You can watch this episode below. It’s a short—but powerful—look at what many cleaning and restoration companies are not doing with their websites, just because they don’t know what is possible.

There are many similarities between what runs a company and what runs a website. Both need to be efficient and have a clear purpose, with all the necessary moving parts in harmony with each other. The way a website works makes me reflect on how an actual company works, with all the moving parts involved.

For instance, a website has a clear purpose and that is to be seen by search engines, resulting in potential customers visiting the site and then choosing that company. A company also has a clear purpose and that is to be seen by potential clients in any way it can—from its website, social media platforms, referrals, networking, and more.

Your customers will hire you because of what you do, but they will stick with you because of who you are. To your customers, what you do is a commodity, and they won’t understand the difference until they experience excellent customer service.

A website can be pretty and impressive and have all the bells and whistles money can buy, but if it doesn’t have what it takes to be seen by search engines—the stuff “under the hood”—then no one will see it. Similarly, you can buy the shiniest work vehicles, plaster the very best graphics all over them, and put your team in cool uniforms … but what about communication, customer service, and going above and beyond what your competition provides? Those are the attributes that really matter.

I’ve seen entrepreneurs start cleaning and restoration companies and they knew nothing about cleaning and restoration, but they did know about websites and search engines. They looked good. But there was nothing “under the hood.”

What’s under the hood of your company? Give it a think.

The post Under the Hood appeared first on Cleanfax.

What does the February report on the discovery of ancient Roman ruins in Germany have to do with an article about temporary containments used in many areas of cleaning and restoration? The archaeological report reminds us that different forms of containment have been used continuously, dating back thousands of years, to protect people from threats both inside and outside the containment. Whether it is wooden stakes positioned to protect an encampment from invaders or the bars and razor wire used in prisons, the concept of containments has been with us since ancient times.

For the sake of relevance, this discussion will focus on threats that are decidedly smaller than a barbarian horde or a carefully planned jailbreak. The threats we will cover here are spores, asbestos fibers, lead dust, volatile organic compounds, fire residue, biological pathogens like the COVID virus, or any other contaminant that is likely to be or become airborne.

By minimizing the movement of harmful agents from a contaminated area to adjacent spaces, temporary barriers contain the problem in order to protect human health. These agents range from things like mold and asbestos that represent a health risk, to things like fentanyl and biological weapons that represent a clear and present danger. The former is defined as something that may or may not cause illness now or in the future, an unfortunate feature that tends to engender complacency. Whereas the latter is something that will definitely kill you and everyone around you, a truly unfortunate feature that limits complacency to one and done.

‘Tough guy’ syndrome

We are all guilty of “holding our breath” while creating a temporarily unsafe environment like spraying some chemical for a couple of seconds, and have come away mostly unscathed but have you ever skipped the respirator in an attic because you are going to be “in and out,” only to spend the next several hours coughing? There is a lot of machismo and denialism (ostrich syndrome) in this industry. The ultimate bandage after all is duct tape and a new glove but that kind of thinking is just dead wrong!

One of the forgotten aspects of many cleaning and restoration projects is the repetitive nature of the tasks, and potential exposures! The exposures of many dangerous substances can be cumulative. Lead dust is a good example; as the material collects in the blood, then the soft tissues, and eventually the bones. One well-documented pathway to lead poisoning (as well as asbestos and silica, among other contaminants) is from dust being brought home on the clothes of the worker. A child doesn’t care that their parent is a self-styled tough guy when they are exposing them and their family to dangerous levels of contaminants.

Tripping over a dollar just to save a quarter

So many people skip solid containment, or containment at all even on mold jobs, because they are expensive to execute well (labor and materials) but then they end up cleaning the whole house. Not only is that ultimately more expensive but it’s bad for business. If the TV in the master bedroom, upstairs, down the hall and behind a closed door is covered in drywall dust then that is just shameful. It is downright unprofessional and entirely unnecessary. That doesn’t even account for the guilty conscience, liability, and potential lawsuits when someone gets sick.

