College graduation had finally come and I completed it! I’d never been so happy in my life to have accomplished something. I studied for my NCLEX (which is the exam to get licensed) and passed! I took a job as a hospice nurse and began working. I also enrolled in the bachelor program at Boise State University.
While I was learning my new job and continuing work on my Bachelors of Science in Nursing. Chris continued his work with cell phone repairs. We found an old but renovated home in town that we loved. It had been built in 1908 and was charming. It was the dead of winter, January 2011, and the thick of the housing crisis in our small town. We made an offer on the house that had been sitting for months, it was accepted. Because I had a job as an RN we had no trouble getting a mortgage. We still joke that I bought the house. No mortgage company would have loaned Chris money as a self employed person unless he had a solid 2 years of good revenue.
Ironically we have tried to move many times over the years, for various reasons. But are still in the same house now.
The two of us moved from the little house next to my parents. Chris set up his office in one of the spare rooms and kept on working on those cell phone repairs. We started talking about having kids. I knew I wanted to be a stay at home mom. Chris was feeling a little unsure about what the future of his business looked like.
Neither one of us really knew what small business or entrepreneurship should look like. No one we knew well owned their own business. We didn’t have a mentor or any idea of what we were doing. I was content with my nursing job. Well, maybe overwhelmed is a better description. It was a lot to learn! So I wasn’t really interested in helping Chris learn the small business world. But supported him and encouraged him I even prayed for him. I prayed that he would have clarity and be able to expand his business and find new opportunities.
The very next day he called me while I was at work. Frantic. Ebay had shut down his account and blacklisted him as a seller. He was banned and his business was dead in the water. I listened to what he had to tell me, and then quietly told him that this might be my fault. I admitted to my prayer from this night before…luckily this put a little humor into the conversation. For those wondering how one gets banned from eBay. Well, in this case it was as simple as Chris having another account that he had used for one sell. There was some kind of buyer dispute (he wanted a refund) and Chris settled things with the buyer. But that never got reflected on the account. So to eBay he looked like a seller who hadn’t made things right, and they closed all connected accounts.
iPads had been brought to market and Chris noticed a gap in the market. Apple initially would not repair the glass screens if they broke. We hired a web site designer, since this was before Shopify was around. Chris launched his iPad/cell phone repair business in January 2012. It took off. It was literally the easiest business we’ve ever started.
We also found out that I was pregnant with our first! The business was doing so well that when she was born in September, I quit my job to stay at home.
We finished the basement and moved his workspace down there. He hired my brother to work for him. For the next couple of years it just felt easy. We made more money than we ever knew we could. There were a couple of months he made $10,000! I didn’t even know that was possible. Although we averaged $5,000- $7,000. Which was still great. This time was the best we’ve ever done financially in our marriage.
I look back on those years with mixed emotions. I’m so proud of him. I am so grateful I was able to stay home with my babies and help care for my mom (she passed away in 2014). But I just wish we’d known more. Known what to do with our money. Sure we paid cash for a car, stayed out of debt, and invested some of that into opening up a storefront (I’ll get into that in part 4.)….but we could have done so much more.
We just didn’t know anything about investing or growing a financial portfolio. Chris and I would love to feel like we know enough to help coach entrepreneurs one day. But we aren’t there yet.
And when Chris and I start with the could have, would have, should have, I just remind him that we can’t change the past, only the future. I also think that these years are what gave use the courage to be small business owners. It was so easy we thought that’s just how business was. Boy were we wrong.
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