For 2016...

I suspect, like most other small businesses, we are fairly obsessed with continued growth.  Which is precisely how I found myself in the dark corners of Square data this afternoon looking at more information than I should ever have immediate access to on any given day.  My only wish was that I had someone sitting next to me to decipher it all, preferably presenting it in pretty pie chart format.  Pie charts for pie sales information, perhaps?

But the takeaway is that, even with my rudimentary graph-making skills, we are growing.  And for that, we are immensely grateful.  And we are growing without really using an overreaching strategic plan (except World Pie Domination, which I suspect is more of a mantra than a plan).  So I can't help but wonder where we could be this time next year if we set some major goals for 2016.  Here are some big plans that I'm kicking around in my head.  Can someone please take note and ask me in April why some of these aren't finished?

1. A new website design.  Sleeker, faster, more mobile friendly.  Isn't that what we all want, really?  Upon a bit a research, I've learned anything is possible in 2016 if you are willing to pay...A LOT.
2. An app for iPhones and Android devices.  Order from the app.  Read the blog on the app.  Get directions to the store on the app. Listen to me say "oh, that's available on the app"...YES.  PLEASE.
3. A PJP cookbook.  Like, a legit one...not like a spiral bound set of pages from the Office Depot with photocopied pictures of Jeanne and I.  I've put a little work into this in the last month, but it is harder than I thought.  Writing "let it bake until it cracks a little on top" as a step in the directions probably isn't super helpful to the average baker.
4. Expanding our hours in the evening and on Saturdays.  We've talked about it and then done nothing about it, primarily because neither of us want to stay all day Saturday and adding payroll for those hours makes me stabby.  Keeping it real, yo.
5. PJP dough for sale in the grocery store.  It should be a thing.  Right next to the Pillsbury pie dough.  So figure out packaging, cost, operations plan, and oh, convince all the local stores to carry it.  Should be pretty easy.  Said no one ever.

Reading this list makes me happy there are 24 days left in 2015.  We are going to need every single one to rest up and tackle this big goals.  Hey, you...you the one reading this...keep us accountable, ok?