lemonade, where are you again?

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Katja from Skimbaco (please see the link on the right, I just don't have the time to do link stuff at the moment) challenged me to this awesome meme. I love it so I thought I'd do it quickly even though it's late.

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LIFE GAVE ME SOME LEMONS -

IT'S OK, I MADE DELICIOUS LEMONADE - MEME

Rules:

* Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.

* Link back to person who tagged you.

* Write about an incident in your life you first thought was really bad, but ended up being a blessing.

* Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.

* Let each person you tagged know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

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A few years ago, Jay and I were still selling toys and collectibles on eBay. We worked together from our home. Pluses: lots of time together, no commute to work, flexible hours. Minuses: a really messy home with shelves full of merchandise in our tv room and our basement was packed as well, got tired of taking packages to the post office all the time. Our home business was doing great. We were making good money. American dollar was really strong compared to Canadian dollar. It was great as all our sales were paid with US dollars. It got to the point where we felt like we had to move the business out of our home. Just for sanity's sake. I just couldn't stand having merchandise everywhere. We decided to look for an industrial business location. We weren't interested in opening a retail store so we just wanted a space where to put all the stuff and keep on doing eBay business. We were so excited. We started looking. And looking. And looking. And looking. And looking. We literally looked at any space available, yet found NOTHING suitable for us. We felt like we were jumping against a brick wall. It was terrible. We started to get pretty down about it. Eventually (after TONS of looking) we decided to open a retail store instead. As soon as we decided to do that, things started to go so smoothly and everything seemed to fall into place so quickly and without trouble. We were a bit reluctant to open another store again but felt that it was the only thing to do. A little later, the US dollar started going downhill and down went our income. Oops, it was actually at this point we decided we had to open a store, not before. Our income was dwindling away. We realized that us not finding an industrial location was a HUGE blessing. We would have been bankrupt if we had done so. eBay business just wasn't worth it anymore. We were making hardly any money anymore.

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So, here we are. We now own three retail stores (two with a partner). Now we are getting a bit tired of retail work. Anyone who has been in retail business knows that it takes forever to build your business and to see a good income from it. So here we are not doing great financially. We're doing ok but we sure don't have much extra money. We see light at the end of the tunnel but wonder how long until that end of the tunnel comes. We are getting up there in age (we are!) and don't have the patience to build a business it seems. We are getting a bit antsy about our business again and wonder if we want to keep doing it still. Things are up in the air for us once again. We are still hanging in there but for how long... ?? Now I'm looking forward to seeing how the current lemons will turn into lemonade. Can't wait! :)

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I HATE trying to decide who to challenge. Not everyone wants to do these things and I also hate leaving someone out. So, once again I'm just challenging anyone who is interested to do this. This is a meme that has real meaning and we can all receive strength from each other's experiences.

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