Behind every small business, there is a story worth knowing.
Paul Ryan
Sometimes in life we encounter lemons. It’s what we do with those lemons that matters most. That’s where this story begins.
Forward Motion Online started as a humble part time business to help my wife, Jenifer, make some extra income for grocery money. I took something I was passionate about and turned it into a way for her to do something to help out. For the past 8 years prior to this my wife homeschooled our three children while I worked full time. It was a blessing for our family, but as times changed, extra income was needed to make it. So in 2021 our new little business was born.
I never planned to take it full time, as I was happy with my job and I knew Jenifer didn’t have the desire to go full time with this. This was just going to be our little side hustle to help with bills and give her some extra spending cash.
Well, fast forward to September 27, 2022. The lemon truck had arrived and my life came crashing down. What I thought was a stable job that I would retire from became a quick distant memory. Ten plus years at my job and all was gone in the blink of an eye. Stability, GONE! Retirement, GONE! Paycheck, GONE! Health benefits, GONE! All was gone!
You want to talk about a roller coaster ride, we went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in five days time. On Friday, September 23, 2022 our middle son married his sweetheart. It was such an awesome day and we were filled with joy and excitement for them. What a blessing it was! We were on cloud 9 and life was great. Then September 27th rolled around and all that joy and excitement was quickly clouded over. As I sat there getting the news that they were terminating my position the only thing I can remember were those words and very little else. It was all a blur. My happy little life seemed over in that instant.
What was I going to do? At 50 years old I began hearing all those voices in my head that I wasn’t good enough to do anything. I was too old and nobody was looking for an older person in this new day and age. Anyone who has ever faced this knows what I’m talking about. You feel worthless in that moment. That is exactly how I felt and didn’t have a clue where to go from here.
I decided to take the remainder of that week and just decompress. I needed to let my emotions calm down and I knew I needed to prepare myself to focus on the new task at hand. What was I going to do with the rest of my life. I spent many hours in prayer and just resting.
Remember that lemon truck I mentioned earlier? Well, I decided to do something about it. I turned those lemons into some of the finest lemonade. The next week rolled around and the only thing that kept popping into my head to do was to go into business for myself. It was clear to me that I needed to take this little part time business that my wife and I started and turn it into my full time passion.
For 15+ years I have studied local SEO (Search Engine Optimization), practiced it on a daily basis at my job as a marketing coordinator for a mortgage company, helped other businesses outside of my job grow their businesses online. Why not take all this knowledge and turn it into a full time business. I’m passionate about helping small local businesses grow. They are the very fabric that this country was built upon.
Thus, our story began…
If you have read this far down the page, thank you for letting us share our story. There is so much more to come, but this is where it all started. We truly believe and are living proof of the quote at the top of this page. “Behind every small business, there is a story worth knowing.” Are you a small business owner? If so, we would love to hear your story. God works in mysterious ways and we are so thankful that he took this dark time for us in our lives and turned it into something much more than we could ever imagine.
So now that you know our story, who are we? We are Tyy and Jenifer Ward. We have been blessed with three wonderful children that are all adults now and living their lives to the fullest. We both grew up in the great state of Idaho and met in college. We fell in love and started our awesome family way back in the early 90’s. Through different life journey’s we relocated to Missouri in 2004 and have called this home ever since. I love kayak fishing and spending time with our family and our church family. Jenifer loves reading, baking, taking care of our home and spending time with our family and our church family.
It’s a simple life, but it’s who we are and what we love.
If we can ever be of help for you and your small business, please reach out to us. We would love to visit and hear your story.