How Did You Start?
What made you start your business? Or, even if you work for a small business, how do you think working, “small,” effects your perspective on what you do and who you work for? Both of these questions are very important in an ever-changing market, and even lifestyle of American business.
Trouble Free Keys started with an opportunity dropped into our laps. We are a small family, two parents – Jesper and Michelle, and two kids in school. Jesper is part of a small business group as he runs a website development company. Through this group he met a man in sales who had run a key cutting business on Ebay. The sales career had changed and he no longer did the keys, but all of the equipment sat in his garage, useless. That was an opportunity for our somewhat challenged family.
At the time we were struggling through an Asperger-type autism diagnosis with our son. Therapies were costing quite a bit. Michelle was working part time to be able to be home after school. But even school days were rough as our son struggled with behavior in the classroom that called me (Michelle) to school while I was at work to help diffuse a situation and take my son home. Thankfully the small store I worked at was very understanding and I kept my job through all of the more difficult months of having to leave often. I learned so much about autism, mental health, different therapies, natural treatments, medications, and how my son’s brain worked differently than those of his peers. All of this “extra” added financial burden with lost wages and treatment costs.
You may notice that my husband has a unique (to America at least) name. Jesper, pronounced, “Yesper,” is from Denmark. We met online in 1999 and married in 2001. His family lives in Denmark and it is costly to travel there for a family of 4 so we don’t get there often. Money is always needed for many families with small businesses and since Jesper has always run a small business and I have worked for one for many years, we didn’t have extra money to travel abroad more than ever 4-5 years or so. And with the therapy it would be even less.
Hard work is not something we ever feared. I worked two jobs to get through immigration. Jesper immigrated and worked two jobs (each of us worked a full time and a part time job), to save for a house. We suffered pregnancy loss and ended up doing fertility treatments for our son and years later adopting our daughter. Working hard and struggling is part of who we are.
When the opportunity came to take over Trouble Free Keys, we went for it! The previous owner and his business partner were not using it so they agreed to let us try it for one year to see what we thought and then start making payments. Now, 2.5 years in we are still making it work for us. This small business has allowed us to work through treatment for autism. It’s allowed us to save for a Danish vacation that we booked….and then had to cancel due to COVID-19…and will take as soon as we are able.
If you are a small business owner you know the extra work that it takes. You probably have a better relationship with your clients than a big company does. Even as an online business, Jesper and I have that mentality. We both work in local small business and talk to customers in person or on the phone every day. For trouble free keys, we value each customer and will work with you to get you what you need and talk to you as a real person with a real need that we care about – because we do.
That is a bit of our story on why we started this business. I’d love to hear how you started yours! Add to the comment section or shoot me a message about anything to michelle@troublefreekeys.com.
Trouble Free Keys started with an opportunity dropped into our laps. We are a small family, two parents – Jesper and Michelle, and two kids in school. Jesper is part of a small business group as he runs a website development company. Through this group he met a man in sales who had run a key cutting business on Ebay. The sales career had changed and he no longer did the keys, but all of the equipment sat in his garage, useless. That was an opportunity for our somewhat challenged family. At the time we were struggling through an Asperger-type autism diagnosis with our son. Therapies were costing quite a bit. Michelle was working part time to be able to be home after school. But even school days were rough as our son struggled with behavior in the classroom that called me (Michelle) to school while I was at work to help diffuse a situation and take my son home. Thankfully the small store I worked at was very understanding and I kept my job through all of the more difficult months of having to leave often. I learned so much about autism, mental health, different therapies, natural treatments, medications, and how my son’s brain worked differently than those of his peers. All of this “extra” added financial burden with lost wages and treatment costs.
You may notice that my husband has a unique (to America at least) name. Jesper, pronounced, “Yesper,” is from Denmark. We met online in 1999 and married in 2001. His family lives in Denmark and it is costly to travel there for a family of 4 so we don’t get there often. Money is always needed for many families with small businesses and since Jesper has always run a small business and I have worked for one for many years, we didn’t have extra money to travel abroad more than ever 4-5 years or so. And with the therapy it would be even less.
Hard work is not something we ever feared. I worked two jobs to get through immigration. Jesper immigrated and worked two jobs (each of us worked a full time and a part time job), to save for a house. We suffered pregnancy loss and ended up doing fertility treatments for our son and years later adopting our daughter. Working hard and struggling is part of who we are.
When the opportunity came to take over Trouble Free Keys, we went for it! The previous owner and his business partner were not using it so they agreed to let us try it for one year to see what we thought and then start making payments. Now, 2.5 years in we are still making it work for us. This small business has allowed us to work through treatment for autism. It’s allowed us to save for a Danish vacation that we booked….and then had to cancel due to COVID-19…and will take as soon as we are able.
If you are a small business owner you know the extra work that it takes. You probably have a better relationship with your clients than a big company does. Even as an online business, Jesper and I have that mentality. We both work in local small business and talk to customers in person or on the phone every day. For trouble free keys, we value each customer and will work with you to get you what you need and talk to you as a real person with a real need that we care about – because we do.
That is a bit of our story on why we started this business. I’d love to hear how you started yours! Add to the comment section or shoot me a message about anything to michelle@troublefreekeys.com.