Building (for) the business

As most of you know, my handsome and talented husband (does that make him HTH?) started a business about 9 months ago. Although the events that precipitated this change seemed sudden, it had been a long time coming. He had been worked in low temperature refrigeration for 16 years at a local small business. As the GM, he was aware of a number of market opportunities that the company was not addressing. So, when the owner of the company made HTH an unacceptable career change offer, he got HTH's 2 weeks notice instead of acceptance. HTH saw an empty space that could be usefully filled, so he started out to fill it.

The foundation period was, by far, the slowest part. We had much to discuss about the "what" and "how" of the new business. We had systems to build that could support all of the weight that we hoped to be putting onto this yet-to-be realized structure.

The business design also changed a bit at this stage. We found that market was not ready for some services that we planned. Other opportunities appeared out of nowhere that offered a new direction that, with some trepidation, we took.

We've had a lot of help getting the walls up. V&B have been great "been there, done that" resources. Although our businesses are totally different, some things just don't change. For that, we've been truly grateful! We've had conversations about business theory and accounting with Ommi and Baba. We've had countless friends weigh in on logo designs. HTH's Dad, JD, has stepped in recently to lend a hand while HTH has been recovering from eye surgery. The last few months would not have been possible without him.

Although there have been a number of celebratory moments along the way, the last few weeks have been marked by several milestones. We sent out our 100th invoice. We're very close to the dollar target that we set as "the end of the start up phase". We've made it through the anticipated slow season and found that there is still money to be made - even in the lean months of January and February.


We've also hit a tangible milestone, which is quite unusual in a service business. It even mirrors the status of our business. HTH outgrew the available storage space. He needs easy access to far too many parts to work from our current shop. For the last month or so, jobs permitting, he and JD have been building a space designed to support the needs of this business.

It struck me that we finally had a visual for what has been happening these last 9 months. So here it is - a small change in the world, but a big change for us. A work in progress, but self supporting. Our own little construction project - in drywall and in services.