Liz Jenkins | A Fresh Space
Owner of A Fresh Space
Liz Jenkins is the owner of A Fresh Space, a professional organizing and moving concierge company. Discover how her passion for organizing transformed into a thriving business that supports clients through major life transitions. Liz offers valuable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, emphasizing the importance of recognizing the true value of your service.
What Businesses Do You Run?
Liz Jenkins is the owner of A Fresh Space, a company she founded in 2005. Specializing in high-level professional organizing, move concierge services, and unpacking, her business offers a comprehensive suite of services. With a dedicated installation team, A Fresh Space manages everything from closet installations to hanging art, supporting clients during significant life transitions—such as moving, combining households after marriage, or overcoming clutter challenges. Her clients are often busy, capable individuals seeking solutions to restore order and create functional, beautiful spaces.
How Did You Get Started as an Entrepreneur?
Liz’s journey into entrepreneurship began with a passion for organization and a desire to help others. Initially, she faced skepticism about the viability of her business idea. Many questioned who would need her services, but Liz’s determination to follow her vision prevailed. Over the years, she learned invaluable lessons about the complexities of running a business, particularly regarding the importance of understanding taxes, legal structures, and the operational aspects that underpin success.
How Do You Think About Growth in Your Current Business? How Do You Plan for the Future?
Reflecting on growth, Liz acknowledges that she has never experienced a definitive moment of “making it.” Instead, she continually seeks ways to improve her business and herself. A turning point came after attending a conference post-COVID, where attendees expressed gratitude for her insights and shared how her words had influenced their businesses. This feedback reaffirmed her impact and motivated her to keep striving for excellence. Liz emphasizes that being an entrepreneur has provided her with clarity about her identity and purpose, allowing her to express her true self.
What Advice Do You Have for Aspiring Entrepreneurs?
For aspiring entrepreneurs, Liz offers crucial advice: don’t let others dictate your path. If she had listened to naysayers questioning the viability of her business, she might never have pursued her dream. Liz believes there’s a market for almost anything if entrepreneurs can effectively communicate their value. Additionally, she cautions against undervaluing one’s services. Many new entrepreneurs tend to offer their skills for less than they’re worth, unaware of the true value they provide. Recognizing and charging appropriately for their unique offerings is essential for both personal fulfillment and business success.
“Don’t listen to other people telling you what you could make a career out of... You can make a business out of anything.”
-
Liz Jenkins 0:00
So my name is Liz Jenkins. I own a company called a fresh space, and we've been in business since 2005 our company focuses on high level, professional organizing, move concierge and unpacking. We also have a full installation team. So our guys do things like closet installs. They help with our moves, they hang art and basically support our organizing team and our move Concierge Team helps clients get edited, moved, unpacked, and we manage that whole process for them, we work with a lot of different kinds of clients. Most of the time, it tends to be clients that are in transition or have had life changes. That's a lot of it. Sometimes it's people that have moved maybe they've gotten married in our combining households, they've had kids, and now all of the stuff is taking over. But from a regular organizing standpoint, our clients are people that are either drowning in clutter or they've gotten to a certain point and they don't know how to get it to that next level, and they really want it to just work. They want it to function. They want it to look great. And so we can manage any of that and work with anybody, pretty much in most areas, most of our clients are smart, capable, busy people that just don't have the time or the energy, or in many cases, the know how to take a project in a home from start to finish, and a lot of it really does come down to time. So we're looking for people that don't have a lot of time, don't know what they're supposed to do, and they just want somebody to help them get them there. When did I feel that I made it? I would have to say that never. But yes, I did, and I know that probably doesn't make sense, but I am never one to just be like, Okay, I'm done. I've made it we're good, because I'm always looking for how I can make it better, sometimes to the detriment of what we're doing. Because, like, Does this really need to be fixed? Do we really need to change it? Am I just changing it for change sake? So I have to balance that part out. But I do think it hit me a couple of years ago when I went to a conference and the number of people who came up to me, it's like right after COVID, who came up to me and told me how much information that I had given them, or that I had communicated to somebody, or I had shared or a conversation that we had had, that I didn't even think anything of, but was a game changer for them, and how they thought about their business, or The number of people that came up to me and were just in awe of what I'd created, and I don't see it because I'm in it, having people outside of the company sharing how they viewed the company. I don't want to say that it's like, oh, at one point I was like, Oh, yeah. So we've made it. We're amazing. It's more of this, these little affirmations that kind of bring this feeling of, oh, yeah, I am doing a good job. I have created something amazing. So being an entrepreneur has changed me a lot as a person, primarily because it's given me a very clear focus of who I am, and it has allowed me to be me. I think when you are doing the work that you're doing in your regular life, when I say work just like you know you're living your life, I think sometimes it's hard to really quantify who you are and really express that, because there's so many outside forces. You've got social media, you've got peer pressure, you have all these outside things, being an entrepreneur has really given me this this outlet, this focus for who I really am, and just the fact that I fell into a business that is exactly who I am, something that I wish I had known when I first started out as an entrepreneur. Is a lot of things, but I don't know that I would have appreciated them, because I think so many things you have to learn as you go along. But I think the one thing that I see, I saw it myself, and I see in a lot of other people, is when you first start all you can think about is the work that you're doing. What I wish I had known was how much businessy things I needed to know, and that's what I didn't know. I didn't know anything about all of the the taxes and the legal structures and all of that. I wish that I had set a lot of that up sooner than I did. So that was the part I really wish I had known, was how much of that was involved. Although, if I had known that, it probably would have scared me off. So advice for somebody who's looking to become an entrepreneur, don't listen to other people telling you what you could make a career out of when I first started, if I had listened to other people going like, what, what? Who even needs that, I would have never done what I do. And now I have this wonderful company that supports all these people. But if I had listened to other people downplaying it or being like, That's ridiculous. I would have never known that I can do what I'm doing now. You can make a business out of anything. People want all kinds of things, even if they don't even know they want it. And if you can say, Oh, but I can do this thing for you, how amazing is that the. Other thing that I would say is do not undervalue the service that you are providing to somebody. And I see this a lot in newer entrepreneurs, where they have something that they're really gifted at, and then they almost give it away. And people, people don't know how much things should cost, so if you tell me it's X dollars, well, sure, I'll pay that. X dollars probably worth way more than that and the benefit somebody's getting, but people don't recognize the value in what they are bringing to the table and what they can do for somebody.
