Pat Brown has worked odd jobs since 2011, while paying for his education at the University of Rhode Island. It wasn’t until he was touring the country a couple of years later with a water special-effects show he founded, though, that he realized the potential of his original work.
“I got burnt out on that lifestyle [of traveling around the country],” Brown said. “I needed community and a routine.”
Brown returned to Providence and earlier this year turned his old practice of knocking on doors for odd jobs into a business: Rent Sons. For $25 an hour, residents of Providence, Little Compton, Newport, Jamestown, Narragansett and Westerly’s Watch Hill can hire one of about 40 “sons” to complete any task.
From drives to the airport, to landscaping and heavy lifting, Rent Sons answers the needs of the community while fostering a connection Brown says he’d been missing.
He hopes to take his community-centric brand of service nationwide.
“We’re trying to provide amazing jobs for kids trying to figure out what to do with their lives, while helping and serving their neighbors,” Brown said.
