Connections! in SW Florida - Featuring Lauran Poche with Make Cents Tile and Grout Cleaning

Good hump day! It's Wednesday already. Yes, good to see you, Laura.

Hi, good to see you too, Renee. Thanks for having me on.

Oh, my pleasure. And this is Renee Hahn bringing you Connections in Southwest Florida and the whole The purpose of Connections in Southwest Florida is to connect local people with local businesses. And I've— Laura, I've— one of the things I've enjoyed about these is getting, you know, you think you know all the businesses in town, and then you have a real appreciation as you get to meet new people like yourself and realize all the things that we've come to love about Naples, because this, this community is really built on all the entrepreneurial spirits of those like your husband and yourself. So I'm so happy to have you here to join me today.

Well, I'm super excited to be on with you. I'm so, I'm so glad I found your post on Facebook, and I'm really grateful to do this and happy to do this with you.

Well, I'm excited to share with the audience because as you and I were talking before we went live, I think the work you do is like a hidden gem, and I'm excited to be able to share it. But before we get to that, Laura, I want the audience to have an opportunity to get to know a little bit more about you. So share with us a little bit of your background and and a little bit about yourself, and then we'll move over to the business side of things. Okay.

My name is Laura Poche, and we are originally from Louisiana. We've been in Southwest Florida for about 11 years. We moved here right at the beginning of the downturn in the economy, and I'm just so glad that we did. We— I couldn't have thought of a better place to start over. We have 3 children. We have 2 boys and a girl, and one in college, one grown, and one still hanging around. And we are a true family business. We all work together and I do the administrative part of the business and then the kids all help out. My— primarily both of my sons, my middle son, when he's home from college, he's a big help. And then my oldest son works full-time with my husband and then my daughter works part-time when she can. So it's a true family business and I'm so glad that they are all so entrepreneurial like their parents. So it's really great. But yeah, I mean, I have so enjoyed living in Southwest Florida and so grateful to be able to build a business here.

Now it's a great place to do that. And before we get entirely into the Make Cents Cleaning, I want people to know that you also have another talent. I'm not going to let you get out of here without being able to share your love for cooking. So tell us a little bit about that, and then we'll, we'll hit the business stuff.

So like I said, I was raised in— born and raised in the Texas-Louisiana area, and I spent most of my adult life in Louisiana, where I learned to cook from my grandmother. And it's just been a passion of mine for years, and I'm always trying new recipes and doing different things. And I just made a decision to start sharing it on Facebook Live, and I started a personal blog, and I actually cook on my— I cook live on my blog, or I recorded videos, and I just share Cajun dishes. It's called The Tropical Cajun, and it's free, and it's fun. And I, you know, we have a few followers in there, so if you want to check it out on Facebook, you could maybe learn how to make étouffée or gumbo. Or the other day I posted a pot of red beans and rice I made, made it live on Facebook, so So it's really fun to watch when you're hungry.

Make sure you're not hungry when you watch it. You may have a stampede over at your house. And with the name Poche, I mean, that's very French, Louisiana French sounding. I love it.

There's a restaurant in Lafayette called Poche's, so yeah. Yeah.

Well, very good. Well, let's talk about, so don't forget, if you guys would love to see see some of this Cajun cooking. I wanted to make sure we didn't lose half an hour without the opportunity to say that. So Laura, where then can they—

it's Tropical Cajun, the Tropical Cajun on Facebook. It's a personal blog, and anybody can start a personal blog. It's really easy and it's fun.

Perfect. So let's move that entrepreneurial spirit into the next area, which we're here to talk about, which is make Sense Cleaning. I'd like to start with a little bit of— let's give an overview of the business. I'm gonna probably bombard you with follow-up questions, but let's start from 11 years. You said you guys came to Naples. Tell us a little bit about the, the vision and the, you know, the, the starting the business, where that, that inspiration came from.

