We have made it to the FIVE YEAR mark! This amazes me and before I start to reflect on how we got here I would like to THANK YOU and all our customers for supporting our dreams of entrepreneurship! We truly love what we do and are so grateful that we have been and continue to be successful in the retail world!
YEAR 1 (2014)
March 2014 we opened our doors for business under Generations Dental in the space that now Coda Yoga occupies. Jim Munzenberger was our landlord, which we are thankful for because he helped us making community connections and told us about resources we had at for our use! April that year, I quit my full-time job to run the business by appointment with our oldest daughter in tow! The end of that year we joined that Hartland Chamber of Commerce which helped our business grow more then we ever expected.
That fall we found we needed more space and signed a lease in the building that is now torn down on East Capitol Dr.
YEAR 2 (2015)
Shortly after we moved into the space on E Capitol Dr we learned the building was sold and going to be torn down. We were able to capitalize on the unexpected displacement and received a grant that helped us move into a newly renovated space with Beer Snobs as our landlord and neighbor. 2015 also gave us new baby girl to add to the mix and the need for a new truck because our Avalanche was often breaking down and was not ideal for delivering beds! We moved to the store when I was 8 months pregnant and Nick was still working full time as an low voltage electrician. I was so thankful for Steve and Harry (Beer Snobs and building owner) because they would unload semis for me! I, also, started helping run Hartland's Neighborhood Night Out as well while we both became more involved in the community. Nick became and Ambassador for Hartland Chamber of Commerce and I joined the marketing committee for the Downtown Business Improvement District.
YEAR 3 (2016)
We started this year being featured in the Lake Country Reporter and working on "Maternity Leave". I quote that because being self-employed really means you get zero time off! This was the year our business really changed! Becoming a family of four put more work on Nick after his full time job so in June we made the switch to both of us working for the Bed Barn and started having open hours. This was a monumental move because we were all in and had to make the business work so we could put food on the table and a roof over our heads! In 2016 we were fortunate enough to be nominated and win the Entrepreneurs of the year award from the Hartland Chamber of Commerce.
YEAR 4 (2017)
Finally 2017 we are starting to feel like we are getting all of this business figured out (sort of). We started to figure out which events we really wanted to take part in as a business and what we wanted to do as a family. We ran our second sidewalk sale in August with vendors this year which confirmed our need to continue this event. We continued to embed ourselves in the Lake Country Community which is where we are excited to not only continue our business life but also our family life with our oldest daughter starting 3k at St. Charles. We also introduced different products into our line up, including the adjustable bases which continues to be a growing market of people interested in purchasing one!
YEAR 5 (2018)
Nick and I began to take more leadership roles in the community this last year. Nick has joined the Hartland Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and was involved in various committee's for events the chamber runs. We had record attendance for our Sidewalk Sale, with over 60 businesses taking part in the event. I took over running Launch, a young professional networking group. I also call this the year of the boxes! We finally were able to get mortgage approval based on self-employment income (which anyone who is self-employed knows what a pain it is) and listed our house for sale in the spring and than took it off. In the summer we learned that we were going to need to moved our store to a new location and luckily were able to find a new spot that fit our needs by using our connections we have made in the community. Than on top of that we found a new house and sold our house this last winter!
THANK YOU! We are so thankful that we are able to provide quality sleep products to our Lake Country community while being able to raise our two little girls with their parents being their primary caretakers. Nick and I work very hard everyday and would not have it any other way! We look forward to continuing to grow our presence in this community and adding new products into our store to better serve the needs and requests of our growing customer base. We love being able to have our children grow up in the business and learn how working hard, being persistent, honest, and trustworthy brings you success in more than money, but happiness as well!