Getting to this point - Part One

So this journey has got me to think of my job search in a different light. With hopefully many others soon reading this blog you’ll want to know more about me. I’m not going to post my resume, but I will be providing you with more information about me.

Let’s start off with how I got to this point.

With the start of a part-time business (when I was working full-time about five years ago) I re-kindled my entrepreneurial spirit. I started my Virtual Beverage Store (no, I did not run a beverage shop, I’m using this as a substitute for my actual business, but the experiences and events are factual) about a year after starting a Project Management job at a large Canadian Bank. At the time, I really didn’t like the commute from the city to my town about two hours away.

The business game me an outlet for my more "creative business" side. After leaving the bank, the part-time business became full-time. I took advantage of a government program that allowed me to extend my unemployment benefits while getting my business off the ground.

After getting things ready for the business, beverage mixes (the general idea was that someone could "create" their own drink from common flavours and I would make and send it to them), branding, packaging and everything else that would be needed I opened up shop online.

I also held a few "open houses" at private locations where I would invite the public down to see what I had to offer, to try samples beverages and to show them how easy it would be to create their own drink. One of the "areas" of the business was tea. When I had my open houses there was general interest in everything, but the teas seemed to attract more people than any other area. This happened a few time and before I knew it I decided to focus on just tea!

I took a few months to re-brand the company and focus on tea only. This turned out to be an excellent idea. I also sourced out a new supplier that would meet my specific tea needs. Some of the requirements were that the tea must be organic and that the people employed in the tea process must be pay fairly and treated ethically. This was not part of my marketing mix; it was a reflection of my own beliefs.

The focus turned to be an excellent choice. Over the course of the next two years, I would receive attention from over two dozen publications from all over the world. The UK, South Africa, the US, France, Canada, USA, Japan all wrote articles of various length about the "custom tea" business. I even was featured in a national US business publication and TV show.

I seemed to have a decent nack for marketing. Services like HARO and ProfNet made my job easier, but it was still up to me to convince a journalist that I was a worthy story. The brand that I created was unique, the packaging was polished. Almost no one would believe that all of this was created by one person if I told them.

The business also started to get attention because it was "green." I did not intend to create an environmentally/ethically friendly company, but it certainly helped that it was.

As the business started to take off, I was actually making money. It was nice! Money is great to pay those pesky bills, mortgage, feed the family and stuff like that. I even attended a major trade show in the second half of 2007. There was intense interest with the business because I had a method of selling my tea in stores. The stores didn’t have to carry an inventory so it could be inexpensive for them to start selling my product.

Things were going well, but that was all to change.