When Martha Whittington was 8 years old, she recalls riding in a car along Ohio 16 and looking out over Cedar Street and the surrounding neighborhood.

"What can I do," she thought at the time, "that these houses would need me when I grow up?"

The answer, she discovered in 1996, was carpet cleaning.

In a span of eight months during the past year, Whittington and her brother, best friend and business partner, Quinton Whittington -- together known as A.S.A.P. Carpet Cleaning -- did more than 700 carpet jobs in Licking County. From The Newark Advocate.