The study also shows that because a large number of environmentally-concerned consumers seek items that are in line with topics they care about, sustainability is now a priority rather than an afterthought.

Currently, modular carpets and carpet tiles have become increasingly popular, especially for application in commercial spaces, hospitality, and in healthcare and hospitals due to easier installation and significant degree of customization with respect to material and size. Further, many flooring and carpet manufacturers globally are using bitumen and PVC in their flooring and carpet backing, which help the manufacturers to reduce expenses.

Moreover, introduction of plant fibers such as sea grass and sisal aimed at eco-friendly appeal and use of chemical additives in fiber materials to impart flame retardant, anti-microbial, pest repellant properties etc. In terms of carpet manufacturing technology, tufted, woven and needle felt types are employed, of which tufted type is being used primarily.

FMI in its latest study has forecast the market to rise at a CAGR of 5.1% between 2021 and 2031.

Key takeaways from the flooring and carpet market study

• Application in education, hospital, and healthcare sectors will continue to create sustained opportunities for flooring and carpet industry manufacturers during the forecast period
• Modern aesthetics, durability, and easy maintenance key influencing factors for consumers
• Increasing tourism and planned world events such as Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, etc. are expected to fuel continuous revenue growth of hospitality and retail segments in Middle East and South Asia, thus in turn driving demand for flooring and carpets in the region.
• Hospitality and retail segments typically witness stronger growth as compared to other applications due to demand based on a shorter lifecycle and more renovation.
• The public, manufacturing, and industrial segment is expected to grow in terms of revenue, backed by robust foreign investment and government investment in infrastructure.
• The US holds the largest share in the global flooring and carpet market owing to the rapidly expanding hospitality as well as retail business and commercial sector in the region.

What the statistics mean for carpet cleaners

For carpet cleaning professionals, this increase in the market and shift to sustainability is sure to be followed by more projects every year requiring green products and attention to detail. It also means that new carpet fiber protocols must be put in place to deal with eco-friendly carpet materials that may not react to certain chemicals in the same way as nylon or polyester would. Preparing for these shifts with effective training is the best way to stay ahead of the game and outperform your competition as the market continues to grow each and every year.

To learn more about the carpet cleaning industry’s dedication to sustainability, check out the NSF/ANSI 140 Sustainability Assessment for Carpet today!

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Sometimes, a customer suggestion can turn into a clever cleaning hack that solves a problem many customers have and don’t know how to handle.   In this instance, the customer had a nasty section of carpet with rust stains, bleaching, and soap residues, making it a real pain to clean and restore. On top of this, the customer also didn’t want to spend the money to have the stains removed and didn’t want the section replaced either. So, what do you do in a situation like this, you might wonder?

Well, you dye it to look like an area rug just like the customer recommends.

To do this, we mixed liquid carpet dyes (I have found that powdered dyes can leave powdery residues behind and often aren’t fully colorfast) in very hot water with a setting agent mixed in.

We then used a plastic trowel to outline the areas of carpet that we wanted to dye and used a pump-up sprayer to apply the dyes. We also used the plastic trowel to separate the outer border from the
center portion that we dyed to look like an area rug. After applying the dyes, we rinsed the area thoroughly and extracted the excess moisture afterward.

The customer absolutely loved the results, as did we, so we completed the job with a “hack-happy” customer and a unique cleaning hack that we hope you can use as well.

If you have a “cleaning hack” to share with Cleanfax, send it to Jeff Cross, media director, at jeffcross@issa.com.

[infobox title=’DID YOU KNOW’][/infobox]

The chemicals used when luster washing wool rugs may make the rug softer and shinier, but it also reduces the natural strength, durability, and repellency of the wool. By utilizing expert tips and tricks, you can protect the look of luster-washed wool rugs and keep them rich in color and durability for far longer.

Read More at

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If you want to build a “dream team”, the first thing to understand is that you should never wait until you actually need an employee to go looking for one.

If you are involved in your community at all, there are people all around you that you should be paying close attention to, whether you are hiring or not.

They are all around you

Kenny Pelletier

Kenny Pelletier, one of our team members, was the most loyal employee you could ever want to have. He just retired from our company after more than two decades of faithful service.

Kenny and I attended the same church. At our home group meetings, his daughter Elise would babysit my son. Kenny was a disc jockey at a Christian radio station when I met him; however, I began recruiting him long before I needed him.

Eventually, the perfect job became available. I needed someone for inside sales; a strong voice that knew how to read a script was the perfect solution—and that decision to hire this individual evolved into a nearly 20-year relationship between my company and this dream team member.

Good employees attract good employees

Santiago and Elise Arango

I had no idea at the time how much this hire would impact my life. When Kenny’s daughter was in her late teens, she began to date a young man named Santiago Arango.

Kenny insisted that his daughter’s boyfriend have a job with us. A 17-year-old skinny boy from Columbia applied for a job with us. And Elise Pelletier eventually became Elise Arango.

Santiago started as an assistant, became a technician, and worked his way up through the company. Santiago ended up helping me scale my business and now serves as a high-level coach in my training company.

Kenny’s daughter also filled many roles over the years. You never know how one hire can have a ripple effect. People wonder how I have so many great team members, and why so many people want to work for my company, but the answer is simply that hiring the right people attracted more of the right people.

It takes situational awareness

I developed a habit many years ago of noticing people in my space. To this day, everywhere I go—whether it’s the grocery store or sitting on the beach—I notice people and connect with them.

I have conversations with perfect strangers. I ask them about their life and their goals. As a result, I have a huge network. Recently, I even managed to meet a former president by scanning the space and noticing where he was.

It’s a habit that I recommend. Too often, business owners go about their day with no thought about who is around them. Look around. Say hello and engage. Especially if it’s a place like church, a networking group, or somewhere you often frequent in your community. By doing this one thing well, I’ve been able to build a team of almost 50 amazing people.

I know this sounds a little less concrete than placing an ad, but it is the most effective way for long-term success. Do you want short-term results or long-term results?   Do you want to find someone you have no relationship with whatsoever and take the chance that they won’t ‘ghost’ you during the interview process or quit after the first few days? Or would you rather be willing to invest in the long-term success of your business by planting positive seeds in others every day?

Building relationships solidifies success

All of business and all of life is about relationships. And it’s not that difficult to connect with people. Simply take interest in them, ask them about their life and their goals, and they will ask about you. That’s when you let them know that you are looking for people who want a great opportunity (not just a job).

Too many business leaders walk around with blinders on, never realizing that the very people who need to be on their team are right there in their circle of influence. They are at church, like Kenny. Or at an industry event, like Scott Zack, who became a partner and now handles all my financial affairs. A penny doesn’t move in our business without him knowing about it! Because of him, my business is highly profitable.

If you are not actively networking in the marketplace, you’ll be forced to hire strangers through advertising—which is not as reliable as a reference that you already have a trusting relationship with.

A referral goes a long way

If you already have happy team members, encourage them to refer others to you. My operations director was referred by another team member. Johann started as an assistant, then became a technician, and rose to operations manager. Now, he serves as our operations director. He and Scott direct my cleaning company every day, with precision. I don’t even have to be there. Ever.

Your clients and referral sources can also refer you, if you are getting the word out through networking. Several of our part-time referral marketing reps came to us that way. One of them that works for us today told me at our Christmas party that she has never worked for a company as gracious as ours.

Alan O’Neil, who started his plumbing business with just one van, grew it to $10 million dollars in annual sales, sold it to a private equity firm, and then became CEO of the total combined company. Eventually, he got it to $115 million. But the important part of his story for the sake of this topic is that O’Neil told me one time if another plumbing company’s employee stopped to get gas at the same time as his plumbers, they were going to be recruited!

A great recruiting practice is to offer a referral fee for a new team member. We currently pay $300, but you may want to offer more if you’re in a more vulnerable position.

How much should you pay for referrals?

Think about how much time, money, and energy you invest in paid ads to get one ‘good’ candidate. Be willing to pay that or more for someone who is referred.

Someone who is referred will have more trust in you and you will have more trust in them. There’s also a bit of accountability involved since no one wants to tarnish their reputation by referring a person who isn’t a strong candidate.

Do you offer a referral fee to your existing team members? Are they actively recruiting for you? Are you constantly networking and noticing people in your daily interactions?

Remember that all of business is about relationships. Building your network is the most important thing you can do to find clients and team members. With this said, it may be time you find your dream team by simply looking at your close-knit circle from a business angle and considering every referral as an opportunity moving forward.

Bonus content: Watch the full interview

Howard Partridge started his cleaning business out of the trunk of his car over 37 years ago and transformed it into a multi-million dollar operation. For the past 25 years, his training and coaching firm has helped thousands of small businesses around the world dramatically improve their performance. Visit

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One of the real beauties of having earbuds or headphones on an airplane is that they help you avoid tiresome conversations with people who seem to use talking to alleviate their anxiety about flying.

They must think that as long as they’re talking to the person next to them, the pilot’s going to do a better job flying the plane. I’m sure there’s research somewhere either confirming or disproving this theory, but I haven’t seen it.

Saved by the ‘man in the middle’

On a recent flight, I was occupying seat 24-A—the window seat in my row. When ‘jocular Greg’ sat down in 24-C, the aisle seat, and immediately struck up a conversation, I reflexively reached for my earbuds.

Greg seemed like a nice enough guy, but this was a two-and-a-half-hour flight, I was tired from presenting most of that day, had work I still needed to get done, and the passengers hadn’t even finished boarding yet!

As it turned out, the earbuds weren’t what saved me. It was Keshab, a 22-year-old, impossibly thin, Nepalis man in middle seat 24-B. As Keshab wedged his ceremonially-gowned self between us, Greg instantly shifted his conversation from me to him. I wasted no time inserting my earbuds and pulling out my laptop while trying to hide the subtle smile on my face.

Keshab’s story

With about an hour left in the flight, my computer alerted me that the battery was low, so I shut it down. It was then that Keshab mentioned he had noticed me writing and asked if I was a writer.

I responded that, although I do a fair amount of writing, I don’t consider myself a writer as many people think of them—certainly not in the best-seller sense—and that I was simply organizing my thoughts for an upcoming article.

Within minutes, Keshab had me engrossed in a conversation about his upbringing and how we ended up on that flight together. I quickly realized I had come close to missing out on an amazing story, an even more amazing young man, and a great lesson.

As it turns out, Keshab was born in Bhutan, a close neighbor of Nepal. When he was a toddler, his family was among thousands of others who were forcibly removed from the country. He ended up being raised in a refugee camp in Nepal.

With the help of a sponsor, Keshab and his family made their way to Akron, Ohio where they settled and where Keshab and his brother worked part-time jobs and drove for Uber so they could study computer science at the University of Akron. If Keshab was discouraged about anything, he never let it show.

Soaring to new heights with a sense of gratefulness

I feel that in this COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 world, Keshab’s story is particularly prescient. His is a family that had lost everything—their home, their citizenship, and even their native country. They learned to take nothing for granted and to appreciate everything they had gained: a new home, country, language, and new opportunities.

In business, it’s easy to take things for granted; to get irritated or discouraged with demanding customers, delayed or unavailable supplies, and impossibly scarce employees.

I believe the lesson I almost missed learning was to go easy on my complaining, better appreciate the things I have, and find the opportunities that might be hiding in the most unlikely places.

Chuck Violand is the founder and principal of Violand Management Associates (VMA), a highly respected consulting company in the restoration and cleaning industries. Through VMA, he works with business owners and companies to develop their people and profits. For more information, visit .

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As restoration companies gear up for water damage jobs, it’s important to consider what training or operating procedures in your company may need to be refreshed or reinforced to ensure your staff, along with your equipment, is in tip-top shape. We asked five industry experts to share the most common on-the-job mistakes they see water damage restoration technicians making.

What water damage restoration mistakes do you see most often from technicians and/or companies?

The common mistakes our experts pointed to tended to highlight a need for some back-to-basics refreshers on water damage restoration procedures and priorities. Richard Driscoll, IICRC master restorer and approved instructor, says the mistakes often begin with the inspection. He points out that without a “thorough investigation of the site, including where the water has gone, what materials have been affected, and proper moisture/atmosphere readings,” technicians don’t have the information they need to address the loss. This leads to other mistakes early in the job.

David Oakes, IICRC master restorer and approved instructor, commonly sees technicians who fail to install enough air movement on day one of the project. “The ANSI/IICRC S500 Standard for Professional Water Damage Restoration, 5th Addition 2021 includes a formula that clearly defines the minimum amount of air movers to achieve a fast rate of evaporation,” he notes, so technicians should be sure to review and follow the standard guidelines. Barry Costa, managing partner/educator for Costa Group Education LLC, also points to the importance of following the S500 and ensuring technicians understand the definitions of all terms used in the standard. He explains that as manufacturers have begun developing smaller and lighter equipment for ease of use, the newer equipment may not offer the same drying power as the heavier duty models. Restorers must take all this into account when calculating the equipment needs of a project. Jessika James, IICRC-approved instructor with LearnToRestore.com, agrees, noting that improper equipment calculations in the initial stages can lead to longer drying times and secondary damages.

Bruce DeLoatch, IICRC master restorer and approved instructor, says his chief concern is a “lack of safety training and attention to health and safety.” He points out that OSHA guidelines are there for our protection on the job. However, restoration professionals sometimes have a habit of “viewing OSHA as the enemy or thinking, ‘It won’t happen to me.’” Restoration work can be hazardous, which is why DeLoatch recommends the IICRC HST course, which teaches health and safety to cleaning and restoration professionals. “I strongly urge company owners to enroll all workers in the course and to make safety the number one priority on all projects,” DeLoatch says.

What is one thing you most wish technicians would stop doing?

Oakes and Driscoll agree that a big problem in the industry is demolition and removal of salvageable materials. Technicians often assume that materials like tile, grout, and subfloor are contaminated without conducting a thorough inspection or considering whether the material can be cleaned, dried, and disinfected. Oakes asserts that “the floor will tell you if the floor needs to be removed: loose tiles, hollow sounding tile, buckled floors, damaged grout, etc.”

Driscoll agrees, noting that “We still have too many restoration companies and technicians whose first course of action is to grab the crowbar and start demolition—rather than investigating the loss first, then evaluating the drying options, and then doing demo if needed.” Oakes adds, “Anyone can remove wet materials; it takes a true professional to dry material in place.”

And speaking of being a true professional, Costa sees too many technicians performing services without proper training and professional certification. “We have so many companies that go into water damage and they might get their education on forums. Well, the problem with getting it only on a forum is the person giving information has not necessarily been vetted for their expertise,” Costa explains. This is not to say that all information on forums is bad, but an untrained technician will not be able to discern accurate from inaccurate information. “You need formal training to be in this industry,” Costa asserts, “and it doesn’t stop at WRT [Certification]. You need to continue your training.”

What do you wish more restoration technicians knew?

Several of our experts pointed again to safety concerns among the things they want more techs to know. Driscoll highlighted proper use of PPE, noting that he still sees technicians in the field using a respirator over a full beard, which can’t achieve a proper seal to keep the wearer safe from contaminants.

James suggests that more techs should know how to perform a proper hazard assessment and use the Hierarchy of Hazard Controls to reduce or eliminate hazards. “Jobsite safety is so important for workers, occupants, insurance related staff, and subcontractors, yet it is often overlooked or ignored by some restoration contractors and technicians,” James explains. DeLoatch adds that technicians need to be aware of the long-term health effects of the work they do and take proper precautions now. “You are going to age,” he explains. “You will need your lungs, back, knees, and hearing when you get older. What you do now will dramatically affect the length and quality of your life.”

Oakes and Driscoll also note that a true understanding of psychrometry and the science of drying is often lacking in the industry. To dry structures effectively and efficiently, technicians must understand how to balance humidity, airflow, and temperature, and how to manage the changing balance throughout the drying cycle. Thoroughly assessing a water loss, calculating the equipment needs, addressing hazards, and properly disinfecting a jobsite all require an in-depth knowledge of the science behind cleaning and drying materials.

Costa wishes more technicians recognized the larger significance of their jobs in not just physically drying a building, but in bringing their clients’ lives back in order. He explains that especially for homeowners, “This is one of the worst things that’s happened to them in the most expensive thing they’ve ever purchased—their home. And they’re worried about their kids, the soccer game coming up, they have family coming this weekend—and they now have a swimming pool that they didn’t pay for within their home. So, when we go in, we have to heal two losses: the physical loss and the emotional loss.”

Costa also highlights the importance of the Restoration Industry Association and the advocacy work they do on behalf of the industry. Dealing with the insurance side of restoration and getting the work paid for can be difficult, and the RIA is serving as a voice for the industry to represent the best interests of restoration professionals in creating new policy and improving communications. Costa encourages all restoration contractors to join the organization and stay educated on the advocacy work of the RIA.

Final thoughts

As our industry experts point out, restoration is simultaneously a highly technical and highly emotional field. It can be physically demanding and hazardous, and technicians must care for the physical health and safety of themselves and their clients.

At the same time, the job can be emotionally demanding with technicians servicing clients on some of their worst days, when they may be dealing with unthinkable losses. In these moments, what your staff has to offer is a supportive, professional demeanor paralleled by the technical expertise that will allow them to restore clients’ homes and businesses as quickly and efficiently as possible. Before you send your techs out into the field this season, take the advice of our industry experts and address these common mistakes. Spend some time reviewing and reinforcing the training, procedures, safety precautions, and core values you expect to be reflected on every job and in every interaction with a client.

Amy Hughes is an editorial assistant with Cleanfax. She has worked as a freelance writer and editor for more than ten years, including four years with Cleanfax. Reach out to her at amylynn.alh@gmail.com.

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Over the past several years, hard surface flooring sales have surpassed carpet sales by offering additional diversity in natural and manufactured materials. This includes designs in flooring that may be combined or engineered with different materials, surfaces, and textures. These changes can impact the methods for cleaning and maintaining them.

The hard floor maintenance technician must adjust to changes in the industry by continuing to learn new information and validating that knowledge through certification from the manufacturer or .

It’s not like you wake up one morning and decide you are going to become a floor maintenance expert. Many times, it’s not considered an option in the slightest. Instead, it is a gradual acquisition of incremental information through classes, courses, or experience that slowly builds over time until you become knowledgeable about the subject.

The catch is that hard floor maintenance is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. There are many categories and classifications that the floor will be exposed to and therefore be required to learn.

Hard floor maintenance is generally taught on three levels: basic, advanced, and expert.

Basic hard floor maintenance

Basic skills are achieved by learning to identify hard surface flooring materials, as well as the environment, dirt/soil, and the cleaning cycle or program. An understanding of the components (chemical products, equipment, tools, and materials) required to perform hard floor maintenance is essential at this level. You must also know how to use these components properly and safely. Additionally, hands-on training for the general service procedures combines what is learned and put into application. Basic skills are essential for performing all hard floor maintenance.

Advanced hard floor maintenance

Advanced instruction is a more detailed study of different environments (external and internal) and the individual . The categories of hard surface flooring materials are natural stone, concrete, clay-based, wood, resilient, and specialty. These categories are based on the basic properties and characteristics of the materials. Within each category resides several classifications.

Although two classifications within a category may be similar and even made from the same material, the methods for maintaining them may be completely different. Advanced instruction provides a broader range of information that can be applied to the individual classifications of periodic and restorative maintenance service procedures.

Expert hard floor maintenance

The expert level of education may center on a specific hard surface flooring category with a focus on initial installation and/or complete restoration, which may include some repairs. The expert has progressed through basic skills and advanced instruction whilst acquiring knowledge through experience. Some technicians may wish to focus on one category and become an expert in it while others may wish to expand into more than one category.

With experience comes opportunities for growth

Learning about hard floor maintenance opens up a multitude of opportunities for personal and financial growth. A technician may start in a small company and advance to a larger company. Their expertise may focus on the commercial industry or one of the other environments such as industrial, health/medical, education, government, transportation, or residential. Each of these environments creates additional opportunities to explore.

Leadership roles

These opportunities go way beyond just performing the service procedures. Knowledgeable individuals often advance from technicians to lead, supervision, and management positions. Trained supervisors are more proficient at scheduling, which leads to accomplishing better results. Marketing and salespeople of hard floor maintenance services become much more effective and profitable when they have a better understanding of what it is they are selling. Managers and owners benefit by being able to articulate all of the above to their customers.

Hard flooring inspector opportunities

However, these opportunities are not just limited to working in the building service contract arena. Another natural career development route is to become a hard flooring inspector, which seems to always be in short supply. The knowledge acquired above—in addition to some flooring manufacturing and —can propel an individual into solving flooring challenges that may go all the way to court. Many people may start in the installation or maintenance of flooring materials and ultimately end up as inspectors.

Cleaning distribution and supply success

The opportunities don’t stop there either. A person can jump channels in the cleaning industry by taking that same gained knowledge into the distribution and supply side of cleaning to advance in that field as well. They could also take it one step further and work in the manufacturing of cleaning chemicals, equipment, tools, and materials. Cleaning industry manufacturers benefit from hiring people that have knowledge, skills, and experience in the field with the products that they make to support it.

Manufacturing and distribution roles

One other avenue of career development or change would be to switch gears completely and go to the manufacturing and distribution side of the hard surface flooring materials industry. This opens up doors to learning about raw materials and the manufacturing process that is required to make hard surface flooring. There are several distribution retailers both large and small that would benefit from having a staff person on their team that really understands floor maintenance.

When opportunity knocks, seize the moment

In the end, the opportunities that a thorough hard floor maintenance education provides can serve as the perfect foundation for a fruitful career in several industries. The point is not to look at hard floor maintenance as a dead-end job. Instead, look at it as a vehicle to learn and grow. Expanding your training, instruction, education, and experience is the key to unlocking that opportunity.

Stanley Quentin Hulin has over four decades of hard floor maintenance, services, training, educating, sales/marketing, and management experience. He is currently president and CEO of Future Floor Technology, Inc. and The League of Hard Flooring Professionals. Hulin has been involved with the IICRC since 1998, with many positions within the organization, currently as vice-chair of the Hard Surface Maintenance division.

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Jeff Cross, media director  |  Samantha Hager, associate editor  |  Amy Hughes, editorial assistant

Often considered some of the most sterile and safe places for health and wellbeing, medical facilities still require remediation specialists at times to uphold these safety standards. For Nick Levy, operations manager at Remediation Specialists, these projects are their specialty and the reason for their boutique restoration firm classification.

A leading team 15 years in the making

The Remediation Specialists brand began back in 2007 when David Williams, a part of a family-owned large waterproofing company based out of Winter Park, Florida, decided he wanted to spread his wings and have his own outfit. As Levy explains, “One of the questions they kept getting asked was, ‘since you’re doing the waterproofing and you found all this damage inside my building, why can’t you also fix it?’ So, we decided to add a restoration arm, Remediation Specialists, and he brought in my mentor in the industry, Mike Patrick, and myself. I was one of the first technicians here at the very beginning and it’s just kind of evolved and grown from there.”

As boasted on the company website, David Williams founded the firm on a few crucial principles — responsiveness, elite level customer service, and providing a solid product at a fair price. The company is proud of this. Williams has used these tenets as the building blocks of the business and has developed long-lasting relationships with property and facility owners and managers across the state of Florida.

As of now, the company is based out of Orlando and Tampa with a satellite office in Miami. “We went from two or three unique medical facilities that we had connections with and contracts with and we’ve evolved that into multiple medical chains and clients over the last fifteen years now,” Levy adds. “We are a boutique restoration firm specializing in medical facilities and high and large loss for construction builders.”

The main focus of the company is working with medical facilities, commercial real estate, and general contractors to eliminate mold and water damage while providing exterior waterproofing. In a state as weather active as Florida, these services are in high demand and require true professionals to perform them effectively. Which, for Levy and his team, is hardly a problem, “I don’t hire employees; I hire people to give them a career. We hire people to put them on the path to success over long periods of time. So, because of that, out of the eight lead technicians that we have, seven of them are only one class away from their triple master (IICRC designation). All of my PM’s (project managers) are triple masters. So, we focus very much on teaching our guys to be able to handle and run things by themselves to be able to be independent of needing somebody to hold their hand, and I think that’s why we’re so successful in the medical industry and medical fields. We’re able to have guys that can swift and shift as needed as the project expands and grows.” However, even the best and brightest in an industry face challenges. For Remediation Specialists, the biggest one stems from their boutique title and need for discretion.

Putting a ‘finger on the pulse’ of the industry

As a boutique firm that often uses discretion to keep clients content, it can be difficult to market in the same ways other remediation and restoration companies would. As Levy explains, “Because we are a boutique firm, one of the things that is different and unique about us is our marketing. We have a web page now, which we didn’t have for many many years because we don’t do a lot of marketing. If you look at all of my trucks when they show up, every single truck I have is white and we have no lettering or logos on them. We do that for the discretion of the medical facilities that we work in and the discretion of the buildings that we work in, so one of our challenges is we don’t have pay-per-click, we don’t have SEO, we don’t do insurance work, and we’re not working with TPAs.”

However, the company has opted to connect with the industry and clients on a personal level to counteract these setbacks. “For us, it’s about building long-term relationships that will eventually turn into revenue and having the wherewithal to do that over and over again as we grow. Then, also finding a market that isn’t already taken. A lot of these contracts that we go to, they’ve already got big contracts from the national side, so learning how to grow within our market without changing who we are as a company is crucial. Really, relationships are the only way we’ve done that. Years and years of proving what we do and why we do it.”

In an industry as close-knit as the restoration industry, relationships are everything and a brand’s ability to nurture them is the difference between success and failure. Levy also believes that the exciting growth of the industry has helped greatly in this regard as well.

Restoration growth and community connections

One of the most exciting aspects of the restoration industry is the diversity of the work that must be done daily. In regard to this, Levy exclaims, “I’ve got 21 years—coming up on 22 years—in the industry now. Every single day, it’s something different. After years and years of doing this, I’m still not coming across the same thing over and over again. Because of that, it’s always a new challenge and there’s always a new learning experience.”

The Remediation Specialists team also encourages the growth of the industry, advancements that come along with it, and the useful network nationwide that has begun to develop. “When you look at the things that have been coming out of Reets and the DeWalt Drying Academy and the knowledge and the technology that we have at our hands that we didn’t have years ago, it’s just absolutely amazing,” says Levy. “When I turn over to an adjuster 1,800 company cam pictures with a Matterport of every day on the project and a moisture map done through Encircle, it’s unbelievable. I had a pen and paper with some grid on it when I started many years ago, so to be able to see us grow as an industry and come together as an industry nationwide is phenomenal. My first 10 years, I don’t think I knew anybody in other cities, and now, I can say that I have friends in the restoration industry nationwide and we lean on each other, help each other, and call each other with questions regularly.”

The main thing that Levy and his team at Remediation Specialists urges is that new companies take the work as seriously as they do. For their team, company culture and education are what make all the difference. As Levy proclaims, “When you’re dealing with a medical facility, we always have somebody from Infection Prevention and they start every meeting with, ‘I want you guys to sit down and think about, what if your grandmother was in the next room?’ So, that puts a lot of weight on my guys, and they succeed. They pull through it because they care.”

Remediation Specialists also don the term “specialist” because of their commitment to the industry and their specialized equipment and team members. “I do get questions a lot because they call me the hospital guy, and Norris Gearhart [President/CEO, Gearhart & Associates, LLC] knows way more than me. He’s a friend and he’s a great guy, but people say ‘Where can I go take a class? Where can I do this, and where can I do that?’ If you’re thinking about getting into the medical field, you have to understand that it is a commitment,” Levy warns. “It is a very hard and very solid commitment. You can’t have somebody coming from Mrs. Jones’ house to go work inside an operating room. If it is something that you’re planning on looking at or expanding into, you have to take it very seriously and you have to be committed to that relationship if you’re going to go that route. Because that’s the biggest thing I hear is people saying, ‘Well, my guys didn’t have half the tools they needed when they showed up.’ Well, you sent them from Mrs. Jones’ house, and they weren’t set up to work in a hospital which has its own stricter regulations. So, if you’re going to do it, be mindful of that and make a full commitment to be a professional.”

Visualizing the future

The future for Remediation Specialists is structured for continual growth and success, with the main focus being building the network and enriching current relationships for organic marketing that just works. As Levy discussed when closing out his conversation with the Cleanfax team, “We’re continuing to build our network of relationships that we have through the facilities and through the trade networks that we’re associated with. So, we’re constantly in the Florida Hospital Engineers Association, the American Builders Society, and other things like that. And, yes, we want them to pick us, but we’re also kind of ‘choosey’ on who we pick. We’re focused very much on growth and building relationships.”

For now, the brand continues to offer consistent and comprehensive remediation services to the healthcare workers and facilities that Florida relies on most during these summer storm seasons and beyond.

Watch the full interview below:

If you would like to be featured in a future profile, reach out to Jeff Cross, media director, at jeffcross@issa.com.

The post 2022 Restoration Industry Leaders Review: Remediation Specialists appeared first on Cleanfax.

Jeff Cross, media director  |  Samantha Hager, associate editor  |  Amy Hughes, editorial assistant

Restoration companies actively focus on providing help to those in need. While this tends to come in the form of water, fire, or mold damage remediation, for Artem Lopatchenko, owner of AdvantaClean in the Cary/Apex region of North Carolina, this crisis assistance recently went one step further.

Providing a helping hand to the culture that raised him

In a recent post on Facebook, AdvantaClean shared Lopatchenko’s efforts to help the Ukrainian people—a culture and country he himself grew up in before coming to America. “I still have friends (former classmates) with whom I keep in touch with daily. When the war began for the first week, I was paralyzed not knowing what to do, how to help, or how to process it all,” Lopatchenko stated. “After about a week or two, I came across a local organization that was spearheading efforts to ship items overseas. In working with them and my friends, family, franchise, and business network, we were able to raise items to send out to Ukraine.”

As a young entrepreneur and franchise owner, Lopatchenko has not only helped his North Carolina community with various forms of restoration and remediation, but also has been able to turn his American Dream into Ukrainian assistance in a time of great need. As he shared, “In addition to items sent over, I’ve been sending funds directly to my friends in Zaporizhzhia. One of them is a pharmacist and has been able to use the funds to purchase the necessary medicine, medical supplies, food, and baby items for refugees and those who don’t have the means of obtaining the much-needed items.” While these efforts certainly show his empathetic and driven side, it’s the origins of AdvantaClean that solidify his position as an industry leader.

Humble beginnings

Starting in the accounting, finance, and real estate industries, Lopatchenko understands the process of earning money and seizing opportunities. After one property’s remediation job got him thinking about the future, Lopatchenko bought the North Carolina AdvantaClean franchise, and the results have been an increase in profits and satisfied customers alike.

With a 28-year-old entrepreneur redefining restoration and success strategies for this restoration brand, AdvantaClean was able to use Lopatchenko’s prior experiences to tailor products, services, and marketing to the right audience and at the right price.  However, to succeed, the company’s owner and its team would first need to learn the ropes and grow organically while conquering the common obstacles that restoration pros have all faced at some point in their careers.

Learning the ‘restoration ropes’

Starting out, this new franchise leader faced challenges like any other business owner and began to learn what makes the restoration industry so special. When asked about what he would do differently if he could start over again, he stated, “If I had to do it again, I’d hire a business development person earlier on. My intent was to run this semi-passively. To achieve this, having a good pipeline that doesn’t rely on marketing dollars or myself is ideal.”

Lopatchenko also shared what he loves most about the restoration industry and his franchise’s established branding as well. “The industry is unique in the sense that there are no two days that are alike. Even on jobs that are of the same service line, there are numerous factors that can make the job go faster or slower,” he stated. “The network and the brand are also great and have been supportive. Our corporate office and leadership have been putting in place systems and processes that will allow us to go after larger losses and ease our ability to mobilize for storms.”

Using previous industry skills acquired by Lopatchenko along with company-wide drive and determination, AdvantaClean has successfully grown in multiple ways—from its size to its efficacy in the industry. With two crews, an estimator, and a project manager on board, the company has increased its workforce and made it possible to service more community members in a shorter period. As a result, the brand and young industry leader have seen some big returns on their investments.

As Lopatchenko stated in his interview with the Cleanfax team, “Since taking over the company, our annual revenue has just about tripled. This has been achieved through strategic partnerships and having a customer-first mentality. Not every job goes well, but we pride ourselves on ensuring that the customer is happy and will call/refer us out in the future.”

Even with all its success, there are still challenges the company faces as all businesses do. For Lopatchenko, he says his challenges are about time management more than anything else. “The biggest challenge has been balancing everything else I have going on in addition to running the business. As an adjunct professor, real estate investor, and new owner of a second franchise location, time has been limited. My role has been limited to administrative and sales functions.”

To combat this, the company believes that having a strong leadership team that can help run daily operations is crucial. Working with other companies for marketing and cross-advertising is yet another way AdvantaClean has found success in the North Carolina area. Facebook posts such as the one detailing their donations to Ukraine are highly valuable marketing strategies to help leadership focus less on acquisition and more on the restoration projects performed daily.

Lessons to live by

Sometimes, the best way to connect with your audience is to be your audience. For AdvantaClean’s leader, that’s exactly how the company gained such a loyal customer base in North Carolina and surrounding areas. As Lopatchenko explains, “Through my real estate investing, I have learned what the pain points are when it comes to our target audience (property managers, real estate agents, etc.).” Knowing these pain points has helped AdvantaClean to not just run successfully, but also find solutions to problems the competition may not even recognize their customers have. As Mel Brooks once said when playing the role of Bigweld in the 2005 movie, Robots, “See a need, fill a need.” With access to the needs and wants of your target audience, your company can easily become the answer to all their problems and know what they want even before they do.

You must also be willing to be an expert in all aspects of the industry for long-lasting success. As Lopatchenko claims, “If you are not going to be a subject matter expert who is one of the best in the area, it is vital that you hire one. In my instance, I have an incredible team that has the necessary knowledge to complete the jobs. There are others in the network and industry who rely on their own knowledge and have their employees ask them for advice. Ultimately, there are various ways to run a company, but in-house expertise is a must.”

Additionally, the AdvantaClean team sees obstacles and hardships as a necessary part of any successful business journey. “Nothing is as difficult as it seems, nor is it as simple as it ever seems. There will be challenges, and understanding of seasonality, forecasting, and budgeting will very much come in handy. It is also important to focus on the process rather than the ultimate outcome,” Lopatchenko explains. “Consistent networking, reaching out, training, and follow through will lead to business down the road and the results will not always be instant. I’ve signed up for vendor lists where I did not hear anything back for nine months, and then once I got the call, I became their number one go-to vendor and started getting numerous jobs every single week. Just like in fitness, by trusting and working the process, the results will follow.”

One thing the restoration leader believes helps significantly when building a business’ online and community presence is word-of-mouth and personal relationships. As he calls it, the restoration business is a relationship-based business, and the best use of marketing dollars is buying a cup of coffee or a donut. As he says, “The majority of my long-term relationships have been built over coffee or food as it allows me to learn what the needs are and how we can serve our future and present customers better.”

