What is the "WHY" behind your business? What is your story?

[Lovewell]

Owning a business is HARD. Most people probably told us, "Don't do it." or "In this economy?!" but we all have our reason. Many times we get bogged down with the day to day. The meeting sales goals, staffing issues, customers giving us unwanted business advice, having to be "relevant" on social media that we forget why we are doing this. 

*Insert inspirational pinterest post* "Stop and remember why you started."

Hopefully sharing this with others and just typing it out encourages you and gives you a creative spark. 

xoxo, 

Lovewell 

[rtfulk]

The first why for us is my wife and I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit, we both work corporate jobs in the 80's and ran a part time business. In 1989 we decided to go big or go home and we both quit our jobs and went full time.

The second why, along came our granddaughter. We are devoting everything to the business to hopefully one day she will want to step in and take over. We want an established business for her so she doesn't have to go through all the mistakes we made.  We changed the name of our company to her name.

[Lovewell]

This is incredible and also inspiring! 
Our parents are the same way and that’s has totally had an impact on us. We are sure you are a WEALTH of knowledge in the small business owning journey. 

The most beautiful thing in this business that can occur is leaving legacy. It’s not often we see that anymore! We have the opportunity to leave a legacy with our business. 

You guys are awesome! 

[rtfulk]

@Lovewell Thank you! It means a lot to hear that, especially from someone who understands the impact of family and legacy on a business. We truly believe in the importance of leaving something meaningful behind.

[Faerly_Punk]

This is my Hobby, for now.  I hope it becomes something bigger. I started sewing first.  My grandmother instilled a love of fiber arts of all kinds before she passed when I was 14.  When I was in high school, I couldn't afford a big fancy prom dress, so I made my own during Home Economics (made sure to get a grade at the same time 🤣) 

I put down the sewing for a long while and had to deal with life.  Then in my 20's I tried to start a flower business in Pgh, PA.  Then before I could even get off the ground, I had to close up and move back home to help my father. I did do one smart thing while attempting to start the flower business, I went to college and became an X-ray tech to pay bills. The X-ray thing became my life thing.  It allowed me to travel. It even brought me to Missouri.

After a lot of things, I am going to leave out, I started sewing again.  First clothes, then quilts.  Last year I wanted to add a leather panel to a fabric corset. Today, I am making leather corsets!  ALL leather.  I have never loved doing something like I do this. It uses everything Gram has taught me, just not with fiber.  

Last month I entered my latest corset into the Ozark Empire Fair for the first time and won Best in Show!  I am on the right path!!!

The local Tandy Leather wants to display this corset in their store.  

I am now making pattern templates so I can make corsets of a repeatable size on orders.

Honestly, I am nervous now.  I have never seen success. But now even my husband is standing behind me propping me up (the man before him tore me down).

So Let me finish with this, the why? My Gram was the first woman to own a business in our town.  She had a doughnut shop.  Someone burnt down because a woman should be home taking care of her husband and children.  So I want to do this for her.  I also want to do this for my dad.  Who, like me is a creative person, but because he had his ideas stolen by people he trusted, he stopped creating.  I want him to be proud that his creativity has been passed to one of his children.

Sorry for the long post!

[Lovewell]

Ann!

Your story has us (me) actually weeping in the in n out (California) drive thru. 

This adds onto @rtfulk and how deeply important legacy is. 

Your grandmother sounds like a bad **bleep** and your father sounds amazing too. 

Cheering you on BIG TIME! The best is yet to come. Your story is beautiful. 

[Faerly_Punk]

Lovewell,

Gram was!  Her nickname in town was "Tiger Thompson". She was all of 4' 10" tall and and full-grown man pushed my aunt off her bike and broke her arm!  Gram punched this man in the face and knocked him out!  On the other side, she made hand-crafted gifts for all 98 grandkids for Christmas until her death.  

Dad and I have her same spunk 🤣😎 (Look out!)

Thank you, and I will make sure to visit your shop when I visit CA. (I have an adopted sister in Ventura!)

[Lovewell]

INCREDIBLE! 

What a small world. We would LOVE to meet you and your sister. 

Checked out your work on your website and they are gorgeous! 

98 grandkids is no small feat. DANG! What an amazing family legacy. 

[CareyJo]

The story about your Gram is heart wrenching!  But... NINETY-EIGHT GRANDKIDS?!?  HOLY COW!!!!  What a family!!!  I cannot imagine!  One generation alone could have their own reunion!  How fantastic is that?!?  So cool that you are following in your family's footsteps!

I have been a seamstress for 49 years.  My mother (who was also 4'10 1/2") was a professional seamstress and taught my grandma how to sew - not the other way around, which is odd since they grew up on farms.  Grandma taught me to embroidery at the age of four.  I was constantly watching mom on the machine and wanted so desperately to use it.  She took me to the store, told me to pick out a fabric and a pattern that I liked, laid out the fabric for me and showed me the pattern layout.  Told me to make the pieces look like the layout.  I pinned and cut myself at the age of seven and she helped me learn the machine.  Made my first outfit!  Remember it like it was yesterday!  My specialty for the last 37 years has been wedding/prom/bridesmaid dresses.  I custom design 🙂  So fun!!  Congratulations on your award!  I've wanted to enter our fair many times over the years and just haven't done it... YET.  But I will!!

[DinaLRosenberg]

I have worked "real jobs" where I have worked for someone else and have been let go to many times to stomach it again. My why is to never have my fate in someone else's hands..

[Lovewell]

We talk about this often! 
We genuinely can’t imagine working for someone else or for someone else’s dream so we chose to become our own bosses. 

Not rainbows and gumdrops but couldn’t imagine it any other way! 

[Doran]

Creating is something I love to do.  I LOVE doing facials and creating an experience.  I love the freedom to change things up and do my thing in my studio versus working for someone else and having to be their vibe.  It doesn't always feel like I have ultimate control like I thought I would when I started this as a 20-something because of economy swings, weather disasters, Covid, etc but I like the life I've been able to create as a business owner.  I didn't get paid family leave BUT I did get to bring my baby to work every day until she started school.  I would never have had that time with her at a job.  Don't get me wrong it was hard and plenty of days I begged the world for just 10 minutes to myself but I really wouldn't trade it.  And now that she is in school learning math and reading I get to use the shop to help teach those things.  She loves counting a cash drawer but not so much shapes on paper.  I guess I do this because I get to be me and do things I love with people I love.  

[Lovewell]

This is beautiful! So happy that you see the beauty in the chaos. We totally agree. 

What a wild world it is but we couldn’t imagine doing anything else! 

[CareyJo]

The "Why" in my story is that my husband was always being taken advantage of for his skill and not being paid what he was worth.  We've been in business together twice now, in our field.  (I've owned many other businesses alone.)  He would be told to mark his vacation days on the calendar and then they would be taken away.  He would be paid half of what the other master techs would get paid, with just as much time on the job.  He was on-call 24/7 because no one else would take the calls.  We'd just finally had enough and this was the second company who did this to him.

We love to travel now that we're empty nesters.  We finally have the income we've dreamed of to have a better life.  We got tired of padding someone else's pockets.  So now we pad our own 🙂

[Lovewell]

This makes total sense! So glad you found that freedom through owning businesses. 

You guys are amazing! 

[CareyJo]

♥️thank you!