Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/1039904
10 BBB MAGAZINE Who's Who Special Edition eshine Cleaning Services founder Elias Torres' business keeps growing, thanks to positive word-of-mouth referrals. Photo by Darcy Finley t's a good thing Elias Torres was short on cash when one of his buddies told him that his office needed cleaning, or he might still be bouncing from job to job. At 24, he was stocking shelves for Pepsi and bartending, so when the opportunity to clean the office came up, he figured, 'Why not?' "I didn't know what I wanted to do. I needed extra money at the time. I saw you can definitely make some money from it. I started getting offices and bars (to clean), anyplace I could get my hands on," he says. You can imagine how much fun it is to clean up a bar after a raucous Saturday night, but Torres did it. "I was all by myself. Sometimes, it would take six or seven hours. You have no clue what you're doing to start, how long it will take or what to charge," he says. Torres had precisely zero experience in the cleaning game, aside from tidying up his bedroom when he lived with his parents, so when he got his first gig, he raided their house, naturally. "I just grabbed their vacuum and cleaning solutions and stuff I could find around the house." Luckily, it was enough to do a good job and soon after, he started his own company, eshine Cleaning Services in 2012. He hired his first employee 18 months later. Today, he has more than 60 people on the payroll. Now a stickler for cleanliness, Torres started getting referrals from all kinds of businesses, including restaurants, some Shoppers Drug Mart and Giant Tiger locations and even building construction sites. Word of mouth gave him his biggest opportunity — the hotel business. His company is the only one in Manitoba that has been outsourced to do housekeeping, and he believes the hotel side has the biggest upside potential for eshine. "That's where we definitely want to grow. There aren't a lot of companies in Canada doing it. It's a very European thing. All the hotels do it over there." Torres also takes great pains to ensure his website is top-notch because he feels it differentiates him from less tech- savvy competitors. "Everything is technology these days. You have to be updating your website or else you'll start falling behind. Being younger in the janitorial business gives me an edge," he says. It also helps having Better Business Bureau accreditation. Torres says it provides his operation with a most valuable commodity — credibility. "It shows that the business is legit. A lot of businesses aren't and you can tell. It's a third-party validation and I've got lots of work because of it. People go online and see BBB and that gives them comfort." ❙ Learn more at eshinecleaning.com Keeping it Clean YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR SHINES IN THRIVING BUSINESS BY GEOFF KIRBYSON I ESHINE CLEANING SERVICES