The Expanding Team
Within three months of Janet joining our team, Common Grounds was running like a well-oiled machine.
I never thought I’d be grateful for corporate experience, but Janet’s fifteen years at Midwest Mutual translated perfectly to streamlining our operations.
She revamped our scheduling system, negotiated better deals with suppliers, and even set up an employee benefits package that made me proud. ‘You know what’s funny?’ she said one afternoon as we closed up.
‘I’m working twice as hard for half the pay, but I’ve never been happier.
‘
I knew exactly what she meant. There was something deeply satisfying about building something meaningful instead of just pushing papers.
Diane handled our customer relations with the same attention to detail she’d once given to executive calendars, remembering every regular’s order and life story. And Ethan? That boy was a wizard with numbers.
He created a digital inventory system that predicted exactly how many pastries we’d sell each day, cutting our waste by 40%. We were this odd little family of corporate refugees, each bringing something unique to the table.
‘We’re like the Island of Misfit Toys,’ Janet joked one day, ‘except we all fit perfectly together.
‘ What none of us realized was that our little coffee shop was about to catch the attention of someone who could change everything – and it would start with a single photo that would appear in the local newspaper the following week.