So when we were in Louisiana, we had a business. It was a facilities management company. We kind of handled different projects for different companies. We're kind of like the middleman. We would handle things like plumbing and janitorial services, electrician services, and that sort of thing. And when the economy took a downturn, our business took the downturn with it. And, uh, cause it was, we were, it was kind of a luxury business, you know, companies that could afford to have us do the dirty work for them. Um, so when our business started turning south, we'd visited Naples so many times, we decided to come here and start over and, Within about 6 months, my husband started working on starting this business. He went to work for a local company that did similar work and he learned the trade, the grout restoration trade. And he and another gentleman that worked together there branched out and started, started on their own. They started the business. Within a couple of years, the partner kind of fell off and I came in and started helping with the administrative work, but, and the estimating, doing the sales part. But so, Um, so that's kind of how we got started. And then I started learning about, you know, using the internet and reaching out and getting into different venues to set up and expose ourselves to the community. We, um, we would go to farmers markets and craft fairs and the seafood festivals and all the festivals that would let me in. I would go set up a table and hand out cards and meet people, and it really took off. And it became full-time. I was able to quit my job and come in and do this full-time.

Well, you know, you just— not to get us too far off track because I want to keep on the path of Make Cents Cleaning, but you just hit the number one thing. People, we all, whether we ever pursue it or not, right, we all dream about what kind of business we do and how we do it. But it takes that commitment and that not being afraid to get on the grassroots effort and get out there and meet people and start to the word. You, you embody the, you know, the work that goes into getting a new business off the ground. So good, good for you. And your, your, your husband was lucky to have that asset added to, to the family part of the employment business. So I want it for a moment, if you'll selfishly allow me, Laura, given that I'm in real estate, I always am with buyers who come into a home and they see things, and never ever ever ever does someone love everything about the house, right? So that it just happened that way. I want one that does. I have yet to find one. So people will come into a house and they'll start talking about, well, I like this house if we could do this and if we could do this. And what I'm getting at is one of the number one things that comes up in Florida, because we are a community of tile, right? Tile is one of the more practical flooring solutions that we can have here. And so many people come in and they look at the tile, and they may look at it in its current state, and very few people, I find, Laura, realize that the look of that tile, particularly the grout because it's a porous surface that gets— surface that gets dirty, can have a whole new life. And that's where Make Sense Cleaning comes in. So I just want I want to say, you didn't ask me to say that, and it's literally the truth. So many people look at floors and think they need to go change the whole flooring. It's crazy. And so I'd like you to talk a little bit about Make Cents Cleaning does what. What are the services you provide and talk a little bit about the process because it's quite involved.

Yeah, it is. So the process is pretty simple. It's not a major overhaul on your house. You can definitely hang out there while they're doing it. What they do is they come in with a rotary machine, and it's about, you know, about 10 inches, 10 or 12 inches around, and it's got a brush on it with bristles about this long, and he sprays down a cleaner, and he goes throughout the entire tiled area, and he scrubs it down really, really good, gets it good and clean. And then after it dries, they, uh, they patch— they'll patch any of like the broken grout. So a lot of times, especially in Florida when foundations are shifting a lot, grout will just pop right out of the out of the floor, you know, and you'll just have like a big hole. And he brings like a pre-mixed grout, patches it up all throughout the house. He can patch up broken tiles, he can patch up broken grout. And then once all that is good, then they— he gets the boys down, you know, those young knees, gets those boys down on the floor, and they actually apply a coat of epoxy sealer. It's an epoxy resin with an acrylic base that has a color added to it, and it can match— we can match any grout color. He can custom make it if necessary, it can be custom made by our supplier on the other coast if need be. So they get down there and they put down that epoxy sealer. The epoxy sealer, like I said, is a two-part sealer with an acrylic base and it has concrete hardeners in it. So the concrete hardeners come together, they bind together and they actually create like a shell over the grout line. They adhere to the grout line through the acrylic and the epoxy and the concrete hardeners come together and make like a shell. The shell is the same non-porous attribute as the tile. So when you wipe down your tile, you can wipe down your grout lines the exact same way. Now, like in my kitchen, like I said, I have a cooking blog, so I'm in there slinging grease and all kinds of stuff while I'm cooking all this Louisiana food, and my floor gets nasty. I can literally just wring out a microfiber towel and some Dawn dishwashing liquid and throw it on the floor, and I can wipe my grout lines down just with my toe. I just use my toe and just go along and get it all cleaned up. So it's just, uh, it's basically just like having a shield over your grout, like a coat of Teflon.

