On Cloud 9

(This is a three part series about our success and struggle owning our own business, and our plea for a little help to get things ironed back out. See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. If you can help, with even a prayer and a share ,go to our GoFundMe page here: gofundme.com/u2wzu8)

Life was grand! 3 tow trucks and a service truck. My sweet husband, and the two guys working for us stayed pretty busy. We ran a few peaceful months – just balancing out, getting some good help in, and found out we were having another baby, too! This means 6 kids to keep out of the paperwork and grease! We rented a shop, yard, and an office, which allowed us to separate home and work a little bit. It was nice to go home, and get a tiny break from work (other than the phone…it’s always the phone.)

June 2014 saw the F450 go down and it was 3 long months before we got that truck running again. During that time, things were rocky, but it was evident that if we had another truck to run calls, we had the calls to run. They were coming in left and right and we could only get to so many at a time with just two running wreckers. So, we started looking for another wrecker, and found 2. The lending guy was certain we could get into both trucks, and we made the leap. (Insert my reservations here, but I held my breath and hoped for the best.)

We got home with the new trucks – our 2006 Chevy 6500 rollback, and our 2011 International DT466 rollback. Two weeks later the F450 was ready and we brought her home, too. Trucks are expensive, and it’s hard to keep them on the road. At this point, the repairs, down payments, and travel expenses cleaned us out. Our cash flow was keeping up but we weren’t able to put anything away for future repairs. We were counting on winter to keep us busy and let us get ahead.

This is the same time we started realizing how hard it really is to find good help and how hard it is to be a good boss. There are so many lines to watch – too friendly, not friendly enough. Too lenient, too strict. Too many days off, too many hours worked. Juggling a business and a family is such a challenge – but it’s worth it.

Don’t let me fool you as I detail all of the eye-openers. We love what we do. All day, every day, we love what we do. I love helping others and solving problems, and I have the most amazing teammate at my side to do this with. If it weren’t for his dream of owning his own wrecker service, I wouldn’t be here doing this, and that would be sad. My husband is amazing and it is an honor to stand beside him for the downs just as much as the ups.

Cloud 9 was short lived for us, we took on too much, too fast, and winter in Oklahoma never really happened. Our busy season was never really busy, and when we didn’t pick up with the change in seasons, a couple of our guys left because things were slow. We’re still fighting, still hoping, still praying for things to improve here. Lately, every day feels like I’m holding my breath hoping for a miracle. I’m going to keep hoping. Each day. Every day. The motor will get fixed in the International, and we’ll start making forward progress again.