“Never in a million years,” says the long-time publishing industry executive, who now runs three Blissful Yoga studios in the Valley with his wife, Rosa Rendon.

Yoga was Rosa’s passion, but she never envisioned herself on the entrepreneurial side of the mat either. The couple’s professional lives have changed radically since Rosa stepped beyond her role as stay-at-home mom to explore a career as a yoga teacher and studio owner.

That’s not the only thing that’s changed.

“Rosa’s really blossomed into this fantastic person who I not only get the joy of working with every day but the joy of taking home every night,” Moises says. “I respect her more now that I work with her.”

It happened almost by chance, that ray of opportunity, and it nearly passed them by. But life’s funny. The future can change just by turning a corner, literally.

With Moises’ encouragement to follow her passion, Rosa had bought a tiny studio in Glendale where she taught classes. However, the business wasn’t viable in the space, and pre-Recession rent at Rosa’s dream locale in Citadelle Plaza was astronomical.

It was do-or-die time when they found themselves driving by the Citadelle again six months into the economy’s nose dive. Rosa was at the wheel, and Moises gave her a choice: turn left into the plaza to see if the lease had become more affordable ... or go straight and close the studio in a month.

She turned left.

“We immediately had a great response from the community, and the word of mouth was totally invaluable,” Rosa says of that first Blissful Yoga studio. “We’re really lucky to have amazing staff and people. They have to be passionate about yoga. We can teach them everything else.”

Rosa considers herself blessed to be in the “magical” work of offering health and wellness, and students respond to her personable expertise. While other businesses have struggled in the down economy, Blissful Yoga quickly opened two more studios, one near Desert Ridge and another at the Scottsdale Quarter. The studios offer a variety of classes and a unique yoga wall, which allows students to hang off the wall on straps, as though in traction. “It’s absolutely amazing. Our yoga wall classes are always full,” says Rosa, who teaches 10 classes a week at three locations.

Moises’ “part-time” duties include staff management, operations, payroll and putting out fires. As the yoga business grew, he moved his New York City publishing office to the elegant, eco-friendly main studio at the Quarter. “I like to say my job has become my hobby, and her hobby has become my job,” he says. “It’s been a journey, for sure.”

The couple strongly believe in supporting the community, which is why Blissful Yoga offers “karma” classes, where a portion of proceeds goes to local charities, as well as “pay what you can” sessions. “You don’t want to make yoga unaffordable for anyone. It really is about making a difference and transcending beyond the business itself,” Rosa says. “As long as people have a smile on their faces after class, we’re happy.”

Though many couples refuse to discuss work on the home front, Moises and Rosa sometimes find themselves sharing ideas or tackling problems at midnight. It works for them, Moises says, because they keep the talks positive—and they don’t look back.

“Both of us are very passionate people,” he says. “Whatever needs to get done, we do it, and do it fast, and we’ve learned to live with our decisions. There are no bad decisions; we go past it, no attachments and no grudges. It’s very much a yoga thing.”

The couple, who relocated to Arizona from Mexico City in 2004, say they also try to notice surprising things in each other every day, and that helps to keep them going after two decades together.

Their advice to other “couplepreneurs” is to not hold each other back from chasing a passion, even if there are consequences.

“Be willing to take the plunge into the abyss together, holding hands. It can’t be any scarier than getting married,” Moises says with a laugh.

Embarking on a business and the evolution it’s sparked has brought them even closer together, he adds.
“I married someone who is completely different from the person Rosa is right now,” says Moises. “She really makes me fall in love with her every single day of every single month of every year.”

Rosa smiles at her husband. “He’s been such an important part of this whole journey and so supportive ... he is one of the most generous persons I know. He is putting himself in my dreams, so I love him more.” 

Rosa Rendon & Moises Martinez
Blissful Yoga Studio
Scottsdale Quarter, 480-636-7667
(Norterra Plaza/Phoenix,
Citadelle Plaza/Glendale)
Married: 18 years
Business partners: 2.5 years

He Said, She Said: Who’s the Boss?

By Mark J. Scarp

Each workday they refill cartridges with ink, a growing enterprise in a business climate that involves making resources last longer.

But each night the talk of the toners and printers at the heart of John and Nancy Fortunato’s business gives way to the heart of their nearly 32-year marriage: home, children, a new grandchild on the way—most anything but the office.

The couple ,whose last name really means fortune, say that luck has nothing to do with how it smiles on their relationship as well as their two Cartridge World franchises on the edges of the Scottsdale Airpark.

It involves following some simple rules, the simplest being “leave work at work.”

“We might unload a little bit,” John said. “But usually it’s back to family issues, household.”

Nancy said she and her husband might spend 15 minutes going over the day, but then it’s put aside.
“Then we just talk about fun things,”

she said, leaving work talk behind. “I suppress it.”

Life at the office goes even more smoothly now than when the Scottsdale Airpark News last interviewed the Fortunatos for a story in the May 2006 issue.

“Now we know our routines, our customer base, what they need,” John said. After eight years with Cartridge World, they’ve learned to keep an inventory that matches their customers’ needs so well that when someone asks for something, it’s almost always there.

“Staples, Office Max, they send people to us,” John said.

They agree that is wasn’t quite the same in the beginning.

