It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times.....

The "owning our own business" bug is biting again.

After closing the cafe four years ago and selling our Subway restaurants five years ago, I was done. In fact, I was beyond done. I was traumatized.

It is a huge risk owning a business and we experienced the risk paying off (Subway) and then the pendulum swung the other way to experiencing a risk that sucked the life and money right out of us (Olde Cafe). The uncertainty has kept me hiding out for the last five years saying "I'm not ever going to do THAT again".

However as I end my last two years being heavily involved with our school PTO and the kids are getting older, I am finding myself entertaining familiar thoughts from a decade ago. Why not give it a try? I keep thinking of products that could be successful in our area and how we can look into veteran's benefits for start-up loans (something we hadn't researched before). I have called to get leasing information and I have been praying!  I feel like there is a spark of hope in me that hasn't been there in years.

I know that one major thing in my life has changed my perspective of owning a business. The realization that if God opens the door, we should walk through it and if He decides to close a door, I have to stop trying to pry it open. When we opened all the other restaurants, I had faith that God (with my help, haha) could make it all work out, yet there was a lot of stress and striving.  I believe things would be different this time. Sure, the stress would still be there to some degree, but I would not allow it to consume me and define me. I already have a peace in not feeling rushed, to take our time and not be anxious about it.  And, we are going to start small this time, without having to quit either of our jobs. That was probably the biggest mistake we made when we put all of our eggs in the The Olde Cafe basket.

So, stay tuned! I have no idea where this is going (similar to my writing), but I'm going to hang on and try to enjoy the ride!