PLEASANT VALLEY — After more than 30 years inside the house cleansing commercial enterprise, Cleaning Services proprietor Susan Brown reflects on her profession in North Central West Virginia and what has set her commercial enterprise apart from her larger competitors.
Brown started the business in 1986 and stated that her enterprise, which commenced out as grassroots as it could possibly be, wasn’t something she had usually wanted to do. Somehow, it became almost destiny.
“It wasn’t something I selected, and it chose me,” Brown said. “I met someone that did this in Parkersburg. I went down to Parkersburg to work with her one day and thought, ‘Gee, this is easy. I ought to do it.’ So I made up fliers and began calling humans that I knew. … I got customers in that manner. I did the cleaning, went out, and did advertising on evenings and weekends.” In the 32 years given that then, Brown’s commercial enterprise has expanded to encompass around 15 additional employees and a carrier area from Jane Lew to Cheat Lake.
While Brown doesn’t clean most of the homes anymore, she still trains each of her personnel or even visits each new vicinity before her employees to ensure the whole lot is on up and up. “There have been issues, but it’s simply human beings,” Brown said. “For instance, every so often, we’ll stroll right into a residence, and there is no water or electric power, and we just do what we can. I pass into every house before my ladies even start cleansing so I know what the situations are … and so I know it’s clean to get to, and there are no roadblocks.”
