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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A Yellowknife business couple is breaking records within their company like there's no tomorrow.

This past summer, husband and wife team Paul and Natasha Dodds, owners of the Yellowknife Molly Maid service, received an award from their parent company, Molly Maid Canada Maid Services, branding their franchise Rookie of the Year.

From left, Paul and Natasha Dodds, owners of the Yellowknife Molly Maid service, proudly hold their two treasures: the Rookie of the Year award bestowed upon them by their parent company and their son Logan. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

They got started a little more than a year ago.

Molly Maid provides residential cleaning services, which accounts for 90 per cent of the Dodds' business. They also clean the homes of people on the go.

"A big market here is move-ins or move-outs," said Paul, who also works full-time as manager of the Yellowknife Super 8 motel. "Most people write into a contract that the home must be cleaned before they take possession."

Paul said he didn't expect the volume of calls Molly Maid received when it opened its doors after Labour Day last year. Working at the Super 8 hotel showed him just how many people travel in and out of Yellowknife.

"We had a lot guests coming for house-hunting. Or people would stay for a week while their furniture was being packed up, he said."

According to Paul, the award last summer was given to the Dodds because "when the company looked at this award, we had acquired the first three sales milestones faster than any other franchisee in the history of the company."

The milestones didn't stop there.

"We were the first Molly Maid franchise to actually apply and get a positive labour market opinion for the foreign worker program," said Natasha, who also works full time elsewhere.

The winner of the award was kept a secret until the day of the announcement, held at Molly Maid's annual conference at the Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa.

But had the Dodds been tipped off before hand, they wouldn't have been able to attend anyway.

"Due to the business volumes and how busy we are, we weren't able to attend the conference," said Natasha, adding to celebrate, the Dodds hosted a special dinner for the staff it started out with last year.

The staff now numbers five full-timers besides the Dodds, with another position to be filled soon.

The Dodds aren't showing any signs of slowing down. They are planning to manage a second Molly Maid franchise located in Nanaimo, B.C. from their home base in Yellowknife. That franchise is set to open in March 2010.

"Down the road, for our retirement, we plan to be in Nanaimo and running the business there," said Paul.