Let's buy the doughnut shop!

“Let’s buy the doughnut shop!”

The story of how a silly comment turned into 4 friends purchasing a business that they had no experience at.  

And when I say “no experience”, I literally mean, NO EXPERIENCE.

Let’s take a look at our cumulative resumes:

• 4 Undergrad degrees
  
• 2 MBAs
  
• 1 teaching credential
  
• Investment management experience
  
• Real estate experience 
  
• Teaching experience
  
• Social media and brand management experience
  
• Operations experience
  
• Interior Design experience

What about Bakery experience? NOPE!
Running a small business experience? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
“Let’s do it anyway!”

And here we are, two months in to owning a business that we only started to learn the second we took the keys.  Needless to say, it has been crazy, overwhelming, exhausting and most importantly, more rewarding than we could have imagined.

See, this was our dream.

The four of us are newbies to the valley, relocating from Orange County and Santa Barbara for the same reason; to raise our children in this wonderful world of Santa Ynez.

The Minus’ were the first individuals the Ollenburgers met when they landed here (literally the first, like in, 5 minutes after they arrived) and the instant friendship has not only created a friendship that feels like family, but our weekly firepit chats led to the creation of a brand that we felt so represented this area that we all absolutely love.

We would constantly talk about this brand, what it could be, how it could grow.  The list of ideas became longer and longer and we just couldn’t put our finger on how to bring it to the market.  

Then we heard the doughnut shop was for sale.
And we LOVE doughnuts.

Now, I know a lot of people love doughnuts but what brings someone to ACTUALLY purchase a doughnut shop?  For us, it was more than just about the doughnuts.

It was an opportunity to create a space that allowed families to sit down and spend time together.  It was a place that, if done correctly, could be a real part of this incredible community; connecting with people commuting to work, local small business owners grabbing some breakfast before they open, parents on the way to school drop off, friends gathering for some coffee, weddings and parties, sport teams celebrating a win and the list goes on and on.  

Not only that, as parents of six children between the two families, getting involved in our local community and being a part of the bigger picture has always been really important to us and something that we want them to understand and connect with.      

It just made sense.  

So, we decided to use the doughnut shop as the launching of God’s Country Provisions.

And thanks to all of you, it has been completely worth it.

The blood, sweat and tears that have gone into creating this space has been rewarded tenfold by the incredible support we have received from the community.  It has absolutely blown us away.  Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.

You have made saying “let’s buy the doughnut shop” sound not so crazy after all.

Now back to that list of ideas.  One down, a million more to go.