I’m still not quite ready to announce what our big plans are for 2026, but we’re getting closer every day and I’m definitely feeling the pressure. Will what I’m doing be enough? Will it be too much? Will my efforts be rewarded?

Where is a magic 8 ball when you need one?

As I’ve been saying to people, we’re just going to spend all of our money and hope for the best. When I say it out loud, it sounds absurd and I don’t know why anyone would do it, but that is actually what everyone who starts a business does, if you think about it. Whether it’s a new restaurant, landscaping, insurance, or anything, you invest a bunch of time and money, put yourself out there, and hope the public responds in the way you want them to. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t, but there’s no way to know until you try.

Lately there have been a lot of things weighing on me, business-wise. Not only are we in the process of spending a bunch of money to grow Elevated Gatherings, we’re also launching a whole new division of the business. We should have an official announcement soon but until then, I will tell you two things about what we’re doing. First, it’s still going to be us cooking food, and second, it’s going to give you an opportunity to eat our food without having us into your house. For the rest of it, you’ll just have to stay tuned.

Before I go any further, let me be clear that we are not stopping the business model we have had since the beginning. We are still doing the private chef service, bringing the restaurant experience to you by shopping, cooking, and serving a delicious meal in your home. But as I’ve said before, the people haven’t been beating down our doors with the demand that I expected. We can choose to stay stagnant and keep doing what we’re doing, or we can push forward, branch out, and turn this into something bigger. And that’s what we decided to do.

It’s not easy to do something new. Come on, sometimes it’s not easy to just do what you’ve been doing all along. And let me tell you, no one who starts a business actually wants to do the “business” parts of running a business. We start them because we want to do something cool that no one else is doing, not because we want to file taxes, run payroll, deal with permits, and lay awake at night wondering if it’s all going to come crashing down around us. We started Elevated Gatherings to serve delicious food to interesting people, and when we get to do that, we have a blast, our clients love it, and everyone is happy. When I’m sitting at my laptop trying to figure out if I’m clicking in the right place on the NYS DTF website, well, I’m pretty sure no one is happy. I can tell you I’m not.

But back to the new thing we are doing. It’s not just the doing it. I’m not saying that part will be easy, but it’s the part I’m actually least concerned about. As you know, we know how to cook food. It’s all the other “new” that comes with it. New permits. New suppliers. New hours of operation. Employees (yes, we are going to hire at least one person), payroll, and insurance. A new commissary kitchen. New and different marketing. New pages on our website. New, new, new, and all of it requiring someone (me) to figure it out. I just keep writing things on my continually growing to-do list.

Another thing that’s been weighing on me as I prepare to take this leap is that a fellow small business just announced they are closing their doors at the end of the month. They started around the same time as us and we’ve thought they were great since we first met them, so this news was so surprising. I don’t know all the details, and they aren’t mine to know, but this is a business with thousands of social followers and a Chronogrammy to their names. I know, I know, social followers and Chronogrammies do not equal revenue, but it shows you they were popular. We have neither thousands of followers nor a Chronogrammy (I feel like I must add the qualifier “yet” to this last statement).

As I think about the end of their business lifecycle, I see us just at the beginning of ours, and I wonder how it might end. I know how I want it to end, but it’s not entirely up to me. And this certainly gives me pause and makes me feel yet another tug-of-war as my desire to grow and succeed is pulled back by the fear of failing.

Everyone who gets started with a small business knows the risk, and I think being cognizant of the risks helps you to avoid them, or at least to be prepared for them. We learned a few good lessons in our first year about spending money, marketing to the wrong crowds, and generally doing things we shouldn’t be doing. Trust me, we won’t make those mistakes again. Are we going to make new mistakes? Oh, probably.

Life can keep tugging me back and forth. It’s going to whether I have a business or not. I have a job, I have a life, I have family and friends, and I have a few (occasionally neglected) hobbies. Like most everyone, I’m a busy person with endless demands on my time. None of that is going to change.

Yes, we are doing this expansion for the growth and additional revenue opportunities, but at the core of why we are doing it is the idea that our food is good and we want more people to eat it. Along the way, we’re hoping to continue supporting small businesses, giving a portion of our profits to charities, and generally leaving our little part of the world better than we found it. Even if our story ended tomorrow, I would be able to say we did those things the best that we could, and that’s part of the reason why I feel more pull to keep going than I do to stay back.

I’m excited about the future and to write the next chapter in our story. It’s going to be a good one.