Member Profile: Mary Cornell

Your Name: Mary Cornell

Name of your business: Cleantime Home Management Services LLC

When did you open your business? April 2013

What services do you offer? Residential and Office Cleaning Services

Why did you start the business? I started cleaning houses to supplement my income five years ago . Family life was hard as the father of my children was abusive and neglectful. As my family grew from 2 children to 3, I needed to be home more to take care of my children and my partner's jealousy and controlling nature made it difficult for me to work in my regular full time career as a retail store manager. I was eventually fired.

A year after I began cleaning for a living, I decided to leave the abusive relationship (with my children.) No one would hire me to work for them because I was a single parent. It was hard to make ends meet. I started thinking about taking my fledgling cleaning business to the next level, running a "real" business, hiring employees and creating systems. The independence and freedom of running my own business has since become essential to my life style. I doubt I will ever work for anyone else ever again.

How many people are in your company? 3

What has been the biggest surprise, good or bad, since you started? Good surprise: the market is huge and the competition in my area is low.

What is the toughest part of running your business? Saying "no" to clients or employees. I am service minded and I have a "just say yes" attitude. As a leader though, this is a quality that needs to be tempered with boundaries and good business sense.

What is the best part of running your business? Hearing from my happy clients, getting "tagged" on social media whenever some one recommends us, and the enthusiasm of my employees who enjoy fair pay and the opportunity of being part of a start up company.

Is there anything that you would have done differently? I would have joined this website sooner!

What is the most important thing you will be adding, doing, changing in the next year for your business? This is the very beginning of our company. I have had several opportunities to just throw in the towel and go back to cleaning on my own or give up and get a job. Perseverance is the most important thing. Sometimes I have to decide to keep going on a daily basis.

This year I am reworking my business plan with an eye to expansion and getting out of the field by year's end.

Where do you see your business in 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years? In 2 years, I would like to have at least one dedicated office and training center. By year 5 I would like to have at least three locations serving the Greater Pittsburgh Area. In 10 years I see Cleantime HMS LLC as the employer of choice in the cleaning business in Pittsburgh and to be helping others make their own entrepreneurial dreams come true through writing, speaking and consulting.

What advice could you give others and please don't hold back! Educate yourself. Listen to podcasts while you clean. Use the library as your office. Utilize all the free resources you can. As soon as you can budget for ARCSI and The Janitorial Store memberships, do it. The members only resources are invaluable and the connection with ARCSI is appreciated by clients and an easy way to lend credibility to your business.

How do you use MyHouseCleaningBiz.com to help you with your business? The calculators have helped me to get all the financials on paper in a manageable way. It helped me to identify where I was losing money and I was able to fix it very quickly. The videos are very helpful and like reading about my colleagues and their businesses.

School - high school, college, technical school: I have a bachelors degree in Modern Language and Communications from Chatham University in Pittsburgh PA

What are some of your prior jobs or businesses? I was a retail store manager for Starbucks coffee company for the better part of 15 years.

Is there a specific person or event in your life that made you decide to go into business for yourself? I have always wanted to be my own boss. I thought I would do something creative in a more obvious way like theater, art or music. I found that my creativity is used best at identifying opportunities and solutions.

Web Site: www.cleantimepgh.com

Email Address: [email protected]

Your Social Network links (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc): @cleantime3