The Business of Cleaning

The December mini-season will be a break in the usual podcasting content to discuss employee retention and engagement. We’ll be back to the usual content and episode lengths in January for Season 2, which will be built around improving interpersonal connections inside and outside the business. One constant concern, especially when it’s so important to keep the budget closely under wraps, has been maintaining retention rates with the staff that we can afford to keep. This means targeting employee engagement and trying to avoid hiring and training new staff during a time when in-person contact has to be kept to a minimum. Learn more about the podcast and this week's episode here: https://www.janitorialmanager.com/the-business-of-cleaning-podcast/ Don't forget to follow and subscribe! We'll continue to post on Tuesday mornings for the month of December, but we'll be given you shorter episodes packed full of advice until season 2 launches in January! Questions? Send us an email at Marketing@DoubleASolutions.net.

Hiring can be difficult, as can maintaining a healthy and encouraging culture for your cleaning business. In our conversation with Eva from RBG Janitorial, we broke down what makes her company’s work environment truly inclusive. Eva Kretschmar is the owner of RBG Janitorial, a commercial cleaning company based out of Belvidere, Illinois. In the almost three years they’ve been in business, RBG Janitorial has become a place that is alluring to potential new hires as a welcoming and supportive environment that will enable them on the job and their bigger career goals, even if their goals are outside of the janitorial space. With the mindset of listening to employees and utilizing the strengths of an inclusive workforce, RBG Janitorial has been recognized for hiring veterans and disabled persons indiscriminately. We sat down to talk with Eva about how she leads so well despite having only truly entered the industry when she established the company. Check out our podcast and more about this episode here: https://www.janitorialmanager.com/the-business-of-cleaning-podcast/ Don't forget to follow us and leave a review! We'll also take any direct questions about content or being a guest at Marketing@DoubleASolutions.net.

From new tools created to make cleaning and sanitation quicker and able to be achieved on a larger scale to tracking software that brings real-time data to the fingertips of its users, technology is a constant presence in the cleaning world. A continuously evolving part of the world is technology and automation. We sat down again with Sam Riegsecker to talk about this ever-growing part of the cleaning industry as Double A Solutions and Janitorial Manager are at the forefront of it. We sat back down with Sam Riegsecker to discuss that which can be a cornerstone in a business’s success. Technology is a segment of tools and crafts that allow the user to become more effective and efficient in what they do. There is the physical technology and hardware like new dispensers and sprayers and there are software products that automate communication and tasks that might otherwise take longer. There have been far too many innovations as of late to discuss in a single podcast episode but we talk about a few and break down to keep it all from becoming overwhelmingly complex.  Check out more about this episode and our podcast here: https://www.janitorialmanager.com/the-business-of-cleaning-podcast/ Don't forget to follow us and leave a review. We can take any direct questions about the content or being a guest at Marketing@DoubleASolutions.net.

Between COVID-19 and innovations in technology, the way we attend events has changed. Virtual trade shows are everywhere now and will linger for the foreseeable future. This week we sat down with our very own marketing manager, Sam Riegsecker, to discuss the topic of trade shows in a modern world dogged by a persistent pandemic. The truth is that many of us had signed up for trade shows. In previous years they could be found sprinkled throughout the Janitorial Manager’s schedule for the year. This year many trade shows were either canceled entirely or they took the leap and went virtual. We wanted to sit down and discuss this new world, how you can optimize your experience at a virtual trade show, and how you can decide between virtual and in-person next year. Learn more about this episode and the podcast here: https://www.janitorialmanager.com/the-business-of-cleaning-podcast/ Don't forget to follow and leave a review. If you have any questions about content or being a guest on the show email us at Marketing@DoubleASolutions.net.

Recessions can be extremely difficult, especially on cleaning companies as orders for budget cuts usually mean a decrease in service requests. We got to the bottom of how one company managed to turn things around after 2008 and is weathering the storm of the pandemic. Guy Harris works for Certified Maintenance Service (CMS) and is the Creative and Executive Director for Max Defense, a company created by CMS following the 2008 economic recession. Max Defense consists of a five-step process, a training program, certification in Max Defense, and marketing materials to promote the service. We sat down with Guy to discuss how his company approached economic hardship and pivoted to find new business 11 years ago and why companies might become a service provider to something like Max Defense in order to aid their own company recover and grow. Learn more about the podcast and our episode here: https://www.janitorialmanager.com/the-business-of-cleaning-podcast/ If you have any questions about today's content or would like to ask about being a guest email us at Marketing@DoubleASolutions.net. Don't forget to follow us and leave a review!

