Painting a Community
By: Kelsey Kern
Date: 11-05-2021
Still today it is rare to find women in trade positions. NPR found that in the U.S. women only make up 3% of this workforce (1).
“When I was a kid I was raised when they finally, for the first time, started telling girls you could do anything and you weren’t expected to stay home, and it is this many years later and how many top people in the corporate world are women? It's been 50 years,” said Eubank.Ms. Greenjeans is a women owned interior painting business located in the Midway area. They started in 1992 which means they have been around for almost 30 years.
“We started with doing all kinds of home repairs. We used to build decks and fences and do all kinds of stuff like putting on gutters, siding, roofing, and about 10 years ago moved into pretty much doing only painting.”Eubank expressed that the neighborhood is changing and that they did not have very many, if any, jobs in the Midway area until the last five years where they saw more people hiring others to help get work done.
“We work all over the Twin Cities, even Minnetonka to Hudson, and Andover to Lakeville. I think it was about money is why we weren't in the Midway and now it's changing and people are hiring more workers and you just see more contractors than you used to.”
When asked how COVID-19 impacted their business, Eubank said their business slowed down but then eventually came to an immediate stop in mid March of 2020. Since they were self employed, they got to collect unemployment for their very first time.
“As soon as he (Governor Walz) started even slightly opening things up, I started getting calls, so by June I was working again,” Eubank said and continued to talk about the struggles adding, “People didn’t want us in their house and I'm sure there’s still some people who don't or are waiting, but I've been in business for a long time so finding customers is not a struggle anymore. It was for the first 10-15 years.”Ms. Greenjeans makes sure to support the community in every way they can.
“We do try to show our support by spending our money in the community at local businesses like Abbott Paint and at local restaurants we work near because they are supporting us so we want to support them.”
Abbott Paint and Carpet is a local family-run business and Ms. Greens only goes there or Hirshfield’s which is another family run paint store.“They are the only two left in the Twin Cities, and when I started there used to be maybe ten and before that probably fifty, and I do not go to Sherwin-Williams which actively tries to get rid of all of the family run stores all over the country. They are the Walmart of paint, and it’s important to keep them (family run businesses) around for the same reason I like people hiring me.”
Another way they support local businesses is through their advertising, but there have been changes throughout the years that have impacted how small businesses get recognized.“I only advertise in small locally run papers like the Women's Press because I will not give money to Nextdoor, Angie’s List or any of those companies,” Eubank said. “With Angie's List, in order to get to the top of the list you have to pay them money in addition to having good reviews.”
This can be bad for small businesses in the long run due to the larger companies who choose to pay, giving them an even bigger advantage.Eubank added, “It's different from what it used to be when painters used local papers like the Highland Villager and Como Monitor, and those are gone because people don't pick up the paper like they did in the 90s and early 2000s. However, people recommend us and word of mouth works great.”