"Když jsme otevírali svůj první obchod, byli jsme chudí."

Translation: When we were opening our first shop, we were poor.

[poneke33]

The English translations sounds a little odd. I think most people would probably say - When we opened our first shop we were poor

[BoneheadBass]

I believe the verb used in this sentence -- otevírat -- is imprefective, denoting an "in progress" or repeated action, so it is translated as "were opening." The perfective verb, indicating a completed action is "otevřít," which indeed would be translated as "opened."

[deactivated user]

It sounds ok to me. The speaker is emphasizing that the opening took some time.

[raywalsh]

The English is possible, but exceptional. An event expressed in the simple past (rather than a long-term condition) would be more typical (e.g., When we were opening our first shop, we had our second child.) "We were poor when we..." would almost always be followed by a simple past verb.

[Philomena950815]

In my version it is written prvníobchod as one word, but it should be two words

[BoneheadBass]

This is another spacing issue I've occasionally seen on my phone, but not on the PC. Again, it's not something we can help with, so no need to discuss here. You could try bringing it up in the Troubleshooting forum, if you like.