Three years into a medical career Kadijah Lee-Smith wasn’t happy.

She liked her work as a phlebotomist, drawing and testing blood — but didn’t enjoy the fast pace.

“I was going home with headaches,” the 23-year-old said.

One day she became so irritated, she began making an escape plan, sketching up ideas for her own business Click Errands.

“It was to help people with their daily errands,” she said. “It was something to fall back on.”

But when she left her job, she found a new one instantly as a receptionist in a Hamilton brokerage firm.

“I never had to fall back on it at all,” she said.

But she still launched Click Errands in December 2018, working for clients after hours and on weekends, dog walking, babysitting, delivering groceries, cleaning and doing laundry. When The Royal Gazette met up with her she was on her way to help a client with a photo shoot.

As the mother of a three-year-old daughter, Kasci, Ms Lee-Smith admitted that there were times when she herself needed help.

“But I still have enough energy to help other people also,” she said.

Ms Lee-Smith said there are other errand services out there, but they tend focus on a particular area, cleaning or babysitting.

“I do it all,” she said.

The business works well for her because she has always liked helping people.

“I have always liked cleaning, even when I was little,” she said. “I don’t really have any hobbies, so cleaning is my stress relief.”

Now she says her favourite jobs are the ones that involve cleaning or babysitting.

One of her clients is a hair salon that needs cleaning after hours.

“It is pretty big,” she said. “I just sweep, mop, wipe off the counters and chairs. There are two bathrooms I have to clean, a hallway and steps. Every chair that people sit on I have to wipe it off and sanitise it.”

Having worked in phlebotomy testing faeces, urine and blood, she doesn’t really have a problem cleaning toilets, but mirrors get on her nerves.

“They smudge and you’ve got to go back and rewipe,” she said. “I usually use newspapers and Windex. Sometimes I use vinegar.”

So far, everything has been very “easy flowing” with the business, but one of her biggest challenges has been just getting clients.

“Click Errands didn’t really start to flourish until about March of this year,” she said. “It took a while for me to actually have clients. I had to do the advertising by myself, but it worked somehow. I advertise through social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook.”

She now has around ten regular clients.

Three of them are people in need of dog-walking services. She loves dogs, but her first attempt to walk someone else’s dog didn’t go so well.

“It was a pitbull puppy and dragged me all the way down the street,” Ms Lee-Smith said.

She’d walked dogs before but never anything that big.

“The owner helped me out and showed me how to handle the dog,” she said. “The trick was in the way you hold the leash. Don’t be timid and don’t pull. You have to wrap it around your wrist and be stern.”

For large cleaning jobs she has a friend who helps her, and sometimes her boyfriend helps with grocery deliveries.

Her hope is to eventually expand, and maybe one day focus on Click Errands full time.

“I want people to know that I help out with basically anything, so they are reasonable prices,” she said. “It won’t break your pocket.”

• For more information see her on Instagram under @clickerrands.bda and on Facebook under Click Errands or call 777-6155 or e-mail clickerrands@gmail.com