In recent times, social media has proven to be the barometer of performance by which many fledgling businesses either find their footing or diminish due to damaging feedback. A chance glimpse of a glowing Instagram review of one such business led to our discovery of Shanique Graham, owner of Totally Maid for You, a residential cleaning service.

Growing up, Graham had a “passion for cleaning and organising” which she decided to share with others when she made the unexpected jump into entrepreneurship.

“At first I didn’t think I had the entrepreneur spirit but I have always lived by the mantra ‘There is no glass ceiling, only the ones self-imposed’.”

The 33-year-old St Andrew High School for Girls alumna said she has always had a desire to see things in their place, has always been the one who could be counted on to help clean up at home, even when it was not her own.

“There were also the many dinner parties that I was invited to, and I always stayed around to do the cleaning up without being asked. Not to mention that my friends always remarked when they came to my house how amazed they were at how immaculate my house always is, even with two shih-tzu puppies and raising two young children,” Graham said. “My friends would always ask me to make their house look like mine and they will pay me. At that point, I realised that I have a passion that persons would be willing to pay me for.”

While focusing on her foray into business, she is otherwise busy maintaining a hectic schedule that includes permanent employment and pursuing a law degree as her growing company finds its footing. “The company is very new. I still have a full-time job and managing the company. As a child, I wanted to be an attorney-at-law. As I grew older, I still wanted to be an attorney-at-law but also a corporate planner and project manager, so my academic background is still on that trajectory.”

Among the challenges she has faced, Graham says marketing is one thing she finds more difficult than anticipated. “Marketing — especially social media marketing and trying to be a household name among the competition. I am overcoming it by letting our service excellence and customer experience do the shouting for us. This will allow us to start the process of infiltrating the minds of potential customers and, over time, will lead us to the household name we seek.”

Providing exceptional customer service and an exceptional experience to her clients have proven to be among her chief motivators. “I am most passionate about the customer experience, knowing that the customer trusts you enough to let you in their space to transform it.”

As part of her company’s growth plan, Graham hopes to see it become a household name for residential cleaning services, with a hundred consistent monthly scheduled customers along with additional services including laundry pickup and meal preparation. “I am most proud of the brand Totally Maid for You… it started from me being the cleaner, the administrator and the customer service officer to now being able to employ persons. I love cleaning so much that I still dabble in going to jobs myself when I have the time.”

As for the advice she would offer to someone wishing to pursue a similar path, Graham said “You will never know until you start. Scale your business. Do not start big without knowing your clientele or the environment within which you operate, so do your SWOT [strength, weakness, opportunities and threats] analysis.”