Today we’d like to introduce you to Jay Kim.
Jay, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in Augusta, GA, graduated from the University of Georgia, lived and worked in California, New York and Maryland before settling down in Atlanta, GA. I’ve been in Corporate America, in Technology Sales for 15+ years. Worked for brands such as Hewlett-Packard, Virgin, and Samsung. Then about ten years ago, I set a goal to start saving money to start a business. Growing up as a second-generation in an immigrant family, and seeing my parents successfully running their business all of their life, I knew that I’d eventually start a business of mine. After building a nest-egg, it was time for me to research and see what type of business to start.
My first goal was to be local. Before starting our business, when our son was just born, my biggest regret was that I was away too often, especially when my wife needed me the most. To raise a child and a family, my presence was needed more than ever and I realized that my career advancements were actually getting in the way of my family’s success. My wife was going through a severe case of postpartum depression so we decided to dramatically alter our way of life. We researched, found a great opportunity, and I resigned from my position to launch Tailored Living Atlanta.
We’re a locally owned franchise with a network of over 200 locations in the US & Canada. We specialize in building custom closets, home organization systems, garage makeover projects, including cabinetry and epoxy flooring. Sunny, my wife, is an interior designer and we knew we would compliment each other by being in home improvement space together. What drew me to this particular brand was Tailored Living’s use of advanced AutoCAD software to design any furniture in 3D and be able to build from scratch of any particular space organization systems for our clients.
To put it simply, we actualize what you see in Pinterest & Houzz! Becoming a designer, architect, and a contractor was not an easy transition from corporate life, but staying local and doing what we love to do is hard to beat! We’ve been in business for five years serving North Georgia and we’re the fastest-growing franchise in all of our network and employing 20 Atlantans in the process!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Starting and running any business is hard enough. I got into the business with many years of running organizations and sales teams but running a construction team and managing/training a team of designers is very different. As an entrepreneur, work never stops. First-year was the hardest 12 months of my life… until the 2nd year began. While business was growing, winning awards, managing growing pains, we ran into a totally devastating personal news that we never imagined would happen to us. My wife, Sunny, was diagnosed with stage 2 Breast Cancer. Then, we realized that we didn’t even have our health insurance set up since we had a corporate health insurance coverage up to a year after I left my last position, but while in the trenches of running a business, it never occurred to us that getting a health insurance was a priority, at the time.
Basically, our insurance has expired six months prior and we didn’t have any coverage. So for the first few months of testings were paid out of pocket and we started seeing our savings get depleted in an instant. By the grace of God, our friends set up a Go Fund page and our friends, co-workers, family raised $20K to pay for medical bills while we worked out our health insurance. Sunny ended up having a double mastectomy on Sep 5, 2017, and our insurance coverage started on Sep 1. Leading up to setting dates for her surgeries, and not knowing whether we’d be covered by insurance or not was unbelievably stressful. Amazingly, insurance coverage began in perfect sequence of timing, even with pre-existing conditions like breast cancer. So our business took a back seat while we went through months of surgeries, recoveries, therapies, medicines, and so on. Now, Sunny’s healthier than ever and our outlook on life completely changed forever!
Please tell us about Tailored Living Atlanta.
We’re a locally owned franchise with a network of over 200 locations in the US & Canada. We are the largest in the US of Home Organization businesses. We specialize in building custom closets, home organization systems, garage makeover projects, including custom cabinetry, storage solutions, and epoxy flooring. We also provide interior design services and custom furniture design and build-outs. We use advanced AutoCAD software to design any furniture in 3D, ie. Fireplace Built-ins and Garage Man-caves.
Nowadays, I manage a group of Design Consultants as the Chief Design Officer, while employing Master Carpenters, an Interior Designer, Project/Ops Managers, and Installers. We are a full-service company that designs, delivers, installs, all in-house, never sub-contracting out any of our projects.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Sunny, my wife, deserves the most credit. She was my mentor in many ways, looking at life differently than I did. I was a driven, career-first kinda guy, and then Sunny introduced me to “slowing down the pace,” that it is, in fact, ok to take the lower-paying position if it meant more meaningful time with family and loved ones.
As an executive in a corporate life, it’s hard to imagine giving up years of networking, experience, career building, and then all of a sudden start a business from scratch to start all over again… but Sunny’s strong desire and knowing exactly what she wanted in life, guided me to find my own path, one that is more successful in a different way. I hated traveling for work! And now, I love being at home and the ability to come home every day, to me, is the biggest secret that I didn’t know that I had a choice.
Pricing:
- Avg. Garage Cabinetry Job is $3K-$5K.
- Custom Closet jobs are measured at $100-$200 per linear feet measurements.
- Avg. Epoxy Garage Flooring Job is $2K-$3K.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2860 Peachtree Industrial Blvd
Unit 100
Duluth, GA 30097 - Website: TailoredLiving.com
- Phone: 678-835-9270
- Email: jkim@tailoredliving.com
- Instagram: tailoredliving.atlanta
- Facebook: tailoredliving.atlanta
Image Credit:
Tailored Living, Jay Kim
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