10/20/2026
💜 THE GOOD, THE BAD, & THE UGLY OF BEING A SMALL BUSINESS OWNER 💜
Foodees Fest. Three days. One of the biggest events Seate’s Syrup & More has ever taken on.
And y’all… I’m not even sure where to begin. 🥹
We spent SO much time, money, energy, and preparation getting ready for this event. Thursday night, I praised God for helping me get everything done and for carrying me through the weeks of preparation. I felt ready. We had worked SO hard.
But sometimes, even when you prepare as much as humanly possible, things happen that are completely out of your control.
From the very beginning, my nervous system was struggling. The music was incredibly loud, loud generators were running everywhere around us, and the noise was overwhelming. We were set up among the artisan vendors, directly beside and in front of the food trucks. I was vendor 1 so my booth was the closest to where the food trucks were.
Then came the wind. Every 15-30 minutes, a gust would take out a majority of our products & decor. Some of those pieces have been part of our setup for YEARS. Others were special pieces we had purchased specifically for our displays.
The sound of glass shattering over and over again. Cleaning up broken glass. Picking everything up, putting it back together, and watching it all happen again.
And to top it off, we had made ONE sale in nearly three hours.
We knew people were primarily coming for the food, given the fact that the event started at 1pm Friday, so I finally sent one of my staff members out into the crowd to offer samples and tell people about our products.
Within 30 minutes, she had made FOUR sales! 🙌🏼
We were so excited!
Then she hurried back to the booth after someone told her she needed to return to her spot because she was taking sales away from other vendors and making them angry. I tracked down the volunteer who told her that and told him at that point we were just trying to make my booth fee back, that my booth was a wreck. Got that settled and was given permission to work outside our booth.
Y’all, this event was HUGE. She was simply walking through the crowd, offering samples and introducing people to our products.
As a small business owner, you try to figure out what works, adapt, and keep pushing forward. Sometimes, even that comes with challenges you never anticipated.
And the damage? 💔
My beautiful (& HEAVY) checkout stand fell over in the wind and is severely damaged. Our brand-new tent broke. More decor was damaged, and we spent so much time trying to salvage what we could.
We eventually started filling our display bottles with water and using whatever we could find underneath the checkout stand to weigh things down. Surely that would help, right?
Nope. Things were STILL going down.
Thankfully, no one was hurt. And I am genuinely grateful for that because things could have been so much worse.
For those who know me well, believe it or not, I didn’t cry. 😂 I did eventually take a much-needed break and let my team handle things for a while.
Sometimes, you just have to walk away, take a breath, and regroup.
I know the weather was out of my control. I know things happen. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.
That’s the part of being a small business owner that people don’t always see.
They see the products, the smiles, the booths, the events, and the excitement. They don’t always see the countless hours of preparation, the money invested, the physical demands, the unexpected expenses, or the emotional toll when things don’t go as planned.
I’ve been doing events for about a decade now. I’ve lost a few tents along the way, but I have never experienced damage like this.
And I’ll be honest… I have NEVER been so happy to finally pack up and leave an event as I was last night at 8 p.m.! 😅
Between setup, teardown, and Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we put in (had 3 staff members + myself) approximately 80 hours over this event weekend alone. That’s not even counting all the work that went into preparing beforehand. I paid 5 people to work in our kitchen last week. Paid for help with setup. My booth fee was $450 with a $100 deposit. I did receive my deposit back.
This was a BIG learning experience.
But it wasn’t all bad. ❤️
We met so many wonderful people, connected with new customers, and got to see family and friends who came out to support us. Those moments mattered, and I don’t want the hard parts to overshadow them.
I am SO thankful for the family members who stood beside us and helped, and for the friends who reached out to ask if they could come over and lend a hand. Those offers meant more than you know.
But I also want to be honest about something else.
I don’t remember the last time my body felt this depleted. The amount of energy it took to push through this weekend was unreal.
Living with Chiari means my body already has challenges that most people never see. Add the physical demands of running a small business, being a mama, being a wife, and trying to show up for all the people and responsibilities I love, and a lot of times, it feels like I’m running on empty.
I LOVE what I do. I love creating our products, meeting our customers, and hearing how Seate’s has become part of their lives. This business has a purpose that goes far beyond making and selling products.
But loving what you do doesn’t mean it doesn’t take a toll on you.
And being strong doesn’t mean you never reach your limit.
I can be thankful for the opportunity and still acknowledge the cost. I can praise God for answering my prayers and still admit that I’m exhausted. Both things can be true. 🙏🏼
I prayed for this opportunity, and God opened the door. I am grateful. But I’m also realizing that I have to be honest about what my body can handle.
Right now, I’m tired. My body hurts, my mind is exhausted, and I desperately need a break - even though life doesn’t always make room for one.
So, I’m giving myself permission to acknowledge that this was hard.
Not because I want anyone to feel sorry for me. Not because I’m giving up. But because I believe it’s important to share the reality behind the small business we all work so hard to build.
The good, the bad, AND the ugly. Because this is real life, too. 💜
To everyone who stopped by, purchased from us, shared our booth with a friend, offered encouragement, or supported Seate’s in any way this weekend: THANK YOU! You are a huge part of why we keep going, and we never take that support for granted. ❤️
Here’s to a new week, a little perspective, and hopefully some much needed rest.
And as always, thank you for being part of our journey. 🌿
WE ARE TOUCHING LIVES. And even on the hard days, I believe that still matters. 💜
-Seate’s Syrup & More, LLC
