“The heart of my business is my community,” says Natasha Magrath. A veteran of the hospitality industry, she founded the Northern Virginia franchise of You’ve Got Maids in 2017 because she wanted to build a business that would help build her community, and that she could one day pass along to her children and grandchildren. “We need every business to contribute back to the community,” she adds, because it’s the dynamic that helps both grow together.
“When you give to your community as a business, it doesn’t have to be only financial. It can be volunteer time. It can be a phone call to an organization just asking, ‘How are you doing? How can we help?’” Natasha says. Her own employees are offered paid company time once a quarter to volunteer together for local non-profits. She recommends the practice to others saying that it “builds your company culture, and shows your employees that community is important to all of us.” Internally, it’s also a high value to treat everyone with respect and integrity; “we are all equal in our contribution to the business. That’s how I built my business. The same is true for the client. We need to respect the client, but we also need the client to respect our employees.”
She shows obvious passion when she exclaims, “I am nothing without my employees – these people who work hard every day in the field. Cleaning is not an easy job, to go and work and make every client happy, believe me. We just started a 401K matching program and we pay them well. When we do a volunteer day together, they’re paid for that time because my employees are living paycheck to paycheck. When we volunteer, we have a meal together and we talk to each other and get to know each other better.”
Clients also are invited to contribute to the various donation drives that Natasha coordinates with her employees bi monthly all year around. Natasha first calls non-profits to determine, “What is your greatest need?” then shares flyers with her clients and posts the requests on social media. Whether it’s diapers, food or clothing, contributions can be picked up from clients’ houses and delivered directly to the charity.
“Clients are like our family and they all love helping,” she explains. This mindset contributes to the loyalty of both her cleaning customers and her staff, some of whom have been with her several years. “Of course, that’s not all we want for our employees. We want them to go on and do better for themselves and their families,” Natasha asserts.
To that end, Natasha has offered free English classes to all her employees for the past four years; they’ve even graduated to using their dedicated tutor. The company paid for the tutoring and this is done on weekly basis. The photo below is just one example of a quarterly English class graduation, from which participants go on to the next level in their learning. Participants demonstrate a true hunger for improvement, showing up at 7 a.m. on Mondays for class.
Natasha came to the U.S. in 1999 from Lebanon and learned English at NOVA. “I know how important it is. I want them to be able to sit with their children in the afternoon and help them with their homework. I want them to be able to communicate with the clients so they understand each other. This is a very important commitment that we’ve made to better everyone’s lives. To build community we want to build into the lives of the people who are going to do that. We want them to grow and build a better life and our community will be stronger for that.”
Natasha also personally gives of her own time by serving on several boards, notably as Treasurer at Equality Loudoun, and the Broadlands Rotary Club. She serves on the board of the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce, where she recently won the Small Business Service Company of the Year Award, and this year became a member of 100WomenStrong, a true force in helping to finance local non-profits. In addition, she also serves on the Board of Trustees at Stone Springs Hospital and is a member of the Loudoun County Government’s Multicultural Advisory Committee. Recently, she was elected to serve as Virginia State Advocacy Leader for the Worldwide Cleaning industry Association. And, still, she finds time to help other local businesses connect with partners that can help them grow their businesses.
Her own business is doing so well that it not only serves Loudoun and Fairfax Counties but is expanding soon to a Centerville office that will service the Gainesville, Clifton, Haymarket Manassas and surrounding areas. The service offers a 52-point “Spring Cleaning™”, move in or move out cleaning and weekly or other interval services. You can get a free quote here: https://www.youvegotmaids.com/house-cleaning/va/northernvirginia or call 571-732-2199.