How many times have you heard about a business being started out of someone’s garage? When I first graduated from college I worked for Russ Berrie, the stuffed animal company. Russ Berrie, the founder, started the company out of his garage in the 1960′s, using a wagon to take samples of his products to potential customers. Today Russ is a publically traded company and occupy’s much nicer office space than a garage. In Bloomington, Kip May has a thriving photography business. Kip is well known as one of the top photographers in Indiana and regularly offers classes to other photographers helping them develop their skills. Kip started in his garage and worked out of it for eleven years! Sometimes we see some of the great success stories and compare ourselves to those companies. We beat ourselves up when strategies fail and our business struggles. . What we need to realize is that most businesses struggle early on. Many have moments when they are not sure they are going to survive and just when they thought they made it the biggest recession in 70 years hits. Sometimes business owners have to take part time jobs just to pay the bills in order to keep their businesses running. Most of us have to make big sacrifices just to keep the dream going.
If you are in this phase my advice is to enjoy it. This is your garage moment! It’s part of your story and if you hang in there it may be part of a great story. Realize that you are not alone and just because you are struggling now doesn’t mean that can’t and wont’ change in the future.
This is your garage; make sure you enjoy the moment.
