Crystal Quarters
5693 Columbia Pike, Suite 100
Falls Church, VA 22041

Crystal Quarters Corporate Housing is a local small business. For 24 years, we have served the housing needs of the government, military, and private sectors in the Washington, DC metro area. We offer quality furnished apartments at government rates and stellar customer service to individuals on short-term or extended assignment.

I consider our company a success because we are still here. 2006 was about maintenance. As new owners of an established company, my business partner and I took stock of what we had, fixed underlying structural and internal issues, and laid the ground work for future growth. 2007 will be about growth and change.

I first heard about Arlington SBDC from an event I attended in Ballston last summer. As the new Marketing Director and co-owner of Crystal Quarters Corporate Housing, I was overwhelmed and felt that I needed some help and direction. I found myself in the position of owning and operating a small business with no formal training or experience in the field.

I met with Nalin Jain of the Arlington SBDC to discuss marketing strategies. The company needed some new blood and a new direction. Mr. Jain was very helpful in helping me assess the company’s goals and plan for the future. My business partner and I were in a somewhat unique situation as the business we purchased was established but in some ways we had to approach it as a start-up.

In the summer of 2006, when we took over, the internal structure of the company was in chaos. There were many underlying issues that needed to be resolved and stabilized before any growth could occur. The condition of the apartments was also lacking. The company has leases on 48 apartments in Crystal City that are up for renewal at the moment. The units had not been worked on in many years. In coordination with the building management, we undertook the massive job of replacing carpets, painting, maintenance work, and replacing the furnishings. In some cases everything in the apartments from sofas down to silverware had to be replaced at a cost of $7,000 - $10,000 per apartment. This work was completed on all 48 apartments, while they were occupied for the most part, at some inconvenience to our clients.

Fortunately, our company has a loyal client base. They stuck with us through the upheaval and the uncertainty. We were shocked when we tallied the numbers and discovered that almost 60% of our business last year came from referrals. My business partner and I are grateful that we can fall back on the company’s reputation, and boy did we ever lean heavily on it this past winter. It is a small miracle that we are still in operation.

This coming year will be the test. We feel that we can compete with other, larger, national companies in our field. Our company has an established reputation for quality and excellent personalized customer service. We are expanding and will be testing the limits of our client base and examining whether all our hard work over the past 9 months was worth it.

Currently, we are negotiating our existing leases and talking with other properties to determine the future of the company. We are relocating some or all of our units this coming summer. We are also approaching investors and moving toward purchasing our own properties to build up the company’s holdings and assets. Ideally, we would like to reach a balance between owning and renting. In 2006, we had 7 employees, 48 apartments, and annual revenue of 1.5 million. In 2007 we hope to increase those figures, because remaining static is not an option.