[COVER STORY]
Dawn & Geoff Crawley
Building on Hard Work and Smiles
by Eric Johnson
Building positive relationships in a suburban community is an ongoing process. Neighbors come and go, families change, trees grow taller. The building never ends.
Dawn and Geoff Crawley know the process well as experienced relationship builders in the Chantilly area. They have a proven track record and carry a special set of tools that helps get the job done. Their tools include a mop, bucket, and plenty of smiles.
Dawn and Geoff’s story as residents of Northern Virginia with four children is closely tied to their busy lifestyle as family entrepreneurs. They work hard. They’ve tasted the highs and lows of running a business. They’ve even successfully navigated the anxious uncertainties of a years-long pandemic.
Through it all, Dawn and Geoff say they are grateful for the incredible support they’ve received from the Chantilly community. They’re also grateful for personal opportunities to give time and energy to neighbors — especially those struggling with challenges — in as many ways as possible.
Dawn is the driving force and boss, while Geoff serves as chief strategist for the business she founded in 2017, STW Cleaning. Today, the company with about 38 employees provides residential, commercial, and post-construction cleaning services mainly in Fairfax and Loudoun counties. The business is going so well that Dawn was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2021 by the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce and a Rising Star of the Year by the National Association of Women Business Owners.
Dawn laid the foundation for the business in 2017 by simply asking her neighbors for work. “She started with a mop and a bucket and a vacuum, asking people if they’d like her to clean their house,” Geoff explained.
That was a year of rebuilding for the couple. Geoff’s business had been forced to close, prompting him to find a job at a bank. They sold their house in Loudoun and moved to a home near the Chantilly-Herndon border, not far from where they started their family in Fairfax.
“A lot of people encouraged me to start out” as an entrepreneur, and their older son Jackson agreed to help, said Dawn. “They were very supportive and very helpful.
“People in the community would call and ask, ‘Are you okay?’ And although I don’t know if they always needed it, they would ask me to clean their house,” she said.
“Women especially were such a big support, telling me ‘You can do this!’” she said. “They helped by word, by phone call, and in practical ways by offering me work.”
By the time the Covid-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the family business was well-established. Dawn’s business savvy kicked in, so she stocked up on cleaning supplies while her older daughter Annie helped find new staff members to meet skyrocketing demand for high-level disinfecting and office cleaning.
Annie “was able to get people from restaurants who were out of work” due to the pandemic, Dawn said. “Things accelerated.”
Dawn also supported the community by offering cleaning at no charge to front line workers in the area including doctors, nurses, and grocery store clerks. “This allowed me to not only to give back to the community but to provide work for my cleaners.”
Business boomed, and the company not only hired more staff but invested in a small fleet of vehicles. Amy also worked for the company, and Geoff joined in 2021.
Meanwhile, Dawn and Geoff found new ways to help others by offering to help at no charge with cleaning the homes of neighbors who were in need. That effort continues today. For example, crews are dispatched for free cleaning of the homes of women undergoing breast cancer treatment.
“We donate hours to anyone in the community who’s going through a difficult situation,” Dawn said. “We want to take the stress off so they can focus on what they’re going through.”
Dawn and Geoff open their hearts in other ways, too. For example, they donate time helping neighbors as volunteer Christian ministers. And they recently bought an RV that can be used to travel to future disaster areas in other parts of the country when there is a need for volunteers with cleaning skills.
Their hearts are also drawn to Bacon, a 14-year-old pug-Jack Russell Terrier mix who they adopted when she was 5 years old. Her name reflects the fact that she “looks like a pork chop,” Geoff said with a smile.
Dawn calls Bacon “a no-nonsense dog with other dogs. But shen is pretty much always by my side.”
Family vacations have taken the couple to a variety of national parks, from the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis to Acadia National Park in Maine. For their 30th wedding anniversary, they were planning a fall cruise on the Mediterranean Sea.
Dawn, who grew up in Alabama, and Geoff, a native of Philadelphia, are justifiably proud of their children, each of whom has helped build the family business. Today, Annie works as a graphic artist in Richmond and Amy is a marketing professional working for the family business. Older son Jackson works with special needs children for Fairfax County schools, and the youngest Maxwell attends community college. the Mediterranean Sea.
The couple recognizes that family and community have been key to their business success. “It really takes a village,” Dawn said.
Dawn said the company’s mission shines a spotlight on community support “and really getting to know your neighbors in the community… building relationships,” she said.
The pandemic helped drive home the need to smile often, stay positive, and chip in to help others “when there is distress or a need, or just when there’s something good happening,” she said. “You want to be there.
“If somebody smiles at me and says hello, then I engage with them,” Dawn explained. “When you open your eyes, you find that there is more there than you can see.”
