Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Schnitzer.
Hi Lisa, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
After being in the corporate world for all my career, I left to start my own business six years ago. It was a bold move and a risky one, but I knew in my heart it was the next step for me. After managing a busy litigation law firm for 15 years, and managing various other businesses, I knew that I had UNIQUE skills that could help other business owners who get too busy to delve into details about why things might not be functioning the way they should, or as efficiently as they could.
No detail is too small for me and that’s how I am able to fix processes and advise on operations for business owners. I literally started this business with an idea and wasn’t sure of how it was going to play out. But that part has been the best experience for me and gave me the greatest glimpse into commerce and what it takes to move the world in business. The people I have met and worked with are like jewels in the crown. I love meeting new people and this experience has brought even more new and exciting avenues to explore.
I offer some pretty unique services which I call Divorce Concierge. I work with people (men or women) going through the divorce process with assembling/managing their paperwork for their attorney, financial advisor or any other professional needing proof and backup. During this very stressful life transition, even the most astute individuals need help sorting and digging through documents because emotion takes over and rational thinking is often impaired. I love what I do to help people in this situation since I went through my own difficult divorce with no resources available. All that to say, I take care of personal and business details for my clients.
During the beginning of the pandemic, things were very quiet for everyone here. I always like to be busy so I started a long lost craft of designing and making paper journals – I make photo journals, gratitude journals, baby journals and all kinds of unique custom papercrafts. What started out as a hobby to just keep my mind busy, ended up being a small business on the side for me. It was just important for me to fill that empty time with doing something I love.
My family also became even more important during the pandemic. I had a granddaughter born during the Pandemic so my daughter, son and daughter in law became the center of my world when we couldn’t get out and about. Leaning on family and coming together during this unusual crisis has made my life so much richer.
My nicknames include: Business Navigator, Divorce Detective and the Clipboard of Reason!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
This road hasn’t always been smooth. I started my business with an idea but it took me a while to convince people that outsourcing my services was no threat to people inside the business. Not everyone can afford an operations manager and once people saw that I could help develop processes and best practices, there was a big sigh of relief. During the summer months of the first part of the pandemic, people started calling because they were actually taking the time to take a microscope to their business to see what was working and what wasn’t. I did have to be in their offices during this time and it became some of my most rewarding work.
Being a solopreneur for the most part means working very long hours, weekends and holidays sometimes. Being chief cook and bottle washer is very time consuming and takes up much of my time, when I’d rather be out playing. But this is what I was meant to do, so sacrifices have to be made sometimes.
What I learned along this journey is that we are really all here to serve others in some capacity. Mine is in helping with details related to your business or divorce assistance, or whatever other category I may have an expertise in. We work for a living but we should also live to help others. I have started volunteering at Austin Creative Reuse, a non-profit organization which fosters conservation and reuse through community, education and community-building. They offer very low cost, high quality creative materials for teachers, artists, and a myriad of creative applications to artistic creatives of every genre. I get many of my materials for journals at this store which is such an inspiration and a gift to the community.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Specializing in divorce also led me to another specialty of life’s transition and that is in helping those who are either pre-planning for estate matters, or those who need help after the loss of a loved one and have to gather important papers for their estate attorney. The grief issue is intense in this situation too, and often the loved one lives in another city or state and they need someone here that can go through things and help assemble policies, and other important papers needed to process an estate claim. I draw on my own experience with death and loss so I have empathy for the clients, but also the desire to quickly and efficiently help them out. Focusing on paperwork is not what’s readily on their minds at this moment, so I’m happy to be the detail detective and work on their paperwork for them.
Because of all the needs I see that people have in organizing their important papers, I came up with a small system to house all these papers, called Life Papers. It’s a small plastic file box that already has all the files filled out by name oj folders with an index and all you have to do is drop these papers inside and keep in a safe place. That way if anyone needs to find things for any reason, they are all together in one place. It’s pretty simple, but honestly, most people don’t have anything close to this in the way of organization of papers that matter. And when it’s too late and someone else has to find things on your behalf, this simple box would have saved a lot of time and grief.
Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc?
I have read many books on business along the way. I prefer to listen to books on headphones while walking or getting ready for work. I find it motivating and inspiring and I think we all need to feel inspired often! And also I watch a lot of YouTube videos on a wide variety of subjects. I am a visual person and then feel inspired to make more journals to inspire others. In my journals, I leave small areas and words to evoke something in the person reading them. Journaling prompts are what they are called technically. I love helping to prompt people into thinking deeply on a subject that matters to them.
Contact Info:
- Email: lisa@ingoodhandstx.com
- Website: www.InGoodHandsTx.com
