{"id":1868,"date":"2020-01-23T06:56:07","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T06:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/?p=1868"},"modified":"2025-05-22T03:14:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T03:14:42","slug":"julie-parish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/julie-parish\/","title":{"rendered":"From Task-Juggling Single Mother to Tech-Savvy Grandmapreneur"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Get to know Julie Parish who slowly but steadily built her maid service and kept it running successfully for 24+ years!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Julie\u2019s journey started in 1984 when she opened her first cleaning company. She sold it, started a new one in Dallas, Texas, shut that one down, took a break from the industry, and in 1994, restarted one in the Houston area.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

She has been managing The Home Keepers in Houston since then and is ready to celebrate its 25th anniversary next year!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In this article, learn more about Julie\u2019s journey, her ongoing search for freedom, and how ZenMaid has impacted her business.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For \u00a0Julie, it all started on a whim as a result of not wanting to work for anyone else. Who can blame her?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The initial kick in the butt was delivered by her younger brother who suggested she should run a cleaning \u00a0business. She instantly liked the idea and gave it a go.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

At the beginning of her career, Julie\u00a0took on every challenge alone.<\/em> She was a single mother the majority of those years, taking care of her family and business all by herself.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u201cAll of my children grew up with me running my maid service from home. Employees coming in and out!\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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To efficiently manage both her household and her business, she had to \u00a0combine the two. \u00a0Her office was located inside her home and as a \u00a0result, her children were used to staff coming and going, and seeing \u00a0employees rush in and out of their home.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

That meant that Julie found herself in a place where she didn\u2019t have much of a home life. Looking back now, she wishes she had the technological advancements that we enjoy today during that time.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The more she started to integrate technology into her life, the more freedom she got out of the business.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Over \u00a0time she has noticed that software continues to connect her with both \u00a0employees and customers, consistently and conveniently.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Julie also credits technology for helping her meet other cleaning business owners like herself in online groups such as the ZenMaid Mastermind. \u00a0Online industry groups are the support network she never had, and never \u00a0knew she was missing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u201cThank God for technology and all the advancements and being able to stay so connected to everyone in the industry now!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Julie \u00a0found her tribe when she reached out to the Association of Residential Cleaning Services International (ARCSI) twelve years ago. Prior to that, she felt very alone in running her business.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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The exchange with like-minded people showed her how important having the support of a community is for running a business. Ever since she has lived by the motto \u201ccollaboration over competition!\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Without \u00a0Julie and a few select others, ZenMaid might not even exist or be where \u00a0it is now! Her encouragement, kind words, and valuable input kept \u00a0ZenMaid going even though initially, she was not a customer.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

But\u00a0that changed a few years later. Nearly four years after Amar first spoke to Julie on the phone, they finally met in person at the ARCSI Convention in Chicago.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Julie & ZenMaid CEO Amar at the ARCSI Convention in Chicago.<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In Chicago, she sat down with her office manager and star ZenMaid customer Roman P.\u00a0(profiled in another ZenMaid case study here<\/strong>)<\/a>\u00a0to give ZenMaid another look.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Two weeks later, The Home Keepers fully moved to ZenMaid, with the help of our onboarding program provided by the team.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For the past year and a half, we have been proud to call Julie a customer and are so grateful for her continuous support of our company, our industry, and most importantly of each other.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So why didn\u2019t Julie sign up when she first discovered ZenMaid?<\/h4>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In her own words:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u201cNow\u00a0ZenMaid KNOCKS your socks off with features! When it was first getting \u00a0up and running It honestly did not have very many features and I was \u00a0waiting for it to be developed a little more. So glad to see the \u00a0progress of Amar, Courtney, and the rest of the team :-)\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Julie \u00a0didn\u2019t feel like taking any risks, so she waited until ZenMaid was further developed. Because she now sees what ZenMaid does for her and \u00a0her business, she is happy that she made the decision to use the software and she has truly become one of our most cherished members.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

And, because she made the wise decision to join ZenMaid, Julie finally found\u00a0the freedom she was longing for in her early years of running her maid\u00a0service!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u201cI am not sure I can put an amount of \u00a0time or money to it, but it has given me so much more flexibility to \u00a0live my life and for my employees as well. It\u2019s given us a better \u00a0quality of life for sure!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Because she likes to work at night, from home, outside or in a Starbucks, \u00a0with the help of the ZenMaid software, she is able to do this.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

She has the freedom to work from \u00a0anywhere, even at a swim meet watching one grand baby swim while holding \u00a0her other five-month-old grand kid at the same time.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Pretty cool for a lady who considers herself not tech-savvy at all!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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\u201cAmar has made me a little bit famous with our story. An honor to be a part of the ZenMaid story for sure!\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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[Click here to see the original post<\/strong>]<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

For \u00a0Julie, the benefits of using ZenMaid was not about the revenue or time numbers but the freedom it gives her for a healthy work\/life balance. \u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Her family and the search for a better quality of life are what first kept her going in business.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

She wanted to be her own boss while creating a good life for herself and her family. Nowadays, she still holds these values high.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Through her contact with ZenMaid\u2019s co-founder Amar, she heard about the concept of digital nomadism\u00a0(Amar edited and finalized this very case study from Croatia). Julie admits that to travel while working sounds pretty alluring to her and a way to take her freedom to the next level.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So we are curious to see how Julie and her business will develop in the years to come!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

To conclude,\u00a0we asked Julie whether she would recommend ZenMaid to another maid service owner and if so, why?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cABSOLUTELY in a heartbeat! For all the reasons I\u2019ve mentioned:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Freedom<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Accessibility to all my information at my fingertips \u2013 my customers, my employees, my #\u2019s!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

My employees have access to their schedule and they love it!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Another \u00a0big factor and I discussed this on FB once\u2026You can NOT get this kind of \u00a0access to the owner\/software engineer\/programmer like you can with Amar \u00a0and his AMAZING TEAM!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Amar has built a great team that represents him well. They \u00a0are upfront and personal! Ready to jump in and help you with most \u00a0anything.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

You \u00a0just can\u2019t get someone\u2019s \u201cear\u201d like this, they really want to know what \u00a0will make our lives easier and it\u2019s their JOY to make it happen!\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Julie\u2019s \u00a0journey showed us that building a successful business does not have to be about growth and numbers.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

She encouraged our efforts in building a community for maid service business owners and further develop and improve the ZenMaid software.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

ZenMaid now offers Maid Service owners around the globe the freedom to focus on the things they value most in life.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Whether that is more time with family, 4-day work weeks, or going on crazy adventures like joining Amar in Thailand or Iceland! \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n

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You can also connect with our team by dropping us a note \u00a0at support@zenmaid.com<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

You and your Maid Service deserve a little peace and quiet. Sign up for your free trial today at ZenMaid.com<\/strong><\/a> and discover the freedom and clarity that ZenMaid can bring to your Maid Service!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Get to know Julie Parish who slowly but steadily built her maid service and kept it running successfully for 24+ years! Julie\u2019s journey started in 1984 when she opened her first cleaning company. She sold it, started a new one in Dallas, Texas, shut that one down, took a break from the industry, and in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":" %%post_title%% %%sep%% ","_seopress_titles_desc":"Find out how Julie Parish went from a task-juggling single mom to a tech-savvy Grandmapreneur! ","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,25],"tags":[83,28,65],"class_list":{"0":"post-1868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-case-study","8":"category-grow-your-maid-service","9":"tag-case-study","10":"tag-grow-your-maid-service","11":"tag-maid-service-case-study"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1868"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8406,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions\/8406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zenmaid.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}