There are many paths to becoming an entrepreneur. Here are profiles of two who are making the leap.
Sometimes we want to make a change in our life or career and the idea just has to percolate for a while before it’s ready to pour out. That’s what is happening to Trish Lester. After a childhood filled with music lessons, glee club, choir, classical training and even writing her own songs, music shifted to the back burner as she went on with her life after college. She just didn’t see herself as a professional musician.
But while doing PR work in the Army, she met two musicians in Korea in an Army service club. “I knew all their songs and became part of the trio. We trooped all over Korea entertaining for the USO. I have recordings of those songs and it was such a wonderful experience. I had talent but there are a lot of people with talent, and I felt I couldn’t make a living at music.”
Years later, as Lester was watching the movie A Mighty Wind, a good-hearted witty parody about folk music, the tunes sounded too familiar.
“Our generation is missing folk music,” says Lester. “I realized I need to be singing it. That was my kick in the pants.”
So she put messages on internet music bulletin boards, ran an ad in local Recycler and on Craig’s List that said “Anyone missing 60’s folk music? Musician in Santa Clarita wants to connect with others who liked John Denver, etc.” It worked. She’s made great connections. In fact, Lester just won an award for her original song, "The World Changed Forever," in the Artists Helping Artists (Aha!) Call to Arts! juried Song Contest.
One critical component of her new venture was her friend, singer/songwriter Joan Enuita, who hooked her up with Nashville Tracks to record her music. “There I was able to take a 35-year old song that I wrote while performing for the soldiers without needing to have all the musicians and technical aspects of making a recording.”
Nashville Tracks is located in several cities, the local one in Silverlake, and works with musicians in its Nashville studio, bridging the cities’s studios together. Lester brings in a song she wants to record to Silverlake and the musicians in Nashville listen via telephone or a webcast. Lester and Nashville Tracks owner, Travis Allen, act as conductors and arrangers on this end, instructing the musicians on how to proceed.
“These guys are so good that inside of an hour they’re done with a song they just heard once. Then they ship out the recorded DVD to Travis to edit. He cuts me a cd, I rehearse with that, then I come back and record the vocal. He directs me, too, to make it better. Then we record pieces of it for editing, mix it all together and I walk out the door with a cd of me.”
Lester is playing at different venues around town and has joined several groups so she can keep singing. Each cd she records costs about $700. Expensive hobby? “Yeah, but so is skiing and golf. If it ends up nothing more than a hobby, it’s a love for me and a legacy for my children, then that’s good too. I don’t have aspirations to be next American Idol. It’s just important to me to resurrect the creative part of my self, learn the craft, test out ideas and find out what works. I park my ego and put together meaningful songs.”
A New View of Home Economics
Susan Hamersky, a former home economics teacher, says six years ago she and her husband realized people needed help in running their homes. “We saw that people needed an extra pair of hands now and then, when they didn’t have anyone else. We just don’t have those big families to rely on,” says Hamersky.
So they formed California Concierge and now they run errands, supervise home improvement projects, buy gifts for clients who like to keep certain things on hand, and have handled a few other surprising requests. It’s like having a personal assistant on call.
“We take people to social events and even doctor appointments, where sometimes we’re in the consultation as extra set of eyes and ears to take notes. That shows the trust our clients have.
One client, when his mother passed, found bundles of money under her mattress. He trusted us to count it and deposit into his bank account. It was over $11,000!”
She says while successful, they were very naïve when they started the company. “After about two years we had a few clients but didn’t know what to do next,” says Hamersky. “Thru the chamber of commerce, we took a seminar on entrepreneur training. We met SCORE counselor Don Donner one night. He started asking questions and offered to help. He’s been a wonderful mentor.”
He encouraged us to accept credit cards, looks over our advertising and materials before we send it to print, and talks with us about client issues. It gave us a jump start and we meet with him about quarterly when I have questions. It’s amazing to me that SCORE is a free service. We can benefit from Don’s wisdom and experience for the price of a cup of coffee. If we had only realized this was available in the beginning it would have made our life easier.”
One of the things Hamersky learned from Donner was to create that all important business plan, already covered in this series. “Now that we have one, we are on track to triple our business this year. We’ve always grown year to year, but this year is extraordinary.”
While this business didn’t require a lot of start-up capital, with most expenses being for quality printed materials and their web site, there was a learning curve. Early on they made several trips to the grocery store for a client who never ended up paying. So they learned that one service needs to be paid for before doing another.
Now that Hamersky is helping other people make their life easier, what effect has that had on her family’s life?
“I’m responsible for my clients’ lives and our lives, so that helps me to manage time and also encouraged us to get our children, ages 15, 12 and 9, involved more at home. For example, my daughter made the salads tonight, and they all help with cleaning. My husband still has another job while I run the business, but he’s also called into service, doing bookkeeping, finances and late night or early morning services. We have two employees and back-up personnel to pick up the rest. It’s what I learned in college: if you want something done, give it to the busiest person.”
You can contact California Concierge at info@calconcierge.com