We were lucky to catch up with Ben White recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ben, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

Currently, I am extraordinarily happy with where I am in life. Do I wish I did anything differently? Not even a little bit. Maybe a few tiny things here and there like not trying to steal gummy snacks from the elementary school cafeteria, but everything I have done has led me to a very happy place in life.

That being said, I think it is very, very important to start a business sooner rather than later. If anybody has been toying with the idea for a while, then you’re already late to the game, but not too late to start.

I started my first business (a paragliding school) at the strong suggestion of one of my best friends. I had been teaching flying with him for 2 years at the time and he told me that I needed to go independent and he would support me in any possible way. That was the gift of self employment. It was terrifying going out on my own, taking responsibility of making the work, doing the work, and working to get paid, but after a few years of that, I have enough data and have seen enough patters that it is seemingly stable.

I started White Cloud Concierge August 2020 after teaching flying independently for 2 years. At the time I was working on becoming a commercial pilot, teaching paragliding, and was 27 years old with a great girlfriend (soon to be wife) and no kids. Because I was teaching/ learning flying, my schedule was highly dependent on the weather. Bad weather days meant I could work on my concierge service, good weather days meant I could teach flying and/ or go to school. A year later, I made a post on Facebook announcing my business in August 2021.

Starting sooner would have been great, but I needed the insight in my life that flying planes is not actually where I am best utilized. I am a super people person, extremely extroverted, and being locked away in a cockpit would not provide the social stimulation I crave. Had I started sooner, I would have started learning about the market I serve sooner. I can’t imagine starting later, as it already feels like I’m so far behind. I feel like I started at JUST the right time.

Ben, 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 got into running a home concierge service because I decided to leverage one of my most valuable personality traits. I habitually connect people, and I decided I should start charging for it. One of the things that I really don’t like hearing is “I can’t take another run, I need to quit skiing right now so I can go home to clean the house/ take the car for an oil change/ anything else that isn’t a truly valuable activity”.

What White Cloud Concierge tries to do is put the hotel concierge service into single family homes. What that looks like is providing a single source for house cleaning, yard work, car detailing, handyman services, car detailing, errand running, and a variety of other services.

We stand apart from other services by working very hard to gain the trust of our customers. Some of them will tell us to let ourselves in, grab all the skis out of the garage, and take them for a ski tune. Sometimes our house cleaners or yard workers will run an errand because they’re going to a customers house anyways. We truly try to put the hotel front desk into people’s homes.

Currently, I am most proud of the network of service providers that I have been able to put together as well as the customer list I have built. Sometimes my service providers get so caught up in just plain doing work that they don’t necessarily stop to think to make a change and optimize a process. Being able to generate work for them and have a bigger picture view can help them have better lives. Happy house cleaners and landscapers mean very happy customers, and I get to be the bridge that makes that happen. It’s a thrill!

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I took a $200 check from Nana who was feeling generous on my birthday and deposited into a business checking account. The business has funded itself almost entirely, except for when I pumped $3000 of my own money into it to cover a bill. Bootstrapping has been hard but having it be 100% my project has been super rewarding.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Yes. While I was teaching paragliding and working towards my commercial pilot certificate, I broke my back, thankfully no nerve damage. Pilots need to visit a doctor once a year to make sure that they are physically fit to fly a plane and won’t suddenly be incapacitated. I decided vehemently that I did not want to depend on my body and time for income. Instead of doing the checklists that a pilot would, I wanted to build the checklists. I figured that I could use my super power of connecting people and that I could build systems that would add value to peoples lives, and while recovering from my injury I had plenty of time to work on that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.whitecloudconcierge.com
• Instagram: @benwhiteskis, @whitecloudconcierge
• Facebook: facebook.com/benwhiteskis https://www.facebook.com/whitecloudconcierge
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benwhiteskis/

Image Credits
Ben White