We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Candice Jones. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Candice below.
Candice, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
My mom is an airforce veteran and has been out of the service for many years now and realized how often people remarked on how well she looked and was doing in comparison to other veterans they had encountered. So many veterans are unhoused, and uncared for after their service to the country, and people often remarked about her overall positive disposition. She found that she was one that did pretty well considering her experiences during Desert Storm.
My mom realized there was a real need to provide a way of restoring honor and dignity to those who have served in the military, but, were in need of help being comfortable in civilian society again. Many veterans have difficulty finding a similar level of camaraderie and familiarity they experienced during active service. By giving veterans and those who may have fallen on difficult times an opportunity to build again in a beautiful, fully furnished, well organized home that is shared with others who are in the same community as they are, we could give people a chance to hope and dream once more.
She knew in honesty that she was only able to thrive because of God and her love for her family which carried her, however, everyone doesn’t have that same faith or family support. So one day she came to me with the idea to start a co-living organization that will serve fellow veterans as well as other transitional demographics such as travel nurses, seniors, gig workers etc.
Thus, DoorHaven was born.
Candice, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a serial entrepreneur and have started several ventures in the past, but throughout it all, have consistently had my hand in music in some shape or form. I am a singer/songwriter and a minister of music so in every stage of my life whether it was business heavy or not, music was somewhere in the mix. I have several music projects out and an album called Going4Glory on all musical platforms. In the midst of creating music, I have always had a heart for business and knew I needed to work for myself for multiple reasons, One of those being able to be home with my daughter who was diagnosed with Austism II 7 years ago. Being an employee and a present stay at home mom usually doesn’t mix well, so my entrepreneurial brain begin to to churn.
My path went from starting a credit repair company, to being licensed in financial services, to investing in mobile homes etc. and it has been an interesting and humbling journey for sure.
This newest business -DoorHaven-just feels…right. Different. It truly gives me a sense of purpose that I don’t think I felt in anything else I started before though they absolutely were purposeful and impactful to those I served. In fact previous clients still reach out to this very day and also continue referring others to me because of how I treated them professionally and as a whole. With that said, DoorHaven seems to be the business that is almost divine in timing and arrival.
DoorHaven provides co-living housing that truly stands out from the rest, in elegance, attention to detail, coziness, and overall warmth and belonging. I’m so proud of the fact that we did everything to put the homes together ourselves with just the two of us – my mother and I – when I thought it would be physically impossible. It showed me, I could do really hard things, and do them well, which has introduced a bit of a grit in me that I didn’t know I had and I love it.
I’d love potential tenants/members (we call our tenants: ‘members’) to be able to look to any DoorHaven home and know they can finally have a place where peace is REAL and attainable. I want them to feel cared for as human beings, and honored in the space they call home amongst other people sharing the home with them. Our goal is to foster genuine community and healthy support to spirit, soul, and body.
*Though we don’t provide additional services such as medical care or transportation etc., we are partnered with multiple organizations throughout the community that are ready and willing to be of service.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Hands down the most effective strategy has been building relationships with case managers who work with independent veterans in our area and beyond. These organizations – typically federally funded but not always – are desperately in need of housing for so many unhoused veterans, and there just hasn’t been enough inventory to meet the demand effectively, so they are always so excited to hear from us. In connecting with these individual managers, they then will begin to send their cases to us which creates a waitlist of those waiting for a home. So once we acquire new properties, we already have people ready to move in.
The same concept applies for travel nurses etc. We have found it’s best to contact the organizations that place travel nurses in our area and become referral partners/affiliates for them which makes it easier for them to bring on the staff they need for the hospital system in that area.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I have had multiple health issues in the past that often caused me to be bedridden, and physical activity, even just leaving the home, often required several days of recovery time afterwards. As we launched DoorHaven, it required a TON of physical lifting, moving, placing, hanging up, rearranging, driving, etc in addition to all of the administrative tasks we had to do in the midst of it all with just the two of us. I was seriously afraid we wouldn’t be able to do this simply bc of the labor intensive part of setting up homes since we had no staff in the beginning and were just a mom/daughter team.
But we prayed for grace. And God answered.
We were able to completely acquire all we needed, move things out and in, decorate, all on our own. Also, a wonderful friend of mine told her family what we were doing and they volunteered to help anytime they were available, so her dad came on weekends and changed out doorknobs/locks, hung cameras and some curtains which also saved us a ton of time and effort. Though we were ridiculously exhausted each night we got home to bed after 2am, we still were able to get up the next day to keep going until we were done. It took us 4 days to set up our first property, but I cannot be more proud of us than I am. And the responses we’ve received every time a case manager comes out to vet us has made it so worth it. I love hearing how impressed they are with the condition and look/feel of the home because they are used to seeing homes that are not suitable or well thought out.
It lets us know, we have captured the heart of this business’s mission.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.doorhaven.org
- Instagram: @DoorHavenCoLivingHomes
- Facebook: @DoorHavenCoLivingHomes
