XOXO, PJP.
Perhaps only two or three times a year, I find myself alone at PJP Buttonwood while we are open...but our baking for the day is finished. And basically, it is THE BEST when it happens. The only thing I can really compare it to is when you get to be in your house when your kids aren't home and you can watch six episodes of House Hunters in a row and think about if you need a reclaimed pallet wood wall in your guest bathroom without anyone asking you what is for dinner or if you know off-hand which empire conquered Egypt first. (I'm talking to you, sixth grade social studies homework.) And today was the day. We found ourselves finished with the baking schedule inordinately early as this last full week of January has been just as slow as we expected. So the morning crew - Mac, Kayla, Emily, and Katie - left around 11:30 and I stayed until Sydney came in a bit after 2 (which was good because the only downside about being in the store alone is figuring out what to do when you really need to go to the bathroom). And those few hours just working away on my computer and waiting on customers gave me some time just to think and make some lists and take some notes on some big projects coming our way. It is amazing how different the productivity can be in a quiet early afternoon as comparative to a 3 am solo baking session that is so familiar over the holidays.
So, here is the catch up from the past two days:
- The city trash service DID haul away the abandoned dryer by the dumpster, which means Jeanne was right. I would have bet cash that it would have sat there for a few weeks, wouldn't have you? I swear if I would have hauled the same dryer to the curb on trash day, it would have been rejected for pickup. I feel the same about emptied boxes of frozen boneless chicken weeks. (Yep, I'm talking to you, Buffalo Wild Wings.)
- Yesterday, we drew our winners for our epic $5 Baby Pies for a Year contest we held on Tuesday. Congratulations to Debbie Sykuta and Jessie Monroe...you've both won the best prize ever. I feel like when we are A THING and there are tours of our national headquarters, the guides should mention this as part of the PJP history section.
- After doing a lot of research, I selected a company today to partner with to provide mass texting notifications to customers that opt in to the list. I'll post sign-up details next week, but today I familiarized myself with how the system will work. My favorite part? The training materials suggested businesses not text customers late at night and/or solely in text shorthand. So there goes my plans of sending out midnight messages of PLAN 2NITE 4 GR8 PIE 2MORROW. NO FOMO, C U IN AM. XOXO, PJP. Insert sarcasm here.
- We've started a new schedule this semester of someone working past close each night to fully prep us for the morning by stamping pie shells and more importantly, vacuuming the front of the store after close so that I don't have to do it at 10:25 every morning and forget at least two days a week. I feel like this could be a tipping point in my story of entrepreneurial growth. As in "oh, how did I know I was progressing as an entrepreneur, a woman, and a human? I finally figured out that I could have someone vacuum after we close so that I didn't have to stress about it the next morning." I hope Diane Sawyer asks me about this one day.
- And while maybe I delegated the vacuuming, Jeanne still maintains a tight rein on keeping the rest of PJP tidy. Yesterday, she cleaned the tops of our refrigerator and freezer and then wouldn't you believe, the city health inspector walked in. He, of course, did not climb the ladder to inspect the state of the top of our refrigerator. But like Jeanne said, we know it is super clean...and that's all that counts.
