A View from the Eyes of a Small Business Owner on Christmas Eve 2023
A View from the Eyes of a Small Business Owner on Christmas Eve 2023
Here’s how it went the last six weeks or so at Tripicians Macaroons. Interviewing candidates for different positions is in essence strategy building, …who fits in what area and filling those areas. Then bringing them in, training, seeing who absorbs content, who jumps in first at the counter, who can create amazing bows in ten minutes or less. (All the while running the machine that is slowly climbing up a hill, like a roller coaster.) I confess only Martha and I had any sense of what these people were going to experience in the weeks ahead. So, when I said over and over… you’ll get the idea after you do it a couple hundred times or so (then chuckled) I meant it. In the early weeks one employee said to me, “Are you going to have enough for me to do in the weeks ahead? I believe I responded with, “Oh, don’t you worry!” In the back of my mind, thinking she has no idea what we are up against. As a leader I admit not having time to train ahead of time left me pointing out wrong-doings after the fact. That is not a position I wanted to come from as it can be seen as critical and can be demotivating and rightfully so. I had to state exactly that to them in the name of “teachable moments”. This was all I could do and I discovered that helped. This was all coming into play when the girls were still sorting out their order amongst themselves. I remember my mentor coming in and looking at me over the counter. I shrugged my shoulders with this blank look on my face. All the time I was thinking, I have no idea how this is going to play out. Days later when I was working at my desk I heard them chatting among themselves… hey, why don’t we make some boxes of macaroons up ahead of time so they are ready and we can just pull them as needed. (Roller coaster just reached the top of the hill!) Immediately, they started folding boxes and working together as a cohesive group. I knew we had arrived! That’s when things took off! Orders piled in numbers, the Shopify app on my phone pinged morning, noon and night all weekend long. I walked in Monday mornings, poker-faced, thinking ok, here we go, we’ve got this! As the volume built their skills and motivation to keep ahead sky-rocketed. Once they found ease in the knowledge they gained they thought ahead, that is when they all brought their individual talents to the table. Each of them offered up ideas, problem solving skills, hands-on crafts and fun personalities into action. It was a beautiful thing to watch from my point of view. Especially as the volume was so insanely busy! They were confident and having fun. Customers were responding with gratitude and confidence in our products. They were so very happy with the gifts they brought home and the experience they had at Tripicians.
I don’t expect perfection but I expect excellence in efforts and that is exactly what each and every one of my employees delivered. I am so very overwhelmed with gratitude and cannot thank them enough for all they did to make your Christmas a most memorable one. Blessings to you for a joyous Christmas and a wonderful New Year in the time to come! Thank you to each and everyone, employees and customers alike - Cindy .
Here’s how it went the last six weeks or so at Tripicians Macaroons. Interviewing candidates for different positions is in essence strategy building, …who fits in what area and filling those areas. Then bringing them in, training, seeing who absorbs content, who jumps in first at the counter, who can create amazing bows in ten minutes or less. (All the while running the machine that is slowly climbing up a hill, like a roller coaster.) I confess only Martha and I had any sense of what these people were going to experience in the weeks ahead. So, when I said over and over… you’ll get the idea after you do it a couple hundred times or so (then chuckled) I meant it. In the early weeks one employee said to me, “Are you going to have enough for me to do in the weeks ahead? I believe I responded with, “Oh, don’t you worry!” In the back of my mind, thinking she has no idea what we are up against. As a leader I admit not having time to train ahead of time left me pointing out wrong-doings after the fact. That is not a position I wanted to come from as it can be seen as critical and can be demotivating and rightfully so. I had to state exactly that to them in the name of “teachable moments”. This was all I could do and I discovered that helped. This was all coming into play when the girls were still sorting out their order amongst themselves. I remember my mentor coming in and looking at me over the counter. I shrugged my shoulders with this blank look on my face. All the time I was thinking, I have no idea how this is going to play out. Days later when I was working at my desk I heard them chatting among themselves… hey, why don’t we make some boxes of macaroons up ahead of time so they are ready and we can just pull them as needed. (Roller coaster just reached the top of the hill!) Immediately, they started folding boxes and working together as a cohesive group. I knew we had arrived! That’s when things took off! Orders piled in numbers, the Shopify app on my phone pinged morning, noon and night all weekend long. I walked in Monday mornings, poker-faced, thinking ok, here we go, we’ve got this! As the volume built their skills and motivation to keep ahead sky-rocketed. Once they found ease in the knowledge they gained they thought ahead, that is when they all brought their individual talents to the table. Each of them offered up ideas, problem solving skills, hands-on crafts and fun personalities into action. It was a beautiful thing to watch from my point of view. Especially as the volume was so insanely busy! They were confident and having fun. Customers were responding with gratitude and confidence in our products. They were so very happy with the gifts they brought home and the experience they had at Tripicians.
I don’t expect perfection but I expect excellence in efforts and that is exactly what each and every one of my employees delivered. I am so very overwhelmed with gratitude and cannot thank them enough for all they did to make your Christmas a most memorable one. Blessings to you for a joyous Christmas and a wonderful New Year in the time to come! Thank you to each and everyone, employees and customers alike - Cindy .