Jean Soong, center right, was inspired to start her business by a visit to her father in Taiwan.
By JACK DELANEY | jdelaney@queensledger.com
A Brooklyn Heights resident is looking to make life easier for older adults in the area, one neighborhood at a time.
Jean Soong grew up in Massachusetts, where she gleaned an entrepreneurial spirit from her parents, who owned restaurants and convenience stores “all over.” She cut her teeth in the construction insurance industry, but soon fell in love with the work her clients, the contractors, were doing — when Soong and her partner moved to NYC in 2019, they sold their insurance agency and opened a home inspection business.
But during the pandemic, two trips across the globe to visit her ailing father in Taiwan inspired the Brooklynite to make another leap.
“That experience really opened my eyes on how hard it is for families to get reliable, high-quality help for seniors,” said Soong. “Even simple things like wheelchair transition ramps were not available.”
When Soong returned to New York, she knew she wanted to break into construction, yet wasn’t quite sure how. One night, up all night because of her one-year-old baby, she found the answer while trawling the web: a network of home service franchises called True Blue, which incorporates both handyman services and an emphasis on older adults.
“Unfortunately, my father passed before he saw us launch this,” said Soong, who now owns one of the first TrueBlue outfits in NYC. “However, my mom is really supportive — my whole family is. They really think that we are filling a gap in the community, where there’s a lot of seniors whose children maybe are not as handy.”
Brooklyn isn’t a bad place to start a home services business, considering the abundance of aging brownstones that need TLC. And the industry is no sideshow: according to data from the research firm IBISWorld, the US sector is projected to be worth $355 billion this year, employing 1.5 million people across 550,000 firms.
“In New York City, there are plenty of handyman services,” acknowledged Soong. But since technicians are often self-employed, she noted, very few have the proper licensing, insurance, or training to pass muster for the bigger-market buildings. “A lot of them are unable to get into the large co-ops or condos, [even if it’s] just to do small repairs.”
Co-ops have been shifting towards requiring vendors to be insured for some time, Soong explained, but the trend has intensified in the last five years. The value of an operation like hers is that it fills a niche that contractors often eschew — adjusting doorknobs or fixing closet spaces, for instance — while offering assurances that if a pipe bursts or a worker gets injured, it won’t break the bank.
Having experienced the industry from multiple angles, Soong finds fulfillment in the personal connections allowed for by her latest endeavor.
“We’re looking to make long term relationships with these clients,” she stressed. “A lot of them tell me that their children are not in the area, or they don’t have a lot of help around the house. Some don’t even have children, so they’re alone. Seeing us come in and help them, they’re super happy, and that makes me smile.”
