My name is Trisha Lake and I am the owner and founder here at TLC Cleaning. A lot you may already know me. Some may have just met me once and some may have known me from years ago when I personally cleaned for you.
At the age of 17 I enrolled in college in Phoenix, AZ to become a Nurse. Not knowing yet where I would end up in life, I thought I would start with a good stable nursing degree.
At the age of 18 I found out I was expecting a baby girl. I couldn’t have been happier. I quickly found out raising my littler girl in Phoenix was not something I wanted to do. So I moved to Fargo to start a new life.
Unfortunately, after things turned a little rocky I found myself being a single mother trying to make a life for my daughter. I didn’t have a clue what my passion would be, but I knew I had to work hard to do so. While going to school I cleaned “a few homes”. As school got harder, it was growing more difficult to keep up with my clients homes and 18 credits of school a semester. I was wearing thin and becoming tired.
At that time a good friend of mine had recently lost her job. My mother knew I was over stressed and told me, “Trisha, why don’t you hire her. You pay her half and you keep the other half.” I looked at my mom and said “I can’t do that!” She replied “Trisha, that’s business.”
It worked wonderful for everyone. I didn’t have to let my clients go. My good friend was able to get the hours she needed for her family and my grades went up. Everything seemed to be working great. Until one day, I lay awake at 2 am studying. And it just clicked. Nursing is a wonderful job. However, it wasn’t my passion. I truly believe you need to love what you do each day.
So at 3am I called my father and told him my plans to leave school. To my surprise he said, ” I support you.” I couldn’t believe my father, a very old school navy man actually gave me his blessing. And that is how TLC Cleaning began.
I am so proud of where we have come. It has been an everyday learning lesson for myself. But I am so proud of our staff and I truly am proud of all the amazing families we help. Some may not even know this. But I am very proud to be able to offer 35 employees with a stable work place that offers them health insurance, company vehicles, paid holidays and paid vacations. This is something I did not even have and the fact that I can give that to my awesome girls is such a wonderful feeling in my heart. TLC has become a large supportive family.
Some clients are surprised if I decline working with them. But sometimes not everyone is a good fit for our company. I do not see each client as a dollar bill sign. I see them as a puzzle piece. And sometimes not all pieces are meant for that puzzle. The perfect puzzle piece to me is a client who appreciates the work we do and genuinely finds life is “just a little bit easier” with us. I am a very big believer in TIME. Time is something no one can buy back in life. Time with your babies. Time with your aging parents and time for your life. Someone that sees the worth of our services and time, is the perfect puzzle piece for our company. I just wanted to take the time to tell our story.
TLC Cleaning is my passion.