It has taken some time, but in the process I met the greatest woman in the world, she is now my wife and my very best friend. At the same time, it has been more fun than a barrel of monkeys….and we have an incredible photo collection as well.
Most people who know us wonder what the hell got into us, we sold everything, packed up what was left and moved to an island, several times. I got Norman Paperman beat on a few things, especially frequent flyer miles. Actually, we look at it as real world, hands on experience and training…we had the opportunity to work out any kinks and tune up our business plan with both locals and visitors, and know we got it goin’ on.
This blog represents our journey, and is the story of how this whole thing started, matured and turned into Skeeterz Rum Bar & Grill. What you are about to read is the truth, the whole truth, and nuthin’ but the truth.
I am summarizing our Caribbean adventure below, but at the top you can click on the pages (at the top) that detail how I got suckered into moving to the Caribbean, met my wife, came up with the concept and finally decided to make St. Lucia our home. It’s been fun, entertaining and expensive…but no big deal, I found my wife and a tropical paradise to call home.
It all started out by selling everything and moving to “the islands” to start a fruit, vegetable and shipping business between the many of the islands; starting off with Antigua, St. Croix, St. Martin, Dominica. I decided to stay on St. Croix while one of my brothers stayed on Dominica. The business was a little slow to start and the costs were off slightly but we learned that all we needed to do was to change a few numbers in the spreadsheet, and wow, everything turned to gold.
After the business finally took off, we had 2 planes, a few stores, shipping back and fourth and “they” started expanding, we had the good fortune of 2 hurricanes and a plane crash all within 5 weeks…no lie, no bs. So, I decided to pack it up, I gave up my shares to my brothers, I grabbed the most beautiful woman on St. Croix, and moved back to the USA to “reformat”.
After a few years of saving and planning, my wife and I made the move “back” down to the islands to start a small restaurant type business; think cheeseburgers in paradise…on St. Lucia. So we sold the house and vette, packed up and made our move. After settling down, the banker who was working with us decided to leave and move to the US, Texas to be exact…and she acted like no big deal. But, we were left hanging out to dry…so, we packed up, sold stuff down there and moved back to the US…basically, we chalked it up to a very expensive vacation.
Then, a few years later, (while we were reformatting AGAIN), my brother-in-law on St. Croix wanted us to partner up with him and run the day to day operations of his bar & grill – ya know, help build the business and stuff, help him out with with a lil’ of that American style business sense that he liked so much…funny thing is, he changed his mind and decided “not” to do anything “AFTER” we freakin moved down there. Alrighty now, that was fun…so we packed up, sold our stuff and moved back to the US…AGAIN, chalking this up to ANOTHER VERY expensive vacation.
OK, so after more reformatting and planning, we have decided that St. Lucia is THE place for us…the St. Croix thing would have only served as a stepping stone anyways. So, now it’s back down to St. Lucia, this time, nothing to sell as we new that we would be getting back down there as soon as we could financially afford it. This time, it’s a one-way ticket and permanent!
Our venture has become THE adventure of our lifetime, in a good way. This blog will let you in on what we did, who did what, how we did it and what we are doing…the idea, concept, moving back and forth, the changes and evolution of the business model – it’s all been good and fun, and the concept and expectations are now fine tuned. So, the line “EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON” …is now understood, and we are not going to say anything stupid like “what the hell else could possibly happen?”…looking back, its been an adventure that I wouldn’t trade for anything!
If you want to see the end result,
visit http://www.SkeeterzRumBar.com
