Imagine going to work every day knowing what you do makes a difference for your family, your community and the environment. Imagine building an independent, secure future for you and your family, while creating healthier homes for your customers and protecting the environment. This is what Sammy Mochama, the founder of One-Up Supplies, is doing. Mochama says they have a unique business that makes the world better and meets a growing demand for green services.
Tell us more about One-Up Supplies?
One-Up Supplies is a surface management service company. We have made it our mission to make every home a healthier place by offering homeowners a single source for all their eco-friendly, green cleaning needs.
Our Eco-friendly cleaning systems respond to the demand of homeowners who want cleaner and healthier homes.
One up supplies uses the latest, state-of-the-art equipment and environmentally safe products, including unique technologies that clean without leaving harsh irritants or residues that can impact health conditions or enter the ecosystem.
How did you get started as an entrepreneur?
The true entrepreneur never decides to become one; you either are, or you are not.
I often get asked why I became an entrepreneur. Why did I start my own company? I could answer, that the change agent in me did not like working for large corporations and instead, wanted to build my own business and make things happen. However, neither of these reflects the reality. My answer, much to the surprise of most, is that I became an entrepreneur out of necessity.
Throughout my life, I found entrepreneurship to be the one constant that I could keep coming back to.
I first started working while still in high school as a way to make pocket money. My parents had a wet and dry vacuum cleaner which I would use to clean carpets and seats for my relatives and my mother’s friends and they would pay me for the service. I was also happy for leaving the place better than I found it.
During my campus life, I worked in a family business running a restaurant for nearly three years in the industry doing market research, financial analysis and marketing and sales. I brought these varied skills to entrepreneurs and started working in events for almost 10 years. After that, I kept doing the occasional business and projects.
Being the industrious type, I immediately began to seek out projects to work on to keep myself busy. I tried different types of business (blogging, Printing services, and advertising), but finances and funding was a problem.
I returned to work for an events company for a month, but I didn’t like it. After having worked for myself, I had a difficult time working for anyone else. Perhaps, it was the distaste of authority or as I like to call out the “inefficiency” of organizations, but I was not a happy camper during these times.
What inspired you to start the company?
When I was employed, I realized the only thing I was doing was actually building others’ dreams. I had a steady fixed income each month; that’s great when you start a career, but I’m a dreamer and visionary, and I always knew I was destined for something great. I halted for a second to understand how the world works, and it was time to reverse the equation. In the real world, you either become an entrepreneur, or you work for one. On that day I decided to wear multiple hats until I let the world build my own dream.
What I need to do is to be disciplined, keep daydreaming, thinking outside the box and reading between the lines. I’m not smarter than the rest of the world, but I put much effort every day to become a better version of who I was yesterday. But for every success, there is a price, you need to sacrifice something. I did.
What exactly does One-Up Supplies do?
Steam Cleaning – clean, disinfect, sanitize, de-grease, deodorize any surface, and chemical freeze.
Steam cleaning is your eco-friendly answer to all kinds of residential and commercial cleaning tasks. Turning simple tap water into a superior cleaning agent, steam cleaning sanitizes and disinfects a variety of surfaces as well as fabrics at the same time.
Using a combination of heat and high pressure, steam penetrates deep into surface pores, eliminating dirt, grease, residue, mold bacteria, viruses and germs without relying on harsh chemicals. It even takes care of the chemical films in your home left behind by other inferior cleaning products.
The cleaning power of steam yields endless possibilities. Completely natural, steam lifts heavy stains from fabric, dislodges incrusted dirt, melts away grease or grime, kills molds, mildew and even exterminates bedbugs. A steam cleaner is everything you’ll ever need to efficiently and effectively clean anything you can think of, turning time consuming chores into trivial cleaning tasks.
Surface Preparation – Harnessing unique skills, we prep and cure every possible surface for optimum professional works.
Nano Coating – Seamless application on every possible surface, for durability, germ, and water proofing.
Nano coating or nano sealing is coating of an application where nano structures build a consistent network of molecules on a surface that make it super-hydrophobic or super-hydrophilic. This means that the surfaces are sealed and water-repellent.
Your target market?
Health Care – Saturated dry steam machines satisfy the new medical program, of safeguarding people and the environment and preventing the spread of harmful diseases.
Hospitality – Hotel accommodations, residences, health resorts and all types of small and large tourism facilities have particular needs concerning sanitizing and hygiene.
Spa & Gyms – Healthcare centers and spas are resorts with particular requirements, with a daily flow of customers and damp environments at high temperatures that favor the development and proliferation of bacteria and moulds.
Others include education (child day care, kindergarten and nursery) and cars and transportation.
Your competitive edge?
By providing environmentally friendly services and cleaning with drastic reduction of chemicals free environment and adopting steam vapour based cleaning processes that reduces water waste, and eliminate hazards.
Our Cleaning System balances Science and Physics – Our equipment is considered to be some of the best in the industry because it balances the scientific principles of airflow, vacuum lift, water temperature and water pressure. When this technology is combined with quality cleaning solutions we are able to clean your fabrics deeper and more thoroughly. Without boring you with the details, this combined technology enables us to give you the very best job money can buy…and it dries faster too!
Any challenges faced?
Cash, Borrowing, and Resource Management…
Cash is King! We’ve all heard this maxim and it is truer today than ever before. Getting the cash to buy the machines was not easy but with a lot of convincing friends and family, some helped me with a soft loan to source for the machines, and agreed to be paying every month.
Integrity in finding the right staff – Finding the right staff and personality, retaining them, and ensuring they buy into the vision of the business.
In the Cleaning business, I get visit many homes that have fantastic stuff and, if you have an employee who is a thief, you will get a bad reputation or you will not get return clients.
Increased selection and competition – It’s never been easier to start a business. Gone are the days when it took weeks, months, and a myriad of forms to get your business started. Now if you can buy a domain name and register your business online, you’re in business. However, staying in business is a much more complicated matter.
Road ahead for One-Up Supplies?
To perform cleaning services with skill, honesty, and integrity in order to provide the client with the highest degree of professional service possible. Excellence in cleaning service is our primary goal, achieved through education, experience and a willingness to go the extra mile to achieve 100% client satisfaction.
Our main focus is Green cleaning for the “health & maintenance” of your homes and business. To remove gritty soil, allergens, bacteria and contaminants, thus improving the indoor air quality of your home or business as well as adding years of longevity to your carpets and upholstered furniture.
