Weekly round up is brought to you by Sasha Kunnemann, Owner/Chief Operating Officer at Integrity Exteriors LLC
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Sasha started a new business with her husband during COVID. This week Sasha learned that it’s worth it!
This week I have learned that it’s worth it. The hard work, the sacrifice, the struggle, the stress, it’s all worth it.
During the height of quarantine, my husband and I decided to start fresh and turn our lives upside down a bit; my husband left his job and we started a company of our own. While there were endless things wrong with his old company, we had financial stability for ourselves and our two incredibly young children. Starting our own company meant abandoning disposable income, exceptionally more work for both us, less time with the kids, a strict budget and a very unknown future. But we did it anyway. It was the right thing to do, we knew it in our hearts.
The last several months have been somewhat grueling. My husband now works longer hours, spends more time on the phone while at home and is way more exhausted than he used to be. I am no longer a Stay-at-Home-Mom, but a working mother without childcare. This means scheduling Zoom meetings during nap times, lugging the kids around with a relator to find office space, utilizing way more screen time than I have ever been comfortable with and not putting my kids first all the time. My heart aches after I realize I have pushed them off because I must get paperwork done, make important phone calls or ensure we have all of our i’s dotted and t’s crossed. I see how down my husband gets on the days that he is out the door before the kids wake up and home after they are asleep. But we are doing it anyway. This is still the right thing to do, we kept telling ourselves, this will all be worth it.
Well, this week, only a few months into our new venture, we are seeing the results. The team we have built is fantastic. We are getting great feedback from customers. The relationships we have built with colleagues and suppliers are proving to be helpful and efficient. It’s happening, and it’s happening fast.
While we did not estimate such rapid results and fully expect the grueling days to continue, it’s refreshing to see that light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a reminder to keep going. The work will get harder, sacrifices will become larger, struggles and stress will intensify, but it will all be worth it. Because at the end of the day, we can show our children that we built something that doesn’t just put a roof over our head, but is something we are proud of. All the while in doing so, we have built a life where we have the ability to put our family first.
So, if you’re questioning yourself, take that dive. Go with your gut. Do what is right. Like they say, the days may be long, but the years sure are short. Go for it, it will all be worth it.
Sasha Kunnemann
