Build it. They will come...

Yesterday marked the first year anniversary of being handed the keys to an old Church I had purchased.
A long time dream of having a 'go to place' to train my dogs instead of traveling distances and dealing without door training in our typical Canadian winters.
First obstacles for the building was to generate income to pay the monthly bills / renovations. It's moderate size ended up being suitable for a couple of recreation businesses starting up. With that comes additional jobs of landlord and janitor. Abit of juggling to ensure people classes and dog classes had enough separate time so both were not in the building at the same time.
As well to ensure the place was kept spotless with no dog hair/odors ...first image with the public was important to me and not all public share the same dog sentiments as 'dog' people. At first there were skeptics, (as well people dropping in out of curiosity ) that people classes and dog classes could be held under the same roof.

So far it's worked, the 2 recreation business are not only thriving in this little rural town but steadily growing.

Second obstacle was 'me'...certainly alot of business learning curves and looking at things from a different angle.
The hardest for me was to change from a life time in dogs 'volunteering' / fundraising etc to being a business person and running a business. I had to find a value ( price ) to not only my time but a building rate...that was tough. Was I stressed with this business adventure- yes more times than I want to count....but I seemed to have survived :)

The third obstacle and one I'm still problem solving is carving out enough time for 'my dogs'. The first year was spent marketing ,building maintence/renovation projects on top of farm / home / work. Over the big hump of learning curves and the work week has fallen into the best rhythm that fits the building schedule and mine.

Classes are going good. Many rewards in seeing other dog/handler 'bloom' and accomplish much. Grooming is seeing repeat customers
over the year with more dogs being booked in.Photography growing by word of mouth as I journey there..

On the bucket list is to spend a day at another Grooming Shop ( a person never stops learning ) , Get to a Dog training workshop/seminar. Finish the one distance Photography course as well get to a couple in person workshops.
I've already signed up for a couple of Herding clinics as well am currently organising a couple of trials...goal is to trial as many
dogs as I can get ready for summer.