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SALT LAKE CITY — Nice and Neat Homes — a business spearheaded by Salt Lake City entrepreneurs and sisters Alexia Halliday and Priscila Driggs — has received a $10,000 grant to continue expanding its business.
Not only does the small business employ several stay-at-home moms, but its purpose is to organize other parents' homes when the parents may not have the time or energy to organize the homes themselves, according to Halliday, the CEO and co-founder of the business.
"We have an awesome team that goes in and we bring all of the products and bins and all the necessary supplies to essentially transform a space, and really, with the end goal to create a manageable system that the client can maintain in their home," she said. "Within a day, that space is transformed, and the family can go back to doing what they love to do — spending time together, and not spending the time feeling overwhelmed or trying to organize the spaces themselves."
Keeping it going
Since its humble beginnings in 2018, the business has only grown — expanding 15-20% each year. Halliday plans to continue expanding it after receiving the $10,000 grant from Jobber, an organization that gave out $150,000 in grants to 25 small businesses across the country.
The co-founder noted that she had applied for the grant because it didn't "hurt to apply and see where it goes." She was then awarded the grant this August in the career builders category.
"We selected Alexia from Nice and Neat Homes because of her desire to provide new moms in her community with long-term meaningful employment and the investments she makes into her team," said Rebecca Kapler, community programs manager at Jobber, said in a statement.
The grant will likely go towards marketing efforts, funding a new van and finding a new and larger office space, Halliday said.
Having a new van will be especially helpful, she continued, as their small cars can get crowded after her employees fill them with stuffed bins and other items the clients no longer need.
"By having more space, we can basically better achieve and fulfill these higher skills — or these higher scale projects," the CEO said.
You feel peace when you leave a space that's organized, and when they come into the spaces, you see their faces and see the relief and the weight lifted off their shoulders.
– Holly Lang
Because many of the clients haven't had the time to manage their space with taking care of kids, many of the services involve purging unneeded items, organizer Holly Lang added — which, while sometimes difficult for the clients to witness, can also boost their confidence as parents.
"You feel peace when you leave a space that's organized, and when they come into the spaces, you see their faces and see the relief and the weight lifted off their shoulders," Lang said. "When that happens, I feel like then they become great moms, then they have the energy to put towards their families because something that has been troubling them, the burden, has been lifted."
Abbie Armstrong, Nice and Neat's client and team relations specialist, also noted that organizing "frees up so much time" for parents.
"If you think about one person going into a space that might take them, you know, the whole weekend to organize their garage or something like that, we can come in with a team of six people and have that space organized in one day — six hours and it's done and everything's in its place," Armstrong said. "I think it's just such a weight off of people's shoulders."
The job itself doesn't just assist stay-at-home parents with organizing their lives, but it frees up time and space for their employees to spend time with their families, Armstrong and Lang added.
Supportive workforce
When Halliday was building her business, she noticed that many stay-at-home parents exemplified the qualities she wanted in her employees — having great prioritization, time management and an understanding of how to organize messy homes.
"Where we really found a strong and supportive workforce was in a lot of stay-at-home moms," Halliday said. "We really found that the skills that were required in professional organization were kind of transferable from their day-to-day routines as stay-at-home moms."
Lang started working at the business because of the flexibility. She wanted to feel fulfilled, working while her kids were in school.
"It doesn't create that guilt feeling, that anxiety feeling where I'm missing out on my kids' lives or at home," she said. "I still can come home and make dinner.
"It's great for the family. It's great for moms who still need to be a mom, and I know that not everyone has that luxury."
To also help the stay-at-home parents feel cared for, the co-founder noted that her business invests in paid time off and "team days," such as company barbecues or hikes — something unusual for a small business that employs part-time workers.
"(Halliday's) done a lot of things that I think a lot of small business owners maybe either don't know are out there or don't try to implement anyway," Armstrong said.
Lang agreed, adding that the business has improved both her work and home life.
"They helped me and support me in my role as a mom and a role as an organizer. I come home and I feel like a better mom," Lang said.
