6 years on

Well it's definitely spring – the dark nights are behind us and the hedge on the marina drive is starting to burst open with life, oh, and the kids are still working their way through a mountain of Easter eggs and generally refusing to share them with me! I love this time of year. Everything seems so fresh and new and everywhere is finally starting to dry up! I can't wait to get out of my wellies to walk down to the marina. I also can't believe that it's now 6 years since we opened! We still have boats who moved in then and are still with us now – which is really rather special. So what have I learned over the last 6 years? Well the first week of opening I had the sudden realisation that people were going to join me on the marina and I couldn't have it to myself anymore. And not only that, but they were going to want to buy things from me (urgent trip out to buy a till and figure out how we were going to record everything. I discovered that really I knew very little about setting up a new business and it was going to be a very steep learning curve. 6 years on and there are quite a few things I've learned that have been useful, like always zip your pockets up when you're on the jetties; never try a pull a customer's boat in by the centre line when they still have their chimney up and don't walk on the ice on the slipway (it WILL give way). And then there's the big stuff which really matters, like always trying to do something to improve the marina every year; never forgetting how every customer is an important and vital part of our business and never underestimating how kind and supportive people can be (apart from the kids who still won't let me at their stash of easter chocolate, although they do declare it's in my best interests!!)