We were lucky to catch up with Raji Eid recently and have shared our conversation below.

Raji, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

It all started back in 2017 on a 3-hour drive with a good friend of mine who was roughly about a month out from opening his first barbershop. We were having a conversation about business and the best part of being an entrepreneur is personal scheduling flexibility, along with building a prominent business and not having to worry about answering to anyone i.e. a “boss” but most importantly providing amazing customer service and eminent value to your customers. My friend then went to ask me; Raji why don’t you open a cleaning business? I responded Idk I never thought about that. He then states to me that dude, you have everything you need to do it. This never crossed my mind because he was 110% spot on. Allow me to elaborate; My background is in industrial food manufacturing. At this time in my life my job title was Sanitation Plant Safety Supervisor for a large commercial bakery that makes artisan products for every large retail store you can think of. My job was to ensure the entire facility was cleaned and sanitized daily this included facility ceilings, and production equipment i.e. food contact surfaces and flooring. I was responsible for 3 different shifts with a team of 15 to 35 employees. See the food industry is a different ball game due to all the required government regulations and auditing requirements. My friend sparked a light bulb in my brain he didn’t know it nor did I know it at that moment. After the ride, three things happened and those three things are as followed. 1st, I went home and pitched my girlfriend the idea of opening a cleaning business but not just any cleaning business one that can change the narrative of cleaning and sanitation in the food manufacturing industry and she was like do it, 2nd I went to my amazing boss at the time and ask him what he thought. He stated to me that an amazing idea and I honestly think you should pursue it. 3rd thing happened I called my childhood friend who at that time started his own business to ask him a few questions on how I can go about getting started and he passed along the info to me. Over the next few weeks, I will run to my boss’s office with lots of crazy ideas, however, through those crazy ideas EIDS Cleaning & Consulting Was Born on January 2018

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a first-generation immigrant, born in Monrovia Liberia in West Africa, the first African country colonized by freed slaves from the United States. My mother and I came to Minnesota in 1995, when I was five, in the midst of the Liberia civil war. How my business journey began was rather unusual; when I was 19 and in college, I worked at a major bun supplier for McDonald’s restaurants as a sanitation employee, conducting full wash down and environmental cleaning. Although this was new and challenging for me, I persisted and used this experience to launch my career. Now, I’m the proud owner of EIDS Cleaning & Consulting. My business philosophy is encapsulated in the Three C’s: Communications, Consistency, and Completion. Additionally, we strive to solve various problems for our customers, including communication and transparency through our technology platform. Moreover, EIDS is result-driven and pursues safety, accountability, teamwork, and customer focus. My own journey has been difficult as I’ve sought to find my purpose in life, and I’m proud of where I am now. Our mission for EIDS is to offer education on effective cleaning and sanitation practices, focusing on care, understanding, and empathy.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

When you are managing a team of people i.e. human beings you have to lead through your actions. I have found over the years that if you work alongside, communicate, and treat people with respect and provide consistent training along with an open-door policy people will appreciate you for that and go above and beyond for the call of duty. The reality is everyone has a voice and everyone deserves a chance to be heard.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

It took us nearly 4 years to really find our twenty percent customer base. In short, our core clients for EIDS Cleaning & Consulting are Manufacturing facilities i.e. industrial food plants, industrial Cosmetic plants, industrial metal plants, Dairy plants, pharmaceuticals, etc.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eidscleaning.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eidscleaningco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eidscleaningco
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eidscleaning