bryanjeffrey (ABOUT)

I know, I know…. I tease you all with a new blog, and promptly forget about it for several months. For those of you who know me well, this is pretty much right on par. I get a great idea and start after it with the best of intentions, only to drop the ball for some other shinny one–or a bigger and more important one. I really do hope to maintain this someday, but no promises of consistency just yet.

At the moment we are still juggling a monster remodel of our duplex ( not nearly as monster as it might have been with out the wisdom of my wife =), a blossoming young company, growing involvement in a church that is busting at the seams, and family spread all over the northwest. The crazy part is that we still pretend that we have a life most of the time, and we go out with people now and then.

Our business really is going well, and we’re excited to see where it takes us as it grows and takes shape. The time investment is still quite significant, but we hope that it pays off, and not at too high a price. We have a great team and the privilege of serving some exceptional clients. My travel has tapered down a bit as our Spokane office is off and running now and I can focus on developing our services and improving our current offerings.

Aside from work, Alyssa and I were able to sneak away for a weekend in the Great North. Although it was a whirlwind trip, the timing could not have been better. We spent a little over a day and a half wandering around Victoria BC, shopping, talking, and just leaving all of our cares at the airport. If you ever have the chance, tea at the Empress is well worth the time. It is an architectural marvel–not to mention the first-class teas and fare. The Irish Times pub was also a great stop. I may be a bit biased in that, given our great love of most Irish pubs (Kell’s is one of our favorite Portland haunts).

Hopefully I won’t be six months in writing the next post, but only time will tell. Feel free to chide me over not keeping this up; there is no motivator like a good public taunting, and it doesn’t get too much more public. Cheers!

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Alyssa and I moved to Portland in June of ‘06, ready for a fresh start and a new city. Our reasons for coming here specifically included Portland State’s great programs in System Science (for me) and English (for her). While I don’t plan to attend for another couple of years, Alyssa is already well on her way to a masters in English literature. She is absolutely brilliant and is doing much better in her progam than she will ever admit. There has also been a romantic pull for us, since we both have loved Portland as long as we could remember and the idea of being only two hours from Canon Beach was more than a little appealing.

With my employment being fairly flexible (if not light on the work load), we were able to move down without the weight of a job search. Our first affair–after a hasty remodel of our duplex unit (thank you Avery and Geanna!)–was to find a church body. We had both decided that smaller was better. Three to four hundred would be ideal. Unfortunately, Portland has few churches of that size. They tend to be either mega (1000+) or micro (30-) gatherings with little in the moderate range.

After trying a few of the smaller churches, a friend convinced us to try out Imago Dei. It sounded a bit daunting, having some 1500 in attendance on a weekend, but we thought we could at least give it a shot. It was home at first service. We were amazed at the cultural relevance and sense of community paired with very direct and scriptural teaching. Eight weeks and one membership class later, we became full fledged members (something neither of us had done at any other church). We now attend a Home Community on Mondays and are getting more and more rooted in the body at Imago. I can only pray that everyone else has somewhere to be so connected and fed.

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For those of you who don’t already know, Alyssa, my parents and I have started a new venture together. It all began with some needs that my parents electrical business had. I watched as they struggled to find a fitting solution, even going so far as to implement one before realizing that there wasn’t a solution out there that fit. After some discussion, we they decided to hire me to build a small-scale custom system that would address their payroll and job costing needs. As I dove into the research for the project, I quickly saw the great potential that such a system would have.

I was not alone in this revelation. Dad made comment to the same effect, as mom–being the primary user of the developing system–raved about how easy it made her life. The four of us sat down and decided that our little project should be given the chance to reach the potential we all saw.

Thus began Vantage Payroll Services, the first leg of a larger vision to provide businesses with the services they need to focus on what they do best. I spent the vast majority of my time on various aspects of this business, from getting legal requirements in place to the actual coding of the system and hiring contractors for various pieces of the puzzle. Alyssa serves as our marketing guru, putting together our literature and materials and generally directing the look and feel. All four of us are active in the direction and visioneering of the business. Dad will become more involved as we dive into the actual sales portion of our beginning, and mom remains a crucial part of the development, helping me find and address various needs. She also oversees the financial aspects of the venture.
As it stands, we are about a week out from having a final contract, fully operational and informative website, and brochures about our various lines of service. I will attempt to keep you posted on our progress, but feel free to nose around the site when it goes live and email me or post any questions.

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