An Open and Shut Case

It has now taken me about three weeks to write this blog! Why? My guess is I don’t truly know how I feel about this subject.
I was often asked, when I first opened my shop, if I would remain open in the winter. Amazed by how often I heard this question, both from other shop owners and customers, I answered with a puzzled look on my face “of course I’ll be open.” With a knowing smile they replied "wait a few years, you’ll close". Well, I did stay open those first winters, even when it snowed. And, for three winters it snowed! I shoveled and shoveled some more, but managed to stay open. The exception was last January when even I couldn’t get the shop opened (or the driveway cleared for that matter). So I closed. I painted and cleaned, and as soon as I could, I reopened. Frustrating times for sure, with very few customers coming in or calling. This winter I thought about the energy bills and compared them to sales receipts from the last few winters. I thought of those smiling knowing faces and thought, ok maybe they're right, I’ll close.
Am I enjoying my time closed? Absolutely! Not only does it allow me to catch up on long overdue projects and my web site, it gives me a sense of freedom. Freedom that allows me to be renewed and regenerated. But, lurking in the depths of my refreshed self, is a pesky feeling that I should have stayed open. And then it happened, that pesky feeling, was now staring me in the face. As I searched the Web for information pertaining to the Cape, I'm discovering many Cape-related travel sites, local sites and blogs. But, more often than not, there are references to the Cape "shutting down" for winter. With nothing to do and shops and restaurants closed, why bother going?
This past weekend I opened for a 3 day sale. I sent out postcards and emails to my customers and posted an ad to let people know. As it turned out, my customers did come and most did not even blink an eye when they found out that I had been closed all winter. Happy that I had reopened for a short time, they wanted to know when I would open for the season.
So, my question is... Are we not doing a good enough job getting the word out that there is life on Cape Cod in all seasons? Doing so would allow more businesses to have a year round source of income, instead of struggling along all winter.
And then this started me wondering... Are we still a seasonal tourist-run economy where we can safely shut down for the winter? Aren't we a group of small towns with a growing year round population living in a beautiful area where other people would like to visit in any season? What needs to come first, our businesses staying open, or our customers creating demand?
What does the Cape need to be? Or more to the point, what do we want it to be?