We never intended to start a business. It just kind of happened. ...is what I'm sure most small business owners would tell you. This is also the case for us. During the start of the pandemic, everyone was looking for protective masks and at the time we lived on Fort Irwin, CA. I am not sure if you have ever been to Fort Irwin, but just picture this...a lonely desolate wasteland with lots and lots of donkeys and there are about 2000-5000 people on this base at any given time with only one real shopping store. I can describe this scenario as trying to pack a school bus full of 1000 adults and telling them just before they get on the bus that "everyone will have a seat, don't worry". Of course, no one believes the school bus driver, but the adults are still going to try to get on the bus anyway. Now you are left with 950 adults without a seat and severely disgruntled until the next bus comes...which by the way there is only one bus that makes trips to Fort Irwin. What I am trying to say is the shopping store carried a very little supply of protective masks and ran out very quickly, probably within the 1st day of the Post Commander issuing a mask mandate. If you wanted to get a mask, you had two options 1) order the mask (Good Luck) or 2) Drive 45 minutes to the nearest town and hope that the only Wal Mart within a 50 miles radius has some masks left to sell. There was also a 3rd option....make your own.
We didn't consider the 3rd option. Are you serious? I could barely make breakfast in the morning, much less design and manufacture masks, to wear in public, mind you. Now my wife was fearless. She set off to buy her own sewing machine from the Wal Mart 50 miles away. She watched some Youtube videos on how to make masks, and she made em.....literally 100s of them! She made them for Christmas Gifts. She made them for my Soldiers at work. She made them for her friends on post. Hell, she even made them for the Starbucks workers and from there on out she became obsessed with crafting. After this mask obsession, she bought a Cricut. At the time, I had no idea what a Cricut was, but man that little machine could do some pretty amazing things! She kind of put the sewing machine in the closet and became a Subject Matter Expert on all things related to "Cricuting". Then one day, she just stopped...Honestly. No more sewing. No more "cricuting". Completely Stopped. I went to Fort Gordon, GA for an Army School and eventually we PCSd (moved for all my Civilian readers) to Fort Sam Houston, TX located in the heart of San Antonio, TX. I had no idea what was about to come next once we had settled into our new house, but it went a little something like this, Husband (me) Speaking: "Babe, I promise to get you the embroidery machine, you had wanted if you just let me get these records (probably about $200 worth...eeek)" Wife Speaking: "You Promise? Because last time I checked, I am still washing your clothes with a washing machine that sounds like its about to take off every time I turn it on" Husband: "Yes I Promise..." . Well she remembered alright....and I forgot like always.
Literally the next day, we found ourselves parked out in front of a Sewing Shop. I am sitting in the car thinking, "Man, why did I have to make this stupid deal...I really didn't need those records that bad." Then I looked over to my wife and saw how excited she was and forgot about everything else, so off we went. We walked into the store and I had no idea what the price of the machines were, cost of materials, cost of fabrics, legal costs, etc. We had Zero clue how to run a business and are honestly still learning how to do this! After finding out how much embroidery machines cost (way more than I was expecting by the way), I made another deal with my wife. You think I would have learned my lesson by now. The conversation went something like this, Husband Speaking, "Ok Babe, I'll buy that machine for you right now if you promise to start a small business and pay it off. Once its paid off, we can close up shop and be done with it. " Wife Speaking. "Are you sure? Its a lot money." Me. "Yes I am sure, it can't be that hard..." and we bought the machine and took it home, as happy as can be. Once we got home, my wife opened up the box and all I heard her say was, "Babe, come here!!" I immediately thought something was wrong. I walked into her "craft room" and saw that the saleslady at the sewing shop had given us the wrong machine. It was a much nicer machine than what we had bought, and it was a price difference of about $2500...We had to make a choice.. and we chose to call up the Sewing Shop and let them know they had given us the wrong machine. Within 10 minutes, we were on the road driving 30 minutes back to the Sewing Shop to get our much less expensive machine...We eventually arrived at the store during after hours and the lady was so thankful that we had returned the machine ,because she probably would have lost her job and had to pay for the difference. She gave us the correct machine that we had bought, and we headed back to the house and never looked back..
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