We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Horvath a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jennifer thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?

There are certainly a few things such as…trusting my intuition and not listening to well-meaning peers about things I should be doing in my business such as trying to do everything myself in order to save money. I jumped into entrepreneurship at 23 years old with no formal business education or experience. Because of this I sort of always had this subconscious ‘imposter syndrome’ without realizing it. I just assumed that other people that had more experience or had studied business knew more than me and I defaulted to their advice even when my intuition was telling me otherwise. Because I didn’t have any formal background, I didn’t really have much data at the time to back up any counter arguments so I followed other’s advice to the detriment of my business. Today, instead of trying to wear every hat and ultimately burn myself out, I look for the person who I can pay to get the job done. Even if I can only afford to pay for that task on a part-time basis I do it. Just because you can do everything yourself doesn’t mean you should. The minute you can afford to pay someone to do the stuff that you are not great at and that you don’t like doing, do it. Then it frees you up to do the stuff that energizes you.

But I think the biggest lesson I learned that I would do differently is a mindset change. When one of my businesses suffered an epic failure after almost 9 years of grinding and hustling with everything I had in me, I walked away and felt that I was also an epic failure. I stewed in that mental dialogue for years and years. After the business closed I was depressed and had a lot of difficulty building back my mental and physical energy. It took me years to start to speak to myself with compassion and give myself grace. For some reason I just wouldn’t let myself off the hook. But now, years later and lots of personal development later, I realize that winners and losers have the same goals. It’s just that losers get discouraged by setbacks while winners learn from mistakes and have an unbelievable capacity to bounce back quickly with a positive mindset. Now, I’m the latter.

Jennifer, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started out in the fitness industry as a trainer and then Pilates teacher. I always had a passion for business so at 23 years old I invested into an already existing boutique gym and became 50% partner. That was my first real life business experience.

After that, I continued teaching Pilates full time while investing in businesses in the health & wellness industry. At 29 I founded my own Pilates studio and holistic health spa which I ran for almost 9 years. That business ultimately failed and I walked away from that with an unbelievable sense of personal failure which took me years to shake off. It’s like I had been knocked out and was traumatized from getting back into the ring. And while I had built and ran a Pilates studio for another boutique company, and started another company with a partner in the business consulting space, I began to miss the adrenaline rush of owning my own thing.

It was at this time that I had started to hear about the “boring business” space. The idea that you purchase a non-sexy business in a space like say, HVAC, laundromats, window washing, etc. I was so intrigued by this idea because it was the opposite of what I had experience in which is a ‘sexy’ industry like high end holistic wellness. I thought, “if I bring my experience in concierge-style customer service and add tech to a generally low tech sector, while adding a bit of ‘sexy’ to a very non-sexy business…I bet I could build something pretty interesting”. I started talking to my husband about this idea and he wasn’t really into it. Over time though, the idea grew steam until we decided to really go for it.

In 2024, we decided to move to a new country and we acquired a boring biz, a tile & carpet cleaning company. This achieved two of my life and business goals…try my hand at acquisition instead of being a founder for once, and build a business with the objective of selling it. Since acquiring the business, we have rebranded and completely changed the image of the company which has resulted in attracting a better and more loyal clientele. In one year, we have 4x’d the business and we are ultra focused to continue to 5 and 6x the business in the next 12 months.

If I had to say what sets me apart from the flock as an entrepreneur is my heart centered leadership style, my willingness to roll up my sleeves and do what is required, and my tenacious mindset.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

A little over a year ago I purchased a business in the home service industry, specifically a tile & carpet cleaning business. In my business career I had always been a founder, co-founder or partner, and one of my business goals was to purchase an already existing business. My other business goal is to sell a business. My husband and I decided to purchase a business in the home service industry. I was interested to see if I had the chops to build something I had absolutely no experience in. I knew that business fundamentals translate and what I was really interested in was the challenge of learning and scaling in something I had to learn at rapid speed.

The acquisition process took a few months of due diligence…going over business history, having one of my accountant friends go through the books and then negotiations. I have learned so much in the process and like any first experience, I have also learned what I would do differently.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing our clientele has been a personalized, high touch, relationship building approach. The business we purchased came with a book of past and current customers so one of the first things I did is call each past client to introduce myself and invite them to come back to us with a special discount on their service. We also crafted a “new ownership” email to support the phone calls. While we did implement tech and automated many aspects to the business, we notice the real connection happens when we use a human touch. We’ve noticed what really makes the clients sticky is the consistent warm touches like phone calls, happy birthday texts, thank you cards & gifts when they refer us their friends, and special personalized gifts for our VIP clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.harbortc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harbortc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Harbortc
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/harbor-tile-and-carpet-cleaning-west-palm-beach?osq=Harbor+Tile+%26+Carpet+Cleaning

Image Credits

Ron Harris
Andrea Wood Photography