LIFESTYLES
MAKE YOUR MOVE
Ready for a new line of work? Do your homework
first.
BY KATE MCGRAW
For the Journal
When Bob Andreotti made a drastic career
change this year, he didn’t think it was especially dramatic. After all, he had
already changed careers once before.
A classic
baby boomer, Andreotti started his adult work life as an aeronautical engineer
with a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In his late 20s,
he returned to school and earned a law degree from Southern Methodist
University. He practiced civil litigation in Dallas for 13 years.
In March 2006, he put the practice of law on
hold to purchase, with his wife, Sandra Skogen, a 20-year-old luxury boutique,
Onorato Home and Ambiance, featuring high-end linens and home accessories in
Santa Fe. The change came primarily because Andreotti and Skogen wanted to live
in Santa Fe.
After a lot of study, Andreotti,
44, decided a retail business would be the best income producer, so the
engineerturned-lawyer became a retail merchant.
Andreotti doesn’t think there’s anything
remarkable about his career changes, and he’s right. These days, various
national surveys show, most adults are expected to make at least three major
career changes before retirement. Baby boomers, those born from 1946 to 1964,
are the most restless of all.
An October 2000
survey by the Conference Board reported that barely 50 percent of Americans were
happy with their jobs, and boomers were the least content. Their job
satisfaction had declined from 57 percent five years earlier to less than 47
percent. A study of U.S. adults done in 1997 confirmed that half of those
surveyed had made major career changes in the previous two years.
An engineer’s
precision
Andreotti and Skogen, who don’t
have children, fell in love with Santa Fe on a vacation visit in 1990. They
loved the climate and weather, he says.
Skogen
is a marathon runner and discovered the advantages of high-altitude training.
Andreotti’s passion is flying sailplanes, and the thermals over New Mexico’s
plains are perfect.
They bought a condominium
and made long-term plans to retire in Santa Fe, but boomer restlessness set in.
The two lawyers — Skogen retained her job with
Idearc, a telephone directory company, and mostly telecommutes — began
discussing ways and means of relocating.
Andreotti approached the project with an
engineer’s precision, spending nearly two years on his search. When he changed
from engineering to law, he says, he had done it after a thoughtful study of the
defense industry and an estimation of where it was going. He took the same,
cooleyed look at relocating to Santa Fe.
“I did
a lot of research on the Internet and looked at Santa Fe’s business climate and
economic base,” Andreotti says. “I decided that an established retail business
would be the best option.”
He deliberately
avoided businesses that dealt with his and his wife’s enthusiasms for the
outdoors, running and soaring.
“I wanted to get
into a business where I could learn it objectively,” Andreotti says. “I didn’t
want to get into a business involving a passion, because then I might have made
business decisions based on passion. When this business opportunity came, we
jumped on it.”
Old skill sets
Onorato, which handles luxury bed linens
and luxury bath items, is a 20-year-old business. Andreotti operates the shop
day-to-day, managing the “outstanding” four-person staff and watching the
finances. Skogen handles marketing and the Web site.
Owning and running a retail business for the
first time in midlife hasn’t made Andreotti uncomfortable. “As far as retail
goes, I have always enjoyed dealing with people. In a law practice, you’re
dealing with people’s problems. In retail, you’re giving them some kind of
pleasurable experience.
“When people come into
Onorato, they’re bringing not so much a problem as a desire to be fulfilled,” he
says. “That’s kind of nice. It takes some of the edge off the relationship.”
Andreotti says he was “certainly not an expert
in linens” when the couple bought the shop, but he learned quickly. Acquiring
and processing detailed information about a business or service was a skill he
had learned as an attorney, so he just applied that skill.
“Learning is something that lawyers do all the
time,” he says. “You have to learn, and learn quickly, what other people do — in
order to best represent your client.”
He’s got
the patter down pat. “I’ve learned that there are a lot more options than I ever
knew in bed linens, but if you think about it, it makes sense,” Andreotti says.
“You spend half your life with these materials. You want to be comfortable, and
create a place you can enjoy.
“You don’t have to
buy luxury linens for your bed, but it makes sense to consider something a
little more than the bare necessity.
“We do it
all the time, when we buy a car, or furniture.”
Few changes
So far, Andreotti says he and Skogen have
only “tweaked” the business. They’ve moved the furniture around and added a
couple of new linens.
But a bigger change will
occur later this year, when the couple adds a line of home furniture to the
inventory.
They joined the Santa Fe Chamber of
Commerce and Santa Fe Alliance for Small Business, and Andreotti has attended
meetings and met fellow business owners. “I have discovered that we follow every
trend,” he says. “If other businesses are doing well, so are we. If we’re
experiencing a slow time, so is everyone else.”
The business hasn’t had any big highs or lows
since they bought it, he says.
Meanwhile, the
two Texas attorneys crammed for the New Mexico bar exam last summer, and passed
it. Andreotti says that at some point, he might get back into litigation part
time, but he’s in no hurry.
For the time being,
he’s planning to relax and enjoy his third career.
Luxury boutique
Onorato Home and Ambiance
109 E. Palace Ave., Santa Fe
(505) 984-2008
onoratosantafe.com
EDDIE MOORE/JOURNAL
Bob Andreotti has entered his third career as owner of Onorato Home and
Ambiance in Santa Fe. Previously, he worked as an aeronautical engineer and an
attorney.
EDDIE MOORE/JOURNAL
Onorato Home and Ambiance carries high-end linens and home accessories in
Santa Fe.
An Italian terry cloth robe hangs
among the other home accessories at Onorato Home and Ambiance, which was
purchased by boomer Bob Andreotti and his wife.
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