For instance, she knew Facebook advertising was a good way to improve her visibility. In order to do something about that, however, she needed a bigger marketing budget. She fiddled around with the cheapest options, set them up, and then went to explore her website. It was lacking. From a glance, it was bright and appealing, but there was no substance.
There were ways to make it more interactive. She’d scoured other restaurant sites and loved the ease and flexibility of them. Order in, take out, preorder meals, preorder drinks for pickups. Those things were where she wanted to go but she had to be content with waiting until the money started rolling in. Or learn how to do it herself. There was always so much to learn, she felt like she’d not only slipped below the curve but given up and watched it drive away.
While she read through an online article about successful small businesses, her shop phone rang.
“By the Cup.”
“Hi. Is there any chance you do deliveries?”
Hailey glanced around her empty shop. Think fast, Hails. “Absolutely. There’s a small delivery fee depending on the distance.”
“Oh, that’s fine. We’ve got an afternoon meeting and I was wondering if I could order twenty salads.”
She wasn’t often thankful for an empty shop but she was now as she did a little sideways shuffle behind the counter. She didn’t even care that a couple of guys walked by with huge grins on their faces that said, yeah, we saw you.
“Sure, let me grab my pen and I’ll write down your orders.” She tried to keep her voice calm. Act like you’ve done it before.
As Hailey wrote down twenty salad orders, she fell into an easy groove of answering the questions the woman asked—yes they had organic lettuce, all dressings were homemade, there were two sizes.
“I’ll need about an hour,” Hailey said when she’d written them all down. That was if no one showed up.
“That’s perfect.” She gave the address and said to come through the back entrance of the building.
“See you soon,” Hailey said.
As soon as she hung up, nerves rippled through her system. Now more than ever, she wished she had some sort of ordering capabilities on her website or one of those apps that allowed customers to order ahead. It would allow her to schedule things so she wouldn’t have to worry about whether customers were going to come walking through the door while she was swamped, or, worse, show up while she ran across town.
“Work now, worry later,” she told herself, turning up the music a touch. It definitely added a nice vibe to the place. Twenty salads, delivery. It hadn’t occurred to her before the phone call. Living in a Skip the Dishes era—where a third party would bring your meal to your door—meant even if a company didn’t offer delivery, it wouldn’t impact their sales. But as a new company, she needed loyal customers before that could work for By the Cup.
Despite worrying about closing the shop, deliveries, and websites, she hummed along to the music playing from 96.2 Sun. The smell of fresh vegetables and delicious dressings made her smile. She loved having her own shop. The food truck idea no longer felt like her and when she’d come to visit Piper, they’d visited the bakery and seen the FOR LEASE sign. The location was great and it meant she’d be close to a cousin she loved like a sister.
The two customers—a man and a woman—who came through the door about twenty minutes into her huge prep seemed content to sit in the corner of her shop eating their salads.
When they were still there when she finished making and boxing up the order, Hailey wondered how best to approach them about the fact that she had to go.
The man stood, taking the tray and leaning over to kiss the woman before he cleared it and set it on the back counter. The woman checked something on her phone then joined him, turning to smile at Hailey.
“Those were delicious. We’ll be back.”
“Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day!”
Hailey stood frozen a minute as they left. It suddenly hit her that one of the pieces of herself she’d lost in her relationship was optimism. She’d always been a glass-half-full girl, but for too long, she’d been content with having a glass at all. Which was good but it didn’t offer much hope. She felt her smile from her lips to her toes. No more accepting the bare minimum. She wanted the stars? She’d need to learn to reach higher.
For the first time since she’d opened her shop, she had a good feeling about where she was going.
Today is the beginning of something amazing. She not only knew it, she believed it.