My husband, Mike, and my father, Jim, did all of the
remodeling on the bed and breakfast themselves.
Our boys helped with insulation, the laying of floors,
landscaping, and clean up. While the guys were busy
with the remodeling, I had the task of setting up the
business. I purchased three or four books on the subject
of starting and running a bed and breakfast. Mike and I
stayed at a few bed and breakfasts, we went to a small
conference on running a bed and breakfast, and looked at
website after website. Fortunately, the books I purchased
gave me a list of essential tasks to do in preparation
for opening. These included funding, determining our
policies (smoking/nonsmoking, children or no children,
and if yes, which ages to allow, pricing, breakfast menus
and times, cancellation, reservations, and more!), zoning
laws, registering with the state and county, determining
amenities (hot tub, robes, soaps, snacks), selecting and
purchasing furniture, décor, and linens (sounds fun at
first—but the linen purchases got quite tedious by the
end, can you believe that?), and complying with state
and county fire and health codes. We had little problem
with fire or health codes, but many areas were more
problematic. I had to attend 16 hours of health and
sanitation training, culminating in a test and a required
certificate.
One of the biggest helps was contacting our state bed and
breakfast association. We joined as apprentice members a
few months before we opened and I attended their annual
conference; it was essential for networking and ideas.
Our association requires an every-other-year inspection,
including a list of requirements that are above and beyond
our state requirements. My involvement with the state
association has been invaluable. Amidst all of this we had
to start getting reservations, so a website was designed
with the help of one of Mike’s friends from work. We then
signed up with a couple of bed and breakfast directories,
talked to our local chamber of commerce, and worked
with our state bed and breakfast organization. We have
found the Internet to be the most beneficial venue for
advertising, aside from being visible in our community. In
less than a month we had some reservations coming in for
the summer of 2007 and we began to work furiously to get
the final details in place.
Homeschooling three boys in the midst of a working
orchard and running a fledgling bed and breakfast
business has been challenging and rewarding. We have
always schooled with an eclectic, semi-relaxed, and year-
round approach. This approach fits well with the ups
and downs of a home business. Our “official” school year
runs from mid-October until late August, with breaks
throughout for holidays and vacations. The bed and
breakfast has forced us to be much more flexible and the
boys to be more independent and responsible.
Typically, if I have guests during the week, when breakfast
must be fixed Monday through Friday mornings, I expect
Benjamin and Caleb to have their phonics practice page
done, read their required reading book for 30 minutes, and
start their math, if it is a review lesson. By the time I get
breakfast cleaned up it is sometime between 8:30 a.m. and