By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Tiffany McKenzie earned her stars as an expert in household cleaning at a young age.
“My mother was a neat freak,” McKenzie said. So, by the time she was in sixth grade, she had “pro” level skills. She embraced the ethos of deep cleaning.
After flirting with a career in architecture and then studying accounting, McKenzie has put those skills to use in her own company Five Star Quality Cleaning Service.
McKenzie offers a range of services from deep cleaning to express cleaning – that quick pick up before guests arrive. And she’s moving into services directed at cleaning with the coronavirus in mind. She planning on adding UV lights and a fogger to her arsenal of cleaning equipment.
Her most important tool, though, is her passion for the job. She loves to clean.
“When I’m cleaning, when I’m in form and 30 minutes into cleaning, I’m not sulky,” the Bowling Green resident said. “It brings me peace. It’s therapeutic. It’s just part of the day. … I clean my house constantly.”
She has clients throughout the area, a few in Bowling Green, but more in Maumee, Toledo, Findlay, and elsewhere. She has three other women whom she will hire to help with jobs.
Business has been good, McKenzie said. She’s got a full schedule but still is taking calls.
McKenzie, who grew up in Schaumburg, Illinois, got her start in the business shortly after graduating from high school in 2012. She spent a semester at the University of Minnesota studying architecture, but she had to leave for financial reasons.
“I needed to make money and decided I know how to clean, so I would do that,” McKenzie said.
She went to work for a small company, about the size of Five Star. She got to know the owner, who became a mentor. “She told me everything I needed to do” to start her own business.
McKenzie earned enough that she enrolled at BGSU, initially to study architecture, but became disillusioned.
She switched to business. She said she knew the basics of marketing and business management. So, she decided instead to take accounting because that was something she didn’t understand.
What really appealed to her was running her own business.
She started out using the name Immaculate Touch.
She had a car and purchased the equipment she needed. It wasn’t a large investment.
She advertised and her list of clients started to grow. “You can earn a healthy income.”
Three years in she decided to create an LLC. When doing the paperwork, she realized the name Immaculate Touch, was already taken, so the business became Five Star Quality.
The first key to success is “you have to be very skilled,” McKenzie said. “I know I’m one of the best. I’m sure of my capabilities.”
Also, “you have to be hospitable. You’re in someone’s home. You have to make them feel comfortable.”
Most customers will leave her with the key to their home or the code for the garage door, so she can get in to work. She is licensed, bonded and insured.
The pandemic has meant a few people have put her services on hold, not wanting someone coming into their homes. One woman had just given birth, for example. “I understand that.”
However, in general, “there’s definitely been an influx of people who want their homes cleaned,” she said, especially with their kids home all day.
She offers a range from deep cleaning from the blinds to the baseboards. She also sanitizes and disinfects.
As a pet owner herself, she’s very comfortable dealing with pets.
“I’ll do anything,” McKenzie said. “If it’s cleaning, I can do it.”
