How important is branding to a company? Does it really make a difference to clarify and establish a brand? Take a look at the golden arches that rise over every McDonald’s restaurant. The famous logo is also printed on every cup, bag, napkin, box – and possibly even tattooed on their employees. If you’re not fond of McDonald’s, there’s always Chevrolet, Xerox, Gucci, Starbucks, Microsoft… the list is nearly endless. These distinct, recognizable, and memorable companies didn’t become so by accident. This is the result of clear and established branding.

Lorretta Henke, the clever owner of Cowichan Rug & Upholstery Cleaning, is cleaning more than residential and commercial spaces. By buying an existing company with established branding, Lorretta is cleaning up in business as well. This is not to say that buying an existing business is the sole ingredient in a recipe for success, but Lorretta maximized the potential of this viable option by conducting research and utilizing her industry experience.

With her partner in life as well as business, Lorretta and her husband Steve operated a carpet cleaning business for 10 years. Looking to upgrade equipment and expand the operation, she found TACC ready, willing, and able. In October 2005, Lorretta officially owned Cowichan Rug & Upholstery Cleaning lock, stock, and branding. “We kept the name from the previous owner, who owned it for about 13 years,” says Lorretta. “And he kept the name from the owner before him, who had it for about 10 years!”

“We still get calls from previous customers,” Lorretta says, referring to the customer base established by the previous owners. “Everyone looks at our name, Cowichan, because we’re located in the Cowichan Valley . It’s catching a lot of eyes! We’re in the phone book, but we’ve never had to advertise. We’re always working, so people see our truck with the Cowichan name on it.”

Along with Lorretta’s new company name, came new equipment for the job – and after 10 years of familiarity and comfort with an instrument, change can be a frightening thing. “I was kind of nervous, switching form a portable cleaner to a truck-mount,” Lorretta says of her equipment. “But the truck-mount is an easy application with better heat and extraction, and now we only have to spend about 40 minutes at a job instead of an hour!” Unfortunately, not everyone in the cleaning industry can claim the level of success that Lorretta is achieving.

With one competitor recently going out of business and another in financial crisis, only three of the nine cleaning companies in the valley are running strong. But thanks to the established Cowichan name and reputation, they are among the strong runners. “Before we bought the Cowichan name, we only had about one or two jobs per day,” says Lorretta. “Now we have four to six! We keep getting referred to new customers that heard Cowichan does a good job.”

Lorretta’s success with the clear and established Cowichan branding empowers her to utter some of the sweetest words an entrepreneur can say about their work situation – “This will sure keep me busy for a while!” And with her 18 year-old daughter Philicia working by her side for the summer, Lorretta is already looking to the future of her business. “I could retire and keep the business going in the future,” she says. “And have other people do the cleaning jobs. My other four kids are too young to work yet, but maybe Philicia will run it one day!”

With a new generation entering the family business, the possibilities of Cowichan Rug & Upholstery Cleaning are as limitless as they are dazzling. Optimistically they will follow mom’s example by maximizing the potential of the reputable Cowichan brand that took three owners nearly 24 years of business to establish.