Chapter 7: My Life In Business – What Doesn’t Break You Defines You (2009)

My life as Co-Founder of Thirty-One

20 chapters from my 20 years

Including never before shared stories

The year 2009 began with the realization that soon we would uproot our family and move away from home. All in the name of a company in which we were willing to demonstrate how much it meant to us. Chattanooga had been home for me for over 20 years and the only home my husband, Jason, had ever know. It wasn’t common for our family members to move away. We were a tight unit and this move was going to separate up for all we knew. How we spend our holidays would be different. Even how we spend our Sunday afternoons would be different.

But for now we had six months to go before the big move and a business to continue to run in two states. It was due to our insistence that we keep our daughter, Jordan, in school until summer break before moving to Ohio. She was only in Kindergarten at the time but I loved where she had started attending school and wanted her to complete the year in the same place. It would already be hard to leave our loved ones behind, but when push came to shove we felt it was best for our daughter to not have to go through changing school mid-year.

I guess with the shock and surprise of finding out back in October that we would be moving the company and all that went with the crazy busy holiday sales season it kept me from writing in my journal. In the early part of 2009 I spent much of it in denial that the move was happening or that it was necessary. Maybe there was another option. Maybe we could keep two locations running and I could stay in Chattanooga. Maybe I should step away from the business for the sake of my family. Maybe…

I didn’t write down any of these thoughts in my journal during the first four months of the year but that didn’t mean I didn’t feel every one of them deeply. While I would call 2008 an emotional year for us with the loss of my father-in-law and the realization we would be moving away for the benefit of growing the business, I would call 2009 a life changing year. It was a blessing that we spent some special time together as a family and there weren’t any other life changing events on the horizon.

Jason and I made three trips to Columbus in a four week period to look at houses. We found THE house on home tour #58. I’m sure our realtor loved all those home visits. It was my 33rd birthday (May 15) when we spotted our future home. We put a contract on the house and set the calendar to become Ohio residents on June 26th. The move was going to happen no matter what.

As part of this commitment to move our family, we knew we did not want to put our kids in child care so we decided that Jason would quit his job of 6 years to be the stay at home parent. It was definitely not conventional for the dad to be the one at home but it worked well for us. We put our house on the market in mid-May and it sold in 10 days. It was looking like the adventure to Ohio was happening, and we were just along for the ride.

In early June we were breaking ground on an office and warehouse facility that was customized to our business. The new building would include 60,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space, a 20,000-square-foot production area, and 17,000 square feet of office space. The excitement and newness of it all was beyond anything I had experienced.

There were so many moving parts and by this point we had our temporary office space across the street from the new construction and our operations running out of a building next door. Plus the Chattanooga location continued to help support getting orders out to our customers.

By the middle of June we had finished up all the preparation for the Thirty-One National Conference held annually. This year was different because we were hosting the conference at Walt Disney World. It was a whole new level of planning and execution to get everything that we needed for the event from Ohio and Tennessee down to Florida. We had a great team making it all happen and I was feeling relief that this was the first year we weren’t doing most of the heavy lifting ourselves to pull off the biggest event of our year.

Personally we were packing up our house in Chattanooga at the same time. Nearly all of our possessions were being loaded into a rented truck that would be parked and waiting on us to return from Florida so we could drive it to Ohio. With the timing of the closings on both the houses we would not have time to get home from Orlando and pack.

So a week of not having a place to call home became a week of fun at Disney World. Our kids were three and six and this was not their first time to see Mickey Mouse but it was still exciting. The heat was something else though. Late June in Florida is not for the faint of heart.

We flew home from Florida on June 25th and drove the moving truck and one of our cars to Columbus that same day. In national news, June 25th was also the day that Michael Jackson died so as I drove to Ohio following Jason in the moving truck I listened to media coverage about the surprising death. It was one of the biggest news stories of the year and I listened in awe to all the details as they came out publicly.

When we got to our new house the next morning for the final walk through we discovered the basement had flooded the night before due to a failed sump pump. Several inches of water covered the finished basement where our rec room would be and our guest room as well as an additional space we’d eventually turn into an exercise room. We managed to still close on the house with contingencies in place that the sellers would cover all the costs to repair the basement damage.

A few days later we returned to Chattanooga to celebrate July 4th with family. This visit was bitter sweet because we were no longer living nearby and the times together would become less frequent. In particular July 4th was a favorite time of celebration for my father-in-law so we gathered in his name that year. We also had additional possessions loaded on another rented moving truck and a 2nd vehicle to transport which gave us an additional reason for the visit.

Once we were settled in Ohio we busied ourselves with summer activities all around town on the weekends and I settled into working at our temporary offices in Johnstown. I have such sweet memories of this time together because we spent so much time together as a family, just the four of us. We were new to the area and stayed occupied with the touristy things around Columbus. Soon several of the other Chattanooga families from our Thirty-One team would make the move to Columbus as well. Overall there would be 15 families that made the move during 2009 and 2010 which included a total of 22 employees. Having all of these experienced folks alongside us would make getting things off the ground so much easier.   

