For YourNewsColumbus.com

Columbus--A reformed shopaholic still finds herself surrounded by mounds of clothes, other people’s.

For Kimberly Combs, the abundance of the latest styles isn’t just part of her fashion consciousness, but also is the core of her business on the Near East Side, Elite Dry Cleaners.

The Urbancrest native started the business in July at 738 E. Long St., in the King-Lincoln Gateway Building. She had talked about entrepreneurial interests with one of her mentors and seized the opportunity when he told her of his plans for the building, which includes the Zanzibar Brews café, a police substation and business offices.

“Tony Hutchins said he wanted to put a dry cleaners here whether with me or someone else,” Combs said.

She figured the location would allow her to serve the immediate area and the resurgent Downtown. Expansion and franchising are part of her five-year plan.

Combs’ shop on Long Street is a pick-up and drop-off business; Oxford Cleaners off Brice Road does the actual cleaning, she said.

Hutchins, managing member of the company that owns the King-Lincoln Gateway Building, said, “We thought that the space we had would be a good fit for a dry cleaner.”

The volume of car traffic, 100,000 vehicles a month, suggested that the Long Street location would bring enough potential customers into the area, he said. Another reason for optimism was that another dry cleaning establishment had succeeded in the neighborhood until the aging owners could no longer keep it going.

Hutchins said he has been a listening post for a number of Combs’ entrepreneurial ideas and when they discussed the cleaning operation he gave her “homework assignments,” to make sure she knew what she was getting into.

Beyond business savvy, Combs has an outgoing personality that should enable her to attract customers and poise to respond appropriately to needs of consumers and employees.

“Making the client happy comes first and foremost,” Combs said. “If someone needs a button fixed, I’ll do it. I try to treat other people’s things as I would want mine treated.”

Initially planning to be a television news anchor, Combs studied communication at Ohio State University and even worked as an intern at NBC 4. But circumstances moved her in other directions, some of which catered to the entrepreneurial spirit that runs in her family, she said. Her father was a business role model, having run a mechanical parts business in Urbancrest.

“The business was at my grandmother’s house,” Combs said.

Elite Dry Cleaners demands much of Combs’ time, but she makes time to do consulting for nonprofit organizations and sporting events. She works in marketing for the Ohio High School Athletic Association and the Greater Columbus Sports Commission.

Athletics have been part of her family life. She played volleyball and basketball at Grove City High School and her younger brother, Derek, played football at Ohio State University.

Kimberly Combs has run a half-marathon and still finds time for weight training, but her most demanding role is mother to a 12-year-old son, Terry Glenn Jr.

“He’s a great student in the Dublin school district and is active in sports,” the proud mom said.

Kimberly Combs said she’s too busy to feed her passion for travel, but eventually she hopes to get away to Italy and Spain.

More immediately she plans to engage in more community service, such as a Coats for Tots program to help needy youngster during the cold months.

“I will clean them and have people pick them up for kids,” Combs said.