You shouldn't judge people....so don't judge us

Don't judge us, unless you've walked a mile in our shoes....is how the saying goes.

Don't judge us.....unless you know what it's like to live our life.

Working 9-5 Monday through Friday is not the same as running your own business.
UNLESS you are running a business that is open 9-5 Monday through Friday. The pizza business is NOT 9-5 Monday through Friday.......it's sometimes 24/7!!

Running your OWN business is nothing like working for someone else.

We can't even enjoy time off if our business is open. We are always ON CALL. That means carrying our phone with us all the time to make sure we're ON CALL if someone gets busy and needs help. It means checking your watch when you're eating at a restaurant. It means not going to a movie......because you could get called out.

We jokingly refer to it as being a doctor and being on call....it's just about the same. When that open sign is ON.....so are we.

Don't judge us if you think we go out of town too much.

What you don't see is that we NEVER get a day off if we are in town. There is always something for us to be doing that's related to our business. We can go 2-3 months without a day off. It's not uncommon.

The ONLY way we get a day off is if we take off somewhere -- This is the only way we can get some time off. Being away from things also take some of the stress off and we really make an effort to not worry about things.

Not only do we have to worry about paying our own personal bills from the business we own.....we also have to worry about paying the 30+ people that are on our payroll. Some of these poeple live paycheck-to-paycheck and need to get paid each payday. It's OUR responsibility to make sure that everything is taken care of so that our business can meet it's financial obligations.

If our business is not being taken care of properly -- WE have to be the ones to come in and cover it.

If someone calls in and it's a busy night -- WE are the ones that have to cover it.

If someone quits or gets fired -- WE are the ones that have to cover it.

Owning your own business is full of stress and headaches. We don't get sick days, we don't get vacation days.......we get snippets of free time now and then WHEN there is enough staff to cover us being gone.

I'm not angry. I love my life and my business. But don't judge us because we can't be there or do the things that everybody else may get to. Sometimes it's not our choice.

This is the life we chose --- this is the life we're living.