Today we’d like to introduce you to Christy Ogle.
Christy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Max Ogle, my husband and I had started the business, with our best friend, Crystal, after an evening together. Crystal was single at the time, and Max was always fixing her truck. She asked that evening, if he could look at her windshield wipers, and I jokingly said, “Why don’t I just rent him out to you?” Then Crystal and I looked at each other, and that is when our ahhh-haaa moment happened.
“Why don’t we rent out us girls too?” I said, “but its legal. We can clean houses.” That is where the idea of Sometimes Spouse was born, a dinner with the bff. We ran an ad in the local paper, after splitting the price 3 ways. We actually had to round up pennies to pay for the $40 ad in the newspaper. We ran the ad, and the phone didn’t ring. We wondered why this amazing idea didn’t take off? We kept running the ad, believing it would work, and 3 weeks later the phone rang for the first time, and it hasn’t quit ringing since that time. It was a lady and man, needing a doorknob changed. We can do that I said, and Max went over on a Sat. after work, and made $80, so we paid for that first ad within the first 3 weeks of our business.
I ran all the advertising, Max did the handyman work, and Crystal did the financials. Max got to work right away, he started doing home repairs on Baylor houses and landed Crystal and me our first gig, cleaning Baylor houses. Crystal and I actually cleaned the houses after work and on weekends. We decided pretty quickly cleaning wasn’t what we wanted to do for the rest of our lives, so we started hiring friends and family to do the cleaning for us.
I remember one of the first houses I cleaned, with my friend Jess, and there was feces in the corners of the house, like a cat or a small dog, but the owners swore that they didn’t have any animals. Ummmm….. yes they did? But how would they know, because the house looked like an atomic bomb had went off? After that house, I was done. Plus those college kids are pigs.
The customer loved Max, he did the estimates, supervised the work, and made sure the customers were satisfied. It only made sense that he leave the motorcycle shop, and run the business. He made way more money that Crystal or I could ever dream of.
That is how the original Sometimes Spouse began, all 3 founders doing the work, and building it one brick at a time. Currently, we have over 40 locations throughout 5 states and are continuing to build our brand throughout Texas.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When you interview successful people, there are always obstacles along the way. If someone tells you that it was all roses and butterflies, they are lying. When building this empire, we have run across a few low character individuals, that were just about money, and tried to tear us down, but they didn’t succeed. You get knocked down over and over, but you bounce back, and it better be quick.
I remember within the first 6 weeks of our business, we were overexposed with a viral tv interview. We found out quickly we had to change our name of our business due to trademark issues, that was tough in the beginning, but our new name Sometimes Spouse has worked out 1000% better. We have had people you believed would help build the business, but they were actually viruses that we had to get rid of. The important thing about obstacles is that you use that opportunity to learn from and grow as an individual and business.
Please tell us about Sometimes Spouse.
Sometimes Spouse is a handyman & household cleaning service. Sometimes Spouse takes care of those honey do’s, honey doesn’t have time to do. Sometimes Spouse believes in family first, so we will take care chores around the house, that a husband or wife would take care of, so that you can spend the weekends with your family. Sometimes Spouse is professional, affordable and reliable.
Sometimes Spouse has employees that are background checked, insured and bonded.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
One of my favorite childhood memories is with my family, spending time with them, working on the farm, and then coming in for a family dinner.
Pricing:
- Handyman Services beginning @ $65/hour
- Household Cleaning Services beginning @ $50/hour
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sometimesspouse.com
- Phone: 832-447-1330, 281-816-6388, 832-916-3133
- Email: woodlands@sometimesspouse.com, kingwood@sometimesspouse.com, sehtx@sometimesspousecom
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewoodlandssometimesspouse/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sometimesspouse
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
