It is hard to describe what’s happening during the COVID-19 outbreak without seeming dramatic, but this is uncharted territory to say the least. Medical facilities have a head start in understanding how to control and kill pathogens, but what about the rest of us? Which antimicrobials sanitize and which ones disinfect or sterilize? Is there a difference? What rating system should be used to help select products that kill viruses?

With so many companies moving into the cleaning supply field in a short time, it can be hard to know which products are safe to be around humans and at the same time also reduce the chance of infection from harmful pathogens.

Sanitizing versus disinfecting versus sterilizing

As with terms like cement and concrete—“sanitize,” “disinfect,” and “sterilize” are often used interchangeably despite describing three different types of antimicrobials. According to the EPA, antimicrobials are products that “destroy or suppress the growth of harmful microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, or fungi on inanimate objects and surfaces.”

Sanitizing describes the act of reducing bacteria on a surface. It is common to have sanitizers used in kitchens and food preparation areas. Sanitizers are the weakest type of public health antimicrobial.

Disinfectants are much stronger and will kill and prevent the growth of bacteria and fungi. Some, but not all, types of disinfectants can kill viruses like HIV, respiratory syncytial virus, and coronavirus varieties. Read product labels closely to understand what to use them for and best application practices. Disinfectants are the most commonly used antimicrobial in the medical industry or where preventing bacteria and virus growth is important in keeping facilities open and operating in a healthy fashion. They should not be used on surfaces that come in contact with food.

The strongest of the antimicrobials is categorized as a sterilizer. In addition to killing live fungi and bacteria, they can also reduce the spores that create new microbes. Training and certification are usually required to handle and use these products.

Some products are a hybrid of sanitizer and disinfectant. These are useful when you not only need to disinfect an area, but also need to clean away material and residue that provide breeding grounds for new bacteria and viruses.

It also is generally a good idea to have products that are non-film forming unless there is a specific reason film would provide a benefit. The film left behind with some products may actually produce an environment that more easily captures organic material and may facilitate and encourage microbial survival. If a product claims to be viricidal, make sure it has current registry by the EPA.

Sterility assurance level and log kill rates for antimicrobials

“Sterility assurance level” is a system of measuring the probability of survival for biological matter such as a virus. As with all probabilities, the measurement is always somewhere between zero and one. This is because it is not ever possible to prove the survival of an individual microorganism is zero. Instead, the highest percentage usually ascribed to a product that kills germs, viruses, etc. is 99.99%.

In the cleaning world, the rating system for measuring a product’s efficiency in pathogen reduction is referred to as a log kill rate, and this rating can be used to measure the killing efficacy of an aseptic product or process. The following list can aid in understanding the value of each log kill rate level using one million bacteria as an example:

• A 1-log kill reduces the colony to 100,000 bacteria after a 90% reduction.
• A 2-log kill reduces the colony to 10,000 bacteria after a 99% reduction.
• A 3-log kill reduces the colony to 1,000 bacteria after a 99.9% reduction.
• A 4-log kill reduces the colony to 100 bacteria after a 99.99% reduction.
• A 5-log kill reduces the colony to 10 bacteria after a 99.999% reduction.
• A 6-log kill reduces the colony to 1 bacterium after a 99.9999% reduction.

Different log kill rates may be required for different applications. A 5-log kill rate will have a positive impact on killing viruses and is often the minimum standard as part of rehabilitating a facility from a bioburden like COVID-19. However, EPA guidelines may be higher or lower depending on facility type and surfaces where the product is being applied.

The future of cleaning

How the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve will be based on the decisions we make in responding to the demands in protecting public health. With both time and resources limited, it is even more important to make the right decision the first time around.

Many of us have had to reshape our businesses in a matter of just a few days as we confront one of the greatest challenges many generations will ever encounter. We will make advances, and we will make mistakes. Understanding the language around solutions is the first step. Understanding proper use and limitations for antimicrobials is the second.

One would be heartbroken to realize that the products they are using have been ineffective during a time in which supply shortages and no second chances are part of the battlefield. Ultimately, we will solve the coronavirus pandemic by sharing what is working and what is not and by staying engaged with each other in new ways to achieve preventative disinfection measures. In doing so we will come to be stronger together.

