January 2025 Skilled Trades Grant Awarded to K & M Home Repairs

We’re excited to announce the $10,000 Startup Grant recipient for January 2025. Congratulations to Katie Loewen, founder of K & M Home Repairs.

Recently, WomensNet Advisory Board member Marcia Layton Turner sat down with Katie for an exclusive interview. You can listen to their conversation and view the transcript below.

Video Transcript

Marcia: Today, we’re speaking with Katie Loewen of K & M Home Repairs, who is our business-specific grant winner in the Skilled Trades category. I’m Marcia Layton Turner and I’m a WomensNet Advisory Board member. Katie, tell us about K & M Home Repairs. What do you do? How did you get started?

Katie: We are handywomen services and we tend to focus a lot on windows and doors, especially restoration-based projects. We also do a little bit of minor electrical and minor plumbing. The K stands for Katie, and the M stands for my partner, Mallory, because even though I kind of grew up in and around the trades, I never actually got an opportunity to work because women aren’t historically reflected in the trade.

So, during the pandemic, I lost my job. I was laid off because I was in event production, and there weren’t concerts happening anymore. So, I needed work. Mallory invited me to go do a window job with her to fix and replace some windows. And I just had a lot of ideas and got really excited. Once I started working on homes, I was like, “Wow, I love this.”

I’ve been trying since 2013 to start my own business and to figure out what that would be. And when I was at that job, it was like, “I always wanted to work with my hands.” And it just started, sort of, piecing together. I’m also a stained glass art hobbyist, so I taught myself how to do stained glass.

My grandfather was a phenomenal stained glass artist and would make all sorts of windows and fancy things like that. And my other grandfather owned a construction company. So, sadly, my grandfather who did the stained glass passed before he was able to pass on the trade to me. But as I got into it, I felt reconnected with him in a whole new way, and I have a lot of his original pieces in my home. And, I mean, similar with the carpentry side of things. There’s a part of me that feels closer to them and wishes I could have gotten the opportunity when I was younger to work with them on these things and ask them a bunch of questions. But I guess it’s always been in my blood.

But my partner’s the one who brought me on, and she owns her own business. So, she’s very encouraging of me starting my own business, and she introduced me to my first mentor, Todd, and he just taught me all things carpentry, got me linked up with a lot of different people.

I ended up going back to school. And as soon as I got out of school, within a year, I started my own business. And my focus has really been on handy repairs while trying to grow into this, kind of, combination of artistic carpentry restoration work with windows and doors. And, yeah, this grant is going to let me move to that next step, which is what’s really exciting.

Marcia: I love the family connection and the inspiration in your story. I think that’s so cool.

Katie: Yeah. It’s honestly all about community. It’s all about where you come from and who supports you. That completely shapes your experience as a human being but also as a business owner, you know?

Marcia: Were there any resources that you found really helpful as you were getting started and that you might recommend to other WomensNet community members.

Katie: Yeah, so for the trades specifically, I ended up going back to school and doing kind of a community program through community college. They also have BOCES in our area, which is how you can actually learn in a professional setting. But for me, word of mouth has been the most powerful thing in my community. My mom and my stepdad taught me how to start the business, how to do my taxes. My mom’s best friend is literally my tax accountant.

I also do circus arts on the side. So, I’m also a circus art teacher. So, I teach aerial fabrics. So, my best friend at the circus studio is my lawyer. My resources are my community, are my friends, my family, the places that I work out. You know, my mentor Todd became my best friend and has been helping me every step of the way. Anytime I have questions or need to troubleshoot something or if I come across a hard day where there’s just so much happening at one time, it’s like that community is what has really helped me find the success.

I’ve also partnered with some small local businesses as well. So, the tool library is something I always like to talk about. It’s this idea that I believe was born in Europe. I want to say Switzerland maybe, but they got the idea from Europe, they brought it over here. It’s essentially like a library for books, but instead of books, it’s tools. So, you can just go rent tools.

Now, as a contractor who’s just starting out, having a tool library where I can rent something for jobs and I just pay a small annual fee, like, I don’t have to pay, you know, hundreds of dollars every time I need to rent an auger to dig a hole, it has been a game changer. And everyone there has my business cards, has my information, and sends my information out to the people in the community who need help.

I think if I were to give advice to other…especially women small business owners, it’s like your community, your friends and your family, different organizations in your community, even if they’re doing the same thing that you’re doing. I’ve networked with a couple of other women in Buffalo who do handiwork, and it’s helpful to hold each other up and to cheer each other on, to stay strong and get through some of those tough times. But there’s no book that has been as resourceful as some of these human beings.

Having said that, if you’re looking for reading on trades, give me a call because I got a lot of books, especially regarding windows and doors. I can send you my Window Sash Bible. But, yeah, human beings for sure. Just my community, it’s been the biggest resource in helping me figure out how to do what I’m doing.

Marcia: Great tips. Switching gears to talk about what has worked for you marketing-wise, I’m guessing that community is also going to be what you leverage in your marketing. But are there other things that you’ve found helpful marketing-wise?

