Recently, I had the wonderful opportunity of interviewing the co-owner of K & R Grading & Surfacing. Through the interview, I have received amazing and incredibly insightful information on what owning a business is actually like. 

Owning and operating your own business can bring both opportunities and obstacles. Owner of K & R Construction, Kayla Gutches says when owning a business “You make more money and get paid directly, which cuts out the middleman.” For many people, designing your own schedule as well as payroll can be a huge financial plus within being your own employer so to speak. However, with all pros come some kind of cons.  

The obstacle within being responsible for a business is a busier schedule, Gutches states that “Schedules are busier than we expected, another stress point is making sure that the business has everything paid for such as insurance, limited liability insurance, as well as worker compensation.” Moving forward, I asked Mrs. Gutches what motivated her to start the business. She responded, “What motivated me and my husband the most is to not work for anyone else, to make our own money, and have adjustable schedules.”

When asked the question if she enjoys owning a business present day as much as she did when she and her husband first started, Gutches responded with, “Yes, because me and my husband came from nothing and made something of ourselves.” Through this quote, we can see how important the success of a company means to a company and their intimate lives.

Looking deeper into the everyday schedule of a business owner, I asked what her average day looks like; “My day consists of making sure our consumers/customers are being called back to ensure whether they are satisfied with our work or not.” As you can see, customer service and guaranteeing that people are satisfied is a very large portion of running a business. 

Another large part of running a business is running various errands, “Informing people that they need to sign on leases, mailing off checks, sending out invoices, and depositing any payments that have been received.” As Mrs. Gutches co-owns with her husband, she says that “My husband works with the employees while I tend to handle the more gentle tasks.”

When asked if this business is considered a family business, Gutches responds “Yes, me and my husband plan on passing the business onto our children who we hope will pass it on to their children, I want my kids to have equal parts in the responsibility of owning the business.”

Finally, I asked Kayla if she enjoys this job; “While it has ups and downs, I enjoy it because I don’t have to work for anyone. A lot of the things I do can be done remotely from home, I believe it’s better than working your standard 9:00-5:00 job.”

You can contact K&R by calling (775) 209-8255.