Carrie Tidwell: An Entrepreneur at Heart
Carrie Tidwell has always been an entrepreneur at heart. The nurse owned a paint your own pottery studio a few years before starting Clover Home Health Care in 2014, in between working at a hospital and at a home health agency, Alpha Home and Physical Therapy Inc.
It was her time at Alpha, taking care of clients in their homes that inspired her to start her own company.
“I saw people who needed additional help and had little support,” she explained. “I thought I could this and do it well.”
So, she and a marketing partner launched Clover without borrowing any money. She started out providing care or hiring outside non-skilled caretakers to help with patients. Now, the company has 80 employees.
Carrie said it’s been very rewarding to be able to provide jobs for people and to care for those who really need it. She’s proud when she sees clients get better and thrive in their own home happily, safely, and healthfully.
What would she tell someone who is looking to start their own business?
- Save early and often. This doesn’t just apply to entrepreneurs, but to everyone. It’s also a message she has instilled in her children. If you begin to put aside even a little bit of money when you are younger, it will grow into a nest egg that you can use to purchase a car, put toward buying a home, or to start your own business.
- It’s okay to fail. “Don’t be afraid of failure,” she explained, as it will only make you strong in the long run. You can’t succeed without little bits of failure. Just put one foot front of the other and keep going, she continued.
- Hire someone with a business background. When you run your own business, you often wear many hats, including bookkeeper and HR manager. Bringing in someone to take those duties off your plate frees you up to run and grow your business.
- “Stop dragging your feet and “just” do it. After operating out of her home for two years, Carrie really needed to get an actual office space. She asked her mom, Billie Dragoo, if she could use some of her office space. Her mom told her, “You need to pull up your big girl panties and get your own office space!” But as Billie does with all women, including her own daughter, she helped her by immediately picking up the phone and calling a friend to help Carrie find that space.
Carrie’s mother has been an inspirational person in her life and has shown her how to be businesswoman and advocate for women.
“We all need someone to help guide us, inspire us and motivate us,” Carrie said, “especially when we have setbacks.”
Contributor: Jennifer Nelson, Content Specialist at KSGilmore Consulting LLC
