June 12, 2022

A Circle Complete

Big changes happening this week: after 20 years, we have officially closed our office. Not our business… just the physical office as we downsize. Like all my subcontractors, I’ll be working from my home.

And why not? My kids are gone, I have the space, and it will save money. I opened my first office for one reasons only: to have a place to store factor and prep it to ship overseas. I started my business from my home, so I could be around for my children. And when the first donations of factor started arriving in 1996, I could handle it from my home. But one day, 1 million units arrived, and I knew we had to find a place to store it, other than my home.

My first office: in the basement, circa 1998

Luckily there was a place 2 miles from me—and it was in-between the two schools where my children went. In fact, the high school kids often stopped by to ask “Mrs. Kelley” for some money so they could go to Dunkin Donuts. Or if they needed a ride home.

A new owner jacked up our monthly rent, so we moved down the street to a much nicer office, bigger, where each employee got their own office. And the owner of the building was a local guy, who was very supportive of our work. Eventually, he sold the building and again the rates went up. So we scouted out another building, also down the road. The Eagle Building was aged, with no elevator, but we managed. We decided to downsize a bit and keep only what we really needed. We were at this building until today, for 9 years.

The pandemic radically changed our lives, some of it temporarily and some permanent. For me, two years of not traveling internationally gave me a tremendous amount of time to think. It was time to go minimalist: sell the bookcases, ditch anything we had not used in a few years. Giving Project SHARE and all the factor over to Save One Life reduced our workload tremendously. And somehow, this past week I fit our entire office into the very tiny room in my basement where I first had my business. It was fun having an office, employees, office parties, and visitors, but it’s better now to be lean, light and mobile. Back where I started… a circle complete.

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