In August I had the welcomed opportunity to visit our factories in China. I knew it was such a great chance to see how things operated on the other side of the world and to know how our products were made. I’ll let my journal writings do the talking.

My journal entries:

August 24, 2009 – – 1st trip to China

I arrived in China about 24 hours ago, and all I can say is it is a very interesting place. The total door to door travel time was 25 hours. We left at 4:15am on Sat and flew to New Jersey to catch a plane to Shanghai. The flight was not bad but since we flew into the night we tried to adjust our sleep pattern and took a sleeping pill. I felted pretty rested after falling asleep 3 different times and watching movies in between. I would love to have a window seat on the way home. When we landed we had to fill out a health form and an entry card and went through two long lines just to be able to exit the airport. Then we got in a van for a 3 hour drive. The traffic here is mad! The cars, mopeds, and bikes/walkers run all over each other.

We arrived at the Changzhou Grand Hotel at 5:30pm (5:30am in my brain) and got ready for dinner after a much needed shower. We had dinner in a nearby restaurant with a room to ourselves overlooking a beautiful temple. There are five of us here from the US. We are working with Teresa and Joey mostly and our drive James joined us for dinner. After dinner we went back to our room to try to get a good nights sleep. I got to video chat with Jason and the kids. I got a good nights sleep but the bed was so hard.

This morning we ate a good breakfast after video chatting with mom and dad and the kids. They were in a good mood but already wanting me to come home. I know this is a marvelous experience so I am trying not to let that get to me. After breakfast we drove to Mr. Lee's factory first. He's not here yet but should be in this evening. We met to discuss delivery dates of our products for 5 hours after a cool warehouse tour. Tonight we have dinner plans and may visit the temple where you can go to the top to see the view. Then we may go shopping. I've got to bring home souvenirs.

After we left the warehouse today we went to dinner at the "Happiness Restaurant" and then went to the nearby temple and went up to the 15th floor to view the city and we got to ring a giant bell with four of us pushing a pole into it. It was so cool to experience. We walked around the rest of the temple and some of the grounds to see the statues and other cool things. We're now back in the hotel and it's 10 pm (10am at home) and we need to go to bed. Tomorrow we go back to the same factory then Wed to the office and 2nd factory. Very cool so far.

August 25, 2009

Yesterday we went back to Mr. Lee's factory and worked all day. Both Monday and Tuesday we ate lunch in the little "executive kitchen" where a lady made the best soup with tomatoes and eggs in a broth. She also made fried rice with shrimp in it that was so good. We worked on reviewing products, costs and fabric approvals and a guy was in there with no American name. They called him "Fabric Guy" and someone said I could give him an American name. I called him Louis and it immediately stuck. So funny. We went to dinner with 9 people from the China factory, our whole Thirty-One team based there. We ate a botanical garden themed restaurant.

Today is the first time to see the Atrium offices and there are a lot of people in a pretty small space. There are four cubicles in what will be the size of my new office and there are about six separate little offices. We are now going to head to Mr. Chin's factory for a tour, lunch and to review more products, prices, etc. We worked and then went to lunch with Mr. Chin then returned to work some more. Later we went to dinner.

On Thursday we went back to Mr. Lee's factory and finished up the work we left there. I was guided around the village for a tour and it was very eye opening. The workers live right there and are pretty much all related. For dinner we went to Pizza Hut. Yeah! I will say my favorite meal was the 2nd time we had KFC because it tasted so good.

It's now Friday am and we are going to head to Shanghai airport but 1st go to the copy mart. It’s an entire building with spaces set up kind of like a trade show and all they sell are knock off products. We have a 3:45pm flight then we'll head home. Can't wait to see the kids and Jason and my bed! Not looking forward to 14 hours on a plane again, though.

[Back to the blog.] So there it was. A trip across the world and back in just under seven days. I’ve not traveled that far since that trip. But I sure have a lot of good memories from China.

September began our business season with the launch of our newest catalog and the holiday selling period. Additionally the building construction continued and we busily operated out of two locations getting all the orders shipped out. To say it was a bit crazy was an understatement.

My sister, Laura, was part of our team from early on. She was working with us while we still operated out of the basement and was part of all the moves we made up to the move to Columbus. She took the chance on us and moved her family to Ohio in December. She had kept things running in Chattanooga and as we made the hard decision to close the operations facility there, she knew she wanted to continue on the Thirty-One journey for a long time.

By the end of December of 2009 our employees were moved into our brand new building on Commerce Boulevard in Johnstown, Ohio. What a whirlwind year it was. What could possibly happen to top this year?