With the daily stresses of life there is nothing better than finding solace in a clean and organized home that reinvigorates one with a sense of positive energy. Unfortunately, not everyone has the time to devote to regularly creating such a space within their homes. Fortunately, CEO of Zen Home Cleaning, Deanna K. Hains has established a company that turns an apartment or house into a home.
Zen Home Cleaning is an eco-friendly cleaning service that uses non-toxic cleaning products. The luxury service provides a signature 5-star hotel turn-down service with organic sweet treats and diffused aromatherapy oils. With her company, Hains is committed to spreading the joy of living an eco-friendly lifestyle. Thus far she is bringing smiles to clients in New York, San Francisco and soon, Chicago. Zen Home has also developed a line of aromatherapy oils, soy candles and eco-cleaning products.
Rolling out got comfortable with Hains as we talked the financial challenges of running a green company, and how the popularity of eco-friendly services has led to scams within the industry.
What is unique about your company?
We are completely green and don’t use any chemical products whatsoever. All the vendors we use are environmentally aware and have socially conscious business practices. We also teach our cleaners how to not only clean the home but also make it feel different by how they organize things. We also leave organic chocolate and a thank you card on the bed of each client. So those are specialties we provide that make us unique.
How do the costs of running a green business affect your bottom line?
It is more expensive to run my business this way since we use vendors and products that are eco-friendly. If we used vendors with chemicals, it would be less expensive. For example, we use a green printer in California for our postcards and they cost $200 when we could get them elsewhere for $50. But I bear it because in the long run I consciously feel better.
Since you began, what have been some of the major changes you’ve witnessed in the green industry?
I think that when we started there were only three or four companies like us. Then right after us, others completely copied our model. Some copied us verbatim and we had to get attorneys involved. So more green cleaning services are starting, but also a lot of people are abusing the phrase. When you go to them, they don’t always understand or know what being green truly means.
