We recently connected with Rachel Donnelly and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Rachel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Some days I feel like a real-life Little Orphan Annie whose life should be subtitled “Death Becomes Her.” (I’m joking! Sort of.)
Growing up, I used to accompany my physician father on house calls and hospital rounds, which gave me a deep understanding of compassion and leaning into hard spaces. When I was 16, my father passed away at the age of 48. Several years later, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away shortly thereafter. Her passing left me with five houses to clean out and sell, as well as her role as caregiver for my uncle. After my uncle passed away, I assumed the role of Co-Executrix of his estate.
These experiences with loss left me in charge of caring for an aging loved one as well as managing the never-ending to-do list that comes with estate settlement. This stole precious time away from me to grieve the loss of my loved ones as well as take care of my two small children.
During this time, I had engaged with many different professionals to help me settle my mother and uncle’s estates, but there was no one to help connect all of the pieces. Another layer of frustration was that my uncle lived in a state that was 900 miles away, so I was trying to manage this all from afar.
I vividly remember standing in the parking lot of the bank after spending hours trying to (unsuccessfully) open an estate banking account and thinking to myself, “Why isn’t there someone who can help me manage this dumpster fire?!”
They say that necessity is the mother of invention so I founded a company dedicated to providing one-size-fits-one human support for clients. I sometimes liken our services to those of a wedding coordinator – overseeing vendors, managing the timeline, and overcoming unforeseen challenges that arise – but instead for those who need help with the tasks, paperwork and administrative logistics in the weeks and months after a loved one dies.
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 created Black Dress Consultants because this is a service I wish I had available to me when I was managing my loved one’s affairs. I know that if I felt this way, I couldn’t be alone.
It turns out that more than a hundred million people type the question “What do you do when someone dies?” into Google each month. Furthermore, varying sources estimate it takes an executor between 420-570 hours of effort on average to settle an estate. This is a huge burden to put on an individual and is the last thing you want to deal with when you’re grieving.
Through our after loss consulting services, we triage, prioritize and streamline administrative tasks such as:
Closing, transferring or archiving accounts, memberships, subscriptions and/or household utilities
Assisting with managing the estate, which can include asset and debt discovery, managing ongoing expenses or distributing personal property to beneficiaries
Organizing estate planning documents and important paperwork
Creating detailed plan to empty contents of home in preparation for sale
Providing referrals to attorneys, financial planners, CPA’s, estate sale companies and/or downsizing services
Serving as a conduit between your team of professionals
Providing guidance to help manage unexpected challenges that arise
These personalized services allow clients and their families to focus less on the logistics and more on creating space to grieve peacefully.
It’s been said that why we do things is more important than what we do, which is a belief that inspires and compels me to continue growing Black Dress Consultants. I am most proud that I’ve taken my own experiences with loss and turned them into a business that’s a game changer for the way that we handle and manage death.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
I started this business in January 2020, right before the start of the pandemic. Starting a business had been a dream of mine for a long time and I knew there was never going to be a perfect time, so I launched before I was ready.
At the time, I was working full-time in the only career field I ever knew, which was non-profit fundraising. I knew next to nothing about running a business and launched at a time that nearly every business was pivoting. it felt both serendipitous and ill-timed.
Due to the pandemic, my day-to-day schedule changed drastically and aside from managing my kids virtual learning, I was also trying to get this business off the ground. The experience was chaotic and haphazard but I also felt that this was part of the process.
My business was completely boot-strapped and self-founded. I took on no debt and paid attention to every dime that was coming in and going out of my business. One of the best decisions I made early in my business was hiring a virtual assistant. This was a big expense but it allowed me to complete administrative tasks such as creating an email list, writing newsletters, positing on social media and website edits, that I wasn’t able to do on my own due to my other job. This really helped in getting my name and brand out there.
After a little over a year, I knew I had to make a decision in terms of continuing my full-time job or committing myself to this business. I felt I was doing a poor job at managing both and after many long and hard discussions with my husband, decided to leave my career and transition fully to Black Dress Consultants. While it was one of the hardest and scariest decisions I’ve ever made, it was done with careful planning.
My husband I created a budget and set aside a slush fund to help buffer any lack of consistent income. I created a detailed revenue plan for my business and defined the metrics that would lead to meeting goals, which included changes to my core services and pricing structure.
Leaving my full time career was a gamble, but the gamble has paid off. After committing to my business full time, I surpassed my 2021 revenue total before the end of Q1 in 2022.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Trust and estate attorneys are often my best referral partners. Because they are assisting clients with the legal matters of estate administration and probate, I can help the client fulfill their duties or complete the tasks that have prescribed. As one attorney wrote in her testimonial “So often my clients have needs that are either outside of my firm’s scope or that they really do not need to pay an attorney to do, and Black Dress Consultants is the perfect partner. ” Another attorney wrote “She is an excellent resource for helping family members after death for all non-legal matters. She’s been invaluable to many of my clients in getting “stuff” moved and taken care of.”
Contact Info:
- Website: blackdressconsultants.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackdressconsultants
- Facebook: facebook.com/blackdressconsultants
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelbdonnelly/
- Youtube: @blackdressconsultants