The Well Planned Gal
I didn’t set out to start a planner company. I started creating planners to manage my time more effectively. Before long, it became clear that I was good at managing my time, getting things done, staying organized, and living my life in a way that allowed me to prioritize what I valued most.
It all began when I tagged along with my dad to work at age 14.
I wasn’t there to just hang out in the office; I needed to take on the bookkeeping, accounting, and other administrative duties. So my dad wrote my daily to-do list on a steno pad, and we checked off tasks as I got things done. I felt a sense of accomplishment every day, and it helped to instill a strong work ethic in me at an early age.
When I left home at 18 to get married and start a family, I took with me the time management skills I’d developed. The to-do lists came in handy when I had five kids in seven years, and I was running my household like clockwork.
Along the way, I taught myself database programming and decided to start a software design company. Again, the to-do lists continued to help me keep things in check, check, check—done!
But when I decided to homeschool on top of everything else, more responsibilities meant the simple to-do lists simply weren’t cutting it anymore. I had to expand my approach to time management and figure out a way to keep things running smoothly.
I needed a planner that allowed me to handle my homeschooling tasks, my dinner menu, and my shopping lists, but I couldn’t find anything on the market that worked for me and my family. What started as a printed bundle of Excel spreadsheets in a binder quickly grew into something that checked all the boxes.
I recognized right away that other homeschool moms could use what I’d created. Since I already knew there wasn’t anything on the market like it—and since I was already an entrepreneur—it only made sense for me to turn what I’d created into a business.
The first planner was a big hit at homeschool conventions, and parents loved learning the planning strategies I was able to teach them.
As my kids got older, I realized I needed to help them stay focused and on-task too. I’d write down their tasks on a steno pad, as my dad did for me. But instead of bookkeeping, I was helping them keep track of their school work, lessons, practice, and chores—and it worked like a charm. So I used the strategies we developed to create the student planner tool.
This pattern continued as I encountered challenges and solved them. When my family and I found ourselves needing to organize and manage more responsibilities and goals in our daily lives, I continued creating planning and organizing tools to meet our needs. These tools have continued to meet the needs of our growing community of customers over time too.
That’s how I’ve grown The Well Planned Gal into the company it is today, and I look forward to serving our customers for years to come.
