Renee Wood: The Comfort Company
Make Mine a Million $ Business Awardee and M3 Racer Renee Wood created The Comfort Company, an online boutique of beautiful sympathy and memorial gifts for grieving loved ones. Renee has a Master of Social Work and worked in hospice care until she had her third child, then decided to go back to work for herself. She is representative of many women in our community – she created her business out of a unique idea and personal passion – but for a long time she was stuck believing that her business couldn’t, even shouldn’t, grow any bigger. At a M3 event in 2007 she told me that before she joined the program, she was running every part of the business from inside her home, and her five year old was helping her pack boxes! In just about two years Renee has embraced her dreams for herself, her business and her family by scaling The Comfort Company, taking on a warehouse for her operations, and hiring three women in her area.
I promised to keep sharing the good news. This is Renee’s:
Hi Nell,
As I lean over and to tie my shoes for “The Race“, I just felt compelled to send the email that I’ve written in my mind a thousand times.
I’m not sure that words can adequately express my thanks for what Count Me In has done, not just for thousands of women business owners, but for me.
For me, it took having someone believe in me before I could believe in myself. I knew that I absolutely loved what I did (sending comfort to grieving families), but I never considered this a business, just a passion and something that gave my life rich meaning. But winning the Make Mine a Million $ Business competition in New York in 2006 made something stir inside of me. Maybe it was okay to want something more for myself…for my family. There had always been so many reasons to minimize what I had created, but to be given permission to move forward and grow this into a million dollar business has been liberating.
While I am short of the million dollar mark this year, I am more inspired today than ever before. 2008 was an incredible year for me. I was a mom with four kids who walked into my local bank and asked for a $200,000 loan to buy a warehouse and walked out with, not just the loan, but a $50,000 dollar credit line as well. My story was featured in Good Housekeeping magazine (for me that was a dream come true) and Entrepreneur Magazine. I hired another part-time employee and I’ve just set up a 401K plan for my two employees.
Thank you for helping me understand that it isn’t selfish to want to grow my business, it’s only selfish if I don’t. I know that I am just one small ripple in a tide of powerful women. But together, we are creating a wave of change. Can you feel it?
I am proud to be a part of this community. I am grateful for your support and owe you a debt of gratitude that I hope to someday repay!
Warmest regards always,
Renee Wood
The Comfort Company
“Gifts of Hope for Healing Hearts”
http://www.thecomfortcompany.net
PS. I’ve included a picture of me in the new warehouse on moving day!
