Female Founders
What is the key to your company’s
success? People say I found a niche. I
say we found the Grand Canyon! Movers
used to be a scroungy lot, but we cleaned
up their image. We offer the best possible
moving services. We run our company by
The Grandma Rule: treat every customer
as though it was your grandma. The model
for our Grandma is actually my mother,
Helen Eberly—a cute, tiny (4 feet 10 inches)
lady with a bun on her head. She passed
away many years ago, but was very proud
of TMT and a big help to me.
“We run our
company by
The Grandma
Rule: treat every
customer as
though it was
your grandma.”
BEING FEMALE
Which female leaders do you admire?
Why? None, really.
Was being female an advantage or
disadvantage for you in building
your company? How? Moving and
trucking has some pretty rough characters and regulations. I found it was best
to focus on my customers and not think
about some of the dirty tricks they were
pulling on me. I appeared naive, but inside
I was seething… and planning.
Have you found specific advantages
or disadvantages to being a woman
business owner? Not really.
What has been your biggest challenge
as a woman entrepreneur? Competitors thought I was weak. I thought they
were stupid.
What do you think is the biggest issue for women in the workplace?
They have so much responsibility: kids,
home, groceries, laundry, babysitters, lack
of spousal support—let me count them!!!
Why do you think there are fewer
start-ups with female founders than
male ones? See above!
From a woman’s perspective, what
notable changes have you seen for
women in franchising since starting
your brand? There is so much more information available now f