Tampa duo take business from 50 to 500 clients in one year

Doublemint Sitting LLC of Hillsborough County

Gabi Rosello and Synthia Fairman were working at a foster home and babysitting on the side when they quickly realized that there was a huge need not being met for families.

And so, Doublemint Sitting, a babysitting, pet sitting and nanny referral business headquartered in Tampa, was launched. The service is now available in Boca Raton, Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Naples, Orlando, Tallahassee and Tampa. The company specializes in families who have children with special needs.

While the duo knew they had a rock star business idea, they weren’t sure where to start, so they reached out to the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County, for business assistance. “Since working with SBDC, we have become a legal business,” Gabi said. “We’ve also grown our clientele from 50 clients to 500 and we’ve also been very active in the community.”

The duo are members of the South Tampa Chamber of Commerce and Working Women of Tampa Bay. They have also joined Operation Startup and presented at 1 Million Cups at the Entrepreneur Collaborative Center.

“The SBDC has helped us so much,” Synthia said. “We come and challenge their minds on how they can continuously improve our business with us.”

Gabi and Synthia initially met with business consultants Dottie Minnick and Janette Blanco, and have since branched out to work with consultant Corey McCaster, who specializes in finance. “He sat us down and we’ve done our budget with him and they are just a helping hand,” Synthia added.

The hard work has been paying off, not only in revenues, but in local recognition. Doublemint Sitting was recently awarded the 2018 Shop Small Business of the Year and was nominated for the South Tampa Chamber of Commerce 2019 Business of the Year.

“Those awards and nominations have just proven to us that all of our hard work with Doublemint Sitting, thanks to the SBDC, have paid off,” Synthia said.

As the successes keep coming, the duo say they would not be what they are today without the Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County, and other entrepreneurs should be taking advantage of the organization.

“We tell every small business we possibly can that they need to stop what they’re doing and go to the SBDC right now because if it was not for them we would not be Doublemint Sitting and as successful as we are,” Synthia said.