Thanks for the kind words, Tom.
We got started in October of 2003, working mainly from home. We had ZERO money, and ZERO equipment (doesn't take up much space!!) .... only the idea that we wanted to start a family business.
A close family friend was in the process of buying a laser engraver from Brewer Sales, and we thought we'd like to get on board with him. We fell in love with the technology, and it didn't take long to see the potential.
My parents have been in the floral business for about 30 years, and they have a couple of stores (one here in Sulphur Springs, the other about 20 miles away). They generously offered to let us have a room in their local shop to display some of our stuff.
Meanwhile, as we took orders (mainly from friends), we had our friend engrave the items for us - for a fee, of course.
It didn't take long to realize that we would NEVER make money this way. We also had some disagreements on what "quality" meant. So, in February of 2004, we took the plunge - bought a 35W Epilog from Brewer Sales (now Engraving Concepts). My parents continued to let us use that room in their shop. That kept our overhead to nearly $0 (talk about a blessing!!).
The great thing about that arrangement was that someone was always working in the shop. That allowed me to work another full-time job from home (I could leave home at any time to meet someone at the shop, whenever necessary).
Well, things rocked right along until this past summer, when my former employer restructured....eliminating all satellite offices. :'-(
After much prayer on the issue, we decided to make a go of our business on a full-time basis. I spent MANY late nights crunching numbers to see just what it was actually going to take to run this thing right (and not into the ground).
We knew that we would never reach our full potential at the florist - simply too little room. So in January of this year, we started looking for another building....and the rest is history!
I know that our situation is very unique, particularly the early stages. |
