As Jessica Bertsch nears her sixth year of business, she reflects on the Powerhouse story and what’s ahead.

By Bianca M. Strzalkowski

Sometimes life puts you on a path you didn’t even know you were meant to travel.

The founder and president of Powerhouse Planning never aspired to be a business owner. Jessica Bertsch’s background was in higher education, working at colleges and universities until she married a United States Coast Guardsman. The frequent relocations associated with his military service eventually led to the realization that she would need to pivot her career plan.

Building a portfolio of excellence
“As we moved, it was hard to find jobs within universities,” she explained. “So, with our first move—after I had worked at Purdue University—we kind of decided maybe I needed to look at other areas to work within. And that’s when I hopped over to government contracting, and I was incredibly fortunate to be with a small, but growing firm.”

Jessica says the experience she gained at that firm allowed her to see firsthand what a succeeding venture looks like, which included an increase of human capital and a focus on expanding the firm’s vision. By the conclusion of her work there, the company had increased its revenue by 750%.

Around the same time, the Bertsch’s were beginning to discuss the future—including growing their family. Part of those talks included the reality that her husband’s career would demand some periods of separation for sea time, typically alternating tours every two years. Still, Jessica didn’t want to give up on the resume she had worked hard to build. She would find a way for home and professional life to coexist.

“As we started talking about having a family, I was trying to figure out how we could grow our family but still allow me to have a career and support him out at sea. That’s when someone came to me and asked if I would do some freelance work,” she said.

Tapping into a new talent pool
But average isn’t Jessica’s way of doing business. Instead, with encouragement from her husband, she decided to approach the newfound profession in a bigger way.

“I decided to just go for it,” she shared.

So roughly five years ago, Jessica founded Powerhouse Planning, a company comprised of freelance team members who partner with and support businesses as a whole, and Powerhouse has experienced upward mobility ever since. Not only did she lean on her own education and employment skills, but she also sought out a highly underutilized talent pool: military spouses.

Because of the company’s structure, Powerhouse is able to provide a wide range of services at a price favorable to clients’ bottom line because it includes no overhead costs. The team is built on talent, not location. By working with a fully virtual workforce, Jessica recruits and retains contractors based on performance and skill regardless of geography, a tactic highly favorable to a demographic often on the go because of military orders.

Helping clients improve the bottom line
The company’s portfolio includes supporting a mix of small- to mid-sized firms with their business development, company development, marketing, and internal and external communications. Jessica says that just as she revised her own employment plans during those early years, she applied the same approach to Powerhouse to maximize the company’s efficiencies. And it was an effective strategy because in just five years of operation, the firm has seen advancement.

“Our defining moment was about two years ago when we switched over to doing primarily retainer-based contracts,” Jessica said. “I was thinking about how we can really help companies grow, and that’s when two years ago we thought why wouldn’t we become this virtual team that backs companies and saves them thousands of dollars because they get an entire virtual team—IT, graphic design, quality assurance, project management, social media strategy. They get six people for the cost of one full-time body.”

Retention and consistency are among the core values of Powerhouse’s foundation. Jessica streamlines the process for clients by assigning a single point of contact to them, while striving to connect them with one set team of freelancers. Once Powerhouse partners with a client, the team immediately joins in on the client’s mission; seeing that business prosper becomes a top priority.

“Because we are smaller, I feel we have a larger sense of ownership with these clients,” she added.
To learn more about Powerhouse Planning’s founder, click here: Jessica Bertsch.

Konstantin “Dean” Kokoris is a freelance multimedia designer who provides multimedia services ranging from print to digital design, both motion and 3D. Dean received his bachelor’s degree in 2012 from Old Dominion University, where he studied graphic design. Since graduation, he has worked as a multimedia specialist, a web developer, and an Instructional Systems Designer (ISD).

Dean has developed a variety of training products for the U.S. Navy as both a graphic designer and an ISD. He has also been tasked with redesigning various Navy websites and portals, proving himself to be a jack of all trades.

Angela Caban is a freelance writer, published author, and branding expert. In 2010 she founded the Homefront United Network, a military spouse and family support site created to assist spouses and families through encouragement, educational articles, and resources. This network is dedicated to assisting National Guard and Reserve families with resources and to ensuring no spouse is left behind. In 2013 she was named the New Jersey National Guard Spouse of the Year by Military Spouse Magazine and Armed Forces Insurance.

In January of 2017, Angela was elected to the Milford Public School Board of Education. She is an advocate for military kids attending civilian schools as well as for current issues affecting curriculum and regionalization of smaller school districts. She also sits on advisory boards for The Milspo Project, Military Family Advisory Network and MilTribe.

As a branding expert, Angela has worked with clients such as A&E, Lifetime Network, Chevrolet, Carnival, and many more. Currently, she is one of the Community Managers for the USAA Member Community, which provides engaging and resourceful content for military and families.

Angela has an extensive background in Human Resources and Communications, with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and a Master’s in Human Resources. She has been married to her Army National Guard soldier for 13 years, and together they reside in the Garden State of New Jersey with their two children.

