Bowie resident Hyacinth Tucker’s subscription-based laundry and dry-cleaning delivery service, The Laundry Basket, began as a simple act of kindness when she offered to take a literal load off a friend’s shoulders. Now, Tucker is one of only three small business entrepreneurs to advance to t he final round of The UPS Store Small Biz Challenge out of nearly 6,000 who entered the competition. The Laundry Basket picks up customers’ clothes from their doorstep; professionally washes, dries, and folds them; and returns them within about 24–48 hours. It operates in Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Northern Virginia; Northeast Ohio; and Toronto for both individual households and businesses. But before Tucker launched the business, she was simply helping a friend in need. The woman was a busy professional, wife, and mother who shared with Tucker how stressed and overworked she was. “She was actually buying new clothes instead of washing the clothes that she had,” Tucker told Baltimore Fishbowl in a phone call. “It got to that point, and I told her, ‘Well, that’s not sustainable, because at some point you’re going to have to wash these clothes, and now all you’ve done is made it more of a daunting task.” Tucker’s friend said she wished she could pay someone to take care of her laundry, and the business began then and there. Tucker left the apartment with the laundry in her trunk and a way to make some extra cash. She was going through a transition in her own life and saw the opportunity to do a good deed for her friend while moving herself out of a rut. Tucker told Baltimore Fishbowl her eyes opened to opportunities to assist others with this task once she helped her good friend. “[W]hen you start doing something, it’s like you start noticing other people around you,” Tucker said. “I would be online and people will be talking about laundry; how much they hate it. I would go to the supermarket. People would be talking about washing these T-shirts. So, I was just like, maybe I should size this into something bigger. And then here we are, three years later, just thriving.” It was at a moms’ group that she’d mentioned she was helping her friend with laundry, and all the other participants expressed interest. The business grew from there. Tucker has a team of nine people now. She spearheads the sales, and The Laundry Basket is an international operation. The company has individual clients; business clients like gyms, hotels, airlines, universities; and even government contracts on the local, state, and federal levels. Tucker partners with local laundromats and dry cleaners, and when those are closed or at low capacity, her staff goes in to get the laundry done. She calls it a “win/win” for everyone. Tucker attended Towson University, graduated with a degree in psychology and had plans to become a social worker. Now, she has an MBA from Strayer University and The Laundry Basket has clients all over the country and in Canada. Tucker and the other eight semi-finalists spent three weeks with their mentors, who helped them with motivation and entrepreneurial advice while they competed in challenges testing their skills in running a small business. After public voting, Tucker and two others emerged as the top three finalists. The UPS Store 2026 Small Biz Challenge winners will be announced on Thursday, April 23 at a live event in Nashville, Tennessee. The finalists will present in front of a panel of guest judges, with host Shannon LaNier. LaNier is an Emmy award-winning nationally syndicated television personality, and the 5th great-grandson of President Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. He co-authored the award-winning “Jefferson’s Children: The Story Of One American Family.” Tucker is competing for a prize of $25,000 for her business and a full-page spread in “Inc.” magazine. Viewers can see competition updates and the winner announcement on The UPS Store’s Instagram account. ...read more read less