Another reason to skip containment is that the contractor may not actually have people that know how to do it.  One way to avoid this conundrum is to pay wages above the bare minimum. This all too rare approach increases the retention of experienced, skilled individuals. Employee retention and recruitment is a well documented problem that plagues the industry. The irony is that if you fix the first problem you also solve the second. When you fix both problems then everything gets better. If the job you offer isn’t easily replaced then you won’t just get good containments, you’ll get loyal people that protect your reputation and your bottom line.

The mammalian response or dive reflex

This industry is, by its very nature, reactive. After all, the next event is only ever a phone call or weather forecast away. This reality, as well as limited staff, makes it tough to be proactive. But just like the diving reflex will cause a baby to hold its breath when submerged in water, only to quickly drown because it can’t actually swim, so too will an untrained worker muddle through the first days, weeks, or months only to sink to the bottom and quit or get fired.

Early, continuous and advanced training is the best way to be proactive and stop this cycle. Everyone on the team should know the why, not just the what, and if they don’t know then teach them. Teach them also that they can be vigilant without being paranoid. Going back to the swimming analogy, by teaching someone to swim they will respect not fear the water and if the conditions are right they could learn to like it, or even love it.

When you teach someone something new then you begin to have depth on your bench that is so often lacking, and you have more eyes on your jobs. These trained eyes can often spot two things, potential problems and greater opportunities. It’s always the experienced tech that load tests the breaker with the microwave, while all of the equipment is running and before leaving for the night, and can legitimately turn a $1500 appetizer into a $5000 main course. Well paid, experienced techs also know that the containments, PPE and well established procedures aren’t there just for theater.

It is your job as the leader, or even as a coworker, not to minimize a thing and/or make it all about speed or the money. It is the job of everyone to stay alert and feel empowered, compelled even, to bring attention to incorrect applications of tools or techniques and most importantly to point out conditions that could threaten life and limb. The only way this works is if everyone is well trained to the level of their work requirements and cross trained through knowledge transfer so that, even at a basic level, everyone knows why, for example, the containment is so important and how to use it effectively.

We further must internalize the belief in a higher purpose. If it is clear to all that this work is valued, important and that the people that do it are unique, highly trained specialists and not just unskilled cleaners in bunny suits and a respirator, then everyone will begin to identify their work in restoration as a membership in an exclusive club. This club does not accept all applicants, not everyone is cut out for this type of work.

Everyone needs to keep learning. As the science supporting the mold remediation industry has advanced, we now know that for some people exposure to even small amounts of mold can cause significant health problems. Sadly, the people who are most susceptible to potential mold exposures often do not know that they are at greater risk until after the exposure has damaged them. With individuals at risk from mold potentially making up 25% of the population, why would a contractor take a chance of exposing them to elevated spore levels by skipping the use of temporary containments? Such an approach is even more short-sighted given the evolving standard of care that continually upgrades the importance of isolating the work area with temporary containments.

When in doubt, use containment

Regardless of the potential contaminant, temporary containments (particularly when matched with other engineering controls that will be discussed in later parts of this series) provide real protection for occupants, workers, and the general public. Using such protection, and doing so efficiently, can literally be a life-or-death decision. With so much riding on that choice, using protective barriers should be the default position, not an afterthought.

Michael A. Pinto serves as the CEO of Wonder Makers Environmental and has more than 45 years of experience in the industry.

Keith Gangitano is a co-founder of Zeppelin, a company with restoration containment solutions.

The post Temporary Containments appeared first on Cleanfax.

Humble and family-focused beginnings

Swackhammer’s experience in franchising began when he was a child working in his father’s line of dollar stores. The family later expanded to Verizon stores and currently has 20 locations.

Swackhammer also diversified into a home service franchise, which led to the founding of Mold Medics. “We noticed a gap in mold remediation services where customers couldn’t find good service providers for ongoing quality problems. Restoration companies were only interested in insurance-based work, while some contractors lacked customer service. We founded Mold Medics with a customer-focused approach,” he explains.

