CHARLOTTE, N.C. — COVID-19 has many people in our area figuring out how to pay the bills.
Two lifelong friends, who are both college basketball referees, realized they needed a new way to make some money- and fast. So they started a business - becoming entrepreneurs overnight.
Andrew McHenry and Nick Heater knew each other growing up and were both working as Division 1 college basketball referees until COVID-19 hit.
Heater remembers, “I got an email the next day they were postponing the season until further notice.”
McHenry says he realized he needed a plan B for paying the bills soon after.
“About a month went by and I didn’t make any money," McHenry said.
A friend had been cleaning houses and suggested they could make some money doing that too. The duo formed the company Xterior Xperts – power washing homes and other things.
"We had no experience doing any of this we watched youtube on how to clean and even more research on every aspect from getting commercial insurance to setting up Paypal," Heater said.
It’s pretty different from their work on the basketball court.
“There was definitely an ego check, a reality check, one thing we noticed- people look down on us,” McHenry said.
His friend agreed. “You walk in the door and usually all eyes are on you and now we're just kind of invisible you realize people don’t have respect for people in this line of work."
"It humbles you, makes you realize any of this can be taken away pretty fast.”
Now they’re proud of the fact that they’re budding entrepreneurs.
“You can do anything it’s just do you want to put in the time. The hardest part was just taking that first step.”
They’re long past the first step now.
Heater smiles saying, “we are definitely paying the bills- business has been good!”
The guys say they hope to get back on the court someday but in the meantime, they're going to keep growing their business.