When Marla Beck traveled to Washington D.C. in May to be honored as the State of Washington’s Small Business Person of the Year, the journey represented sweet vindication for nine years of hard work — not to mention the scary leap to start her own business.
“I was thrilled,” she said. “It just felt really cool. I’m not a flashy Internet company.”
The Magnolia resident, who writes a monthly column in this newspaper on senior care issues, has a background in accounting. That grounding gave her the know-how to launch her business, Andelcare, which started out as At Home Care in 2003.
Andelcare now has 100 employees.
The mission of the Bellevue-based, home care agency is to let seniors live at home “with dignity and independence” for as long as they can, Beck said. Among the services her company provides are companionship, homemaking, personal care, nursing care, hospice care and care management.
In Beck’s acceptance speech for the state award at the Museum of Flight in April, she told the crowd, “I started a company because I wanted meaningful work, an enjoyable work environment and be rewarded and appreciated.”
After recounting how, in her 40s, her life turned upside down, she said: “I was in a place where the greatest risk was not to take one.”
The 1981 University of Washington graduate started out as a CPA and worked as an auditor with Arthur Andersen, one of the nation’s biggest accounting firms before it went out of business.
“I never really liked accounting,” Beck said. “In my 20s and 30s I was working to work. Now 53, Beck has advice for aging Boomers with elderly parents who are dealing with the medical establishment.
“You’re a commodity,” she said. You’ve got to be an advocate for your parents.”
She also noted that this can be a frustrating experience for people who want quick answers. “This is not another business problem to be solved,” she said. “There are no overnight solutions. You’ve got to pick your battles.”
Beck said the trip to Washington D.C. was a “whirlwind;” the awards ceremony, sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration, was particularly rewarding. “It was amazing to talk to the other state winners,” she recalled. “We were all being recognized for being good businesses.”
Of her own business, Beck concluded: “We’re not getting rich and it’s not glamorous, but I can sleep at night. I’m creating jobs and I’m creating choices. It’s nice to be recognized for doing the right thing.”