Fully 95% of my business comes from referrals from friends and past clients. I’m blessed to have an incredible network of friends and people I’ve met just living the NW Way of Life here in Bellingham.

That also means that those people are equally blessed, because we’re all interconnected. Bellingham is a small town, and it’s common during any of my clients/friends’ move that I get to experience how great the people here really are.

“Many Hands Make Light Work!”

Some good friends of mine in Edgemoor just closed on the sale of their house, and the purchase of another just one block away. Their daughter is the sweetest little 5-year-old you’ve ever met, and she’s a great helper, but being five she’s not up for heavy lifting.

So we organized a work party to recruit our athletic friends to help make the move. Here’s how we did it:

1) I made up a flyer with the who/what/when/where/how, announcing that on Sunday afternoon from 4 to 6 we’d have a truck and a dolly and a house-full of big furniture and floor tools that needing moving.

2) My clients arranged to have pizza and beer on sight by 6 p.m. so the weary helpers would be nourished and hydrated in style after the work was done!

3) Four days before the big day, I sent out copies of the flyer via e-mail to all our friends we know through kayak racing.

4) Then I followed up a couple days later with at least a dozen of the “helpers” to make sure we’d have a small army on hand. Everyone was game!

When Sunday afternoon came, the heavy-lifters and gung-ho helpers showed up en force! We had so much help it didn’t even take the two hours to get things moved, so it was more of a fun, social gathering than a work party.

The pizza and beer showed up right on time and we feasted like kings! (Or like a bowling league, if you will).

The point of this blog is to remind you what friends are for. Moving is hard work, but it can be fun and fast and involve a feast with friends. Call on your friends to help you out… or have me organize it for you. It’ll be my pleasure!