Having my husband deploy to a war zone taught us both a lot of amazing lessons. Here are just a few:
Life is too short to spend your days doing something you hate.
The most important things are not things.
If your occupation is going to occupy most of your waking hours it should be meaningful and make a difference.
New challenges may be scary, but you open yourself up to untold blessings and growth when you embrace them.
We can do hard things.
With those lessons in mind (and for a bunch of other reasons I'm not going to go into) we decided that this year was our year to take a leap of faith and start our own business.
Mike has always wanted to be his own boss but wasn't sure of the best way to go about it. We contemplated several different options and finally settled on the idea of pursuing a franchise business. We felt that as business beginners it would serve us well to have a proven business model to work with, not to mention the support network that comes with it. We looked at several different concepts and even worked with a franchise consultant who helped us identify our strengths and articulate our goals. After extensive research into several different companies, a trip to Omaha and a lot of time on our knees, we eventually made a decision in May and signed on with a company called Right at Home. It was in an industry we both knew nothing about but it just felt right. I know that can sound like such a cliche, but it was really true for us.
In a nutshell, Right at Home provides non-medical in-home care and assistance to the elderly or others who may need it. We will hire and train caregivers to go into client homes to help out with basic activities of life (laundry, meals, errands etc.) so that those individuals can stay in their own homes. This allows them to avoid going to nursing homes before absolutely necessary and also relieves some of the burden on family caregivers. (whoa--sorry about the sales pitch, I really didn't mean it. I've just been living and breathing this non-stop for months and that just came out!)
Now I know you may be thinking, "How in the world is an Army officer and a school teacher supposed to run a home care business?" Believe me, I've asked myself that question a thousand times. In fact, that question was weighing very heavily on my mind when we returned to Omaha in July to attend our two week training class. It was an intense couple of weeks as we tried to learn everything about the industry in general and how to specifically make this business successful. But it was also very validating to get to know the others in our training class, people with more smarts and experience than I, and realize that we were among good people trying to do good things. And as we learned more about the ins and outs of this business we continued to feel better and better about our decision.
The past few months have been absolutely crazy as we have worked to get this business off the ground. I honestly had no idea what it took to get an office up and running. But our start-up check list is almost complete and as of today we are officially open to start hiring caregivers.
It's a big day for us and I am actually very overwhelmed (you may notice the time of day on this post--I can't sleep when I'm this anxious!). But I just have to keep reminding myself to take it all one day at a time, have faith and stay on my knees!
