I almost missed it this year. The 13th anniversary of the conception and opening of Pibworth Professional Solutions.
I thought it might be fun to share with you a little bit of the history of those 13 years.
How PibworthPS came to be
Some of you know this story, but many do not. I had been married to my wonderful husband Mike for 4 years and we were 3 years into our very first mortgage when ‘it’ happened. Mike came home with all of his belongings in a box. When you have worked in IT for as long as Mike has, we knew it will happen a few times in your career. When you are a “non-revenue generating department”, yours is often the first one hit when a recession comes.
But I looked at him naively and said, “Don’t worry Honey, I have just been nominated for employee of the year at my job – we are safe.” Then, a week later I came home with all of MY belongings in a box. It’s a long story, and I go into it more in the video, but we were faced with a new mortgage, and no jobs.
Oh, and we were in the process of applying to adopt a child. It was my lifelong dream to be a mom. I wanted it more than anything. All of a sudden, we went from a financially secure family, in good shape to bring a new child into our home – to two unemployed people with a mortgage.
Stressed and overwhelmed does not begin to explain the way we felt – at first.
But we knew that God does not leave us there for long, so we moved forward. I was determined to be an even better candidate for motherhood, so I decided my days of commuting were over. I was going to find a local job. In small-town Barrie, Ontario. I was – optimistic, shall we say?
I was able to find a few small projects here and there, and soon my husband walked into my office and said “Do you realize you are working about 20 hours a week? Do you know that you are running a business?” I vehemently denied it. I wasn’t a business owner! That was WAY over my head…
But reality sunk in and Pibworth PS was born.
I built this business 13 years ago as a small side business that I could manage from home so I could become a mom to someone who needed me. The child that sparked Pibworth PS never came to be. We tried to adopt several times but it was not in His plan, but that deep-seated need to nurture and to love never went away. So now, instead of a child’s mouth to feed, I have 12 team members and counting. I have also helped birth and grow hundreds of speaking businesses over the years, and the impact that my clients make on the world is staggering when I sit back and think about it.
There are several more details and stories about the journey in the video above, but if you want the “Coles Notes” version – you just read it.
Thank you for celebrating my 13th work-versary with me.