One of Tim Swackhammer’s guiding principles is having a growth mindset. He feels it’s his responsibility to continue his father’s legacy, take advantage of the opportunities he’s been given, and keep pushing forward. The growth mindset is crucial for him, and it helps him stay focused on his goals. His father also taught him yet another one of his guiding principles as a leader, “One of the most impactful lessons my father taught me is the importance of trust. I used to be less trusting, but he showed me that if you trust people and give them the right guidance and training, they can surprise you with what they can accomplish. In the business world, it’s essential to give trust, but also be quick to take it back if it’s not deserved.”

A ‘cultured’ industry

Tim Swackhammer attributes the growth of the mold remediation industry to the increasing awareness of the impact of the environment on health. He also noted, “The pandemic has made indoor air quality more critical, as we spend more time inside, working, and studying from home.” The mold remediation expert believes that there is still a gap in the market for high-quality service providers.

A typical workday for Swackhammer and his team at Mold Medics involves their technicians, who are their service professionals, correcting problems in customers’ homes. They’re cross-trained in mold remediation, Mold Medics’ core focus, and other services like Radon mitigation and air duct cleaning. Their environmental professionals conduct in-home assessments, informing customers of problems and posing solutions. They’re also responsible for writing up the scope of work, which is dispatched to the technical team. Lastly, their customer success manager handles inbound leads and ensures that all communication runs smoothly.

These well-defined and repeatable structures and processes have led to Swackhammer’s continual growth and success. As he states, “If you’re considering franchising, the biggest tip is systems and processes, period. That is what you can franchise; that is what you can scale. If you don’t have systems and you don’t have processes, it’s relying on singular start team members doing an excellent job on X, Y, and Z instead of a constant pattern of success. That’s not something really scalable. The moment you start really systematizing and putting together extraordinary processes and procedures, that’s when you’re ready to scale it up.”

Leading a growing team

Swackhammer’s leadership style is one of the things that makes him someone to pay close attention to as a peer or competitor in the market. As he explains, “The two words that describe my leadership style are direct and transparent. I try to communicate directly with my team, whether it’s good news or bad news. When things are going well, I make sure to give plenty of accolades and recognition. But when things are not going well, I emphasize accountability. Whenever there’s a problem or a customer service issue, it’s easy for everyone to point fingers and blame each other. Instead, we focus on resolving the issue at hand and preventing it from happening again in the future. Dishonesty is the only immediate fireable offense, as I need to trust that everyone is transparent and working towards the same goals.”

To retain a strong team, Swackhammer and his staff look for top performers who want to do well and work well with others. Negative people who only look out for themselves can quickly bring down the team’s morale. During their hiring process, they try to vet for these values as much as possible, but they also take quick action to remove someone who doesn’t fit their values. They use unique job descriptions that are direct and informal and encourage people to opt out if they feel they are not a good fit.

From a marketing perspective, Swackhammer’s strategies are solid and effective. As he shares, “We try to be omnipresent while controlling costs. Customer acquisition costs are a constant focal point for us. We use Google ads, local service ads, and paid resources like HomeAdvisor. But content creation has been a big focus for us. We create answers to commonly asked questions and problems, put that information out there, and direct people back to us. We work heavily in-house and with an external SEO company to optimize our website. At the end of the day, for pretty much any restoration service, people need to know where to find you when they have a problem. We work with insurance agents, realtors, and home inspectors because they’re involved with clients whenever they’re dissecting a lot of mold issues. It’s just about being everywhere.”

Compassion and expansion

As the demand for environmental solutions grows, Tim Swackhammer sees opportunities for his business to continue to expand. With a customer-focused approach and a team of highly trained technicians, Mold Medics is well-positioned to serve the needs of homeowners and businesses across the country.

