Single mother goes from homeless to CEO of construction company
Construction 1st Class CEO April Malloy discusses how she went from living in the back seat of her car to becoming the boss of her own construction company.
“I was sleeping in my car and I would answer ads and I was working and pounding the hammer and just pounding the pavement and making it happen. I started reading plans all night, kept bidding jobs and I started getting jobs with Red Lobster,” Malloy told FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on Monday.
Malloy would bid on construction jobs from the backseat of her car and would go from job to job, building up her resume.
“I had a contract with a lady. Her bathroom floors were fallen in and I [shored] up her floor system and rebuilt her bathroom…then from there I just kept one job leading to another and just kept building up from insurances to my [general contractor’s] license,” Malloy said.
Malloy, who learned the trade as a foster care child, wanted to use construction to give her own children a better life.
“I looked at my kids and you know that love that you have as a mother, and I knew I had to be strong for them,” she said.
Malloy currently has nine children and owns a seven-bedroom home in Houston, Texas.
The contracting company is based in New York City and has developed hotels in Manhattan’s Times Square and restaurants around the Big Apple.
Since becoming her own boss, Malloy’s new life ambition is to help train more women in the workplace.
“I have a non-profit Women Empower Us, and I use that opportunity to train more women and I help them financially get on their feet with the non-profit and then I own multiple companies now,” she said. “And I also do real estate and I’m just building platforms to help more women overcome.”