I Couldn't Ask For More

So, this Mother’s Day weekend set record sales at PJP (excluding Thanksgiving, of course). And that sounds just amazing, doesn’t it? And if I were your regular blogger, I would share with you how amazing we are and just how blown away we were by the weekend.

BUT LET’S BE REAL.

Epic sales days usually entail exceptionally high stress and long hours and obviously, a questioning of all of our life choices. Jeanne wasn’t at PJP on Friday, but I called her when I went to run an errand and asked her how much she thought our landlord would sue us if we tried to get out of the lease for the second store. And she reminded me that he would probably chase us to the ends of the earth and also put a lien against our tombstones, so I should probably just get myself together and figure out why I was so stressed. I hate when she’s right.

Mainly my frustrations centered on the thought that we are SEVEN YEARS into PJP and really, should we struggle enough on a busy weekend that ideas of a second store seem completely absurd? I don’t know…and you probably don’t either. I’m just throwing that question out into the deep void of the Internet as something to think about when growing a business. In retrospect, given our personalities and work styles, the drama of Friday was pretty on brand for us. And also, I would bet almost anything that our customers never noticed we were on an uphill battle all day. We looked like a dream on the outside, a big mess on the inside. Sorta like a real life Instagram post, right?

Though, I will say that Saturday was the complete opposite. While we were busy, we didn’t struggle at all. On Friday night, Jason and I unpacked the whole day and did a postmortem on what went wrong. We made some significant adjustments for Saturday, including starting our baking schedule together at 3 am. The extra few hours made all the difference. We also prepped Friday afternoon and evening and mapped out a solid plan for Saturday. (Great…we are preppers. Baking preppers.)

At any rate, by Sunday, we were all worn out and sore from long hours of standing. I didn’t even see Jeanne or present her with a gift. DAUGHTER OF THE YEAR. Though, she reminded me that we are close and that is her gift and the older I get, the more I understand and appreciate that about her. I didn’t complain when she didn’t work Friday and she didn’t complain when I threatened to hightail it out of all current legally binding lease agreements. I couldn’t ask for more. Hallmark should really look into a card for that sort of relationship.

Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.