I have recently discovered that it's very awkward to start a blog. Am I supposed to give you my life story and tell you every event that led me up to this point? I don't think so. From a reader's perspective, I think that would be boring. Or at least it would be boring for me, and blogs are somewhat self-indulgent, so I've decided that what I tell you is my call. Besides, I'm sure the majority of people reading this already know my back-story.
That brings us to the present. I live in Fort Collins and I own a liquor store. I didn't necessarily set out to do this, but life takes you in directions you never could have imagined. Sometimes I feel like my life is a perfect example of that, but we'll get to that later. The liquor business, and business ownership in general, has been a huge learning experience. I don’t think you ever stop learning new things, but this first year has certainly been a trial by fire. As if life weren’t interesting enough, we throw into the mix the fact that I’ve known Chris less than two years. Yes, known him for less than two years. I’ve always heard that you’re supposed to pick a business partner you’ve known for a while and know you can trust. There might be something similar in picking a partner for life, but my experience was, “when you know, you know”. We started talking about buying a business after just a few dates. Our relationship never seemed to follow the “normal” steps or follow a standard timeline. We’ve always been somewhat accelerated, but again, I’ll get to that later.
Luckily for me, Chris has some amazing luck in this life. We ended up buying the best liquor store in the city. Maybe I’m biased, but between the store itself and the crew it is the best possible scenario for a business. The people who work at the store are, in a word, awesome. They make our lives SO much easier on a daily basis. I love them all and consider them an extension of my new Ft. Collins family. Currently our store is in the top ten in sales out of 42 stores in the city. We are extremely lucky to be where we are and our customers are some of the best people on the planet. I often find myself overwhelmed by that statistic…. I’m just a kid from Bayfield; a town that most people can’t even point out on a map, yet somehow my life is taking me on this incredible journey. Life is definitely a beautiful, unpredictable mess.
I know that owning a small business is uncharted territory for most people, and let the record show that I never really set out to do what I’m doing now. It seems that becoming an entrepreneur is something that just sort of happens. You find yourself having a difficult time “fitting in” doing most jobs and we all say that we’re not the corporate type. In my personal experience most small business owners are slightly crazy, but after just once around the calendar I can kind of see where they’re coming from. After all the 24/7 worry and stress I ask you to find me in ten years, and I will probably be a much different person.
For now we’re doing the best we can. We’re both dealing with a lot of unseen obstacles and trying to balance life to the best of our ability. For now we’re having fun, enjoying our new industry and job to the fullest, and somehow still finding time to deepen our relationship with each other. All in all, I’d say life is pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.
