Typical Day

Typical Day

 
Parents aspiring to create the next Bach are 90% of his sales. (Source)

Mr. Peter P. Yano owns a well-established piano shop in a small city; because of that, he has a leisurely morning ahead of him. He rolls out of bed at 9:00AM, has a cup of coffee, and reads the paper. He trusts his best employees to open up the piano shop. P. Yano's Pianos is in good hands.

Still in his pajamas, Peter starts going over the numbers from the previous day. His sales associate, Trevor, sent him the sales at the end of the night, and it's up to Peter to see how well these numbers fit in with their expenses and if they have anything they need to be worried about. 

They don't, luckily, because school just started back up again and instruments and classes are in high demand. But, just in case, Peter starts brainstorming some activities they could offer in the shop to try to get piano lesson enrollment up. Why quit while you're ahead?

After some lunch, Peter finally gets dressed and walks down to the shop around 2:30PM. He likes to drop in to make sure his employees are on their toes...and because he likes the atmosphere he's created at the piano shop.

As soon as he enters, he's greeted by Gina, one of his top sales associates. She can handle just about anything and she's always got a smile on her face. "Hi, Mr. Yano, what's up?"

"Good afternoon, Gina! How's the foot traffic been today?"

"Pretty average. All the parents are coming in to get instruments for their kids and sign them up for lessons. It's gonna be nutso really soon. School is about to let out and the classes are full to the brim."

"That's great!" Peter pauses. "Do our piano teachers know?"

"Yeah. Dana is psyched; she's preparing her lesson right now."

 
"Haha...ha...yeah, I'm not carrying those down your chimney." (Source)

"Excellent. If you need me, I'll be in my office," Peter says, as he goes to a tiny room with a desk in the back of the store. It's not much, but he doesn't need much. Peter goes through inventory and gets on the phone with a couple of suppliers to restock his bestsellers and maybe order some new stuff. It's always exciting placing orders; it's like buying Christmas presents for the shop.

Peter goes over some paperwork, including all of the stuff he needs to fill out for paying his employees. It's tedious, but he has the soundtrack of happy kids playing piano in the background, so he doesn't mind. It's just a relief to know that there are lots of customers in the shop. 

Peter's friends all thought he was crazy when he opened P. Yano's Pianos, but after twelve years of insanely hard work, Peter's happy to say that he's proved his detractors wrong. He's making a great living off the shop—and having a great time doing it.

He finally packs up his stuff around 6:00PM, a full hour before the shop will close for the night. On his way out, he notices that the window display is still summer-themed. It needs to be changed to a fall/back-to-school theme, stat. Peter could do it himself...but after all that paperwork, he'd rather go home. And since it's his shop, he'll do what he wants.

Peter finds Gina and says, "I know it's getting late and it's pretty crowded in the store, so you don't need to take care of this tonight, but can you please start brainstorming some display ideas for the window that are school-themed? If you get to changing stuff around, great. If not, you can always work on it with Trevor tomorrow."

"Sure thing, boss," Gina says.

"Great. G'night Gina!"

Peter leaves the store, confident in his staff, and heads home. He might do a couple store-related things at home, but he'll probably just enjoy some homemade pesto and Scandal re-runs. Why not? There's nothing he absolutely needs to get done for tomorrow.

He's got the best job in the world.