Up The Ladder:
(One Rung At A Time)
Business
www.cbourdow.com
I've been in love with business since I was a little girl, selling seeds and all-occasion cards door-to-door around my neighborhood. And my dad was what some would call a workaholic. To me, he was (and still is) the greatest man who ever lived. He had his own very successful trucking and excavation business since before I was born, where I visited almost daily (it was right in the neighborhood), so being in an office, surrounded by pens and notepads, adding machines and typewriters, answering the phone and taking messages, waiting on customers and ordering from suppliers, feels like home to me. Only now it's computers, printers, cameras, emails and websites that I'm surrounded by. But it's all the same--it's business--and I love it!
I'm an entrepreneurial spirit, and business runs through my veins. My mind churns out ideas daily, and opportunities abound. And that, to me, is thrilling! The challenge is: how to make it work right for me...
My Business Story
I attended Liberty School, just a block from my house, from kindergarten through sixth grade, with a one-year jaunt over to Jewett School, on the other end of the township, just for fourth grade (I don't know why they shuffled us up like that--I think it was because attendance at the end of the baby-boomer generation was waning, and the school district needed to merge classes); then on to Zilwaukee Junior High for seventh and eighth grades, when they shut down the junior high. Then on to North School, right in the heart of the City of Saginaw, for ninth grade. For high school, I attended Arthur Hill, with emphasis on college prep classes. I played the trumpet all through junior and high school, and took three years of French. I graduated in 1978.
Although I had good enough grades to get into University of Michigan, I decided to go to Michigan State. I liked the campus better, more contained, not all over the place like U of M, which intimidated me. I only finished my first two years at MSU, when, because of my poor budgeting skills, etc., my dad came down with his motor home, moved me out of my shared house, and took me back home. I ended up going to work for the family business, in charge of the books and the office.
I enrolled at Saginaw Valley State University, and attended part-time, while I worked at Bourdow Trucking Co.. It was also about this time that I moved into, and began managing, my parents' apartment buildings. I was in charge of thirty-three units, which when I first started, had a 33% vacancy rate, and desperately needed updating. I had to fight my dad every step of the way to get him to open up the checkbook, and spend the money on updating the apartments. But one-by-one, I did it, and eventually managed to whip the apartment buildings back into shape, and reduce the vacancy rate down to nil.
I graduated from SVSU in 1991, at the age of thirty-one, with a Bachelor's Degree, with a major in Accounting, and minor in Business Management. I never wanted to be a CPA (too stuffy for me), but I thought that accounting would be an excellent foundation for business, and I was right--a good understanding of accounting has served me well over the years. All the while, I was still working at Bourdow Trucking and managing the apartments.
Then Dad sold the apartments, and after twelve years, I was no longer the manager, and it felt extremely awkward, being one of the tenants rather than the manager. I had to move. So in February 1992, I found a nice 3-unit apartment house out in the country, but within a short driving distance from the business district, moved into one of the units, and rented out the other two. Ahhhhhh, the sweet taste of being a property owner--fit me like a glove!
Shortly after I bought the rental, I obtained my real estate license, and went to work part-time for a well-known firm in the area. It was also around that time that I got my first computer, though the internet was still light years away from me then. I worked in real estate for a couple years, and liked it, but left to return full-time to the family excavating business. I still keep up my real estate license, though, to this day.
I no longer live in my 3-unit rental, though still own it, and have acquired a few more properties since then, both personal and rental, and must say that my property acquisitions have been pretty good. And there's always something somewhere that I see potential in, or have an idea for, whether it's a perfect setting for a new business venture, or a sleeper property, just waiting for someone to stumble upon it. If you get bit by the real estate bug, like I've been, it's not easy to shake--its hold on you runs deep.
In the summer of 2006, as the economy started to recoil, I found myself laid-off indefinitely from the family business. Wow! At first, I was fine with it. I had never had any time off to speak of, and my kids were at that golden age--old enough to do things with, but young enough that you still reigned supreme. I still had my rentals, and I had taken up collecting antiques, which I sometimes sold on eBay, so I wasn't too overly concerned financially. And it was only supposed to be temporary. But the lay-off went on...and on...and on. My outlook for returning to work--to the job that I had spent my whole life at--was looking grim. The economy had not gotten better for our industry--it had gotten worse. We had a big family--too many chiefs, not enough indians, as the old saying goes. I had, in effect, been down-sized from our own family business! (Whoa!)
By now, I had begun using the internet much more frequently, utilizing email, online banking, making purchases, and the like. And eBay was a great introduction to e-commerce, and a great companion to my antique hobby, as well. I was making a little money on the side, and I was getting accustomed to using the internet. It was at this time that I began my online search for work-at-home income opportunities. For nearly two years, I researched making money online. I bought into online training programs and purchased ebooks and ecourses, guaranteed to make me rich overnight. Ha! Right! Some were good, some were weak, and some were downright scams! But of all the time and money I spent, though I didn't get rich, I did learn a little here, a lot there, some valuable insider tips and tricks. And the more I bought into these programs, the deeper into the internet I got. At the end of that first year, I had a good handle on what was going on with all the make money online hype--you had to sell the "make money online" programs to other suckers like me, and you could make money online. It was a round robin, and it wasn't for me. But that year of online pitfalls was worth every penny in experience, and so I have to say that I have absolutely no regrets. And it was this experience in that first year that led me to building websites and online advertising by the end of the second.
I started my web design business, Affordable Website Solutions, in August 2008, and have been slowly and surely growing it since then. It's been a long road, but it's finally coming round. In the last two years, I've designed nearly forty websites, some of which are listed on this site. I've attained Google certification for online advertising through search engine marketing (SEM): I write and sell online ad copy, helping others, as well as myself, promote our agendas online. Recently I've added new auxiliary equipment and services for VHS video to DVD conversions, customized DVD's, and old photo conversions. Anticipated future offerings may include web training seminars for seniors, email marketing services, and website programs specifically for smaller non-profit organizations.
I've written numerous articles for various special interest sites and blogs, including my own. I'm also in the process of editing and launching a new ebook in collaboration with a dear friend. An Engineering Primer--A Student's Guide to Engineering Protocol is scheduled for release in Spring 2011. (Get a sneak preview here.) When you work online, writing is a necessary function of the job, i.e. its inevitable. It's called content, and it's what makes the world wide web go round. And good content makes all the difference for a good site.
I participate in numerous referral programs, for products and services related to my fields of interest, which I frequently promote on my websites. If I feel that a certain product or service has an advantage over others of the same, or is an exceptional value, or is particularly unique or useful, or exhibits outstanding performance, etc., I'm happy to recommend it to my visitors, and perhaps make a little profit as well--what could be better than that?
As my way of giving back to the community, I've built and currently maintain a few community outreach websites, which utilize the power of the internet to help keep people informed and up-to-date: St. Matthews Online (for my parish); SASA Athletic Booster Club (for my daughters' school); and Kochville Upfront (for my community). I enjoy contributing in this way, and update these sites as time and content permit.
Online opportunities are abundant, and keeping with my passion for business, I intend to take full advantage of them. Via the internet, I'm placing my stake in the world wide web.
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