Episode 4: Laura Spaulding, Founder of Spaulding Decon

When Laura was working as a police officer in Kansas City, she responded to a homicide scene where the victim’s family asked when the police would return to clean up the body. The answer was: they wouldn’t. Even more surprising, Laura couldn’t find a single local company to recommend to the family.In that moment, she saw a real, unmet need in the market.Spaulding Decon grew from a business Laura ran entirely on her own into a nationwide company with 75 franchise units. And on the very day I interviewed her, Laura was signing the papers to exit and sell the business.She had achieved success on her own terms—which, in her words, meant gaining the reward of flexibility: the ability to “do what I want, when I want, how I want.”