A New Life for an Old Business

Last week I watched Julie & Julia, a pretty good movie about how a cookbook and a chef changed the life of one person. The medium Julie used to chronicle her year of cooking Julia Childs' recipes, the blog, helped me understand the importance not only of putting my words down concretely, but also of taking my life one day at a time in order to find balance and truth in my choices. While, like Julie, I am not sure if anyone but me will read this, that is irrelevant.

What is my purpose? My purpose is to track my first year as a small business owner. Don't get me wrong--I have been in the "oil" business for over fifteen years, but always it was second banana to teaching. I worked full time as an English teacher and consultant, keeping the weekends to sell my wares at a local flea market. Although I retired in '05, I continued to work with at-risk students at the district alternative evening school. Then, with budget cuts all the rage, I found myself unemployed this past August. What to do? What to do? I spent the next several months weighing my options--the flea market was going downhill fast, and I would never build a new customer base. Thank heavens for our loyal customers of many years.

After looking at several options, my husband suggested I look into leasing a store at Firewheel Town Center, an outdoor mall in north Garland. I did not think we would have a chance, but to my surprise, they offered a deal we could not refuse, and we signed a temporary 6-month lease. We are halfway through that agreement and are working on a more permanent situation. Now I am getting nervous--a 2 year commitment means we have to look at other considerations.

That said, my secondary purpose is to put down my thoughts, my misconceptions, my insecurities about being an entrepreneur in a very unstable economy. What will happen? Can I generate enough new business--and keep my existing customer base--to really succeed? For the next year, I will follow Julie's model and keep an on-going journal about this adventure. Surely I will learn many lessons as I jump into the retail world with both feet.