Mark Twain said that there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
So, I perked up when I read a statistic recently in Newsweek magazine.

It is said that 9 percent of the 79 million baby boomers considering moving into second or third careers were interested in the bed and breakfast industry. When crunching the numbers, 1.4 million people might be interested in the B&B business. Although the total number of people considering becoming inn-keepers reflected some information found by Yellow Brick Road collected 10 years ago, One might wonder if this statistic falls into the “damned lie” category.

Whether it does or not, it serves as a reminder that optimistic statistical projections can lead a prospective business person down a slippery slope. In this case the slippery slope involves the realities of getting into and staying in the lodging business.

Most of us belong to a group of 1,422,200 people who may have an interest in getting into the bed and breakfast business. It reflects a huge amount of interest in a very small industry with only 20,000 viable businesses nationwide, according to bedandbreakfast.com.

For many, it seems like a glamorous business, an opportunity to entertain and get paid for it. You may also be thinking that renting out rooms in your house will help you pay for a bigger, better, more beautiful house than you might otherwise be able to afford. And pretty much anybody can do it. All you need do is fix up some rooms in the house, open the doors, and guests with credit cards will arrive on the doorstep.

The bed and breakfast business is part of the hospitality industry (that includes hotels, motels, RV parks, timeshares, and restaurants). If you want to do it right, your B&B needs to generate enough revenue to pay your bills and provide you with money to live on. Your own financial situation will dictate how much money you need to live. As a hospitality business, bed and breakfasts are subject to regulation and inspection by local and state agencies. They collect and pay taxes based upon the revenue the business generates.

It may cost you more than you might think to actually operate your business, starting with the higher rates usually charged for mortgage money, necessary commercial insurance, modifications to the property mandated by local laws, higher rates for things like business phones, even trash collection.

You have to generate business every day of the year. It’s harder than you might think, because you will never have the budget to match your competition (hotels). It’s okay, you might say, I only need to find a few people who want what I have to offer. True, but you have to find them one by one…and you have to make sure they come back again and again. Accomplishing this requires sophisticated marketing skills and placing a priority on using them on a daily basis.