We recently connected with Rod & Dawn Fluellen and have shared our conversation below.

Rod & Dawn , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

My husband, Rod, have always flirted with the idea of pursuing his dream of being an entrepreneur and having his own business. Never in a million years, did I imagine owning a business of any sort. After days of him convincing me, I agreed to start a business. However, at that time we did not know what type of business we wanted to open. Thus we spend countless hours brainstorming different types of businesses we could possibly open. Although we thought about several different businesses, we wanted to make sure whatever business we open it would have to be sustainable and provide the opportunity for us to serve our community and make a difference.

During this process of brainstorming, we experienced the tragedy of a house fire. Such tragedy resulted in us having to live with my mother in law for 6 months. One day, while living with my mother in law, my husband and I decided to clean her entire house as token of gratitude for her allowing us to live with her while our house was getting repaired from the fire damage. My mother in law was so impressed and pleased with our cleaning services, she offered to pay us. Although we declined my mother in law’s offer to pay us, that moment birthed the creation of “True Elite Cleaning Services, LLC.” That same day, Rod began creating the business plan, filing required documentation, and generating marketing materials. Once all the documentation was filed, Rod began emailing and calling several businesses seeking anyone in need of cleaning services. This process was frustrating and defeating as we received several “no’s” before we finally got a “yes.” Since we have grown to having multiple commercial and residential cleaning contracts and looking to obtaining more contracts.

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

My husband and I are both dedicated public educators. In addition to being committed to making a difference in our students’ lives, we are committed to making a difference in our community by providing exceptional cleaning services at affordable prices. We know that cleaning can be a difficult task as well as time consuming, thus we would love to have the opportunity to take cleaning off your plate. We provide general and/or deep cleaning services for commercial and residential properties. We are proud to have had the opportunity to make a difference in our communities one cleaning at a time.

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

In order to be successful in any endeavor in life, you must be resilient. Prior to obtaining our current cleaning contracts, we were denied hundreds of times. Even now as we are continuing to grow and expand, we still receive “no’s.”

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Once we identified the name of our company, my husband completed the article of corporation application, obtained an EIN number and opened a business account. Once we received our EIN number we applied for business credit card and utilized that as our initial capital to purchase our business supplies.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.trueelitecleaning.com