For Olympic athletes who double as small-business owners, the more challenging feat sometimes takes place off the slopes, so says The Wall Street Journal.
Trying to juggle Olympic training with the demands of running a small business can be grueling. For some of the athletes, training during the peak winter months is so intense and time-consuming that the business often gets pushed to the sidelines.
This winter, the goal is “hanging on and not going under,” says Shannon Bahrke, a mogul skier competing in this year’s Vancouver Games, who started Silver Bean Coffee Co., a coffee-roasting business in Salt Lake City, while recovering from a knee injury during the 2007-08 season.
Bahrke says she often doesn’t turn her attention to her business until nighttime, after five to six hours of training, when she sometimes finds herself balancing the company books and sending out invoices.
“Skiing, massage, yoga–all that comes first. And if I have only two hours of energy left at the end of the day, that’s for the business,” she says.
Bahrke is planning to retire from competitive skiing in March, at which time she’ll focus on expanding Silver Bean beyond the $100,000 in annual revenue that it posted last year.
For the time being, Bahrke’s fiancé and co-owner, Matt Happe, is bearing the brunt of the day-to-day work of roasting and packaging the beans.
It’s difficult for any athlete training for the Olympics to hold down a job, complete an education or even maintain a social life. Those who are attempting to win a gold medal while also running their own business have a distinct challenge.
Photo by WSJ.