A Clean Start

Patricia Smith starts a new life with Beachy Keen Cleaning Company on Topsail Island.

For Patricia Smith, life over the past few years has been all about making a clean start. After getting out of a domestically violent marriage, she wanted to find an opportunity where she could utilize her skills and abilities in order to create a better life for herself. Now, as the owner of Beachy Keen Cleaning Company, Smith is focused on steering clear of her past and becoming a woman with the power to turn nothing into something special.

Having always loved the idea of owning her own business, Smith knew after her divorce that she could combine her entrepreneurial background and past cleaning experience to gain her independence back. While driving from Jacksonville to Topsail Island one day after work, she realized the beach was the perfect place to start her own business. Smith started Beachy Keen in May of 2022, helping clients on the island and surrounding areas keep their private homes, vacation rentals and commercial properties fresh and clean.

“It’s been very exciting becoming a small business owner and seeing that I can create something that’s growing,” Smith says. “I’m learning how to make a living now versus just living, how to keep going despite any challenges, and I’m loving the result. I love working on the island and seeing how I can utilize the services that I offer in many different capacities.”

Smith hopes to take what she’s learned from her challenges and newfound success and use it to empower other women to do the same. Instead of hiring employees, Smith chooses to subcontract her cleaners in order to encourage them to be their own bosses. Her company recently became a part of the Topsail Island Chamber of Commerce, where Smith looks forward to assisting other women with their businesses or with any other needs that might arise.

“I like to volunteer in the community by offering cleaning supplies or cleaning help to any nonprofits or women trying to make a fresh start,” Smith says. “Anyone who needs a hand can always reach out to me.”

Beachy Keen Cleaning is licensed, bonded and insured, and Smith says she enjoys doing much of the cleaning work herself. She believes it’s important to know first-hand what happens behind the scenes because she says an owner needs to understand their business in order to manage and grow it.

“What I love about cleaning is that I can pour myself into what I do,” Smith says. “I’m a cleaner with heart, and every home I go into I think of as if it’s my own. When you go into someone else’s home, you’re entering their privacy and their safe space, so to not have judgement and to give an honest day’s work, that’s what feels good at the end of the day.”

Need a good clean?
Beachy Keen Cleaning Company
(910) 650-9173 – call or text
Beachykeencleaningcompany.com