Holt founded Two Maids & A Mop, a residential cleaning service in Pensacola, Fla., in 2003. He has since opened 11 branches in the Southeast and added nearly 150 workers to his payroll.
Holt had planned to expand in other regions. But with the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, he hit a snag. The law includes a requirement that business owners with more than 100 employees offer health coverage to most of their full-time staff by 2015 or possibly pay a hefty fine. “We knew we had a big problem on our hands,” Holt says.