Meet Karina Cruz | Cleaning Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Karina Cruz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Karina, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My mother.

I started Valley Sparkle 8 years ago because my mother had cleaned houses on her own ever since I was little. My parents are undocumented and decided to move back to Mexico 8 years ago.. I saw the potential that a cleaning business had to offer; its literally everywhere and always in demand from residential to commercial so When they decided to move I decided to take what once was a dream of my mother and try to make something out of it. It’s definitely been hard but just knowing my family depended on me in some way made me work harder to make this work and thanks to god 8 years later we are still standing.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Something I am proud of is getting us this far.. I am a DACA recipient I had just obtained authorization to work in the U.S.

Being able to call my self an employer and have the privilege to employ people and have fleet cars for my business makes me so happy because at the age of 18 I was selling CD at the swap meet just to make some money since I couldn’t work legally.. (Shout-out to limewire lol)
it’s been a journey that that 18 year old undocumented me could have never imagined.
Im the owner of a successful cleaning business so if I a DACA recipient that still to this day continues to have barriers, has no family in the U.S can make it happen anyone else trying to start a business can.

What I want the world to know about my business is our tag line

“Live Happy, Live Clean”

I want my company to stand for Simplicity, Youthful and Kindness
Hopefully people can see and feel that once we enter our customers home.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
First of all id take them to Staceys on Melrose because I Dj Friday nights and Staceys is always a good time. Id also take them up to Sedona to enjoy some chill vibes, Red rocks and finish our night with some pizza from Sedona Pizza Company best pizza ever!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My family, seeing how much the struggled being undocumented and still giving us everything we needed made me want to give them everything in return. I thank my mom for always been a leader and a hard working person, while growing up she always had some business going if it was selling tamales or cleaning houses she never stopped working hard for her family. My Father for always being my Zen when things got hard and I wanted to throw in the towel he always reminded me that there was always a solution and things always work out at the end
& and My brother for always motivating me and always uplifting me with words of encouragement when things would get difficult. My family is definitely the reason for the success in Valley Sparkle

Website: www.ValleySparkleCleaning.com

Instagram: Valley_Sparkle