A Founder’s Honest State Of Affairs.

It’s already tough when you’re trying to start your a business on your own. But when you start adding other life priorities to the mix, then it’s a difficult task to manage all of it. I’m not saying it can’t, hasn’t been or won’t ever be done or that it’s not possible — many have done it. But how many actually talk about it.

From starting a Canadian company to moving back home, it’s been a whirlwind of 18 months. From navigating the local Trinidadian business process to the Canadian Inc. startup process, from taking the risk of going full-time, my salary dependent on me, my performance and our product, to immigration navigation and staying within the legal limitations of our operation — these are lessons that I could never have gotten anywhere else.

Now comes the hard part — the honest truth of our business and where we stand. While we (my business partner and I) were making headway as a tiny two-person company, the move back home dampened any hope of consistent survival. Like being fed through an IV, if our customer base was cut off from the source, we wouldn’t last the night. Lo’ and behold, come August we were unable to sustain our operations. Even as a company who is in the black, with cash stored and profits, we were unable to sustain the churn, meet face-to-face and grind like we once did when decisions were quick and operations were fast. We failed to sustain past the normal 3–5-year threshold of a surviving business. Our only sanctuary during this “hiatus” — to find an investment where our company can hold and maybe increase our cash, if but at a drip’s pace.

Now, back in Trinidad and figuring out the market here — it’s been a tough few months. With income running low, savings slowly decreasing, life and priorities on the horizon — it’s back to the job market. Now, while I can never stay without some project in the works, I shouldn’t count myself a fool. Returning to the job market to apply my new found skills is a must. This must is also driven by life-priorities — after all, we are human.

Turning my eye to the job market, I juggle between the stress of another failed venture, the challenge of finding a way to be with my long-distance girlfriend, the strain of what seems to be my entire life’s immigration challenge and my business career (which is the reason I wake up and grind on my project every morning).

I can only say that sometimes it makes sense to take one step backward to take two steps forward in the future.