Before joining The Cleaning Authority, both Gigi Hoang and Cameron Octigan
had very different and demanding careers. After attending the University
of California, Davis School of Law, Gigi worked as an attorney in commercial
litigation. Cameron attended Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Los Angeles
and went on to work as a chef in New York City and Atlanta.
Ready for a career that allowed for a more flexible schedule and more time
to spend with their family, Gigi and Cameron started looking at different
career moves independently before deciding to pursue a franchise together.
Gigi came upon The Cleaning Authority while researching residential cleaning
services to use for rental properties of her own. When she wasn’t
able to find anyone that fit her needs, she thought about pursuing it
herself. “I have friends, as well, who weren’t finding good
cleaners, so I thought there was a really big need here,” she said.
She brought the idea to Cameron because of his experience in staffing
in the restaurant industry, and he thought that it was a good opportunity.
When they began to look more deeply into buying a franchise with The Cleaning
Authority, the couple was impressed by the business model and the balance
between independence and structure offered by corporate. “I like
the amount of freedom that we have under the corporate sort of construct
to more or less manage day-to-day affairs in how we see fit,” Cameron
said. “Obviously, there are certain rules, but it’s a good
amount of autonomy for a franchisee as opposed to other franchises.”
Gigi and Cameron think that Atlanta is an ideal market because of the large
amount of affluent households in need of a cleaning service. With his
staffing experience, Cameron is able to see the value of The Cleaning
Authority from an employee perspective as well. He thinks that their ability
to offer competitive pay and more reasonable hours differentiates The
Cleaning Authority from its competitors.
In the future, Gigi and Cameron aim to focus on growing the business, in
terms of both customers and employees, within their territory. “There’s
a large labor pool and a large amount of potential customers that just
haven’t been tapped or just haven’t been approached by The
Cleaning Authority,” Cameron said. “We are interested in expanding
the client base as widely as possible.”
