Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in general services but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Gerlicia Massamba, Founder of Queen Of Clean Up Services, located in Ottawa, ON, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
My customers are mostly people with luxurious houses and people who have Airbnb's. We do regular cleaning, move-out/move-in cleaning, and deep cleaning for the houses.
Tell us about yourself
I have loved cleaning since I was little, and a lot of people encouraged me to open my cleaning business what motivates me is when at the end of a cleaning, a client says wow, this looks incredible, and there are happy. It is unfortunate that many immigrants are taken advantage of when they arrive in their country of adoption. Often immigrants will leave their country of origin for different reasons: it might be because there is no peace, no opportunities, or political and religious persecutions.
Plenty of those people have diplomas, licenses, or even doctorates in many different fields, and some of them have even worked in their fields for a long time. Most immigrants leave their native country for some of the reasons stated above, only to restart their lives from scratch. Their diplomas are worth nothing. It breaks my heart when I see that.
The main mission of the company is to provide you with a cleaning service that treats your home and place like royalty. The second mission is to help immigrants by paying them above the minimum wage. The company would also provide them once a week with a meal, transportation, and English courses(for those who want to learn English). Our staff is put through an intensive week of training where they are taught everything they need to know about cleaning and then put to the test in a home.
Our vision is to be known as the first cleaning company that supplies royalty cleaning services to our clients, on top of providing help for immigrants by giving them food, transportation, English classes, and a decent salary for their work. We would also pay some of their tuition when they decide to go back to college or university to upgrade their diplomas, going up to providing them with a loan to pay for their studies. By choosing us, you are deciding to let us treat your place like you are royalty and changing the life of one immigrant.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
Provide my clients with a very high-quality cleaning. Provide my employees a job above minimum wage with transportation and meals, and benefits.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Some days you need to do everything on your own. If someone calls in sick if no one can replace them, I have to go clean, then go supervise the other houses that the girls are doing, go drop the girls, make the payment, buy products, etc.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Be ready to sacrifice a lot at the beginning, such as I gave up going out because they worked to do it.
- Hire the right people; I fired a lot of people because they did not fit in with the company values.
- Your employees need to feel good about working in your company because when they do, they work very well at clients' houses.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
Love what you do because if you don't love it, when it is hard, you will quit.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.queenofcleanup.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bossladygerlicia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bossladygerlicia/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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