Meet Tawana Chealey | Serial Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tawana Chealey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tawana, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I was tired of having someone dictating to me when I could or could not do something. I’ve always been a woman – a person – who never went totally by any rules. Instead, I’ve always, in one way or another marched to the sound of my own beat. Moreover – I was never impressed by getting a gold watch after decades of serving a company or feeding someone else’s dreams who didn’t even know or care about me. Additionally, my family was a significant factor in changing my path from employee to employer and entrepreneur. I have been a single mom on and off up until about two years ago when I met my current husband – Cedd. So, I needed flexibility for myself and my boys and then – later my marriage. I missed my family when I was away – even if it was in the other room under mounds of papers to be graded or planning to be done. I just didn’t like working for someone else. Oh, and me, lol!

In continuance, my boys are vital to me. My youngest – RJ is autistic and requires a lot more attention than usual – though he’s beginning to improve as he gets older. I’ve learned that many jobs weren’t concerned with their employees’ struggles, especially when the situation is tough to understand. Many before and after programs weren’t hospitable to special needs children and many of them – though, I understood why – were on the expensive side – and being a teacher already shows I wasn’t making a lot of money. And, I wanted to control my destiny and the amount of money I get could make by using my gifts and skills in the manner I know God is guiding me to do.

Physically, I was tired and was ignoring signs from my body. We all know that if you don’t shut down voluntarily, it will happen without your input! Honestly, I could feel it coming. So, I gave up the ghost and made some hard decisions but I’m happy that I did it!

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My businesses?! Hmmm. I’m not an overnight success. I didn’t do it by myself, and I’m still climbing. In fact, I’ll constantly be rising. I believe my businesses are like seeds in the ground. As most of us know, when a seed is in the ground, there’s an enormous amount of activity happening that we don’t witness. We – as outsiders and consumers – see the product of the seed’s work – the flower.

My husband and I weren’t always where we are now. The businesses that we have established or are nurturing were ideas that we sat around and developed when we had nothing and we were experiencing dark times. IT WAS NOT EASY. But, I believe in the saying, “Anything worth having requires hard work.”

Challenges? They come every day, and they never stop. How we’ve learned to overcome the idea of a challenge, known or unknown – is to use our historic knowledge, experiences, and external tutledge to accompany us on our journey. It takes a team, and the organization has to grow as responsibilities and tasks manifest. Will we always get it right? No. As an entrepreneur, you have to know when to be easy on yourself and when to PUSH! This is still one of my growth areas.

Currently, our primary “baby” is Chealey Solutions LLC, located in Lawrenceville, GA. We live by the motto, “We cut everything but corners.” We are a premier property preservation company moving towards something bigger but I just don’t know what to call it yet. We specialized in servicing commercial and residential clients with landscaping needs, trash outs, evictions, punchout, and cleaning such as new construction, turnkey cleaning, and renovation (Chealey Cleaning Solutions) – just to name a few.

We also have a company that I am the main face of, Haith Chealey Group LLC, located in Lawrenceville, GA. Under this company – we offer credit repair, rebuilding, USDA loan packaging, and real estate services. I am a real estate agent that services the Atlanta area and metro surrounding areas. This company helps you from the beginning to the end, from credit repair – if needed to the closing table.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would start the week off by going to Treat My Feet – Buckhead for some excellent foot massages. I’m a lover of anything that has the word museum behind it so we would go to the Civil Rights Museum, the GA Aquarium, the High Museum, and the Coca-Cola museum. I love to drive and see things, so we might even go to Warm Springs, GA, to the Little White House where President Roosevelt used to come to help with his ailments. Oh, I’m not sure if it’s still around but if it is I would want to go tour the Herndon Home in downtown Atlanta. We’d go to the Indian Mounds near Cartersville, GA. I would give them a tour of some great neighborhoods in Atlanta and surrounding areas.

Dining? I love this Jamaican restaurant off of Edgewood Avenue in downtown Atlanta, right behind the MLK Historic Site named Foxx Original Jamaican Restaurant. If they want Asian cuisine, we’d visit the China Moon Express in the Vinings area. Another great place to eat is Two Urban Licks located near downtown Atlanta. I have so many I love – I’d be here all day to stop there.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
As I progress, my success is a constant progression, and I must acknowledge where it all began. For most of my early childhood, I grew up in Greensboro, NC. I’m from a section of Greensboro called Dudley Heights. Greensboro was a great place to start due to its history, and Dudley Heights was a mini-incubation system for greatness – if you wanted it, you could have it because there were living examples. I hold it close to my heart because these were people succeeding under extreme pressure and discrimination (racism, sexism, etc.) and still overstepping all of that to achieve their dreams and open doors for people like me. During my time there, I grew up around public servants of the community (i.e., teachers, firefighters, professors, principals) around entrepreneurs. That encouraged me to find my voice and speak my truth – no matter how hard it was – at times. I had this right in my backyard. I understood what it was like to go from the classroom to handling business with vendors to what it truly meant to be a debutante. I had a rich culture in my parents’ and grandmother’s home and beyond. I spent a great deal of time with women who were trailblazers in their rights, such as my mother, grandmother, and aunts. I saw women who created opportunities for themselves because they understood how this one step of taking a chance could help or hinder generations for years. My mother had a home daycare that constantly kept a waiting list. I had the opportunity to shadow aunts who were playwrights, chemists, real estate agents, professors, nurses, etc. My maternal grandmother was a teacher in Burlington, NC, for over 30 years. So, I was going to school before I was able to go due to my age legally, and this is where I began to understand the benefit of learning and that no one could take my education or experiences away from me. I had the opportunity to learn from my uncles too. They were entrepreneurs, and some were in high management positions in well-known companies. I received glimpses of what could happen if you pursued entrepreneurship along with the different paths to get there.

Outside of people, I’m an avid reader because I’m also an author. When I was younger, I was not the best at writing. A teacher and an aunt of mine pushed me to read more so that I would begin to understand syntax and expand my vocabulary. One book that changed my perspective is titled “Our Kind Of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class” by Lawrence Otis Graham. This book catered to the history buff in me and the proof that Blacks, in general, had been living above the poverty line years before I existed. I knew it was happening in my community due to my relatives and neighbors, but I wasn’t sure what existed outside of the places I had visited. It encouraged me to continue to think bigger and more outside the book. It also introduced me to the fact that in my community, racism existed not just from external means but also from internal methods too.

I’m reading the book “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David J. Schwartz. It’s a great read – though I haven’t finished it at the time of this interview. But, in my opinion – it challenges readers to dare to think beyond what you ever imagined. Of course, it speaks of fear and how to stabilize it more and more. It helped me understand how to monitor my thoughts, and I’m learning that I have more control of that aspect of things than I thought. Move that same energy to the “can” instead of contemplating all the “can’t” over time, move that same energy to the “cans.” I believe that this book is excellent for anyone that is a budding entrepreneur or deep into the game of entrepreneurship.

Website: https://linktr.ee/tawanahaith

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thchealey/

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/thchealey

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tawana.haith.7/

Image Credits
Image(s) Alonna Clark