Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Kraft.
Andrew, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Over the last 5 years, we have built a business that is made up of people from around the globe.
My wife, three boys and I live close to Clarkston, GA, home of the “most diverse square mile in the United States.” Transportation is an issue for many people, including refugees in Clarkston who were and still are commuting long distances to work shifts throughout the day and night in places like chicken processing plants. Having volunteered with refugees to help them get settled in Clarkston we knew there was a strong need for local and flexible work options in and around Clarkston.
Five years ago, we wrote out a full page of business ideas that we could immediately launch to employ refugees and give them local and flexible work in a healthy work environment. Residential cleaning surfaced to the top of our list.
We hired our first employee; a woman who had arrived in the U.S. as a political refugee four months prior. She said “Andrew, if you are committed to Dwell, so am I. I promised to God that the first person who offered me work, I would work hard for that person, for five years. And you are that person.” As an entrepreneur in her former country and as a woman who loved to work physically hard, we could not have built this business without her. True to her word, five years after we launched Dwell, she left us this last February. During the last five years, Dwell has grown from one cleaner and three customers to a business that employs eighteen men and women from eight countries and cleans thousands of times a year in-and-around the Decatur, GA area.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
With the commitment of our first employee, Dwell was launched on February 1, 2012, to deliver excellent cleaning to our customers and employ refugees. With our first cleaner, three customers and my van we cobbled our way through the first couple years of cleaning and hired a couple more cleaners. It was touch-and-go so many times it is amazing that we have made it to year five. There were countless times that our customers had no idea that we at Dwell had no idea if we would be cleaning the next day. And yet, it hung together. One fortunate event after another kept us in business to clean the next day. Never having been a small business owner before, much less the owner of a service-oriented business, I have learned a lot about the logistics of providing a service in a metro area, the needs and wants of customers and the challenges of employing people who provide a service by driving to various customers locations each day. Add to that, the challenges in employing individuals who have not lived long in the United States which include transportation, communication, cross-cultural communication . . . and miscommunication challenges and our day is both fulfilling and sprinkled with some head-slapping moments.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Dwell – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
We provide residential and commercial cleaning in the greater Decatur area. We have grown organically and quickly during the last five years. As a company that exists to employ refugees, we have an incredibly diverse workforce and that makes it a rich environment in which to work. We are proud of the fact that we run our mission as a business. Each day they are working, these men and women are contributing something of value for which customers repeatedly pay and, thus, we can make the business work in a sustainable way. And within that cycle, there is tremendous dignity. All of us, together at Dwell, are delivering a valued service and because of that these men and women are supporting their families through their own efforts.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We are swamped with work, so cleaning for our current customers, working in new customers and onboarding new employees are front and center for us.
Contact Info:
- Address: 655 Village Square Drive, Suite B
Stone Mountain, GA 30083 - Website: dwellservice.com
- Phone: 404-884-7049
- Email: info@dwellservice.com
- Facebook: @dwellservice
Image Credit:
Joe Murray and Sean Sheridan
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