Tag: Business

Posted in 2026, life, technology

Learning Reels and YouTube

Posted on by nancyb422

I’m trying to up my social media game for work. I thought I’d start out with a reel on my personal Instagram, and I attempted to make one through the app on my iPad. I slaved over it! Pictures, captions, music – it felt like an hour to put it together. I uploaded it, and saw it was only showing the first two photos over and over. UGH – I took it down quickly.

I headed over to ChatGPT and asked my buddy Chatty what I did wrong. Well, I didn’t preview it! If I had, I would have seen it. Evidently, it had something to do with selecting the music first. Chatty suggested I head over to Canva and create it there, selecting the pictures and adding the captions, and then selecting the music. Chatty is like having a teacher sitting next to me telling me what to do. Canva also has a pretty good AI function to instruct me when I can’t find what I need.

I put together a reel for my personal accounts about wandering in the backyard this morning. I don’t have the video feature here, but I can give you a link to my YouTube page because I put it on there! You can find it in “shorts”.

Wandering the Yard

After I posted it to Instagram, I could see some areas I need to be aware of next time, like where the captions go – sometimes they are too high or too wide. Notes for next time!

When I uploaded it to YouTube the first time, there was no music but then I remembered the video in Canva didn’t have any, which is what was uploaded to YouTube. So, ever the perfectionist, I deleted that when I finally figured out how to add music!

Once I figured that out, I went through my videos for something to share on our company account. I had a few videos up but I uploaded one here. That’s when I figured out how to add music. This is also in the “shorts” category.

Jackson Ave Kitchen Remodel

Let me know what you think of them. I accept all constructive comments!

Posted in 2025, Business

Decisions Decisions

Posted on by nancyb422

One of my least favorite parts of being the “operations manager” of our business is having to make decisions! I was just not born to make decisions.

Even this post! I had a long diatribe typed out about an insurance agency decision I had to make yesterday and this morning I eliminated all but the first block.

I’m a creature of habit. I don’t like change. I believe in the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t. I believe in fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

My existing agency wasn’t servicing my account the way it should have been for five plus years. Not really in their defense but the agent who sold it was a “lone wolf” so our policy was renewed without any thought or discussion, unless I said, “hey don’t you want my current payroll amounts?”.

Someone came in and wanted to price our insurance and I said Sure! They were personable, had a good option to get our workers comp rates down, but in hindsight, it was tricky and could bite us in the butt at end of year audit.

New team came in from my existing agency (females), apologizing profusely, team players, used our excellent experience mod and some credits given by the carrier to reduce the rates. Will it be just for the year? Maybe. Will I hold their feet to the fire? You betcha!

So I had to break the hearts of the competing agency. I don’t think they understood and of course, now I feel bad!

Posted in 2025, life, thoughts, Writing

Money

Posted on by nancyb422

“Money, Money, Money, always sunny, in the rich man’s world” – ABBA 1976

If/when you wake up in the middle of the night, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind?

Mine is MONEY. Why money you ask? Because I’m always paying bills. I have a payroll to process every week, bills for materials and other on-job expenses, bills for vehicle loans, and bills for overhead expenses like the phone service and anything else that keeps our doors open and lights on (electric bill!).

At 3:30 am, if my brain rises out of whatever phase of sleep nearest to awake, my mind says “do you have enough money?” and something inside gives my heart a little squeeze. If I’m too much awake, I’ll head to the bathroom for a change of scenery. Sometimes I can snuggle back into my pillow, say a little prayer of thanksgiving for my bed, my house, etc. and very soon, I’ve fallen back to sleep.

Do you have a particular thought that pops into your brain if you wake up in the middle of the night?

Posted in 2024, family, Goals, life, thoughts

Big Business Decisions

Posted on by nancyb422

What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?

In the past year, we’ve begun the process for our son to purchase our remodeling company. He’s been with us since 2012 and for the last 2 years, has worked in the office estimating and running projects. We’ll start the buyout as the calendar turns to January 2026.

My husband and I have owned the company since 1999. It’s been 25 years of hard work building it from the ground up starting out in our basement to now in an office with nine employees.

When you work for yourselves, you wonder as time passes, “will I be at work until the day I die?” Terrible thing to think of but, it’s your business, not some corporation that you hit retirement age and leave. What option is there other than to find a buyer or close the doors. My husband has retired from the office and I’m starting to work four days a week and come and go a little more freely because I know our son and our client manager have everything under control.

It’s a remarkable feeling to know that our son is incredibly capable of owning the business and he’s already running it. I picture my 3 year old with a plastic hammer in his hand pounding on a piece of sheetrock with dust on his nose and marvel at how accomplished he is today.

Posted in 2024, Business, family, Goals, life, Memories, Writing

Creating A Business From Nothing

Posted on by nancyb422

What’s the hardest decision you’ve ever had to make? Why?

I left a full-time with benefits job to start up a remodeling company with my husband.

12 year prior I had moved cross country to live with my soon-to-be husband, so I know about making a big leap of faith. But now we’re talking about income, and we have a mortgage and a son to provide for!

For him, he was not happy with the new home builder he was working for, and as an “independent contractor” (really, just a carpenter that back then a company could get away with not putting them on payroll), the builder could make his own rules for paying for their work.

For me, our son was turning 9 and would be heading into 4th grade in September. I had had the week between Christmas and New Year off and Oh Boy, I had a taste of time off, just being home and I wanted more of that!

We got him licensed and insured, he worked on and off for the home builder and, we advertised in the local weekly newspaper that got delivered to homes.

I left my job in early June and we worked out of our unfinished basement. I took care of business and set up appointments during the day for him to go on after his work day. I also picked up a part-time job at our son’s school in the library! I worked from 9 to 1, worked the school schedule, and was in our office in the afternoon. It was a dream setup!

Over the 25 years, we built a garage at our home with office space above where we worked for 12 years, and in 2018, we bought a unit in a business complex for our office. We went from my husband working alone to present day, he’s retired, I’m semi-retired, our son runs the business, we have a great person in the office, and we have 5 employees out in the field.

It was a tough decision, but I had faith that we would succeed. There were a lot of hills and valleys over those years, but we did what we set out to do.