We’re coming up on 4 years and what we’re experiencing now was never a forethought. Yes, maybe we always tried to prepare for a looming recession but not like this. Like other small business owners, we’ve had to fight from the beginning with our own fears, doubts and questions of whether this shop dream could really become a reality. Asking whether it would all be worth it in the end if we lost all of our money and went into massive amounts of debt.

Taking the leap, signing a lease and putting the business out there all while going on this roller coaster of emotions of being pumped and confident to feeling completely insecure and defeated. Not knowing anything about business and pretty much googling everything. Getting our first sale and literally jumping for joy and thinking, “Whoa! Someone actually sees and gets what we’re doing.” Hitting roadblocks and taking advice from Oprah - asking ourselves what the next right move is and then sitting there for hours trying to figure out what that is. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Finally, celebrating year one and thinking we made it a full year while also thinking why does it feel like 10 (in a good way). Meeting a milestone of 💯 workshops and feeling like all the late nights of pushing and working for every single workshop seat had paid off. 

Sadly leaving our first shop home to move next door and getting to re-setup shop - being given the opportunity to not make the same boo boos again.  Making it to year 2 and wondering how we got there - no longer in debt and completely in the black. (There were times when we didn’t know if we could really pull ourselves out of that financial hole.) 

Getting into the groove of shop life, still working 6-7 days a week but finally, FI-NA-LLY hiring our first 2 part time employees which came with its own set of challenges as we navigated the process but came with so many awesome rewards! Making it to 3 years and being in complete tears on anniversary weekend overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people that came to say, “Congrats!” 

And here we are, just a few months shy of 4 years being faced with what will be the toughest up hill climb as business owners. We‘ve fought for this dream. We’ve gone up against our own fears and insecurities. 

We’ve put out fires, problem solved and overcome the challenges in our own partnership as 2 friends owning a business together. 

Our story is special to us because it’s ours.

But all small business owners have their own stories of struggle, fighting to be great at what they do and offer, fighting to be relevant, fighting to keep their doors open, fighting to cover rent, fighting to make payroll so their employees can take care of their families, fighting for a sense of balance between work life and personal life (there is none btw). It’s a constant battle. 

All to say, WE DID NOT COME THIS FAR TO ONLY COME THIS FAR. Now is the time to hunker down, put one foot out in front of the other, get creative and take action. It’s scary times. We’re scared of the unknown, the economic ramifications, being on the verge of losing what we’ve built. But WE are not going down without a fight 💪🏼.