Husband and Wife Use the Center for Women & Enterprise To Help Grow Their Cleaning Business

Any ethnic minority who serves as majority owner of a successful small business may be nominated for the Minority-Owned Small Business of the Year Award.

Roberto Castellano and Miguelina Dominguez, a married couple with three children, came to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1994 with dreams and ambitions for their future.

Roberto has a degree in marketing and human resources and Miguelina has a degree in business administration and human resources. When they first arrived stateside, the couple worked for a variety of companies. One of Castellano’s jobs was with a cleaning company. He learned the procedures and job functions, and realized that he had the experience and ability to operate his own cleaning company. Thus, the couple realized their dream of business ownership when RCM Cleaning opened its doors in 2008. Their target market is high-level organizations with custodial needs. The company provides services 24/7 as needed with a staff of 30 bilingual cleaners.

Like most small businesses, Roberto and Miguelina started with one customer. Their mission remains the same as when they began the business: to be the most profitable and reliable cleaning company in the state while always maintaining high-quality, fair prices and tailoring their services to meet the needs of each individual client.

Today, RCM Cleaning has grown from that one customer to more than 50 national and local accounts. The firm continues to grow because of the effort, responsibility, dedication and loyalty provided to their clients by Roberto, Miguelina and their staff.

Business success just doesn’t happen; it takes hard work and persistence. Roberto and Miguelina realized this early on and turned to the Center for Women & Enterprise, the SBA’s women’s business center in Rhode Island. CWE provided considerable technical assistance to help the couple establish their business.

Roberto and Miguelina attended business workshops at CWE and learned about business and marketing plans, and CWE assisted in packaging a loan application to obtain a line of credit for the company.

The future looks bright for RCM Cleaning, as Roberto and Miguelina work hard toward fulfilling the company mission of providing quality service to its clients.

For their demonstrated success and potential for growth as a minority-owned small business, the U.S. Small Business Administration is pleased to honor Roberto Castellano and Miguelina Dominguez, owners of RCM Cleaning in Providence, as the 2014 Rhode Island and New England Minority-Owned Small Business of the Year.

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