Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 12, 1990                   TAG: 9004130561
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GRACE BOSWORTH SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OPERATING OWN CLEANING BUSINESS FITS NEEDS OF WORKING MOTHER

Cherokee Professional Cleaning is just off the ground, and so far, doing fine. There is no office - the young owners operate out of their home on Maryland Avenue in Salem.

Both Wanda, 27, and her husband Michael, 30, are natives of the Roanoke Valley. They met while she was working as a bartender to pay her way through Virginia Western Community College. Mike was driving a beer truck.

At first, Wanda wanted to be a secretary. "But when I found out the pay scales and the hours, I shifted over to business management and marketing courses."

They were married in May 1989. "We wanted a family, right away, and neither of us was getting any younger," Wanda said. By then, she was working for a local branch of a franchised photography business and learning about the ins and outs of sales.

After the baby, Kalieb, arrived, the couple encountered a common problem - locating a reliable baby sitter. "We talked it over, and I really wanted to bond with my son. I didn't want to have him start life with some stranger around," Wanda said. The answer to that dilemma was creating her own job at home and working her own hours.

Looking around, Wanda recalls, "I saw all these buildings that needed a good cleaning. There were places with cobwebs in the offices, and things like that. Well, I am good at cleaning and I love to do it."

So she mailed letters and made telephone calls to local business people, some of whom asked her to submit a bid for cleaning. To date, Cherokee has eight contracts in addition to other occasional work.

"We specialize in heavy industrial grease areas, new construction cleanup, carpeting and offices," Wanda said. The service includes waxing and buffing floors, cleaning windows and other heavy-duty cleaning. During the day, the cleaners will do homes.

"At the business places, we come in at the end of the regular work day when most of the employees are gone," Wanda said. "If it's routine cleaning, it will take about two hours per job. You know, you empty the ashtrays and wastebaskets, get out the vacuum cleaner and just keep going."

Since most of the work is late in the day, Wanda spends her days with the baby. "My mother takes over about 3 in the afternoon," she says.

Wanda said her mother taught her about hard work. "When I was 6, my father died. Mom didn't have a lot of training, but she dug in and learned. She raised six of us and we always had what we needed, maybe not all that we wanted, but what we needed."

Wanda and Michael take care of the paper work that goes with a small business, doing their own accounting and being sure that insurance and bonding and other legal needs are met.

"We're stilll learning," she says. "On supplies you need, I've found that you just have to buy good industrial mops. Cheaper models won't hold up. We need a mop for hair. One place we do has hair to clean and it won't come out of a mop, so you can't use it for anything else, like waxing or even wet-mopping.

"We also have what I call the `nasty' mop for grease and goo and heavy grime. There's a mop that is just for wax, and another for houses. After every job each mop has to washed and bleached."

Wanda credits Tanya Hill at Valley Vac and Janitorial Supply for part of their success. Hill, who has been in the supply business for over four years, has offered good advice on window cleaners and other products.

Says Wanda, "She has helped me make good decisions about the money we've invested."

Cherokee's work force has increased to several part-time employees. Since Michael puts in about 12 hours a day with his distributorship, he works mainly on weekends.

"You have to think about being a success," Wanda said. "You have to be willing to work long hours, and not be afraid to break a fingernail or to get your hands dirty. I'm part Cherokee; that's where we got our business name. Cherokees stand tall and are proud of what they do.

For the future, Wanda and Michael see a business they can have well-enough established for their son to inherit.

"Maybe, if it works out, we'll begin to do something in real estate later on," Wanda said. "Whatever we do, it will be for him."