08/24/2026
Today, Touch of Gray Interiors is closed. đź’›
Today is our annual summer staff day — a day we’ve intentionally set aside to step away from the schedules, properties, phones and everyday busyness of running a small business and simply spend some time together.
To have fun. To laugh. To make some memories. And most importantly, to celebrate the people behind this little business.
As I was thinking about today and the incredible group of people I get to spend it with, I kept coming back to something I don’t think we talk about nearly enough.
We hear all the time about the importance of supporting small businesses.
Shop small. Hire local. Eat local. Support the people in your community who are trying to build something.
And all of that matters tremendously.
But there’s another group of people supporting small businesses every single day who I think deserve a little more recognition:
The people who choose to work for them.
As a small business owner, I don’t know if employees always realize just how much that means.
My crew didn’t walk into some perfectly polished corporate operation where everything had already been figured out.
They’ve had a front-row seat to me learning how to build a company.
They’ve watched me get things right. They’ve watched me get things wrong. They’ve watched us try new things, change processes, scrap ideas that didn’t work and build better ones.
They’ve watched this company grow while I’ve been learning how to grow as a leader right along with it.
And they keep showing up.
Some of my crew have been beside me for years. Others are newer to our story. And over the years, others have spent a chapter here before life took them somewhere else.
I’ve learned that not everyone is supposed to stay forever.
People find the places they need at different stages of their lives. Maybe someone is here for six months. Maybe two years. Maybe ten. Maybe, hopefully, some of them will still be standing beside me many years from now.
What matters to me is that while someone is here, their time here matters.
Because my employees aren’t here simply to help me chase my dream.
I want to help them chase theirs, too.
I want to watch them grow. I want to celebrate their successes. I want to know what they’re working toward outside of work. I want them to learn things here that they carry with them wherever life takes them.
And I hope they know that I’m working hard to become a better person, a better leader and a better business owner — not just for myself, not just for our clients, not just for this company or our community, but for them, too.
People often say that managing people is one of the hardest parts of owning a business.
Maybe it is.
But I think it’s also one of the greatest privileges and most rewarding parts of it.
Because somewhere along the way, they stop feeling like simply “employees.”
They become your crew. Your people. Your little work family.
So today, I especially want to thank mine.
Thank you for showing up.
Thank you for taking care of our clients.
Thank you for representing Touch of Gray Interiors when I’m not standing beside you.
Thank you for adapting when we learn a better way.
Thank you for giving me grace while I’m learning, too.
Thank you for believing enough in what we’re building to help me build it.
And thank you for trusting me with this chapter of your lives.
But today I also want to say something, from one small business owner to the employees of small businesses everywhere:
Thank you for supporting small business.
Every time you show up for that little restaurant, shop, contractor, cleaning company, salon, nonprofit, service company or other local business that employs you, you’re helping someone’s idea become a livelihood.
You’re helping serve your community. You’re helping create jobs. You’re helping someone’s dream become something real. And you’re helping build something that probably means more to that owner than you’ll ever completely know.
Customers support small businesses.
Communities support small businesses.
But employees build them.
And to mine — I genuinely don’t know that I’d want to do this without you.
I don’t expect us to ever have everything figured out. In fact, I hope we never stop believing there is something we can learn, something we can improve and some way we can be better.
I just hope we keep learning together, keep growing together and keep trying to be a little better than we were yesterday.
Today, though, we’re putting all of that aside for a few hours.
Today is about my team.
Let’s go make some memories.
đź’› Elizabeth Gray
