The 8-year Itch
When my original business partner, Bryan, and I started Motor City Brew Tours back in 2009, we didn’t have a master plan or a business plan or even much of a clue as to what it would become. All we wanted was to take some friends to some breweries and drink locally made beer. Although Bryan is no longer with the business, what he helped me start and what the company is today is pretty much the same thing. We take people to beer. But, instead of only doing bus tours, the company now does guided bus, walking and bike tours.
As I have approached the eight-year anniversary of the business and midway through 2017, I would like to reflect on the first seven years. We often hear jokes about the 7-year itch in relation to couples and marriage. It’s a theory that happiness in a relationship starts to go downhill after seven years of marriage. When you are in business, you go through a lot of similar cycles as a marriage. When you first start a business or get married, everything is exciting and exhilarating, and we call it the honeymoon effect. Every tour we ran, every beer we drank, every person we met, it’s all a lot of fun. After the honeymoon effect, married individuals sometimes experience decreases in satisfaction and fulfillment and overall happiness with their marriages. This is also similar in business. There are days where I wonder if this business is working or should I still be doing something else or if I stopped running tours, would anyone even notice.
Starting a business, like getting married is scary. You never know if it’s going to work out or not. Staying in business like marriage is a lot of hard work. You need to wake up every day and work at it. Don’t get complacent, be open to new ideas and always listen to each other. At Motor City Brew Tours, we listen to our staff, brewery owners, bus operators, friends, family and our customers. When things work great, we celebrate the successes, when things don’t go the way we thought, we fix it and move on.
So, for me, the honeymoon continues. I feel lucky and privileged to be in business after eight years. I hope to be in business for many more years to come. I wake everyday excited for the next tour, the next brewery, the next beer and all of the great people that I get to meet along the way. Thanks to everyone for eight years of business!
–Cheers from Beer Tour Guy
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