3rd Month

My third month of being open is the Month of December.  This can be a very stressful time of year for everyone and this year was no different.  The ratings were saying this Christmas season would make or break several large retailers.  I knew I was starting a business in a unstable environment but reports continue to share bad news.  One plus for me is that people are looking for bargains and thrift store shopping has become more common, but even thrift stores are having issues selling larger end items. 

" When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off agaist the wind, not with it" Henry Ford

The challenges I faced were balancing work with activities at home with the holidays.  I spend extra time after the store is closed trying to find new bargains to carry, paperwork, and other miscellaneous tasks.  I usually make many gifts for our family and I was unable to do as much this year.  When starting a business, capital is always tight and this added to stress at home.  I believe these choices will affect my business in the future and I am spending most of our time and money in the business. The novelty has worn off for my family and it is just a job for them.  They no longer like to spend the extra time over at the store and I spend most days alone now. 

The final thing to add to our stress level of the holiday season was that my husbands work of the last 12 years has announced that they are permanently closing.  We received my husbands last check the first week of December.  Just when you think you can not handle any more bad news, we received a blessing and my husband quickly got hired at another job.  We were very excited that we could continue to move forward since our savings have been dropping as we went to a one income family. 

The store had busy days and days with limited business.  I had all the Christmas items out and that seemed to be the only thing selling.  I had many requests for more grocery items but I couldn't expand to everything.  Over all the month passed by very quickly and  I started to plan for January.  Sales could be dead after Christmas and I had no history to judge by what was to come........