And I have two more, because when we hear about epoxy, we think this shiny thing. It's not turning your floors into shiny oases, right? It's still giving a similar aesthetic look as what your tile and grout did, correct?

Right, it looks just like the grout did originally. So, and sometimes it even looks better. So sometimes people will, like back in the late '90s, early 2000s, there was like a trend of like this checkerboard look. So they would use like a white tile and a dark grout. And even in some places, believe it or not, I've seen green grout and all different kinds of colors and completely blows my mind why anybody would ever wanna do that. But they did and now somebody else owns it and they don't like it and so we can come in we can actually put this, we can change the color of the tile, of the grout. So if, if there was a color grout laid and it's not in that bad a shape but you still just don't like the color, we can change the color. So it's, you know, it's like having— it's literally like another layer of grout over the grout lines.

Well, that's fantastic. And I want to make sure that I don't miss this point. So not only does Make Sense Cleaning come in and clean everything and make it look pristine again, which I'm telling you, I can't even begin to express how different it looks at the end of this. They also add protection onto it so that it's easier to maintain that cleanliness. Um, and I— and that, by the way, is new to me. I knew about the restore— the restoration, the making it look good, but the fact that there's an extra, um, service provided to then help you keep it clean, I think is just phenomenal. So, you know, we say don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. I feel the same way. Don't be so quick to throw your tile out. And let me ask this, Laura, and this may be unfair, but have you ever done a sample? So if, say, for argument's sake, I've got a homeowner and they don't like the way it looks today, but hey, maybe they'd like it the way it could look. Is there a way to do a sample of it to see before somebody made the final decision to say, nope, you know what, I still don't like it, I'm getting all new flooring.

Mm-hmm. So that's part of the estimation process. Before we schedule a job, I always go out and do an estimate, and what the estimate— it's a free estimate. And the way it works is I just schedule a time to come out and see you. I, I— the first thing I do is I show you some colors. So I put— I look at your tile and kind of determine what— I can usually tell what color you're gonna need, and I'll put down a couple of colors on the grout lines, on your grout lines, and then as I'm measuring that sealer dries and then the real color can be seen. Because, you know, of course, just like paint, uh, when the paint dries, it's totally different color. And that's just the same way the sealer is. So I put it down, go take all the measurements, and then we come back and take a look at it, and they decide which color they like best. And then that way they can see, uh, kind of have an idea of what the, the finished product would look like, and at the same time maybe make decisions on their wall paint based on that or make decisions on the grout color on, you know, whatever. 'Cause a lot of times we can match, you know, like the wall paint. So if they're gonna put paint, like have a grayscape, we can have more of the gray tones in the grout sealer. So it's just to kind of bring everything together. Or a lot of times, as you know, in a lot of the newer houses, especially like the spec homes that are built, they'll have several different types of tile throughout the house. And bringing one grout color together throughout the entire house can help to really blend those floors.

Now that's an excellent idea, Laura. You're right, I, I sometimes call that the kaleidoscope of floors, and if you can find some consistent way to tie it in, and grout's an excellent— a good suggestion for how to do that. So, well, good. So if someone's interested, I know it varies by the size of the house, but how long do these projects usually take? Is it a couple hours, a couple days, a couple weeks? If somebody was looking to have their tile done throughout their house, use a 2,400-square-foot house as an example where it's all tile, what would something like that take from a time perspective?

So for the most part, most jobs are done in a day. Uh, we've, you know, the bigger houses that have a lot more tiles, sometimes we'll split those up into 2 days, but for the most part, 99% of the time it's just 1 day. We do occasionally have to break it up into 2 days, but we usually, like I said, we bring in 3 guys It's my husband and my boys. And in addition to that, Renee, what I forgot to mention is they move all the furniture too.

I was just gonna ask, that was my next question.

They move all the furniture. So yeah, it's, you know, and I mean, it doesn't take a tremendous amount of time. So, and that also impacts the price. So it's usually about 10% of what it would cost to put a new floor in to have your tile restored by us.

