My husband and I are in our late 50s which we neither one can believe! We own 2 different businesses, but really it is like 5 with the various areas it involves. I started a natural health food store and wellness center in 2006 in Grove City, PA called Natural Options which is currently being run by my manager.
In 2009 we launched Deer Creek Winery in Shippenville, PA which has an additional 5 retail outlets mostly in the Pittsburgh and Hermitage areas. We produce all of our own wines at the flagship Shippenville location where we also have a restaurant and Inn B&B…and that is where we also live.
We have had a mindset from early on in our businesses to have others working in the business while we work on it and to have systems in place so we truly have a business not just a job that we have to work more hours and never get a paid vacation! We followed Michael Gerber’s theory who wrote the E-Myth Revisited which gave us a great foundation and insight into the future when we could retire. We tried different plans, but somehow it just didn’t work out because we didn’t have the right system to get us out of the cycle.
Last year we were introduced to the Entrepreneurial Operating System or EOS through a book called Traction by Gino Wickman. Things really clicked in our minds and we self implemented this system throughout Deer Creek Winery which has made a huge different. So many times we would read various business books, but they all left us with ideas, but no real plan to turn those into a reality that would get us out of the daily routine, which we love, but there’s more we want to do in life and one of our missions is to provide great jobs where people can grow in their career, and what better way to grow than to be able to run the company while the owners retire! EOS gave us the plan and it is simple. Not easy, but simple and very intentional and regimented this is great and just what we needed!
We have a great Leadership Team in place now with an Integrator at the helm, we have created a board of directors with our children, and now we are transitioning to retirement, and it takes time and a certain amount of activity to work through it all, hence the name Actively Retiring!
This is the story of our travels as we learn what retirement means to us!
Actively Retiring 