I worked full-time as a Unix Sys Admin, usually overtime as well (whenever I had the opportunity). I was married then, and my husband was unemployed. That last year I was pregnant with my now 7 year old daughter, and he stayed home with the children when I went back to work after only two weeks leave. We had four total - my son, his two daughters and our new baby together.
The car was always breaking down, bills were always due - we were running on empty a lot of the time, it seemed, but stuck in that cycle. He had a good trade - electronic repair - but we lived in a small town that didnt offer many jobs in that field... not to mention that getting another car going, paying for childcare, etc was going to cost money upfront that we didnt have. So... we just woke up every morning and went with the routine.
I hated my job. Wait - scratch that. I LOVED my "job" - I was miserable with the people that I worked for and with. It was also a tough year - having a newborn and needing the time off for doctors appointments and shots etc, and also having surgery that year myself, meaning more time off - none of which made the bosses happy, of course. I was frustrated with the whole scenario - and exhausted all the time.
I decided there had to be a better way. There had to be more to life than
this.
A couple of months went by with that thought brewing in the back of my mind. I finally came up with a reasonable scenario and sat down with a legal pad and figured it all up:
We would have to move to the nearest 'city' - at least two counties away, as we both had 'no compete agreements' against us (me in communications, him in electronics). I got out a map and chose Murfreesboro, TN. I ran some numbers - it was a real stretch, mind you - and presented the idea to my husband. He looked at the paper, looked at me, and said "no way - it'll never work".
We had no assets, no credit and no capital - nothing. We were living in a rented house and the car I was driving was worth more to me as a means of transportation than it was on paper.
BUT - we got a tax refund that year... a whopping $600 - and I was determined to make a go of it. I went to Murfreesboro and looked at a house I found in the paper - an older house on the outskirts of town with a small shop out to the side... PERFECT - and the rent was $600/month. Fortunately, after some convincing, my husband supported the decision.
I put in my notice at work, figuring we would use my last few checks to tie up loose ends and 'get by'. No such luck - I got fired on the spot.
We were going to need a few hundred dolllars, at the very least, to get current bills paid and turn utilities on, etc... So we sold everything that wasnt nailed down.
Most of it went to the local auction house - the easiest and quickest way to get cash: furniture, clothes, toys, all of my home interior, my Christmas china... everything.
I used the $600 to secure the house in the city - and what little we had left, we used to rent a Uhaul truck... and we moved. Obviously we didnt have the means to "open an electronics shop" right away - but we got settled in and started brainstorming ways to turn the shop beside the house into a repair shop.
Our first step was to let people know who we were and what we offered. With no cash and no phones, he went to town and introduced himself in person. I gave him a list from the local phone book of all of the repair shops in town, and he started there... offering to do overflow work. He brought home a few pieces a day, and fixed them and returned them the next day. I handled the paperwork, house, children and any clients that came by for drop-off & pick up and eventually the phones. I put up flyers, we made it a point to meet everyone that we could - to position ourselves in the market place, we would ocassionally run a small $10-$20 ad in the local paper. It took us about three months - right at 90 days - to begin getting close to our minimum financial goals (then $2000/month). Every penny we made that didnt go into our survival, went back into the business. We finally got phone lines and business cards, and spent $50 on a small sign for the shop. Many things that we needed - such as a desk and computer, tools, parts, etc, we would barter services for - so there was much work in that first six months getting set-up and staying caught-up.
The new phone books came out that summer... and I knew the deadline for a yellow page ad was coming on fast - it would be our last chance to get an ad in before the following year. I remember that being a particularly difficult decision - knowing we could not afford it, and feeling as if we could not afford NOT to do it. I took the plunge - three small ads, each under a different heading - carefully thought out, costing approx $80/month total. We had been 'in business' about 6 months by then.
It was an "all or nothing" venture. We sacrificed everything that we owned, my 'good job', a town where we knew people, etc to make this happen... so we worked night and day and did whatever it took. We had kids to feed, bills to pay...
Quite by accident we had hit a niche in the local market, which we soon found out. We were the ONLY shop in town - or in the area at all, for that matter - that repaired computer monitors. We had a flat rate of $50 for monitor repair - and at one time, I remember, we had almost 200 monitors in the shop for repair at once!
By the end of our first summer, I began revising the business plan and moved us into a commercial building in the middle of town.
I could go on and on here... but I believe I've given you a good idea of the basics that at least got us rolling. In the end, I have to say that the 'networking', the relationships that we built with other local business owners, and the yellow page ads were the two things that really positioned us well to end that first year and start our second. Also, having recognized a niche in the market, and capitalizing on that by focusing our efforts on the targeted market was a great stepping stone. We began to work more specifically with computer repair shops instead of electronic repair shops for repair work and co-promotion, etc. What should have been considered our 'competition', turned out to be our biggest asset.
I would definitely advise advertising in the Yellow Pages, and the local paper - we could always count on a boost in calls with a simple five or ten line ad
When we did move to the new shop - with 5000 sq ft of showroom and offices, and on one of the busiest streets in town... business tripled the first month, and continued to do well from that point forward. It was always work - always marketing in some way - following the current trends, etc ... but it was worth it.
I had already started a second business by the time we made that move - Web Service Network, which I still continue to run to this day - and even though my husband was to leave me in only our third year in business... I would not change a thing if I were given the opportunity to go back and do it all again.
