Franchisee Spotlight: Robert and Paulette Oleson of The Cleaning Authority

Newlywed couple turned business partners, Robert and Paulette Oleson are taking over operations of The Cleaning Authority in Kenosha, Wisconsin, this May. The two have shared experience in management and operations, most recently in the senior retirement community industry. When they decided to look into business ownership opportunities, they were reminded of the excellent experience they had as customers of The Cleaning Authority previously, and investigated the business offering of the company. They were thrilled to find that The Cleaning Authority provided a sophisticated model, infrastructure and opportunity to scale the business. The Olesons look forward to serving the Racine and Kenosha area communities while providing jobs, especially to women in need, through the business.

What were you doing before partnering with The Cleaning Authority?

We both worked in senior citizen community management, most recently in Albuquerque, New Mexico, before moving to Wisconsin. Previously, before we met, Robert had a career in corporate security and is also a Navy veteran. I worked for We Energies in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, before moving to the Southwest in 2015.

How did you learn about The Cleaning Authority, and what made you ultimately decide to commit?

We used The Cleaning Authority to clean our home when we lived in Wisconsin and knew the previous owner. When we were looking into owning our own business, we thought that the franchise system would fit our previous experiences and strengths and loved the service of The Cleaning Authority so much that we decided to buy the company ourselves. From a customer perspective, we know that the brand’s services are better than competitors and as we learned about the business offering, it was clear that the company also has a strong model, infrastructure and support system.

What were your perceptions of franchising before starting the process?

We researched hundreds of franchise offerings and the main reason we selected The Cleaning Authority was the corporate support. Everything from the marketing to IT support and corporate call center really seems to set franchisees up for success. The support provided by the corporate team combined with an autonomy to run our business and control our success exceeded our expectations.

If you were to speak with someone who’s considering signing on with The Cleaning Authority, what advice would you give them?

It is important to recognize that while the corporate office will support your success, they cannot do everything for you to make your individual business successful. You need to be prepared to put in a lot of work to get the business up and running and maintain a steady base of customers.

What kind of marketing initiatives have you done so far to promote your new business?

When I worked at We Energies in Milwaukee previously, I was the president of the Women’s Development Network. I hope to incorporate my previous leadership in that area in order to reach out and provide opportunities to women in the area who are in need of jobs.

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