Lisa J. Tolda/Special to the Nevada Appeal
When the school year ends for Lisa Kramer, a teacher at Carson High School, her summer plans will include running errands.
Hopefully, lots of them.
Kramer, 45, started a professional organizing and errand-running business two years ago in an attempt to start a new career path. Kramer said she had been thinking about getting out of teaching, "and I started thinking about all the things I'm good at."
"So I started thinking what do I really want to do," said Kramer, who lives in Dayton. "I'm really good at organizing, I used to love running errands, I still do. I love to be on the go instead of being stationary."
She started her business, At Your Service, and began searching for customers.
Her tiny venture has served about a dozen people so far, but the tasks range in complexity. Kramer also does landscaping.
She has gone to the grocery store on behalf of one woman, picking up her deli meat, dog food and cereal. She has driven things to Reno for others and has driven others around in her car as they complete their daily errands such as visiting the post office. One man who needed help getting around had lost his job and car and had been disabled by two broken ankles.
Her newest client is a 90-year-old woman whose hospice caretaker spotted Kramer's advertisement on the side of her car.
"She wanted me to come over and meet with her and she showed me her house," Kramer said. "She has stuff from 1921. She's a widow."
So Kramer is helping the woman organize her belongings for an estate sale.
After teaching for 10 years, Kramer said her dream is to make the business her career. But as a single mother, she said she hasn't felt comfortable enough to leave her position (and steady paycheck) teaching special education, history and English at the high school.
Kramer said she went into teaching in her 30s, getting a degree from Sierra Nevada College after substituting for years. She has two children, including a son studying at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a daughter who is about to graduate from Carson High School.
She said she went into teaching because of them.
"But now that the kids are older, I've been thinking what do I want to do," she said. "I've always been business minded."