I had a surprising encounter the other day with a potential wholesale customer. They told me that while they are “well aware of The Pittsburgh Juice Company,” they prefer to support “a local small business instead.” My mind was blown. “Do people perceive us as some kind of corporate monstrosity?” I wondered. We are, after all, by definition a local small business; created from humble means, grown organically from scratch and owned/operated by me (most notably, a new mom) along with our small, dedicated staff (which, by the way, includes my own mother and my uncle).
At this point I started to wonder, “Are we doing something wrong to make people think PJC is not a small business?” But after pondering this question for a few minutes I had to brush it aside.
If our presentation, consistent quality and reliability allows people to believe that PJC is backed by deep, money-lined, corporate pockets, then we must be doing something worthwhile. My philosophy in business has always been that our customers don’t need to be bothered with the hard, behind the scenes work that goes on in our labor-intensive industry. So if it looks effortless, like corporate headquarters is orchestrating our every move, then I guess we’re doing our jobs pretty well.
But let’s be real, if a corporate backer was in charge of things and took a glance at the cost of our premium organic ingredients, you can trust our product quality would not be anything comparable to what it is today! The beauty of small business is that quality is paramount. It’s because the people making the calls are people who believe they can make a difference in this world. And that’s why, for me, PJC has always represented something to believe in.
Thanks so much for reading. Hope you have a really lovely day.
❤️ Naomi