Last week, a truly amazing thing happened.
I went on vacation.
And Liz went on vacation.
We went on vacation—together!
It’s been a long time since the two of us were able to do anything like that. And, I’ll admit, I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. I found myself asking – can I afford to take a trip? Will the business be ok without us? We’ve only been open for 8 months—do I really deserve a break already? Isn’t this the time to grind?
But I booked the flight anyways.
The fact is, people need rest. Sometimes physically and sometimes mentally. We all need breaks. Time to look around at new scenery or catch up with old friends. Time to unplug, and remind ourselves of what’s important to us. I know that if I’m bogged down with all the “musts” on my mind, and don’t have any room or energy for the “maybes.” And the “maybes” are sometime where the best experiences come from.
Our years on the trucks taught us that we needed to plan to have a life outside of poutine.
When planning for the expansion from a truck company to a brick and mortar, building in time for R & R was actually a part of our business plan. Most people don’t know this…maybe no one but Liz and I. But there was a point shortly before the pandemic, when we thought seriously about closing down the business. The seasonal grind of the trucks had left us feeling bit defeated. Even though we love our customers and are intensely proud of the food we cook, it was hard to grow the business beyond a certain point. The winter months make it challenging to run the trucks here in Upstate NY. Which makes it challenging to employ staff all year round. And that makes it hard to be ready to book events in the spring – not knowing if we’d have reliable staff. And so on and so on.
To put it plainly, we were tired. We felt like we had explored every option for growth and it had plateaued. It felt like failing.
But we stuck it out. And when we found our location at 44 Elton Street, we knew it was worth it to make another big push. But not without some planning in place.
Our years on the trucks taught us that we needed to plan to have a life outside of poutine. Experience had shown us that it would never happen on-the-fly. There will always be something pressing, more work, or more concerns and reasons that “I can’t” becomes the automatic answer. This trip was us dipping our toe into the water, to see if the business plan was working.
And it went great! Hopefully, you didn’t even notice we were gone. Lizzie and I are super appreciative to Alex and the whole crew and allowing us to not only recharge, but to do it together, as friends. Just like we used to before it was all business, all the time. An now, we’re happy to be back and feeling stronger!
Ronnie (& Lizzie)