Part 4
We are back for the next part of our journey as small business owners. It was 2014 and Chris’ mail in repair business was going great. We thought it made sense to expand and try and capture the local market.
There were already random people who would show up at our house asking for him to repair their phone or tablet. Occasionally the police even showed up. Sometimes, on a rare occasion, someone who sent in the device would freak out a little and start to be convinced that the whole thing was a scam. They’d call the police reporting their device as stolen and they’d come knocking to see what was really going on. Luckily that only happened a couple times. But enough that we figured having a store front would also ease the mind of the customers who sent their devices to us. When they would google the business the search results would show a real store, not a house.
We leased out some commercial space that was built to suit. If you are in Payette and curious as to where it was, right next to the Pizza Hut. Our term was 3 years and we paid $1,200 a month in rent. Looking back, we made a rookie mistake. When the building was being built to suit, we should have had the landlord divide the space. We could have used half of what we rented.
At the time we could easily afford the rent. It took quite a bit to open the store, including $7,500 on signs that later ended up in the trash when we moved. Cringe. Business was good for a while after we opened too. Probably pretty solid for about a year. Then circumstances started to change.
Apple began offering most, if not all the repair services that Chris was. Then they changed their policy so that if you had a third party repair do the work, it would void your warranty. There became so much red tape with in the industry. We had to be honest and transparent with our customers. There became a point where Chris would send most of his customers to Apple or the cell phone carrier directly so their warranty would not be void.
He was able to keep quite a bit of work coming in on the iPads, and that was our saving grace for a while. That customer base continued to be mostly mail in repairs that found us through google Ads. We spent upwards of $75,000 a year on google Ads with a conversion rate of about 3%, which is actually a good rate.
Before the third year in the building, Chris was trying to get out of his lease early. We couldn’t get out of the contract, but our landlord was gracious and accepted some late payments. Business expenses were getting hard to cover as well. We were nearing 20K in business debt. We’d never been in that much debt in our lives, besides our mortgage. It was making us nervous.
During this time, I had our third baby in the summer of 2016. Chris also convinced me to start a small jewelry business in the fall of that year. The jewelry business was mostly just a hobby.
We survived in the leased space until our contract was up. In November of 2017 we moved the store front to a neighboring town. The building was older and the space much smaller. With that, the rent was significantly cheaper and we were hopeful that would make a difference.
Chris had expanded his skill set and was offering some new repair services. The problem was that they were very labor intensive and took alot of time. I remember him coming home for a few hours at dinner time and bedtime and then going back to work until late at night. Looking back I can see the price resentment building. It just was not sustainable.
In January of 2018, I was 7 months pregnant with our fourth baby. Yes, that’s 4 kids in 5 years and yes, we know we were a little crazy. But it’s what felt right for our family.
Chris came home from work one night with an announcement that was completely out of the blue. He was done with the repair industry and going to try and find a buyer for his business.
The next day he reached out to another repair business to see if they wanted to buy him out. They did. Within a week we were preparing to sell the business and by the 1st week of February we were seated at a table with our lawyer and the buyer to sign the paperwork.
Most people who talked to us about Chris selling the business were under the impression that it was something we got rich off of. They’d throw around words like retired, well off, easy life. What they didn’t know is that we were drowning financially. Finding a buyer was the answer to our prayers. The way the deal was structured was we received a lump sum up front (which paid off our debt) and then a monthly payment for 12 months. The payments were just enough to cover our living expenses. The sell did not go smoothly. The next year of our life would cost us legal fees for cease and desist letters, hiring a private investigator, stolen mail and sabotage on Chris’ character. It was wild!
Stay tuned for part 5!
Terms & Prvacy policy 