Kelly W. Maria is pleased to join Powerhouse Planning as a design-minded and social media savvy freelancer who, from technical writing to marketing, does a little bit of everything. Kelly has a background in marketing and special event management. She holds an undergraduate degree in dietetics and a master’s degree in business, marketing, and management. As a proud Marine Corps spouse, she has held positions in many fields including higher education, governmental consulting, military family readiness operations, organizational management, copywriting, training, web and graphic design, and office administration. The military lifestyle has given her the unique opportunity to experience many places and markets; it is through this exposure that her broad range of talents and experiences will serve Powerhouse clients well.

Kelly is currently stationed with her husband, Alan, in Miami. While brushing up on her Spanish, she enjoys practicing yoga, gardening, fishing, and hanging out with her Labrador friends, Zoe and Harley. You can find her, and her dogs, on Instagram @laesposademarinero.

Amanda Higgs joins the Powerhouse Planning team as a video editor.

Amanda has been involved with technical communications most of her life. She began her studies during elementary school and began to focus on technical communication in her middle school years. She honed her craft and graduated from Angelo State University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Communications.

She served as Angelo State University’s Rampage Features Editor from 2005-2006, during which time she received awards from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association for feature writing and feature headline writing. She also worked as an assistant at the TV production lab, RamTV, hosting, directing, and editing shows for local television and radio stations. 

Amanda has been happily serving as a military spouse for the last 13 years and has now settled in Stafford, Virginia with her husband, their two sons, and their dog.  

By: Heatherlynn Akins, Powerhouse Planning Technical Writer and Quality Assurance Specialist

As our savvy followers and fans know, here at Powerhouse (PH) we like to highlight different aspects of business life every month. For the month of April, we’ve been all about Insider Tips, aka all those ways to make your business the best it can be. As always, we are brutally honest about what works, what doesn’t, why, and where to go from here; and we’re not afraid to use PH as our primary example! Recently, I had the distinct honor to sit down with our president, Jessica Bertsch, and chat about all things Powerhouse. What she’s learned from her five years at the helm of PH, what she thinks are the biggest lessons learned, and what advice she has for anyone considering or in the process of starting a small business. Plus, she may have revealed some secrets she hasn’t shared before, so grab a cup of coffee and let’s chat!

HA: Why did you start PH as opposed to some other home business?

JB: For me, the number one consideration was I wanted to create my own environment. A true work/life balance with none of the micromanaging you see in the corporate world. That type of environment just wasn’t for me, and I realized there were so many others who felt the same way. Plus, I wanted to tap into a segment of the population I feel is the most overly qualified yet underused around: our military spouses and veterans. So I took something I was passionate about and combined it with a breadth of talent that I felt was being wasted, and here we are.

HA: What makes PH successful?

JB: I think it’s all in how I define success. I get more excited when we re-contract a client than when we get a new contract. I know we’re doing things right when that happens. I think in five years we’ve had maybe one client who hasn’t re-contracted. My goal is for our clients to realize through their interactions with us that we know what we’re doing, we’re doing it well, and we’re doing it quickly!

HA: In getting to where you are today, what is the biggest or most important lesson you’ve learned?

JB: The biggest lesson I’ve learned is just to hire the right people. I know that sounds so simple and basic, but it is the key to our success. I can’t do everything we do. For example, I can’t build a website, and you wouldn’t want me to. If I hire the right people, together we make a difference. That’s where the Powerhouse name came from. If I hire the right people, I can ensure our clients get the best service possible. In addition, I want our freelancers to be able to come and go as needed (more of that anti-corporate culture), but know they can live up to high expectations as well.

I know this answer is getting long, but I just have to add that another important lesson I’ve learned is to make sure my contracts with clients are tightly written and have addressed as many potential problems as possible. My contracts weren’t tight enough in the beginning, and I didn’t include verbiage that would allow me and my team members to walk away from a client, or for a client to exit our contract, if necessary. At one point I had to buy my way out of a contract, which was a costly financial lesson to learn!

HA: What advice would you give someone starting his/her own business?

JB: Go for it, but prepare! There will be a lot of ups and downs. Have a legit marketing and business plan. The more you prepare, the more successful you will be. It sounds simple, but the fast-paced culture we live in makes us think, “Hey, it can happen tomorrow!” It’s not true, and you have to plan and prepare for your success. For example, it took me a couple of years to realize that I do all this great marketing for other people; maybe I should do it for myself!

HA: Going back to PH and what you’ve learned, describe the biggest failure you’ve had and what you’ve learned from it.

JB: There were two: I did not pay myself the first year. I would never, ever encourage an entrepreneur to do that. You need to put monetary value on yourself so that you remember that you can do it and that you have value. It was a rough, rough first year getting PH off the ground, and if I’d paid myself I think I would have had an easier time reminding myself that I was working on something great. The other failure I mentioned in a previous answer—it’s key to write tight contracts.

HA: What are your favorite and least favorite things about PH?

