Going Into Business for Herself, By Serving Others

Name: Jennifer Leonardelli

Job: Personal assistant

Overview: Leonardelli opened her business, Coronado Chic, this spring. As a personal assistant, she’s a multi-tasking, multi-talented worker ready for multiple assignments. Need your dog walked, your mail picked up or your shopping done? Need someone to help in your home office, clean out your storage locker or organize an out-of-control filing system? “It's not just for the rich and famous,” she says of her service. “It's for busy people.”

Coming to Coronado: Leonardelli, 38, is the wife of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Dominic Leonardelli, an orthopedic surgeon at the Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park. The first place Lt. Cmdr. Leonardelli brought his wife, when he was doing an externship at the center several years ago, was Coronado. And Jennifer, a lifelong middle-of-the-country resident, fell in love with the small-town atmosphere of the village between the salty waters of San Diego Bay and the Pacific. “OK, I love Coronado,” she remembers thinking. “I just made it a point, ‘This is where we’re going to be,’” when her husband was assigned to San Diego about four years ago. Before coming west, the Leonardellis lived in Omaha, Neb., and both grew up in Pueblo, Colo.

Her biz: Leonardelli, who worked for more than 10 years in mortgage lending, was looking to start her own venture – something that would give her flexibility – when she thought of becoming a personal assistant. She wanted something with low start-up costs and was comfortable in a service industry, so the idea stuck. Plus, she says she’s always had a sort of “mothering” personality that prompts her to volunteer to do jobs for friends and family in need. Now she gets paid to do things for others – $28 per hour. Her business is focused on Coronado, but she’ll do work “over the bridge.”

The job: Sometimes she’s swamped; other times, not so much. “It’s hit and miss,” she says. “It’s getting there.” As word-of-mouth picks up, she hopes her business will, too. She’s thinks the holiday season will bring more work as people become pulled in too many directions. Among her most-requested jobs: filing and administration in home offices, running errands for people who have their own businesses (and can’t leave them during the day), dog sitting, organizing closets and helping set up and close up rental properties for visiting tenants.

Help, please: One of her toughest jobs was to organize a storage unit. Fortunately, her son, Joseph, 15, was visiting from Pueblo and she put his muscles to good use, moving things around.

Family: She and her husband have been married about nine years. They dated years before as teens, but went their separate ways when he left for Stanford and joined the Navy. Years later, he left the Navy, returned to Pueblo and they married. Then, he re-joined the Navy and went to med school. By having a flexible business, Jennifer also can visit Joseph. Friends fill in when she’s gone.

Other interests: She’s run a couple half-marathons, but had to ease off because of a hip injury. She’s an avid reader, especially of political memoirs, and volunteers at the Naval Medical Center's Sand Dollar, a shop operated by officers’ spouses that raises money for causes. She also was president of the local Oakleaf Club, run by spouses of Navy medical personnel.

Quotable: “I think getting it right, no matter what it is, is the most important thing,” she says about her job. “Making sure people are happy with what I do, meeting expectations. Getting it right.”