Origin. Inspiration. Progress.
As a misunderstood youth, I was sitting in my moms’ room, thinking about how I wanted to make a difference in the world. I was thinking about how business could be done differently. About how business could give back. I drew up a plan for an ethically run soup truck. I intended to start a soup truck that would provide food to people on a “pay what you can” basis, or in exchange for work, the profits would be used to pay the staff a living wage (though I did not know that term at the time) and profits would go back into programs we would build to assist people struggling in the community, as well as donations to charity. I had never felt so alive with an idea before.
This idea swam around my brain but did not find any foundation aside from in my heart. How would that be possible? How could a company that offered accessible prices ALSO give back in additional ways? How could I of all people make it happen, when I could not even bring myself to succeed in school. Wanting to be deemed “Most likely to succeed” I instead got a new designation in school “Most unique.”
Several years later, my living situation had changed, and my grades skyrocketed, I found a foundation and was able to start healing myself, finding the drive to work towards my dreams. I was not happy, but I was getting there.
As it goes in your teen years, or as it went for me, I had a lot of ideas. Was I going to be a tattoo artist, a mechanic, a soldier, a cook? I did not know specifics, what I did know was that I wanted to make a difference. Bounce forward 7 years, post unfinished college education, dropping out from a training to become a priestess, and plenty of experience in social services volunteerism and student leadership later, sitting my partners apartment kitchen, and wondering how I was never going to feel so lost and like I had worked for naught again.
Bam, it hit me! I could form a company with the same ethics I had decided on when I was eleven but start it with the set of skills and professional experiences I had already had, it would take hardly any money, and I could build up from there. It took $125 to start, to be exact. I would utilize my experiences working in homemaking and as a direct care provider to individuals with additional accessibility needs. I would create an inclusive sliding scale structure. I could find more teammates as we grew to be able to offer jobs.
It would be mine to guide, and the teams to run, and I would be able to share it with the world, built on a foundation of service, gratitude, community, and FUN! I would be highly unlikely to ever decide to stop doing something that I built to enjoy and built for my team and our clients to also enjoy, as long as we got into the community and showed others how we can help them, and why they would enjoy supporting us.
Three years later, and we’ve grown from myself and a lovely set of advisors, to a team consisting of 17 in home caregivers and homemakers, 3 delightful assistant managers, and myself. We have also grown from $12,000 a year in revenue, to $130,000 in revenue, and we have no intention of stopping our growth and mission to assist individuals and families in our town and state, as well as being one of the companies that shifts the paradigm of business and teamwork, in our culture and throughout the world.
Holistic Contentment offers personalized caregiving and homemaking, so your family can be your friends, and your dad can be your dad.
