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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Business Owners Had Had Enough

By Rory Mcclannahan
Mountain View Telegraph
      Saying goodbye is never easy.
       Just ask Carol and Mark Lowry. After six years of owning and operating the East Mountain Grill in Edgewood, the couple had the unenviable task of saying goodbye to their customers and staff on Sunday. The pair decided to close the restaurant to preserve a little sanity and to get back a little bit of their lives, Carol says.
       “We're tired,” Carol said. “For our own sanity, it's best to do everything else we need to do.”
       And the No. 1 priority is family.
       You might think that running a family business might bring you closer together, and that is true. But sometimes a little too much togetherness can cause stress.
       “You always promise yourself that you won't bring the job home,” Carol says, “but the East Mountain Grill was a huge part of our lives. You just can't turn it off when you get home.”
       The couple have known they wanted to get out of owning their own restaurant for at least two years. They had put the business up for sale, but there were no takers. It finally got to the point where it was time to call it a day, close the doors, get a less maddening job and auction all the equipment.
       Many people don't understand what it takes to run a business, but the key thing to remember is that it isn't easy. And running a restaurant is even more difficult.
       If you ask me, it's all about caring too much about what you do. When you care about a business and you have an emotional, as well as a financial, investment in it, the details are something you can't ignore and can't push off on to someone else. Vacations, when you can take them, are always tense and comparable with leaving your children for days at a time.
       With a job, it is easy to show up, give the Man your eight hours and go home. It's easier to make sure you don't bring the stresses of your work home than if you run a family business.
       You see, a family business affects the whole family, and worries about lease payments, payroll and vendor contracts easily slip into conversation over the dinner table. That is, if you get to have dinner with your family.
       And yet, people still open small businesses. And many like it.
       “I'd rather work for 14 hours a day for myself than eight for someone else,” I was once told.
       Mark and Carol Lowry discovered that the 14-hour days were something they didn't want to do.
       “It's like dog years when you own a restaurant,” Carol said. “Six years feels an awful lot like 50.”
       So we say so long to the East Mountain Grill. The restaurant's loyal customers will have to find another place to eat, which can be difficult in an area with few choices. But when you go looking for a new cafe, I hope you don't curse the Lowrys for their decision.
       Sometimes there are just more important things in life.
       Contact Rory McClannahan at 823-7102 or online at editor@mvtelegraph.com.>   

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