Chris Bennett, CSI, is a construction consultant for commercial projects in North America. He specializes in planning and constructing for whole facility life cycles, taking maintenance and cleaning into account during design development. He can be reached via email at chris@bennettbuild.us.

The post The Difference Between Sanitizing, Disinfecting, and Sterilizing appeared first on Cleanfax.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put excess stress on everyone, and our employees are no different. They are struggling with fear they might be laid off or that loved ones might die. They worry about the struggling economy. In many cases, they are having to find creative ways to care for and teach children who can’t go to school. They are venturing out every day into a dangerous world where they could get sick and not be able to provide for their families, and these stressors can lead to problems like employee burnout and disengagement.

All this is to say, remember your employees are people, too, who have all the very real concerns that you do. And no matter how hard they try to be the best possible employees right now, sometimes they’ll fall short because the stress of 2020 is a lot to bear.

Employee burnout

The pandemic has greatly heightened “employee burnout.” A recent study from Eagle Hill Consulting found burnout was up 13% from April, when quarantine stress had already increased burnout stats. Nearly two thirds of employees now express burnout, with 35% saying it’s due to pandemic stress.

With labor costs consistently the highest expenditure for businesses, and the cost of replacing employees so high, doing what we can to keep from losing employees (especially those who reliably impressed us pre-pandemic) is increasingly important.

Engagement

These are unprecedented times, so it can be hard to know smart protocols for keeping employees engaged, but there are some tried-and-true strategies to fall back on.

Regular checkups: Talk to employees frequently to watch for warning signs they are checking out. It can be easy to push check-ins to the backburner, but doing so can be detrimental. The relationships we build with employees create loyalty, which keeps them coming back, and trust, which gives them the room to talk openly with you about issues that might be making them consider leaving.

Recognize success and hard work: Now, more than ever, employees need to know their dedication is appreciated, whether that comes in the form of a shout out for a positive customer review, thank-you doughnuts in the breakroom after a busy week, or another recognition of work.

Diversifying and training: The monotony of doing the same thing every day can be trying in the best of times, but now, when home life is also monotonous (so many “extracurriculars” are unavailable due to pandemic restrictions) a little variety at work is appreciated. Consider working on some cross-training initiatives with employees to allow them to find new purpose during this time of limitations.

Allowing employees growth and learning opportunities makes them feel valued. And one positive for business owners to come from the pandemic is the availability and affordability of online training.

The Restoration Technical Institute, in collaboration with ������ý, is offering regular, live, online (with hands-on kits!) certifications in things like CCT and WRT. Visit issa.com/events for more on that. And trade shows, often cost prohibitive to small business’ employees, are now an option, as they move online too. ������ý Show North America recently converted its show to a virtual experience, which will take place November 16-19.

Shows are looking for ways to provide extra value. ������ý Show, for instance, will offer a mix of live and on-demand programs, and attendees will have ongoing access to any of the educational programs through the end of March 2021. More on the show can be found at issashow.com.

I know it’s a hard time for you, too, but remember to keep looking for ways to show your employees you appreciate their work and want to help them grow and stay connected with the company without experiencing employee burnout. Keep your team strong, and keep soldiering on!

The post Employees and Pandemic appeared first on Cleanfax.

Since becoming a flooring inspector in the early 1990s, I have been often been asked why carpet and flooring installations fail. The client or commissioning party for the inspection wants a specific question answered, and although the answer occasionally comes easily, at other times it is complicated and takes a lot of investigation and research into the flooring installation.

There is a tongue-in-cheek test an inspector must take before becoming an expert. Suppose I came to you and asked, “Can you spell ‘cat’?” Would you answer “Yes” or “Yes, c-a-t”? Those are two very different answers. My question required a one-word response. I did not ask you to spell cat; I asked you if you could.

Unsurprisingly, the questions that clients ask inspectors are not so cut and dried. Here are some examples of notable questions I’ve been asked throughout my career and how I utilized the inspection process, trusted resources, and my professional experience to answer them.

