In the latest episode of Contracting Conversations, Steven Harper, president and CEO of Spectrum Building Services of America shares his career path: from electrical engineer to working with Fortune 500 companies and finally founding Spectrum, a commercial cleaning company that now generates eight figures in annual revenue. Tune in as he shares how he scaled his business over time and built a company rooted in trust, systems thinking, and a people-first culture.
Steven opens up about the early challenges of entering the janitorial industry, how he learned “you can’t scale chaos,” the ways he engineered a service model focused on accountability, and why he believes the future of cleaning lies in a hybrid model of human expertise, robotics, and AI.
Conversation Highlights
• Applying systems thinking to scale janitorial services
• The importance of building infrastructure before chasing growth
• How Spectrum doubled its revenue in six months without chasing new clients
• The role of AI, robotics, and automation in scaling a service business
• How company culture and employee trust drive long-term success
• What cleaning-as-a-service means and why it’s the future of the industry
