Okay, so it has been approximately 10 months since my last blog which is truly pitiful. However, I have made great use of that time by opening Trinity's newest office in Indianapolis! This definitely tops the list of cool things I have done since I have been at Trinity (approaching four years now). I am not quite sure where to start, but here it goes...
In areas where Trinity feels like they have untapped market share, they look at whether it is feasible to open an office in the area. So far, Indiana has been served mostly out of the Chicago office with some help on the southern end from the Kentucky office. When the company made the decision to open a new office in Indy, I wasn't sure that a new office was the right fit for me. I had really always considered staying in one of the bigger existing offices and was not sure I quite had the entrepreneurial spirit to head out there into the unknown. However, after much discussion with the family, I decided to go ahead and jump off that cliff. So for the last six months or so I have split my time between wrapping things up with my existing clients in St. Louis and doing A LOT of sales here in Indianapolis. It has been extremely exhausting spending so much time on sales, since it is definitely out of my comfort zone. However I could not have asked for better experience than this crash course in sales. I have had the opportunity to work with some of the more senior people within Trinity and learn from their sales experience. So, what does my day look like as a new office manager? Well, quite a bit of them so far have been doing somewhat mundane things like looking for office space, setting up the computer network and printer (with a lot of help from others, since I am not quite as computer savy as some), and working on a budget for next year. However, the majority of my time has been spent doing regulatory update luncheons throughout the state, learning and teaching the Indiana Air Permitting course, doing sales calls, and trying to come up with a sales plan for 2009. Really challenging stuff for me, since a lot of it is WAY out of my comfort zone. I am learning a lot though, so I am grateful for the opportunity.
One really interesting thing about opening a new office is that you are often working with only one other person from Trinity Although I was not in a large Trinity office in St.Louis, I at least had a few people to choose from when I wanted to chat! Good thing is though, that the other person in the Indianapolis office and I get along well and are having a great time exploring downtown eateries during our lunch hour!