Life of Pi(e)
Well, to start, I'm embarrassed to tell you that I've slept about 10 hours in the last three days. That said, I have successfully finished Season Two of House of Cards and OH MY WORD - it did not disappoint. Frank and Claire Underwood succeeded in making pie baking on very little sleep completely justifiable and worthwhile. So let's start about the pie baking. We've been leading the Life of Pi(e) (minus the sinking ship, days on a lifeboat, and an angry tiger named Richard Parker...though Jeanne was a little grouchy today). If we aren't talking about pie, we are making pie. If we aren't making pie, we are talking about pie. And if we aren't making it or talking about it, we are talking about how to sell it, where to sell it, what sort of packaging to put it in, and how much to charge for it. And honestly, if we aren't talking about any of those things, we are talking about rental spaces, commercial refrigerators, plumbing prices, and 60 quart mixers.
More simply put, we are all about the pie. All of the time.
Confession: I didn't know how consuming having a business would be, honestly. You really never get a break from working on building your business...or thinking about how to build your business. I completely blame my irreverence on every television show that portrayed having an adorable boutique as total merriment (remember "Over Our Heads" on Facts of Life? Who didn't want to work for Mrs Garrett?) And perhaps boutique ownership gets you a little more merriment, but I doubt it. Whether you sell cute stuff or you roll out pie dough, the Missouri Department of Revenue still sends you this scary coupon-looking book and you are supposed to fill out these little forms and send them in with money every quarter. And if that all sounded rather vague...well, that is because the entire process seems rather vague in my opinion. (And if you are from the Missouri DOR or the federal IRS, I fully intend to consult some sort of expert soon and file those little forms. Promise.)
Between baking and sampling pies at Lucky's, working to develop commercial accounts, considering how to build and market pie kits, and trying to make a completely raw space into a working Industrial Chic bakery, we are a little overwhelmed. I'm working to convince Jeanne that we need personal assistants who will just follow us around with white wine and a notebook to write down the random things that pass through our minds that could be amazing ideas for PJP.
I'm not complaining by any means (though, I have in the past and I guarantee that I will in the future...no matter how positive I am, standing on your feet for 10 hours can make you a little punchy). I'm just keeping it real on the blog. It is hard to find a "how-to" book on being an entrepreneur that has a chapter on what to do when you are overwhelmed, a little bit shouty, and how to handle crying when you realize with one French Silk left that you are completely out of cocoa. Ahem. (Running out of supplies is the Richard Parker of this metaphor).
I feel though that a little bit by each day, we are starting to figure this all out.
Until tomorrow. It is completely possible that tomorrow I will feel like I have no clue what I'm doing.