After closing the doors in July on the downtown gelato shop she owned with her husband, and leaving her position with Integrity Home Care in the same month, Chantal Drennen has joined Phoenix Home Care Inc. – a company born in 2011 following a split among Integrity Home’s owners. Though she said Gelato Mio wasn’t losing money, the workload the Drennens shared with two jobs each was too much to bear. Her new challenge as a regional marketing manager is educating doctors, nurses and the community about Phoenix Home Care’s services.
The New Team “I started the week after Labor Day weekend. … I don’t think there was an opening at Phoenix at the time I came along. They custom tailored it. I think they saw an opportunity whenever they met with me, and then they offered me the position. It was just one of those things. They saw my ability and my knowledge. … I did not know [Phoenix Home Care founder Phil Melugin]. I actually met (him) after I joined [Integrity]. I did know Darla Marler, because my husband used to work with her when we were back in college. She also started with Phoenix right after the whole change. Darla and I came after the whole split. We knew each other briefly, but [my husband] was the main connection there.”
A Step Up “At Integrity, I was a community liaison, so I was just kind of a marketer. … I was there for about a year. … The opportunity that (Phoenix) provided me here was a little more challenging for me. Whenever I left Integrity, the opportunity was still not there on the table, but whenever I learned about it, I realized it was a step up. Being a regional marketing manager – and I know this sounds cheesy – I could expand my wings. It is more of a challenge than just being a marketer.”
Education Situation “My duties and responsibilities are just to make sure I’m involved in the community, that I can educate doctors and nurses in the medical field about the services we provide, and also educate our community on what are the resources we can provide. … I want our community to realize that there are different options (such as) when mom and dad need rehabilitation or if someone gets into a motorcycle wreck and needs help around the house with those daily activities that we so often take for granted – changing, bathing, cooking. … And the other thing is that I am the No. 1 point of contact. So, whenever someone calls and says, ‘My mom is needing some help and I’m not sure what kind of services she is needing, but she needs some kind of assessment.’ Then, she could call me on my cell phone. I would go meet with her and see what kind of services we could provide, and then we would go from there.”
Moving On “We thought about having an agent to put (Gelato Mio) up for sale, but to be honest, I was scared. When (a business) sometimes changes ownership, people can say, ‘Oh, it is not the same. What happened?’ We left on a good note, and I kind of wanted people to remember Gelato Mio on a good note. So, we closed down, and I’ve been selling everything separately to people who, you know, would be interested in a gelato case. We only have two cases left from all the other cases we had from Harter House and the other places where we were wholesaling.”
Leaving Mio “It was our little baby, but we had to make a decision on whether we would continue doing it. … We were breaking even, (but) because we were working full time … I didn’t want to get so tired that I wasn’t going to deliver good service. … We definitely learned a lot and had key people that we met through Gelato, and that helped us out with those connections in our community. I don’t regret it a bit, but at the same time, the challenge of (helping) someone to choose a flavor or the challenge of helping someone for a lifetime – I’d rather have the challenge of helping someone with more than just [picking] a flavor.”
This installment of Springfield Business Journal’s Architects & Engineers Project Report showcases 26 endeavors by area design and engineering professionals.
