Learn how a 30-year-old entrepreneur turned just $2,000 into a successful business, using smart strategies and determination to build a profitable venture.
Anna-Marie Ortiz had her sights set on something greater. With just $2,000 in reserve funds and no higher education, she went out on a limb to begin a cleaning business, Cool Auntie Cleaners, in Portland, Oregon. Today, that business procures more than $10,000 month to month, with a projected income outperforming $100,000 toward the finish of 2024. This story features her excursion, featuring the coarseness and technique that transformed a parttime second job into a full-time adventure.
In July 2023, Ortiz invested her last $2,000 to launch Cool Aunt Cleaners. Initially, she handled every aspect of the business, from cleaning apartments to balancing costs. Despite challenges, she persisted, fueled by her vision. "I knew next to nothing about the manner in which things wanted to go, yet you keep on going considering the way that you put confidence in what you're building," Ortiz said. Her versatility has paid off as Cool Auntie Cleaners has built up momentum and consistent income, with Ortiz bringing back home a compensation of about $29,000 every year.
Experiencing childhood in Wichita, Kansas, with four sisters, Ortiz was brought up in a family that knew the significance of difficult work and strength. With her stepfather's flooring business filling in as her most memorable prologue to business, she took in the significance of extending each dollar, an example that has been important in her own business process.
Ortiz's progress to rustic life on a 80-section of land ranch showed her the significance of discipline and genius. These experiences laid the foundation for her eventual path into business, instilling a strong work ethic and financial caution.
In spite of the fact that Ortiz went to junior college on a track grant, she immediately understood that conventional training wasn't her way. In the wake of exiting, she joined a startup in Lawrence, Kansas, where she acquired involved insight in deals, promoting, and project the executives. "It resembled procuring an untraditional business degree," she makes sense of. These skills would prove essential when she eventually decided to start her own business.
In 2020, Ortiz opened a plant shop, but the timing was unlucky—the shop launched just as the pandemic began. Though it ultimately closed, the experience taught Ortiz valuable lessons in entrepreneurship and self-reliance.
After a move to Portland in 2022, Ortiz decided it was time for a fresh start and committed fully to her side hustle. She invested in basic supplies, a professional logo, and registered her business, with her last $2,000 covering all the initial costs. To keep expenses low, she relied on traditional marketing, such as flyers and business cards, and quickly established a reputation among local young professionals.
Cool Aunt Cleaners caters to residential clients, offering move-out cleans and short-term rental turnovers. Pricing was a learning curve—Ortiz quickly discovered that larger homes didn’t always mean higher profits. In spite of early deterrents, her constancy paid off, and she took the jump toward full-time business person in November 2023.
Ortiz initially hired a small team to help with the cleaning workload, but high labor costs and flat-rate pricing made it challenging to stay profitable. She recalibrated her staffing approach, eventually scaling back to manage the business herself. Currently, she works alongside one part-time employee, handling up to 10 cleanings a week.
As the business grew, so did her goals. Regardless of acquiring not as much as her past work's compensation, Ortiz loves the opportunity that accompanies working for herself. She intends to extend Cool Auntie Cleaners, expecting to construct a "seven-figure business" by 2025, recruit more representatives, and adventure into computerized promoting to draw in new clients.
The transition to Portland accompanied higher living expenses, which at first drove Ortiz into Mastercard obligation. Be that as it may, she has since squared away the greater part of it, paying off her obligation from $14,000 to around $5,000. With her lease at $1,350 and other negligible costs, Ortiz deals with her funds cautiously, zeroing in on obligation reimbursement while keeping individual spending low.
Ortiz's drawn out objective isn't just to develop Cool Auntie Cleaners however to make generational abundance for her loved ones. "I should be the person in my family who creates something viable and leaves a legacy," she says. Enlivened by her excursion from humble starting points to effective entrepreneur, she trusts her story persuades others to make striking strides in their own enterprising excursions.
Startups are risky businesses, it’s like taking a chance of a lottery ticket every day. But I was in my early 20s, what else do I have going on? - Anna-Marie Ortiz
Anna-Marie Ortiz’s journey with Cool Aunt Cleaners shows how determination and a strategic approach can turn a modest investment into a thriving business. For anyone considering a similar path, her story proves that success is achievable—even with limited resources and no formal degree.
Thank you for visiting! Enjoy exploring our diverse collection of blogs, crafted with passion and insight to inspire and inform. Happy reading!