Trey Davila grew up in a military family, moving around quite a bit. Halfway through college, an ROTC scholarship presented itself and he joined the U.S. Army. Sent immediately to Newport News, VA, for Officer Training, Davila was later sent to Fort Hood in Killeen, TX. A master at logistics and close contact support, he served two combat tours—one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. After a couple of what he describes as ‘close calls’, he would go on to learn skills and tactics that would serve him well in his future role as a small business owner. But the road to becoming his own boss had a few more twists and turns to reveal. 
After his Honorable Discharge from the service, Davila entered the workforce. Stints at Bell Helicopter and BNSF Railroad were relatively short-lived, but each provided memorable lessons about working for others. “I got bored really quick,” remembers Davila. “I need something much more up-tempo to stay engaged. I also learned a lot about certain corporate cultures—and how much energy gets put into the effort to fit certain situations.”
After a while, Davila made a life-altering decision that would cement his future. In 2014, he moved to Beijing, China. What he witnessed while doing his own business education consulting was eye-opening.
“Everywhere around me were entrepreneurs,” says Davila. “It’s a lot different over there—people were hustling, making things happen for themselves, having success. After watching so many of my acquaintances create a lifestyle around their own business, I knew I had to do the same. I decided to go the entrepreneurial route.”
Upon returning to the states, Davila was helping a close relative run their own business. But he saw firsthand the struggles of trying to keep up with the multiple facets of running a small operation completely on your own. He attended a SCORE meeting and got his first introduction to the solution—franchising.
“Right away, I saw the answers to all of the problems I had helping to run this business,” says Davila. “With franchising, you get the kind of assistance needed to be a well-run and profitable operation. All of the pieces we were missing were built-in.” He settled into the FranNet investigative process and came away impressed with the number of quality business concepts he was shown. It didn’t take long until he found a winner—Two Maids & A Mop, a residential cleaning service with strong corporate backing and an opening in Houston for a franchisee. He signed on, opening the doors to his operation in August of 2019.
It took six months for things to start cranking, but he began to add multiple accounts and hire additional employees. But then the COVID-19 pandemic set in. “It knocked everyone for a loop,” said Davila. Calls dried up and appointments were postponed. Just as things really looked bleak, Davila says his Army training kicked in.
“We trained for crises all the time, so I was ready to face the situation we found ourselves in,” he says. “After a slow month, Texas began to re-open and by July things were definitely trending back up again. By relying on the reserves I’d built for the past year, we were able to withstand the paused economy caused by the lockdown.”
Davila continues to progress and his Two Maids & A Mop operation is healthy and happy. Best of all, he finds himself in the role of business ownership, something he envied during his time in China. When asked to share his opinion on the benefits of being a franchise owner, he states, “I finally get to stay in one place again—no more nomadic lifestyle for me. With franchising, the brand handles things such as admin and marketing issues, freeing me up to do what I do best—operations.”
To sum up the biggest change in his life since becoming his own boss, Davila says, “I have a lot more optimism now.” For more information, please visit Trey Davila’s Two Maids & A Mop Houston website.