And to finish off March ...
We took another massive leap into the unknown (directly related to the first massive leap of restaurant ownership) and started attempting to learn how to actually run a restaurant--something of which NEITHER one of us had any spec of experience.
Just a day or two after getting back from the Utah trip, Kevin and I rushed off to Kamloops, British Columbia for a couple of weeks of restaurant training. We had a fantastic trainer with lots of experience in the brand and in the industry as a whole. We also had a wonderful team of assistant trainers (her amazing team;).
I think it's safe to say, though, that all the training made our heads spin, and partly just showed us the insane amount of information we still had no clue about.
Not only were we training on the technical aspects of working in the restaurant: how to make all the menu items, how to prep the actual food, how to handle and store everything according to food handling best practices, how to run the point of sale (till/cash register), etc. etc. etc.
This is a LOT to learn all by itself.
But in addition to ALL of that, we also needed to somehow learn all the details of actually managing the restaurant. Hiring, training, scheduling, catering, marketing, book keeping, small business taxes, labor and industry regulations. Yikes!
It was crazy hard work, both mentally and physically. AND at the same time, we were still overseeing the actual buildout of our space and many other start-up phase tasks back at home.
Overwhelming is an absolute understatement.
During the first week Kevin and I were both there together.
You can pretty much always leave it to K to have plenty of fun despite all the craziness of the situation! Whether it's being a little to excited about coloring on the soup/water of the day board ...
Or joking around all day with our super knowledgeable trainer.
Or just making sure I took the time to sit down and actually eat something ... there's so much I needed to learn, I could hardly take a break:/.
The second week I would be on my own ... definitely an intimidating thought!!
After a weekend home to celebrate Easter with the fam, I headed right back up to Kamloops to get back to work.
It was a pretty uncomfortable situation being alone in a strange city (country even), staying in a strange home (albeit it nice and welcoming, thanks to Airbnb), learning a strange (to me) business, and being away from my family day and night. Something I had definitely never experienced before as a SAHM of 16 years.
To avoid absolute panic;), I tried to focus on soaking up as much knowledge as possible, and enjoy the wonderful people who were giving up so much of their own time to help me learn.
Like this cute and incredibly capable girl right here!!! Ms. Cayle herself.
Truth be told, as much as I missed my family ... and tried to trick myself not to, by binging late at night after training on This is Us (thank you, Canadian Netflix!! US Netflix could learn a thing or two;) ... the time actually did end up flying by.
Before I knew it, the week was over and I was saying goodbye to the wonderful Brenda ...
And the cozy city of Kamloops .. it's down there somewhere ...
And driving back home to Seattle (essentially in snowstorm--seems to be the theme for March) to be back in my own little comfort zone with my big crazy family!
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