Cold Call Connection

Stepping up my game from emails to phone calls, I reached out to even more B&B's in Alaska.

The first woman I spoke to directly was in Ketchikan (who makes celebrated homemade muffins for her guests, according to several reviews :)

When I asked if she was hiring summer help, her response was: "Oh, I'm just a one woman show! I do everything myself these days."

As I was about to launch into my, "Thanks for your time, how long have you been running your B&B," primer to gather some additional information, she continued:

"You know, you should call my friend Mary, she might be hiring at her place."

I was so grateful that this woman would point me to her contacts, especially since all she knew about me was that I called her out of the blue asking for a job.

After chatting awhile longer, and thanking her sincerely, I hung up to give Mary a call.

Mary also proved very helpful!

After chatting for awhile about my plans in Alaska, plans for the future, and my previous experience, she said she was very interested in talking more about job opportunities. She told me she wants to meet me in person (and that she won't hire without an in person interview, but is very excited to talk to me more once I'm in town). She also connected me with one of her friends who is renting rooms for a reasonable price.

Whether this pans out or not, I am very grateful to have both housing and job prospects popping up in very fortuitous ways :)

Concrete Steps

After months of deliberating, and email drafting, and Googling, I finally took the plunge and sent off one email to an Alaskan B&B.

It came back undeliverable.

Not deterred so easily, I decided to broaden the net – this time I emailed 10 places. In each email, I expressed interest in learning more about their experience in the field, and wanted to know if their would be opportunities to work with them in Summer 2017, when I would be in Alaska and planning to find a job working for a B&B.

Immediately I got a form response from one place stating they were busy and would get back to me soon (I’m still waiting…).

But over the next few days I heard back from five more places. One told me they were family owned and run and didn’t need help, but the other four expressed interest in speaking further.

While I didn’t know what to expect, I certainly didn’t expect a 50% response rate, and for it all to be so positive!

As my brother told me (not the one in North Dakota) – “Luck favors the bold!”

Stay tuned for more updates on this front!

In-Person/ On the Ground Research

Getting more serious about this goal, I started talking to my family.

Turns out that my mom has some interest in joining in on the adventure.

I was planning a visit to see my brother and sister-in-law in North Dakota and we wanted to take a quick trip to Minneapolis area while I was in town. Since we were going to stay overnight anyway, I floated the idea of all of us staying in a B&B to do some on the ground research.

This ended up being more difficult than I initially imagined.

Did I mention that there were two small children in tow as well? Ah. I guess not.

Most places I talked to have a policy against having young children stay at their B&B, it turns out. There were to main reasons for this:

• First, many places catered to a more romantic atmosphere, and as one owner put it, “Having children around tends to make the couples feel guilty they are not with their own children, and ruins the getaway.” Fair enough.
• Second, there are regulations/ limitations on how many people can be in a room.

At least one place was open to working with us, but we would have needed three rooms – and that would put one adult with one child in two rooms and one adult alone in the third room. Not ideal.

Eventually I did find a place that worked. In large part because they had no other guests booked that night, and because they have a little family suite (that used to be the inn keepers suite).

Being the only guests ended up being the biggest benefit (for a research perspective) of this visit.

Our host told us we could pick the suit, or any two rooms at no extra charge. So, we got to wander around the whole house checking out the various elements each room had to offer.

It also meant we were the only people at breakfast the next morning, and our host was kind enough to answer a lot of questions about his experience entering the world of owning and running a B&B.

Hearing his experience and answers to questions was very helpful – he asked me questions as well. At the end, his statement was, “I think you’d make a good B&B owner candidate.” Talk about confidence building!

Seeking Advice

Talking to people, and hearing lots of people’s perspectives and experiences, has always been a big part of decision making for me. I love extracting gems and combining lessons learned from others into my life.

While talking to a friend I’ve known since third grade about my desire to go to Alaska and work for a B&B there, she told me she had a family friend who runs a multi-generation fishing lodge in Alaska with her brothers. Check it out - it's pretty awesome: http://docwarners.com/

Not a B&B, but related, and my friend was happy to put us in touch.

We scheduled a time to talk, and it was incredible. She was so generous with her time and in sharing her experience. 

The stories she shared, and the advice she gave was wonderful. We talked about a wide variety of things from the pros and cons to working with family on business ventures (she recommended a great book) to the added cost of running a business in Alaska (she told me to double the cost of anything you bring in from food to bedding due to shipping costs) to seasonal vs year-round opportunities in Alaska (closer to the North Pole, and the Northern Lights expands your year round guest pool).

This made me excited to do two things: 

   1) talk to more people about their related experiences and 
   2) look for a job in Alaska for the summer :)

Attempt #1

Not too long after my best friend got married, I was telling a colleague over lunch about my dream to “one day” open a Bed & Breakfast.

She gave the standard, “You should – you’d be so good at that!” response, and then took it one step further. She told me about an essay writing contest where the prize was a B&B and Country Inn in Maine.

I entered that contest.

Remember how I said, “It all started when my best friend was living in England…” (if not read about it in my first blog post)

Well, as true as that it, it is also true that you could say it all started when I was six, living next door to a completely different best friend.

Even though I didn’t win the essay contest (spoiler alert!) entering was still probably the first concrete step I took – really putting effort, energy, and money into the universe in pursuit of this dream of mine.

Here’s the essay I submitted (it had a 200 word limit):

“Breakfast is served!” my six-year-old self announced once again, carrying a tray of food into my parents' bedroom.

From those humble beginnings came a lifelong pursuit of hospitality. My early desire to serve others, paired with a love of organization and efficiency, has shaped my personal and professional decisions over the years. My professional experiences in hospitality and logistics complement my genuine love of people and prepare me well to own and run a Country Inn.

Perhaps the most important lessons I’ve learned are how to be willing to do what it takes to make things run smoothly (no task is too small to be done with care!) and how important it is to surround yourself with people who have the same commitment to excellence.

I want to own and operate the Country Inn so I can apply these life lessons and touch people's lives, bring a smile after a long drive, serve hungry travelers a worthy meal, and give the gift of reprieve to all who come – be their stay short or long.

Listening to a Niggle

You know those things that niggle at the back of your brain that just won’t go away? That’s what the idea of running a Bed & Breakfast has been for me.

It all started when my best friend was living in England for Graduate School, and I went out to visit. We (okay, really she!) planned a wonderful, self-guided Jane Austen tour. She found us places to stay along the way, including several Bed & Breakfasts (to cut down on our food costs/ the need to carry food around) and I fell in love.

“Wouldn’t it be great to welcome people from all over the world into your home?” I asked on one of our walks through the countryside (the same exact fields that Jane Austen walked, I must add :) “Plus, it combines so many things I love – cooking, scheduling/organizing, putting a house in order, meeting people and learning their stories – and allows me to be a homebody, but not isolated!”

We made an agreement that if we were both 40 and not married, we’d open a B&B together, likely in New England.

Years passed, and from time-to-time that niggle would come back, “What if I really did open a B&B?” I'd think.

Every time I shared this dream of mine with friends, they would light up: “Oh, you’d be so good at that!” They almost universally exclaimed, “You should do it!”

Well, I’m not 40 yet, and my best friend got married.

I was, and still am, so happy for her! But my joy for her didn’t stop a niggle in the back of my mind that said, “Well, there goes your chance to run a B&B.”

But did it?

No. There was no reason that I couldn’t still pursue that dream!

And really, there was no reason I couldn’t do so sooner than later.