We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joanne Payne a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Joanne, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

I had the idea for Halo Administrative Services almost 12 years ago now, although the company itself is only about 6 months old. My husband passed away very suddenly back in 2013 and all of the activities in executing an estate hit like a tsunami. There was so much administrative work to do at a time when I was coping with the grief of his loss, closing his business and managing my own executive role as a Vice-President of Human Resources for a large, multi-national organization. As I moved through this period of my life, I strongly believed that there was a potential business opportunity helping people through all of these activities, and I wanted to put my own personal experience, and the skills I had developed over the course of my career, to good use helping others in similar situations. Having said that, my own career at that time was challenging and exciting and I was not ready to give it all up quite yet.

Fast forward many years and the opportunity arose to seriously consider an alternative path. The thought of starting my own company and providing services that I would have so highly valued at the time of my husband’s death, again came to the forefront of my mind and I decided if I was ever to do it, this was the time.

I started with a very simple business plan. This is not a resource intensive business, nor did it require a high level of financial investment, so I just wanted to make sure that I was clear on my vision, the market and my offering. I sent the documented plan to several of my most business-savvy friends, family members and ex-colleagues for review and tweaked it in response to their feedback and guidance. During this process, my vision expanded to service not just those impacted by the death of a loved one, but also those experiencing grief and loss as a result of divorce or aging.

The next step was to create my website. Given my generally cautious nature, I did not want to invest a large amount of money in website development, so built out my ideas on Wix to create my online story. This was quite a learning curve, but I was proud of the result and extremely grateful for the high level of support from the team at Wix at this point in my journey.

With my website complete and functional, including the setup of the supporting Google Workspace technology, I was ready to create business cards and other promotional materials to help my debut into the marketplace.

Armed with the most basic of marketing collateral, I started reaching out to my target markets initially through law firms but very quickly, thanks to an early supporter who saw the value in my services, expanded my network across the senior community and beyond.

The first several months involved hours and hours of intensive networking. It quickly became apparent that successfully launching a new business concept requires a very patient and tenacious approach.

Since then, my customer base has grown, along with my expertise, as unsurprisingly every clients’ needs are very different, and I am enjoying the resulting research, learning and personal growth.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am originally from the UK and spent the majority of my career working in Human Resources. The company I worked for in Southampton, England transferred me to their head office in the Chicagoland area. This was initially intended to be a 3–5-year expatriate assignment but 25 years later, the US is now very much home. The company sponsored my permanent residency application to stay in the US and a few years later I became a citizen and now enjoy citizenship of both the US and the UK. In addition to living in Illinois and now Georgia, I also spent several years in Minnesota.

I thoroughly enjoyed 30+ year career in Human Resources and believe my extensive background in this people-focused field, as well as experience in a large, multi-national corporation, have developed and refined my skills to help prepare me for my own entrepreneurial endeavors.

I think there are a couple things that set my services apart from others. Firstly, I provide a very unique service, with few, if any, competitors. Secondly, there is a strong focus on developing deep and lasting relationships with clients. I work alongside my clients during their darkest days so it’s important to be able to quickly build a strong rapport and a high level of trust.

In providing administrative support, I essentially become a personal assistant to my clients with regard to activities related to bereavement, divorce or aging. My role is very broad and highly dependent on the needs of my clients and their particular situation. I will organize documents, make filings/applications, conduct research, clarify facts and ensure that all necessary activities are assigned, tracked and completed on time. I can also liaise with financial advisors, wealth managers, attorneys and other stakeholders as necessary to provide a more holistic service to clients.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Acknowledging my resilience in navigating through the death of my husband was really the catalyst for the concept of Halo Administrative Services. In recognizing the levels of resilience needed to successfully manage through bereavement, I realized that this was a strength that I could use to help others in similar situations. Feelings of grief and loss are not just associated with the death of a loved one and occur in many different circumstances. Also common in divorce and aging is the amount of new and different administrative work that is often required, hence the incorporation of these major life transitions into Halo’s scope of services.

Resilience is defined as “the process and outcome of successfully adapting to difficult or challenging life experiences.” Bereavement, divorce and aging are certainly some of the most challenging, and common, life experiences that we might have to face. In my own case, my resilience helped me continue working successfully at an executive level in my chosen field, while single-handedly navigating through a myriad of new processes and responsibilities associated with Executorship of my husband’s estate, the transfer of assets (both domestic and overseas), closure of my husband’s business, sale of our home, auctioning our belongings, the list goes on…..

According to Psychology Today, resilience also means “knowing when to seek support and use a strong network, rather than handle everything alone.” Halo Administrative Services can be that support and part of a strong network that means my clients don’t have to handle everything alone.

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

I have never sold a business, but this question resonated with me because during my career in human resources, I worked on several project teams engaged in the due diligence process of acquisitions. Some of the knowledge I learned during this process could be relevant to entrepreneurs who hope to sell their businesses at some point in the future:

1) Be transparent and cooperative in providing information about your company to a potential buyer. Business deals can stall and die because of a lack of trust between buyer and seller. Your reputation and career could be on the line, as could those of your team.
2) Have solid systems, business processes and procedures in place. Being able to pull current and historical data efficiently will build trust and help the due diligence process move forward much more smoothly, cost effectively and quickly.
3) If the buyer wants to bind you to them for a period of time to leverage your skills and knowledge of the product, service or market, be clear about the level of autonomy and decision-making you will have and be sure you can operate constructively in that environment. It can be very hard to watch the baby that you created and have nurtured since inception, be managed by a new parent. Any resulting conflict can be very destructive.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.haloadministrativeservices.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/104110914