Good Neighbor Podcast: Virginia Beach
Good Neighbor Podcast: Virginia Beach
Good Neighbor Podcast: Virginia Beach
Ep. 20 Ingrid Morales on Leading with Transparency and Trust
Unlock the secrets of entrepreneurial success with Ingrid Morales, the inspiring President and CEO of Marily Cleaning Service, as she shares her trailblazing story of transforming a local Virginia Beach cleaning business into a trusted name in the community. Ingrid's journey, filled with hurdles like launching a venture without prior experience, offers valuable lessons in resilience and innovation. Through her candid narrative, listeners gain insight into the critical elements of building trust with clients and the significance of having a reliable team. With almost a decade of experience by 2025, Ingrid emphasizes the invaluable role of advisors, the necessity of effective systems, and the strategies she's developed for fostering a dedicated workforce.
Prepare to have your cleaning service expectations redefined as we explore the client-centered approach that sets Marily Cleaning Service apart. Ingrid reveals how convenience and transparency are at the heart of her business model—offering same-day quotes and a streamlined booking process through www.marilyservices.com. Listeners will discover the meticulous attention to detail that ensures clients know exactly what to expect, thanks to personalized quotes and a comprehensive service checklist. Whether it's residential, Airbnb, or post-construction cleaning, Ingrid's commitment to service excellence and community trust shines through, making this episode a must-listen for aspiring entrepreneurs and anyone seeking reliable, quality cleaning services.
Marily Cleaning Services
Ingrid Morales
Virginia Beach, VA
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Denise Taylor.
Speaker 2:Hello, welcome to Good Neighbor Podcast, Virginia Beach. Today I'm with Ingrid Morales, the president and CEO of Marily Cleaning Service. Hi, Ingrid, Welcome.
Speaker 3:Hi, how are?
Speaker 2:you this morning Good.
Speaker 3:Good. Tell me a little bit about your business and the services you all provide. Yes, so we are in Virginia Beach. It is called Marily Cleaning Service Merrilee for my middle name and we provide residential cleaning service. This is a service that we provide for residential homes and we do maintenance cleaning, deep cleanings, move-outs, move-ins. We also do Airbnb and short-term rentals and post-construction homes, post-remodels. So our job is to go deep, clean and clean everything and just make our client's life easier.
Speaker 2:Perfect. How many years have you been in business in Virginia Beach?
Speaker 3:We have been. September 2025 is going to be 10 years, so yes, congratulations, that's awesome, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, and you do serve us quite a few homes down at the oceanfront, which is.
Speaker 3:Yes, we provide our service on good neighborhoods in the oceanfront that's Northern, the oceanfront that's northern um cavalier we do um cruatine neighborhoods. So great neck area so we provide all virginia beach, norfolk and some areas of chesapeake what would you want to tell our listeners was conception about your services yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think sometimes, uh, we try to do a service and build relationship with our clients. So we're not just a maid that goes to your home and, you know, just go and cleans bathrooms and put the house together. We try to be that a small business and a community where people and our clients can trust us and trust our clients and our cleaners and, you know, feel safe. For me it's more about feeling safe. I am a mom, I have two little boys, so for me, who's coming to my house is so important and you know our home, it's our safe place. So at the end of the day, no matter if it's only a cleaning service, I want to make sure that our clients feel safe and protect and secure and that, at the end of the day, whoever is going to their home is going to be in good hands. And it's just not about cleaning toilets or you know, it's about building a relationship and feel great about the service.
Speaker 2:I love that. Tell me how many current, how many employees do you currently have servicing Virginia Beach.
Speaker 3:So right now we do have 15. And during summertime, which is for us it starts around May, and that goes up into like 20, 20 girls cleaning, excuse me and you know that is for the short-term rentals. So we do work with certain property managers around the area and, um, and yeah that you know our volume just go, goes up with the short-term rentals.
Speaker 2:Yes, um, how long does a typical cleaning take, a home cleaning take? Well, that depends.
Speaker 3:Um, it can be, um, you know, it can be two, three, four hours, depending on the house.
