From Dawn Till Dusk

They say that the first year is probably the hardest, but is considered a milestone that truly deserves a celebration once it is reached. True? I ought to think so because that’s exactly what we went through during the first year since we put up our little growing business.

On Heart’s Day of 2007, one of our long term goals—to be able to start a business of our own finally came into reality. I vividly remember then how busy I was manually writing the delivery receipt details for all the publications we were about to distribute to all drop off points in Metro Manila. And while I feel the tips of my thumb and middle left fingers developing callus, Hubby, together with just one helper, carry on in segregating the newspapers one by one, not minding the smudges of dirt from the loads of newsprint in their hands. And all of that we quickly did on the wee hours, just to make ends meet with four of our delivery staff who must then deliver the newspapers at designated points before the break of dawn. Imagine that! While all couples and lovers in the world painted the town red, we dirtied our hands with charcoal-like tinges.

Reliable and speedy delivery, that’s two most important quality standards that we commit our valued clients of. And faithfully these measures we envisioned to hold true as we culled the name “Early Bird” the moment we had our little business registered.

The “Bird” as we have coined the little business, had its share of ups and downs through the weeks and months it is operating. We only have a small investment then in our hands for the little business because we didn’t expect we’d be kicking off two months early of our target, but thankfully FIL who was then just at the edge off his retirement in a multinational company, sympathetically lend us a good amount that helped us through with the operating expenses. Though there was a pressing issue over this (I think I’ve privately written about that here) but pointless and senseless as it was, we’ve left it behind us because that’s just the way we thought it ought to be—to die a natural death.

Return of investments, we we’re not really hoping to recover very sooner, but God was very good to us because just before the month of August ends, we’ve cleared ourselves with the generous loan from FIL. A few more clients from the industry players kept coming and that kept us afloat through the second semester.

Manpower wise, we’ve likewise struggled through the months recruiting and training people. It was like trial and error, until we’ve had exactly “just the right people” for the job. Hubby often did the trouble shooting for areas he needed to pitched in, but looking back from how tedious the process was before, I can say now that everything’s all well and manageable.

And the most grateful of all was to think that we also have to sacrifice a huge amount of our quality time together as a family when we were just starting to let the “Bird” fly and that was something that we fought as a battle for quite sometime. But you know, the “Bird” that I used to think that would keep Hubby from being us on sacred family times, became the very leeway for him to be the loving and the ever-providing head of the family that he is. And it was not just that.  A bonus it was as Hubby and I was likewise able to rekindle our Hubby and Wifey dating thing every Wednesday.

Fast forward to Valentine’s Day of 2008, exactly one year since our “Bird” spread his wings and flew into the wide wild world out there (storms and typhoons and traffic notwithstanding), it returned us with an equally good catch. Now, I don’t have to fear developing hardened tissues in my fingers by writing tons of delivery receipts, and Hubby greasing his hands with all the smudges (though we don’t mind getting back to the basics at all) because we’ve established a system for doing everything efficiently in order. Talk about being a little bit organized! Heehee.

For everything, we humbly return all the praises to Him who provided us with something that will prepare us for early retirement and with Him, who never fail to make us feel we are so blessed. Now we know he had the “Bird” to go through all the pains because now, everything makes sense.

(We’re praying the same goes with the lost and [hopefully] found story. This, hopefully, hopefully soon)