We’re halfway through our eleventh year in business and quite honestly, it’s incredible we’re still here with some of the hiccups we hit. I’m sharing this because, quite honestly, I want to brag a little, but also because I think some of the things we’ve learned along the way may be useful to others.

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We started as a small bulk food store, where people could come and buy various kitchen supplies - flour, sugar, spices - in whatever quantity they wanted, from a single cup of flour up to 50 pound bags. There were other stores like that in other areas 60+ miles away and people in this area were always talking about going to those stores, so we thought it was the perfect idea and it was something we’d wanted to do anyway. It would be the store we wanted and save people from having to drive to get to one. We also lucked into a building that was, we thought, perfect for it. Plus, the store was more for my wife to run and I was going to run an ISP and IT support business out of it, which only needed a small section for the network equipment, and the building had the perfect nook for that.

At first, we did okay, having some business but not a lot. I was still working my 9-5, so between the day job and the two businesses, we were doing okay. But what we were noticing was that we had a lot of people come in, look around, and when they found out we weren’t Amish/Mennonite, they’d leave. They associated that type of store with those groups. On several occasions, we heard someone comment about how they could get it cheaper at the ‘Amish’ store (they couldn’t, and they’re Mennonites, not Amish) or that the ‘Amish’ store’s version was better (it wasn’t), or that their produce was fresher (it wasn’t). How could I be sure about those two parentheticals? Because we made sure we were priced at or below what the Mennonite stores, the stores 60+ miles away, priced at AND we were getting from the exact same suppliers, carrying the exact same brands and labels. We also bought the same produce they were buying, bidding against them often at auction to get the produce we carried. Or we were buying it directly from the actual Amish who grew it. This also led to bizarre lines of questions such as if we just went to the ‘Amish’ stores, bought stuff, then brought it back here to resell. It was annoying, but we dealt with it.

We operated in that location for four years. It was one block off a main thoroughfare in a rural town, right next to the library. You’d think it would be a good location. It was not. People didn’t want to drive off the main road, even if it was only a block. We did okay but never anything earth-shattering. But we knew we were doing something right because we had several people come in and ‘shop’ us. We could tell they were more interested in the store than any actual product we were selling. They’d ask things like where we got this or that fixture, who our suppliers were, or comment on the look of the building. One of these people actually opened a store very similar to ours not long after stopping in and asking us some questions. They were far enough away we didn’t consider them competition, but on a trip through their area, we stopped in and it really did look like they’d just taken our store and moved it inside theirs - layout, decor, everything. So if it was good enough people wanted to copy it, why weren’t we doing better?

We decided we needed a better location and one with more room. I still had my business, so we needed to keep that building, but I was growing tired of it and it just never took off like it should have, partially because I wasn’t putting enough into it due to burn out and partially because the local geography made it tricky to do as a one-man show (foreshadowing!). So we found another location, right on the main thoroughfare and directly across from a major retailer. This location afforded more room inside and outside, allowing us to expand our garden and plant offerings. However, we happened to luck into hearing about this location becoming available, were able to secure it for almost nothing, but needed to dump a ton of work into it. This meant we had to move quickly to buy it, so we went to talk to the banker we’d dealt with on the first building. This was our first mistake.

With the work the building needed, we were needing to borrow about 2.5 times the amount we were giving for the property. We tried to secure a commercial note based off the existing business, but the banker would not deal, saying they didn’t actually do commercial loans like that. I found this weird, considering other banks I’d dealt with, including banks I’d actually worked for and knew some of the operations of, did that sort of thing all the time. So we asked what we could do. He told us since the property was actually worth more than we were giving for it and would be worth much more after we renovated it, we could go ahead and get the loan just to buy the property, do the work that needed to be done then refinance the property. We asked how we could pay for the repairs if we didn’t have the money and he said to use our credit cards and any other lines of credit we might already have, then bring him the receipts for all the work once it was done and he’d be able to get us a refinanced loan rolling all of that into it, then paying off the credit cards and other debts. This was our second mistake. Since we had an existing relationship with the bank and the banker was a known and respected member of the community, we took him at his word and didn’t get anything in writing.

We bought the building, dumped all this money and time into it, got it fixed up, got the store reopened at the new location. We were making more money almost immediately at the new location. We went back to the bank, excited to consolidate all the debt, reducing payments and interest paid. We thought it would be a slam dunk, since all the work actually took less than we initially expected and we’d come in several thousand below what we thought it would be and what he’d initially said would be no problem. When we presented him all our information, he simply shook his head and said, “there’s no way I can make this loan! Your debt to income ratio is way out of balance!” We informed him these were the exact same numbers we’d presented before, only with more income and the debt being less than estimated, and he’d said it would be no problem at all to consolidate them. He insisted he’d never said no such thing and basically told us we were well and truly screwed.

First, we went to a credit union we used for personal accounts, hoping they could help. They informed us if we’d bought the property through them initially, they’d be able to do exactly what we wanted, no problem. But now it was too late to do anything since we didn’t already have a business relationship with them. In a last ditch attempt, we went and talked to a friend at a bank I used to work at. They tried everything they could but couldn’t make the numbers work, especially since we had two outstanding notes at another bank that we wouldn’t be able to move to them without even more fees. They sadly said, “Honestly, I’m afraid you guys are going to be in bankruptcy in about 6 months unless you have a miracle happen.” Talk about being scared. We didn’t know what to do or where to turn, so we just kept plugging along as best we could.

