While watering our plants the other day a thought popped into my head that I was caring for these beautiful petunias and vines. They needed me to trim their dead leaves and water their roots. That the tiny tomatoes on the vines and the growing green pepper all needed me to help them along their path to deliciousness.
Then people started to sit at our little round tables for two, stood and chatted while I burned the bacon, headed up to bed after a long night shift, and told us their stories. I realized those people, our guests, needed tending too. People need someone to care for them, to care about them. To offer them a cup of hot water, an open mind or ear and to care enough to let their friends and colleagues join them for breakfast.
Having a business with soul means that you have to tend to things – like the softness of the towels, the cleanliness of the bathrooms, and making sure that when you collaborate and partner with other business that they have soul too. That those small local businesses, like our own, tend to their tomatoes, their scones, their flowers, their cheese, as well as tend to the people that wander in to be taken care of.
We are in the business of tending to people, to make them feel special, to make them feel spoiled and cared for. There really isn’t much more rewarding than that.