Roots are the Hidden Masterpiece

Just wait. I know it’s confusing, however I promise you it will make sense. Starting a business is HARD. It tests every single limitation you have ever had upon yourself. You find out who’s there for you and who’s not. One thing is marketing/selling and being one way to the public, yet pleading with God to make it work. Working behind the scenes, under the surface. Here’s what you don’t see in the background. Here’s what’s in the soil of a culmination of God’s and our family’s work. The intricacies of the interlocking twines is actually quite beautiful in the dirty soil and disasters.

Before the Beginning

To start with the background, I have to share what pushed us into business. I was a single mom for basically 5 years. My husband came home intermittently and was somehow the foundation of our household still. I won’t go into too much detail of the struggles I faced, because that’s a whole other blog post in and of itself. Essentially, I was alone through fostering children, pregnancies, miscarriages, depression and death.

Our family felt like it was collapsing and I had no control over the rubble. I finally threw my hands up and had a come to Jesus moment with my husband. The road or our family. I’m not saying my husband wanted to be away. Quite the contrary. He hated the traveling and missing key moments in our children’s lives. However, he’s a fierce loyalist, and although he wasn’t happy he felt he had a loyalty to a company he had invested time and energy in over the years. Also, to be frank, the market in Amarillo isn’t exactly the top of the revenue cycle. We were stuck in a viscous cycle that seemed only to perpetuate.

During the road trips and endless hours on the road, my husband found Dave Ramsey. After a year of his incessant comments about it, I finally decided to try it. Little did I know this would be instrumental in God’s movement for a change in our family. Remember the come to Jesus moment we had? That, thankfully was after this movement. During the “talk” aka: “my breakdown and ultimatum”, we put a plan into place.

We looked at the market, and knew we would stay in Amarillo, however we needed to fill a need that wasn’t being fulfilled in the area. My husband has been in the construction/remodeling business for 15 years. Roll off rentals were a scarcity every single location he traveled to. Digging a little further, we found there weren’t many “mom” and “pop” waste companies. Yes, there’s nation wide corporations here, but we have something different to offer.

So. Now that we’ve had a brief synopsis of the history, here’s what you didn’t see in the background. We started this journey over 3 years ago. Praying. (Kendra McDonald and James McDonald coming over and just pouring blessings over us, and having intense prayer sessions.) Saving. Looking for deals. We finally found a company going out of business in Dallas.

The man was amazing and I will forever be grateful for his guidance and patience during the transition of the company. He budged on his price, knowing we weren’t going to give up hounding him. We got the business last summer, and knew there would be a ton of sacrifices in the coming future that would define who we were and what we stood for. Just because you invest into something, it doesn’t mean miraculous day and night changes in your life. We knew we had to prepare, we just didn’t know how much.

So we began by hoarding everything. I mean, closets full of toilet paper here. If we could cut or save, we did. It was stork mode in overdrive. We didn’t indulge in eating out. I meal prepped and froze countless dinners. We stopped going ANYWHERE. It takes gas money. The isolation was starting to set in, however we knew the benefits would win out if we could just keep pressing.

Jersey, our youngest, didn’t get newborn or family pictures. Christmas? Yeah, talk about minimalism. Jaxon, our oldest got two presents. I black Friday shopped, got a few things for the girls and that was the extent of Christmas. Johnny and I had already decided we weren’t going to get anything for each other. We made coupons instead. Pick of movie, your turn to get up in the middle of the night, your turn for diapers. Cable? Off. Subscription to scent-bird? Off. We had a nest egg saved, equipment paid for and gave each other high fives. That’s hysterical. We had no idea what would unfold.

Somehow, word gets out and the phone started ringing before Johnny is officially home. So, remember the nice little plan we had to slowly ease into it? I can’t drive a truck and trailer. We decide to jump. So, Johnny had already given a 6 month notice to his employer. However, it couldn’t wait that long. The noticed dissipated to 4.5 months. We got a little head of schedule, but it was fine. No big deal, right? God was leading us, we can do this.

So, we have three children. A bunch of equipment, rental properties that we manage and everything halts. Winter CAME. Construction halted. Phone calls came to a halt, and honestly we’re still fighting it. It’s funny how society is so against people making it. Now, I’m not talking about close friends and family. We are so blessed to have family and friends in our corner. Shares on social media and word of mouth references. I’m talking about society as a “whole”. Likes on facebook for a new job at a corporation where you’re working for someone else are overwhelmingly surpassing any likes to a new, un established entrepreneur. I can’t say I blame them.

I understand the concepts and why people are more apt to go to an established company over a new person who’s learning ropes. HOWEVER… I will say that growing pains and risks associated with taking a shot on the “newbies” can be extremely beneficial. Think of investing into google in 1998 when it first came on the market. UMM, yeah. I wish I could go back. So, anywho. A lot of doors shutting, and a lot of friends that believed in us. It’s a balancing act, that we’re still working on perfecting.

…to be continued.

It’s only my second blog post, I’m pretty sure I knocked “vulnerability” out of the park and the text is getting quite extensive. I will pick up where I left off when I write more.

Thank you. Seriously, if you’re reading this, it means we probably have your support and it means a ton to our little family. 🙂