Meet Rhonnie R. McCauley of Errand Service Biz, DBA e-Services in East Boulder County

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rhonnie R. McCauley.

Rhonnie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My parents have always been entrepreneurs. I learned at a very young age what hard work can provide. My parents showed my sister and me that if you have determination, stick-to-it-tive-ness and if you find joy in what you do, you’ll be successful.

When I started Errand Service BIz, Inc dba e-Services Pet and Senior Care in 1999, I was in Corporate America working as a Merchandising Operations Manager for a family owned business. I commuted to Aurora everyday, leaving my house at 6 am and getting home at 6 pm. I hired a dog walker for my two dogs giving them two walks a day. Then the a-ha moment…”I want to walk my own dogs!”

I started thinking about a dog walking business and about all the Seniors who need someone to help them live a better life. I bounced the idea around with close friends, researched how many families had pets, aging parents and found out that the demand for personal services was huge.

I did my Corporate gig intermittently for a few more years while building my business of dog walking, senior care services, personal and corporate services.
For the first seven years, I did 100% of all the work:

*Overnight pet sitting
*daily dog walks
*House sitting
*kitty visits
*any misc errands

As it grew, I had to decide if I wanted to keep it a one woman show or expand. I went for it and hired people who had the same passion that I had for helping pets and people to live better.

With the business continuing to grow, I decided to divide the Company into
4 Divisions:

*Pet Care
*Senior Care
*Corporate
*Personal Service
We also cater to Corporations who want to add our service package as a benefits package for their employees.

In 2010 or so, I completely left Corporate America to manage Errand Service Biz full time. One of the best decisions that I have ever made.
Twenty years later, we’re still making clients howl and purr:
*Tucker, the dog, says “Woof woof woof.”
*Skye, the cat, says “Oh meowww!”

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
A bumpy road to say the least. My first month of revenue was $834. I remember feeling depleted and worried. I was constantly stressed about my finances. I thought my business was so awesome and didn’t understand why more people weren’t using such a great service.

In 2004, I earned my MBA. I felt like there was so much that I didn’t know about running a business and I wanted to be more efficient and effective.

When you own your own business one challenge that I had was a life / work balance. Friends and family would say, “you set your own schedule and can take time off whenever you want to.” However, it isn’t like that. It’ s a 24/7 work load and, I worked all holidays and I never said no to potential clients.

The most interesting obstacle/challenge was after I had my logo professionally designed. My marketing materials were printed and my website launched.

I hired a trademark attorney in Denver, who filed the paper work, in Washington DC for my trademark/copywrite protection. I was so proud and then it happened…

Three days later, I received a Certified Cease and Desist letter from the attorneys who work for IBM! The letter stated that I was “diluting and infringing” upon their e-commerce logo. For real! It was purely coincidence that the ‘e’ with a circle around it was similar to theirs!

As a small dog walking, senior care and personal service business, I could not fight the high power attorneys from IBM. The cease and desist order cost me significant amount of money in having to redo all my marketing materials and website with a new logo. Back to my family roots of determination and stick-to-it-tive-ness, I started all over with designing the new logo.

Errand Service Biz, Inc DBA e-Services – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Errand Service Biz specializes in one stop shopping for all your pet, senior care corporate and personal services. We do daily dog walks, overnight pet sitting in your home or have your pup at my house or at my pet sitter’s house, senior care for aging seniors and misc errands for corporations and individuals.

Several of the pet sitters are certified in Pet first aid and CPR. We specialize in special needs pets and their care. The business we get is from word of mouth and we are Veterinarian recommended.

I think that our differential advantage from other similar businesses is:
*You can trust us because we’re reliable and dependable
*You can relax while you’re away, knowing we always show up – no matter what
*We take excellent care of our clients pets and their homes
*We show compassion and love for all living things and to all our senior humans.
*We alert our clients if there is something going on in their home that shouldn’t be
i.e if their hot water heater is leaking, or their sump pump isn’t working and it’s causing a flood, etc.

In 2018 and 2019, e-Services was awarded as being a Green Business. We are
conscientious about our planet and try to make it a better place for humans and animals.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I have a couple of proud moments in my career as a business owner.

I have sustained a successful business for 20 years. Errand Service Biz will be celebrating 20 years of being in business on August 2, 2019. There were ups and downs over the past 20 years and I feel that we ( my Team and I) have been blessed by still being able to provide excellent care to pets and people. It continues to grow with new clients weekly!

Another proud moment was hearing about the effect I had on one of my clients.
I received a phone call from a lady who I didn’t know. She left me a message saying that she was looking for Rhonnie R. McCauley, who owned e-Services, and did pet sitting. She said that she had a message for me. When we connected, she told me that before her husband passed away, he said to her, “Please try to find Rhonnie.

She took care of Peaches in the early 2000 and I want her to know how thankful and grateful I was for her great care of my Peaches.” I never realized the lasting impression I had on this client and his Rottie named Peaches. I was in tears.

Contact Info:

• Address: Lafayette, CO
• Website: www.errandservicebiz.com
• Phone: 720-299-1780
• Email: rhonnie@errandservicebiz.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eservicespetandseniorcare/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ErrandServicebizInc/

Image Credit:
Memories by Treva Photography
Heidi Wagner Photography

Suggest a story: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.