Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of South Charlotte.
Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Ep. # 121 Clean Slate: How Brice Miller Built a Commercial Cleaning Empire
Meet Brice Miller, the veteran-turned-entrepreneur behind Coruscant Cleaners, whose Star Wars-inspired business is redefining commercial cleaning in Charlotte. With refreshing candor, Brice shares his remarkable journey from military service to business ownership, revealing the pivotal moment he decided to control his own destiny: "If I don't learn how to work for myself and create something, I'm just going to work for somebody else for the rest of my life."
What makes Coruscant Cleaners stand out isn't just their professional services for banks, preschools, and businesses throughout Charlotte and surrounding areas—it's Brice's philosophy of problem-solving. "Although the services we provide are janitorial in nature, we're actually problem solvers," he explains, emphasizing that every client receives a custom approach tailored to their unique circumstances. This mindset extends to his leadership style, where he prioritizes full-time, committed employees who work in teams of two, creating a more professional and effective operation.
The most powerful segment comes when Brice opens up about overcoming personal adversity following his father's death, battling substance addiction before completely transforming his life with the support of his wife and newfound purpose. Now a father of three daughters who balances business ownership with family time and fitness, his story represents the resilience and determination that fuel successful entrepreneurship. Whether you're running a business that needs cleaning services or dreaming of launching your own company, Brice's journey offers valuable insights and inspiration. Discover more about Coruscant Cleaners by visiting their website or calling 704-460-6147—and let us know in the comments what other local business stories you'd like to hear!
Coruscant Cleaners
Brice Miller
704-460-6147
info@coruscantcleaners.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Regina Lee.
Speaker 2:Welcome everyone to another Good Neighbor Podcast. This is Regina, and my favorite thing to do is to talk to local business owners, get to know them and let them share a little bit about themselves and their business. Today, I have with us Brice Miller. He is the owner-operator of Coruscant Cleaners. Welcome, bryce.
Speaker 3:Hey Regina, how are you?
Speaker 2:Good, did I say that word? Right, you did it's.
Speaker 3:Coruscant.
Speaker 2:What is that?
Speaker 3:If there's any fellow Star Wars nerds, it's a planet from the universe. It's called Coruscant.
Speaker 2:And when you were thinking of business names. How did that come to be?
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness, I planned on just trying to have two words that start with the letter C, and I could not find anything that felt right. And then I was watching Star Wars and I went okay, all right, let's swing for it. Why not? Coruscant cleaners, let's do.
Speaker 2:it Isn't that awesome? Well, it's very, very unique. I love it. Well, first of all, you are a veteran, so we thank you for your service.
Speaker 3:I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Talk a little bit about your time in the service. Where are you from and what got you to Charlotte?
Speaker 3:service. Where are you from and what got you to Charlotte? Well, I was born in LA. Folks brought me to Charlotte and that I, you know, lived the normal childhood and joined the Air Force when I was 20. Went all over the place and then Charlotte was always home. So I just ended up back here and been at it ever since.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, with you having this awesome cleaning business, let's start with your journey into that. What is your why?
Speaker 3:Like why did I start a business?
Speaker 2:Well, this business, specifically in the cleaning, oh, that makes sense.
Speaker 3:So I you know, between being a soldier and then working in hospitality, I realized something very important If I don't learn how to work for myself and create something, I'm just going to work for somebody else for the rest of my life, and I definitely preferred the leader role over the soldier or the worker. So I picked a field that doesn't require a ton of overhead and is usually based on labor and skill. So I just learned and worked hard.
Speaker 2:That is amazing. How long have you been in business?
Speaker 3:A little over two years now.
Speaker 2:So tell us about your services. What do you guys do?
Speaker 3:So we're a professional commercial cleaning company so we usually go into businesses that have their own standalone building. So like banks we do a lot of banks We'll go in after five and just make it look brand new for the following day. So pretty much anything under a roof and inside four walls that has an LLC. We take care of it when they're done working for the day.
Speaker 2:So you do routine cleaning and I noticed on your website you talked about enhanced disinfecting. What does that mean? Enhanced?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So we also do a few preschools, and I don't know if you've been to one, but they are germ factories. So instead of just going in there and kind of Lysol bombing it, we'll get like the professional grade steam cleaner and more or less burn it out with steam and then wipe everything down. So flu season isn't so bad. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:So say, for your typical bank, how often are you guys in there? Every day, monday through Friday? Wow, and what is your reach? How far do you guys travel? Where are you based out of?
