Many don’t know how humble the beginnings of my business were. My husband supplied me with three 10g tanks, and my late mother gave me about $100. With that money, I bought a few species of shrimp which I began to breed (these in addition to the three other tanks I had running at the time). I gradually built up and saved money from my sales in order to help my husband put in a garage, and then took over the basement as my fish room.
It took me several years to save enough, and accumulate enough tanks and equipment to have my fish room start to take shape. My husband handmade my racks, and we built the entire room together in the spare time around his schedule, and my demanding schedule as a mother. It has really grown up, and I am very proud of what we have been able to build.
I now have over 110 tanks running and import weekly from all over the world.
That being said, there have been ups and downs. During two of the last hurricanes, we suffered some nasty flooding from ground water seepage. I had some significant losses of fish from having to run hoses out our casement windows, as the sump pumps could not keep up with the water otherwise and temperatures dropped very low. The last time, I lost about three thousand dollars in fish.
While this is certainly small change in comparison to many others, it was a pretty crippling blow to my small business. Luckily I have been able to push through, and a few gracious and generous hobbyists have helped me out, but I see this Intuit Small Business Growing Strong grant as a huge opportunity.
They are giving away 15 grants of $5,000 each to small businesses. It is a simple voting process, no mailing lists or sign in. You can vote daily, and popularity does not determine the winner, but they state that it can really help. I would use the money simply to get more species of livestock. The top five, based on popularity, also get a suite of their software and small business products. This would really save me a lot of time with my bookkeeping and budgeting.
I donate monthly to either clubs, charities, outreach programs, nursing homes or schools and would really like to expand these efforts. Currently, I am sending livestock, but would love to be able to send equipment and tanks to these worthy causes. I also travel about every other week to various clubs and conventions, sharing what I have learned and offering donations to support the venue.
I would appreciate it if any of you would share the word or take the time to vote. Votes can be done once daily. The link to my business wish can be found here: https://www.loveourlocalbusiness.com/base/lolb2desktop?region_id=us-en&content_id=19494
I figure with the amount of people, and the loyalty of those people, on MFK, I have a good shot of staying in the top until they start drawing winners on May 12.
It took me several years to save enough, and accumulate enough tanks and equipment to have my fish room start to take shape. My husband handmade my racks, and we built the entire room together in the spare time around his schedule, and my demanding schedule as a mother. It has really grown up, and I am very proud of what we have been able to build.
I now have over 110 tanks running and import weekly from all over the world.
That being said, there have been ups and downs. During two of the last hurricanes, we suffered some nasty flooding from ground water seepage. I had some significant losses of fish from having to run hoses out our casement windows, as the sump pumps could not keep up with the water otherwise and temperatures dropped very low. The last time, I lost about three thousand dollars in fish.
While this is certainly small change in comparison to many others, it was a pretty crippling blow to my small business. Luckily I have been able to push through, and a few gracious and generous hobbyists have helped me out, but I see this Intuit Small Business Growing Strong grant as a huge opportunity.
They are giving away 15 grants of $5,000 each to small businesses. It is a simple voting process, no mailing lists or sign in. You can vote daily, and popularity does not determine the winner, but they state that it can really help. I would use the money simply to get more species of livestock. The top five, based on popularity, also get a suite of their software and small business products. This would really save me a lot of time with my bookkeeping and budgeting.
I donate monthly to either clubs, charities, outreach programs, nursing homes or schools and would really like to expand these efforts. Currently, I am sending livestock, but would love to be able to send equipment and tanks to these worthy causes. I also travel about every other week to various clubs and conventions, sharing what I have learned and offering donations to support the venue.
I would appreciate it if any of you would share the word or take the time to vote. Votes can be done once daily. The link to my business wish can be found here: https://www.loveourlocalbusiness.com/base/lolb2desktop?region_id=us-en&content_id=19494
I figure with the amount of people, and the loyalty of those people, on MFK, I have a good shot of staying in the top until they start drawing winners on May 12.
(I didn't know I could do it every day)
