Starting my business part two
Part one continued…
My husband at the time wanted to move and as a woman of God, I supported what he wanted and decided to sell my business. That was one of the hardest decisions I ever had to make. I had a thriving business that I put all my time and money into and I had to leave it behind. So we packed up and sold our house a month later and moved to North Carolina.
When we arrived in North Carolina ,we stayed with my parents in a town called Robbinsville. Very tiny, however it was known as a tourist destination for its beautiful three hundred acre lake, damns and the dragons tail. The dragons tail has 318 curves with in 11 miles. There were about three total hair salons with in this little town, in an ideal world I would have started up another hair salon. However I did not have the clientele for that and so I had to wait for a booth rental to open up while we looked for a house. That was also not working out, after a year of searching for careers and a home, we decided to try something new.
We took a road trip, house hunting, in West Virginia and after many towns and house tours, we found a great little town called Paden City. It had our dream home for the amount we were looking for and the land that we desired. The owner accepted our offer and a month later we moved into our new home. I got a booth rental right away and quickly built my clients with some social media marketing. I built quickly due to the lack of stylist in the town, its population was around 2500. I was grateful for the response to my art.
Dream Home in West Virginia
I loved the people and the views. I will always miss my daily walks by the river. When I decided to end my marriage of 17 years, I wanted to move back to Canon City and move on with my life. Although my ex and I are still friends, we simply grew apart.
View on my daily walk in West Virgina on the Ohio river
Now that I am on my own for the first time in my life, I am terrified. How am I gonna support, myself and my son. I cant just come back and pick up where I left off, although that would be the dream. I started waitressing to make ends meat. I loved getting to know new people and just having something a little less demanding for a bit. I did however also get a job booth renting right away with an old friend I used to work with when I began my journey seventeen years ago. It was nice for a while, however I wasn’t ready to get back to hair full time.
Entering Colorado on my way home
Dealing with the loss of a loved one through divorce was not easy and I was very depressed that first year. I was staying with a friend while I looked for my own place, luckily I only brought my clothes with me so I didn’t have to move much. I found an apartment after about three weeks of being back. My son wanted to finish school in North Carolina so he didn’t have to move again until I was ready. I am actually very grateful for that. I had a lot to figure out on my own.
I decided that full time wasn’t for me and asked my old friend Shawna if I could rent two days a week at my old salon that I sold to her. She agreed and I began building slowly while waitressing. I was not ready to be full time for about a year. I ended up moving into a house after that year of sorrow. It was like a switch flipped. We moved on January first and it was as if my time to mourn was over and so began a time to rejoice and rebuild.
“There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens. A time to give birth, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. ”
I guess it was my time to rebuild. I had torn apart my life and I was ready to rebuild. I was done mourning. I was in a new relationship with my boyfriend Teddy, who is so amazing and I couldn’t be happier. My son was home and I decided to give the hair another chance to go full time.
Teddy and I
I still hadnt built my clientele much because of my break from reality, but I was ready to trust God and go out on a limb. I began my search for a place to booth rent or more ideal, a place to open another salon of my own. I found a place that was in my price range but they never returned my call. I was telling a client about this and she had mentioned that her husband had a storage area of his building that he always thought about renting out. It wasnt being used but it was a definite fixer upper.
New building before the reno
I got excited and ask to go look at it. I told her that I prefer a fixer upper because I wanted to make the space my own and I tend to have more freedom that way. She called her husband and I went to look the next day. I fell in love with it and we agreed to a deal. Thus begins the next chapter of my story. Salon renovation number two!
To be continued part three…