I'm Just Sayin'
Well, to begin with, thank you SO MUCH to everyone for all of the well wishes, flowers, texts, and more on our anniversary today. I try to mindful, but it can never be said enough…we simply couldn’t do this without you. Whether you buy pie or read the blog or send us well wishes or do all of those, we appreciate you more than you’ll ever know.
Here’s a few things we’ve learned in our first five years:
Being an entrepreneur is not charming, no matter how many #ladyboss t-shirts you might purchase. It’s overwhelming and tiring and you are never not thinking about your business. You may be thinking “oh, but that’s not true - I am always having fun and I have time for everything!” AWESOME FOR YOU, THEN. Also, I doubt we can ever be friends.
Being a female entrepreneur has a specific set of challenges, the least being completely marginalized as a person with an opinion and the most being regularly mansplained by men who actually have no clue what they are talking about. You know who knows everything in the world about PJP? Me (and well Jeanne, if you don’t ask her to remember anyone’s name). Suggesting that we can only succeed with your software, your product, your food item, your ink pens, and/or your way of thinking only makes me deduct 10,000 points off how I feel about you.
Jeanne is exceptionally more chill than I am on any given day. She isn’t concerned about what others are doing, because she just focuses on PJP. Meanwhile, I can spiral simply by going back a month into someone’s Instagram account and deciding within three minutes that they are amazing and I am pathetic.
Working with your mother will allow you to appreciate her in a way that most people never get to experience. I’ve figured out what keeps her happy (demand no sort of routine from her) and what makes her stabby (not being listened to, measuring cups put back in the wrong places, aprons not hung up, and drainboards not wiped down). And in turn, she’s learned a few things about me as well. (By far, I’m the easier of us…I just need a venti cold brew with vanilla early in the morning and routine. Take either of those away and I’m a mess.)
Just like raising kids, the days are long, but the years are short. I can hardly remember the person I was five years ago, but to say she was naive. Can you imagine the women we will be in five more years? The SBA reports that 70% of businesses don’t make it 10 years. Count us into the 20%, mainly because we don’t give up that easy. Also, SBA, that seems VERY DRAMATIC
