How the B&B came about- April 2014

Found some old blogs so I thought I'd centralize them.

April 29, 2014

If you would have said, a year ago today that I would have circumnavigated North America driving by myself in a Prius for four months, I would have snorted and told you to bugger off, but I did it.  Now I’m approaching another stage of my life that I can’t believe I’m even considering. 

For over 25 years, I have daydreamed about running a B&B- it always sounded so romantic;  happy couples joining your home for happy conversations and June Cleaver cooking up a storm and everyone so grateful.  What I never factored into this fairy tale was the part where I would have to be an entrepreneur.  No, never! I have always hated the idea and fought it tooth and nail.  I do NOT want the responsibility.  I’ve coasted thru life always working for others and quite happy to let them have the grief of failure and frustration.  It never even crossed my mind that they could be successful and happy.  I guess I’ve always equated running your own business with frustration and poverty.  I’ve seen all the network marketers out there who have tried and not succeeded and I knew it wasn’t for me, in no uncertain terms.  I would never make the lawn ornaments and sell them, as my crazy older sister always wanted. 

Before I can take you thru my trials and tribulations of starting a business, I have to tell you, after three years, the universe answered my prayers in a very methodical way and introduced me to the man of my dreams.  That’s a story for another time.  His name is Al.  He’s the mirror image of me.  On our first phone call, he told me his greatest dream was to run a B&B and I just about fainted.  What are the odds that a man would untypically be interested in that?  That one statement started the ball rolling and it hasn’t stopped.  I was unemployed and trying to decide my future.  It’s been almost a year since I have been employed but I really wasn’t worried.  I truly believed the right thing would come along when it was right and meant to be. 

I was going to attempt another dream as an event planner.   The more my boyfriend talked about how to make the B&B a viable option, I resisted until one day I started to see it as a possibility and I opened myself up to the idea.  Only when I did this, could I see it…a course to Start My own Business, sponsored by the government for the unemployed walked in front of me and kicked me.  OMG, I don’t have a job!  How perfect is this?  Those old familiar voices in my head took control and told me to embrace the idea, and stop fighting working for myself.  I checked in with my EI worker and told him I might be interested and he told me it was a perfect fit for me and the orientation class was the following week so I signed up instantly.  After the orientation info seminar, they gave us exactly one week over Easter, to research everything and with all the government offices closed, it was certainly a challenge but I did it and was astounded at how much I learned and how easy it was to set up a small B&B with my requirements. 

I did the final presentation yesterday, after having a great feeling the week before when I dropped it off, and they were floored by the amount of work I did on it.  While presenting, an unfamiliar voice came out of me, one full of passion and hope and I sold them all over the place.  My numbers were all flawed so he played with them, and pulled me out of the red and into the profit zone and when I asked whether they could tell me if they had a good feeling, he said I had to wait a month like the others but to go home and start building the bunk beds.  Woo hoo!

I believe you get introduced to the people you need to meet when you are open to it and they are needed in my life.  Luckily, a wonderful couple I met at a book club felt the same way a few days ago.  They own two large chain furniture stores and offed to not only be my first customers but to outfit my home with slight defect furniture that they don’t want to sell.  He’s going to put aside everything I need so I gave him a shopping list.  Then I described the unusual beds I wanted and provided pictures and he said he just had had lunch with a homemade furniture designer and was going to get a quote.  Also, he and his wife had just come back from Mexico and saw, for the very first time, the big bed I wanted and he fell in love with it too. Now, with the furniture coming together, the only thing that would make my day more perfect would be to have two people knock at the door and say they are doing community service hours for school and can one paint my house and the other do my Social Media.  I feel like a new bird learning to soar for the first time.  I must remember these feelings once I become established and pay it all forward; help out some other newbie.

My only regret is I said that after I traveled that I would open up my home to Couchsurfers the way so many had done to me.  Maybe I could do both; paid and unpaid.  I know I always reap the rewards of doing kindness to others and it comes back in karma.  Yes, I will do it once I get set up.