Have you ever thought about going to a restaurant, but decided otherwise when it looked totally packed from the outside? That happened to me a few months ago, and I wasn’t in the same neighborhood again until this past weekend. The restaurant didn’t look very crowded this time, so I walked in to assess the situation. There were a few tables open, and I noticed something interesting: they had a whole dining area upstairs too.

We ended up eating in the upstairs section, and it was cozy and full of character. The food was great too. I bring all this up for one reason: if I had known they had all that extra room upstairs, I probably would have eaten there the first time. Perhaps they could put a sign in the window that says something like “Come right in — we’ve got lots of seating here and in our upstairs dining room.” For people who have never been there before, that extra bit of information might be all it takes to make them give the restaurant a try.

This applies to lots of other businesses, too. Here’s the key question to ask yourself: Is there something about your business that all your regular customers know and appreciate, but non-customers have no clue about? If so, put up some signage or other messaging that gets that point across, and you’ll hopefully convince more new customers to come through the door for the first time.