Her Business Helps Women Earn in a $6.3B Industry: ‘Rewarding’

Moniqueca Sims, proprietor of SSG Equipment Academy, received her first glimpse into the equipment restore business whereas courting a person who labored within the area. “He labored on a regular basis, seven days every week,” Sims remembers, “so I used to exit with him simply to spend time with him. I noticed how simple it was for him to restore these home equipment, and he was repairing them shortly.”

Picture Credit score: Courtesy of SSG Equipment Academy. Moniqueca Sims.

Sims believes in “working smarter, not more durable” and had the thought to rent technicians to assist the person she was courting with restore calls. She did, however when he did not decelerate, she ended up along with her personal equipment restore firm.

Nonetheless, in working that enterprise, Sims misplaced a major sum of money buying elements. Many individuals she employed did not really know how one can restore home equipment — and would simply swap out half after half in the hunt for a match.

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So Sims took issues into her personal palms once more. She enrolled in an internet course to study equipment restore and began dealing with jobs herself, even taking her children alongside generally.

“Once you repair one thing, it boosts you up, each time you do it.”

Nonetheless, Sims knew there needed to be a greater technique to practice and rent technicians for enterprise development, so as soon as extra she got down to make it occur: She based SSG Equipment Academy, which supplies hands-on coaching programs on the basics to have a profession within the equipment restore business, in Atlanta in 2019.

“ I noticed how equipment restore was the present that retains on giving,” Sims says. “Once you exit, while you repair one thing, it boosts you up, each time you do it. It isn’t a grunt job. It is a feel-good job.”

When Sims went out on jobs along with her daughter, she discovered that most of the shoppers had been stay-at-home mothers who breathed a sigh of reduction after they realized they would not be alone with a male employee. Figuring out that, and seeing firsthand what a confidence booster equipment restore may very well be, Sims dedicated to bringing extra girls into the business.

The entire equipment restore business income reached an estimated $6.3 billion in 2023, but girls make up lower than 3% of house equipment repairers, in response to information from ConsumerAffairs.

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Sims determined to accomplice with shelters to develop SSG Equipment Academy and supply a viable profession path to the ladies there. Though there was a number of curiosity, the shelters did not have the funding to again it. So Sims received authorised for grants by way of the Workforce Innovation and Alternative Act (WIOA).

The funding helps low-income, under- or unemployed ladies and men full SSG Equipment Academy’s program and “flip their life round,” Sims says.

SSG Equipment Academy’s courses usually enroll eight to 10 college students. The latest course had three girls in it. Up to now, Sims typically needed to attend occasions and persuade girls to come back to the category; now, word-of-mouth helps them discover it themselves, she says.

“ You consistently need to show your self [as a woman] on this business.”

Sims appears to be like ahead to seeing much more girls benefit from SSG Equipment Academy, regardless of the challenges that may include being a lady within the area.

“ You consistently need to show your self [as a woman] on this business, and never simply to the purchasers,” Sims says. “You must show your self to all people that works within the business.”

Sims can also be excited to see extra individuals throughout the board leap into the equipment restore business, noting that studying a commerce may also help individuals earn more money than they could by way of incomes a four-year faculty diploma.

“Equipment restore can actually assist change individuals’s lives,” the founder says.

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“You need to be taught your craft from the within out.”

To different girls concerned with beginning their very own careers or companies within the equipment restore business, Sims has some simple however important recommendation: Enroll in a program that may allow you to be taught all it’s good to know concerning the commerce.

“You need to be taught your craft from the within out,” Sims says. “Lots of technicians within the discipline now be taught on the job, so that they turn into part-changers as a result of they do not discover ways to diagnose and troubleshoot the home equipment correctly. So my recommendation would positively be to take a category. It does not need to be my faculty — any faculty.”

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Sims notes that there shall be loads of obstacles alongside the way in which, however she encourages anybody concerned with studying equipment restore to remain the course — as a result of “it is a very rewarding profession and enterprise.”

This text is a part of our ongoing Ladies Entrepreneur® collection highlighting the tales, challenges and triumphs of working a enterprise as a lady.