Meredith Jones is, at heart, a classically trained musician. From the time she was six, she played the piano, adding the saxophone once she reached the middle school band. Meredith went on to receive both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from Florida State University, eventually relocating from her native Fort Walton Beach, Fla., to become an adjunct music professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Musicians spend countless hours practicing, often tediously working out technically difficult parts of a piece of music. In the same vein, Meredith has parlayed that attention to detail into her role as the owner of ALLY Property Inspections. “After I switched career paths, I worked in the construction industry for many years,” she explains.

“Not only did I flip houses, but I went on to building homes.” When the real estate market came to a screeching halt in 2007, Meredith pivoted once more and started doing insurance claim repair work, building a large referral business. Seeing opportunity once again, in 2014, she took the company in another direction by beginning a home inspection business based on referrals and relationships with real estate agents.