Perception. And Reality.

The Life of a Business Owner... Perceived:

  • 6 am - Awaken refreshed and ready to tackle a busy day of baking;
  • 6:15 am - Drink cup of organic, fair-trade coffee with turbinado sugar and a splash of half-and-half;
  • 6:45 am - Review sales reports and checking account, plot trends for growth, move excess cash from checking to savings;
  • 7 am - eat breakfast of power protein smoothie and fresh fruit;
  • 7:30 am - do hair and makeup, dress in adorable (and clean) PJP t-shirt;
  • 8 am - arrive at shop, thoughtfully complete baking schedule for the day to stock shop with customer favorites and introduce new pies;
  • 8:30 am - 12:30 pm - bake consistently and burn nothing; great customers with a smile, and sell a lot of pie...never losing focus on the baking schedule or sales target;
  • 1 pm - eat lunch of organic green salad, free-range grilled chicken, raw almonds, and olive oil with squeeze of lemon.  Drink 32 ounces of water;
  • 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm - work on developing new pies, new events for the store, and explore new advertising opportunities;
  • 4:30 - 5:30 pm - clean store, prepare space for the next business day, balance drawer, realize we have exceeded sales goals;
  • 6 pm - arrive home to sparkling clean house;
  • 6:30 pm - serve dinner of grilled pork chops, baby new potatoes with garlic butter, and steamed asparagus.  Plate everything on grandmother's china and serve with Peg's sterling silver. Offer a chilled glass of Riesling to Behind-The-Scenes-Tech-Guru Jason when he gets home from work;
  • 7 pm - Clean up dinner, supervise a harmonious hour of homework for the children, and participate in family read-along for 45 minutes;
  • 8 pm - Shower and bed without complaint for the kids;
  • 8:30 pm - 10 pm - Chat with Behind-The-Scenes-Tech-Guru Jason about his day.  Share a lovely dessert while discussing how we can't believe our garden has taken off so tremendously and our rose bushes on the deck are simply UNBELIEVABLE!
  • 10 pm - Fall lusciously into a deep slumber.

Reality

  • 4 am - Alarm goes off, be completely unsure what day it is, shove glasses on face, pull on yoga pants and flip-flops, back out of garage before both eyes are fully open;
  • 4:15 am - tell Jeanne I'm not a morning person; wish for good coffee place to be open at 4:15;
  • 4:30 - 7 am - bake steadily; say very little while Jeanne talks about how much she loves the morning; be unable to agree on any tunes and figure out that when Jeanne keeps insisting on "those brothers", she means "The Avett Brothers";
  • 7 am - return home to shower; mistakenly lay down on bed for 2 minutes while water heats and lay there for 15 minutes in a stupor; have Behind-The-Scenes-Tech-Guru Jason tell you repeatedly to get up.
  • 8 am - go for morning coffee run, spend $8.44 on a large vanilla iced coffee and a large dark chocolate mocha; charge it to the business because no coffee equals no pie;
  • 8:15 am - 1:45 pm - bake, bake, bake; finally finish the daily baking schedule about the time we should be thinking about the schedule for the next day;
  • 2 pm - realize we haven't eaten anything all day or drank anything other than coffee...decide between chocolate milk or sharing an order of tater tots from Sonic...choose neither;
  • 2:10 pm - answer emails, wonder how in the &@# *the email address you've only had since last fall is getting spam, also wonder how in the &@#* Staples thinks it is a good idea to send 10 emails a day;
  • 2:30 pm - pay bills; consider writing "REALLY?" in the memo line of the check for the utilities; briefly consider running for office on the platform of "Yeah, not so much on the taxes" and then remember that you are entirely too cynical to have your face on a poster in a major intersection;
  • 3:30 - 5:30 pm - chat with all of your favorite customers and accomplish nothing else;
  • 6 pm - arrive home, kids alert you that someone needs to go to the grocery store;
  • 6:15 pm - try to convince the family that French Toast is indeed a great dinner;
  • 6:30 pm - eat French Toast and drink wine; have no shame about having them together;
  • 7 pm - do four loads of laundry, watch last week's Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, walk the dog, supervise the showers, load and unload the dishwasher;
  • 9 pm - supervise bedtime for the kids, though both claim they are not tired.  At all.
  • 10 pm - start writing the blog, tell Behind-The-Scenes-Tech-Guru Jason that you aren't sure what to write about, but he is watching television and ignores your anxiety;
  • 10:20 pm - text, read Buzzfeed, spend a lot of time on Pinterest in order to find creativity;
  • 10:40 pm - 11:15 pm - work on the blog, be happy with nothing you write, publish it;
  • 11:15 pm - 12 am - watch Orange Is The New Black, Season 2 on Netflix.  Be super happy you aren't in prison.  Fall asleep during episode and wake up with iPad on face.
  • 12:01 am - tell self to go to sleep because 4 am is only four hours away.
  • 4 am - Alarm goes off, be completely unsure what day it is, shove glasses on face, pull on yoga pants and flip flops, back out of garage before both eyes are fully open.
Peggy Jean's Blogpies@pjpies.com2 Comments