Newman of Abigail Michaels details her most challenging R.E. moment

What was your most challenging moment in real estate and how did it impact your business. One of my challenges in 2008 was to develop new inroads and to expand horizontally, expanding from the residential to the commercial real estate market. We realized that our residents were spending most of their time at work, hence the need to offer concierge services to the commercial world made at least as much sense as offering it to the residential world. In a challenging economy most commercial developers / owners are looking to differentiate themselves and the response to our efforts has been tremendous. Most people want to live and work in buildings that resemble hotels. At 667 Madison Avenue, one of Leonard Stern's premiere commercial properties, the requests for concierge service within the first month of our launch has gone beyond our expectations.  From shipping a dollhouse to catering in office lunches, we have clearly hit on a niche that should prove to expand exponentially within the next 24 months and beyond. In addition to 667 Madison Avenue our services can be found at other locations, such as 14 Wall Street, and 1180 6th Avenue. We look ahead to further expansion in the Manhattan commercial market, as well as Chicago, Philadelphia and LA. Abbie Newman is the co-founder of Abigail Michaels Concierge, New York, N.Y.