LOS ANGELES — Growing up in Los Angeles, cleaning house from top to bottom was part of a family routine every Saturday for business owner Viviana Harvey.

"Washing down the walls, making sure that the carpet was vacuumed, bleaching everything down, taking all the spoons and forks and dishes off the shelf — that was just a normal thing," said Harvey, adding that her dad was born right after the 1918 pandemic and was therefore raised with the importance of keeping a clean household.

It’s a practice Harvey has perfected over the years, and it saved her in the early 2000s when she lost her law firm job and was worried about how to feed her kids.

"I went home and I laid down and I said, 'What is it that I can do that I would never be out of work or money?'"

Harvey used her cleaning expertise to launch Sparkling Clean Cleaning Services and Carpet Care. She’s grown her staff to four people, including her grandson, cleaning everything from churches to office buildings. But growing her company has been slow, and as it turns out, she wasn’t charging enough to cover her expenses.

“You factor in mileage, you factor in supplies,” she said. “All these other things go into play, so I was way underbidding, way underbidding.”

But Harvey didn’t realize that until she participated in a business accelerator program called ASCEND LA, run by the nonprofit Local Initiatives Support Corporation Los Angeles. Executive director Tunua Thrash-Ntuk said the business management program aims to grow businesses run by women and minorities into million-dollar companies.

“Not only does it help to close the racial wealth gap, studies have shown that diverse entrepreneurs are much more likely to have a higher net worth than individuals who are working, but they are also able to offer jobs in the community,” Thrash-Ntuk said.

Last year, 19 companies participated in the program’s inaugural cohort and owners learned business foundations and how to access capital necessary to apply for contract jobs, which can be worth upwards of $500 million. Thrash-Ntuk explained how focusing on large-scale contracts can help a business grow much faster but applying for them is often confusing.

"Often times, they are using software you may not know," she said. "They are using various strategies you may not be aware of. So it’s really important that we work with diverse entrepreneurs so that they can learn what those systems are and then be able to access those contracts."

The program is free and ASCEND LA is currently accepting applications for its Spring and Fall cohorts and will select 30 businesses owned by women and people of color. Harvey added that after finishing the program last year, she has the confidence to apply for contracts worth more than she ever dreamed.

“We have contracts out now that are in the millions, and every time I think about it, I just cry because even if we don’t get it, at least we were in the ballpark to even start."

It’s getting her one step closer to her dreams of creating more jobs for her community and building a lasting legacy for her family.