Celestial Design is home-based, multi-faceted
by
Dan Weisman
Special to Today's Local News
Vista
-- Celestial Design is a home-based business that proves the sum
of an enterprise can exceed it's parts.
Mark and Wendy Cicchetti have combined annual sales of about $450,000
for a business that covers traditional interior design, Web site
design, color consultation and therapy, relationship counseling
and publishing. In addition, if someone wants to run for public
office, Wendy can help given her experience as a three-term Republican
member of the Idaho legislature.
All this emanates from a home office in the Vista hills surrounded
by a pastoral setting that includes a 200-year-old "monster"
pepper tree.
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"Celestial
Designs is a very multifaceted business," said Mark Cicchetti,
44,. "Wendy does interior design. I do Web site design. It's
all about improving people's lives inside and out."
An
informal mission statement might include designing things that
provide people with better tools to empower themselves and improve
relationships as well, Wendy Cicchetti, 53, said.
"One
of the neat things about us is that we are partners in everything
we do," Wendy said. "Mark walks his talk. We are soul
twins doing the same thing, moving along together."
The
Cicchettis have a unique history that centers on the Internet,
a 21st Century tale that illustrates how old-fashioned family
values can thrive in the new age of computer technology. They
met in an Internet chat room in the early 1990s, found their house
on the Internet, and have an active Internet business.
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We
were one of the first Internet couples and have been together
10 years," Mark said. "I was in Florida, and she was
in Salt Lake City."
"We
communicated over the Internet and by phone for a couple of months.
Then Mark flew to Salt Lake City, and we met," said Wendy.
Mark operated computers in the U.S. Navy before going into Web
design. Wendy, a mother of seven, had an interior design business
in Utah and Idaho. Eventually they married and moved to Oceanside
in 1997 before finding their current Vista home through an internet
listing.
Wendy may work with an interior design project for months or even
a year, providing wall-to-wall advice and hands-on assistance.
These jobs may cost $1,700 to $2000, while a consultation runs
about $135 an hour.
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Mark's
Web site design costs $125 for a bare-bones business site, although
most of his work goes for $85 per hour base rate and can reach
$5,000 to $7500 for all the bells and whistles.
Equally
important to the couple, they say, is their work with couples,
families and individuals looking for spiritual and personal peace.
An extensive color counseling consultation called "Aura-Soma"
costs $50 with perhaps another $45 for purchase of color therapy
oils. Relationships counseling can cost around $135 an hour.
The Cicchettis also have a relationship book they have resumed
marketing after taking a few years away from that project to get
the other businesses rolling. Called "Words of Love for Men,"
it is available for $13 through Amazon.com. This is the first
of a series they plan to write.
We
like to say we are on the cutting edge on some things," Mark
said. "We've had only three or four arguments, but passionate
discussions are good."
For
more information about their various services, contact the Cicchettis
at (877) 390-5556 or Sales@CelestialDesignInc.com.
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