The direct message rolled in about 5:24am. Was I startled by it? Just a tiny bit. I mean, I was awake. On my way to wide awake. I was actually about 6 minutes away from starting my day. This coming after I cut a deal with myself at 5:13am to stay in bed until 5:30.

The message was from a young lady I had interviewed for a story recently. She told me she had been thinking about some things we discussed and had a few questions. The last of those questions made me chuckle.

“Wait, why are you awake?” she asked.

“I’m a small business owner.” I said. “I’ve been awake since 4:43am”

“Yeah, me too.” she said. And that was that.

I made my way to the kitchen to start the coffee going, all the while thinking about the fact that the scene in my kitchen was probably repeating itself across Savannah. Heck, up and down the East Coast at that hour. Small businesses owners have had their phone time and now they’ve started moving. Moving to a rhythm that very likely repeats itself every single morning. A lot of times there are more questions than answers. Multiply it all by 10 if there are kids involved that have to get off to school.

“How are we with staffing for the day?”

“Do I have time to get to the Post Office this morning?”

“Will the food that we haven’t sold yet last another day or should we go ahead and toss it?”

These are questions that I know get asked-not only here in Savannah-but everywhere there is a small business owner. Hell, it doesn’t even have to be a restaurant. They will tell you nearly every day is an adventure. Forget about that proverbial box of chocolates. Own a small business for a few years, you really will never know what you are going to get.

Of course, a lot of them will admit to a man-or woman-that it’s that variety and chaotic energy that attracts them to the job in the first place, but I’m sure a majority of them would kill for an occasional off switch. That switch doesn’t exist when you are the owner.

I had a business owner tell me a few weeks ago that one night he watched some neighborhood people come by his place to use their fire pit long after the restaurant had closed. There was no one around, but apparently these folks had enjoyed their evening enough to demand a fire. How did they start said fire? By chopping up a picnic table out in front of the restaurant. Yes, this really happened. He saw it all on surveillance video.

Enough to make you want to scream.

I’ve maintained for many years that no one wakes up in the morning and says “I can’t wait to get to work and screw everything up today.” That scenario just doesn’t exist. Is there burnout in restaurants? Of course. Are staff, and managers for that matter, overworked on many occasions? Probably. But more times than not it’s because there isn’t another option. Everyone is just trying to get through the day. Only to do it again tomorrow.

Which is what makes it 100 times more exasperating when some rodeo clown decides he’s going to dig into Google and leave behind a 1 star review. Why? Because the restaurant was closed. On its regular day off. A fact he could have very easily learned if he had bothered to look. Was there any regard for how such a silly ‘review’ would affect that business? None. It was shameful. And it happened here on Tybee Island.

Still, the good people that own that restaurant are likely going to be up early tomorrow morning-probably earlier than they’d prefer to be-staring at the tiny blue light in the darkness trying to set their next 12-15 hours in motion hoping that it goes off without incident.

Which is why I know when I am up too early doing the same it doesn’t surprise me anymore to get a response to an email before 6am. It happens more regularly than you think. It’s the reason why I am sharing this time here.

5am-7am? Everything is quiet and you can smell the coffee beginning to drip?

Small business owners call that the real happy hour.

# # #