How I came to be a Mattress store owner

Sometimes, I am asked how it was that I came to own a mattress and recliner store in Salisbury, Missouri.  This is a fair question and one that I am happy to try to explain.  I could give a long version, but for the sake of brevity, I will attempt to just hit the high points of my journey to owning a mattress and recliner business.

In college, I got a degree in Business Management with an emphasis in Construction.  Upon graduation in 1988 I found that jobs were hard to come by, at least for me.  I ultimately started a career in retail with a company called Pamida where I was soon managing my own store.  From there I gave running my own construction company and owning rental property a go for a few years, until I was drawn back into a retail career with Shopko.  After too many moves with my family of five to count, I left Shopko for a job offer that I couldn't refuse with Target.  I managed the Target Store in Cape Girardeau, then I was promoted again, to the Columbia, MO Store.  I managed that store for several years.  I soon became burned out of big box retail and I recognized I needed a change after 18 years of retail.

It was then that my youngest son, Nathan, and I decided on doing handyman work and selling mattresses out of a storage unit.  Soon, we found a location off of Providence in Columbia where we had a store front for our mattress business, and after a couple of  years of intense struggle, we finally had some success in our mattress business.  We caught a couple of good breaks with our two main competitors going out of business and we were gaining traction in getting people to know who we were and what we offered.  Through much trial and error, we found out what worked and what didn't work in running the business.  After almost 10 years of successfully running a mattress and furniture business, my son decided to pursue a music career and I decided to temporarily retire.  Nathan has done great getting his music career going in the Columbia area.  He took on the name "Hardy but Hardly".  Check him out if you get the chance.  I enjoyed the year and a half of catching up on things around my acreage north of Fayette and taking a few nice vacations.

However, I found out quickly that I missed running a small business.  I realized that I had really enjoyed and got much satisfaction running the store in Columbia.  I didn't want to make the 45 minute drive to Columbia, and I thought there was potential for a new store closer to my home north of Fayette.  After doing some research I found that the opportunity of opening a mattress and recliner store in Salisbury, MO was my best option.  Then in January of 2024 I opened the doors on a new small business opportunity in Salisbury and after 3 months now, I believe I made a good decision.  Salisbury is working hard to revitalize itself as a small community and I see potential in its future growth as well as my store's future growth.  Anyway, that is how I came to be a mattress and recliner store owner in Salisbury, Missouri.