Compassion rests at the forefront of this growth as remediation and restoration jobs often require that special human touch. When asked about dealing with individuals that demand that they have mold when they don’t, as well as his thoughts on companies that fabricate mold issues to get more jobs, Swackhammer stated, “Unfortunately, we see a lot of that. We have some competitors who heavily utilize different types of testing. I’m not sure if I would go as far as to say they fabricate mold issues, but they may use different types of testing and misinterpret the results. For instance, they might use ATP testing as a mold test, which it isn’t. Although ATP testing can be helpful in certain circumstances, it’s essential to ensure that clients understand what the test is, what it’s testing for, and when and why it should be used. At our company, we pride ourselves on providing informed opinions to our clients. Some of our best reviews on Google are from clients we didn’t even do work for. They contacted us because they were concerned about mold and health issues, and we were able to give them a thorough visual or some additional testing, which helped us give them a more informed opinion. Sometimes, we find that there’s no issue at all, rather than just invoicing them, doing some work, and calling it a day. It’s alarming to me that some contractors might take that approach. It highlights the importance of clients vetting the contractors they use.”

Swackhammer also ensures that his entire team knows how to properly handle disaster restoration projects with compassion to expand the brand through detail and personability. In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian and other natural disasters, Swackhammer believes that restoration companies can help communities by separating their pro bono work from profit-making work. “While we haven’t directly encountered that level of devastation, we believe in separating our pro bono work from our profit-making work. We’re willing to give away our knowledge, as we believe that restoration professionals have a wealth of knowledge that’s not always shared. By sharing this knowledge, we can help people mitigate problems immediately, and potentially prevent them from getting worse while they wait for companies and insurance to come in. There’s a lot we can do just by sharing information and helping people resolve their issues,” he explains.

Looking ahead

Now, Swackhammer continues to grow his own personal and professional brands. His success as a business leader in mold remediation and restoration is driven by his commitment to customer service, transparency, and trust. His leadership values have helped him retain a strong team and build a solid local community. Mold Medics’ unique customer-focused approach and highly trained technicians have positioned the company for continued success as the demand for environmental solutions grows. As Swackhammer shared about his drive and passion, “It all goes back to my father’s story. He grew up with a single mother, in government-assisted housing, and was able to build a better life for our family through franchising and entrepreneurship. I feel it’s my responsibility to continue his legacy, take advantage of the opportunities I’ve been given, and keep pushing forward.”

To see what’s next for Mold Medics, check out MoldMedics.com today and follow Tim Swackhammer on LinkedIn at

Read the FULL interview at to learn more about his pricing strategies, products, processes, and success through franchise opportunities.

The post The Industry’s Up-and-Coming Leaders: Tim Swackhammer, Mold Medics appeared first on Cleanfax.

Restorers must approach each project with a flexible, adaptable mindset as information materializes, often after already committing to a project. This nature, however, presents significant risk on many fronts, especially when contingencies for key potential variables are not considered by the contractor ahead of time.

Although the sources of risk and related variables vary greatly, one contributor is significant for restoration contractors to consider proactively: Project size and complexity. More extensive projects tend to multiply risk factors, in some cases, by order of magnitude. Depending upon the project type, the nature of insurance can be dramatically different, regulatory requirements can become more challenging, environmental control can be substantially more complex, and even primary customer drivers and objectives can substantially change how decisions should be made.

Understanding if a restoration firm is truly prepared to expand from a position of single-family residential restoration to tackle larger and more complex projects must begin with an assessment of the organization’s acumen for these additional challenges. This is best approached by separating and defining the exact types of larger projects the organization is targeting.

No two projects are the same. This is especially true when considering large restoration projects. Responding to a significant property loss event in a hospital, for example, is markedly different than dealing with a similar size loss in a commercial warehouse. It is often not the size of the project that is used to define large or complex projects, but rather the complexity of the structure, ownership, and even the diversity of other materially interested parties.

The best approach for a restoration firm when considering growth through project size is to make an honest assessment of the company’s strengths and weaknesses in several key areas. Taking on large, complex projects without first considering these factors can lead to disaster:

• Project management expertise
• Financial reserves
• Equipment and tools
• Documentation instruments
• Business management systems
• Knowledge in related fields.

