I learned this, at least, by my experiment;
that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
from the "Conclusion" to Walden by Henry David Thoreau
For several years in talking to my sons, I have talked about pursuing their dreams, and yet found myself unable to take the risk for myself. The weekend of Nov 13, 2008, at a retreat in Northern Minnesota on Gull Lake the idea and dream surfaced and an active discussion followed. This time, it went further than dreams and idle talk, but actually moved into a mind mapping of the idea, and before long we had on paper given some hard reasons to follow the dream.
We listed the advantages and disadvantages to pursuing the venture of building small houses, tiny cabins, tiny homes, and tiny houses. The experience side started with the ability to design small house plans and cabin plans, then use those small house plans to build the actual small house and tiny green cabins.
For Experience; I do have 35 years of carpentry and management experience in building small and large houses of all types and styles; managing crews, design teams, manufacturing departments, and improvement teams for businesses.
Another advantage is the location of property that is owned on a busy highway, along with a large shop building to build small houses and tiny cabins, and a display area on highway 61 for showing off the completed tiny cabins. The highway has a traffic count of 10,000 hits a day and projected to 25,000 within 5 years. The potential is there for a lot of growth.
The downside of all the advantages is the state of the economy, locally and nationally. And if a business makes it in this environment, it will definitely be strategically ready when the business climate recovers. And it will recover!
Part of the planning of the business, besides drawing small house plans, and building a model of a tiny cabin, is having a network of support in the venture, be it financial, emotional or mentoring. Rev. Nancy Herrick from Our Spiritual Center , Elizabeth Traff, Carol Austin from Cross Dental Care, Daisy Mckinley, Jerry Wescott, and Bill Schmidt along with many others provided emotional support, guidance, and a open forum to bounce ideas around with. I thank each of these special friends for being along with me on this journey.
This blog, will follow that dream, and currently, I am in the stage of writing the business plan and laying out the website. Thinking funding would be limited, there was a concern, until a friend who believed in the dream offered hard cash as an investor. I know this dream is taking hold and all I need to do is follow the steps of the dream and hold onto the trolley strap for the ride. Italics from Wayne Dyers book, "Power of Intention"
Here's Thoreau's cabin:
