Cleaner’s Convention
2004
The first annual cleaner’s
convention was held August 7th & 8th at the Holiday
Inn in Chicago, IL. The purpose of the
convention was to bring together small service business owners from both the
residential and commercial cleaning industry in an effort to create a peer
group. It was extremely successful.
Saturday morning started
with a comparison of the 2 different types of services and demonstrated both
the similarities as well as the differences.
Presenters, Theresa Peterson of Peterson’s Maid 2 Order and Dave Crichton of Harbor Vista Services clarified these
points for everyone.
Rick VanderKoy of Secure Clean Business Services, Inc.
presented some insights on expanding your business. He reviewed operational structures, outlined growth marks and
client retention. His second part
discussed when is the time to hire a salesperson, building a prospect data base
and the need to focus on what you are selling.
Diversifying your business
beyond cleaning was presented by Ken Galo, L
& K Facility Services. Ken
explained how he developed relationships with other small service firms such as
landscapers, snow removal companies, HVAC firms and other start up companies
and how he marketed these services to his existing customer base.
Using the Web effectively
was presented by Steve Mastio, Business
Clean, Inc
Steve awed everyone with his
custom built portal website and demonstrated how his site encouraged positive
and effective communication between his customers and his top cleaners. Steve further presented some unique view
points on using the web to screen for employees.
Working in your business and
surviving within your family was presented by the husband and wife team of Mike
& Sonya Busby, Buzz Building Maintenance, Wichita, KS. Together they talked thru and around the
sensitive issues of having a personal life and a business life, the best
practices on dealing with family members while at work and at home and keeping
it all in perspective.
Kenny Cornell of A-1
Janitorial Service, Port Richey, FL and Christy Caley of Great Lakes Cleaning,
Kalamazoo, MI presented a variety of
points on the importance of training, developing your work force, identifying
employee strengths and weaknesses and retaining key employees.
Day 1 concluded with a vote
to hold next year’s convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Day 2 Was all guest speakers, who the organizers
would like to thank for taking time from their lives to meet and present the
following topics. We would also like to
thank Stacie Whitacre from Contracting
Profits Magazine for spending these 2 days with us and contributing to the
pool of information and resources.
Anthony Trombetta from the ISSA started off the day. He presented industry background
information, a history of our industry, some eye opening facts on the number of
people in our industry. Anthony also
reviewed the need for proper training in cleaning techniques and how important
our industry is in the battle against infectious diseases and controlling their
spread.
Sandy Conrad from Jen/Mar Systems stressed the importance of
not only performing inspections for quality but to analyze the data to find the
key to resolving issues. Sandy talked
about Hazardous Communication Standards and stressed the need to keep MSDS
sheets up to date both on site and in your office. She reviewed OSHA laws and guidelines and as well as safety tips
for building inspections.
Ron Segura of Segura and Associates
finished off the day with a series of comparisons between how our industry has
changed the new trends such as Green Building Certification programs and he
stressed the importance of maintaining a relationship with peers in our
industry by taking advantage of opportunities to meet like we have now.
The convention attendees and
organizers would like to publicly thank the 3 guest speakers and the following
companies that donated items for our convention.
