Breaking up is hard to do.....

That song started going through my head last week as things seemed to be running out of control. Like the saying goes, “when it rains it pours”. I had a new employee helping me in the cheese plant and aging rooms and one working on getting cheese cut-up for orders and markets. I felt like I was running in every direction at once making sure that the vat was on schedule, cheese was pulled for cutting, the checklist printed off to pack for market, and making sure that the cheese in the aging room was getting worked properly. So as I was running around worrying about everything and was it getting done to my liking the song “Breaking up is hard to do” started going through my head. In retrospect it was like breaking up with someone you have been dating for a long time. You were very comfortable with them, knew them, how they worked, their little quarks, how to make them shine at their best. This is what it was like for me with the cheese. I have been doing pretty much everything myself since we started in ’07. I knew how to keep the vat right on schedule and what to do if I was behind or going to fast. I was running the aging rooms making sure my “babies” were doing what they needed to be doing. I was then pulling cheese, cutting them and getting it ready for orders. Last summer I had someone cutting cheese but I was making sure that they were doing it properly. Now I needed to concentrate on the vat but needing everything else done because market was that afternoon along with orders that needed to be shipped. So that started my breaking up with everything that I was doing and letting someone else do it. There comes a time in every small business where outside help is needed to keep the owner from killing themselves. That time seems to have come for me here. It is nice to have someone else to rely on but I am still holding onto everything else. I am learning that breaking up is hard to do. I tend to run a little on the perfectionist side at times and this has me wondering if they are doing a good enough job. They are and I am very grateful for all that they do and help me with. They put up with my craziness and do a wonderful job with my instructions. It’s growing pains and hopefully that means good for us.