Carpet seam failure

Some cases are high profile (no pun intended), such as a flooring installation inspection I conducted in a 28-story condominium. In this instance, the recently installed custom carpet in the corridors was failing at the seams. Where the border was seamed and fitted into corners or where it met adjoining hard surfaces, gaps were visible between the seam edges, the pattern was mismatched, and the border pieces had detached from the seaming tape and were lifting up.

Gaps between seam edges are unacceptable, and although the pattern could have been matched, it appeared that the installer had made a minimal effort to do so. The carpet was lifting at the seams where layers of seaming tape overlapped; hot-melt seaming tape will not bond to hot-melt seaming tape due to coatings applied to the back.

The client asked me if the carpet been installed according to the manufacturer’s installation guidelines, the Carpet and Rug Institute’s CRI 104 Installation Standard for Commercial Carpet, and conventional installation practices. My answer was no.

Not all answers come easily. I spent hours walking the corridors with building management, performing the inspection, checking the pattern, and examining several seams. I spent even longer researching and writing the report. I came to my conclusion through education, training, and experience; through observation, examination, and testing; and by referencing installation guidelines from the manufacturer, the Carpet and Rug Institute, and standard installation practices.

Ceramic tile blowup

Another memorable flooring installation inspection occurred at a residence where the client said the blew up right off the floor, sounding as though a shotgun had gone off. Upon inspection, I found that, in the dining area of the home, the ceramic tile had heaved up off the substrate.

I asked the client some questions and found out the tile floor had been fine for years, then “boom!” Why did this happen all of a sudden? What had changed?

My approach to inspections involves looking for causation clues in the entire home or building and the environment inside and out. While questioning the client, I discovered the trees in the backyard had been trimmed the previous year. The inspection was performed in late February, a time of year when, in northeast Ohio, the sun is at its lowest point in the sky and sunlight reaches far into the home. Also, the dining area was on the south side of the home.

All these factors indicated that the ceramic tile had never before been exposed to so much sunlight (thermal energy), and because the installer had not left an adequate accommodation joint (or expansion spacing), the tile and grout had no room to expand. The result: “boom!” Up it comes—because something had to give. There is more compressive strength in drywall than in most grouts and the sheer strength of most thinset mortars.

The client asked me, “Had the tile been installed according to industry guidelines and standard installation practices?” My answer was no. I based my answer on , training, and experience; observation, examination, and testing; standard installation practices; and the EJ171 Movement Joint Guidelines from the Tile Council of North America Handbook for Ceramic, Glass, and Stone Tile Installation. This section details that movement joints are required where tile work abuts restraining surfaces such as perimeter walls and dissimilar floor finishes.

Wood cupping

During another flooring installation inspection in a home, the client was concerned that the wood floors looked like a washboard.

My mind immediately went to the fact that the home was bordered by a steep hill where water visibly cascaded down its side, and I suspected that the client had a wet basement.

The area directly under the wood floor was actually a crawl space. The walls in this area showed water seepage, and the ductwork under the floor was covered with white rust.

With no dehumidifier in the adjoining basement, the relative humidity was very high. The moisture content of the joists and underside of the was high as well.

The homeowner asked me, “Why do my wood floors look like a washboard?” If the conditions inside the home and of the subfloor where the wood floor was being installed were suitable at the time of installation, the installer, dealer, or manufacturer are not to blame for the washboard effect. I concluded that the issue stemmed from the homeowner not preventing water from seeping into the crawl space, which then created inappropriate conditions under the wood floor.

According to Problems, Causes, and Cures from the National Wood Flooring Association, cupping, or this washboard effect, occurs “across the width of one piece of the flooring material,” where “the edges are high [and] the center is lower,” and it “generally develops gradually.” Further, “moisture imbalance through the thickness is the only cause. The material was manufactured flat and was flat when installed. Job site- or occupant-provided moisture is greater on the bottom of the piece than on the top.”

Carpet seam sealer

Years ago, I performed a relatively high-profile inspection of a flooring installation at the newly opened Gund Arena—now the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse—in Cleveland, where the Cleveland Cavaliers play. About $1.5 million was being withheld from the interior finishes contract because the seams of the carpet on multiple levels of the arena were sprouting yarns, fraying, and raveling.

