Special Article brought to you by Connection Publishing

My kids tell me that you are not supposed to create your own hashtag, but I told them that the only way that hashtags exist is because someone created them. So I have created my own #SWASH. It means Somehow We Are Still Here!

If you are a fellow entrepreneur like me or maybe have a family member or friend that you know who is an entrepreneur, you will understand this hashtag. Those of us who have the “bug” know there is just no other option for us. Most of us are unwilling to work for someone else, while a few of you are actually unemployable (you know who I am talking about). I read a quote one time that said, “Entrepreneur: a person who is willing to work 80+ hours a week in order to avoid working 40.” I laughed when I read that because it was one evening about 10:30 pm and I was just winding up my working day. There are many who dream of opening their own business. Some think it will just be smooth sailing and they can work half days, which you can; you can pick whichever 12 hours you want, because you are the boss.

We were among that group of would-be entrepreneurs. When I found myself without a job at nearly 40 years old, we knew it was time to pursue that dream. We used our savings and bought a small franchise that fizzled after a year of hard work; we started an Amazon/ E-Bay store and worked really hard for very little income. We were just where we started, one year earlier, except now we didn’t have much in savings. I still had the dream, though, and wanted to start something from scratch and Melissa, bless her heart, was still on board. One day, I was driving to Utah County and I had the thought that we could start a community magazine for our town, North Ogden. After meeting with our mayor and pitching the idea, the city loved it and we started our first magazine. It was tough going at first, as I suspect any new business is. We fought long and hard for every customer. People liked the idea and advertisers signed up, which was a boost to our confidence. People also emailed and called us to tell us how much they appreciated the magazine, which again built our hopes that it might be a business that could succeed.

Crazy enough, there was a local real estate agency that started a magazine the same month as we started ours. It made things challenging to have two new magazines in a small town, but both magazines have survived.

Then, after another year of struggling and barely surviving without having to sell off everything we own, other cities started finding our magazines and started calling to see if we could create a magazine for them. That is how we started Syracuse, Roy, and just recently, Ogden. Advertisers keep signing up which, is still a boost to our confidence. It has been very hard work and emotionally up and down, and yet, #somehow we are still here.

This magazine is part of what we do. It has our heart, blood, and soul in its pages. We care about it, we care about you who read it, and we support our advertisers. We care about the advertisers who help make it possible. And somehow, we are still here (#SWASH)! It’s awesome. If you would like to be part of our company’s future, you can invest for as little as $100 and own shares of our company. Visit mrcrowd.com/company/CP for more info and watch for us in the upcoming TV show “America’s Real Deal!