This past month we had the “pleasure” of moving our offices from the 4th floor to the 5th floor in our building. Although the distance of the move was short, the process was painful in terms of relocating every bit of technology, furniture, equipment and files. Luckily, we had two new team members to help and afterwards there were several positive takeaways.
We occupied the previous space for almost 7 years but over that time, we accumulated plenty of stuff. The biggest surprise was the amount of old electronic equipment like keyboards, monitors, printers and computers. We have tried to recycle regularly but it is amazing how fast it accumulates if you don’t keep up with it. The clarity after purging so much physical stuff reminded me of financial documents and data that many of our client’s store. Old financial statements, reports, loan documents and bank statements can and should be discarded after a period. The IRS has a general rule of 3 years for all returns and supporting documents. Fidelity and Schwab archive all your monthly statements and tax documents so there is no need to fill up a filing cabinet at home.
During my desk clean out, there were several files of notes, pictures and cards I’ve accumulated over the last 25 years (yes, I started at age 16). Surprisingly, there weren’t articles about the market drops of 1998, 2000-2002 or 2008 but instead I found thank you notes from clients or team members. We have the privilege of walking beside clients as they celebrate milestones and see them through some of the valleys in life. Pausing for a few minutes and taking time to reflect provided an opportunity to realize how grateful we are to have that type of relationship with our clients.
The newness of freshly painted walls and new carpet creates an exciting time for the Waterway. In 2012, we moved here with just three people (Robert, Yvonne and me) and now we have 8 team members in The Woodlands and 4 in Albuquerque. Those early days were filled with a nervous excitement and plenty of late nights, but the support of great clients made it all worthwhile. We have continued to focus on quality growth rather than quantity and today have the most talented line up of team […]
