So It Begins

One of the most common questions I get is, what made you decide to open a candy store?  The answer should be, it is something I planned for a long time.  From a very young age I knew that one day, I would own a candy shop.  Not true at all.  The truth is I always dreamed of a coffee shop with a bookstore.  Two of my passions.  It was one of those, "this will never happen" dreams.  My days were spent working a VERY boring job sitting at a computer.  I researched a book store.  Found out they rarely survive.  More so now with Kindle and Nook.  I filed the dream in a folder marked, "If I Ever Win The Lottery." 
At my yearly check-up I was discussing my job with my doctor.  Telling her how stressful and terrible it was.  She said the most obvious statement, "Do you remember you only have one life on this Earth?  You need to find a job you love."  Obviously, we all know that to be the truth.  On that particular day, the statement hit me in the face.  I knew I had to make a change.  I started looking at early retirement.  (Early retirement = throwing away all security in old age.)  Now there were two things rolling around in my brain, I can get out of this terrible job and find something that brings me joy. 
That is how this journey started.  It was a journey that I was not in control of.  Never in my life have I felt that I was 100% being led and this is what I was meant to do.  My daughter said, our town needs a place where people can take their children.  When we go for a walk, we need to be able to have a candy store as the destination.  We went out of town to check out a candy store.  We looked at the store and continued walking looking at more adorable stores.  I went to a gypsy type store.  I love burning sage and carrying crystals. Love to read about all this power from the Earth.  I bought a few stones.  I cannot remember what all of them were for.  I do know one was to give me courage, one was to give me clarity.  Those were two things I needed. 
Courage and clarity could only take me so far.  I was talking about my candy store idea and my son-in-law said, the building next door to our building is for rent.  Very, very low rent.  The bank owns it for the parking lot.  They do not want to make money off of it.  Now I have an idea and a building.  I was saving money to buy a new car, I also had some cash.  I started talking about the BIG IDEA to my Hubby.  He ignored me.  I showed him the building.  He ignored me.  I leased the building and filled out my retirement papers.  That got his attention.
What Hubby wanted was nothing more than most people with common sense would want, a Business Plan.  Duh!  Obviously, a person cannot start a business without a plan.  That is............unless they really, really feel like they are being led on this journey and cannot fail.  In my soul I knew that this is what I was meant to do.  Business Plan be damned darned!

Next:  How does it all come together and did it take special rocks to make it happen!