Holy cow! I'm Back! Where Have I Been?
Monday, August 15, 2005
Wow! I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since I made a post here. For a guy who loves to write, it's almost surreal how long it's taken me to find my way back here. You may think I've been slacking off through the summer, or maybe on an extended semi-permanent vacation, but that's about as far from the truth as you could get! For those of you who have met my wife, or were at my wedding, you know she's got incredible organizational and decorating skills.
We talked about them a great deal over the first year we were together and I repeatedly encouraged her to start her own business.
Silly me.
Now those skills have been put to an entrepreneurial test of will since April, and over the last month and a half it has drawn me almost completely away from the time I usually reserved for my own business endeavors. Incidentally, her business has done nothing but grow exponentially since she opened her doors earlier this year. The most amazing thing is, we haven't done a lick of advertising yet. I was prepared for the expense, but every person she has worked with has come to us through word of mouth of a previous client. It's the most phenomenal thing, considering I hadn't expected the business to be at this level until sometime late next year or in 2007. I'll be honest: The rapid growth caught me completely by surprise.
Oh yes. The business. What business? That would be Home Staging. Home Staging is the process of decorating a lived in or vacant home to appeal to the highest number of people through the use of paint, furniture, and accessories. Long story short, my wife Parker started a Staging/Organizing/Decorating business that has now become 50% my responsibility as she recently (and only half jokingly) hired me on as her VP, CFO, Advertising and Marketing manager, moving truck driver, and first official employee of Plan B ReDesigns. I work 10-12 hours days, 7 days a week, get no benefits, no sick time, or paycheck to speak of, and I have absolutely no intention of quitting. Ever.
For me, it's the become the best of both worlds. I can still act as a real estate agent for buyers as I network with the other agents who hire her, have gained a broader understanding of the overall San Diego housing market fluctuations because of our daily work throughout the county (we've worked anywhere from Carlsbad to Santee to Eastlake to Escondito and everywhere inbetween!), and best of all, I get to spend lots of time with my wife every single day. We jokingly tell our friends, as we prepare to leave this week for our 1st anniversary vacation, that we'll be celebrating our 10th year together based on the amount of time we've actually spent together since we were married, compared to your "average" couple who actually part ways at 8am each weekday.
Working together all these days has led to a naturally comfortable synergy between our related businesses. Our clients always seem to be amazed at how well we "fit" together as a couple, both personally and professionally. I began to wonder why we ran our two businesses as if they had no idea who the other was. I was hesitant to give up this site for my ramblings, so we decided to compromise: We cancelled her former site, consolidated into a new joint site, and linked to mine. Win-win-win.
As with any good startup, resources are limited in the beginnging. You'd love to have it all and do everything, but you find yourself scrambling to cover growing business expenses and do everything you can with what resources you have at the time. As a result of us joining together as a team, and what's been eating up a good chunk of my time that hasn't been spent running around Staging homes with my wife, has been our new web site, PlanBHome.com.
Stop by and check it out. It's chalk full of real estate resources for buyers and sellers, and also showcases a large sampling of Parker's work under the Staging: Before and After tab. We've also got some brand spanking new, totally swanky brochures to hand out. I'd be happy to give you some. Take a few, give a few to a friend. Naturally, with me selling real estate, and her Staging, Organizing and Decorating, it made sense to combine our sites to cater to the one stop shopping buyer or seller.
I know, this post has been a bit off topic of my normal rants (see my more normal rant on Hybrid cars earlier today), and I promise next month I'll be more on real estate topic, but for now, I just wanted to come back onto all of your radar screens to let you know I am alive and well, and have not gone under professionally.
In fact, if anything, we're struggling with the "problem" of too much business and not enough time.
And oh, what a wonderful problem it is to have.
We talked about them a great deal over the first year we were together and I repeatedly encouraged her to start her own business.
Silly me.
Now those skills have been put to an entrepreneurial test of will since April, and over the last month and a half it has drawn me almost completely away from the time I usually reserved for my own business endeavors. Incidentally, her business has done nothing but grow exponentially since she opened her doors earlier this year. The most amazing thing is, we haven't done a lick of advertising yet. I was prepared for the expense, but every person she has worked with has come to us through word of mouth of a previous client. It's the most phenomenal thing, considering I hadn't expected the business to be at this level until sometime late next year or in 2007. I'll be honest: The rapid growth caught me completely by surprise.
Oh yes. The business. What business? That would be Home Staging. Home Staging is the process of decorating a lived in or vacant home to appeal to the highest number of people through the use of paint, furniture, and accessories. Long story short, my wife Parker started a Staging/Organizing/Decorating business that has now become 50% my responsibility as she recently (and only half jokingly) hired me on as her VP, CFO, Advertising and Marketing manager, moving truck driver, and first official employee of Plan B ReDesigns. I work 10-12 hours days, 7 days a week, get no benefits, no sick time, or paycheck to speak of, and I have absolutely no intention of quitting. Ever.
For me, it's the become the best of both worlds. I can still act as a real estate agent for buyers as I network with the other agents who hire her, have gained a broader understanding of the overall San Diego housing market fluctuations because of our daily work throughout the county (we've worked anywhere from Carlsbad to Santee to Eastlake to Escondito and everywhere inbetween!), and best of all, I get to spend lots of time with my wife every single day. We jokingly tell our friends, as we prepare to leave this week for our 1st anniversary vacation, that we'll be celebrating our 10th year together based on the amount of time we've actually spent together since we were married, compared to your "average" couple who actually part ways at 8am each weekday.
Working together all these days has led to a naturally comfortable synergy between our related businesses. Our clients always seem to be amazed at how well we "fit" together as a couple, both personally and professionally. I began to wonder why we ran our two businesses as if they had no idea who the other was. I was hesitant to give up this site for my ramblings, so we decided to compromise: We cancelled her former site, consolidated into a new joint site, and linked to mine. Win-win-win.
As with any good startup, resources are limited in the beginnging. You'd love to have it all and do everything, but you find yourself scrambling to cover growing business expenses and do everything you can with what resources you have at the time. As a result of us joining together as a team, and what's been eating up a good chunk of my time that hasn't been spent running around Staging homes with my wife, has been our new web site, PlanBHome.com.
Stop by and check it out. It's chalk full of real estate resources for buyers and sellers, and also showcases a large sampling of Parker's work under the Staging: Before and After tab. We've also got some brand spanking new, totally swanky brochures to hand out. I'd be happy to give you some. Take a few, give a few to a friend. Naturally, with me selling real estate, and her Staging, Organizing and Decorating, it made sense to combine our sites to cater to the one stop shopping buyer or seller.
I know, this post has been a bit off topic of my normal rants (see my more normal rant on Hybrid cars earlier today), and I promise next month I'll be more on real estate topic, but for now, I just wanted to come back onto all of your radar screens to let you know I am alive and well, and have not gone under professionally.
In fact, if anything, we're struggling with the "problem" of too much business and not enough time.
And oh, what a wonderful problem it is to have.
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