Business... The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

You should never want anything bad enough to sell your soul for it.  You should never forgo important things like building inspections, you should never ever believe in the people that are selling you something.  You need to protect yourself and you need to watch out for you.....because no one else is going to.  

Buying a business is just like a relationship.  You may possibly get out of it exactly what you put into it, but if that business has had problems before you bought it that you weren't aware of, then it might have problems after you buy it and you will have to deal with it then.  

There are days when I love what I do, I look forward to going to work and I look forward to redoing a display or making my shop look wonderful.  There are days when it is a peace of mind to go inside and take a deep breath and realize that even through it all I am still here, still in business and still managing to struggle through.  That in itself is an accomplishment in this day and age.

My loyal customers, the ones that look so forward to coming.  They make you smile.  It isn't about what they buy ( yes, I am happy when they buy) but it is about how they interact with the store.  They smell deeper, their eyes darting from one side to the other, their walking slows so that they can take in as much as they can before they take another step.  They seem peaceful, they seem happy if only for a short time in the store.    

Then there are days that I don't know how I will ever make it, how I can keep going from day to day.  That I have tried everything possible and I can't make people spend money that they don't have.  Those days are hard to get through, harder than I ever thought they would be. 

But still again I can say that I AM still here, working through the bad and the ugly, because I still have hope for the good.  I suppose without HOPE

I might give into the Bad and the Ugly, so every day that I wake up and still have HOPE brings a smile to my face and an ache to my heart because It still means that no matter how unbearable it all seems.........there is still HOPE for a brighter tomorrow and a better future for me and my little store.  

As Always, a reminiscent shop owner feeling old and tired tonight, thankful for many things even when the light at the end of the tunnel seems to have been shut off.