Posted by on Oct 22, 2011 in Faces of Roundpeg, Roundpeg | 3 comments

Faces of Roundpeg: Shelli, My First Employee

When I left Conseco I was tired. I hadn’t slept well for several months. The company was sliding into bankruptcy, and many of the people I had recruited and hired were losing their jobs. It wasn’t my fault, but that didn’t make it any easier. I decided I didn’t want to be responsible for anyone else so I built a business I could run on my own. I was perfectly fine as an individual consultant.

But then along came Shelli! I was only looking for some admin help, a few hours a week to supplement the work Rebecca was doing. Shelli came highly recommended. I hired her after just a brief phone interview. It was only part-time, so I wasn’t very picky, but I was very lucky.

Shelli was a quick study, and she had great customer service skills. I took her to networking events, and she lit up a room whenever she walked in. We were a team and we were friends. I discovered it was fun to share Roundpeg with someone else.

It was Shelli who encouraged me to look for office space. And she helped me transform the little white house into a home for Roundpeg. To this day it is Shelli’s voice you hear on our answering machine.

I was sorry to see her go when she headed to St. Louis to be with her fiancée (true love trumps a job every day), but she left behind a terrific legacy. She helped me get past my reluctance to hire employees and helped me believe Roundpeg could be a bigger company.

As a small business owner, hiring your first full-time employee is a big step. But it is a necessary one. A business built around one person can never scale, so making the leap frees you to work on the things which add value and allow the company to grow.

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  • http://www.slaughterdevelopment.com/ Robby Slaughter

    You should track down Shelli and ask her to do a guest post! Would be a great thing to do as Roundpeg approaches the date of March 15, 2012. :D

  • http://www.roundpeg.biz Lorraine

    Good idea! I sent her the link, it would be fun to share an update here. She is planning on coming back for the party in March. So we are sure to get the details then!

  • Shelli Bell

    Hi Lorraine and the Roundpeg crew!

    Words can not express how much this blog post meant to me. For all these years, I thought I was the lucky one!

    I have never been one for short stories, but I thought I would share my Roundpeg experience with you.

    In 2005, I was a recent college grad starting out in the real world. Tired of searching and searching with no luck, a friend mentioned to me that he knew someone (Lorraine, his mentor at the time) who was looking for some help.

    Imagine how shocked I was when Lorraine asked me when I could start after just a brief phone call. I knew I was in for a crazy ride the first time I met Lorraine. I had finally met someone who talked faster than me. :)

    As Lorraine mentioned, I started out simply helping her with administrative tasks at the small desk in her son’s bedroom. I would eventually make it down to the den.

    Lorraine was not shy about throwing me into networking events either. I’m sure she remembers how terrified I was at my first event. I felt like a young child attached to their mother’s hips.

    After a short time, however, Roundpeg started to grow, and oh did it grow! I started helping Lorraine with more than just admin work. I wrote press releases, designed emails in Constant Contact, did follow up emails, dabbled in website design, and even started conversing with clients. I was attending multiple networking events and attending client meetings as well.

    Lorraine and I would always joke about our “team meetings” because they were always held in the car on the way to meet with clients. For some reason, we were always super productive in the Volvo.

    I remember “office hunting,” and how right it felt when we found the little white house. At 22, I was given my own office. I was on top of the world! It truly felt like we were a real business, and I was so proud of the direction Roundpeg was taking.

    Two years later, we had Rebecca, an additional graphic designer (Kyle) and were rotating at least two interns a year. Professionally, I had finally hit my stride. This was when I discovered my true passion – project management. Well actually, Lorraine discovered it for me. :) I was managing our graphic designers, our interns, a majority of our clients, and boy did I love crossing items off my to-do list.

    When Chris, my husband, came into the picture, Lorraine and I both knew that I would be leaving Roundpeg sooner than later. Leaving Lorraine was the hardest thing I have ever done in my professional career. How do you leave someone who has taught you sooooooooo much!?! Lorraine and I were very good friends in addition to being co-workers. She helped me grow not only professionally, but personally as well. I was taught valuable skills that I still practice today.

    What I find to be one of Lorraine’s most special traits (in addition to her going “New York”) is that she prides herself on hiring recent college graduates. When I left Roundpeg, I took a job working for a large corporate company in St. Louis. Because of my experience with Lorraine, I was fully prepared and to be honest, I was confident in my abilities.

    Lorraine once told me that I had needed to experience a large corporate company in order to learn how to hate it. Of course, I would have a wonderful experience in a large company, but boy was it different than working for a small business.

    Six years later, I’m happily married, living in Michigan, and working for a four-person small business marketing firm as a project manager. I find my current situation rather ironic. Laura and Yvonne here at FineLine Creative will be celebrating their 10 year anniversary in February. Both started the business because of their experiences in the corporate world, much like Lorraine.

    I will forever be grateful to Lorraine for taking that fearful step and hiring me! I can’t wait to celebrate Roundpeg’s 10 year anniversary!

    Oh and on a special note – As I held back tears reading about Roundpeg’s answering machine, I couldn’t help but smile knowing that Lorraine’s ring tone on my cell phone is still UpTown Girl by Billy Joel. ;)