When sophomore Kelly Archambeault began applying for a part time job over the summer, she quickly realized she couldn’t see herself making minimum wage every single weekend at any job.
“I was thinking to myself, ‘what do I see myself doing in the future?’” she said. “I thought it’d be really fun to run my own business, so I FaceTimed my boyfriend and was like, ‘would you be willing to start a business with me?’”
Archambeault’s idea began with her career interests in renovation and architecture. “Just like those HGTV shows,” she said. “I [wanted to] relate these interests in a more manageable and ‘child-friendly’ way, [doing] home cleaning and organizing. After pitching the idea we decided, ‘why not just offer it all?’”
Fast forward two months, Archambeault and Lindbergh sophomore Ben Donaldson finally launch the self-made business, Teens Do Odd Jobs.
“We offer a lot of things, pretty much anything that you can think of. We consider ourselves home helpers. I like to tell people we do pet sitting, yard work, we can clean your house, we can clean your car. We’ve picked up people’s groceries before, we do anything that you need help with,” Archambeault said.
Besides earning money on her own, Archambeault wanted to start Teens Do Odd Jobs to also work around her strict cross country schedule, which she shared with Donaldson.
“Our connection definitely grew a lot through cross country. It was both our first years ever trying it and we met each other,” she said. “Having cross country everyday, [Donaldson and I] have very similar schedules. So the idea in my mind was like, on weekends we would have the same schedule and we’d both be able to go help people.”
So far, Archambeault has mowed a couple lawns and picked up medicine. Although the business hasn’t been ‘booming’ quite yet, Archambeault says she’s having fun.
“It’s cool knowing that I’m making money on my own schedule. And it’s something I enjoy doing. It feels rewarding to be able to do a job for someone,” she said.
Archambeault hopes to watch her business grow to a point where she’ll be able to hire people—she’s had two people ask her already. Currently, she says, there just aren’t enough jobs for that yet. “We’ve seen company trucks on the road and we’re like, ‘that’ll be our future in those trucks’. It’s cool to think about how we could get to that point,” she said.
