When I Grow Up

Every once in awhile, I dream about owning a bed and breakfast when I get old... or maybe sooner. Elements of Style just posted about the be-yeww-ti-ful Blackberry Farm in Tennessee, and it triggered this long-standing idea again.



I'm impressed with entrepreneurial go-getters because that's not really my personality. However, I think I could own a B&B pretty easily. Does that sound conceited and/or naive? Well... I don't care. So take that.

I really do think I could do it. I was a high school teacher, I can crack the whip and manage people. I know some of the ins and outs of B&B world. I worked at The Baldpate Inn in Estes Park, Colorado, for three summers while I was in college,



and then I cooked at The Reveille Inn in College Station for awhile.


I ingloriously cooked at a youth camp for a summer, and more recently, I've catered a few parties. I've seen (at least partly) some of the unglamorous toilet-cleaning-dish-washing-early-rising-monotonous-food-prep sides of the hospitality industry. And I really liked all of it.

I am afraid of the business side of things--the taxes and payroll and permits. (However, I have been in charge of our bookkeeping here at Colonial Risk Group and, after many trials, have learned to successfully navigate Quick Books... so that's kinda a start.) I don't know how you would every get over that intimidation unless you just did it.

I do think there's a niche for a non-doily style of bed and breakfast around here, a chic place in a historic home, close to some of the action but with a nice big private yard for Lu and my herd of goats.

So do I have any investors out there? Anyone? I'm willing to listen to all offers.