Meet the Team: Pesso

[Pesso]

Name:  Aylon Pesso

Role:  Small Business Evangelist

About Me:  Hey friends!

First the fun stuff:  I’m a New Yorker who loves anything and everything outdoors. I’m a big fan of backpacking, spending weeks or months at a time traveling across any country and just sinking into life there. I love staying active, with weekly doses of yoga, strength training, biking, walking, and literally anything else (I’m trying out rock climbing right now!). I’m a massive nerd and love all things Star Wars, Marvel, Harry Potter, Disney, and theme parks. 

While I’m new to the Square Team, I’m not new to small business, Square or the Seller Community. I ran my ice cream shop, Pesso’s Ices & Ice Cream, since 2004, and used Square since 2012. I became a Super Seller here in the Square Seller Community in 2017, helping other small business owners by answering their questions and writing articles sharing my knowledge and experience. We sold the business to a customer in 2022, and I made the jump to officially join Square.

For my new role at Square as the first Small Business Evangelist, I’m using my experience and expertise as a Small Business Owner and Small Business Consultant for the last 18+ years. I’m here to find out more about your needs as small business owners, and to share the things I’ve done and learned to help you run your businesses too. Keep on the lookout for articles, videos, and events from me in the near future!

I’d love to hear from you, so please introduce yourselves, and answer these in the comments:

• What are you struggling with as a business owner?

• What is having the biggest impact on your business?

• How do you balance your personal life with your business life?

Thanks so much for reading, and I can’t wait to talk & work with you all more soon!

Pesso

[Hailey]

Lucky to have you on the team @Pesso 👍😁

[Pesso]

Thank you so much @Hailey -- I'm definitely the lucky one though!

[Ani_]

+1!! So so lucky!

[isabelle]

+1 🍀 

[Pesso]

Aw shucks, thanks @Ani_ & @isabelle - y'all rock.

[Sean]

+1! 👏 🙏 🔝 Also, that hiking stance/photo is pretty epic! 

[Pesso]

Thanks @Sean ! It's on this little slate island in Ireland - such an incredible place

[_Violet]

I was just telling @Pesso the other day how he has always been a huge help in the Seller Community as a Super Seller.

We are so lucky and thankful to have him on the Square side now as well! Truly makes an impact for other Sellers to see someone who has this level of experience as a Square Seller and now as a Small Business Evangelist 👏🌟

[Pesso]

Thank you so much @_Violet - I really appreciate all of that. 
And your constant presence here has been absolutely incredible. Thank you for all you do!

[JUYBoutique20]

Oh my gosh, what a beautiful smile you have.... Congratulations again on your new journey...It's great to have you on the inside letting everyone know what we go through on this side.

• What are you struggling with as a business owner?
• What is having the biggest impact on your business?
• How do you balance your personal life with your business life?

-For me as a business owner right now I struggle with prioritizing what I need to do for my online store vs in-store.  I want my online store to look like a virtual peek into my actual store so making the time to do that is a bit challenging. 

-I guess what's impacting our business right now is shipping cost.  Shipping here to Alaska is getting more expensive so I'm having to adjust pricing.  Customers are not complaining because they love what I bring in, but it is cutting into my profits.  

- As for balancing business life and personal life, I try to only do business things during business hours but with us being 2 to 3 hours behind some places in the lower 48 with whom we do business it can really be challenging.  This is definitely a work in progress.

[Pesso]

Thank you so much @JUYBoutique20 - I really appreciate that!

And thank you for taking the time to write that out and answer.

I love the idea of your online store as a digital representation of your shop. What element of that process is the most daunting or time-consuming? The design, layout, pictures, item setup, writing, or something else?

Ah wow, I can't even imagine how much that is costing from up there. I'm glad your customers understand. When you say it's cutting into your profits, are you eating those costs yourself and not passing along those increases to your customers?

That's a really great strategy to separate work time from personal time. Do you have set hours in your day for work? Ah, yea the time difference can definitely be challenging when you have to compensate over your business hours to get things done. Do you end up adding those extra hours or just shift them over?

I think work-life balance is a work in progress for everyone! It sounds like you're really on track with a lot of things, and we're all rooting for you! Let me know if there's anything I can help with!

[JUYBoutique20]

Thanks so much...I definitely will...

The most time-consuming part is actually getting the pics taken and edited.  I'm going to actually get this content planner I've been curious about and give it a try. 

I do include the shipping cost into my pricing but sometimes on restocks I eat it.  I'm going to stop that though...I talked with some other business owners up here and they gave me some insight on how to go forward.

My work hours are 10:00 am- 6:00 pm Mon-Sat.  I usually just add them in.  When I leave the store, I usually take another hour or so to finish up anything I feel needs my attention.  That's after family things though so I'm usually up late finishing up.

[Pesso]

Thanks for sharing more, @JUYBoutique20 !

Ah awesome - let us know how the planning goes!
For product photos? Have you tried out the new Square Photo Studio App? It's pretty cool and makes taking & editing & importing product photos super easy.

That definitely makes sense, and I'm glad speaking to other business owners gave you some insight and the power to make that decision. I'm glad you're going to change it up and make sure you get the margins you need!

That's great that you give yourself a (semi)regular schedule, and Sundays off!

It can definitely be tricky to balance it all, and hopefully you can find ways to take back some personal time along the way. Definitely keep us updated on that-

Thanks again so much for sharing, it's so great to get your insights and a peek of your perspective.

[JUYBoutique20]

I would definitely try Square Photo Studio App but it's only available on Apple.  

[Pesso]

Ah that's right, I'm sorry @JUYBoutique20 - hopefully more support for that will come in the future!

I hope the process goes well in the meantime!

[Donnie-M]

This is an awesome thing, pesso has helped me many of times...my wife keeps wanting me to travel with her, you will have to talk square into a recruiting bonus and convince me to switch to the square side!

Congrats, couldn't have a better ambassador for square.

[Pesso]

Thanks so much @Donnie-M - always my pleasure!
Haha, I'll make some calls