We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Beth Booth. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Beth below.
Alright, Beth thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
Owning a business is one giant risk after another. When we started our business in 2008, it was the beginning of the Great Recession. We believed in what we were doing, but times were so tough. So, we made the decision to sell our home, move in with Marshall’s parents, and pour every ounce of energy we had back into the business. For 2 years we lived with family, barely took a salary, and worked nights and weekends to build our business. After making it through the recession, we started to grow and see some positive returns. But instead of resting on that moderate achievement, we deiced to push yet again. We hired a marketing company for the first time ever and went through an amazing process of re branding. This risk paid off! Our new brand really showed our heart and passion for the Design/Build industry and set us off on a new trajectory. A few years later, we felt opportunity knocking yet again. We had never built a new construction home before but had always seen it as the next step in our business development and portfolio, as well as a key element to solidifying us a top tier Design/Build firm. We took out a huge loan, bought a lot, and built a dream home. What we had to go through in order to see this dream though was immense. The lot had nearly insurmountable soil issues. A 1/2-acre mountain had to be removed, restored, and recompacted before we could even begin the grading process. We went well over budget and had to cash in every savings account we had just to stay afloat. At the same time, we saw this new Constuction build as a flagship project for an even more refined brand, so we went through yet another rebrand to capture the momentum of our business. Once again, it paid off. We live in the amazing home, with 5 amazing children. The new brand shows a refined, custom, boutique design/build firm, with a personal and down to earth twist. Our most recent risk happened just a couple of weeks ago. We bought a building! Our office space that we have rented for all 14 years in business went on the market, so we bought it, as well as the building next store. This is our biggest financial risk thus far, and it will be stretching and stressful. But business has taught me that the reward is often found in the risk taking. This is has proven true both professionally and personally. On the personal side, I have gone through 6 rounds of IVF over a period of 10 years to have my children. Through failure, heartache, shame, and perseverance, I now hold all 5 of my kids and realize all of the pain was so worth it! We are passionate about sharing our stories to encourage more people to embrace the risk, persevere through adversity, learn from mistakes, and trust the process!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Spaces Renewed is a husband-and-wife-owned design, renovation, and home-build firm specializing in custom, coastal whole home renovations, and new construction. Our award-winning designer/homebuilders’ services encompass all aspects of whole home renovation, kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling, new construction, outdoor living, room additions, lot & land acquisition.
We are a firm that challenges the traditional approach of separately procuring architect, design & build services by seamlessly integrating every part of the home building process under one roof—from concept to completion. With one point of contact, from the initial architect & design phase to final construction, we ensure consistency, integrity, and transparency every step of the way. Our team is dedicated to optimizing your time and your investment —and ultimately making your vision a reality beyond expectation.
As a husband and wife team—and home owners with a family of our own, we understand the significance of what your home means to you. This is why we are dedicated to working with you, using a hands-on approach throughout each step of the entire process ensuring we make your dream home a living reality. We pour our passion & soul into every home we renovate and build.
We realize that you are looking for more than a “new look.” You want a home that inspires you. A home that reflects your individuality, your family, your lifestyle, your heart and is a place that truly lives up to the adage, “There’s no place like home.” We understand that beyond just a beautiful space, you demand an eye for the unseen—a craftsmanship that embraces every detail from the inside out. You want a home to withstand the test of time for generations come.
We started Spaces Renewed with a dedication to provide a level of work and customer service that is unmatched in the construction industry. We have created a team of professionals who are as passionate as we are in fulfilling our client’s visions.
It is our mission, and our pleasure, at Spaces Renewed to exceed your highest expectations and give you the creativity, talent, expertise and attention to detail that every homeowner deserves—all under one roof, in one seamless process.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I have (almost) always been a straight-A student without having to try very hard. I am an auditory processor and was able to pick up and absorb the content through active listening and note taking. Because of that, I made good grades without having to do homework or extra studying. I did this in k-12, and all the way into my under-grad and time in graduate school. I have always been able to come into an academic situation and feel confident within a few minutes, even if the content was new to me. When my husband opened our business and I started to ‘help’ him, he started giving me a lot of direct feedback that I had never heard before. Suddenly, I was being told that I was taking ‘shortcuts’, wasn’t detail orientated, and was making mistakes. Truthfully, I was not used to coming into a situation and not being able to just ‘skate by’ with minimal effort. I dint realize I was like this until stepping into the business world. It was a very tough few years, having to be honest with myself about my shortcomings and (even laziness. But I can honestly say now in retrospect, I am so grateful that this business has made me a better worker, a better communicator and a better person. I am the best version of myself now, after learning to appreciate my gifts, but also work on areas that need to improve in.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
Our 2nd rebrand came at a time where we took a major risk in building our first spec home. We believed that this flagship project was going to transform our image even further, giving us access to the higher end buyer that we were looking for. However, building a spec home isn’t cheap, and we were already in debt and way over budget with the build. So, pulling the trigger on an expensive rebrand wasn’t exactly what we wanted to do at the time. But we both felt really strongly that now was the time to capitalize. Part of this drive was because I was traumatized by the financial stress of owning a business and a home during the Great Recession of 2008. I always thought to myself, ‘if I make it through this, I never want to experience this stress again’. So, I had actively been thinking through ways and strategies to hedge our business against economic downturns, recessions, and other unknowns. We felt strongly that the best way to do that would be to break into the luxury market. We had been doing beautiful high end custom wok for a long time, but we hadn’t completely built the business model and brand around that. The custom spec home was that opportunity. So, even though we didn’t have the capital, we went forward with the rebrand, used that project as the flag ship, and marked it across all of our platforms. Within a couple of months, we got a call for a possible remodel on the ocean front. It had always been a dream to do an ocean front property, so we were certainly excited to take a look. It turned out to be 3 connected penthouses, all of which needed major work. We were able to secure contracts with all 3 owners and did a massive multimillion dollar overall of the ocean front property. In the early days of the project, Covid hit and the world shut down. Our owners had no intention of stopping work on their homes, and they gave us an enthusiastic approval to move forward. Because of that project, we were able to stay afloat during Covid, and continued to refine and build our brand as a boutique Desing/Build firm. The marketing risk paid off.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.spacesrenewed.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spacesrenewed/
- Facebook: Spaces Renewed
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2nxcIGXZ_lrs8meV1jxqEA
Image Credits
https://www.minopromedia.com/