Here is a positive story of a garden center in Houston. Plant for All Seasons is owned by Victor Flaherty, who has commented before at this blog. He also has a blog titled, The Dirt. He mentions in the Houston Business Journal that sales are up 20% for the year, with a revenue expected to reach 2.4 million this year. While we here at The Golden Gecko are no where near that type of revenue, we are seeing the same type of growth this year.  I am also encouraged because, as the article said, "as with most start ups, the first few years were often difficult, but Flaherty was a studious entrepreneur. 'I would go home every night and read everything I could,' he says. 'The first 10 years were just surviving.'”

So here we are in our fifth year, paying the bills and staying in business. It's a long row to hoe when your in business for yourself, but you have to keep your eyes on the horizon and sail ahead. Keep looking for things and ways of doing things that the box stores are not. Give the customer what they want at a reasonable price, and a great attitude, and you will do o.k.

I believe the attitude is a huge part of the equation. People these days are looking for positive messages. I have learned to live by this quote from Rudyard Kipling, "“If you can keep your wits about you while all others are losing theirs, and blaming you. . . . The world will be yours and everything in it..."

These are the day's to "keep your wits" and ignore the doomsayer's. It's not easy, but we have no choice.