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MEADVILLE — Mindy Nearhoof founded a home cleaning service in 2002. She was 23, married, and the mother of a little boy and a little girl.
He expanded his services, bought and took over another business and today employs 23 people at Annie’s Flooring and Commercial Services. Her success and her commitment to employees and the Meadville community earned her recognition as the Small Business Administration’s 2023 Pennsylvania Small Business Person of the Year.
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A positive attitude and 70-hour work weeks
Nearhoof had planned to be a doctor.
“A young family and the need for a second income took precedence,” he said.
Instead, Nearhoof began cleaning houses, and clients began asking him if he could replace drywall, paint and do flooring, and other work Nearhoof had done on his own home.
“I always said yes,” Nearhoof said.
He continued to expand services and in 2018 purchased Annie’s Carpet Cleaning and Flooring after its owner retired.
“I tried to contact a couple of the employees of the last owner, but they had already moved on. My husband helped me when he could, but he had a full-time job. So I was still the only employee. I took as many jobs as I could handle.” said.
Nearhoof began concentrating on the floors.
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“When I bought this business, I knew I wanted the floors to be our bread and butter. Yet it was still known for cleanliness,” Nearhoof said.
His first customer after the purchase was a woman whose house he had cleaned for years.
“She said her house needed new carpet. It was a big task for me. It was a $5,000 job,” Nearhoof said. “I remember thinking, ‘She’s trusting me a lot here.’ But she has employed us several times since then. And she’s still talking to me.”
About eight months after purchasing the flooring business, Nearhoof hired his first employee. The company continued to grow, and when a large manufacturing company asked him to bid on janitorial and janitorial services at the plant in early 2019, Nearhoof went ahead and won the contract.
“They also hired us to do flooring and a lot of different things for them,” Nearhoof said. “They were our first and really our only commercial cleaning contract until early 2020, when we started getting more requests.”
More and more requests followed as the COVID-19 pandemic began.
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“We had to close the doors of the flooring business and pay the bills by doing commercial janitorial and sanitation services. It really saved the day for us,” Nearhoof said.
His work weeks, sometimes 70 hours, have decreased as his staff has increased. Since its inception, his business has increased sales by more than 330%.
Pennsylvania Business Person of the Year
Nearhoof was named the SBA’s Pennsylvania Business Person of the Year in March.
She was nominated for the honor by Gannon University’s Center for Small Business Development and was named the Western Pennsylvania District Office’s Small Businesswoman of the Year before being chosen for the state honor.
“I didn’t really realize it until the phone calls started coming in,” Nearhoof said. “The local newspaper ran an article. My fourth-grade teacher sent me a message. Someone I had worked with at a local university wrote me a letter. People in the offices I worked for sent me flowers. I heard about them on years old came up to say congratulations and that they are happy for me.
“The outreach and support has been tremendous.”
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And they are well deserved, said Shane Foster, a senior business consultant at Gannon University’s Center for Small Business Development. The center provides free counseling and low-cost training to help Nearhoof and other small business owners succeed.
“Mindy is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever worked with,” Foster said. “She is the consummate professional. She is always on time, works very hard and does a great job. Every single one of her online reviews of her is stellar because she treats every job as if it were in her own home” .
Nearhoof is also committed to its employees and the community, Foster said.
“She’s grown her business from zero employees to over 20 in just a few years. And she goes above and beyond for them and the community,” Foster said. “I can’t say enough good things about her.”
Nearhoof was honored along with other state Small Business Owners of the Year at the Small Business Administration’s 60th Annual National Small Business Week Celebration in Washington, DC, in early May. Restaurant owner Abdirahman Kahin, of St. Paul, Minnesota, was named National Small Business Person of the Year during the week-long event.
“I met so many amazing people. And they invited us to the White House,” Nearhoof said. “I really enjoyed the experience.”
A family tradition of hard work
Nearhoof continues to grow his business.
It also gives back to its employees and the community, providing bonuses in addition to health, dental, vision and supplemental insurance programs and soon an employee 401k program, as well as flooring and funding for needs-based organizations.
Nearhoof attributes his commitment and work ethic to his parents. Her father worked third shift at Channellock Corp. for more than 40 years and delivered mail during the day. Her mother worked in an office.
Nearhoof’s husband, Tony, who works at Channellock, and the children have pitched in to help with their business as needed.
“My husband is my absolute number one,” Nearhoof said. “He’s the fixer. He fixes the computer system, the vans, the machines, the tools, all the things that go wrong. He’s often on site with us after his normal work day.”
Son Peyton, 23, now lives in Pittsburgh, where he is a musician, working in media and theater production. Daughter Lily, 21, has taken over part of her mother’s residential cleaning service.
“I wonder if I’ve taught my kids to work too hard. They definitely inherited that,” Nearhoof said.
C.Contact Valerie Myers at vmyers@timesnews.com.
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