Yeah, that's a big, 90% is a good savings.

Yeah, that's a good savings.

So don't throw your baby out with the bathwater. If you look at, look and see what those restored, renovated tile floors could look like, and you may just fall in love. And what you'll really fall in love with is the opportunity to have avoided 90% more cost unnecessarily. Especially, Lori, you talked about being able to repair tile, cracked tile. And that's another thing I think a lot of people think they have to replace tile. And, and, and then of course it's tile manufacturers, like clothing manufacturers, love to change the tile. So sometimes being able to— sorry, the, the dog's obviously greeting the package person. Sometimes when, um, the tile cracks, people think they have to get all new floors because they don't manufacture that particular style. Tell us a little bit about how do they go about repairing cracked tile.

So you're absolutely right, Renee. More times than not, if you don't have a few extra tiles stored in your garage for your floor, chances of you getting it is nil because they don't, they don't make them again, and it's, that's such a pain. So what happens is most cracks can be repaired. Hairline cracks are bigger, the bigger the crack, the easier the repair job, obviously. But what they do is they take a little bit of grout, just a little bit of the pre-mixed grout they use to patch the grout with, and they put it over the top of the crack, let that dry, and then he takes a little bit of the Color Seal, not necessarily the color that he's using in the grout, but a color that matches the tile as close as he can get to it, and then he smooths that over that grout and blends it. So it kind of camouflages the crack. Is it completely gone? No, it's not, but it's very camouflaged, and to anybody walking in your home, 99% of the time they're not gonna even notice it. Is that it was a crack to begin with. Yeah, but let me just say this in case anybody's watching: don't buy the myth that nail polish works. It does not work. It looks terrible and it's really hard to get off.

I imagine as you guys have gone in to restore some floors, you've seen some nail polish DIY projects.

A lot.

That sounds like a voice of experience.

Yeah, I keep my— my husband keeps a bottle of acetone in his bag because There's times when he has to go in and take nail polish off the floor.

Well, it's funny, I was just, as you were talking about the crack sealer, I have a customer who, um, did a do-it-yourself, um, and so I know it, I know what it can look like, and I know that when you guys do it, it's a different aesthetic look of that. So, um, do-it-yourself is good in a lot of ways, and then there are ways when it's sometimes pennywise pound foolish, it's better. To pay someone to come in and do it. So I've seen many examples of those DIY projects for sure. One thing I want to talk about is, you know, with the recent homestay, um, situation, and granted we're progressing beyond as stringent as it was, but have you guys been affected by COVID? Has it changed, you know, your business? Talk to us a little bit about how you're you're operating under some of the current constraints.

So yeah, we were definitely impacted. A couple of our biggest events that we depend on for, you know, to get us through the summer were canceled, and that was a, that was a pretty big hit. But, you know, we have so many wonderful clients who love to refer us and share our name that we were, we were able to stay pretty steady through the lockdown. I think all in all, we only missed like 2 weeks of work. So it was, we were pretty thankful for that. As far as our work, we're, we're up and running. We have no limitations as far as where we can go or who we can help. We are willing to take whatever precautions that anyone wants. If they want the boys to wear masks and gloves, they're more than happy to accommodate. And the same with me when I come to do the estimate. If you want me to wear a mask, I'll be more than happy to accommodate. I keep one with me. So does my husband and my boys. Um, but overall we haven't been that impacted. Um, you know, I mean, like I said, we did have some slow times, but we're starting to pick up again. We're getting lots of phone calls. Um, I've got us booked out a little ways now. So, you know, just thankful for the wonderful people of Naples that, that are so, so— Naples is, is a, is great about supporting small business. It's— I've never seen anything like this place and the way they support small business.

Well, and let's be clear, I think the people are absolutely fabulous, but if you guys weren't doing a kick-butt job and doing a good job, that wouldn't be very good. You could have the friendliest people around, so I say kudos to you.

Thanks.

You've delivered on your service in such a way that it makes people want to continue to refer you in. Um, referrals are personal.

