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CEO Snapshot: Mary Alice Cannon
Position: Owner, Home Buddies Domestic Placement Service
Education: Indiana-Purdue University, Indianapolis. Graduate of Indiana
School of Real Estate and Indiana School of Insurance.
Experience: Worked in personnel with Snelling and Snelling in Indiana. |
Leadership Style: "Up-front, open and honest. You need to be able
to direct all your energies but still keep it simple.
Family: Five children, 12 grandchildren.
Advice to budding entrepreneurs: Keep overhead low, keep it simple, be
flexible and resilient and create a win-win situation. |
Mary Alice Cannon keeps a quote from Albert Schweitzer sitting on her dining table.
It reads, "The only ones among you who will really be happy are the ones
who have sought and found a way to serve."
No wonder Cannon has a smile on her face.
Cannon has made it her business to find help for those in need. The business,
called Home Buddies, matches caregivers with families in need of sitters for children
and the elderly.
"You must always look at what's in the best interest of the person receiving
the care, " Cannon said with a smile.
Cannon looks at her business with the same zest that she injects into her weekly
tennis game.
"It's like doubles in tennis, " said Cannon. "It's a matching thing."
Home Buddies began in 1983 as a roommate referral service that paired individuals
with the same interests, dislikes, habits and lifestyles. The business later added
a program called Execu-share. "Execu-share provided a home-sharing service
for newly arrived business people by placing them with permanent residents of
Huntsville," said Cannon.
Cannon said the business branched into maid referrals until franchise companies
started moving into the area. Always flexible, Cannon looked to other areas for
her business to move into.
"People would call and say, 'What do you do?' and I would say, 'What do you
need?'" said Cannon.
Responding to those needs, Cannon began nanny and sitter referral for children
and the elderly. In conjunction with extensive background checks, Cannon looks
for qualities such as reputation, compassion, dependability, honesty and commitment.
For nanny selection, Cannon uses the strengths of the nanny combined with the
preferred skills desired by the parents. These skills may include anything from
nurturing to education to discipline.
"You create a partnership in the best interest of the children," said
Cannon.
A majority of the sitters available for children or the elderly are trained in
first aid and CPR. Sitters are always selected on a case-by-case basis.
"The key to my business is the selection of people," said Cannon. "that
takes intuition and wisdom. You don't get those until you are older and more experienced."
As a young girl growing up outside of Cleveland, Cannon worked for her father,
a surgeon. She said she saw how caregivers can make a difference by watching her
father.
"It was incredible how it seemed that people could be healed just by talking
to him," said Cannon. "It was like a magic empathy, a high energy."
Cannon took that desire to care for others, to perform a community service, and
put it into practice with Home Buddies. She said the demographics in the Huntsville
area are terrific and the area's growth is an ideal climate for her service.
"The influx of people who need caregivers is huge," said Cannon. "People
are my business. People are my skill."
Reprinted with permission from The Huntsville Times,
April 1, 1999
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