Rachel Rhoades is the founder of Jane's of All Trades. We spoke on the phone just after I found her business card on the bulletin board at a Fairborn Waffle House.
We agreed to meet at her current job site, a home not far from the restaurant. On this day, she's here to install a new patio deck in the backyard. But first, the crew is hard at work trying to remove the old deck. When I ask how things are going, Rachel tells me, “Oh, you know, interesting problems call for creative solutions.”
My first impression of Rachel is that she epitomizes the phrase down to earth. It comes across in her manner and in the way she speaks. "One of my grandmas favorite sayings was, ‘If you know a little bit about a lot of things, you'll never be lost in life or a conversation," she says.
Rachel peppers our conversation with other expressions. One explains how her business Janes of All Trades got its name. "The name was kind of a play on words. You know, ‘A jack of all trades is master none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. So why call a Jack when a Jane can get it done?” She laughingly adds, “And of course, were more pleasant to look at."
Rachel started Jane's of All Trades almost two years ago, and in that time, work has been steady. She hopes to grow the operation, but for now, Janes of All Trades is a two-person enterprise made up of Rachel and her work partner, Angela Balint. Angie says it's part of their business model to build connections with their clients.
"I love helping people,” she says. Even before this, my main thing was love, spreading love and just helping people. And I love that through this line of work, we can touch so many people. I mean, just sitting down and talking to the client for a couple of minutes can make all the difference for their day. So, that's the part I really love."
Rachel feels the same way. "Both of us have always had a heart for just helping people and spreading love and that ministry which we carry into every job that we do, no matter how big or small," she tells me.
The new patio project Rachel and Angie are working on is for their friend, Linda Gearhart. Rachel calls her Miss Linda.
"I've lived here 35 years and I bought the house with my husband Roger, who passed away in July of last year,” she says. “But God brought me them and I just love them like my daughters. And I think they're wonderful people."
Miss Linda is fairly typical of the clients Janes of All Trades caters to. She found the business through her widows’ group and most of Rachel's business comes through word of mouth.
"I may be short in stature,” Rachel says, “but I make up for it in might and wherewithal and problem-solving capabilities, and I think I've astonished some of my family for sure. But having both my parents handicapped most of my life is really what drove me to start my own business. You know, you watch people get taken advantage of left and right, and for us, helping those women who've had a honey-do-list growing since their husbands have passed, it's really been fulfilling and incredibly enjoyable."
In the two years since they've started Jane's of all trades, Angie, who says she's less experienced at this type of work, is learning a lot from Rachel.
"Rachel is amazing. She's one of those people that’ll give you the shirt off her back for sure. She's a really hard worker. I've never seen her give up on anything. There's a lot of challenges that come in with this trade and she takes a moment, looks at it from different angles, and then attacks that in the best way, and maybe has to attack it another way or whatever. She never lets anything stop her and I find that very admirable because a lot of people just throw in the towel sometimes, but she will not."
If there's a philosophy for the two-woman crew of Jane's of All Trades, it's likely found in the Scripture printed on their business card. Proverbs 31, which, as Rachel sees it, is about empowering women and helping others.
“Being able to impact somebody on a personal level, and I love to have that one-on-one connection and have an opportunity to show love that, you know, the world can be pretty mean right now. And for us to be able to bring some light into somebody's life that beats a paycheck any day in my book."
