Rising Stars: Meet Starlat Ridgeway

Hi Starlat, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Los Angeles, California. I moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 2003 after graduating college with a bachelor’s degree in Communication Disorders. I moved to Georgia with my car, very little money saved and a credit card that had a limit of $3000. I used that credit card to pay the rent for my apartment and my car note for 3 months and I was determined to have a job or some type of income by the end of that 3 months.

I worked an online customer service job, day and night, from home until I was hired for another company as a temporary employee. During that time, I was also enrolled in school online to earn my master’s degree in Elementary Education. The following year, I was hired as a Pre-K teacher in Augusta, Georgia. I worked in Augusta for two years and then relocated back to Atlanta for a few months before moving overseas to teach English to Arabic-speaking children. It was during my time as an English teacher overseas that my love for travel and entrepreneurship began.

During my time living overseas, I traveled to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Kuwait, Jordan, Thailand, India, Isreal and Jordan. I enjoyed my time overseas, but after two years, I moved back to Atlanta and got married. My husband and I have been married for nine years. We have three beautiful children, 8, 6, and 10 months. When I became a mom, I knew I wanted to expose them to things that I, unfortunately, did not discover until I was well into adulthood. I wanted to introduce them to entrepreneurship and share my love of travel with them. I took my oldest son on his first flight when he was 5 months old and we have been flying all around the world ever since.

My children love traveling. During the height of the Coronavirus-19 pandemic, their playtime consisted of them packing their suitcases and pretending to go on vacation because they missed traveling so much! As a family, we have been to California, Nevada, New York, Tennessee, Florida, Jamaica, St. Kitts, St. Thomas, Bahamas, Florida, Turks & Caicos, Jamaica, Maui, London, and Paris. My children have been on 2 Disney Cruises, numerous Disney World vacations, and even Disneyland Paris. We’ve gone on helicopter rides around Molokai, Hawaii together, hung out in Times Square together and even took an airboat ride through the Everglades.

When I initially moved back home from living overseas, I knew that I no longer wanted to pursue a teaching career or work for anyone else. So I started a tutoring company that offered in-home tutoring services by certified teachers. I hired teachers and connected them with students in grades Pre-K through 12th all around Metro Atlanta. Eventually, I decided to end that business and pursue a career as a Real Estate professional.

I have been selling homes throughout Atlanta since 2016. I love selling real estate. I love getting to witness the power of homeownership and the excitement it brings to new homebuyers and sellers who often times are profiting from a great investment. I have a team of people who help my customers have a successful real estate transaction. We provide top-notch customer service and a personal experience. We also have a short-term rental division that offers temporary housing to business, military and medical professionals. Having a strong team in place allows me to still pursue what I love while traveling the world with my family.

I literally think of business ideas in my sleep. I consider myself a serial entrepreneur and I have instilled the same mindset in my children. At 8 and 6 years old, my children constantly talk about stocks and what business they want to start. My eight-year-old gives me a daily reminder to check my CoinBase account to see if BitCoin made me any money!

Prior to schools shutting down during the Coronavirus-19 pandemic, my two oldest children attended a small private school. I always dreamed of homeschooling my children, but I didn’t have the courage. When schools were obviously not returning back to in-person instruction, I decided to completely withdraw them and homeschool them indefinitely. So far, our journey with homeschool has been amazing. Every day is not easy, but the rewards are priceless. I’m able to teach them the things that I think are important and we are free to travel the world at our leisure.

Since becoming a homeschool student, my daughter’s reading level has jumped two years and my son has started a business baking vegan cakes. The name of his business is PJR Bakery and he’s actually the one baking the cakes! They are actually really good and so moist!

During the Coronavirus-19 Pandemic, my husband and I also bought and renovated a laundromat in Decatur, GA. The name of the laundromat is The Muddy Laundry Room. We purchased three vending machines for each of our children and placed them inside of the laundromat. Our oldest two children are responsible for keeping their machines stocked as well as keeping track of their profits. So they actually started understanding and learning how to count money by counting the money they made from their vending machine business.

The laundromat was a complete dump when my husband and I purchased it. It was filthy, the majority of the machines did not work and the A/C had been broken for three years. We painted, repaired and replaced machines, fixed the A/C and my husband’s company, Amazing Painting Epoxy, installed beautiful epoxy flooring. We were so proud of our accomplishment.

As we approached our 1-year anniversary as laundromat owners, someone came into the store next door to our unit and set a fire that completely destroyed the interior of that business. Although we didn’t suffer fire damage, we suffered smoke and water damage and our business has been closed since May 2, 2021.

Many of our customers lived in the area and walked to the laundromat to wash their clothes and now they have nowhere to go. The fire caused much more than just smoke and water damage. It severely inconvenienced a group of people who were so excited about the new edition to their neighborhood. There is a community of people who have nowhere to go to wash their clothes or either have to drive somewhere far to go to a decent laundromat. We are currently going through the process of opening our doors again, but due to coding issues and various obstacles behind the scene, it will still be several months before we are able to reopen.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being an entrepreneur, wife and full-time homeschool mom has not been an easy road. I stay up until well after 2 am most nights and during the day, I am constantly pulled in different directions. Trying to balance it all can be exhausting. I’m actually learning that balance doesn’t exist. The statement, “To whom much is given, much is required,” is very true. So everyday, I find three things to be grateful for, limit complaints and keep pushing through.