Maid Brigade
“I would have thought you were a little crazy if you told me a year before this that I would be running a cleaning company.” For Steven Connors, owner of Maid Brigade in Salt Lake City, this chapter was never part of the original plan. He grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, one of four children in a swim-tennis community where days were spent outside riding bikes, playing sports, and roaming the neighborhood. At the University of Georgia, he studied finance, ran track and cross country, and graduated in 2007 with a clear, conventional path ahead of him.
That path led to AT&T, where Steven spent the next fifteen years in a wide range of leadership roles. Shortly after college, he and his wife moved to Anchorage, Alaska for a two-year assignment. Life there was rugged and remote, but unforgettable. With little money and a lot of curiosity, they drove nearly every road they could: Denali, the ice road north to Prudhoe Bay, and stretches most people only see on television. It was never meant to be permanent, but it shaped how Steven thought about place, balance, and what mattered.
When work brought them back to Atlanta, Steven continued rising within AT&T, eventually earning permission to work fully remote, well before it was common. That freedom opened the door to a major decision. In 2015, drawn by the mountains, access to national parks, and a lifestyle that echoed Alaska without the isolation, the family chose Salt Lake City. Over the next several years, they put down roots and welcomed three sons.
The turning point came in 2023. With a company-wide return-to-office mandate, Steven was given a choice of relocating to Dallas or starting something new. He chose the latter. He explored buying existing businesses, examined franchises across industries, and even looked at other cleaning concepts. Maid Brigade stood out, not because it was glamorous, but because the values aligned.
Founded in 1979, Maid Brigade was an early pioneer of green cleaning, long before it became a buzzword. What truly set it apart, though, was flexibility. Unlike many franchises that dictate every decision, Maid Brigade allows owners to shape their own culture and operations. “I did not want to trade one rigid corporate structure for another,” Steven explained. “This gave us room to build something that worked for our customers and our team.”
At the heart of the business is a cleaning method that feels almost deceptively simple. Using tap water, a small amount of salt, and vinegar, Maid Brigade creates electrolyzed water through a specialized machine. The process produces hypochlorous acid, the same substance white blood cells use to fight bacteria and viruses. It is more effective than bleach at killing germs, yet safe for children, pets, and employees. There are no chemical residues left behind, no harsh fumes, and no damage to skin from repeated use. The reason it is not widely sold is practical; it has a short shelf life and must be made fresh. For Steven, that limitation is part of its integrity.
The work itself is methodical and human. Teams of two or three, made up entirely of W-2 employees, not contractors, arrive in company vehicles, start at the top of each home, and work their way down. One person handles “wet work” like kitchens and bathrooms; another focuses on dusting and vacuuming. Floors come last, always as they leave. A typical two-bedroom, two-bath home takes about an hour for a regular visit. Add-ons like ovens, refrigerators, or interior glass are scheduled separately, only when clients request them.
Behind the scenes, Steven and his manager Angie keep the operation moving. Angie’s path to Maid Brigade mirrors the culture Steven hoped to build. She initially accepted a higher-paying cleaning job elsewhere, only to realize quickly why the pay was higher. “They did not care about the employees,” she said. She left after two weeks and joined the team at Maid Brigade managing schedules, supporting the team however she is needed, and still goes out into the field on occasion.
Steven’s background in customer experience at AT&T plays a quiet but powerful role. He spent years analyzing Net Promoter Scores and helping teams understand what makes customers feel heard and valued. That mindset carries over at Maid Brigade. Mistakes happen, and expectations sometimes miss the mark, but the goal is always the same - own what goes wrong, fix what can be fixed, and treat people fairly. “We are going into someone’s personal space,” Steven said. “That requires trust.”
That trust extends inward as well. The team - about a dozen women - functions with a sense of cohesion that surprises even Angie. Group texts continue after work, celebrations are shared, and conflicts are rare. Steven invests in team-building activities that feel unusual in the cleaning industry: games, shared meals, moments of levity. For many of the women, especially those who have worked elsewhere, it feels entirely different.
Maid Brigade’s reach covers Salt Lake County and stretches north to Bountiful. Schedules are carefully planned to minimize driving time and keep teams working efficiently within neighborhoods. Community involvement is woven in too - from donating cleanings to cancer patients through a national nonprofit, to supporting school auctions, volunteering at local elementary schools, and showing up at neighborhood events with Steven’s three boys proudly wearing Maid Brigade shirts.
For Steven, the measure of success is not just growth, but relief. The service exists to give people their time back - to remove one recurring burden so families can spend hours where they matter most. “I really do love it most days,” Steven said. “There are hard days, like any business, but we are building something that feels good. We are taking something off our customers’ plates, and we are doing it with a team that cares.” And for someone who never expected to be here, that unexpected transition has turned into something deeply grounding. “I thought I was leaving one career behind,” Steven said. “What I did not realize was that I was moving into something that finally felt like my own.”
