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Business & Tech

Building a Business Requires Plenty of Hard Work

Slave labor given for easy part of business ownership

Which do you think is more difficult: The tons of paperwork that has to be started, filled, and tracked to get a business legal to operate including the months of planning and marketing prior to opening OR the actual work of opening?  I think it is harder to do all the things you need to do in advance to get ready to open a business.

And now for the easy part: Opening the store.

I will spend this week washing and oiling the beautiful wood walls and shelves that Jerry Thornton had inside his jewelry store for the many years before it became a delightful cake decorating supply store with classes. I will coordinate the rug shampoo, the signage, and learn the cash register.

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With the help of family and friends, we will haul everything into the store that has been in storage the past couple months.  That means everything like toys, clothes, sleepers, shoes, infant rattles, hats, mittens, ride-on toys, swimsuits, onesies, blankets, sheets, toys, books, and oh, did I say toys?

We will haul cases of children’s hangers, boxes of price tags, tagging barbs, tagging guns, labels, signs, and lots of display baskets, etc. It is no less than 60 or more bags of items and a few boxes, too.

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Besides how much work goes into opening a business being miscalculated, another thing that most people don’t realize is that you are setting up another home. Because you are going to spend all day at your store or at your business, you must also have a small refrigerator and a microwave for employees or for your self to enjoy meals and snacks.

Now I’m pretty sure there are a lot of men who wouldn’t care about these thing but as a woman who eats small five meals a day (always have), my body doesn’t do well for long periods of time without nourishment. When my children were younger and even into their teens, they were in my businesses with me because that is where I was. I always had a place for them to be private to do their homework or take a nap.

So I will also haul in the soap, toilet paper, nightlights, paper towels and washcloths, cleansers, waste baskets, plastic bag liners, toilet bowl brush, broom, dustpan, and even a doormat. There is soooo much stuff!

Did I mention the office needs, too? I’ll have to have a stapler and staples, paperclips, tape, scissors, binders, a 3-hole punch, pens, pencils, white out, tacks, tablets, and a bulletin board with markers.

While I’m sure my house will open up and become way less cluttered, I keep thinking about what will happen if the store doesn’t make it and I have to bring it all back home. Dixon is such a tough nut to crack for retail. Well, actually for any business. (This is another reason I believe so strongly in the , the , and the Dixon Networking Association.) We really do need each other to help be successful! But I really don’t want to have to movie it all back home…

Positive self-talk is critical to being courageous enough to start a business but especially so here.  And what else you have to know if you want to own your own business is that you don’t stop doing all the promoting once the doors open. You must always be willing to share with others why your products or services are helpful. You must keep your business in the front of people’s minds and eyes.

And, you must work really hard every day to keep your store clean, attractive, inviting, and filled with great merchandise. There is a reason I like the verse, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” It makes me not be afraid of the really hard work involved in being an entrepreneur.

Actually moving in and opening the doors to the business will be extremely exciting and rewarding yet absolutely exhausting. Thanks for reading.

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