My career as a small business owner will end nine hundred and forty-four days after I began it. On August 17th, all my store debts will be settled, and I will have to find a real job.
I don’t want to discuss the details. Suffice it to say that the obstacles I placed in the path of my stores success ultimately outstripped my talent and financial reserves.
The store looks pretty much the same as it did yesterday, or last week, but it already feels dead. A hollow vegetable on life support sucking more resources than it can generate. I don’t know for sure if the effort was doomed from the start, or if I didn’t work hard enough, or if I made stupid decisions, or maybe all of the above. The only certain thing is that it’s time to pull the plug.
I keep trying to remind myself that failure is as important a component to a free-market economy as success. But goddamn if it doesn’t sting like a sumbitch.
But like Ike said in December 1944, this is to be seen as an opportunity, not a disaster.
Time to do something else.
Squeaky Wheel | 22-Jul-07 at 7:26 pm | Permalink
There are very few in this world who even have the guts to attempt what you’ve done.
I wish you luck in your next endeavor.
Hank | 22-Jul-07 at 7:56 pm | Permalink
Dude. So sorry to hear that. But you’re right, you move on. Nothing else for it. I wouldn’t necessarily say your self-imposed obstacles are to blame. Maybe. Maybe not. Don’t beat yourself up. So…move on and make it all work out better for you this time. Don’t let the b@st@rds get you down.
Pederson | 22-Jul-07 at 8:39 pm | Permalink
Most unfortunate. Any idea what’s next?
TD | 22-Jul-07 at 10:15 pm | Permalink
TD | 22-Jul-07 at 10:15 pm | Permalink
Dammit, WordPress ate my HTML…
Two words: Internet. Porn.
Ernunnos | 22-Jul-07 at 10:55 pm | Permalink
My sympathies. My sister recently had to do the same. I think you’ll find that after you’ve tried the impossible, the merely difficult becomes very easy. She didn’t believe me at first when I told her that, but she’s seeing the proof now.
Chris Pugrud | 22-Jul-07 at 11:22 pm | Permalink
For some reason it’s easier to count the businesses that we’ve started and failed, than the successes. I’ve been involved in starting and closing a lot of businesses. The one that I helped start that is still running I still look in on, but AI’m mostly happy it’s still going, growing, and learning.
At a minimum it sounds like you are able to walk away with the business paid for and you at least extracted some kind of living out of the business for 944 days. That’s a pretty good accomplishment by most measures.
Sit back, look around, and figure out what your next opportunity will be. Just because the last business was not as profitable as you’d hoped, does not mean that the next will not be.
Ambulance Driver | 23-Jul-07 at 12:26 am | Permalink
Damn, PDB. That sucks.
Something tells me you’re resourceful enough to land on your feet, though.
Good luck.
Mark@Yards | 23-Jul-07 at 1:10 am | Permalink
Sorry to hear it. Loved your customer interaction reports.
Tam | 23-Jul-07 at 8:23 am | Permalink
Dude, that’s like three times as successful as most small businesses.
phlegmfatale | 23-Jul-07 at 7:36 pm | Permalink
Damn, I hate to hear that. Blessings to you.
Josh | 23-Jul-07 at 9:58 pm | Permalink
Man, now I’ll never get to walk in unbeknownst and torture you with stupid questions.
Keep your head up, dude. If you’ve got the stones to open your own business, you can do anything else.
ErikZ | 24-Jul-07 at 10:03 am | Permalink
I’m pretty sure I saw this coming.
As someone who also wants to start up his own business, I feel for you man.
And although they’re irritating and unimaginative, there wouldn’t be so many Starbucks out there if they weren’t making money. Maybe you should give that a shot?
Or, like, a regular job is cool too.
Brad | 24-Jul-07 at 2:12 pm | Permalink
So, will you finally reveal your store’s location? Otherwise I may never get a chance to bask in the glory of “The Rock” on the store wall.
Arthur | 24-Jul-07 at 3:10 pm | Permalink
Yeah, I’ve been there. My wonderful bookstore made it 2 years before I decided to pull the plug. It was tons of fun to run it but I wasn’t making a living. Creative destuction makes this economy work but it sucks to part of the destruction.
Congratulations on making the attempt AND on knowing when to cut your losses.
Wonderduck | 24-Jul-07 at 8:59 pm | Permalink
Damn.
I’ve never been the owner of my own business, but I was the manager of a bookstore that got closed out from underneath me (rhymes with “Baldenbooks”), through no fault of my own.
It still felt like I failed, and it took me some time to realize that it wasn’t my fault, that the sweat, blood, and 13 kidneystones that I put into it would have been enough if the mall I was in hadn’t've been dying (it now has 4% occupancy).
The fact that the next place I worked at closed from underneath me (rhymes with “Fateway Domputers”) doesn’t mean that I’m jinxed.
As someone above said, that you lasted three years (almost) means you managed to succeed three times as long as most small businesses.
It still sucks, though.
Brian | 25-Jul-07 at 3:01 pm | Permalink
That really stinks. Best wishes for your future.
And I’m really - REALLLLLY - going to miss your customer stories. I’ve savored all of those.
Denny | 28-Jul-07 at 12:45 pm | Permalink
Sorry to hear that and I’m really gonna miss the customer stories. On the upside, working a job will probably entail less hours than you had to work at the store,
Ray | 06-Aug-07 at 1:33 pm | Permalink
In Silicon Valley, it takes about 3 times for a person to finally have a successful business. So count this as a learning experience and move on. Failure is part of life, and what’s important is learning from it.