We talk about baby boomers starting businesses, and generation Y (alias millennials) starting businesses, so how about 72-year-old Shirley Kuhnley and the Sweet Spot Bakery-Deli in Monroe, Oregon?
She was 69 years old three years ago when she graduated from a nine-month culinary arts class in Portland, Oregon’s largest city. Then she worked a year at another bakery, and she took a year to establish her business, refurbish her location, and open up.
Shirley estimates she’s put in about $200,000 in the Sweet Spot. “Every business starts out in a hole. That’s just how it is,” she told Mosely.
Shirley said, “You know, if you’re not busy, you sit home, get fat and die — mentally and physically. That sounds kind of harsh, but it’s true. Someone asked me once: ‘do you consider yourself a senior citizen?’ I said ‘no, I don’t have time.’”
Photo by Chris Pietsch.
BlindGirl on November 4th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Now that’s a good start and a good spirit. A lesson that today’s “depressed” teens must learn. Why are we so afraid to become an entrepreneur? Ever wonderer?