Clarksville, TN – My husband opened his business a little over 5 years ago. This weekend, we officially celebrate with an anniversary event complete with food, giveaways, and of course a ride. We are a motorcycle business ya’ know!
I have some thank you’s I would like to share if you don’t mind. I might cry, but you don’t have to.
Thanks to all of our customers. The ones who walked in the door when there were just 6 bikes on the sales floor. The ones who have become our friends, who have eaten in our home, worshiped with us, cheered us on and literally cried with us when tears were called for.
Thanks to all of our friends; friends who prayed for us, helped us move our business, who listened to us as we worried about really lean times. Friends who forgave us when we were too busy with work to go out to eat, or too stressed out to give you a call, but still call us your friends.
Thanks to our kids.
Thanks for understanding when I stop everything to rearrange the work schedule when someone calls out sick, and for being patient when Byron has to work late even though you miss him and wish he could get home earlier sometimes.
Thanks to our staff, past and present. We could never, in a million years, do this without you! Without you, we could never sleep, eat or breath! Thanks for treating the customers like family and for being an extension of our family!
And a very special thanks to my husband, Byron. Thank you for being a loving provider, for putting in the long hours, for praying about who we hire, and praying even harder before letting someone go. Thank you for sharing your faith with customers. Thank you for sheltering me from the tough financial times a little, so I can still sleep at night. Thank you most of all for never quitting, when quitting would have been so much easier than this roller coaster ride we have been on.
Five years is a short period of time in the big scheme of things. But we are scarcely the same people we were five years ago. I hope that we are a little kinder and a bit wiser. I am certain we are more tired and look a lot older! Statistics say that the majority of businesses fail within the first five years. I don’t doubt it! After raising children and marriage, business is one of the hardest things I have ever done!
Call me cheesey if you want to; call me cliche; but I cannot imagine trying to operate a business without God as our guide in the crazy adventure. If we are kinder it is because He showed us kindness. If we are wiser it is because He gave us experiences in which to gain wisdom. And if we are still here in another 5 years, it is because He said so, and for no other reason; and I pray that we never stop thanking Him.