Today we’d like to introduce you to Peter Van Ryder.
Hi Peter, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
While I enjoyed my early career, it didn’t satisfy my calling to deliver a more personal experience with others. In 1999, I decided that the hospitality industry would allow me to use that analytical, process-improvement mindset along with my innate ability to deliver personalized customer service. For the next five years, I learned the ins and outs of the industry by holding management roles, first with the Crown Plaza Hotel in Houston and later with the boutique Copper (sp: Beech) Inn in Connecticut. While these provided an excellent management foundation, I realized what my true life’s ambition was: To carve a career path into Private Service.
Over the next 20 years, I gained positions of increasing responsibility, consistently being hired for larger properties and more complex households for HNW/UHNW individuals. As the estates became more complex, my experience with process improvement, employee development, and service refinement played a crucial role in solving long-standing challenges, implementing new standards, and managing projects ranging from $13MM construction renovations to private events for hundreds of guests.
Over the past decade, I came to realize that many of my peers struggle with implementing solid and scalable management systems that still consider the personal touch that defines the essence of private service. The solution was simple: Develop courses for Private Service Professionals to empower them with the tools to build their own management systems. To date, I have taught hundreds of elite private service professionals how to create scalable management systems that are driven by simple yet highly effective concepts such as a comprehensive household and estate manuals and operational systems. On the technical side, I was selected by the prestigious Charles MacPherson Academy in Toronto to teach their Housekeeping course as well as travelling China to teach western etiquette, protocol, table settings, and housekeeping.
Today, I am a champion for promoting the science of service along with the art. A drive stemming from my early career and the struggles I had, and how lost and isolated I felt at times. My heart will always be filled with gratitude in being able to serve people in their most intimate settings and improving the work lives of those who take on the challenge of working in luxury homes.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In my early Private Service career, I discovered a profound lack of connection between me, the industry, and my colleagues. We work in homes that are surrounded by other large homes and can go years without knowing who works next door. It’s not like I can walk up to Mark (sp: Cuban’s) door and ask to speak to the Household or Estate Manager. This isolation was the root of other difficulties that came with this career, from awareness of the standards of service and compensation to the knowledge of what training and education options are out there and what path I should cultivate. This was the spark that created Estate Management Solutions. Connecting professionals, teaching them how to advocate for themselves, and providing an avenue to success and a better career.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Estate Management Solutions provides elegant solutions that lead to gracious living. We have four primary divisions; our largest is Placement & Recruitment, whose focus it is to source the highest level of professionals to work in private homes. We staff homes across the US, but Texas is our backyard and where we thrive. We are the only Texas-based company that does what we do and have one of the most comprehensive screening processes in the US.
EMS Educational & Training provides resources to the Private Service industry. We offer a class called the Essentials of Household & Estate Management, in which we teach Private Service Professionals how to navigate the complex issues of working in a private home, teach how to implement a household management system, provide them with access to the greater industry, and help them better define their career path.
EMS Fractional Service helps fill in the gaps where homes are struggling or need a little extra help. We can provide temporary coverage while we source new staff members or the current ones are on vacation. We can also maintain their secondary residence and make sure the fridge and pantry are stocked with their preferred items when they arrive. We have a deep Rolodex of vendors and fellow private service professionals that give us the resources to decipher any complex issue and implement a solution that will stand the test of time, from formal dinner service to renovation and build projects.
And, of course, EMS Luxury Domestic Consulting, where we help luxury homeowners define their staffing needs and guide them in how to compensate them properly, ensuring they are following all local and federal employment and payroll laws. We also use all the tools we teach to set up operational systems that will run any home. If they have a SaaS software they prefer, we can set up a system to keep track of maintenance and cleaning and provide quick access to any needed household document. If they don’t have a preference, we use a combination of Google Workspace and Trello to offer an economical solution that is easy to learn and can be used on a variety of levels, from household operations to entrepreneurial execution.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Oh Yes! Covid brought a lot of negatives, but there were also positives that were born of those struggles. One of them being the widespread acceptance of video conferencing. This, coupled with the hesitation to travel, has forced the few educators we have to adapt and start offering their material either completely online or a hybrid where you learn about the administrative and factual content via Zoom or self-paced online training and attend the school location for shorter periods to learn the hands-on skills. Which has in turn brought more awareness of online micro education. Private Service Professionals can now cultivate their careers without needing to sacrifice their limited free time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://hnwsolutions.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/estatemanagementsolutions/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EstateSolutionsDallas
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/estate-management-solutions-carrollton?osq=estate+management+solutions
- Other: https://hnwsolutions.com/estate-management-solutions/domestic_placement_agency/
