Working twice as hard in the off-season
Posted on July 30 2014
It’s the end of July, the height of summer, the slow season in Vero Beach. Those of us that own small businesses have been looking forward to this since late November. That’s when many of us in this town stop going to the movies, cut an hour, or three, out of our sleeping schedule, stop seeing friends and relatives and almost never eat a warm meal sitting down. But we can do it. We can do it because season comes to an end, this is the time to work and pay our bills, and summer isn’t that far. We can then go to the movies, sit on the beach, have cocktails, (or share a pot of Monsoon Darjeeling) with a friend. Yeah right!
It’s the end of July, I’ve been to the movie theatre exactly twice and to the beach four times. Today I have the morning “off”. This means that after I go in to Tea and Chi to make sure the food for the day is prepped I’m heading out to make the rounds of some of our whole sale accounts to see if they need anything, or, if they might be interested in our new, wholesale spice venture. Because this is what small business owners do in the summer. We look for different sources of revenue so we don’t burn through our seasons hard earned money, we plan for season, we do upgrades to our stores and, time permitting, our long neglected homes. We do this because we love what we do and our customers appreciate what we offer. So armed with my list of fine restaurants I head out of Tea and Chi to ply my wares. But first a quick look at Face Book world and dang it, there is a post from Patisserie two blocks down the road. There’s freshly baked, fresh cherry tarts, with almonds no less. I grab my thick, rich mug of organic mini tuocha puer and head that way. My friends, Christian and Chef Michael Glatz are there. Christian is helping the early morning customers and Chef Michael is drinking his coffee and eating his pastry standing up. “How are things going?” I ask. Chef Michael shakes his head and points at his breakfast. Christian says “I’m so tired”. They don’t need to explain. I get it. We all work twice as hard in the off -season.
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