Crossroads On The Path To Success

When producer Norman Lear hires a new estate manager, he or she will be presented with a copy of “The Ultimate Homeowner’s Manual,” outlining every aspect of managing the Lears’ 10,000-square-foot Brentwood, Calif., estate.

You can’t buy the book in stores. It’s a custom publication researched and written by Stephanie Culp, founder of The Organization and author of nine popular books on organizing your home, your business and your life.

Culp, who lives in Temecula, Calif., said she has spent the last two years reinventing her business. Bored with writing, speaking and organizing, she’s now focused on serving busy, super-rich clients with multiple homes and staffs to manage them.

Many successful people find themselves at a professional crossroads. They don’t want to scrap everything they’ve done, but they need to reinvent their businesses to keep things fresh and often have to add new services to boost profits.

“I wanted to do something different, but I had built a national reputation on this organizing thing and didn’t want to throw it down the drain,” said Culp. “The question was how to take my experience and generate more income and satisfaction.”

The idea to write homeowner’s manuals came to her while remodeling her home in rural Wisconsin. Between 1990 and 1996, she spent most of her time and money dealing with contractors, appliances and hardware dealers. She had to figure out how and why things worked. When she finished upgrading the house, she sold it at a profit and moved back to Southern California to reinvent her business.

Culp wrote the first manual for a client, Carol Biondi, who asked her to help move the Biondi family from a home in Riverdale, N.Y., into two homes - one in Brentwood and the other on Martha’s Vineyard. Culp supervised the unpacking and helped Biondi set up her home office. Biondi then asked Culp to write homeowner’s manuals for her family’s two new homes.

“For people who have complicated houses, having a manual like this is worth it,” said Biondi, wife of Universal Studios’ chief executive officer, Frank Biondi. “Stephanie spent about a week at the house in Martha’s Vineyard, meeting with the contractor. She also developed a schedule of what gets done by the staff every day, every week and every month.”

During her visit to the Vineyard home, Culp discovered the water shut-off valves weren’t marked and the sewer clean-outs had been accidentally buried by the landscaper. The alarm system wasn’t functioning properly. She also found paint cans stored in the furnace closet - which created a major fire hazard.

Not only did Culp solve all those problems, but now, the Biondis’ housekeeper knows what brand of cereal to buy and what type of Starbucks ground coffee the Biondis prefer drinking on their weekend visits to Massachusetts. The manual also explains exactly what the housekeeper must provide for house guests, including extra rolls of toilet paper, bath oils and shampoo for the guest bathroom.

“Estate owners are so busy, they don’t have a clue about the fact that the guest house has a leaking shower or a stained comforter cover,” said Culp. “They assume it’s all being taken care of by the staff. Wrong.”

Culp’s manuals, which cost about $10,000 each, are proving indispensable to people living in or managing vast estates. She’s confident she made the right decision to change the direction of her business.

Here are some tips from Culp on how to reinvent your small business:

1. Start refusing to do projects you don’t want to do anymore.

2. Set a deadline for launching your new product or service.

3. Review all your experience, both personally and professionally, before changing direction.

4. Change your marketing material to reflect your new offerings.

5. Use your experience, but move in a new direction to rejuvenate yourself.

6. Kill yourself to do a great job for your first clients. They will then provide recommendations and referrals.

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