Replacing a light bulb doesn’t seem like a big deal. But to someone who lives alone and can’t climb a ladder, this simple household task can be impossible.
Enter Blue Collar Concierge. This innovative business founded by husband-and-wife team Ben and Molly Doolittle offers clients a weekly appointment with a handyman to do those small tasks often neglected by an elder or busy homeowner.
“Ben and I both had aging parents,” says Molly, a teacher who grew up in the Bay Area. “We’d go visit Ben’s mom in Petaluma and we’d be walking out the door when she’d say, ‘Can you just do these couple of things?’ She needed someone for her ‘honey-do list.’ We realized there was this niche of people living alone in homes that need tasks taken care of—not big handyman projects, but smaller things like fixing a gate latch.”
Always game to try something new—they lived on a sailboat for two and half years with their two young sons before settling in College Greens—the Doolittles decided to find a handyman to hire out for odd jobs around the neighborhood. The positive response was immediate. A happy customer posted on NextDoor. Blue Collar Concierge was off and running.
“We didn’t want to spend a lot at first, we just wanted to see if people had a need,” Molly says. “People were just tickled. It’s about finding the right people—we found a great (handyman) named Tommy—and seeing if there’s a need. The tone of our life is ‘do good.’”
Blue Collar Concierge is clearly doing a lot of good for people who can’t keep on top of household tasks. The Doolittles learned they had to clarify the service to make sure people understood it’s not a one-time handyman job, but a subscription service.
Every week a few tasks are accomplished to keep things in top shape. Customers can add or remove tasks from a live list in their online account. Each week, Tommy the handyman takes care of them.
Though Ben is still working fulltime in insurance and Molly is still a part-time general education intervention teacher, the couple would love to grow Blue Collar Concierge. They have added routes in Rocklin and plan more throughout the region.
Molly is excited about making their bottom line secure enough to offer free services to Habitat for Humanity homeowners as a way to “send out good vibes.”
“We don’t know what the future holds, but as long as we’re happy and people enjoy it, we’ll see where it goes,” she says.
For more information, visit bluecollarconcierge.com.
Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