The management of large restoration projects will require a more complex and involved resource. The extent of this expertise will depend upon the structure type, scope of restoration, the scale of damage, and the nature of the financial and contractual conditions related to the property.  Learning to manage larger and more complex projects should begin with selective and measured decisions for the types of structures and damage sources that relate best to the organization’s current skillsets.

In addition, the organization should never overextend its financial reserves. A strong controller or financial resource is key to understanding the monetary exposure your organization can withstand. With an increase in the complexity of the project and materially interested parties, the volume and duration of accounts receivable can inflate substantially.

Equipment and tools used in varying structure types are also often different, with higher demands for systems with greater capacity. Additionally, resources for safe power and energy management are often required, which are not typically necessary for smaller projects.

Greater diversity in materially interested parties will necessitate changes to the type and structure of project documents and the number of parties that should be engaged in authorizations, communications, transaction instruments, and signoffs.

These points all culminate in the need for solid business management systems to allow for the coordination of these assets and resources. The system should be scalable to allow for the tracking, allocation, and reporting against the scope of the types of projects your organization decides to tackle.

Finally, it is also important to consider the intellectual assets of your organization. Knowledge related to the industries and materially interested parties associated with the specific types of structures your organization will restore must be considered. These dynamics are unique between sectors such as manufacturing, retail, healthcare, housing, warehousing, government, and so on. Each sector brings with it unique challenges that, when proactively considered, can be accounted for.

Ultimately, the restoration industry will always throw unexpected twists and turns in many projects. However, with proper (and constant) assessments of our strengths and weaknesses, organizationally, we can be much more strategic and purposeful with the measured risk our organizations are willing and able to withstand. It is, after all, risk management, not risk elimination!

The post Making the Leap appeared first on Cleanfax.

Of course, you want your team members to be able to perform at the highest level as soon as possible. Still, suppose you are like most cleaning and restoration companies. In that case, you probably don’t have a system for training, and you don’t want the bad habits of a technician with “experience.”

The subsequent mistake business owners make is not training their people thoroughly enough. If you’re like most business owners, you are working “in” the business rather than “on” the business, and you don’t feel like you have time to train them, so they sit around and cost you money.

Therefore, you resort to putting them with someone on your team who hasn’t been trained on how to train. And letting them train with someone who doesn’t know how to train them is a problem as well. Of course, you could send them to a class, but you don’t because “training is expensive.” You are afraid you will spend money on training and certification and then lose them. Then you feel like you have wasted that money.

I love how my friend and mentor, the late Zig Ziglar, addressed that “problem.” Of course, he asked a question, which was simply, “Would you rather train them and lose them, or not train them and keep them?”

Over the past 38 years of experience building, arguably, one of the most successful and impressive high-end residential cleaning businesses in the world, I’ve made all those mistakes. But fortunately for you, I have figured out how to overcome them. Today I have a team of 33 rockstars who run my company for me. It is predictable, profitable, and turnkey.

Why? Because we have a training system.

Here’s how we do it…

We hire people without experience. We have a training system, and each team member has a performance results description. I’ve only had one technician with experience that worked out for me in almost four decades! Our inside sales reps and marketing reps never worked in our industry before. We have a system that breeds excellence regardless of experience.

Tell. Show. Watch. 

I have not only done this in my business but also coached business owners in the cleaning industry for over 25 years. I was coaching a guy who couldn’t get his techs to clean fine fabric upholstery. He was really frustrated. “Have you shown them how to do it?” I asked. “Yes,” he replied. “Have you had them do it while you watched them?” Silence. He got it.

Most often, business owners tell, tell, tell, and tell again. They might show them a couple of times, but they hardly ever take the time to watch. Humans are creatures of habit. If they learn it incorrectly, it’s hard for them to change. Years ago, I climbed on the truck with a technician at the bottom of the upsell board. We had told him. He had been shown. But no one took the time to do a “ride-along,” as my good friend Ellen Rohr likes to say.

