Nomad Temporary Housing opened for business January 13, 2011 after five months of pre-opening efforts. This past year has been the most extraordinary year of my life. This Blog entry serves as a “Nomad Time Stamp”. For those of you following the “10,000 Mile Nomad” posts, I promise, the last entry will be done within 30 days!
What a year! When we opened with the very first unbiased choice model in the temporary housing industry, we had done our market research (Thank you to wife and business partner Heather for the inspiration!). 18 large users of temporary housing contributed to the formation of our model and strategic planning. One year later, 16 of these companies are now Nomad clients, and we also now serve scores more. Nomad has certainly exceeded our expectations. We greatly appreciate the customer acceptance we have enjoyed, and now, customer loyalty.
Any new business opening is a gamble. It is never easy. Opening an international temporary housing company from scratch, well, it does not compare to putting Neil and Buzz on the moon, but it has been an undertaking! 12 – 18 hour days, seven days per week most weeks, but loving 99% of it. I wish to thank my partners Karl Thuge and Heather James, as well as key director Kim Floyd. Without you, Nomad would not have made it off the launch pad. Heather and I wish to thank our daughters for putting up with our insane work schedules. By the way, it almost brought a tear to me eye to see my oldest daughter Ashley join Nomad as a temporary staffer on her college break last week. Hannah, you are next! Our Nomad Team, now bigger than ever, you have been the engineers and astronauts, thank you! We moved this weekend into our third set of offices in 12 months. The new offices are 3 times larger here on floor 13 as compared to floor 19. Let’s not outgrow for at least two years this time Gang! Well, maybe outgrowing is OK. It seems we are truly Nomads!
Karl, Heather and I knew we had friends in the relocation field, corporate HR world, and temp housing fields. What we did not know was just how many of these friends were not only rooting for Nomad to exceed, but how many were prepared to do business with us right from the start. Some described it as a “David and Goliath” thing, others simply root for the underdog, and others simply believed we had a better mousetrap. As we grow and take on more and more new accounts, we will never forget the support. I can name names here, all of you know who you are!!
Nomad continues to evolve. Our reach into EMEA continues, our recent trip overseas resulted in many new property choices coming into the Nomad fold. In the U.S. alone, Nomad now has over 65,000 temporary apartment offerings, 350,000 suite hotel options, and a myriad of custom rental options for our clients. Our northern neighbor Canada, well, we have it covered. Nomad’s buying power now results in preferred rental rates from hundreds of partners, as well as preferred service delivery. Our new reporting package gives a new level of information to clients in a format that easily hits data points they want to see.
Customer feedback has been incredible. Nomad has been described as “groundbreaking”, “setting a new standard”, and “world class”. For any potential client, we can put you in touch with the folks who made these comments and many more.
All of this has been a very humbling experience. We are blessed and thankful. Customers and partners are asking how big we are going to be, or what is the next milestone. Nomad goals are not directly focused on these sorts of milestones. Instead, our goal is serving guests and clients with the very best possible unbiased rental solutions and service levels. Our model aggregates most of the temp housing industry, and our clients experience the incredible array of housing options for the first time beyond using one, two or even a few brands. We will continue to bring in new quality partners. At Nomad, we are not trying to the “Big Kahuna”. That role is taken by another fine firm. We simply wish to be the best possible choice for our customers and guests. This is how Nomader’s measure success.
To all who read this, I wish you good health, prosperity, spiritual well-being, time with family, and happiness in 2012 and beyond.
Thank you for making 2011 a wonderful year for all of us at Nomad Temporary Housing! 2012 is Rock & Roll time for Nomad!