Moniqueca Sims, proprietor of SSG Equipment Academy, received her first glimpse into the equipment restore business whereas courting a person who labored within the area. “He labored on a regular basis, seven days every week,” Sims recollects, “so I used to exit with him simply to spend time with him. I noticed how straightforward it was for him to restore these home equipment, and he was repairing them rapidly.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of SSG Equipment Academy. Moniqueca Sims.
Sims believes in “working smarter, not more durable” and had the concept to rent technicians to assist the person she was courting with restore calls. She did, however when he did not decelerate, she ended up together with her personal equipment restore firm.
Nevertheless, in working that enterprise, Sims misplaced a major amount of cash buying components. Many individuals she employed did not truly know tips on how to restore home equipment — and would simply change out half after half looking for a match.
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So Sims took issues into her personal arms once more. She enrolled in a web-based course to study equipment restore and began dealing with jobs herself, even taking her youngsters alongside generally.
“If you repair one thing, it boosts you up, each time you do it.”
Nonetheless, Sims knew there needed to be a greater option to prepare and rent technicians for enterprise development, so as soon as extra she got down to make it occur: She based SSG Equipment Academy, which gives hands-on coaching programs on the basics to have a profession within the equipment restore business, in Atlanta in 2019.
“ I noticed how equipment restore was the present that retains on giving,” Sims says. “If you exit, whenever you repair one thing, it boosts you up, each time you do it. It is not a grunt job. It is a feel-good job.”
When Sims went out on jobs together with her daughter, she discovered that most of the shoppers have been stay-at-home mothers who breathed a sigh of aid once they realized they would not be alone with a male employee. Figuring out that, and seeing firsthand what a confidence booster equipment restore could possibly be, Sims dedicated to bringing extra ladies into the business.
The entire equipment restore business income reached an estimated $6.3 billion in 2023, but ladies make up lower than 3% of residence equipment repairers, in response to knowledge from ConsumerAffairs.
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Sims determined to associate with shelters to develop SSG Equipment Academy and supply a viable profession path to the ladies there. Though there was loads of curiosity, the shelters did not have the funding to again it. So Sims received authorized for grants via the Workforce Innovation and Alternative Act (WIOA).
The funding helps low-income, under- or unemployed men and women full SSG Equipment Academy’s program and “flip their life round,” Sims says.
SSG Equipment Academy’s courses usually enroll eight to 10 college students. The latest course had three ladies in it. Up to now, Sims usually needed to attend occasions and persuade ladies to come back to the category; now, word-of-mouth helps them discover it themselves, she says.
“ You continually need to show your self [as a woman] on this business.”
Sims appears ahead to seeing much more ladies make the most of SSG Equipment Academy, regardless of the challenges that may include being a lady within the area.
“ You continually need to show your self [as a woman] on this business, and never simply to the purchasers,” Sims says. “You must show your self to everyone that works within the business.”
Sims can be excited to see extra folks throughout the board bounce into the equipment restore business, noting that studying a commerce might help folks earn more money than they could via incomes a four-year school diploma.
“Equipment restore can actually assist change folks’s lives,” the founder says.
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“You need to study your craft from the within out.”
To different ladies taken with beginning their very own careers or companies within the equipment restore business, Sims has some easy however important recommendation: Enroll in a program that may assist you study all it is advisable to know concerning the commerce.
“You need to study your craft from the within out,” Sims says. “A number of technicians within the subject now study on the job, in order that they develop into part-changers as a result of they do not learn to diagnose and troubleshoot the home equipment correctly. So my recommendation would undoubtedly be to take a category. It would not need to be my college — any college.”
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Sims notes that there shall be loads of obstacles alongside the way in which, however she encourages anybody taken with studying equipment restore to remain the course — as a result of “it is a very rewarding profession and enterprise.”
This text is a part of our ongoing Girls Entrepreneur® collection highlighting the tales, challenges and triumphs of working a enterprise as a lady.
Moniqueca Sims, proprietor of SSG Equipment Academy, received her first glimpse into the equipment restore business whereas courting a person who labored within the area. “He labored on a regular basis, seven days every week,” Sims recollects, “so I used to exit with him simply to spend time with him. I noticed how straightforward it was for him to restore these home equipment, and he was repairing them rapidly.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of SSG Equipment Academy. Moniqueca Sims.
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