How Adaptability Helped My Business Survive
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 13 years of entrepreneurship, it’s adaptability. If you’re new to The Tidy People, here’s the origin story:
I originally founded my business during the 2008 recession, under the name Ergo Errands. I was a young babe — only 21. The gig economy had yet to exist, as the first smartphones were coming to market. The internet was only a decade old.
I had the vision of providing a catch all “jane-of-all-trades” service for customers. As a solo one person show, I did everything: picked up dry cleaning, gave people rides, retrieved someone’s keys from a beach house, dropped off library books, grocery shopped, cleaned houses...the list goes on.
As time went on, Task Rabbit, Amazon, Instacart, and Uber emerged. And so, the miscellaneous catch all services dropped away. I experienced many challenges during this time of transition.
What I came to find, was a golden gem and a niche that my customers loved: house cleaning.
With a degree in graphic design and a skill set of systemizing processes, I adapted and focused on one goal: to scale and grow my local house cleaning services.
The next few years, I began to understand all things HR. Hiring, building a team, interpersonal relationships, company culture, handbooks. A new set of challenges presented itself. Including 6-16 hour work days a week and an extra job on the side to pay the bills.
Side note,I used to clean houses 5-6 days a week, while single handedly managing my business operations. A typical day: answer calls in one hand and scrub toilets with the other hand. I would then end my day at a laundry mat (before I could afford to purchase a washer and dryer). During my late nights of washing rags, you would find me in some dark corner of Portland stuffing my face with food, while answering emails with spotty laundry mat WiFi.
This wash-rinse-repeat cycle would go on for years, until I learned the art of delegation...and that self care/balance as an entrepreneur is pivotal.
As my house cleaning services grew, we were still called Ergo Errands. The name was confusing and it didn’t represent my bigger vision. 2 years ago I rebranded. Voila, The Tidy People was born. I let go of the old, kept the good, and infused new elements.
The favorite part about my brand is that we infuse the element of self care and empowerment at home. Even though self care has been a fad phrase over the last few years, it’s here to stay. Creating a feel-good home space and finding ways to self care will always be a need.
Along the way, my experience of employing 100+ individuals and working with 1000+ clients in Portland gave me a life crash course in boundary setting, emotional intelligence, and advocacy for marginalized communities (such as LGBTQ and BIPOC). As it stands today, my company culture thrives well. I’m very proud of my team and the people who I invite into my business.