We arrived at the first appointment. I was behind him, pretending to be his assistant. We were there to clean a few rooms of carpet. As soon as we walked in, the client threw down a Zebra skin in front of us. “My dog threw up on this last night. Can you take it out in the driveway and hose it off?” The technician had a great upsell in his hand, but he choked. After that, he literally began to stutter.

I stepped in and explained to the homeowner that we had certified master rug cleaners in our shop and that the proper way to care for the skin was in the plant. She bought the service, paid in advance, and even agreed to take it to our shop. I had the tech give her directions. Once we were in the van heading to the next job, I asked him what had happened. “I got really nervous,” he said. “Why were you nervous?” I inquired, knowing that part of it was that I was there with him. “I don’t know how to clean those,” he answered. “Can I ask you a question?” I probed. “Sure.” I pointed out how he gave the client directions to the shop. “What’s the big deal about that?” he asked. “You just gave her directions,” I explained. “And that is all you need to do when you are not the expert.”

We got to the next job, and the lady of the house said, “My husband said I can’t spend over $500 on this job.” As we did the initial walk-through, she pointed out some buckling in the carpet. That tech is actually great at repairs and simply said, “I can fix that.” He was very confident. Her bill was $750, and she was happy.

One of my top coaches was with The Dale Carnegie Institute for over 33 years and owned the Houston franchise for over 20 years. His franchise was one of the top ones in the world. He always says, “Training breeds confidence.” You see, my tech had confidence in the carpet stretching. Train your team to know what to do in every situation. Too many times, business owners don’t train their people but expect them to perform. One of our other top coaches on my team, Ellen Rohr, says, “Tracking without training is mean.” I agree.

We have developed systems that we then train people on. New techs are taken through a 40-day training program. They learn one thing each day. We have orientation first, which includes our mission, values, purpose, uniform code, on-time policy, and pay scale, and we introduce them to other team members. Then they go into the field with someone who knows the training program. We don’t just throw them out to just anyone.

Partner them with the right tech

I did that too many times — casting new hires out into the field without someone to guide them at the start. So today, we hire people without experience and put them through that 40-day training program, mentioned previously. And we make sure they are partnered with someone who knows what is expected.

I have found that some may be technically superb, but they don’t know how to be on time. They aren’t willing to be in uniform. They don’t know how to smile at the customer. They assume they know best — and now, they want to work for you.

Instead, opt for a team that gets people first and train them effectively in the ways of your company to create the dream team you’re looking for with the skills that matter most.

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In addition to classroom instruction, training frequently involves having the new employee work alongside an assigned “trainer” until they’ve acquired sufficient skills to work unsupervised. In smaller organizations, this trainer might be the owner, while in larger ones, it’s frequently another technically competent and trusted frontline worker.

All this training is good! After all, what customer wants to hire a plumber who doesn’t know how to fix a broken pipe, an electrician who can’t safely install an outlet, or a carpet cleaner who thinks it’s a good idea to use bleach to lighten a soiled traffic lane?

The challenge many small businesses encounter is becoming victims of their own success. With an increased workforce to handle growth, many then find themselves needing to hire or promote people into supervisory positions.

The part that frequently gets overlooked with technical training is that while it provides new employees with excellent instruction on performing a particular task, it does little to prepare them for advancement beyond a frontline worker role. While this has an obvious downside for the employee who wants to move up in the company, it can have an even more significant impact on small businesses when an employee falls short in their new supervisory or management role.

Too often, we don’t invest the same effort and money into developing the people who will drive the performance of the frontline staff or those who may ultimately be driving the company. While a two- or three-day workshop and lots of on-the-job experience may be sufficient to keep technical skills sharp, this is rarely the case regarding management or supervisory competence.

Becoming proficient in these roles requires not only learning new skills but, frequently, a change is needed in our behavior and our thinking about these roles. Unfortunately, this is where many entrepreneurs struggle with the rigors of training managers and supervisors for several reasons.

