Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Grace Andres. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Grace, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I was working remotely as the Chief Revenue Officer of a tech startup based out of New York when we moved from Michigan to Florida. When I started looking for a cleaning service in Florida, I found myself quickly frustrated. It was hard to get someone to call me back, find someone that spoke fluent English, and was reliable.
The cleaning service I did hire said they would show up at 9am and sometimes wouldn’t show up till noon. Being on back to back calls, this wasn’t going to work. I had to idea when they were on their way but yet I knew when. my dinner was on the way from doordash.
I also wanted a frictionless, paperless, experience. I don’t carry cash. I don’t want to talk to someone to pay my bill.
Having a 5 year old daughter, knowing who was going to come into my home was important to me.
I also was confused as some weeks they would clean some things and other weeks it would be different. It lacked consistency and transparency.
This inspired me to create Sparkle with the mission to bring the cleaning industry up to speed with today’s technologies and standards.
Sparkle removes all the paper hassle and provides you with transparency – on-my-way text notifications, and online and auto payment options, and alerts leading up to your appointments.
I was excited to create Sparkle because I’m an entrepreneur at heart. When someone asked me when I was 7 years old what I wanted to be when I grow up, I would either say an entrepreneur or the first female president of the USA. I realized I quickly got caught up in my career climbing the ladder and executing on someone’s else’s vision and not my own.
I live and breath advocating for women. My goal is to franchise with Sparkle with a focus on helping other women because entrepreneurs and execute on their vision for themselves with giving them a playbook designed for success. In the meantime, I actively poor into my female team of cleaners to help them because better versions of themsleves personally and professinally. At Sparkle, we really embody our core values of “Always Improving”, “Always Transparent”, and “Always Make It Right”.
As an individual, these values light the way for me in everything I do. Stepping up, being vulnerable to receive feedback, leading with humility, and setting goals and holding ourselves accountable is important to me. I’m obsessed with turning weaknesses to strengths and having self awareness to see my weaknesses. No one is perfect, we can all be better humans.
I believe in serving my family, my team, and my community in anyway possible that I can. I believe in being a good human and always doing the right thing.
I believe in manifestation and tell myself everyday that I am capable, competent, and empowered. I can do all things. I truly believe this. I also have my daughter repeat it with me. Engraining in her that there is no limit in life. The only limits are the ones that we put on ourselves is incredibly important to me.
I’m a member of CHIEF, an exclusive network for executive women to strengthen their leadership, magnify their influence, and pave the way to bring others with them.
I actively volunteer at the Women’s Resource Center in Venice. I’m married to my best friend, Brian Andres. On my free time, there is nothing more that I love than spending time with my family on the beach.
Read More About My Store Here:
https://trysparkle.com/about-us
https://trysparkle.com/founders-story
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
What am I most proud of?
I left a C-Level Executive role making a few hundred thousand a year to zero dollars. My circle of friends and family thought I was crazy.
I’m proud of myself for taking the risk. For receiving their thoughts and feedback but ultimately listening to my heart, gut, and mind. I’m proud of myself for executing on my vision.
I’m proud of the incredible professional cleaners that I have on my team. They truly embody our core values at Sparkle. The secret sauce to any company isn’t the products or services they sell, it’s the team. It’s a privilege to work with my team.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
What helped me build Sparkle is I’m always looking to help others in any way that I can. I run multiple Facebook groups that give information about the Master Planned Community that I live in. I started doing it when I moved to FL because I had no visibility in MI of what was happening when we decided to build a house remotely.
I believe in supporting small businesses and I love connecting others. I’m always connecting small business owners and love it!
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
One of my favorite books to “Bet on Talent” by Chick Fil A executive, Dee Ann Turner really changed my life as a leader.
Since reading that book years ago, I have really changed how I lead my teams. I believe that the relationship between a team member and the organization is a partnership. It has to be mutually beneficial. I believe in investing in my team in the full totality of their lives. Giving feedback is important so people can improve and grow. I
Contact Info:
- Website: https://trysparkle.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090522342397
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/graceandres/
Image Credits
Yes, I have rights to all photos