Self-employment
Build your business to have a social conscience, cleaner saysSmall biz sweeps upIt’s true that you can change the world through your small business. “I saw a need for a cleaning company that pays its workers fairly and uses environmentally-friendly products,” says entrepreneur Matti Sevink. ROGER PIERCE |
|
 [ 2007-05-16 ] |
To find out, take this test by eCareerFit, the career assessment experts.
Matti Sevink’s cleaning company, Fair Trade Cleaning, pays employees fairly and uses environmentally-safe products.
Sevink owns Fair Trade Cleaning (www.fairtradeclean.com), a home and office cleaning service with a focus on fairness. “While we charge our customers a competitive rate, we pay our cleaners a significantly higher wage than other cleaning companies so that they can maintain a decent standard of living,” Sevink says.
Fair Trade Cleaning is trying to change the long-established practice of under-paying cleaners. “I supported myself as an artist by working as a domestic cleaner for 22 years,” Sevink says. “I learned that typically too much profit goes to the cleaning company.”
Fair Trade Cleaning is part of a larger movement toward corporate social responsibility. “The public wants to deal with companies that are committed to workplace quality, the environment and employee well-being,” Sevink says.
“We’re looking for cleaning clients who think fairness is important.”
Offering a wide range of cleaning services for regular or occasional clients, Fair Trade Cleaning pays attention to hidden dirt.
“We actually remove books from shelves for a proper dusting, and, for residential customers, we’ll flip their mattress to dust the box springs,” Sevink says.
Sevink loves to boast about having the best-paid cleaners in Toronto. With its decent wages, a profit-sharing plan and environmentally-safe products, Fair Trade Cleaning has very loyal employees; however, Sevink says the company’s service charges remain reasonable.
With plans to franchise the business across North America, Sevink advises other new entrepreneurs to work on the business as much as they do in the business.
“It would be very easy for me to be out every day doing a cleaning job, but I’ve put systems in place so my business will run without me,” Sevink says. “That way, I have time to work on growing it.”
Would you ever work for a social or charitable enterprise in the third sector?