You’ve probably heard the phrase “work smarter, not harder,” but how often do you have a good example of what that means, especially in cleaning? We sat down with someone who’s had to work out how to employ that very principle and is doing so successfully. Kathy Riley is the Vice President at Professional Maintenance in Lubbock, Texas. Professional Maintenance has been in business since 1994 and specializes in commercial and medical cleaning. Because they pride themselves on providing quality services, Kathy and her team had to rethink some of their processes when it came to new budget cuts and shifting expectations at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in America. We sat down to talk to Kathy about how she and her team managed the shift and high quality of service they deliver with these new challenges in front of them. The answer was simpler than you might think: work smarter, not harder. In our episode, we broke down exactly how they employed those principals while keeping everyone employed during a time of cutbacks. Learn more about this episode and our podcast here: https://www.janitorialmanager.com/the-business-of-cleaning-podcast/ Don't forget to follow and leave us a review! We'll take direct question at Marketing@DoubleASolutions.net.

Shifting times create a need for an internal shift at one point or another. In this episode, we break down how to do it successfully no matter if your team is large in size or only a few people. Brandon Baswell is the Campus Services Manager at Michigan State University and has been in that position for over 16 years. He’s been with the university for over 31 years, meaning he has been there to see many changes and also been part of instigating a major overhaul of how his team operates. We sat down with Brandon to discuss how to implement a large process change, especially within the cleaning space. It’s not unsurprising that your team or company needs to make changes to keep up with the times, but if that’s a large-scale shift to your processes, it may seem impossible at the start. Don’t worry though, Brandon breaks down the whole change cycle in easy to understand bites. Want to learn more about this episode and our podcast? Click here: https://www.janitorialmanager.com/the-business-of-cleaning-podcast/ Don't forget to follow us and leave a review containing topics that you'd love to see in our episodes! You can share any ideas about the content or being a guest through our email Marketing@DoubleASolutions.net.

Employee retention, job quality, and customer happiness are high priorities in businesses striving for growth and success, especially in the cleaning industry, but did you know that most of that comes back to company culture? Jason Johnson is the owner of Premier Janitorial Services in Wasilla, Alaska. Premier Janitorial Services specializes in cleaning facilities within the medical industry. A few years ago Jason and his wife noticed that the company’s growth had plateaued and it had even gotten to a point where they didn’t want to take on more business. A cultural shift was necessary and so, with the help of a great coach, they began that shift. Not only did they see growth again, but they saw an improvement in the quality of work being done and the satisfaction of their customers. Fast forward to 2020 and they’re weathering the pandemic with relative ease due to an extraordinary team built around the values they established. Learn more about this episode and our podcast here: https://www.janitorialmanager.com/the-business-of-cleaning-podcast/ Don't forget to follow and leave us a review so we can continue to build our content that you love! We'll take any inquiries about content or this episode at Marketing@DoubleASolutions.net.

In order for businesses to survive during the pandemic, at times they have had to find new avenues of business. For 2-SCALE this meant working with hospitals, schools, and other businesses to create a product to increase health and safety in their facilities. Aaron Churchill is the president of 2-Scale who leads a team of artists, engineers, craftspeople, builders, and coordinators to create dimensional installations that feature a client’s brand and/or story. Now, 2-SCALE is specialized in creating customized plexiglass dividers for just about any space. Learn more about this episode and our podcast here: https://www.janitorialmanager.com/the-business-of-cleaning-podcast/ Also, don't forget to follow us and leave a review so that we continuously get better at what we do! Direct inquiries about this content and being a guest can be sent to Marketing@DoubleASolutions.net.

It’s not just about increased demand as everyone shifts into overdrawing because of the pandemic. It’s about the difficulty of acquiring supplies from the suppliers and how to communicate effective use of the products they can get to clients. Tina Saunders is the Director of Marketing and eCommerce at Nichols Paper and Supply. The company has dealt with providing solutions to clean a healthy facility and the safe shipment of products. They’ve worked in many industries, most notably at the moment being businesses, health care, and schools. Tina led the initiative to switch from product-centered marketing to education content and resources, focusing on quick and effective communication knowing that the demand would naturally be there and the supply would not quite meet it. We discussed the Better Together program that her team runs, how they educated and prepared schools, as well as the thought process behind the large shifts in strategy that they’ve made. Visit the Better Together Page here: https://www.enichols.com/bettertogether  You can also learn more about this episode and our podcast by visiting here: https://www.janitorialmanager.com/the-business-of-cleaning-podcast/ Don't forget to leave a review and subscribe! We'll take direct questions at Marketing@DoubleASolutions.net.