Today we’d like to introduce you to Greicy Jerez.
Greicy, please share your story with us.
I was born in Cuba and immigrated to the United States at a very young age. I received my Bachelor in Business Finance from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2007 with high honors and recognition. I grew up in East Boston and now lives in Saugus with my husband and expecting our 8th child (ages 10 to 1).
I established my own small cleaning business in February of 2011 where I held the positions of owner, field supervisor, payroll manager, financial controller, marketing director, safety leader, office supervisor, and bid estimator. I have been able to become a successful entrepreneur and has big ambitions for the company.
I enjoy being able to stay at home with my children while doing something for a living that I love to do. My husband is a laborer in the union since the year 2000 and is the reason for my determination to start offering my green cleaning services as a signatory contractor in the union. I recently received the following state and federal certifications for the company: Minority and Woman Owned Business Enterprise and Disadvantaged Business enterprise.
Has it been a smooth road?
It’s never easy to make the decision to leave a steady weekly check to go into business. In our case, the security from my husband’s job income every week. I was also expecting our 3rd child when we made the transition to open the business. I knew I needed my husband to be the main field representative for the company but that meant for him to quit his job to start dedicating time to growing the business. So he did and that’s how we started. Other than the normal day to day new business operations (marketing, networking, bidding etc.), I would say that the hardest thing has been to balance our marriage life and working together. Since I have a home office, it’s very tempting to step in the office whenever and continue working on a proposal or answer emails, etc. And since my husband comes home after being in the field all day, we find ourselves always talking about business. So by far, that is our number one struggle because we believe in putting God first, then our marriage/family, then work. But it’s not easy since we kind of never check out of our job like most people do after their 8- hr. shift. So as much as I love what I do, and love working with my husband, it is sometimes difficult to balance.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Jerez LLC story. Tell us more about the business.
Back in 2011, we started cleaning Foreclosed properties for banks and real estate agents. My husband would work in the houses and I would take care of the office side of things. We got a lot of work especially since there was more foreclosure properties anyone can handle. But it was a lot of hours both in the field and office where my husband would get home at midnight sometimes and I would have to submit completion to the banks ASAP. So we realized that this was not going to be a long term thing for us, since it destroyed the marriage/family function of life. That is when in 2012/2013, we decided to offer our cleaning services to General contractors in the union. To do this, I had to sign Jerez LLC in the Mass Laborers union where I became a signatory subcontractor. We knew we wanted to work just in union projects because my husband had been a mass laborer himself for 15 years so he knew the field very well. So we started offering construction final cleaning to general contractors like Consigli, Turner, Walsh brother etc. And every year since then, we continue to grow in gross sales. Basically once a general contractor is done with the construction of a building, they need us to come in and final clean the entire space before they turn it over to the owner. This includes interior & exterior window washing too. My company is SDO certified as a women owned, minority owned and disadvantage business enterprise. This helps us compete with other company’s because some of these private projects require subcontractors with these certificates in order to meet their goals. We are very serious and committed to providing the best quality service and that is why clients keep coming back to us.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
We believe the industry is strong now and will be for the next 5-10 years. We see many new construction going up and they just don’t stop. So whenever there’s a new building or remodel, they need us to final clean the space. We have noticed that the vast majority of these new buildings have a ton of glass, both inside and out. This new glass trend tells us that these future building owners and managers will need window maintenance. So it is an opportunity for our business to grow since we also specialize in window cleaning.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jerezllc.com
- Phone: 781-363-7171
- Email: Gjerez@Jerezllc.com
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