• Entrepreneurs are usually not good managers themselves, so it can be difficult for us to recognize the characteristics of a good manager.
• Entrepreneurs are usually not good trainers. Oh, sure, some of us can do this once. But the impatient, easily distracted, and easily bored characteristics that make us promising entrepreneurs usually get in the way of our being effective trainers.
• We promote the wrong people into management or supervisory positions. People who are like us, or family members, or our best frontline workers — not necessarily someone who possesses the skills or desire to manage others.
• We don’t give new managers adequate time to develop their management skills. Just as with technical skills, people usually get better with practice.

Developing as a supervisor or manager demands a different set of skills than performing technical work. Soft skills such as communication, listening, empathy, and coaching play a more significant role in whether or not a person will succeed. This requires a different approach to training — one more about coaching than simply performing a task.

When we discuss hiring a frontline worker, how often do we comment that we’d rather hire someone with little or no experience? We don’t want to have to break bad habits that someone with previous experience might bring to the job.

A similar principle holds true for someone moving into a management or supervisory position — or even someone we’re promoting from within the company. Without structured training in managing people, most of us learn how to manage from our previous managers. If those experiences were positive, we’re more likely to have a good foundation and model those behaviors. If our experiences weren’t positive, those are the lessons and behaviors we’ll bring to our new position.

As business leaders, we can do a lot to set new managers up to succeed by following a few simple guidelines.

1 | Start early. Stay late. Most of us consider hiring or promoting a manager after we’ve already stacked the deck against ourselves. Not only does it take longer for a new hire to become familiar with a new company or for someone who’s been promoted from within to adjust to their new role, but it takes longer for us to adjust to having someone now doing what we once did. We need to be prepared to stick with it. If this person turns out to be a better manager than we were (which should be the case and usually isn’t hard to do), then we have a whole different emotional challenge to address. If this is the case, see the last point below.

2 | Embrace the struggle. As author Ryan Holiday writes, “When we aim high, pressure and stress obligingly come along for the ride.” It wasn’t easy starting a business. What makes you think it will be any easier growing it? All growth, whether personal or professional, involves risk and sacrifice. Developing our people is no different.

3 | Delegate. Don’t abdicate. Too often, when we give responsibility to a new manager, we don’t follow up on their performance. Instead, we just assume they know how to manage. Or, when they’re getting the results we want, we don’t look further to see how they’re bringing those results. The how is just as important as the results. Short-term performance driven by fear, intimidation, or luck won’t last and is damaging.

4 | Get out of your own way. This one’s hard because we usually don’t see how we’re standing in our own way. It starts when we avoid hiring the right people out of fear, ignorance, or jealousy. It continues when we don’t get managers the training they need to become even better managers. And it can end up when we overstep our bounds and meddle in the things we’re paying them to do.

When we consider the critical role managers play in driving the success of our company, now and in the future, it only makes sense that we provide them with the best driver education available. Both their safety and our future depend on it.

The post Driver Education appeared first on Cleanfax.

For more information: 800-237-6367 |

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It takes less than five minutes to register in the Dashboard. Next, add techs and have them download the Dri-Eaz Command Center Pro app. Techs can easily set up Quick Jobs on their phones, then job details can be completed at the office on the dashboard.

After connecting devices onsite to Wi-Fi, you can monitor and control dehumidifiers and HEPA 700 air scrubbers from anywhere! Plus the app lets you remotely monitor moisture in materials with the Protimeter BLE moisture logger.

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• DUCTZ – Air duct cleaning, HVAC restoration, IAQ, dryer vent cleaning
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BELFOR Franchise Group is known for its industry-leading, expert training, and ongoing support, and DUCTZ, redbox+ Dumpsters, and The Patch Boys are backed by the same in-house resources. Expand your service offering into one of these three complementary businesses and discover the new possibilities for growth with BELFOR Franchise Group.

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