One Million Dollars

All year long the elusive $1M number has been looming. Honestly I never thought that we’d pull it off but it gave me a nice, solid, high-bar goal to shoot for. After we did more than $100k in July I rethought the possibility and knew that if we did it we’d just barely do it. Our strong beginning of December inspired me to let everyone in on how close we were to the unachievable. The amount needed to surpass the goal meant that we needed to grow this month by more than 30%. A pretty lofty goal even though 20% growth has been rather standard this year.

Nonetheless, the staff rallied behind it and we kept chipping away at the total – usually in big chunks at a time. As of the end of day on Christmas Eve it was evident that we’d do it. No more “if”, it was “when” we were wondering about. The day after Christmas is usually riddled with returns, and this year was no different. We still, however, managed to have a strong sales day as well. But not strong enough. At 4:00, two hours before closing, it started to rain. The cars in the parking lot had been thinning out anyhow and this sudden weather basically made any sort of traffic in the complex nonexistent. Rita and I decided to go to lunch (usual lunch time in 2009). When we returned, the staff was acting funny. They just kind of stared at me as I walked in the door. I was completely sure that they hadn’t done any business in our absence but something was up. As it ends up, they did have a customer whose sale brought us to within $25 of the million dollar mark. The staff wasn’t going to let the day end without hitting our goal so they quickly made a few purchases to put us over the top. When I heard this I nearly broke down. It was damn heartwarming.

In celebration I quickly ran across to Safeway and bought a bottle of Vueve Cliquot champagne. We corked it and shared a toast around the register. We took a few photos (and an inadvertent video) to commemorate the day and we all went home proud. Especially me. And honestly it wasn’t just the sales mark that I was proud of. I truly think I was more proud of those final $25 in sales that the staff made happen. What a way to go out. Thanks guys.