Bootstrapping E-Commerce to 16 Million: Valerie Holstein, CEO of Cableorganizer.com (Part 7)

Sramana: If you are seriously thinking about heading out to get an executive MBA, then I will tell you to save yourself the money and trouble. Just do 1M/1M. We teach everything about entrepreneurship in a very efficient program for just $1,000 a year.

Valerie Holstein: Maybe I should do that. I will definitely look into it. Just last month I went to an accounting class that I did not understand. I will have to take it again. The course went too fast for me because I don’t speak the accounting lingo. I do FranklinCovey Classes, and I am on various LinkedIn groups. I am part of the Business Marketing Association. I am all over the place. We have been a Top 500 Internet retailer for the past five years.

Sramana: I know the numbers of the top 500 retailers, and that is great that you are there. Both you and your husband still work on the company full time. You have been doing business together for 10 years. How has that experience affected your relationship?

Valerie Holstein: In the beginning it was easy. He worked full time outside of the country. I saw him about 20 hours a week. Everything about the business was on me. After 10 years of traveling nonstop all over North America, he suddenly came back home, and he was home full time. Not only did he come back, but he also had a job inside the house. It took us a year to adjust.

He had his own habits, and I had my way of doing things. When he came back, we had to adjust. It was definitely an adjustment period. Then we had the brilliant idea to have office space that was adjoining. That was a disaster because he could hear my conversations on the phone, and I could hear his. When we disagreed it was done in public and out loud. It was making employees uncomfortable. It took a few years, but we had to learn not to criticize each other in front of employees.

We had to learn to respect each other’s positions as well as each other’s personal space. The best thing that we did was have offices on the opposite sides of the area. We also decided not to manage everything together and instead divided our responsibilities. IT, logistics, finance and accounting are his. I am the marketing, HR, business development, PR, and trade show person. That is how we have separated it, and it is working really well.

Sramana: Thank you. I have really enjoyed your story. It is wonderful to see you succeed like this. I look forward to keeping in touch.

This segment is part 7 in the series : Bootstrapping E-Commerce to 16 Million: Valerie Holstein, CEO of Cableorganizer.com
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