“You have to be out by the end of the month.”
It was the woman who owned the store next to our locksmithing business who gave us the bad news. My husband and I had already bought a larger space across the street, but we couldn’t move in until we’d finished the renovation we were doing there. In the meantime we’d arranged to lease our current place month to month—until our landlord leased it to our neighbor instead.
“We’ve got nowhere to go,” I said to my husband, Jim, after she left. “We can’t afford to shut down while we wait to move into the new place—we’ll go out of business!”
“We’ll have to find some way,” he said.
But I couldn’t see a way. Lord, if you could lend us a hand here, we’ll do our best to make do.
Jim and I put our minds to the problem. First there were the services we provided, like cutting keys. We had a few vans with machines for when we did jobs outside the store. We parked one in front of our new location and ran an extension cord inside.
But what about our retail business? We sold locks, safes, master keys, security bars. Those certainly wouldn’t fit inside a van, and customers wouldn’t be safe inside the new store until construction was complete and we got a certificate from the city. Jim and I moved our stock into the new building, and when a customer made a request at the van, one of us would run inside the store and retrieve the item. Not very efficient, but great exercise!
Jim and I could deal with the inconvenience, but could our customers? We had to be prepared for a cut in profits. We just need enough business to cover our employees’ salaries and our bills, I reminded God each evening when we packed up. That’s all we’re asking.
In a month the new space was finally completed. I sat down to do the books. I added the numbers up—then added again. I just couldn’t believe the results. Not only had we made enough to cover our bills, it was the best month we’d ever had.
