Small Business: A Jumbled Ball of Chaos & Bulldogs
- Mark Olivito
- May 5
- 3 min read
A small business that is growing can be, as my friends down south would say: "A Hot Mess." Chaos! Sometimes I struggle to recount a week. A rough "Week in the life:"
A major piece of equipment trips the compressor which powers the plant. Compressor guy says it may be electric. Electric guy disagrees, thinks it's probably the machine itself. Machine maker says its electric. So we bring them all in to troublshoot and solve a complex/puzzling problem. Meanwhile the town still hasn't approved a permit on building expansion, needs more architectural plans ($5k unplanned for) and the electric company is slow to greenlight a new proposal......if only job creation and protection was helped vs the constant feeling of "ankle weights".......On the production front, we are racing against Memorial day engraving orders with weekend production plans in place. The launch of a new division (BeyondArt) and the release of a great documentary celebrating important work in Sacramento towards the end of May. And BULLDOGS, plenty of bulldogs.
Through this chaos, one thing always helps: Wandering the PAVERART shop. When I see with my own eyes all of the work we manage to get done through the challenges and deadlines I always breathe a bit easier. A sampling of what the floor showed, and a client shared.
The Bulldog has always been a PAVERART Mascot. We built yet another one and captured some pics with Bruno 2 on it. There's also a Bulldog at Haddonfield Memorial High School (lower left-hand corner), which I now see four times a week on my morning walks. Makes me smile.
This time of year it's not unusual to put some time in on a Saturday. Dominic and Mike worked on a trailer for the Beyond ART Documentary set to be released later in May.
We managed to pull off a high-stakes, $250 investment in a grill, grill-out Fridays are on the agenda. My equipment purchases over the past decade go into the 7 figures. But THIS ONE has me more excited than any of those. For the love of Meat, Team & Fridays.....
DOGS are amazing. Shocking, but I have a Dog Story.
We started with Bruno the pug, 5 years ago.
Then my wife and son convinced me that Bruno needed company. Enter Mickey (a Frenchie/Pug mix) to the clan.
Then a few years later one of our team members was in a bind, and we adopted his Frenchie, Potato. As it turns out, Potato wasn't neutered, and Mickey was not either, so Mickey and Potato proceed to get together and let the world know what irresponsible dog parenthood looks like. They did a great job.
So out came 6 more puppies. Our house had 9 dogs as we scrambled to find homes for 5 of the 6 puppies. Why not re-home all 6? Because how do WE not keep at least one to go to 4, that would be wrong wouldn't it? More self-imposed chaos.
So in the middle of puppie chaos, why not buy a house and put a family re-location plan in action?
One that moves the dogs and girls while the boys stay put, sell the house and get Dominic through his senior year of high school? Because you can't sell a house with 4 dogs in it right? Sounds relaxing. LOL
There are no job requirements (at least that I'm aware of) for small business ownership. Or CHECK THAT, small businesses that GROW. But if you can't tell by now, here could be one:
Embraces chaos, almost as if it's fuel, the sign of progress, that things are moving in the right direction. And if things appear calm, INJECT chaos, stress the muscles so they grow stronger.
I suspect wise people reading this may be thinking some form of "You are your own worst enemy" or "I would never subject myself to that!"
Completely rational thought and I suspect people will reply and tell me this.
Those replies are likely to come in, but they will be met with a distracted audience who has a one- track mind for the next 48 hours. I'll be all over Google weather forecast at the wee hours of 3:30 am. I need clear skies. I have a Bulldog I need to go check on at the local high school.
AGAIN.
