Eric and Holly Saddler recently purchased
Molly Maid of West Chester. Before owning Molly Maid, Eric, a graduate of the Naval Acadamy, spent 11 years in the U.S. Navy. He then worked in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Holly has a degree in psychology, and before becoming a stay-at-home-mom to their four children—ages 17, 16, 13 and 10—she was a child psychologist.
The Saddlers moved to West Chester in 2006, and have been passionate about getting their family involved in the community. They’re active in their church and their kids’ activities. With Molly Maid, they hope to bring lots of clean homes to the area and help out the local economy through job creation.
Molly Maid was founded in 1979 in Canada, and began franchising in 1984. There are more than 450 Molly Maid franchises across the country, along with 180 locations in Canada, the U.K., Portugal and Japan. The West Chester location serves Mason, Middletown, Liberty Township and West Chester. As a business, Molly Maid has been rated “Best Value” among cleaning services in
Good Housekeeping and has been included in
Entrepreneur Magazine’s Franchise 500 for the last 10 years.
Soapbox sat down with the Saddlers to talk about their passion for the community and their new business.
Why did you want to own a Molly Maid franchise?
ES: After spending time in the corporate world, we wanted to work for ourselves. We also wanted to find a business where we could spend more time together. We were looking for something in the community, and we wanted to own a type of business that was something people wanted, something that could improve their lives and something that could give them more family time. We were also looking for a business with a small team environment.
What’s it like owning your own business?
ES: We closed on the sale May 31, and we love it so far.
What values have your brought to your business?
ES: Leadership and being respectful to people. It’s important to have a work environment where people want to work and feel supported. We also believe in hard work and good, fair work, as well as doing things directly for people. Molly Maid has been a positive shift out of the corporate business world for me; in this job, we’re focused on the customer and politics are out of the way.
HS: When we started looking for a franchise to purchase, we talked about owning a business that would give our kids an example to follow. We wanted them to see the benefits of having ownership in your own company and have them be more in touch with what it means to run a business. They’ve been helping out, and it’s been great for all of us.
What organizations are you involved in in the community?
HS: I’m involved in the ladies group and music ministry at our church, Saint Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church.
ES: I’m on our church’s pastoral council and am involved with the teen youth group. I’m also active in Cub Scouts as a leader and pack committee chair. As a business, we’re also involved with the Ms. Molly Foundation. We give a portion of every clean to the foundation to support domestic violence shelters in the area. We want to grow and develop that as a franchise and get our entire staff involved. We don’t know what that will look like yet, but we know we want to be more involved.
Why do you think it’s important to be involved in the community?
ES: It comes back to the values we have from our faith perspective—we’re here to serve others. We have responsibilities to our families, communities and those around us. We looked at different franchises for business opportunities, and Molly Maid was right in town. We knew some of the existing customers and wanted to serve needs in our area.
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