Speaker 3:So we have an office uptown as of right now. It's 25, 30 miles outside of the Charlotte area, so like we'll go to, you know, fort Mill, gastonia, we haven't really had reached past that. We're not a large operation quite yet, but we're getting there.
Speaker 2:So Lake Norman would not be out of the question, absolutely not.
Speaker 3:Give me a call.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, very growing area like South Charlotte.
Speaker 3:Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 2:So tell us about? Are there any misconceptions when you're talking to maybe people just calling and wanting to know more? What are some of the misconceptions you run up against?
Speaker 3:The biggest misconception, in my opinion, is, although it's true that the services we provide are janitorial in nature, we're actually problem solvers With every single client we do services to. They all share their own unique needs and circumstances, so we end up going in there identifying those unique needs and circumstances and come up with a strategy to solve their problem. So I don't have two clients that are the same strategy to solve their problem.
Speaker 2:So I don't have two clients that are the same. That's great. So how do you vet your, your staff?
Speaker 3:seeing that you're going into banks and businesses after hours. Um, I made a rule about a year ago that I don't hire part-time anymore, so nobody on my staff treats this like a gig, like this is their job and they take it, but it's pretty much people who want to work after five and aren't really people. People are the guys that do the best with me.
Speaker 2:That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, you're working alone. How many people go in and do that after hour cleaning?
Speaker 3:I have teams of two for safety reasons and because, I mean, even if people don want to be all right, people do want to be by themselves. It's generally, it's not the most productive thing in the world if your job is generally repetitive. So the guys will meet, go out, do their job, listen to music, um, and, you know, divvy up duties as best they need to because they have the freedom to do so. I don't babysit.
Speaker 2:They know what they're doing. So, when it comes to what sets you apart, do you have a personal philosophy, or what does set you apart from other commercial cleaners?
Speaker 3:I take care of my guys. Honestly, that's been the biggest thing. And again, I don't hire part-time. Honestly, that's been the biggest thing. And again, I don't hire part-time. I don't subcontract to other people and I know that every client I work with is an extension of myself. It's not just a person we're doing a job for. I want to do a good job. We want to do a good job because it's also a reflection of us. We treat it that way every time.
Speaker 2:So, in running your own business or having been in the service your journey, are there any hardships that you've come across?
Speaker 3:Oh sure, Okay, for the sake of transparency, I could share a story with you. When I was younger, my father died and I was very alone in the world, which did not lead to the best decisions. He was kind of the only person that wanted to see me win or just wanted the best for me in general. So for years following that I had some pretty bad substance addiction issues. Following that, I had some pretty bad substance addiction issues and then I eventually snapped out of it and met my wife, started going to the gym, had kids completely, did a 180 entirely, and now I do my best to take care of everybody and bring out the winner and everyone around me as best I can. I learned to not quit on me or anything I believe in again as best I can.
Speaker 2:I learned to not quit on me or anything I believe in again. Well, and that's amazing when you are running a company and can influence people that way. So when did you go to the service in that journey?
Speaker 3:I was 20, 20 to 27. Very good, I'm now 34. Okay, I didn't want to ask. Very good, I'm now 34. Okay.
Speaker 2:I didn't want to ask, but I'm trying to connect the top. That is wonderful. Well, you know, as a business owner you wear a lot of hats. Do you ever have time to have fun? And if you do, what do you guys like to do?
Speaker 3:Well, my version of fun might be kind of boring to other people, but I have three daughters. Two of them are eight and seven and they like to play soccer and rugby. So we do a lot of coaching on that one. I got a one year old who just wants to be thrown around and climb on me. So I do that, and if I'm not doing that, I'm usually in the gym lifting very heavy things up and down over and over.
Speaker 2:But good stress reliever absolutely every day. Yeah well, it's been a pleasure getting to know you, bright, and to learn about coruscant cleaners.
Speaker 3:Tell our listeners how they can find you uh by visiting our website, uh, www. coruscantcleaners. com, or any of the social medias. It's all at Coruscant Cleaners or you can just call 704-460-6147.
Speaker 2:I think we should spell Coruscant, because it's a little unique word.
Speaker 3:This is true, you're not wrong at all. For most non-nerd. Yeah, I'm definitely a nerd. C-o-r-u-s-c-a-n-t Cleaners. com Was that cleaners?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the star wars planet. Okay, bryce, it's been great getting to know you and I wish you much success and I hope to meet you out in the community soon.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me. It was great.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPSouthCharlotte. com. That's GNPSouthCharlotte. com, or call 980-351-5719. Thank you.