Johannesburg - The importance of thorough cleaning is not to be underestimated; it is essential for maintaining a healthy home and preventing the spread of viruses.
It is something that a lot of people tend to avoid at all costs, except for Sisters@Work, who have taken a deep dive into the cleaning service industry.
Mbali Nhlapho, 39, founder and managing director of Sisters@Work, left the marketing industry to pursue a career in the cleaning and hygiene field.
The cleaning service is a 100% black-owned company that specialises in “day-to-day” cleaning services which involve the placing of one sister/cleaner who will do general cleaning; “couple-sister” service, which involves two cleaners providing a semi-deep-cleaning service; and, a “super-clean” service which involves a team of four to six cleaners providing a full-on deep cleaning service.
Furthermore, they also offer laundry services, pest control and furniture removal services. Nhlapho started in the sales and marketing field, holding various sales positions in the retail industry.
"My time in retail sales exposed and honed my interpersonal skills, so that when the time came for me to leave the industry, I felt I could use such skills and resources to pursue a career path I was most passionate about,” she said.
Even though cleaning was her passion, getting into the industry and starting a business in the sector did not seem like a logical step. Instead it was by accident that she started Sisters@Work.
"I say accidentally because Sisters@Work Cleaning Services came into being when I was responding to a request by my sister-in-law who was at the end of her maternity leave and had to find a childminder and assistant when she went back to work", she said.
With her wide network of people and acquaintances, she made enquiries until she found a helper for her sister-in-law. After she linked up her sister-in-law with a childminder, she started getting requests from helpers who needed work placement.
"The helper moved from child-minding to house-keeping," she said. As time went by, the housekeeping demand grew to a point where Nhlapho realised that there was a gap that could be filled with ad-hoc cleaning and housekeeping services. Sisters@Work started with her responding to and filling a need in the home and household care industry.
"I believed that not all households needed a full-time domestic worker and will opt for an ad-hoc arrangement. This was the 'niche’ I used to enter the industry," she explained.
It was not only important to formalise an otherwise informal field, but the company needed to be 100% black-owned, even though Nhlapho knew that building the business would require step-by-step development without funding.
"I knew that I would have to fund everything from my pocket and avoid the prevalent silent partner route our contemporaries normally take. For this reason, the business has to date remained wholly black-owned and relied solely on reinvested profits for its growth," she explained.
It was also important for the business to be black-owned because cleaning companies in the household space have been predominantly white-owned, with labour-broking features.
"It was important for me to ensure that the people I employ enjoy job security and the benefits that come with full-time employment," she said. The company has employed 48 full-time workers.
The first challenge the business faced was being self-funded which resulted in their projected growth not being realised within the set time frames.
The second challenge was keeping a competitive edge against established competitors. Even though new and emerging, they are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to provide services both operationally and in their service delivery.
The third challenge was collusion between clients and staff members to provide services outside of the staff's quoted job cards, and they have since dealt with that challenge of contract enforcement. The last challenge was the breakage of client items.
“In the early days, this was a huge challenge as a new business. However, as the business grew, we were able to get insurance to cover this risk,” she said.
The form and nature of their business are what sets them apart from competitors. They have developed their cleaning model which some competitors are starting to emulate.
“We have developed household cleaning hacks religiously followed by hundreds of thousands of people who have in turn asked for our services,” Nhlapho said.
Their way of contributing to communities has been through Charity@Work, a non-profit organisation that does annual toy drives, sanitary pad drives and clothes drives to communities in need.