Mobile businesses help fuel local economy

You know the deal: Leave for work earlier than normal, fight traffic, race through the yellow light and hope for a good parking spot. Whether your task is dropping Toto at the dog groomer or leaving clothes at the dry cleaner, making time for the little things in life can be a pain. Wouldn't it be nice to have services come to you?

Mobile businesses are growing in popularity, and those frequenting the Summerlin area range from pet groomers and doctors who make house calls to computer repair.

Pet grooming on the go

A Cruzin' Clip has been in business for more than eight years and has hundreds of clients in the Summerlin area. Owner/operator Brenda Varney's $75,000 van is a fully contained salon, where she clips, grooms and bathes dogs and cats.

The tub is about the size of a regular bathroom tub. The water is from an onboard tank, and a hot water heater ensures that the temperature is comfortable.

She tends to dogs under 40 pounds and cats, with 40 percent of the latter making up her business clientele. She visits three to five homes a day. One pet owner has a special permit to own five dogs, making the stop there one of A Cruzin' Clip's longest. She spends about 45 minutes per dog.

Dennis Silvers and his wife, Paula, have been using the service for about five years. They have two Pomeranian toy poodle mixes, Ping and Chipper.

"It's so much easier to have someone come to the house," he said. "You don't have to put them in the car and then drive back to get them an hour later when they're done. ... the biggest thing is the dogs feel comfortable knowing they're going to be home, essentially, rather than at a strange place."

In summer, Varney uses the air conditioning but shuts it off when the animals are wet, as it's too strong.

"It can pretty much freeze me out of there," she said.

Varney noted that when gas prices first soared in 2008, her costs went up.

"I had to increase my travel fee from $10 to $15," she said.

It's still in effect, but most people understand, she said.

For more information, visit acruzinclip.com or call 326-5357.

Dry cleaning brought to your door

Graciela Ripoll is a franchise owner/operator for mobile dry cleaning service Pressed4Time. The cute play on words means having your dry cleaning picked up and delivered to your home or office.

Summerlin accounts for 50 percent of her clientele, and most of her deliveries -- 75 percent -- take her to business offices. Repeat customers are the name of the game, and so is word-of-mouth.

"I cater to people who are really busy," she said.

Summerlin resident Jackie Tonetti, the owner of a home-based business and a mother of two, uses Pressed4Time on an
as-needed basis.

"I'm always on the run," Tonetti said. "Besides the convenience ... is the personalized service."

She said Ripoll schedules pick-ups and drop-offs based on the client's needs.

Pressed4Time's prices are listed at pressed4time.com.

"I'm by no means a discount dry cleaner," Ripoll said. "I just don't have the overhead of a storefront."

For more information, visit pressed4time.com or call 360-4748.

Doctors who still make house calls

Advanced House Calls has been in business since 1998. It sends a doctor or physician's assistant to you. The on-staff doctor and three assistants go to assisted living facilities, group homes and individual's homes, where most patients are on Medicare. Those not on Medicare pay rates starting at $100.

It utilizes other in-home medical businesses to provide lab and X-ray services. The latter uses a portable X-ray machine that can even go up apartment steps.

"It folds out, and they can do the X-ray right there in your home," said Sandy Lozeau, office manager.

Advanced House Calls specializes in geriatric medicine and deals with only adult patients.

For more information, visit advancedhousecalls.com or call 838-7110.

get Computer help at home

Ray Rand has worked on computers as an independent contractor for 20 years, but it was only last year that he set up his own business, Ray's Mobile On-Site Computer Repair & Cleaning.

John Cooper of Summerlin uses the service, most recently after a cable TV installer messed up his computer system.

"I spent two hours with Dell, and Ray found it within 15, 20 minutes," he said. "He's kind of a whiz."

Rand maintains several websites for companies, with 50 percent of his business being commercial clients. He goes to people's homes two to five times a week.

For more information, visit rayrandenterprises.com or call 542-6109.

auto repair in your driveway

On the other hand, Don Hess wants calls about car repairs. He owns and operates ABC Auto Body LLC and has been in the automobile repair business for 37 years. He has a mobile repair work component. Most of it is fixing bumpers, either from shopping cart damage or less-than-attentive drivers.

"You go to the mall and come out to see your car's (been hit) ... Bumpers take the brunt of it," he said.

Hess said Summerlin and Henderson see the bulk of his mobile work.

"Summerlin plays a major part because of Sun City," he said. "(Retirees) maintain their cars a little better, and they save money with a mobile repair because there's less overhead."

Using electric tools and a small compressor that's closed up inside the van to minimize noise, the disturbance to the neighborhood is kept down, and repairs take less than an hour, Hess said.

He is phasing out the mobile business to let his brick-and-mortar repair shop handle clients' needs. It's partly in response to the new Environmental Protection Agency air quality standards and partly in response to the sluggish economic recovery.

"When the economy is this tight, the last thing people are going to spend money on is repairing a bumper," he said.

For more information, visit abcautobodylv.com or call 248-7200.

Airbush tanning in minutes

Angie Mccomb's Classic Mobile Airbrush Tanning can take you from ivory white to sun-kissed color in a matter of minutes. Prices start at $85. Most of her regular clientele is upper-class and book her every week or two. Summerlin accounts for about 20 percent of her business, and her client list includes "a ton of men," she said.

Mccomb said she sees a spike in business come pageant time. Some people book her for tanning parties, complete with hors d'œuvres.

A lot of her clients are "80-year-old women who are getting ready for a cruise and want to look already tanned," she said.

For more information, visit classic
mobileairbrushtanning.com or call
335-2667.

Contact Summerlin/Summerlin South View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 387-2949.