Speaker 2:What can you tell me in terms of cause? You're a small business owner in Virginia beach. Um can you describe one hardship or life challenge starting this business in Virginia beach that our listeners can take away?
Speaker 3:So I always said, when I first started, maybe it was like not knowing how to run a business and like the miscommunication or information that you can have. So I always said at the beginning I didn't really know how to like run run the business. You know you start a business and then with the time you see that you're like then you're accounting and then you're customer service and then you're like hiring employees or, you know, doing payroll and all those things. So I would say if someone feels that it's during that point I would say feeling and finding good people that can just give you the right information so that you can do things right at the end of the day. So I would say in the beginning, not knowing what I was doing, it was really hard and it took me, you know, years to like get a system and get where we are. But at the end of the day, when you find good people to help you build in information, I think that's probably the best thing you can have in your business.
Speaker 2:And how do you think would you tell business owners to keep people? What have you done in your business to help keep those good people?
Speaker 3:So relationship is very important and be honest and be transfer, transfer with people. You know I I try to have good relationships and and be honest with people and you know, feel if I feel uncomfortable or if I feel that something is not right. Have that relationship where you can just trust and and have a conversation. You know communication I mean I know we take that in with our partners and you know, in marriage, oh, communication is the key. Oh, communication is the key. But, honestly, communication is the key for everything with your employees, with the people that you're working with, with your admin team. So I would say, in general, for everything, communication is the key for success.
Speaker 2:What do you think your cleaning business? How does it stand out from other services in the area? What can differentiate your business?
Speaker 3:So I try to again build that relationship with my clients and make sure that my clients feel the same with the cleaners they have. So I am thankful that I'm not rotating employees all the time. The cleaners I have, they have been with us with four, five, six years, four years, four, five, six years, four years. So I'm very picky about who I hire because I know that they're going to my clients homes. So, um, having that, you know, having that line of like, having my girls train and and they can, they know the values of the company and, at the end of the day, having my clients feel safe with whoever is going to their homes, talking on the phone with me, talking in the computer text messages with my admin team, talking in the computer text messages with my admin team, and then when they're receiving their cleaning and when they're getting the cleaner in their home, they can feel safe about that.
Speaker 2:So when a homeowner does have a get out service from you, do they get the same person every time, or is it something that switches off?
Speaker 3:So we try to keep the same cleaners as much as possible. Yes, we try to keep the same cleaners. Unless you know, most of my cleaners are moms, or they have an emergency with their kids or doctor's appointments, or they're sick or they need a vacation. Then we will always let the client know. Hey, you might see a different face today, but it's for this reason. So we have a system that we can text message with our clients and we try to make it easier for them so that we will always let them know that.
Speaker 2:Can you tell me outside of your very your thriving business, tell me what you love about Virginia Beach?
Speaker 3:The security. I love the culture. I love the atmosphere of like going to a coffee shop and it feel nice and feel calm. And I love the people. I love the community and I love the people. I love the community. I love that I can bring my kids to the beach and just be okay and feel safe and go and grab a cup of coffee and ride a bike by the oceanfront and just have that. You know, have that lifestyle of like feeling good of where you live. And I love the community, I love living in here, so I love everything about virginia yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2:I feel very um blessed to be in this community. Yeah, sure, um, let's see. Tell our listeners how they can learn more about using your services so they can um always email us via um.
Speaker 3:It's marilycleaningservice at gmailcom, or they can go to our website, marily servicescom, and in there they can fill out a form. So we need that form so just you know more information about the house and then, based on that information, we will send the quote to their email. Okay, and they can always, you know, see the prices. We will always send a checklist so you know exactly what you're having done in your home. It's not not like just you know random services. No, we want to make sure that clients know what they're having done.
Speaker 2:And how quickly can you get to new business or to new, sorry to new clients.
Speaker 3:So no, we can have an email today and then we can always respond and send a quote the same day to get them on the schedule, maybe a couple of days, I would say thank you for listening to the good neighbor podcast.
Speaker 1:to nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, that's GNPVirginiaBeach. com, or call 757-797-8852.