We recently connected with Jorge Leiva and have shared our conversation below.

Jorge, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

My wife and I had our second daughter and she had quit her job to become a stay at home mom. she’s not the one that likes to stay home and is always looking for things to do. so we were exploring business ideas. We had tried bookeeping in the past but it didn’t work. We also thought about a day care but at that time was an elementary teacher and I didn’t want to have to deal with more kids after my school journey. So we came up with the cleaning idea. We thought why not? everybody needs to clean their home and there is always someone willing to pay to have it done. So, we started thinking about different names, and then Bee Maids came to life. I designed our first flyers that were printed out as 4×6 pictures in Walmart. We chose a neighborhood that we thought it could bring us potential clients. The first day we delivered those “flyers” was August 5th 2009. We thought about everything but we didn’t think about pricing our services. So the very first day we got our first client and we didn’t even know how to charge for her house. This lady told us, well this is what I paid our last Cleaning lady. we said. Yes that is fine with us and that is how everything started.

Jorge, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Well basically we got into the cleaning industry looking for extra income for our family. We always wanted to be entrepreneurs and had tried other gigs in the past that didn’t work. We offer residential cleaning services (recurring, deep cleaning and move in/outs are the core of ur business) We also have some commercial accounts. We’ve been providing window cleaning and disinfecting services for residential and commercial accounts. At this point we’re developing strategies to add pressure and soft washing services to our community. So when people are looking for services they see our business as a one-stop shop.

In regards to how we handle our business, we believe in a balance between work and family so this is why we only work Monday through Friday 8-5 our employees are happy having a steady schedule that allows them to eat dinner with their family each and every night. We see this as an advantage over retail and fast food jobs where their schedules are unpredictable.

Our main goal is to provide our clients the best service possible and I don’t talk only about the cleaning itself but also the customer service and the technology tools we use to make the whole process as smooth as we can.

In terms of technology we have instant pricing and booking, customizable appointment reminders, cashless payments, customer portal, appointment reminders are some of the tools we use to commit to our pledge.

Now. talking about our products, we don’t use harsh chemicals like bleach. we use top of the line environmentally friendly Cleaning supplies. Our main cleaning product is made out of hydrogen peroxide and cold-pressed oranges.

The equipment that we use is also really good. For instance we use HEPA vacuums, color coded microfibers to avoid cross contamination and charging buckets that allow us to mop floors without spreading dirt. we’re always researching and investing in new , trends and gadgets to make our job better each and every day.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

We wanted to be entrepreneurs but we didn’t know anything about being entrepreneurs we didn’t have any background in marketing, business or anything like that. I had the wrong idea about growing a business, the 2 employees we had quit and my wife and I were getting tired of cleaning. we were about to call it quit and start to search for a job. All of the sudden we found an employee that was really fast and cleaned really good. We asked her how she knew all of that, she said a her previous job her boss used to go to cleaning classes and conventions. So long story short I discovered that even for cleaning we needed to educate ourselves. So we became members of the cleaning association, hired a business coach and started changing the way we do business. Results, starting to show not long time after that. what can I get from this? Education is key and must never stop, even for cleaning.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

The pandemic has affected the whole nation, businesses across the nation closed and many are still open today. In our case when the COVID-19 began, many of our customers were afraid and canceled services and we were in shocked, our sales drop dramatically and we were wondering what to do. However, though times are here to teach us lessons, and we must learn and apply what we have learned during these “life Lessons”. We had to reinvent ourselves during this pandemic, learn new things, teach our techs and clients, adapt to the new circumstances, we also discovered things we were doing wrong and we fix them. all for the sake to keep our customers and employees safe. As I mentioned before we’re now in a regrowth mode applying all what we have learned during this pandemic to better serve our community.

Contact Info:

• Website: beemaids.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beemaids/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beemaids/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bee-maids
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/beemaids
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP0TFKMNMVz00q7ehTOoi6g
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/bee-maids-houston