We had the good fortune of connecting with Andrea Ponce and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrea, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My husband and I started our first business together. We both have MBA’s, my husband had corporate experience in financial analysis and mergers & acquisitions and my corporate experience was in sales and marketing. We felt confident we had a good foundation to be able to start and run a business successfully. We always talked about opening a business and it was not until we had our first daughter and we were living in Chicago that we began our search process.

We wanted to move back to Miami, FL, to be closer to our family and continue to grow our own family. We started talking about what kind of businesses to own, whether to buy something existing and whether to consider franchises. We put together a list of pros and cons of all and quickly determined we did not want to get in a food-related industry and we felt more comfortable as first-time business owners to either purchase an existing business or buy into a franchise.

When doing research on franchises at the time, MaidPro was ranked one of the best franchises to own. We reached out to the home office in Boston and loved their culture and loved the stories we heard first-hand from some of the early owners (many of which are still open today and have been with the franchise 20+ years). It just so happened there was a MaidPro for sale in Miami as well. It was the perfect match and we bought our first business and could not be happier.

What should our readers know about your business?
MaidPro is a professional house cleaning company. It is part of a franchise organization and there are over 250 MaidPro’s in the US and Canada combined. All of this to say it has a good peer support group and history of success.

We bought our MaidPro in June 2018 in Miami, FL and since then have expanded through acquisitions to four physical locations in Cooper City, FL, Port Richey, FL and Orange City, FL.

We like to stand-out through delivering quality service, as you can see in our Google reviews for each location which we are really proud of. And we also like to foster a family-oriented working environment where we highly value respect, and zero discrimination amongst our staff.

During COVID, like many other service industries, we struggled with recruiting and hiring. It made us shift gears a bit and refocus on truly delivering high-quality cleans, optimal customer service and taking care of the employees we had by providing them flexibility in their schedules and fully protective PPE .

In the end we are so grateful with MaidPro as it opened our doors to the opportunity to expand to other businesses. In January 2022 we opened Men in Kilts, a sister brand focusing on exterior cleaning such as pressure washing, window cleaning, gutter cleaning and roof washing. And we are opening a third franchise, JETSET Pilates Studio in 2023.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If a friend from out of town was visiting Miami, I would first focus on food and take them to my favorite spots around town. They include Lokal in Coconut Grove for great burgers and in my opinion the best key lime pie. Yardbird in South Beach for typical southern food, although I would make sure we book an early dinner or late lunch reservation as the food tends to be heavy but delicious. Then a quick stroll through Lincoln Road for some people watching and shopping. I would also include in my list Mandolin in the Design District, Mister 01 and Paperfish in Brickell and Bakan in Wynwood.

For shopping I love Merrick Park. We would need to go to the beach one day and can get a resortpass from one of the hotels in South Beach to also be able to use their amenities and cabanas. For drinks we can go to Cantina la Veinte, Casa Tua or Lagniappe as well.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My husband and our two daughters.

My husband is my sounding board on all the business decision making. I sometimes find an opportunity, a new tool or a new idea and he is the one that helps me think through it and make a decision together on whether to go with it or dismiss it.

Our two daughters are our driving force. My husband and I do not run our businesses with the idea that they will one day take over it. If they want to, yes of course! But if not that is ok. But because of them we give it our all to make sure our business succeeds. We want to be able to provide for them financially and emotionally and our businesses give us the flexibility to deliver on both of those objectives.

Website: https://www.maidpro.com/miami-beach/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maidpromiami/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreaadarve/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maidpromiami

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/maidpro-miami-2

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