No regrets on closing down my business

It took awhile, in fact, it took five years to finally have the courage to close down the business my wife and I opened in 1984. All the worries and guilt of leaving my livelihood for the past forty years finally came to an end. I’m writing this to offer some good advice to all of you who are working at a job you no longer love, or at least, want to continue at.

At my thirty five year mark in the vacuum cleaner business, I realized I was pacing at work asking myself why I was still doing this job. The main excuse I had was that it paid the bills. But even that was wearing thin as Amazon was taking a chunk of my customers away. I had some pretty loyal customers, some of them for thirty years. But they were dying off from old age and I saw the young people buying more and more on the internet. My reasons for staying were dwindling.

The slogan that repeated in my head daily went as follows. “Why am I here, I don’t want to do this anymore.” Our new lease was up in August of 2019, that was going to be the day I say goodbye. But when that day showed up on my calendar, I didn’t leave. My wife reminded me that I was supposed to quit the business. My excuse was it will take me to the end of the year to downsize all my supplies. Well, December 31st came and went, I was still stuck.

I continued to get rid of my supplies, although not as quick as I should have. Then around March, that nasty Coronavirus showed up. That became the final nail in the coffin. My suppliers of vacuums all went down and everyone began to shop online. So, on April 30th of 2020 I locked the doors and said goodbye. Well kinda. Okay, not really. I thought if I closed down I could walk out my door and get a job anywhere. You know, like the old days. That didn’t happen.

I discovered that most jobs were being lost to the shutdown. Great timing for me. I also discovered that the once simple jobs out there have changed. It wasn’t as easy as it used to be when it came to qualifications. So I continued to run my business out of my home as best as I could. Lots of driving with pick up and delivery. With gas prices and time on the road, I was making peanuts. After nine months, I have officially called it quits.

Outside of the pressure of finding a new line of work, I have lifted a great weight off my shoulders. I miss my good customers, but not the work itself. I now realize I would have been better all round if I had left five years ago. Five years of stress and pacing back and forth was not worth it. If, in some way, my little story can help you seek happiness in your life with making a decision and sticking to it, than I feel it was worth telling you. Thanks, and good luck.