JB: My favorite is definitely our clients and team. I love our clients because they provide the work that creates our team, and I love our team because without them PH cannot be successful. Our team does the work, especially the parts I can’t do! I never look at success as a personal thing, but as a team victory. On top of that, we provide a team-type of dynamic freelance service. We’re different and unique because while there are a lot of us, our clients see a one-stop shop that gives them a consortium of talent for a fraction of what they’d have to pay if they hired our freelancers as full-time employees in their own companies.

My least favorite thing is absolutely dealing with finances. I hate it. I really, really do. I like to deal with people and projects, but invoicing makes me cringe. It’s not fun, even though I like getting paid.  I also dislike doing contracts, but that’s why I have awesome freelancers who help me, too, so I can focus on the things I love!

HA: Tell us PH’s best-kept secret.

JB: Gosh, I don’t know! We’re pretty straightforward. I guess maybe some people still think I do everything, but I don’t. I use a freelance PH team for everything PH. My hands are involved in it all, but it works just like it does for our other clients. I guess something not many know is that I have an internal goal to give back to our community at least as much I as take in in revenue. At least in the sense that if we grow 200% in one year (which we’ve done every year since we started, by the way, thanks to our clients), I want to give back an equal amount. I believe we should be contributing to the community at the same rate we’re growing in revenue. My personal motto is “Be the good and do goodness in the world.” So I try to give 10% of whatever is left in the bank each month to the community.

HA: In keeping with the secret theme, tell us something about you that no one has heard before.

JB: Well, I guess there are two things I can share. First, I started PH with the finances from a separate dog-boarding business I had started. I used that business to raise the start-up funds I needed for PH. The other is that after the first year I was literally ready to close the doors on PH because it was so hard and I had so many lessons learned that I thought I couldn’t handle it. I was talking to my husband about shutting down, and he asked me if that was what I really wanted to do or if I was just super frustrated. That made me realize that I needed to focus on what made me happy about PH, and I started paying myself so that I could remember my value. After that, I never looked back, and here we are.

HA: Is there anything else you want to add about PH, lessons learned, etc.?

JB: I think that at the end of the day we do really great work and we give back. That just sounds beautiful to me. Recently we were on a long car ride and my husband asked me, “If you could have any job in the world besides being a mom, what would it be?” All I could think was, I’m already in my dream job. This is exactly where I want to be, and I’m so excited about the future.  

Thanks for joining us as we reflected on the first five years of Powerhouse Planning, what worked, what didn’t, and why we are, well, a powerhouse. For more insider information, straight from Jessica’s mouth, click on the following hyperlinks. She has tons of information she’d love to share about being a small business owner, advice and tips for success, and ways she has found a balance between being a career and a family woman. If you are a small business owner, or thinking of becoming one, sign up for our Powerhouse newsletter, which always has great information, tips, and trade secrets. As always, best of luck in your endeavors and know that PH is here to help.

Entrepreneur? Yes. you can!

Dear New CEO Self

What You Wish You Knew Before Starting a Business

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Our president was recently featured on the “Drop and Give Me 20!” podcast. Listen to the goodness here: POWERHOUSE

Heatherlynn Akins is excited to join the Powerhouse team as a quality assurance specialist and technical writer.

Heatherlynn studied for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the University of Dallas in Irving, TX. She couldn’t decide what to study, so chose concentrations in both English and German literature. During her master’s program she married an Air Force pilot and left the world of academia to follow him around the world. While doing so, she taught English to Japanese students, tutored many a student, taught creative writing, edited and wrote for several newsletters, worked as the Program Director for a martial arts studio, and managed to raise two boys to (thus far) teenage-hood. In other words, she was the typical military spouse.

After 25+ years of service, her husband retired two years ago and the family moved to Colorado. While she adores her adopted resort town, she is eager to get back to her first love, the written word. Her love affair with such began many moons ago when she gummed her first cardboard book and she is still most often found with a book in her hand, or spouting off useless trivia she’s learned from reading.

Checkout the article here:

Dear New CEO Self

Randi Cairns joins the Powerhouse Planning team as our content creator.

Randi Cairns is a consultant, nonprofit professional, and freelance writer. She is the Founder/CEO of On Call Mama, a business known for its unique ability to combine what’s best about business (efficiency and effectiveness, the good stewardship of resources, and getting your message out in a way that resonates with your intended audience) with what’s best about Mama (the one who’s always got your best interests at heart). Randi prides herself on her ability to help others shine in their personal and professional lives.

Randi has a Masters in Human Services with a specialty in Not-for-Profit Management. She has served vulnerable populations in numerous capacities for over twenty-five years. She’s been recognized by Babble.com as a “mom changing the world” and by Harlequin More Than Words as a “real-life heroine who is improving her community.” She’s the proud recipient of the National Infantry Association’s Shield of Sparta – Heroine of Infantry award and The Chapel of Four Chaplains Legion of Honor Award.

Randi is one of the coauthors of “Stories Around The Table” and a frequent blogger in the military spouse space. She has written for NextGen MilSpouse, Spouse Buzz, Homefront United Network, and the Military Family Advisory Network. She’s also the part sassy/part inspirational voice of Throwing Pots & Pans – coming one day to a bookstore near you.