Happy Birthday to us!  This month we start our 8^th year in business! That's unbelievable, wow!

You know, in the beginning, we met with our fair share of naysayers.  During the first couple years, every time the topic of the company came up, my son-in-law would scoff and say "it will never work".  "No one is going to want this type of service."  I believe his exact words were "you've lost your mind"!

(That last one was because I voluntarily left a very successful and lucrative consulting career in Aerospace to become an entrepreneur).

Well, he was wrong on all counts. Not only have we grown consistently year after year, but the Lifestyle Management and Concierge Services industry as a whole has thrived and is one of the fastest growing industries around.  The other day, I was marveling about how far we've come and this same son-in-law looked at me and this time said "yeah, but why aren't you rich yet?"

I laughed but his words were thought provoking - mostly because I have never considered myself 'not rich'.  Not even in the early years when we made zero profit.  Are we making millions of dollars?  No (at least not yet, haha) but true wealth and/or success really have nothing to do with your bank balance.

Like most young people (or probably a lot of people), my son-in-law equates being rich with making lots of money.  I don't.  Money never has, and never will be, my motivator.  Oh, of course, we need to make enough money to live in our preferred lifestyle, but really, how much is 'enough'?

I think wealth is subjective.  There are lots of people who have more money than they can spend who are still lonely, empty and unfulfilled.  What's the cliché? Oh yeah, money doesn't buy you happiness.  Believe me, it doesn't.

So if cash doesn't motivate me, then what does?  Interestingly, as it turns out, I am happiest when creating something of value and making a difference in the world.  That might sound a little sappy, but it is the absolute truth.

Creating a service, and ultimately a successful business, that adds value to people's lives has been far more rewarding than any amount of money.  When our clients tell us how appreciative they are for what we do, I feel rich beyond words.  When I can mentor another small company; share what we've learned and see them thrive, well... there is no way to describe the joy that brings.

To me wealth and being rich are synonyms for being free.   I am free because I don't have to punch a time clock.  No one tells me what to do or where to be.  When my daughters need me to care for the grandkids, I can almost always be there for them.

Do I make sacrifices to enjoy the autonomy of my life?  Yes.  But they are all material-related sacrifices that ultimately don't matter.   

In my opinion, we achieve true wealth and success when we are grateful both for what we accomplish and for what life gives us, that we give back to society as best we can and when we are able to spend quality time with our family, friends and for our clients.  That's 'enough' for me....

Our Favorite Things... Etsy  

Once upon a time, before starting Executive Errands®, when I was trying to figure out what kind of business I wanted to create, I had this thought to open a retail store where local artisans and in particular regular everyday craftspeople could sell their handmade items.

There are so many talented people out there - my sister especially - who make beautiful and quality items but who really didn't (at that time) have a decent platform from which to promote them. And all too often they don't have the resources or desire to build their own company to sell their creations.

 

As I was considering this idea, I was thinking retail store - perhaps on El Paseo.  But it turns out I wasn't thinking big enough.  Someone else was - and that was the creator of Etsy (www.etsy.com)  

 

Etsy is an online retail one-stop-shop for all sorts of craftspeople.  It is genius!  It allows the creative person a conduit through which to widely promote their wares without the upfront cost of building their own website, doing their own branding or building their own company.   

 

Their fees are reasonable too - they charge no membership fees, only 20 cents to list an item and when it sells, they get a 3.5% commission.  Affordable!

 

If you love handmade, craft type items, especially this time of year when gift buying is on everyone's mind, then Etsy is the way to go.  They currently have 30 million buyers and creative businesses.  Is that thinking big enough?  You betcha! 

Give Etsy a try.... One of our favorite things....

 

["Our Favorite Things" gives us an opportunity to share people, places, events and things that we truly love and that you might too.  We have no business affiliation with any company or individual featured here.  We just want to share good things with you and if our recommendations help build business for someone else or saves you time or money, GREAT!!!]

Here are some fun facts about Halloween:

~~Trick or Treating had its roots in Europe and was appropriated from a custom known as "souling" which dates back to the 9th century. On All Soul's Day which is November 2nd, the poor would walk through the villages and go door to door begging for food. They would be given "soul cakes" which is a type of pastry made from bread and currants. They would promise to pray for dead relatives in return for receiving the "soul cakes".

~~Halloween was actually a Celtic holiday. It was originally called Samhain meaning "end of summer". In ancient Celtic Ireland, October 31st marked the official end of summer.

~~Potatoes and turnips were the original Jack-O-Lanterns. Irish children would carve and light them to use during the gatherings on Halloween.

~~Pumpkins, a squash, are a major part of modern Halloween. Many people think of them as vegetables, but from a biological standpoint they are a fruit because they come from a flower and have seeds in them.