The manufacturer hired a carpet inspector with an installation background. The inspector stated in his report that the installer had not used seam sealer. Because the carpet had a no-edge-ravel warranty, the manufacturer was ultimately on the hook to replace it. However, knowing that the installer evidently did not use seam sealer, the manufacturer declined the claim.

The interior finishes company hired me and insisted that its installers had indeed used seam sealer and even showed me containers of the used product. After inspecting the carpet and submitting my report, I met with the flooring contractor who hired me, the general manager of the arena, several members of his staff and legal team, the sales representative for the manufacturer, and the inspector the manufacturer had hired.

During this meeting, someone eventually asked, “Was seam sealer used?” I answered in the affirmative. The other inspector said no.

I knelt down to prove my answer to him and all those present. Using a carpet awl near a seam, I pulled up the carpet to show that seam sealer had been used but that it had been applied on the substrate and that the carpet had been placed on the seam sealer. Seam sealer had indeed been used—but not according to the manufacturer’s specifications or to .

I had been asked if seam sealer had been used, and my answer was yes. I had not been asked if seam sealer had been used properly.

At that point, the manufacturer’s sales rep stepped away to make a phone call. Remember, his company was on the hook to replace the carpet because the hired inspector said that seam sealer had not been used. When the sales rep returned, he asked if the carpet could be repaired, and the arena management and legal team agreed.

I assisted the union installers with taking up the carpet on one side of the seam, applying seam sealer where it is supposed to be applied, and placing the lifted edge against the still-wet seam sealer, which chemically welded the edges together. After the installers groomed and trimmed any frayed fibers along the seam edges, management was happy, the manufacturer was happy, and the flooring contractor got their money—plus a bit extra to pay me for my inspection and labor.

Dirty carpet

Two flooring installation cases involving soiled carpet are particularly memorable. In the first case, the owner of a family restaurant said, “The carpet cleaner told me that he can’t get the carpet any cleaner and that it must be defective. I’m upset because it gets dirty within a week of him cleaning it. I can’t afford to clean it every week!” The carpet in question was a burgundy/black/tan, olefin, graphic patterned, loop-pile carpet and was glue-direct installed. As we all know, oils will bond to olefin, quickly soiling in a short amount of time.

In my second carpet case, the apartment property manager said, “We can’t keep the carpet in our hallways clean. It gets dirty so fast!” The offending carpet was a gray, olefin, loop-pile carpet and was glue-direct installed. The hallways resembled large landings and included the entrances to four different apartments.

This garden-style apartment development had entrances in the front and back of the buildings. Most people entered from the back because it was closer to the parking area. The property manager had a good entrance mat program, and I could see that the rubber tread steps were clean.

In both cases, the carpets had warranties for staining. Whenever I receive requests for this type of inspection, I perform a field test and clean a section of the problem areas following industry standards and protocols.

The offers professionals the following guidelines:

• 1 Principles of Cleaning for Textile Floor Coverings
• Principles of Textile Floor Covering Cleaning Explained
• Principle 1: Dry Soil Removal
• Principle 2: Soil Suspension
• Principle 3: Suspended Soil Removal
• Principle 4: Pile Setting or Grooming
• Principle 5: Drying

The list of cleaning protocols found within the Principles of Cleaning may appear simplistic, but this section alone takes up four pages of the standard. Carpet cleaning takes a great deal of skill, adherence to procedures, and chemistry. When I am teaching an IICRC-approved Carpet Cleaning Technician class, I spend hours discussing these principles. Each principle is broken down into multiple benchmarks for technicians to follow.

When I do field-test cleaning, I do not need to perform principle 4 or 5. In both my examples, the carpet responded well to the cleaning protocols and was perfectly restored, either matching an uninstalled sample or a section in an untrafficked area.

In the first case, even though the carpet was filthy, it could be cleaned. It took copious amounts of hot traffic lane cleaner with a citrus booster to help dissolve the grease and break the bond so it could be rinsed away (quite easily as a matter of fact).

