Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Reflections on Nine Years as Small Business Entrepreneurs


It’s crazy to think that it has been nine years this month since we took the leap of faith from being full time employed workers to becoming small business entrepreneurs.

Our story isn't a sexy ‘Facebook is going to buy us one day’ tale, or even a ‘We have a brilliant idea let’s build it in our garage’ kind of legend. Instead it’s a culmination of a lot of life happening, a long-time dream to work together and a ‘We’re done with the status quo’ experiment.

And we've never looked back.


Entrepreneurship is truly an amazing thing. It offers flexibility, new ventures and opportunities that can be limited when working for others. There are challenges to be sure, but you learn to go with the flow and adapt as necessary. For example, when funding challenges plagued our core industry, we adapted by changing our name, rebranding and expanding our core target to include small business. We still do a lot of work with the workforce industry where we got our start, but small business has been a natural and welcomed extension.

The other wonderful thing is there hasn't been a ‘typical day at the office’ for us. We've worked with so many different customers – from a telecommunications technology company, to a custom drilling company, to a medical coding solopreneur, to a simulation and training start-up, to many workforce-related vendors, organizations and associations across the country. And our list of tasks goes well beyond marketing, graphic design and event planning where we started and now includes other things as diverse as contract management, human resources management, logistics, magazine editors, trade show planning, office design, virtual conferences and much more.

Technology has been our best friend and has allowed us to live in different places and have customers in other different places. And we've connected with so many people we would never have met otherwise.

Most of all we are thankful - to our families and fur babies who have supported us every step of the way, and to all of you who have honored us by becoming our customers and friends and those we have yet to meet.  

We are looking forward to celebrating many more anniversaries with you.

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Kim Luedke and Kerry Brooks are Co-owners of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing, event planning and other support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Learn more at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com.