Sometimes You Just Have to Say the Crazy Idea Out Loud

As I'm sitting here juggling my full-time teaching job, my coaching gig, my family's completely insane schedule, and the constant stress of hoping our business is actually successful; I found myself wanting to share some thoughts about how all of this started.

Because the truth is, starting a small business is a strange combination of excitement, fear, confidence, confusion, and repeatedly asking yourself: "Wait...are we actually doing this?"

The idea for Backyard Bash Co. lived quietly in my head for a long time before I ever said it out loud. You know those ideas you keep tucked away because they sound a little unrealistic? The kind you think about while driving, cleaning, teaching, or lying awake at 1am convincing yourself you definitely do not need another project?

That was this.

Even the moment the words came out of my mouth, I wasn't fully convinced it could become reality. I knew one thing immediately though; I could not do it alone.

But here's what you should know about my friend Maria...or as my children lovingly call her, Auntie Tallulahbelle.

She is the ultimate "YES" person.

The adventurous friend.

The spontaneous friend.

The one who somehow makes every idea seem possible.

The kind of person who brings energy, creativity, and confidence into every room she walks into.

Some people hear your ideas and immediately list reasons why they won't work. Maria starts brainstorming logos and color schemes before you even finish the sentence. As fate would have it, she had recently made the decision that retirement from teaching did not mean she wanted to stop working, she just wanted to gently close the education chapter and try something completely new.

And somehow, our timing worked out perfectly.

So, there we sat around my kitchen island while the rest of my family moved around us probably wondering if we had officially lost our minds. And little by little...this thing started coming to life.

We researched. Made endless lists. Googled absolutely everything. Asked friends and family for advice. Learned terms we'd never heard before. And worked during every spare second we could find.

This all started right after this past Christmas. Then February arrived with a historic blizzard that dumped 42 inches of snow on Massachusetts the week after our February vacation. Most people were probably panicking. Meanwhile, I was sitting in my house for five hours a day teaching myself how to build a website with exactly zero prior experience.

Honesty? That blizzard may have been one of the biggest blessings for our business. Would I recommend learning website design while snowed into your home, questioning every life choice you ever made?

Not necessarily. But somehow, it worked.

And while we've done a lot ourselves, we also quickly learned that somethings were beyond our skill set. We reached out for professional help when we needed it, like logo design and branding, because there's a certain point where two exhausted teachers with laptops and coffee can only do so much.

Fast forward to today:

Our website launched a week and a half ago. And somehow, we have successfully worked a wedding shower and we have a couple summer bookings, which honestly feels surreal.

We knew from the beginning that running a small business would heavily depend on marketing, which is funny because neither of us have any background in marketing. And can we talk about how expensive it is?!

I used to think businesses just "posted online". Turns out there are approximately 7,000 platforms, algorithms, strategies, hashtags, and terms that suddenly make you feel 97 years old. Thankfully, we have the most incredible friends and family supporting us by sharing posts, spreading the word, recommending us and cheering us on every step of the way.

And we are unbelievably grateful for that support.

At this point, I wear my Backyard Bash hoodie everywhere: at school, at sporting events, to the grocery store and probably accidently once to bed. I've basically become a walking billboard. If someone makes eye contact with me for longer than three seconds, there's a strong chance I'll tell them about our business.

Will this business become wildly successful? We honestly don't know yet. But we do know this; we've created something fun, unique, and meaningful. And if there is something that two longtime teachers know how to do, it's work hard, multitask under pressure, survive chaos, stretch a dollar, and smile through exhaustion.

As a former colleague of ours used to say, we are pretty good at building the plane while we're flying it.

So honestly, small business ownership feels pretty on brand for us after all.

Until next time,

Julie & Maria