Katie: So, I started out marketing just through social media and Google, using Meta just to try to target people in the Western New York region looking for handy services. I got a lot of calls from running a bunch of different ads for about six months. It was really helpful for the startup, but honestly, the way that I run marketing now is very different.

I’ve really focused a lot on local resources. So, one of the places that I do a lot of advertising through is the Western New York Gay & Lesbian Yellow Pages. Also, as a queer person, I want to be representing in the queer community and supporting other queer communities and so supporting them is really important to me. And they run discounts so the longer you advertise with them, the cheaper it is. Plus, if you get organized — and make sure you sign up for Pride Month — they do discounts on Pride Month. They have all sorts of different things for people. They can do online ads, in-person ads that they mail out to people. But I’m a really big fan of them and the tool library as well, just because everybody’s going to the tool library looking for resources. And people are going to the Yellow Pages looking specifically for alternative businesses that have a social purpose to them as well.

I also had a friend—again, you know, relying on that community—who was a freelance photographer, and she knew about what I was doing with my art and my business. And one of the things she really liked was that I use scrap materials from jobs, and instead of throwing them out, I turn them into different things that people can use in their homes. Oftentimes, I’ll just give it as a free gift for somebody like a friend or a client that I’m working for like, “Hey, we demoed this thing, and I made a shelf. I don’t know if you want it,” kind of thing. But she was really interested in the sustainability approach that I was taking. So, she got me an interview with Buffalo Magazine. So, that ended up going out in print and got me a bunch of business as well.

I kind of started really broad, just beginner baby business owner [relying on Meta and Google], but I quickly got away from that just to try to focus more on not just my community but other local organizations.
Even just dropping by like, “Hi, I’m Katie. This is what I do.” You know, half the time when I introduce myself to people, they’re like, “I need home repairs. I need somebody who’s going to answer the phone and be reliable. I need five business cards from you right now.”

I’m luckily in a service industry that’s very high in demand. So, word of mouth is very powerful for me, especially because I show up on time. I don’t really leave the ball in my client’s court. They know when I’m going to show up. There’s no, kind of, guessing or waiting game. So, it’s a combination of how I run my business and, again, really relying on that community and local resources to help me get out to the people that are in my area because it is a local service I’m providing.

Marcia: Your mention of the tool library, which is such a cool concept, makes me think of painting contractors and connecting paint suppliers like Sherwin-Williams, let’s say. So, I think that’s a really good marketing tip for other small business owners. Think about where your customers are going, because I know that’s how I found my painter locally. I went into Sherwin-Williams to ask, “Who would you recommend, and who should I steer clear of?” And they had names because they supply. So, yeah, great marketing tip.

Katie: Yeah, and even supporting local building materials. So, there are certain local businesses that are where I get my building materials, and they’re specific to Buffalo. You’re not going to find them in other places. Yes, you can get similar materials at Home Depot or whatever, but since we’re so close to the border and a lot of building materials come through Canada, you can get different deals depending on where you’re going to go. And if you’re loyal to some of these local companies, they’re very loyal back to you. So, building those relationships honestly has been the best thing for my business and my marketing strategy. But, again, I’m really focused on providing a service in a local area.

Marcia: So, how can we in the WomensNet community show support for your company?

Katie: The biggest thing I think the WomensNet community can do is vote for me when the time comes to vote. But the other pieces of that is if you’re in Buffalo or the Western New York area and you’re in need of home repair services, specifically regarding windows and doors, restoration projects, or even electrical and some plumbing, call me. There’s really nothing too small.

I think a lot of contractors out there are like, “That’s too small. That’s not big enough.” And for us, I really just want to help people. So, I will take a lot of those small jobs, even though they’re not big moneymakers but I want to help people. And one of the other things that I think is, kind of, unique about my business is that we offer DIY consulting services. So, if you don’t know how to do it and you want to learn how to do it, we will teach you to do it. But there’s no trade secrets here. You know, we’re here to help support people.

And the last thing I would say with the WomensNet community is that, if you’re a woman and you’re in the trades or you’re a queer person and you’re in the trades, I’m always looking to network with other people who are in this industry with me. I’ve had a lot of women over the years just reach out and be like, “Hey, I see what you do, and I saw this Instagram thing or this magazine article about you, and I want to get into the trades.” There’s women I talk to who don’t even live here, who live in Vermont or Texas who are just like, “I’m lost. Can we connect?” And we’ll chat, and we’ll text each other or have video calls and stay in radio contact with each other, because I think so much of what we’re doing as women owning our own businesses, being in my industry or a different one, it’s like we have to support each other. We’re stronger together.

And supporting each other, we can help each other be more successful. So, if you’re just wanting to get into trades, you don’t know how to get into it, you’re just interested in what I do, call me, and let’s talk about it. I would love, love, love to help other women find their place in the world as much as I’ve enjoyed the experience of finding my own place here.

Marcia: Excellent. Thank you so much for sharing your story, sharing your tips and advice for other women business owners, and congratulations, again.