Yeah, that's, that's 90% of our businesses is referrals. So we, our customer service level is really high If, you know, anytime anyone calls us and they need a touch-up or they need anything, we are right there. We don't avoid go-backs. We will go back to, you know, anything people need. Our customers, we really— I'm— my background is Nordstrom. So I was a divisional manager with Nordstrom for years. And if you know anything about Nordstrom, they're famous for their customer service. And so I was well trained in customer service. So I brought that into our business.

Business.

And it's very— that's— we always see people very satisfied.

Nope, it's absolutely— I tell people all the time, it's not just the end result of the service, but it was what the experience was along with it that come together and make a great business experience. Laura, what geographically— is there any place you guys won't go, or is it anything within a couple hours of drive? Tell us about your geographic boundaries.

So as far as you We have gone as far as Punta Gorda and as far south as, I guess farthest south we've gone is Marco Island. But we are willing to go pretty much anywhere in this, you know, south region, South Florida. The way we handle that is I usually do like, and I've done a couple of them, we haven't actually gone over to the other coast yet, but I've done a couple of virtual estimates. And what I do is I just, we just like you and I are doing now. I just, uh, we go on FaceTime and they give me a rough estimate of measurements and I give them a price.

So, and then quotes are by square footage.

Yep, quotes are by square footage. And there's also a few other things that go into it, like this, the size of the tile. The smaller the tile, the more the grout, more grout obviously. So, um, so that impacts the price if you have really big tiles. And then if it's brand new and, um, it doesn't have any furniture, that'll lower the price. The more square footage, the lower per square foot price. So yeah, it's typically square footage.

And only residential? Do you also do commercial?

We do commercial. We do a lot of work with Tarpon Bay and Pelican Bay, and there's been several— oh, we do like Residence Beach on Marco Island. We, we do their bathrooms every year. Um, so yeah, we do commercial, we do residential. All of it.

Okay, and what you were talking about coming back and doing the one very obviously a high-traffic area if you're in a public restroom, but for the common residential home, how often do you find these things need to be redone to keep it looking good?

That's a good question. So really we don't ever have to redo the sealer. The sealer has a lifetime guarantee. It's once it dries and adheres, it's there. It's not going anywhere. Now depending on how you clean, that may impact the— how, you know, it might create a little buildup. We give you suggestions on how to clean. Not everyone follows them. You know, people have their ways of cleaning, and if they need us to, every couple years we'll come back and do a scrub down for them. It's a minimal charge. We just come in and he sprays it all down, scrubs it down really good, and then he'll patch any places that need a touch-up or whatever. But for the most part, it stays nice. I think the main things that we have found is that the steamers are the biggest culprit in black grout, as far as like the actual, with the raw grout before it's sealed and then after it's sealed. So when you use a steamer and you go throughout the house and you don't change the pad, a lot of times people just use it like a vacuum cleaner, they just walk, they just go through the whole house and, they don't change the pad, and then once the pad's full of dirt or water, it's then going to start releasing dirt back onto the floor, and then it's getting baked into the grout lines with the heat. So, um, those are bad.

I'm just not going to clean my floors and then I don't have to worry about it, right?

I always tell people vacuum twice as much as you mop.

Yeah, that's good to know. That's never an issue with me. I'm gonna have to make sure though that when my floor claims that they're not releasing dirt back in. So it sounds like once you've done the restoration, that is very timeless. It just might be normal cleanup stuff that you could come and do to kind of buffer out tile and different things over time.

Yeah, especially if you have pets, if you have, you know, pets or small children, things that— or you cook a lot like I do, you know, you might want to schedule a routine maintenance program, and that's usually I'd say once a year or even, you know, every 2 years. It's not something you have to do real frequently.

Okay, and we talked about floors, but grout is obviously used other places. Do you do anything with like wall tile, wall grout, or is it purely floors?

So I guess you're probably referring to like showers. We do showers. Or like the backsplashes and tile. Yeah, it definitely is a case-by-case basis. I have to come take a look at it and see.

Sometimes we can, sometimes we can't. It just depends.

