Up Close and Personal with Helen, Partner, The Office Shop
My name is Helen and I am Partner at The Office Shop.
I founded The Office Shop in 1996 when I was in the prime of my single years, able to devote all of my time and effort to work. This allowed me to get the business growing at a steady pace and conquer my dream of being a successful business owner. 7 Years later, in 2003, everything changed when I married my husband. Shortly after, we had two beautiful children, Megan and Tommy. As time passed, I learned how to balance my newfound priorities and life challenges, and believe me, it was not easy! I soon realized being a mother and a wife would require a lot of my energy, but that was not going to stop me from making The Office Shop successful.
Fast forward to today, I am still so passionate about The Office Shop and even more enthusiastic about my incredible team of sales and design masterminds. Everyday I wake up excited to go into work and brainstorm with this extraordinary crew – but then COVID hit us like a ton of bricks. Just when I was feeling frustrated about life being put on hold, I found myself reminiscing back to those earlier days when I was raising two babies while growing my business. If I could get through that, I can get through this too.
I choose to embrace this new way of life, and enjoy every second of this quality time with my family. My children are growing up way too fast, and I want to soak up every moment of this stage of life with them. We have been playing board games and cooking together. We uncluttered, painted, and redesigned a couple of rooms in our house. We turned our basement into a gym, and I started circuit training with my husband and the kids… even the dog wants in on the action. For the first time in a long time, I’m able to sit and have deeper conversations with my family and friends.
Life was so busy before and we didn’t even realize it. For a moment in time, we are on pause. Once this is over, I will appreciate all the little things I took for granted: shaking hands with clients, a warm hug with a friend, or simply meeting someone for coffee. Let’s all take this time as a reset and a reminder to take care of one another and be in the moment.
