful “summer” moments [...]

Give Your Business A New Look Beautiful New Awnings Create Inviting Customer Appeal One of the fastest, most cost-effective ways to give your business an edge over the competition is to create a fresh, attractive new exterior look. And one of the best ways to create that great new look is to add or replace awnings over doors, windows, and exterior gathering spaces. Business is good in Denver and Colorado these days.  A recent online study ranked our metropolitan area at the very top of a list of more than 175 cities as the best place to start a small business (and Fort Collins made the top ten). Savvy entrepreneurs throughout our area are putting money back into [...]

Thinking Outside The Store Box Expand Your Business With Comfortable Outdoor Selling Space Retail shopping space is costly.  Retailers generally pay more per square foot of space than they’d like… and they have to maximize their revenue from every square foot of sales floor. Think of the money spent on attractive point-of-sale displays… merchandising strategies to optimize product shelf space… even window displays that are carefully thought-out and designed (sometimes at great expense) to entice customers into the store or shop. Most retailers will tell you the money they spend on these things is money well spent. These days, an exciting new trend in retail is the notion of expanding the store without taking down a single wall [...]