LEXINGTON, Ky. — The U.S. saw more startups launch in 2020 than it has in decades — a 24% increase from 2019 — and the trend shows no signs of slowing in 2021, according to statistics from the Small Business Administration.
What You Need To Know
- One owner turned a side job into a full-time occupation
- Residential and commercial cleaning business offers innovative laundry service
- Owner Kari Stevens founded the company about two years ago
- Plans are to expand to multiple locations
Indianapolis native Kari Stevens, of Lexington, started her residential and commercial cleaning service, Tidy Geek, two years ago. Still, the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to her expanding her business. Stevens, recognizing the explosion of people using home-delivery services such as DoorDash and Amazon during the pandemic, decided to offer the same convenience for laundry.
Kari Stevens began Tidy Geek two years ago. (Kari Stevens)
“It's been slowly taking off here, but when I talk to people, they don't realize it even exists, and they're like, ‘Wow, you got to be kidding me?’” she said. “I get quite a few people at the hotels that know about laundry services like this because they've experienced them elsewhere. So far, I've gotten a lot of business that way and some commercial clients where I do like sheets and towels on the regular, but I'm still building that clientele; it’s still relatively new for me.”
Adding pickup-and-delivery laundry to Tidy Geek’s existing services was born from necessity and was a no-brainer, Stevens said.
“I'm a single parent, and I was struggling with staffing,” she said. “I was looking at how I could keep my income up and my work within my physical capabilities. For a long time, my daughter was home, which was fine because she had a nanny. But when I started putting her on the bus, I wanted to structure my days so I could be there. She gets on the bus at 6:30 a.m. and is home by 3 p.m. — that's a long, physical workday for me as far as residential cleaning. So, I was looking at how I can add services I could bring into the home. That's when I thought of laundry and was like, ‘Hey, I'm gonna do this.’”
As with many new businesses, Tidy Geek began as a side job and continued growing until it became a full-time occupation. While attending a trade show for her then-regular job selling technology at a Lexington startup, Stevens received a phone call that ultimately took Tidy Geek to a new level.
“The startup wasn't doing well and knew I was going to have to pivot, so I started side hustling just to see what stuck,” she said. “I was at a trade show when a realtor called and said he wanted to give a gift certificate for my cleaning service to someone that had just bought a multi-million dollar home. I was standing with my coworker in this trade show booth and hopped on GoDaddy — my coworker was a graphic designer — and I asked her if I came up with a business name and a web domain in the next few minutes, would she put together a logo for me? We had it all, the certificate and everything, within an hour and it was in the realtor’s hands.”
Stevens returned to Lexington after the trade show and told her boss she would occasionally need some time off to service her new client.
“They were happy to let me work remotely,” Stevens said. “I became an independent contractor for them and was able to increase my Tidy Geek clientele over time. It's been officially two years that I've been doing Tidy Geek and nothing else.”
Focusing on the growth of Tidy Geek turned out to be a blessing for Stevens since the tech startup eventually cut half its staff during the pandemic.
“I probably wouldn't have been too secure in that job,” she said. “But with Tidy Geek, I have not stopped during the pandemic. There is more work than I can support, and I could see little Tidy Geeks popping up all over the nation. I just haven't figured out how to get there.”
Adding the laundry service is one way Stevens thinks she could expand Tidy Geek to multiple locations. She has partnered with a company called Laundry Care that provides an app similar to DoorDash and Uber. Laundry Care handles the billing and includes marketing for what Stevens described as a “very small fee.”
“People can hop on the website, call a number, download the app or message me directly, whatever they prefer, and the order gets sent to me,” she said. “I go pick it up and wash it and dry it, all in line with the customers’ preferences, and there are all kinds of extra options like ironing. There’s a flat rate for a 13-gallon trash bag full of clothes. I process that and return it to them within 48 hours unless they pay to get it faster.”
The people who use Tidy Geek’s laundry service range from traveling nurses to college students to overwhelmed mothers.
“I got slammed with a couple of large families this past weekend,” she said. “Kids clothes is a whole different game — there's like 1,000 pieces of clothes in that 13-gallon bag.”
Stevens tends to the laundry in her home and adheres to COVID-19 safety protocols.
“I wear gloves, and I sanitize my machines in between clients,” she said. “I'm doing my best. I've worked the whole pandemic and have managed to not have COVID. I'm doing the laundry at my house and working on taking the next step: having a facility with multiple washers and dryers. It's not been that overwhelming yet. The thing is, nobody says they want to grow up and clean houses and do laundry for a living. You have to be willing to commit, and you have to be willing to take whatever lands in your lap and run with it. There's no shame in my game, and there's nothing I won't do to feed my kids within legal limits.”
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May 13, 2021 at 10:44PM
https://spectrumnews1.com/ky/louisville/news/2021/05/13/lexington-business-offers-innovative-service
Tidy Geek offers innovative laundry service - Spectrum News 1
https://news.google.com/search?q=Laundry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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