Among my fondest memories during my time as a teacher years ago are the long vacations and summers off. Ah, yes! But, alas, that was then. These days, I work a steady 50-hour plus week all year long.

SBOs (as in Small Business Owners) have one of two speeds in the summer. For folks like me, it’s business as usual, which could easily be mistaken for “full speed ahead.”

Then there are those small-business owners who count on summer tourism to keep their bread buttered. It’s not uncommon for these folks to log 15 and 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for months on end. For them, the tourism season could be described as “16 Weeks of Insanity!” They don’t trot. They don’t lope. They run through the season at a full, non-stop gallop.

“We pretty much put our social life on hold from July through October,” says Ron Boston, who with his wife, Mary, owns and operates Runaway Lodge at Valmy, up on the Door County Peninsula. “We generally put in at least 13 hours a day during the high season, but we’re also on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s not uncommon to get a call at 11:30 at night from travelers looking for a place to stay. We tell our friends, ‘See you in November.’”

For many of my up-north friends in the restaurant, fishing charter, hotel and retail trades, as the summer traffic goes, so goes the entire year. Explains Jim Truckey, owner of Good Tidings, vendor of unique nautical gifts located in Algoma, “if it wasn’t for summer tourism, we wouldn’t be in business.”

It’s that way for thousands of operations in Wisconsin. According to Kelli A. Trumble, Wisconsin Secretary of Tourism, tourism accounts for more than $13 billion of business in the Badger State each year. This year, thanks to the in-the-tank economy, no one knows how the tourism season will shape up when the final count is tallied in the fall.

So, what is Trumble’s prognosis? As she explained to me in an interview back in April, everyone is well aware that the economy is in a state of uncertainty, with unemployment growing. The big question is what will all this mean for summer tourism business?

Will the folks from Chicago and Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Madison cancel their vacations, opt to stay home, save gas and spend their vacation days soaking up the sun and suds in the backyard kiddy pool? Or will they recalculate their planned cross-country road trip in the family truckster and instead go for day trips and three-day weekends that will bring them roaring across the state and up the Lake Michigan shoreline to spend their cash in our restaurants and motels, on our golf courses and in our shops?

Secretary Trumble is optimistic. “When times are tough,” she explained, “the sound strategy is to invest in marketing.” It’s important for communities and individual businesses to make sure they do not cut back on spreading the word.

“We are cautiously optimistic as we go into the summer season,” she added. “We’re banking on Wisconsin’s longstanding reputation as a good value. As a destination, we’re a tried and true tourism experience.”

Our goal, concluded Trumble: “We plan to invest in telling our story and giving visitors compelling reasons to visit Wisconsin. If travelers can only afford one vacation this year, we want them to make sure that it is to Wisconsin.”

So, if you cater to the summer crowd, our hats go off to you. Work hard, make money and try to have fun. We’ll see you in the fall.

By John Ingrisano

John Ingrisano is a small business owner and the author of The Back to Basics Book of Selling: A Guide to A Successful Sales Career. Contact John at john@ TheFreestyleEntrepreneur.com.