From Loss to Legacy: How Andrea Marquardt Finck Built Businesses That Give Families Back Their Time

Andrea Marquardt Finck’s entrepreneurial path was shaped by profound personal loss, resilience, and a determination to give people back their most valuable resource—time. As a multipreneur leading businesses like Lightsome and Home Watch Madison, she transforms the overwhelm of estate management and home oversight into peace of mind and organization. In this edition of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight series, Andrea shares how she turned life’s hardest “Take Stock Moments” into a thriving mission: helping families preserve legacies, navigate transitions, and find calm in the chaos of modern living.

Hi, Andrea Marquardt Finck! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?

I'm a multipreneur that has three businesses – all focused on helping people organize, manage and oversee their home and personal affairs. We serve people locally in southern Wisconsin (Madison and Lake Country) as well as virtually. With Lightsome and Home Watch Madison, people reclaim their most precious resource –TIME. 

As estate managers, we serve people providing services to care for and maintain their homes while the owner is away - - traveling, vacation properties and after someone has died. 

One of the most impactful things we do for people is legacy organization. So much of people's life is connected to a user ID and Password. With people living globally now, we manage important legal and other documentation, records and estate information into a digital online repository that provides access to trusted advisors, family members and other authorized parties. Think of a digital filing cabinet that keeps all your important documents safe and accessible. Even things like treasured family recipes, photos, passwords or anything that can be digitized will be stored here. If you think of all the people whose homes were destroyed by floods and wild fires, how are they going to produce a copy of their car title? Jewelry appraisals, documents and treasures that have been handed down for generations? If you have everything digitally organized, life becomes much easier. 

After someone passes away, we leverage the digital organizing to help Executors and Personal Representatives settle estates and manage the real estate and personal property too. The impact is unreal. Executors and Personal Representatives are sort of like the unpaid family CEO. They are also exhausted, grieving and overwhelmed. We step in to do the work of settling and managing the estate so they can focus on living. 

Finally, because we are grounded by our training in Feng Shui, we focus on bringing positive energy, increasing the chi/energy flow to every client. 

I have all kinds of statistics that support the kind of work we do, and why it is so important to have your legacy organized and your home in good working order. 

1 in 4 Americans is considered sandwich generation, caring for an adult over age 65 and someone under 18 (or financially supporting adult children over age of 18)

10,000 Americans turn 65 EVERY DAY

• Approximately 2.5 million deceased people are victims of identity misuse annually. And 1/3 of the cases include opening up new credit
• Dead people are the number one target for identity theft, according to the IRS
• No matter how much money you have, you can’t control time
• The average executor or personal representative (person charged with settling an estate) spends more than 570 hours of their personal time performing their duties (EstateExec)
• You can ask Google to remove personal identifying information about you, which reduces spam calls and spam or malicious email
• If you don’t have a Legacy Contact on your iPhone, if something unexpected happens to you, your family may never be able to access your photos or digital life (Apple)
• In 2022, there were over 15.1 million unoccupied homes (rentals not rented, homes for sales, seasonal use), nearly 10.5% of the total housing inventory. (USAFacts)
• Americans spend between 28-42 hours /month managing and maintaining their home (Angi survey 2022, American Home Shield)
• 98% of homes will have water damage at some point
• It is projected that by 2070, there will be more active Facebook profiles of deceased people than living ones

Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.

People kept asking my how my side hustle was, which really irritated me. I remember telling someone, it is not a hustle, and it is not over to the side, it is MY COMPANY. Many people my age only think of having a traditional job, not one where there are multiple income streams. But the tipping point/moment was going from a UPS store mailbox address to a real office address. 

Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.

During my session with Brian, I talk a lot about Take Stock Moments which can be everything from a major life event to a new year's resolution. Take Stock Moments are when you pause and assess where you are versus where you want to be because something has shifted. For me, two of my businesses were directly born as a result of my mom dying. No matter how much money, fame, access anyone has, we all have a time clock and none of us control it. When someone you love dies, it can make you rethink/evaluate EVERYTHING. I knew that my mom would have wanted me to pursue what fulfills me and so I took the leap. 

Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?

In my businesses, I use cloud-based systems to manage my business in some industries where people still use spreadsheets and paper trails.  We capture and even execute much of the work utilizing business management and digital organizing programs that both automate tasks and keep workflow moving. For me, these are critical to maintaining privacy, security and the ability to scale. 

We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.

Mistakes and failures are undoubtedly the most valuable lessons we have in business. It is hard to choose just one! But certainly a huge pivot point for me was getting fired from a leadership role I had in a corporate setting when I thought I was getting promoted. 

I'd never been unemployed before, had always been a top performer and it was a huge shock to my life and to my ego. I'd always encouraged my team members to make mistakes - I really believe in them. Don't be reckless, but everything isn't perfect. No business, relationship or partnership of any kind is only headed up – there are always ups and downs. This is strike me to my core, so much of my ID was attached to my role and rank. What came from that was looking for patterns and decisions in my life I had made, how was I going to approach my life, schedule, family, etc. going forward. I made many changes and I think became much more honest about who I am with myself. When you are the Founder, President, CEO, etc., you have to be authentic to who you are.

What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?

I wish I had a brilliant answer for this question!!

1) The truth is my business is built highly on referrals from centers of influence and by earning people's trust. I am very old school in that I write hand-written notes to people and they always, always make an impact. Spending time to pen (literally) a note to another human has a tremendous impact.

2) Good people know good people and when you ask those good people for assistance they will come through for you. You just have to ask!

I'm also a huge fan of templating any process you can. Don't waste your time reinventing the wheel.

What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?

The advice I would give to you is that you absolutely do NOT have to have it all figured out. It is okay to shift, to change direction, rebrand, whatever!! I read a quote the other day from Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph, "stay married to the problem you're solving not the solution you THINK will solve it.  He was talking about how Netflix started by mailing DVDs for rent. Look where they are now. 

Want to dive deeper into Andrea's work? Check out the links below!

• Visit Lightsome Estate Concierge's website: lightsome.com
• Visit Homewatch Madison's website: homewatchmadison.com
• Visit Finding Flow Feng Shui's website: flowcurator.com
• Learn more about legacy & inactive contacts HERE
• Connect with Andrea Marquardt Finck on LinkedIn: Andrea Marquardt Finck
• Follow Lightsome Estate Concierge on LinkedIn.
• Follow Home Watch Madison on LinkedIn.
• Follow Finding Flow Feng Shui on LinkedIn.