PrintOwner:Jodilyn Owen, 28
Previous life: Taught preschool and kindergarten. Then spent four years as a stay-at-home mom.
Current business: Seattle-based Officelaundry.com, an Internet-enabled dry-cleaning valet service. Officelaundry.com picks up and delivers dry cleaning from offices and residential neighborhoods. It uses the Web to schedule pickups and deliveries and to process payments. Works with customers' favorite local cleaners to maintain strong relationships with the mom-and-pop dry cleaners in the community.
Employees: Six
Future plans: To operate in five cities over the next 24 months.
Year founded: 1998
Why you went into business: To supplement my husband's income. He's a teacher and we have three kids (ages seven months, and three and five years) and we needed to add something to the mix. Flexibility was a huge part of the reason why I chose the valet dry cleaning business: I could take the kids with me on the pickups and deliveries or do deliveries after my husband's school day was over.
Most scared about: The unpredictability, the chance of failing. But if you want to succeed, you have to risk failing. Luckily there were not too many costs involved in starting this business.
Best thing about being your own boss: Just being my own boss. I've been successful and made an income. I've done it myself and that's rewarding. With child rearing, you don't get a lot of feedback for years. With a business, it's all on paper.
Miss about working for someone else: Having someone else to fall back on.
Average day like: It's slightly insane. We start around 6:00 a.m. when my three-year-old wakes up. At 8:30 a.m., my five-year-old leaves for kindergarten. From 9:00 to 11:00, I'll pick up laundry and drop it off. Sometimes the kids go with me, and sometimes they stay with their grandparents. At noon I have lunch with the baby and the three-year-old. Then we play — today we played baseball — it's always something central to their lives. In the late afternoon — from 3:30 to 5:00 — I'm in the office catching up. I spend the evening with family. Then in the late evening I hack away at the business and try to figure out how I can grow it. I'm a tired person, but I just grab a cup of coffee and go for it.
Best source of advice and support: It's crucial to have people around you who are supportive. My biggest supporter and partner is my husband, Benjamin. He's been a part of this business from the get-go and is a great cheerleader and a great father, which gives me a lot of peace about spending time with my computer, the car, and other people's dirty laundry! I also talk to anyone who will let me, and I read and research a lot. Harvey MacKay's book Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt really spoke to me. That book single-handedly propelled me from picking up my neighbor's laundry to making this into the multimillion-dollar business that it will soon be.
Separate business and personal life: I'm not sure that I do. My whole family is involved in the business. My husband and I bounce ideas off our parents and grandparents, and they help in watching the kids.
Reward to self: Big treats in life are so relative to where you are. At one time, my big treat was to have soft Kleenex. Right now it's quiet time with my family. I also recently bought a treadmill; I can use it at crazy hours and it gives me sanity and makes me clear my mind.
Hopeful retirement age: I don't think I'll ever want to retire. I saw my grandfather work out of love until he passed away and he's a great example to me. He was always learning, and like him, I can't stop moving. I always seem to find something to do.
— Susan Smith Hendrickson
