Moniqueca Sims, proprietor of SSG Appliance Academy, acquired her first glimpse into the appliance repair trade whereas relationship a person who labored within the area. “He labored on a regular basis, seven days per week,” Sims recollects, “so I used to exit with him simply to spend time with him. I noticed how simple it was for him to restore these home equipment, and he was repairing them shortly.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of SSG Equipment Academy. Moniqueca Sims.
Sims believes in “working smarter, not harder” and had the concept to hire technicians to assist the person she was relationship with restore calls. She did, however when he did not decelerate, she ended up together with her personal equipment restore firm.
Nevertheless, in operating that enterprise, Sims misplaced a major amount of cash buying elements. Many individuals she employed did not really know the way to restore home equipment — and would simply swap out half after half seeking a match.
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.
“Whenever you repair one thing, it boosts you up, each time you do it.”
Nonetheless, Sims knew there needed to be a greater strategy to prepare and rent technicians for business growth, so as soon as extra she got down to make it occur: She based SSG Equipment Academy, which offers hands-on coaching programs on the basics to have a profession within the equipment restore trade, in Atlanta in 2019.
“ I noticed how equipment restore was the present that retains on giving,” Sims says. “Whenever you exit, once you repair one thing, it boosts you up, each time you do it. It isn’t 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 had been stay-at-home mothers who breathed a sigh of reduction after they realized they would not be alone with a male employee. Figuring out that, and seeing firsthand what a confidence booster equipment restore may very well be, Sims dedicated to bringing extra ladies into the trade.
The full equipment restore trade income reached an estimated $6.3 billion in 2023, but ladies make up lower than 3% of residence equipment repairers, in line with information from ConsumerAffairs.
Sims determined to accomplice with shelters to develop SSG Equipment Academy and provide a viable profession path to the ladies there. Though there was a variety of curiosity, the shelters did not have the funding to again it. So Sims acquired permitted for grants by the Workforce Innovation and Alternative Act (WIOA).
The funding helps low-income, under- or unemployed ladies and men full SSG Equipment Academy’s program and “flip their life round,” Sims says.
SSG Equipment Academy’s courses sometimes enroll eight to 10 college students. The latest course had three ladies in it. Prior to now, Sims usually needed to attend occasions and persuade ladies to return to the category; now, word-of-mouth helps them discover it themselves, she says.
“ You always must show your self [as a woman] on this trade.”
Sims seems to be ahead to seeing much more ladies reap the benefits of SSG Equipment Academy, regardless of the challenges that may include being a lady within the area.
“ You always must show your self [as a woman] on this trade, and never simply to the shoppers,” Sims says. “It’s a must to prove yourself to all people that works within the trade.”
Sims can also be excited to see extra individuals throughout the board bounce into the equipment restore trade, noting that learning a trade can assist individuals make more money than they could by incomes a four-year school diploma.
“Equipment restore can actually assist change individuals’s lives,” the founder says.
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“You wish to study your craft from the within out.”
To different ladies desirous about beginning their very own careers or companies within the equipment restore trade, Sims has some easy however important recommendation: Enroll in a program that may make it easier to study all you’ll want to know in regards to the commerce.
“You wish to learn your craft from the within out,” Sims says. “Plenty of technicians within the area now study on the job, so that they turn out to be part-changers as a result of they do not discover ways to diagnose and troubleshoot the home equipment correctly. So my recommendation would undoubtedly be to take a category. It would not must be my faculty — any faculty.”
Sims notes that there will likely be loads of obstacles alongside the best way, however she encourages anybody desirous about 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 Ladies Entrepreneur® sequence highlighting the tales, challenges and triumphs of operating a enterprise as a lady.
Moniqueca Sims, proprietor of SSG Appliance Academy, acquired her first glimpse into the appliance repair trade whereas relationship a person who labored within the area. “He labored on a regular basis, seven days per week,” Sims recollects, “so I used to exit with him simply to spend time with him. I noticed how simple it was for him to restore these home equipment, and he was repairing them shortly.”
Picture Credit score: Courtesy of SSG Equipment Academy. Moniqueca Sims.
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