Our city has benefited from its share of entrepreneurs that have made Gainesville what it is today. It’s easy to look at some of the local businesses and feel envious of where they are now. But as we often hear on the WHOA GNV podcast, entrepreneurship doesn’t always come easy.
In the latest mastermind episode, Collin Austin met up with some Gainesville business owners to discuss startup life: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Jacob Hogle of Dayton Heat and Air has been in business for about 4 years. He combines the high quality services of a small A/C shop with the customer service you’d expect from a national chain. In his words, it comes down to being able to answer the phone when someone calls his business.
Bren Strickland of Plantstay opened her brick and mortar houseplant shop mid-pandemic. The demand from bored work-from-homers let her take that step even as other businesses struggled. With the new houseplant craze, she’s made sure to keep her social media game strong, even without prior knowledge of Instagram.
Jamrock Junk Removal was another leap of faith, this one by Daniel Isaacs. After working a monotonous warehouse job, he finally gathered the nerve to start his own junk hauling business. With the pandemic hitting soon after, his wife was there to remind him why he started the business in the first place. Jamrock has been benefiting from the current demand for home renovations – Daniel is happy to haul your junk away to make your life easier.
Patti Carnuccio & Amber Waters of Pattican Gypsy Wagons took on a very unique business started by someone else. As previous customers who had their own wagon, they combine their skills of woodworking and design to create custom, street-legal wagons. Patti gave up a steady government job to make these whimsical creations with Amber, knowing she’d regret passing up the opportunity.
Hear more from these unique business owners! Listen to the 160th episode of the WHOA GNV podcast to hear all these entrepreneurs had to say.
