Opening a new business is never easy, especially when you consider the statistics.
The Small Business Administration states that at least 30% of all small businesses fail within the first two years. Now that is a pretty daunting number!
It proves that if you want to be successful, you need to start getting momentum from day one. Every day that you don’t make a profit is another day you will have to make up for in the future if you ever want to get out of the red.
One Small business owner found this out the hard way recently when he opened up a new donut shop, Billy’s Donuts, in Missouri City, Texas.
Unfortunately for this mom-and-pop business, the old saying “build it and they will come” did not hold true. The establishment sat completely empty.
Luckily, however, the owner’s son, Billy, came to the rescue.
He made a simple Twitter post that ultimately ended up changing everything, mainly by accident.
My dad is sad cause no one is coming to his new donut shop 😭 pic.twitter.com/y5aGB1Acrc
— billy’s donuts (@BillysDonutsHTX) March 9, 2019
It’s a pretty basic post, with several pictures of Billy’s dad standing behind the counter at his new shop.
The place is completely empty, and outside a giant “Grand Opening” banner can be seen hanging over the door.
The parking lot is totally empty as well, which we imagine has to be pretty depressing sight for any small business owner to see, especially on grand opening day.
Amazingly though, as soon as Billy put the post up on Twitter it instantly started going viral.
People just couldn’t get enough of his “sad dad”, and over the next several days, the post was shared hundreds of thousands of times.
While most of the people who shared the post did not, in fact, live in Missouri City, Texas, the public started arriving in droves.
There was a huge outcrying of support from the locals, and within days, the place was totally packed!
The donut shops Instagram page got a huge boost as well, going from just 100 followers to more than 100,000 literally overnight.
How’s that for success!
The next day, Billy added an update to his now famous Tweet.
Just wanted to update yall! We completely sold out of donuts and kolaches! You are all amazing. I can’t thank everyone enough for coming out and supporting local businesses. This means so much to my family ❤️ pic.twitter.com/o3GQcKvVnG
— Billy’s Donuts (@BillysDonutsHTX) March 10, 2019
Things really turned around quick for this new small business, and it just goes to show how powerful social media can be.
This former sad dad is now not only no longer sad, but he is actually one of the happiest new business owners we’ve seen.
So.. here’s to Billy’s Donuts and a very successful grand opening! May the Twitter gods continue to bless you with customers for many years to come.
By the way, those donuts look delicious!
Check out some more pictures of their tasty looking donuts below.
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