February 28, 2018

Meet Karen La Spina and Juan Chaparro of Gmaids

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Karen La Spina and Juan Chaparro.

Karen and Juan, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Back in 2004, we moved to Dallas from San Francisco pursuing other business ventures that didn’t take off. Thankfully our cleaning service did.

Juan was 21 and Karen 18 years old when we started cleaning for a company that used chemicals and toxic cleaners. After a month, we said, “We can do better than that!” We decided to start on our own by publishing ads on Craigslist, distributing flyers, knocking on people’s doors offering free cleanings and giving out business cards hoping someone would call. In other words, hustling.

We were desperate but excited about the potential of building a green cleaning company. And after non-stop persistence, tons of flyers and time promoting on the streets, we finally booked our very first customer! Thanks to her, we kept on believing and survived to then build a small set of clients that were looking for green cleaning in Dallas. Until this day she continues to use our service, our longest running customer 10 years in a row.

“The hardest part of the beginning of the business was to take a bus from Plano, and go and clean in Dallas. Somedays the bus took so long to pick us up we ended up hitchhiking to jobs” – Karen

Our focus to gain new clients was—and continues to be—to clean homes as if it were our own home. We worked diligently by providing consistent and quality service to our handful of subscribed clients, doing it with excellence and always trusting God will provide more of them. In that process, a renowned site called Daily Candy featured us on their Dallas section as green cleaners, and let me tell you, business was booming! We were getting quotes in our inbox every 15 minutes after the post went live.

During the 2008 recession, the worst time to be in business, we grew Gmaids like never before. We felt a growth momentum pushing from all directions that allowed us to bring in cleaning teams to help us service new clients. At that point, we got our first official car with advertising for everyone to see. Back in 2008, we called ourselves “Green Maids Dallas.” We later learned that we needed a unique brand name.

We read several books on branding and by using the same trick Swatch used back in the 80’s by taking the letter S from Swiss and putting next to the word watch, creating Swatch. This is how we created Gmaids by putting together (Green and Maids)—plus it makes total sense considering we clean with non-toxic green products.

We have focused on serving families that trust us by carefully selecting cleaning techs who are professional and are committed to provide an experience of cleaning awesomeness. We continue to interview potential cleaning teams who truly love home cleaning and show a clean heart and spirit!

We’re incredibly thankful for the amazing support from business mentors, clients and friends we have here in Dallas!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
In retrospect, I believe we’ve gotten thicker skin over the years vs the road becoming smoother. Ha!

Most people would have discounted our efforts just by looking at our starting point:
– $0
– a $500 car
– one vacuum and green cleaning products
– recently married and going into 2 businesses together
– 18 and 21 with no business experience
– going to clean houses in buses, borrowing cars from friends and neighbors.
– recently moved to Dallas
– you name it!

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Gmaids – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We’re the #1 rated green cleaning business in Dallas. We help families keep their homes clean without the use of toxic products. We’re recognized for great (human) customer service, and for taking care of our employees by paying them LIVING wages + benefits. We’re proud that our employees have been able to buy homes, bring families back together, and accomplish personal dreams/goals.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We want to continue having the best job offering and career for cleaning technicians, and give them benefits while opening the door to opportunities like retirement accounts, and continuing education.

We also want to open the opportunity to other dreamers, business owners, who would like to open up a local Gmaids of their own. Franchising is on the horizon. There’s always room for growth!

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