"We had customers asking us when we would have our products in stores. We started calling stores, and they said 'yes.' It was an eye-opening experience—we could do this!" Heather Brown says.
From the Journal of Business:
A Spokane company that began as a maid service launched by two entrepre-neurial women who needed part-time jobs has evolved to include manufacturing of its own line of all-natural cleaning products.
The company, Maid Naturally, says it now employs 14 people, is cleaning about 200 homes and three businesses, and has its products distributed in 15 states, with Internet sales nationwide. Sales, it says, are growing rapidly, and the company is considering further expansion. Ruthanne Eberly, who launched the business in 2006 with partner Heather Brown, says it began using "green" cleaning products right out of the gate, be-cause that's what they used in their own homes. The two women's decision to make their own products followed quickly, in Eberly's home, to cut costs. "It's a healthy choice, not having those chemicals around," Heather Brown says. Initially, the maid service used all-natural cleaning supplies the company bought from an East Coast distributor, but added to them essential oils, which are concentrated liquids that contain volatile aroma com-pounds from plants, to give them a pleasant scent. Most of the recipes were fairly simple, says Heather Brown, but adding essential oils such as orange, lavender, and mint to improve their scent became problematic. The oil kept separating out from the other ingredients, so they couldn't get an equal amount of it in each bottle. They tried putting several drops of the oil in each individual bottle along with distilled water and the cleaning agents, but the oil still separated out in the bottles. They finally solved the problem when they learned of a natural emulsifier made from coco-nut and olive oil.
When mixing the products by hand and bottling them with funnels in Eberly's kitchen became overwhelming, Maid Naturally approached Lee Tate, owner of Tate Technology Inc., a Spokane contract manufacturer. "We told him our idea, and he offered to let us use his facilities," says Nathan Brown, who began working full time with his wife, Heather, and Eberly in June, having quit his job in insurance. "We've been there now for two years. He's got this big pressurized tank with a paddle that keeps the product mixed well, and a spout that can fill bottles much faster than we could do with funnels."
The Eberlys and Browns do all the manufacturing work themselves.
Tate says he allows Maid Naturally to use Tate Technology's FDA-approved clean-room facility about eight hours a month, free of charge.
"Someday, they'll get big enough for us to fill their bottles for them," he says.
Says Nathan Brown, "It's always been our goal" to have others do the manufacturing labor, but the company's business plan involves remaining debt free, and it can't afford to hire out that work. Product sales right now amount to about 15 percent of Maid Naturally's revenues, which the company declines to dis-close.
The “Eureka” moment: In 2006, Heather Brown’s best friend, Ruthanne Eberly, was hunting for a part-time job, but couldn’t find anything that wouldn’t conflict with caring for her three children. So Eberly and Brown, a stay-at-home mom herself with two children, decided to try cleaning houses.
Vowing to use only all-natural cleaning products, they called their business Maid Naturally. They pooled $300 and used it to purchase cleaning supplies, aprons, and their business license. Next they placed local ads and put up fliers. Soon they had 10 houses to clean.
Overcoming obstacles: Faced with a waiting list, they hired two employees in 2007. “We thought everyone knew how to clean like we did, but we had many customer complaints,” recalls Brown. So they developed a company training program. Now they have 10 employees cleaning 180 houses per month, and complaints are rare.
Secret to success: “We’re really detailed,” says Brown. How detailed? The pair made their own all-natural cleaning products in Eberly’s kitchen that they say work better than others they were using. The Maid Naturally line is now in 27 different stores.
Advice:“Don’t expect everything to be perfect at first. Come up with something, put it together, try it, and improve from there,” says Brown.
To contact All-Natural Cleaning, call (509) 990-2369.
Do it yourself
Interested in mixing your own cleaning products from natural ingredients? Visit www.lesstoxicguide.ca for dozens of earth-friendly recipes.
When friends Heather Brown and Ruthanne Eberly decided to enter the workforce after several years as stay-at-home moms, they wanted careers that their kids—ages 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8—could be a part of.
So what are they doing blending cleaning products from scratch inside Eberly's home?
The women run Maid Naturally, a housecleaning service that manufactures and uses all-natural cleansers. Instead of exposing their clients — and their families — to the toxic ingredients typically found in conventional products, Brown and Eberly use baking soda, essential oils, pumice, and other earth-friendly elements when creating their goods.
Maid Naturally seems to have found a niche in the Spokane market. After just one year in business, the company regularly cleans the homes of more than 50 clients and recently began offering its product line at Rosauers Supermarkets and Yoke's Fresh Market stores. And, Brown and Eberly can safely run their operation with their families within reach.
"We're very much a family business," Eberly says. "I think our husbands are way more involved than they ever thought they would be in a maid service."
Maid Naturally is one of at least two housecleaning services in the Spokane area that uses nontoxic products. Another is All-Natural Cleaning, run by sisters-in-law Gina Vorpahl and Illa Davis.
"There's definitely a demand out there for natural cleaning," Vorpahl says. "Because it's so new, people are just starting to research it and finding out there are some of us out there."
Vorpahl and Davis employ two workers and between the four of them handle a full schedule of clients every week.
Sometimes, new clients are skeptical that natural cleaners will work as well as tried-and-true labels such as Pine-Sol and Comet, Vorpahl says. She herself admits to being a Formula 409 junkie before April Gleason, the former owner of her company, turned her onto the alternative.
"(Natural cleaners are) all I use in my own home now," Vorpahl says. "Having kids and having had a little Yorkie (dog) running around, you can spray whatever you're going to spray and feel comfortable."
Both companies say their employees benefit, too, from not being exposed to harmful ingredients day after day.
"It takes a little more elbow grease, but it's easier on their hands," Vorpahl says. "And when they're cleaning showers, in that enclosed space, it doesn't gag them."
The companies' rates are comparable, if not lower than, conventional competitors. Vorpahl laughs, saying that should be the case, since the price of a big bag of baking soda — one of her key cleaning ingredients — is so cheap. The essential oils, some of which disinfect and some of which simply smell good, are more expensive, but a small amount goes a long way. Vorpahl buys her oils from local natural foods stores.
Gleason, who called her business Clean Green before turning it over to Vorpahl and Davis, started the company in 2004 as a way to educate people about safer ways to clean. Clean Green grew quickly — too quickly for Gleason, who wanted to spend more time with her children.
"I was really impressed that Spokane was so receptive," she says.
Gleason, a longtime environmentalist, researched what people used to clean their homes in the decades before the explosion of products that's available today. She came up with three mixes that would work well on any surface and called the American Lung Association to ensure that her cleaners were safe.
For Brown and Eberly of Maid Naturally, using natural ingredients became a way of life after they had children and began researching the makeup of vaccinations, which their kids were scheduled to receive. Not liking what they saw, the women turned their backs on chemicals. They started feeding their families organic food and eventually began a business that reflected their lifestyle.
Brown says about 75 percent of their referrals come from people who see their advertisements hanging on the bulletin boards at Huckleberry's Natural Market, in Spokane.
"We have some referrals from people who are very much interested in all-natural cleaning," she says. Others, though, are just looking for hard-working housekeepers.
Client Alison Zecha falls into both categories. She began using Maid Naturally's cleaning service about a year ago when she was pregnant with her son.
"I was comforted when I found out there were two young women starting a business, and they wanted to do something that was good for their families," the Spokane resident says.
The company cleans her home once a month, and Zecha uses Maid Naturally's products between appointments.
"The house is just as clean and in many respects cleaner (than before) because we don't have that residual chemical stuff left over," she says.
MaidNaturally 509-994-3685 P.O. Box 6111 Spokane, WA
99217
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