Brooke McFarlin, 18, and Alayna Grover, 19, are unlikely business partners.
Randomly paired as roommates at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga last fall, they at first believed they were about as compatible as oil and water.
McFarlin's West Campus dorm space was decorated in blue. Grover's walls were covered in pink. McFarlin is a gregarious communications major. Grover is a serious electrical engineering student.
But after some initial standoffishness, the two bonded over a shared hobby -- intramural tennis -- and now they call one another best friends.
"We went to a tennis scrimmage at Western Carolina University and then went to a Mexican restaurant after," McFarlin said in an interview at UTC last week. "We laughed so hard that day. That was our first bonding experience. We just realized after that day we had so much in common."
Another trait they have in common is a shared belief in frugality. Both McFarlin and Grover are penny pinchers.
"Brooke and I spend money the exact same way," Grover, a freshman from White House, Tennessee, said in the same interview. "We are conservative when it comes to money."
And they are both hard workers. They prod one another to go to the library in the mornings and to work out in their spare time. McFarlin makes money as a nanny, and Grover has learned to create income by selling fashion accessories online.
"We are constantly trying to figure out how we can grow and improve ourselves," McFarlin said. "We are both very ambitious, and I think that's honestly why we work so well together."
A chance conversation a few months ago has put the two young women on a path to starting a business together.
McFarlin, a freshman from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was down on her knees cleaning a shower in her dorm suite one day when she decided she would gladly spend some of her hard-earned money to pay someone to clean her bathroom.
"I really didn't want to be on the floor scrubbing the shower and breathing those chemicals," McFarlin said. "I felt like there was a better way I could be spending my time."
Soon, McFarlin got an idea. What if she started a business designed to pair college "cleaners" with willing on-campus "customers" to create a win-win scenario that would make more college students' lives easier?
"College students are the perfect target audience," Grover added. "A lot of us have limited money and resources."
Both fans of the ABC show "Shark Tank," which features entrepreneurs pitching business ideas to a panel of investors, McFarlin and Grover entered a pitch contest at UTC last fall touting their College Cleaners idea. They got positive feedback from the Hatch It! contest judges and a promise from UTC entrepreneurship professors to mentor their effort.
Next, the roommates created an online survey to gauge interest in their business plan. Scores of people responded, and 89% ultimately said they would use College Cleaners either as a cleaner themselves or a customer.
The roommates have now moved to the testing phase. For example, a customer paid a cleaner $8 in one recent transaction. The cleaner folded clothes for 15 minutes and made the equivalent of a $32-per-hour pay rate.
The women knew from their survey that college students said they would pay $15-$20 for help with a small housekeeping task. McFarlin and Grover said they hope to expand the business model to include other work gigs such as grocery shopping and/or simple car maintenance (such as changing a flat tire).
The ultimate goal is to develop a phone app and to charge a fee -- equal to 20% of the transaction price -- for facilitating the transaction.
"Eventually, if it works out, we want to serve college campuses around the world," McFarlin said.
"Life Stories" publishes on Mondays. To suggest a human interest story, contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.