This One Is For You, PJP
You might recall that in April, our sweet PJP turned TEN YEARS OLD. And as normal practice for us, we celebrated with no particular fanfare. We discussed a lot of things - balloon arches, champagne, throwback pricing, and more - but in the end, we couldn’t commit to anything with a requisite amount of celebratory gusto. (And I’m certain that gusto is a balloon arch pre-requisite.)
For a week or so, I tried to convince Jason that we should just close both stores for the day and just have a day off. He reminded me that we are here to make sales in order to employ people and sell more things, and closing stores for the day helps neither of those goals. That’s true, of course, and pragmatic and the smarter choice when we looked back at sales data for April 17th in all the previous years. But it was a super fun idea to consider, especially since we all know Ferris Bueller taught us that life moves pretty fast and if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it. Plus, a Wednesday off sounded like a dream.
Celebrated or not, our 10th anniversary was significant in so many ways and my low-key approach to it still surprises me. 65% of small businesses in America fail in the first 10 years. That is literally alarming. Honestly, between you and me, I think I expected to roll over that April 17th date and feel some sort of massive relief or changed state of mental being to have beat the statistical odds. But on the 18th, I really just had the same focus and concerns as all the days before. Which is the longer way of saying that entrepreneurship gets easier, but it never gets easy.
We started PJP in 2014 with no business plan. That’s hardly surprising, right? In our earliest days, I could only think day-to-day and certainly could never think about a long-term multi-year plan. I never doubted we would make long term, but I absolutely didn’t consider what it would look like to arrive here. And now that we are here, what’s next? Only 25% of businesses make it to 15 years according to statistics from the Small Business Administration. That’s sobering…though I would guess that the 40% drop is less from total failure but more from just being totally over it all or ready for new endeavors. Or honestly, both.
Before I secure our spot in the 25% here for the long haul, I’m going to drop myself a reminder of my five favorite things about PJP in her 10th year so it lives on the Internet forever.
She’s such a delight. We bake pies every day but no two days are the same.
She’s a challenge. Nothing is ever overly easy and for two people who look for the hardest path to any goal, this suits Jeanne and I immensely.
She is the embodiment of two-steps-forward-and-one-step-back. I appreciate the commitment to keeping us humble. You can never be too brazen when you are at the will of the free market.
She creates a family around what we do. We have the best staff who push for PJP to be the best at what we do. Over the years, Team PJP has taught us a lot of things and given us - especially me - the grace to grow as a person.
She brings us the best customers. I know everyone in small business says that, but really, it’s true. The most unexpected gift of PJP is the customers who have become friends over the years. It takes a village to make it to 10 years, so thank you for being a part of our community.