~~Black and orange are the colors that go hand in hand when it comes to Halloween. That's because black is the color associated with death and darkness, and orange is the color associated with the autumn harvest.

~~Can you think of a word that rhymes with orange? It may be a popular color for Halloween, but don't try writing a rhyming poem with the word orange. There are none.

~~Halloween is the number two holiday in terms of commercial success (second only to Christmas). Over eight billion dollars is spent annually on candy, costumes and decorations during the Halloween season (and that's up from four billion in 2010).

~~Chocolate candy bars are the most popular item to give Trick-or-Treaters. Which candy bar is the most popular? Snickers...

~~The average American spends $80 on Halloween candy.  That's approximately two billion dollars annually on Halloween candy alone. Note: This statistic does not say we GIVE AWAY $80 per person; only that we BUY that much.  Hmmm...Do you think that's enough Snickers and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups?  And just whom is eating them? 

~~Samhain, the Celtic end of summer festival is also thought to be the time of year when spirits can most easily come into our world.  Because Samhain is now called Halloween, if a person has an extreme, intense, or irrational fear of Halloween, they may be suffering from a condition known as samhainophobia.

This recipe came directly from Disney's Spoonful website because I LOVE the name and how the dish looks.  What a fun thing to make for a Spooky Halloween Dinner Party.... 

Rats Baked in Blood... 

(queue scary music...)

What you'll need

• For the rats: 1-1/2 lbs. lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup uncooked long grain white rice
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 egg, beaten
• uncooked spaghetti, broken into quarters
• thinly sliced raw carrots
• black peppercorns, cooked black beans
• For the sauce, um, blood: 1 can (19 oz.) crushed or ground tomatoes
• 1-1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Yummy Mummy's

How to make Rats Baked in Blood

1. In a mixing bowl, combine the ground beef, rice, onion, egg and 1 teaspoon of the salt. Mix well.

2. Now make the rats. Using a measuring cup, scoop out 1/4 cup of the ground beef mixture. Form it, by hand, into a firmly packed teardrop shape -- pointy on one end, rounded on the other. This is your basic rat. Place it into a 3-quart shallow baking dish and gently pinch in the neck area. Poke a piece of uncooked spaghetti into the larger rounded end as a tail. Repeat with the remaining ground beef mixture.

3. When all the rats are neatly placed in the baking dish, stir together the tomatoes, water, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, remaining 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Pour over the rats. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes, basting occasionally with sauce. Then cover the dish with foil and bake for another 15 minutes, or until the rice is tender and the rats are fully cooked.

4. Gently remove rats, one at a time, from the sauce and place gently on a serving platter. (Take care not to damage the tails -- they're fairly delicate.) Into each rat, insert two carrot slices as ears, peppercorns (or whatever) for eyes, and a few more broken strands of uncooked spaghetti for whiskers. Spoon sauce around the rats and serve, smiling wickedly.

www.executive-errands.com  760.898.9604 

 

Anything is possible if you believe it.  We started this company just before the housing market took a nosedive, but we never stopped believing in what we were doing; visualizing positive growth and imagining the feelings of prosperity daily until it all manifested (and FYI, we still do this every day).    

True, the first three years were spent educating people about what our services were, why they were valuable and why they should hire us.  It literally felt like pushing a train up a hill. Fortunately the train eventually crested and gathered its own momentum.   

Today people not only know about Lifestyle Management and Concierge Services, they also recognize the value. In fact, over the last few years the word 'concierge' has become both a noun and a verb; used so often in so many industries it has become generic for 'customer service' (which is a good thing).

Being an entrepreneur is challenging and difficult - and the statistics bear this out. Half of all companies close their doors in the first four years, regardless of the industry.   Because nearly everyone is aware of this statistic, fear plays is a big part of an entrepreneur's mentality.  So many people I know are afraid to spend money, afraid to take a chance, worry that they won't be able to make a living and are terrified of not only failure but of making a bad decision.  All too often, their fear is paralyzing which seriously impacts their ability to be successful. 

If a person lives in fear and constantly imagines failure, it is a safe bet, that's where they'll end up.  But if they ignore the fear and instead believe in success; if they set goals and work their action plans toward achieving what they want; if they're willing to take a chance and chalk up any errors to experience, then regroup and set out on a new course with their goals in sight, it is entirely feasible (and probably likely) they will realize their dreams.

Right now I'm visualizing our 10^th anniversary - it is so close I can feel it.  And it will be an amazing celebration of gratitude and fortitude, tenacity and the positive visualization that reinforces our extreme attention to quality customer service and value added offerings.   Believing not only makes it happen, it is also enough....

Leslie Spoor, C.C.S

President, Executive Errands® & Concierge Business Solutions™
760.898.9604

CL #944447

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Executive Errands® is a Registered Trademark of Leslie Spoor  

(our attorney insists we say this)