Cuban Exile Lives American Dream as Janitorial Franchise Owner

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Escondido's Carlos Herrera Overcomes Family Hardships to Be His Own Boss

November 13, 2007 // Franchising.com // ESCONDIDO, CA – Five years ago, Carlos Herrera was working as a store manager for an auto repair shop in Escondido by day and moonlighting for a small cleaning service three nights a week when he saw a TV ad that stopped him in his tracks. It showed a man doing the same kind of commercial cleaning work that Herrera was doing, but the man was working for himself as the owner of a Coverall Cleaning Concepts franchise. Herrera said to himself, "That could be me."

Three years later, Herrera discovered that Coverall Cleaning Concepts was selling franchises in the San Diego area, and he decided to put his money where his mouth was. The irony: his family had fled Cuba when Herrera was 13, forcing his parents to abandon a thriving restaurant business and instead mop floors until 2 or 3 am to pay the bills in their new homeland. Herrera had promised his parents that he would never have a janitorial career, but he defended his choice with a simple explanation.

"I told them that sometimes sons and daughters are more like their parents than they admit," Herrera recalls. "As it turned out, I was really suited to the work and it has been very profitable for me. I never thought I would be in the position I am today."

Now 50, Herrera vividly remembers life in Cuba under Fidel Castro. His father was stripped of his restaurant and ordered to cut sugar cane. Herrera himself was sent to a farm for "brainwashing" for several months when he was 11 or 12. He, two younger brothers, a sister and his parents were able to emigrate to the U.S. only because a family here agreed to sponsored them. They started in New York, then moved to California to join other family members who had arrived several years before.

After seeing his parents struggle with their janitorial duties for 20 years, Herrera was determined to do better. Initially he was content with a series of desk jobs in the auto repair business. Then he added his moonlighting cleaning job to save enough money to buy a condo in Escondido and a house in Hawaii (which he has since sold). He had enough savings to buy a small Coverall Cleaning Concepts package in 2005, and he enlisted the help of his wife to get the business off the ground.

Today, Herrera is one of 268 Coverall Cleaning Concepts Franchise Owners in the San Diego area. He has three employees, is preparing to hire three more, and has cleaning accounts ranging from office buildings to medical clinics, dental offices and animal hospitals. The animal hospitals require "twice the detail work" of the other healthcare facilities, Herrera says, along with the patience to put up with non-stop barking during the long night hours when the dogs get no other attention.

But Herrera, who still works alongside his crews whether they're scrubbing floors or cleaning toilets, doesn't mind. "I want everything to sparkle," he says. And it shows: his customers give him high scores on their satisfaction scorecards every time.

Coverall Cleaning Concepts' Franchise Owners provide cleaning services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Service offerings include routine cleaning as well as a menu of specialized and premium services including hard floor care, carpet cleaning, window/blind cleaning, restroom sanitation, ceiling and wall cleaning, and fire/floor restoration.

About Coverall Cleaning Concepts

Founded in 1985, Coverall Cleaning Concepts is one of the world's leading commercial cleaning franchising companies with a worldwide network of more than 90 Support Centers and 9,000 Franchise Owners. The Company's Franchise Owners currently service nearly 50,000 customers in over 90 metropolitan areas, including small and large office buildings, industrial complexes, banks, department stores, corporate headquarters, and a wide variety of other accounts. In addition to general janitorial services, Coverall Cleaning Concepts Franchise Owners specialize in cleaning healthcare facilities. The Company has built its healthcare practice to comprise nearly 20% of its customer base, and has developed a proprietary healthcare cleaning program designed to reduce cross-contamination and aid infection control. For more information, visit www.coverall.com

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