In my second case, however, it was perplexing as to why the carpet soiled so quickly despite the existence of good preventative maintenance (entrance mats and clean stair treads). I asked about the vacuum being used and eventually tracked down the person responsible for the cleaning. I found the vacuum to be of good quality—a model from a janitorial supply company rather than a big box store. Further, the filter bag was nearly empty. This is encouraging because, in most cases, I find filter bags near the bursting point. But when I flipped the vacuum over to inspect the brush roller and belt, I found lots of fuzz and soil on the brushes, which is unusual.

I was impressed that the brushes were a good length, but when I tried to turn the brush roll, it would not turn. Upon removing the bottom plate, I found that the belt was broken—burned through, actually—because the brush roller had seized. These were important discoveries: Dry-soil removal by vacuuming is a critical preventative maintenance procedure that must be followed to maintain the appearance of the carpet and prevent rapid resoiling.

In both cases, the manufacturer asked, “Would the stained carpet come clean?” My answer was yes. The carpet was stained because the ANSI/IICRC S100 Standard and the guidelines itemized in the Principles of Cleaning section were not being followed. However, field-test cleaning restored the appearance of the carpet.

The bottom line

Even though I have been in the carpet and flooring industry for 43 years, the questions clients ask me during flooring installation inspections are not always easy to answer. Finding the answers involves questioning the client and other involved parties. It requires researching manufacturer technical bulletins, installation manuals, care and maintenance guidelines, and product-specific industry standards. It means conversing with experts in technical services departments, other inspectors, adhesive and sundry manufacturers, and chemical formulators. And it calls for field tests to finally discover the root cause of a problem. That is, precisely, how to answer the questions.

Mark Violand has been in the cleaning and restoration industry for more than 40 years. He is an IICRC-certified carpet inspector and approved instructor. His reputation precedes him as Northeast Ohio’s go-to floorcovering inspector, working for carpet, resilient, wood, and laminate manufacturers and floorcovering retailers. He teaches the Carpet Cleaning Technician, Commercial Carpet Maintenance Technician, and Carpet Repair and Reinstallation Technician courses. Contact him at mark@mark4floors.com.

The post Why Do Carpet and Flooring Installations Fail? appeared first on Cleanfax.

A highly optimized lead generation system can help your cleaning and restoration company drive sales and stay competitive even in a market where customers have multiple choices to pick and choose from. In addition, you also face two major challenges:

• Your customer journey is continually evolving. They are very aware and self-educating, so they already know what they want and from whom they want it.
• Customers today actively seek brand experiences that meet their expectations. In fact, 73% of customers are of the opinion that good customer experience can influence their decision to be loyal to a brand.

An effective lead-generation strategy, however, can help you overcome these challenges while also delivering fantastic gains in the form of increased conversions and sales to drive business revenue. If you are looking for strategies to turbo-charge your lead generation, then consider the following.

Google My Business

Setting up your Google My Business account can effectively give you access to a massive pool full of potential leads. In the digital space, Google My Business is similar to the yellow pages in the old days—it can connect you to customers who are looking for your services.

The best way to generate leads for your cleaning and restoration business is to ensure that your brand is in front of potential customers in their exact moment of need. And Google My Business can do just this. Consider the following:

• Target customers based on location: Most customers use search engines such as Google to search for products and services, and most customers focus on proximity when making a buying decision.

Using Google My Business will ensure your business shows up in search engine results pages (SERPs) and in Google Maps so that customers can quickly and easily find and locate your services.

• Highlight the right kind of information for customers to connect with you: By optimizing important information such as your hours of operation, address, contact details, and reviews, you make it incredibly easy for customers to find and connect with your brand—regardless of the device they use to find you.
• Leverage the power of reviews: Reviews matter to your customers. So, when a prospect searches for nearby services, Google will display your business listing – with those power packed star ratings!
• Win customers, even if you are not the first choice: Even if you don’t rank at #1, you can still win customers. Why? Well, consider this—if a prospect doesn’t find what they are looking for with their first or even second choice, and your brand is listed among the top searches, they will come to you. Once they show interest, you can use your brand/service differentiators to win them over.

Google search ads

Search ads can put you in front of customers who are actively looking for your cleaning and restoration service. And nothing delivers ad dividends like Google search ads.

