My First Business!

http://bakethebestbread.blogspot.com

I'm taking a writing class http://rowdykittens.com/digitalwriting/, a few days ago our teacher, Tammy Strobel, gave us a writing prompt. One inspirational word to spark our creativity. The word was MEMORY. 

I've been on the road the whole week and I couldn't do this exercise until today. When I started to think about the word memory a raging river of memories; some angry, some sad, some fun and some unforgettable moments took place in my head. 

The first, strong memories that came up in my mind were pretty dark (they all had to do with death and betrayal.) I rather focus my energy on more positive memories. I have many of these too!

I finally decided to write about my first business. To me this is a very positive story. I decided to write about my first business because I learned a lot from it. It taught me how strong I am. It taught me how to make my dreams my reality. 

A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE

I was 15 years old. I wanted some money of my own. I needed some money. I needed them for security. My step father often punished us in different ways, especially when he was drunk or stressed. One of his favorite ways was to make us eat strange food (like only onions for dinner), or let us go to bed without food. (Thank god for the free meals we ate at school every Mon-Fri!) 

I really needed some money of my own.

It all started with an image in my head. I could see myself in another position than the one I currently had. When I was a teenager I was basically a slave in my step father's house. My step father lived with his mom and dad until he married my mother at the age of 30++. He was the laziest, greediest, completely uneducated, violent, drunk and evil person you can imagine. He was also a priest..After my mothers death (when I was 12 years old), my two younger sisters and I lived alone with this man.

Here is the beginning of my story towards reaching my dreams. The story that finally lead me to the life I enjoy today.

I manifested the new image of myself, an image of me ~ me eating food I enjoyed, me wearing clothes I liked, me doing things I enjoyed (like riding horses, traveling  and snowboarding.)

I decided to start a business. What kind of business can you possibly succeed with as a 15 year old school girl?

We lived close to a retirement home for senior citizens. Next to the retirement home there were several apartment complexes, for the elderly gentlemen and women that still could manage to live by themselves. 

I put my best clothes on. Walked over to the first apartment complex. It was a cold, windy day in September. I had a pen and paper in my hand. I knocked on every door. I asked everyone what kind of favorite bread they enjoyed the most. (Bread is a very important part of the traditional Swedish kitchen. We eat bread to everything.) I wrote down names and favorite kind of bread, in my notebook. 

The following Saturday my alarm woke me up at 3am. (My step father was still past out from last nights drinking.) I baked (from scratch) all the different breads on the senior citizens favorite list. It was five different kinds.

I walked over to the apartment complex at 8am, with bread, still warm from the oven. 

I gave everyone two bread rolls each, of their favorite bread. I gave them the bread for free. 

Many of them were very touched and some even cried.

I talked to each and everyone for a couple of minutes. Before saying good bye I asked them if they would like to subscribe (for a small fee,) to fresh bread every Saturday and Sunday morning. I got 20 subscribers on that first day. Within a couple of weeks it doubled. After doubling the number of clients I couldn't except more subscribers. There weren't enough hours in the mornings for baking more bread before my step father woke up.

After paying for all the ingredients (I bought them myself and carried them home on my bicycle,) the profit was about $100/weekend. A lot of money for a 15year old (at least it was a lot of money for me). 

I'm afraid I didn't knew how to pay taxes!

I still enjoy baking! ~ http://bakethebestbread.blogspot.com