KBB - May/June 2015 - 14

BETTER BUSINESS

Making a Living Is Never Recession-Proof, but Your Mind IS
I know you'll want to glance at this and just get to the bullet points
of recession-proof advice and move on to the next easy read...so go
ahead, I'll put the list at the top. But the story of how I even came up
with this list is real life - my real life. It's good, and it's recession-proof.

1. Acknowledge when there is a recession or a heavy downturn in
the global market.

2. Know that savings alone will not carry you through prolonged
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

recession.
Believe there is still money out there.
Have Faith that you have the power to attract it.
Spend like you did not hear the news.
Disengage from negative media.
Invest in yourself.
Be Grateful for everything.
Build your dream.
Trust everything.

During the recession of 2008-2012, as a design/build company in
Sacramento - one of the top-ﬁve, hardest-hit cities in the nation - I grew
Nar Fine Carpentry from a one-employee business to a 10-employee,
two-showroom, vibrant company that is now front row and center to most
high-end projects in the area. How did this happen?

Here's the Story
The year was 2007. I had one employee, and we basically did one
kitchen at a time. I had been doing this for quite some time, while my
peers seemed to have grown their businesses exponentially. Colleagues
were buying huge homes, boats, RVs, cars, timeshares. I couldn't wrap
my head around it; all this success around me, and I was not a part of it.
Pan forward to winter 2008 - very long, dark, gloomy days. The housing
bubble had popped; huge corporations were folding like paper airplanes;
there were foreclosures right and left; the stock market was in complete
shambles; the media was reporting 24/7 on the ﬁnancial collapse. And
me? I was terriﬁed.
In a tidal wave of global ﬁnancial chaos, I felt deep despair and complete powerlessness. I was completing a small kitchen remodel when an
upcoming client I had a contract with called to cancel it because he
had just been laid off from his 15-year job. I had no other work lined up,
and the phone was not ringing. I would literally pick it up to make sure
it had a dial tone from time to time. I was sick to my stomach with the
thought that everything I had ever done to support my family, home and
way of life might all be lost to a negative vortex out of my control.

Here's the Magic
One day my wife Deborah and I decided to spend the day in Napa
relaxing, de-stressing, wining and dining. During dinner, my wife, who is the
least business-like person you'll ever meet, says to me, "Take a good look
around this restaurant. It's a very expensive place, and it took us 45 minutes
to get in here. Everybody is enjoying themselves, drinking expensive wine,
and the lot is full of expensive cars. These people know money; they don't

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fear it. It's not about the haves and the have nots, it's about believing in
yourself and knowing the money did not go anywhere.You just have to tap
into the ﬁnancial stream."Those words kept me up for many nights to follow,
and I started to see that there could be a different way to get the money
and work through the power of attraction.
The belief is that during a recession people never go out, they do not
travel, and they do not buy extravagant anything. They keep their cars for
a few extra years and thin out all the excess, but what I actually saw was
that some people were buying lattes and going out to dinner - investing in
themselves. I also knew that many of these people were spending money
ﬁxing up their homes and spending more time in them. People saw their
homes as safe havens - a worthy place to feel good about. Those were
the people to whom I paid attention - those who were spending, not those
who were not.

I knew I did not have the money to ride the
recession through, but I was going to attract
business by believing in myself and believing
I could give my clients what they wanted.
So I too invested in myself by opening up a showroom - a backwarehouse type of place. I moved out of my home ofﬁce and took the
leap into a commercial space. I spent every last penny I had and sold
my truck to buy cabinet displays. I knew I did not have the money to ride
the recession through, but I was going to attract business by believing in
myself and believing I could give my clients what they wanted.
* I turned off all the media 100 percent.
* I became grateful for all I had.
* I disengaged from negative people.
* I trusted the world would see what I had to offer, and it did.
Like magic - during the deepest, darkest part of the recession - the
phone started to ring. It became business as usual, and I did not change
or lower my prices or bargain even on request. From that ﬁrst call, I began
a new life; I let go of fear, and I learned to trust. The world will only give to
you once it sees you are able to receive, and you are only able to receive
when you are giving in gratitude.

Fast Forward to Now
In the last ﬁve years, I have opened another showroom in El Dorado
Hills, Calif. I re-introduced upscale design to the area while receiving many
local and national design awards, and I credit this to simply believing.
There was nothing mathematical; there was no advertising plan, no meet
up or networking gathering I attended. There was self-investment, which
aligned with the positivity in my own life and those around me. I had to
design my life, build it, surrender and simply trust. n
- Nar Bustamante is president of Nar Fine Carpentry, Inc., with locations
in Carmichael and El Dorado Hills, Calif.

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KBB - May/June 2015

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