August 3, 2007 | Hiring help, Company news

I just realized that my previous post was in fact my hundredth post. In true blogger fashion, I’m going to try to tell you 100 things about me. Actually, 100 things about Broom Huggers - the company (but so far I can’t do more than 54. Which is ok, because you probably don’t want to read any more than that anyway).

1. We’re a fully licenced, fully insured healthy homekeeping company in North East Atlanta.
2. We’re privately held and family owned.
3. Family designed, to serve families.
4. We believe in health - for clients, employees, and our community.
5. We also believe that business should be more fun than stuffy.
6. We’re pretty particular about the products we use - “all-natural” isn’t enough. It’s gotta be free of all sorts of hazardous ingredients - most of which most people have never heard of.
7. We try to be all hip and techie.
8. But sometimes we fail miserably.
9. We actively recruit employees from the refugee population.
10. Because they have a hard time finding jobs, and someone needs to give them a fair shake.
11. They get taken advantage of way too often by employers with less than honorable scruples.
12. And frankly, that makes me mad.
13. They undergo really intense background checks before they enter the country, and that gives me peace of mind.
14. We like to pamper our clients.
15. We like for you to feel like your home is your personal spa.
16. We want to make healthy products available to everyone.
17. To start with, we give them away free to our employees.
18. It doesn’t make sense that they’d work so hard to keep clients’ homes healthy, only to resort to cheap, chemical-laden products for their own homes.
19. We try to find really intuitive ways to protect the environment and reduce waste.
20. The folders we give our clients are file folders - to go straight into your filing cabinet (not those useless glossy pocket-style folders that you end up throwing away).
21. And ours are made from 100% recycled materials.
22. We buy our cleaning products in concentrate, and dilute them ourselves.
23. That saves our landfills from plastic, packing products, and extra containers.
24. And we’re having less volume shipped to us, so it saves on carbon emissions in the transportation process.
25. We’ll never - ever - not in a million years - paper neighborhoods or parking lots with flyers.
26. Sure, it might be cheap marketing, but you don’t want it on your car or mailbox, and I don’t want it in our landfill.
27. I do use our products in my own home. Daily.
28. And now that we’re dealing with a drought, I actually dump my mop water on the grass and flowers when I’m done mopping.
29. That’s how safe this stuff is. It won’t hurt my rosebushes or my Stella D’Oro daylillies.
30. Unfortunately it won’t kill my weeds either.
31. But thankfully I have vinegar for that.
32. I love - absolutely love - running this company.
33. My favorite part is seeing the excitement in a new employee’s eyes when I tell them about the dangers of regular cleaning products, and then how we’ve chosen different products - specifically to protect our employees’ health.
34. That blows their minds. Most of them have never worked for someone who had their interests in mind.
35. One reason I started the company was that my research revealed that women in the cleaning industry have much higher occurrence rates of certain cancers, reproductive diseases, and other diseases.
36. It doesn’t seem fair.
37. The fact that someone doesn’t earn a lot of money doesn’t make their life any less valuable.
38. My other pet peeve is car makers - most of them make you pay extra for safety features.
39. Do you realize what that says? That only the well-off deserve to be safe.
40. It infuriates me. All safety features should be standard.
41. Another reason I started the company is because I believe that a lot of the companies that make chemical cleaners are similar to cigarette companies.
42. They know what the research says. But they hide behind formalities and loop-holes.
43. I want the public to know that these products are harmful to generations.
44. Broom Huggers is about health. Pure and simple.
45. We’re more than maids in North East Atlanta.
46. We’re more than housekeepers. We’re homekeepers.
47. We’re about ensuring that your home serves your family well.
48. And we’re about serving you well.
49. Any cleaning service that doesn’t bend over backwards to serve you is doing something wrong.
50. I had planned on writing 100 of these, but we’re going to call it quits soon. Just a couple more things to say.
51. Broom Huggers is motivated by faith.
52. Faith in Jesus is what got us started and keeps us going.
53. Yes, we’re equal opportunity employers, and we’d never discriminate against our employees on the basis of faith or the lack thereof.
54. But the management, company design, ethics, and driving force is all 100% guided by the fact that we work to the glory of God.
55. And hey, we’re in the Bible belt, so I have no reservations in telling you how we really feel about it.

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1. Andrea Ward says:

   
   

   I was referred to you by my “fur babies” (3 dogs - 2 Maltese & 1 King Charles Cavalier) groomer and after perusing your website and company core values I know why she referred me to you! She understands how important my fur babies, their health, my own healthy and most of all my sanity is to me.
   I am looking for a new homekeeper. I live in the Peachtree Corners area and would need bi-monthly services in my home. I have one baby with severe allergies and appreciate the face that your company is based on using organic products and environmental preservation. Our former housekeeper also used natural and organice cleaners, which with other things I was doing environmentally at home, had a significantly positive effect on my son’s allergy reactions being lowered.

   I would appreciate it if someone would please contact me, as I would like to get started as soon as possible. I look forward to hearing with you, and I am VERY EXCITED about finding out about your company your commitment to consumers and our world.

   Many thanks,
   Andrea

   October 22nd, 2007 at 2:10 pm

2. Liz Hartzell says:

   
   

   Kathy,
   I aminterestedin having my home cleaned with your products they sound like just what I’mlooking for……..
   Liz Hartzell

   October 29th, 2007 at 11:36 am

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