Nancy had been a stay-at-home mother with three grown daughters and was looking to build a business. John’s earlier career was as what he called a “corporate muckety-muck.”

He said that when he and Nancy opened their first store, he struggled with leaving behind an “I want to be the boss” approach.

That first store was the chain’s third in the entire state of Arizona, and “there was not a lot of history,” John said. “My corporate hat was always on, thinking about how to get money,” John said.

“We had a few fights,” his wife said, smiling.

“Not fights, disagreements,”John says, smiling back.

“Well, some harsh disagreements,” she says, still smiling.

But that passed quickly. Now they see things the way well-used-to-each-other couples do, in a way reading each other’s thoughts:

“I kind of got used to it, and he slowed down being the boss,” she said.

“I took my corporate hat off, and now I’m a worker bee,” he said.

Today, John mostly tends to the business side and is “the toner guy,” while Nancy is the customer-service expert and planner.

The couple agreed they have the same kind of solid partnership at work they already had at home, achieved in part by keeping their eyes on common goals while still being individuals.

The chain’s executives must have been able to recognize success, because during the Fortunatos’ first four years with Cartridge World, they were assigned to train other couples aiming to become franchisees.

To keep the romance alive in a work-and-home relationship, Nancy and John like to cook meals together, play cards and talk a lot.

Nancy said their time together is enhanced by the fact they each have some individual interests.

“John’s a hiker. I’m not,” she said.

And they do separate things together. He spends an hour or so on his computer checking on investments while she’s in another part of the house “in my domain,” she said.

They agreed that couples should be good listeners.

“That’s because we’re used to reading the other’s mind,” John said, and the two laughed.

“We’ve grown, and we’ve learned a lot,” Nancy said. 

John & Nancy Fortunato
Cartridge World
14884 N. Pima Road, 480-443-4465;
14202 N. Scottsdale Road, 480-361-5961
Married: 32 years
Business partners: 8 years

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Why Not Do It Ourselves?

By Kimberly Hundley

 

Since he’d retired with a fat compensation package, tech wizard Phil Senff could always tell what kind of day his wife had had at the office by listening to the way she came through the door. On this particular day in 2004, he cringed. Kim was steaming, fed up with the shoddy standards of her employer, an in-home care service. She walked straight through the house and stared at him.

“Why can’t we just do this ourselves?” she demanded.

Phil thought a minute. “I don’t know. Why can’t we?”

Fast-forward a few months of research, and the Senffs had bought themselves a Comfort Keeper franchise in Phoenix. In their first year, they did $250,000 in revenue, doubling that number ever year after, until “the economy went a little wacky” and revenue settled at a $2 million plateau, says Phil.

Today, the Senffs have more than 100 employees and own nine territories—more than any other franchisee in the entire Comfort Keeper system. But they didn’t “set out to set the world on fire and have the biggest agency in the world,” says Kim.

“Our goal was to go into business and take care of as many seniors as we possibly can, and to treat them the way they deserve to be treated—not just the seniors, but the caregivers as well,” Phil explains. “We knew if we did what our real goal was, finances wouldn’t be a problem.”

Though Kim and Phil hadn’t owned a business together before, they were confident their skills would be a good fit for Comfort Keepers. Phil had owned and managed a number of enterprises, including one of the first ISP companies in the Valley. Kim had a background in the industry; she’d taken care of seniors since her first job in a nursing home at the age of 17, and  most recently she’d worked for a direct competitor, doing every job in that office.

“I only wished I had thought of it earlier,” she says now, adding that the couple selected Comfort Keepers because the franchise’s mission matched her own, to take care of clients as though they were your family members.

Phil handles the big-picture “business aspect” of things, keeping up on contracts, accounts payable, staff management, while Kim provides a yin to his yang. “She’s a real pro, really concerned about her employees and clients. That is something I haven’t always experienced in different jobs over the years,” he says.

The Senffs’ No. 1 rule is not talking about work at home. “You can’t let it be your life,” says Phil, who coaches couples coming into the franchise system. “You’ve got to train yourself that you have 40 hours to do the work. If you take it home at night, you get nothing done during the day and end up doing it at night. I tell people all the time, have your downtime.”

Sometimes Kim says she tries to nag Phil at home, but she doesn’t get far. “It goes in one ear and out the other,” she says, shrugging.

Phil and his wife work together in the office every day, but she gets there a couple hours earlier, and he stays later. “We always have lunch together, and that’s where we talk about anything that’s pressing in here, and compare notes,” says Phil. “There are always going to be little disagreements here and there. The key is to talk about it.”

Couples who plan to start a business together should create an organizational chart of all the positions that should be in the company and divide them up, he adds. “Even if it’s just the two of you, you’ll know each other’s boundaries and not cross over. If you can do that successfully, you’ll lessen the likelihood  of conflict.”
These days, Kim admits she’s about ready to take a break from the office for a while.

As for Phil, the business his wife sparked needs no schedule tweaking. “My version of retirement is to be able to do what you want, when you want, how you want,” he says. “I tell people I’m still retired.” 

Phil and Kim Senff
Comfort Keepers
7600 E. Redfield Road, 602-441-4256
Married: 37 years
Business partners: 7 years