Six months came and went with no miracle, but no bankruptcy, either. We were still making it; just barely, but we were making it. We continued on like that for about a year. Then, in 2017, a double-whammy happened. Toward the end of the year, the owner of the company I worked for in my regular job announced he was selling the company. My job was one that would no longer be there and the new company had no need for me. Not just that, but there were no other jobs in the area in my area of expertise and relocation wasn’t really an option with our debt situation. Then a couple weeks later, I had a medical emergency that put me in the hospital for several days while also putting us tens of thousands of dollars in more debt, even with insurance. We definitely didn’t need that but what can you do.

2018 rolled around not looking very good at all. The store was barely making it, I was about to lose my job (it ended in June of 2018), and the already outrageous debt had increased even more. We’d talked about adding a deli to the store and had even bought the materials to finish out the kitchen to make it work as a deli. After about six months of burn out and quite probably depression, I finally had enough motivation to finish out the kitchen. This was mistake three - not finishing it out, but not doing it sooner. I should have started on it as soon as I knew my job was going away, but the panic that set in blinded me. It’s through all this I really appreciate how much my wife put up with me.

April of 2019 saw the deli and bakery portion of the store open and things changed big time. We were much busier and we saw a huge increase in sales. Things were still very tough. We’d blown through our savings and my severance getting the deli open and just living. Financially, things were horrible but business-wise, things looked optimistic. We just had to ride the tide and keep our head above water. Toward the end of the year, we’d had to start playing the “who gets skipped this month” game with the credit cards we’d racked up because of the bank, making the minimum payments on some while sending $20 or $30 to others just to show we were trying. Some were okay with that but others didn’t accept it and sent the debt to collections. Both our credit scores were shot, but that was the least of our concerns. We made it through the year on the slimmest edge yet. But 2020 was going to be better, right?

2020 came in looking like our year. 2019 finished stronger than any previous year and the coming year was looking better. We decided the next thing to do to increase sales was offer delivery since nobody else in town did. So in late February, we announced we’d be offering delivery in the coming weeks, with more info to follow. I don’t know how well some of you remember 2020, but March was kind of a doozy. Right as we were announcing delivery for a fee, things got a little nuts. We didn’t want to look like we were taking advantage of the situation, so we changed to offering free in-town delivery. It exploded. We could barely keep up. During actual lock down, we rearranged the store so while people couldn’t come in, they could see in through the windows and see everything we had for sell. We had our menu hanging up outside so they could easily see it. We reworked a window so we could use it as a walk-up window and did all transactions through it. At the same time, my IT stuff was stagnant. Nobody needed on-site support and I was not about to go to people’s houses to do installs. And physically, the ISP stuff was getting to be too much for me. I couldn’t climb the towers anymore. I realized it was time to let it go, so I contacted another company and sold the ISP portion of my business to them, at a loss. But it was worth it to be out from under it. I used what money I got from it to pay off some debt and give us some breathing room. I thought it would hurt to admit defeat and let it go but it was actually quite freeing. We also did away with most of the bulk food offerings, keeping only a few things and really leaned into the restaurant portion of the business. We also decided it was time to give up on the fresh produce and actually came to the conclusion it was a net loss to have had in the first place. While we were still very upside down, we finished 2020 even stronger than 2019.

2021 saw us focusing more on the restaurant (deli and bakery) side of the business and changing up the place even more. We expanded the kitchen area and took away sales floor, because the kitchen is just that much more profitable than merchandise on the floor. We added frozen drinks and coffee drinks. We saw sales increase again over the previous year. 2022 was more of the same. 2022 also saw us hiring a full time employee and a part time employee, which was huge for us. We also added frozen custard, which has been a smart move so far.

This year, sales have been down. Some of it, we know why - one place we did a lot of business had some changes and they’re just not ordering as much; it was a huge drop. The local economy is also down, which means our sales will be down as well, with people cutting spending. We also didn’t have as strong a plant sales year during the spring and summer, partly because the gardening fad covid created has died off some and partly because we just didn’t bring in as much inventory this year. You can’t sell it if you don’t have it. But the amount we’re down for the year (approximately 4%) is a loss, but it’s not huge and could be a natural leveling out as we’ve hit the plateau that is local market penetration. So we adapted again and started offering shipping of our baked goods and posted on Etsy. We’ve only been at it about a month and a half but it’s already promising and we’re excited about the potential, especially since we’re not really even advertising it anywhere yet. We still have a lot of debt, but we have it down to an amount that really isn’t that much. It’s only hurting us because it’s spread out, so we’re making several medium-sized payments instead of one larger payment. We’ve looked at consolidation and putting it on the store where it belongs but that hasn’t been doable yet. While we’re not going to get wealthy from this, we’re definitely able to survive and be comfortable, and as the debt goes away, it will only get better.

Some odds and ends things: We had a salesman for a supplier make a cold call on us one day. He basically made it sound like he was doing us a favor by even talking to us. He was really doing the hard -sell. We quickly realized that he would not have our best interest in mind and told him to get lost. When we added the custard, the only issue was that we wanted to use a specific one, because it was a quality product. But none of our suppliers carried it. We actually looked at dropping one and switching to one that did have it, but it turned out that one only carried a couple of the SKUs. Additionally, we had a hard time making our order minimum because all the stuff we needed seemed to be out of stock, so we’d have to pad the order just to make it work. So we dropped them and kept the other. But, we talked to the one we’d kept and told them we wanted that custard and if they couldn’t get it, we’d have to find a supplier who could. They tried to sell us on another product, but we were adamant. Rather than lose our business, they actually became a supplier for the custard. We’ve had so many people come in and ask us who our suppliers are, how we got set up here initially, and all this other info we worked hard to discover on our own. Some of them even become indignant if we tell them we can’t really help them out (especially the ones who say they’re wanting to open up a place ‘like this’ practically next door). We put in the work, you can too. Not that we don’t want to help people, and we have given guidance to some, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to ask.