Lastly, as a company run by a relatively young business entrepreneur, AdvantaClean knows the struggles that come with a lack of tenure in the workforce. However, the team stands by its leadership and also believes committing is the answer no matter how scary it can be. “If you’re young, just do it. It is better to try and fail than it is to always wonder what if. Those who try the most tend to succeed the most, not because they’re better but because they try more. Babe Ruth was known as the home run king for the Yankees, but he was also their strikeout king and held that record for 30 years before it was broken.”

The future isn’t ‘blue’—it’s gold

With the difficult part of establishing their successful location behind them, AdvantaClean now has big plans for the future. As Lopatchenko shared, “Last year was a big year for us in terms of growth. This year, the plan is to stabilize from last year’s growth. Focusing on the operations of the business will allow for the organic growth of AdvantaClean to continue.”

The restoration leader’s final words are about helping others follow in his footsteps moving forward: “If anyone is looking to purchase a franchise in the industry or is looking to integrate other business with the restoration business, they can reach out to me on LinkedIn.”

As the Ukrainian business leader and his company achieve the American Dream and inspire others to do the same, it’s plain to see both the blue period of the brand’s past and the golden future ahead. All that’s left is to fly their flag high and march on.

Watch the full interview below:

If you would like to be featured in a future profile, reach out to Jeff Cross, media director, at jeffcross@issa.com.

The post 2022 Restoration Industry Leaders Review: AdvantaClean appeared first on Cleanfax.

From a small family business to a family of businesses

Advanced DRI’s story begins four years ago when Boatwright began working with his partner, Angelo Ferrante, at the Ferrante’s small, family-owned restoration company
called Hudson Valley DKI, which was born out of the family’s 30-year construction and remodeling business. Ferrante and his brother had built the disaster recovery division, but they needed help implementing better business systems and processes to scale the company and continue growing. That’s where Boatwright came in.

With a background in process standardization and business systems, Boatwright joined the company, implemented some changes, and it began to grow. It was at this point that Boatwright reached out to Manhattan-based Brookstone Partners, a private equity firm, with a plan to acquire other smaller restoration companies in the area. Brookstone Partners agreed to offer the financial assistance they needed, and Advanced Disaster Recovery, Inc. was formed about two years ago with those first acquisitions.

Today, Advanced DRI is a leading restoration contractor in the Hudson Valley region of New York. With eight locations and 150 employees, the company offers fire and smoke restoration, water damage restoration, mold remediation, contents restoration, infection control, biohazard cleanup, construction services, and catastrophic loss response.”

As a small family company acquiring other family companies, Boatwright feels it’s important to allow each location to maintain its identity and autonomy while uniting under a single, trusted brand with standardized operating procedures. This approach shows the utmost respect for what these families have built—but it’s not without challenges. Boatwright explains, “We’re specializing in these small family companies, and when you do that, you know, most of them don’t have tremendous structure or any business systems—or sometimes no systems at all—so I’d say that’s a big challenge.”

To meet this challenge, Boatwright says they first had to establish a platform of standardized systems, and then figure out how to implement those systems in each of these small family businesses while allowing them the flexibility to continue to be what made them successful in the first place. “We’re trying to be the biggest little company around,” Boatwright says. Boatwright asserts that good communication with each location is key to successfully implementing new systems. He tries to help each branch location see the purpose and benefit to the new systems while still giving them some freedom to do what works for them.

Community values

What excites Boatwright about the restoration industry is how involved they are in the community. This is built into the nature of restoration work—responding to disasters that impact the community—but Advanced DRI is intentional about it as well. “We are really active in our communities, and when we look for companies to acquire or partner with, we look for that culture of family community businesses,” he explains. “The reason we look for that is we get excited working in the community and helping out in the community.”

These family and community values are what sets Advanced DRI apart in the industry. The company’s mission statement is: “We build people, and they build the company.” Boatwright explains that this mission statement is about giving both the employees and the customers a positive experience. He wants his employees to be excited about work and his customers to be eager to refer the company to others.

Growing the family

As for future growth, Boatwright says the company’s goals are clear: to be a top regional brand and continue to grow in their quad-state region. Boatwright enjoys the fact that the Hudson Valley experiences all four seasons and all the different weather elements that lead to different types of restoration work and drive business. In a region that sees everything from hurricanes to blizzards, a diversified menu of services like the one Advanced DRI offers is key—and those services will continue to grow as well.

“We’ll continue acquiring these small companies and adding to our family of companies with two to three acquisitions per year,” Boatwright says. “Beyond that, we’ll make sure we continue growing our environmental services group. We already do a lot of mold work, asbestos, and lead, but we will really grow the asbestos segment in all those regions.” Boatwright goes on, “Our desire is to be that full service. We lead with environmental, water, and mitigation losses with reconstruction supported, so that customers can deal with one vendor.”

In addition to diverse services, Boatwright explains that the company also seeks diversity in market segments—including TPA work, which isn’t always popular among restoration firms.

“We like TPA work,” he says. “We know how to play within that segment, and we like that work, and we work hard to be one of their good providers within that network. We don’t have any one segment. We’re going to play in them all—and do it well and continue growing in that region. “

Watch the full interview below:

The post 2022 Restoration Industry Leaders Review: Advanced Disaster Recovery, Inc. appeared first on Cleanfax.