It depends on the house, how tight the tiles are. So like when, like, you know how in the older white showers that you see in all the little condos around here, they have those little 4x4 white tiles and the grout lines are like the head of a needle. Obviously we can't get sealer in there. And even if we did get sealer in there, it's gonna, it's not gonna last because it's got constant water and that's just not, but what we can do with the showers that we can't seal is we can come in and we can take out all that old caulk he'll put his scrubber in there with some Comet and he'll scrub the whole floor really good. And then he'll replace all the caulk around the perimeter and then up the seams of the shower. And that will dress it up some, make it look a little better. You know, but I would say that for those white showers, I should probably just throw this little tip in, for those white showers, your best defense is a good offense, right? Keep some Clorox Cleanup close by and hose that sucker down every time you think about it, and you'll eventually have a white shower again. And then just clean it every week with bleach and Comet. I know that those are bad chemicals now, but they really work in those white showers.

Don't caulk over bad caulk. That— no moisture problems. Take the time to get the old caulk out before you put the new caulk in. That's where I've actually seen more mold issues because people just keep caulking over and there's all kinds of gaps behind that. So good advice. Well, Laura, let me pause for a moment. I want to, I want to talk about a couple of the other businesses that I have coming up in the future days. I've got Frank from Contracts Media. I've got Joanne and John from Potty Express. I've got David coming up from Smoke Detector Medic and Darlene from Gulf Shore Chiropractic. So those are just a few of the businesses. Again, this is just a free service. To be able to showcase all the great things being done and the great work being done by our entrepreneurs in Southwest Florida. So if you're interested in having your business showcased, just reach out to me. My email address is renee@yournaplesexpert.com, and I'm happy to get you slotted. I have said for weeks now, I'll do these for as long as there's demand, and when the demand goes away, I will reallocate my time back into other parts of my business. So I'm here, reach out. I would be delighted. It's been as enjoyable for me to get to meet people like Laura and hear about their businesses and, and really be able to give them an extra avenue. They're obviously successful in their own rights, but to be able to give some extra visibility for these businesses, I think, is phenomenal. So Laura, let's do this for the last moment or two. I'd like to turn it over to you and just ask what else you'd like to share with our viewers that are on live or are watching this as a playback later.

Okay, great. First of all, I'd like to say thank you so much, Renee, for having me on. This is such a great service you're doing for the small business community here in Southwest Florida. We've all lost our venues, a lot of us that set up different places or reach people, and this is a great way for us to connect again with the community. I guess in closing, I would just like to say Don't assume that the service is really expensive. It's not. It's very affordable. We try to keep our prices very median and, you know, in a median level. We're not the most expensive and we're definitely not the cheapest, but we, we are, we give a fair price and we give a good service. We've been in business, like I said, for 10 years, and my husband has such a meticulous work ethic. He, it has, it's It's his, he really wants everything to be perfect, and my boys are the same way. So give us a call. I'd be more than happy to come out and give you a free estimate. And Renee, thank you again so much for doing this. This is really an awesome service that you're providing.

Well, my pleasure. And let me just say this, I'm gonna get a little bit closer for my real estate friends. I have a lot of real estate followers online, and I just wanna tell you, if you haven't already been aware of this service, It is a great way to show value in what you do when you're helping people pick out houses, or if they've bought a house and you're introducing them to vendors. Get them connected with Laura and Make Sense Cleaning because you will be a hero. I'm telling you, anyone that's ever done this kind of service, it, it's even better than they think it is. So this is a great way for you as a real estate agent, those of you that are listening and online, to connect with Laura and, and become a referral partner, um, because their good work makes you look good. So with that, Laura, it has been—

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Um, for your real estate friends, we are also an affiliate member of NABOR. Um, I'm— I sit on the community involvement committee, so you can find me at NABOR events too.

I can't believe we haven't met that way. I'm at NABOR all the time. I'm, I'm, um, the vice chair for the Leadership Academy.

So, you know my friend Nancy Bjork, I think. I do.

Well, fantastic. Well, Laura and everybody that's joining us live and on replay, I hope you have a fantastic rest of the day. Um, we are blessed to live in paradise. We are blessed to be able to take advantages of businesses, uh, business leaders and entrepreneurs like yourself. So thank you for serving the community. I wish you much success. Thank you. Round out 2020 and beyond.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you, everyone. Have a wonderful day.