What I Learned After 6 Years Of Timber + Plumb…
Photo by Vicki Bartel
SIX YEARS!
Six f***ing wonderful but terrifying years!
Now you may be wondering why I describe owning a business that way… Well listen up; Working for yourself is HARD but it also can be so rewarding. There are days that you feel like no one likes you, no one wants to support you, and you could just go and get a regular 9-5 job and be fulfilled with your career. There are also days where you feel like you’re on the path to something incredible, you’re crushing goals, barriers and your clients/customers LOVE you.
Not every day is the same and you may find yourself in a slump or on top the world but regardless of all that, being an entrepreneur is being comfortable with a bitter-sweet life.
If you don’t know what bitter-sweet means (which I’m assuming you do but I’ll still explain), Bitter-sweet means finding pleasure in something that is accompanied by suffering or regret. Now reading that definition… it doesn’t sound too appealing because who wants to suffer or have regrets in life? **Que the Crickets. Well I certainly don’t but on the other hand, not taking an opportunity like starting my own business would have left me with a ton of regret and I used to think it was because “I didn’t like working for someone else” or “I have really cool ideas that I can only make happen on my own” but that’s not it.
If I didn’t open Timber + Plumb, I would have felt a lot of regret because I see now what it has brought to my life; friendship/community, a whole lot of self-discovery, and the business fueled my creative fire… it also provides me with a pay cheque and a way to feed my family (but so would a 9-5 so I don’t really use that as a comparison in this case).
I started Timber + Plumb when I had just moved to a new city. Some of you may know a bit of my story, I knew no one here, I moved away from my family and my friends and everything I was familiar with, blah, blah, blah. It was for me, a new beginning and I had something to prove but not to anyone else just to myself. I knew that if I put in all of the effort that I put into my career thus far, I would be successful in my own business endeavors.
So the day after I moved to Windsor, I registered my a business and created a plan. While some of my plan worked out, some of it went right into the crapper.
In my first year of business, I lost $10,000 on a bad investment and also after a whole summer of extremely hard-work, I had nothing to show for it. I did however start meeting some pretty cool people AND starting doing some big projects.
In my second year of business, I was working on building out a really great group of clientele and I got my ducks in a row as far as suppliers and trades go. I also learned how to deal with some of my work stress/anxiety and starting quieting my mind when it comes to those feelings.
In my third year, I found my showroom location hired my first employee, launched a small business grant, my good reputation grew strong... oh and we were in the middle of world-wide pandemic - who would have guessed that would happen hahaha?
In year 4, I hired another employee, grew my offerings as a business and starting connecting more with fellow business owners with our own series of networking events.
Year 5 rolled around and I lost both my employees but was extremely busy and overwhelmed. I had a really great work ethic and was able to keep up with things and my showroom space is almost completed (literally getting so close).
Cut to now Year 6, I’m a bit crispy (burnt out) the economy has slowed (so work has slowed down which is good and bad) and I’m able to revamp the things I want to and work on all while making my business more sustainable and manageable for myself.
It’s been a RIDE but I bet you could see that from my quick synopsis above because I really skimmed over A LOT of the really good things (and bad) but I think you get it - entrepreneurship is NOT for everyone (regardless of whatever big business mogul on the internet tells you).
Lastly hustle culture is dangerous… Yes you can push through the work to propel yourself farther but while you’re busy working, your potential “personal demons” are just lurking in the bushes waiting to pop out at you. So my advice would be to make sure you’re taking care of yourself and not just your work schedule.
Photo by Vicki Bartel
My final words (or paragraph) are: If you made it through this blog then you’re a complete gem and my kind of people.
I like to think that I wouldn’t be here without you all but really that is the truth. I didn’t keep me going when things got tough, you did!
You might not see it really but without all of your positivity, encouragement, and love (I’m getting sappy) I probably wouldn’t be here because these past six years were beyond tough personally and professionally.
So not only am I celebrating my business anniversary, I’m celebrating you. So thank-you, thank-you for being there with me through it all. I’m not sure what is to come in the next few years but I’m much better equipped (I think anyways) to deal with whatever life decides to throw at me and with good people in my corner, I think I will succeed through the hard times and be able to celebrate the good times.
Cheers to 6 friends, it’s been an adventure.
Markie.