This Couple Is Pursuing Their ardour (And making a living) of their Golden Years

many individuals dream of starting their very own business. What prompts some folks, and now not others, to take the jump?

steadily, it doesn’t take a lot: just a small push and a bit of gumption.

Take John and Carolyn Brzezinski, a husband in his early sixties and wife in her late fifties, who recently retired from their respective careers in construction and architecture to start out an online industry, university Icons, which sells nice art images of university campuses. over the past two years, the Brzezinskis have spent their days traveling across the united states, taking pictures college structures in all their glory, and selling these pictures on their website. Their story goes to show that you don’t need to be young or even specifically web-savvy to create a thriving e-commerce business.

John Brzezinski, a development manager at Northwestern college, has at all times been an avid photographer. over time, Carolyn, a municipal architect, had toyed with the theory of promoting his artwork. It was the up to date recession, which hit both of them exhausting, that brought on the couple to take their idea critically. “At that second, the market didn’t need any architects or somebody in development departments,” she says. “It was surprising: We had a daughter with a 12 months left of faculty and the best way forward seemed complicated.” but slightly than merely falling into despair, the couple determined to mud off their old business concept and notice if it had legs. “We had been convinced that lets figure something out,” she remembers.

The Brzezinskis believed there was once a huge market in high quality images of campuses. students spend only a brief period at their school, then leave with many fond recollections. As they start their grown-up lives in nice residences, it appeared affordable that they would wish inventive pictures of their alma maters to hold on their partitions. “Our business plan came collectively after we realized that nobody else was once advertising or showcasing the gorgeous architecture throughout faculties,” Carolyn says.

They started by using promoting their merchandise to the Northwestern college group in Evanston, Illinois, where they are living, and located that there used to be certainly a requirement for his or her products. besides students and professors, the universities themselves began buying the artwork for donors, retiring staff participants, essential alumni, and even conference rooms on campus. So the couple made up our minds to take their digital camera on highway trips to seize other campuses and develop their business. Carolyn, who is enthusiastic about city renewal, loves making a choice on the actual nuances within the architecture and identifying their history. John, for his section, works arduous to seize these structures at exactly the precise angle. they’ve at the moment visited over 500 college campuses and have hundreds of images of their inventory, which they put online on their e-commerce web site.

whereas this lifestyle appears idyllic, it also demands quite a lot of hard work and energy. “Like standard small trade owners, we’re doing the whole lot,” Carolyn says. “We do the images, plan the road trips, advertising and marketing the products and sending off the images to patrons.” Even highway journeys are sophisticated. The couple must map out their trajectory very sparsely so that they may be able to seize structures when the light is excellent. additionally they try to show up when the campus is as empty as that you can imagine, which steadily approach exhibiting up early on Sunday mornings. It’s all the time a logistical puzzle, however the one nonnegotiable a part of these trips for these couples is the small reward of visiting a pleasant restaurant in each and every new town they visit.

one in all Carolyn’s largest challenges has been to examine the whole lot there’s to know about internet affiliate marketing in a very quick time. college Icons has a presence on all the main social media web sites, in addition to Etsy, which occupies a lot of Carolyn’s time. Pinterest has been probably the most very best systems for the trade, due to the fact that it’s so visually centered. “it is vitally time-ingesting to keep up with social media advertising,” she says. “You in point of fact wish to be paying consideration all the time, as a result of things exchange so speedy.” but these efforts have been paying off. now not simplest do they’ve a steady circulation of customers buying merchandise on their web site, however restaurant chains, like Potbelly’s, have bought pictures for his or her places just about universities to indicate their allegiance to the community. in the future, Carolyn hopes that a national model like Starbucks will likelihood upon their website and request images for his or her retail outlets near campuses. The couple’s trade has been doubling once a year and it gives enough of an income for them to live simply.

even if the work can get hectic, the Brzezinskis believe themselves very lucky to have gotten their business off the bottom. they are each doing exactly what they love: John enjoys taking photos, whereas Carolyn enjoys researching architectural icons, visiting them, and sharing them with buyers. they’re also getting to spend their golden years collectively, seeing the united states of america and incomes a good residing.

“We’ve needed to stretch out a little bit bit and research new issues,” Carolyn says. “however we’re still very much engaged in our passions that are structure, photography, road journeys, and eating places.”