It will soon be our 5th anniversary as a consistently open and operating small business, and I still pinch myself when a new customer finds us and is astonished that Delavan has a great little cheese shop that also serves really good food! Really... that is us? Your kidding...You're not? WOW!

It's been a great ride to this point, and now the effort is moving from mere survival to increasing revenues to cover the new employee and increased payroll taxes that entails. (We are not there yet -

People make many assumptions of your business when you are able to stick around long enough for them to come back season after season.  Assumptions which include you must be making scads of cash if you can afford to keep the doors open. (Believe me, whenever we have a rockin' day or weekend - I am looking at catching up on equipment purchases, small equipment to make our lives easier - or perhaps a unique item in inventory.) My friend, Ari Weinzweig, at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, says in his two recent books on entrepreneurship that being successful just means you get better problems. And, as I have come to find out - better does not necessarily mean prettier, or easier. Some are very messy, brain tangling, and definitely harder.

Like getting a new oven with one more shelf where we can grill more sandwiches at one time will mean completely reconfiguring the sandwich prep area we currently use. Hmmm - nope - not really looking forward to that task, as it most likely also means getting a new metro shelving unit to accomodate.

Or, better yet - which money tree can I shake to get the cash for that little project. Stay tuned to "As the cheese turns..." : )
Laura