As Jim and I reflect on the past year at JMAG, and I reflect as a shed wife and working mother, I am thankful.
I am thankful for employees that have become part of our family. We are blessed to employ some of the best. If you were at the Shed Builder Expo, you may have met a few of our team members.
We were so proud of them and were given so many compliments on them from the show. We had a plan to take our entire office to the show so they could see how big the shed industry really is and understand the role they play at JMAG, while also continuing Jim’s mission of everyone working together in the industry to help each other.
What we didn’t expect to happen was for them to make us look better as a company. As they walked around the show and talked with people, we received so many compliments on how professional they were and more importantly how friendly they were to others in the industry.
We have connected people from many walks of life at JMAG. As I have written about in the past, finding good employees is hard, and finding ones who you truly feel have your best interest at heart is very hard.
We have hired quite a few new employees this year, and with each hire, we are impressed and blessed by how quickly they are accepted into both the JMAG family and our industry as a whole.
I am an elementary school principal, so some of our employees are from families that I have touched throughout my years of teaching and school administration, while some are my previous students who I get to see as an adult employee in my own business.
That is truly seeing life full circle for me. When I am able to touch those students and families as adults, it helps me to see the fruits of my labor at school as well.
Our No. 1 core value at JMAG is family. Jim always says we want to be just as important to your family as you are to ours.
I am also thankful in this season for manufacturers and those in the shed industry who we have been blessed to get to know.
I always say the Shed Builder Expo is like one big family reunion. I love to walk around and be introduced to some of those people I have heard so much about from my husband while also meeting new people along the way.
Since Megan and I started the Shed Wives, it has also become a way to connect with other women in the industry and get to see how they are affecting their own businesses. Again, this wasn’t something we anticipated when we started the Shed Wife Facebook page or this article, but it has become an added blessing from it.
Most of all as I reflect on the end of the year, I am thankful for my husband. As a shed wife yourself, I know you understand the sacrifices our husbands make day in and day out to keep our families and our businesses running smoothly. No one understands the sleepless nights, long days, and never-ending night and weekend phone calls that they have to help make the business successful.
I get aggravated sometimes when those interrupt my family life or our time together, but I must always remember that this is what drives him and it is important for him to be fulfilled in ways that are beyond me and raising our family.
Jim may tell you I am not always good at this, but I am hoping to get a few brownie points by telling all of you how thankful I am for him.
At the end of the day, I know so many of you understand the struggle of being the wife of a business owner or a shed hauler (sometimes also a business owner) or the wife of many other roles our men play in this industry.
So, as I reflect on the last year and find those individual moments that have made it great, I am thankful for Jim and all he does to sustain so many in our business and at home.
I am thankful that he is constantly thinking, constantly pushing, and constantly dreaming of how he can help both our family and our business, as well as the shed industry as a whole. If you know Jim, you know this is part of his passion.
I hope you all have had a successful year as a business and an individual and find some time to reflect on all those blessings that God has given us. I am most thankful this year for the birth of God’s son whom none of this would be possible without.
God bless you, your family, and your business in the new year!
