Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tamara Kalkbrenner. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Tamara, thanks for joining us today. Can you share a customer success story with us?

I’ve always been geared for business. In high school, I belonged to The Future Business Leaders of America. At my first opportunity, I was starting businesses for myself and helping others with their start-up businesses. After my first business was literally stolen from me, I almost lost everything. But my ambition to succeed paid off, and I’m so glad I didn’t give up.

Tamara, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Twenty five years ago, I was a very young Vice-President at a forklift company. When the corporate office abruptly bought out the privately owned company, I was terminated as part of management. I was devastated. I then followed a dream of what I thought was divine intervention, building and operating a log cabin restaurant & bar business for two years. When that business ended badly, I had almost lost everything. (That is an unbelievable story in itself, should be made for TV, lol.)

After hitting bottom from the restaurant disaster, I accepted a full-time accounting position at a paving company, where I then worked for 18 years. Nine years into that employment, I noticed a need for the service of asphalt sealcoating, and in 2010, I started a sealing business (part-time). In 2016, with the help of my boyfriend/partner, we expanded the business to include paving services. And finally in 2018, we operated the business full-time. Our business is now in its 13th year, never having a slow season or without work. We’ve typically employed seven workers each season and have built a good reputation for quality work at a reasonable price. The business name is New Coat Paving & Sealing Company. It is registered as a WBE (Woman Business Enterprise).

In 2020, I created a non-profit animal aid charity called Mojo’s Wallet (in memory of my beloved Corgi, Mojo). Its purpose is to assist local rescues, shelters, and wildlife rehabilitation centers with their needs in helping all kinds of animals with medical needs or finding their forever home. Over the past two years, Mojo’s Wallet has raised over $5,000 that assisted seven different local non-profit facilities.

In May of 2022, we turned the area above our garage into a short-term vacation rental space. We named it “Mojo’s Loft”.
It has been a great success! We’ve had guests come from all over the United States. A small portion of the rental income is then donated to Mojo’s Wallet charity. It is a good feeling to know our efforts are helping animals in need.

Recently, my boyfriend/partner has retired. We have been unsuccessful in finding someone to replace him in the paving portion of our business. It’s a sad feeling to know I’ll likely have to close that part of our business when business is so good (if that makes sense), but without that main person leading the crew, it looks unlikely we can maintain the same level of quality that we’re used to providing. Fortunately, we’ve had a couple of good people that’s stuck with us over the years. It’ll be a shame if we have to end their employment.

We are now in the process of building a second short-term vacation rental cabin. This one will be called “The Lily Pad” and overlooks a small pond on our property. We are hoping it is as successful as Mojo’s Loft is. We hope the incomes from the rentals will offset some of the income we’ll likely loose from ending the paving portion of our business.

A side note: I also enjoy making crafts using field stone, red birds, owls and snowmen. I participate in a few craft shows each year.

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

When at the bottom after losing my restaurant business, I talked to my doctor about my feelings of hopelessness. He gave me the phone number to the suicide hotline (not that I was thinking of suicide, but just in case I needed to talk to someone). One day, I felt that I actually should talk to someone, so I called the hotline number. After several rings, I got a voicemail recording. At that moment, I laughed so hard I got tears in my eyes. I thanked God for my sense of humor. I knew I would be alright. (I mean, you call a suicide hotline number at a dire moment and get a voicemail.) From that moment on, I slowly started moving forward and planning new goals.

After working at an uninteresting job, the position at the paving company was advertised. I applied and was hired in February of 2002. I separated from my husband in 2007 and was divorced in 2008 and living alone working my way out of bankruptcy from the whole restaurant nightmare.

In 2010, I started the sealing business, which grew exponentially each year. My credit rating has been restored and I am truly blessed today. I guess it’s true that you have to hit bottom to start your way back up, but with hard work, honesty, and persistence it is all possible.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

It took several years to get my credit rating back up after being forced into bankruptcy in 2001, But, when my credit was good enough, I was able to get a small loan from the bank to renovate a small house to live in. While renovating that house, I found a piece of property that had an old house with a septic system on it already. I was lucky to be able to sell the little house quickly and used the profits from the sell to make the down payment on the new piece of property. I tore down the dilapidated house and groomed the acreage to plan a future home. Once that was done, I was able to approach the bank with drawings for the new home, a log home which I designed. And since we were able to do much of the building ourselves, it saved a bunch of money and gave me instant equity.

That equity along with the improved credit score gave us borrowing power, which allowed us to grow the paving business.
The successful paving business allowed us to build the rental properties. All which add up to equity.

It really is just putting one foot in front of the other, as they say. Small steps forward will turn into big leaps later.