Entrepreneur finds right mix with cleaning business and PWDs

Gabriel Ramon Arcenas owns Qulate, a cleaning business which are manned by hearing impaired persons.

NO physical disability should hinder a person from having a decent job.

Gabriel Ramon Arcenas, 25, believes in this advocacy. And this belief is at the forefront of his new business venture: Qulate Cleaning Services.

His company hires persons from the deaf community to serve as their pool of workers who go to homes of their clients to clean.

“We hire members of the hearing impaired community in order to also give them a chance and in order to bring more light unto the community itself as I’ve always seen that having a disability does not mean you cannot be successful,” Arcenas told Cebu Daily News.

He was able to connect with the School of Knowledge, Industrial Labor, Leadership, and Service (SKILLS), the accredited training and assessment center of Primary Structures Education Foundation.

The foundation’s thrust is poverty alleviation by providing free skills training, competency assessment and employment to the marginalized members of the community like out-of-school adults, women, and persons with disabilities (PWDs).

Through SKILLS, Arcenas was able to tap into qualified PWDs who were struggling to find jobs.

“The one in charge told me that they were the hearing impaired scholars, and they had not been hired yet. I felt that I could give them a chance. The business does not require a lot of conversations and they already were certified. I could at least give them a shot,” he said.

Fortunately, these workers were able to undergo a housekeeping program. He just had to train them a little bit more to learn about cleaning homes deeper.

Qulate was formally formed in November 2017. Back then, Arcenas admitted that they had some unsatisfied clients which prompted them to retrain their staff.

It was only around April this year when the business really picked up.

They currently have six employees — four regular and two part time.

Arcenas recalled that he set aside around P40,000 as starting capital for the business to buy some cleaning materials.

Growing demand
One of the reasons that Arcenas decided to pursue a business in cleaning homes and residential units is the huge number of condominiums sprouting in Cebu.

Right now, most of their clients are people who live in condo units and are very busy that they cannot find time to clean their units.

Their rates for quick clean services range from P350 to P750 depending on the size of the unit.

For deep clean services, the price ranges from P900 to P1,800.

Interested clients can contact Qulate through their Facebook Page or through their contact number. Then, they can book a cleaning schedule.

For bigger houses, it could take up to three hours to clean. But for smaller houses like condo studio units, it could be finished in less than an hour.

To recall, Arcenas said the idea of putting up Qulate started during a dinner with a friend.

“She couldn’t stay very long because she had to clean her condo early the next day and that she had someone renting it out as Airbnb. I told her I’d help her, just pay me. And she said ‘sure.’ I showed up at her house the next day and she laughed because she thought I was kidding,” he said.

“In the end, I realized, with condos coming up everywhere, and household help being hard to find nowadays, this business might be a good idea,” he added.

Together with the booming real estate industry in Cebu, Arcenas said he hopes Qulate will also continue to grow.

Despite the difficulty in communicating, Arcenas saw that his staff were very friendly and could easily understand written instructions.

And since Arcenas himself has learned sign language, he can also communicate what the clients want to their workers.

Aside from that, he also described the members of his staff as also eager, willing to learn, and hard working.