Fruit Punch Blueprints and Other Joys of Parenthood and Ownership

When you run a business from home with small children, you learn things like how fruit punch is much more festive on blueprints than regular old coffee stains.

Learning to manage business time and space have been a couple of the biggest challenges we have faced growing our small flooring installation company. At first we thought we could run an office out of our home. Isaiah, however, our firstborn son, taught us some valuable lessons about separating work from family, and building a better foundation for both.

Aside from finding various snacks and treats snuck from the cookie jar hidden in odd places in our home office, a few catastrophes were narrowly avoided. One time, my husband called me with a question about a job. I looked to the whiteboard near the desk, the one with vital information jotted down after quick phone calls, and found nothing but a clean white slate. Isaiah had cleaned the board — just like he cleaned the dinner table the night before! — erasing a week’s worth of notes.

Another time, my husband, on site with another subcontractor, opened a folder to pull out important documents about the job. Instead, he was greeted with crayon-drawn scenes from Isaiah’s imagination — the early work of artistic genius, we are sure, but exceedingly unhelpful in determining how many linear feet of wall base will be required for the project.

In a pinch, we still sometimes bring our associates — otherwise known as our three sons: Isaiah, Isaac and Levi — along on business errands. Most people understand. And I tell my husband that we should claim our mattress as a tax deduction for how much we talk shop at night.

Finding the balance between family and business is an ongoing negotiation, but we have learned that once your business, or family, gets too big, one house is not enough. Despite some reservations due to tight finances, we rented office space and — glory, glory, hallelujah! — has it changed the way we run our company.

The cost of the office was not insignificant, but the savings, in terms of less headaches, better organization, and simply the fact that I can set documents on my desk Friday afternoon and have them in the same place Monday morning, has not only made our business less wasteful and more productive, it has brought peace to our family life as well. So I guess the moral to our story might be that you can put all your eggs in one basket, but if you do, expect them to get a little scrambled.

Advice for others:

Starting a business is the easy part; maintaining your sanity while it grows as fast as your family is a bit trickier. For small business owners, our advice is to demarcate space to work in; then try mightily to keep it from invading personal space. At times it can seem like your business is a constant 24-hour thrill ride, but if you want it, and your family, to prosper, staking out time and territory for both will go a long way toward keeping both feet firmly planted on the path to success.

Giving Back Far Away and Close to Home …

On a recent trip to Alabama, I discovered again how fulfilling it is to give back to those in need. Along with a group of teenagers from a local high school, we trekked into the heart of Dixie to assist a mother and her children improve their home as they struggle to rise above the suffocating grip of poverty.

But something was missing. The gratitude and appreciation we received was extraordinary, and we could immediately see a tremendously positive difference in the lives of the people we helped. But then we left for home and it might be years, if ever, when we return to the lives of the friends we made over the course of a couple weeks.

So when I discovered local teacher and former marine Marcus Brown wanted to construct a neighborhood resource center just blocks away from my home, I was ecstatic.

Marcus and his wife, Chitra, made the spectacular decision to dip into their retirement savings to purchase a home on Barnes Ave., just east of Washington Ave. Such a decision came after an incident that changed Marcus’ life.

Not long ago, Marcus heard gunshots from his home near the proposed center. He went outside to investigate and found a teenager shot and unresponsive. Marcus did his best with the training he learned in the armed forces to resuscitate the boy, but ultimately it was not enough.

After the tragedy, Marcus decided he needed to be a part of the solution, and a neighborhood center to help keep young people out of trouble and on-track seemed like the perfect idea. So, after consultation with City officials, he bought a foreclosed home for $10,000 and invested $12,000 more to get it up to code.

But one additional layer of ordinance needs to be met: a handicap accessible bathroom. With estimates for the remodeling hovering around $6,000, I deliberated for about three seconds then decided I would donated my labor and as much material as I could find to help Marcus finish his project. I hoped others would join me in supporting the vital grass-root community endeavor Marcus is establishing with his youth resource center. I was deeply grateful but not surprised that Rycus Flooring was willing to donate the necessary material to install a new tile floor in the new Village Summit handicap accessible bathroom.

I love to give back to anyone who is in need, through Heritage Flooring or as an individual. It’s morally imperative for me to help those less fortunate. And when it’s someone in my neighborhood, where my own children run and play, I take all the more pride in giving back.

Paul Torok