Member Profile: Margaret Mitchell
Your Name: Margaret Mitchell
Name of your business: CLEAN - BRITE cleaning service
When did you open your business? August, 2010
What services do you offer? Move-in/Move-out cleaning, Residential cleaning
Why did you start the business? I've wanted to start a small cleaning business for quite some time now. I thought it would be a rewarding venture.
How many people are in your company? 2
What has been the biggest surprise, good or bad, since you started? The most difficult thing for me has been estimating the time and pricing to clean a home. How to become more time efficient cleaning a home is a big challenge. We spend so much time being thorough, I would like to know how to be thorough, yet faster with our cleaning. The biggest surprise to me is how much people really depend on their cleaning service, yet they want thorough, yet quick service.
What is the toughest part of running your business? The toughest part is staying organized.
What is the best part of running your business? The best part of running my own business is the fact I can set my own hours, days I work or days I want to take off. It's been great.
Is there anything you would have done differently? Yes. I started from scratch and am learning along the way. If I could do it all over again I would have saved up sufficient amount of money to get all the supplies and such before starting the business, as well as figuring out all the details beforehand.
What is the most important thing you will be adding, doing, changing in the next year for your business? Becoming more time efficient.
Where do you see your business in 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years? I see my small business doing well and hopefully selling it in 5 years or so.
What advice could you give others and please don't hold back! The biggest advise I would give is to just keep moving forward one step at a time. You can do this and be successful. Also note that everything takes time, but to constantly keep at it, improving, learning. Believe in yourself and don't give up. Another bit of advise is to find people to work for you who will represent your company in a positive manner, people who will work as hard as you do. Give the people who work for you the respect they deserve because this is a physically demanding job.
How do you use MyHouseCleaningBiz.com to help you with your business? I have just joined, but I hope this site will help me with my estimating pricing, as well as how to clean more efficiently.
School - high school, college, technical school: Some college hours
What are some of your prior jobs or businesses? Secretarial work, 11 years as a registered childcare provider in my home.
Is there a specific person or event in your life that made you decide to go into business for yourself? No
Website:
http://www.clean-
Email Address: [email protected]
