We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Victoria Parker. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Victoria below.

Victoria, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The biggest challenge in the cleaning & co-hosting industry is people not wanting to pay what it’s worth anymore. So many people are struggling to make ends meet to where they are seeing other’s cleaning houses, businesses, etc and they see it as profitable so they attempt to do it. This makes it difficult because they get on the job and clean as they would clean their house – not the standard that our clients hold us to. They try to build up their business quickly by offering lower prices, like under $100 for a deep clean. That isn’t profitable & it is teaching people to not value our industry, our training, our hard work, etc. I can’t too much fault these people because I understand seeing a need, and then seeing something that seems to make a lot of money so you decide to try it.. but it has made this a whole lot harder.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a 26 year old daughter of a single mom, grew up poor but mom always made sure we had what we needed & always made sure I knew how to make a living. I got my hard work ethic from her. At the age of 17 I graduated high school with a 3.7 GPA a semester early. I graduated in January, started college in March, and started working full time in April it was then that I hit the ground running. Now, I did not become as driven as I am now just right out of school. Yes, I struggled but I found out my issue was I did not agree with how management ran the businesses I worked at. I eventually started cleaning houses on the side & it took off from there over the years. It is no secret that even though I was raised knowing God, I found him later, I spent many nights crying and begging Him to show me what my purpose was, and to please whatever it was – allow me to help others. I truly believe my cleaning company was the answer to that. I have helped people battling mental health, cancer, losing a loved one, etc and I want to continue doing this until I physically cannot anymore. I think what sets us apart from others is that we give back to our community. God says to give unto others and that is what I run this business by. Yes, it is a business and at the end of the day I have bills to pay & payrolls to make but I am willing to help anyone. Just this month we are hosting a free Thanksgiving dinner to homeless people & passing out blankets, socks, etc. I would love for future clients to know you become a part of our family when you become a client. I don’t just know you by an address or number, I know your name & any part of your life you let me in on, I will pray for you/with you, and check in on you if I know you are going through something.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Last year I went through a rough time period; a toxic dead-end relationship, working two full time public jobs & my cleaning business as my “side hustle”. I wasn’t giving my body the rest it needed & I went to a dark place mentally that brought down my physical health as well. I was sick for about 8 months, and mentally it got so bad I was crying every day almost every 10 minutes… I just wanted to be alone and that didn’t work for the 16+ hour days I was doing. My mental health took me out of working, but I have worked since I was 16 years old I don’t know how to do nothing. I decided it was the best time to focus on myself & my dreams which is my business. I dove in headfirst and haven’t looked back since. Do I recommend this to others? Not unless you are ready to sacrifice a lot. The major difference in this and working for someone that I had to adjust to is, doesn’t matter if you come in one day and only have 70% to give to that public job you will still get paid for giving 100% and once your 8-12 hours is over you don’t have to think about work anymore. Working for yourself, you only get paid for the work you feel like doing, and most times you are promoting, networking, etc which you won’t get paid for. Bills will go past due unless you have money in your savings or an additional source of income. For me, cleaning is my therapy which I can’t afford the real thing so this to me has became just as good. I don’t have a backup plan for if this doesn’t work, I have not thought about “what if this doesn’t work”, it has to. I will do everything I have to in order to build up clientele, and keep expanding.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Sincerity. From start to finish whether recurring or one time, my client’s always can tell how sincere I am & passionate I am. That’s something they want, that is someone they trust. Also my willingness to work with most budgets. Now, some people aren’t happy with this because I do value myself and my employees so, they might expect $430 worth of work for $130 and that just isn’t possible. However, most people I have came across is understanding of how we work with budgets & they are fine with it. Like let’s say you tell me “I really need my home deep cleaned but I have a budget of $130.” Then we will break the home cleaning down into processes & they will get everything that can fit into a $130 cleaning for one session, and then continue with sessions until their home is completely cleaned. At that time most decide to start being biweekly and rotate which areas of their home they want cleaned. I believe this might be rare in the areas we service because a lot of our clients enjoy that freedom & affordability for them.

Contact Info:

• Website: luxecleaning.godaddysites.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/cleaningthecarolinas.lc
• Facebook: facebook.com/cleaningthecarolinas.lc