Harry.

So, late last night, I uttered the words that Behind-The-Scenes-Tech-Guru Jason has waited 20 solid years to finally hear from my lips... Me:  I think I want to analyze daily Square sales information and to learn how to graph data points to establish trends in our weekly and monthly sales.

Jason:

Behind-The-Scenes-Tech Guru Jason is still recovering from my announcement a full 24 hours later.  And trust me that the quickest way to blow the mind of someone who has seen you at your best and at your worst over 20 years is to whip out an iPhone calculator and start talking about margins.

And look, here is the blog-worthy truth...I do not care for numbers and data.  I'm an intuition sort of girl.  I'm pretty good at discerning how I feel about something or someone and accepting it for my reality.  Except I'm learning that using my intuition as a PJP owner gets really hard when our livelihood and future success depends on our daily sales and planning for our long-term upward growth in our retail location. (It turns out my intuition likes to spend money and pout when sales tax due dates and rent due dates coincide.)

So in a fit of pure not-me-at-all, I dove headfirst yesterday into all the financial reports that Square provides us about our sales.  And when I finished, I was definitely a different person than before I started.  I was a person with all the information.  As I said to one of my most trusted advisors, having all the information makes me feel like a big hairy monster is standing behind me and breathing on my neck.  (As a total aside, I sort of picture said monster as the monster from "Harry and The Hendersons"...not a scary monster, just there nonetheless)...

I even reached the point in the data to figure out what we need to sell for each of our remaining six business days in July to increase our July sales over June by 10%.  And once you figure that information out, it takes owning your own business from "squeal, this is so cute!" to "OMG...the rent is due the day after our sales tax is due?" and that, my friends, is a hardcore business lesson.  I bet Mizzou calls me to teach in their MBA program immediately after this post hits the Internet.  Or not.