Starting Something...

In August of 2017 I helped my parents open a small convenience store in our small little town. I helped remodel the building that is now our store. The building my parents bought was most recently being used as a house. We tore down walls and opened the space to make more of an open floor plan that you see in most stores. Also it mimicked the store that my dad remembered being in its place when he was a kid.

While I did work for my parents for a while I felt that it was very important that I also have experience of working a "grown up" job for someone other than my parents. So I took a job at a car dealership, as a receptionist and very soon to be billing specialist. This and any other "grown up" job would be about an hour from where we lived. As things went on and more and more came about from the dealership, it became evident that I had not found my forever job. It simply was not for me. It was starting to become clear to me that I was not meant to work for someone else (working "for" my parents was and is more like working with them).

While I was starting to develop an extreme dislike for my job my Mama had a stroke. I remember getting a phone call from my Daddy, as I was getting in bed, saying that something was wrong with Mama and that I needed to come to there house now. Mind you I live less than a mile from my parents, but that night I couldn't get to their house fast enough. I got there to find my Mama wasn't able to communicate any way and could not move the right side of her body. My Mama has been an EMT since I was a baby and I had taken the EMT class and we all knew what was happening. So we called the rescue squad to take her to the hospital (closest hospital also an hour away). We also called my brother who got there before the rescue squad, along with a few close family friends. Things got kinda hectic before we got there and things only got more so.

This was early December (the 7th to be exact). While she was rushed to the hospital, there was still damage to her brain. She went in for surgery early the next morning to remove the clot and part of her skull to relieve pressure in her brain from swelling. The surgeries were successful... but there was still trauma to the brain. She spent about a month in the Neuroscience ICU (most of which she was unresponsive).

When the doctors finally believe that she was no longer in need of being in the neuroscience ICU and she was starting to make progress, she was moved... not far just down the hall of the neuroscience floor out of ICU. Small progress was made during this time but it was hard for everyone. Her time in the Neuroscience wing was not all too memorable... just a chunk of time spent in the hospital. She was moved to the rehab floor after she had almost fully woken up and was following commands.

Well all progress that we thought we were going to get from her being in rehab did not happen. You see, the rehab floor has a harder time keeping patients on a strict schedule of medicine because oftentimes patients are taken out of the room for therapy. So this increased my Mama's headaches to the point she could not participate in therapy. At this point she was also very ready to come home. A few months in the hospital, for lack of a better word, sucks. So she was sent home to do in-home therapy. During her in-home therapy there was more progress and less headaches. This was probably one of the best things to see. She made so much progress when she first came home and still continues to progress now.

Now you're probably wondering what that long, drawn-out explanation of events has to do with me and getting a taste for business... Well I worked at my dealership job until February. I was there almost a year before I quit my job to come back and run my parents' store. When she first went into the hospital I did all I could do to keep up with her book work. Now might be a good time to mention that not only do my parents own a convenience store but before that my Daddy and my Papa own a logging company. So I had to take over book work for the store and the logging company... Ohh and they also own two rental properties to manage along with it.

So I started doing the book work in December. I worked my dealership job and did book work until February. At some point the dealership had pushed too many buttons and I had too much going on to deal with their sh*t to put it nicely. I quit my dealership job and came back to work for my parents five minutes from my house (if that). I slowly had taken over running the store with help from my Daddy (more of a team than one telling the other what to do. We work together and bounce around ideas). This was probably one of the most stressful parts of my coming back.

I was 20 when I came back to run the store. I could not legally be in the store by myself. And who in their right mind would respect a 20 year old coming in to be your boss without first having proven themselves. I have worked my... umm butt off to prove myself.. but anyway maybe I'll write another post about that situation. I came back and after many many many obstacles, I feel that I have fairly well gotten up to speed and efficiently run this business. While there are still challenges and problems on the regular and by regular, I mean like daily pretty much.

All that being said, even with the problems that coming with running a business I would not go back to working for anyone else (as long as I've got the choice). I love setting my hours. I love seeing that what I put into it and how that trickles down and see how much my hard work can do and is doing. I could probably come up with a million reasons why working for yourself is the best thing ever (okay that might be an exaggeration, maybe like one hundred). This has made me was to start my own business as well... more to come!!