If you want to generate quality leads for your cleaning and restoration business, then Google ads should be your first choice. There are, of course, multiple other platforms such as Bing that can help you generate leads. However, if you are looking to generate high-quality leads, then Google ads is a clear winner.

For a majority of your customers, Google is the platform of choice when searching for information on services near them. This means the leads generated on Google are pre-qualified because they already have a need they want addressed. In a lot of cases, their need could be urgent.

So, if you can run customized ads, packed with highly relevant keywords that offer solutions and answers to customer queries and problems, it can help bring in customers who not only want to engage with your brand, but there is every chance that these customers will be more than ready to convert.

Google Display Ads
(re-marketing and in-market)

The Google Display Network (GDN) has been designed to deliver visual-based ads to customers across websites, videos, and apps. More importantly, GDN offers targeting capabilities that you can use to generate leads. Consider the following:

• Run re-marketing campaigns: Target and attract customers who have previously engaged with your brand or shown interest in your business to bring them back.
• Actively engage with in-market audiences: Boost incremental conversions. The search giant uses history and browsing trends of users who are looking for products and services that match or mirror what you are offering when selecting potential prospects for your offers.
• Use managed placement targeting: Control the placement of your ads. You can specify the sites where you want your ads to show. This kind of targeting can further narrow your audience selection, thus, boosting your lead generation.
• Select the “similar audiences” targeting option: Expand your re-marketing campaign reach and push new users who have similar browsing habits to those looking into your business.

Facebook

Did you know that 74% of Facebook users visit the site on a daily basis? Tapping into that pool of potential customers using a robust lead-generating strategy should be your major area of focus. Here are six strategies for generating leads using Facebook.

• Tell your brand product/services story via highly relevant blog posts to generate quality leads. And make sure you provide readers with a signup and inquiry form.
• Engage with quality content because your target audience base will be more inclined to interact if your content is creative, relevant to their needs, and highly engaging. So, make sure your profile, groups, and pages are populated with quality content.
• Use Facebook lead ads to generate leads quickly and effectively. So how do lead ads work? Simple: You display your ads to users, and if they are interested, all they need to do is to click the call to action (CTA). This will pull up their information (shared via Facebook), which they can review/edit before submitting. You can use these forms to understand your audience better, which, in turn, will help you customize your lead generation. If you need more information, then Facebook allows you to customize your leads ads form further.
• Create landing pages that are optimized for converting leads. Make sure you have a strategy in place and focus on the design elements. These are critical if you want to attract users.
• Leverage interactive videos that are designed to capture user attention and keep them coming back for more or even to convert.
• Contests and events are again a great interactive medium for engaging users, provided they are used strategically.

Yelp

As one of the largest review platforms, Yelp can help you generate quality leads for two specific reasons: 1) It attracts a large number of visitors. 2) It can supplement your SERP ranking.

Furthermore, the site offers free registration for businesses! To generate leads via Yelp, do the following:

• Claim your listing and optimize your business information: Claim your listing and ensure you populate it with all the necessary business information. More importantly, make sure your information is updated and accurate.
• Manage your yelp reviews: If your listing features positive feedback and reviews, it can help you rank high in SERPs. Here are a few tips for this:
  • Respond to positive reviews. It shows you value customer feedback. Don’t ever forget to thank a user for leaving a positive review.
  • Don’t ignore negative reviews. You can use private messaging to address a complaint or bad experience.
  • If misinformation is being spread or you feel some information is not accurate, then don’t shy away from publicly responding to the post to clear up the misunderstanding.
• Add photos and videos to your profile: Visual content is actively consumed by customers. In addition to attracting customer attention, photos and videos can help establish brand legitimacy and trust—so use them wisely and strategically.
• Announce upcoming offers: Offers and discounts are a great way of attracting quality leads for your restoration business using Yelp.

Optimized mobile landing pages

What your mobile landing page offers by way of content and user experience will have an impact on lead generation. Here are a few things to consider when optimizing your mobile landing pages:

• Build a responsive site for multiple device types: A responsive website is critical if you want your landing pages to display in a consistent manner across multiple device types.
• Focus on design aesthetics: Everything from your color, fonts, and schemes, among other things, matter on mobile. Design aesthetics can either deliver a clean efficient look, or it can mess up your design completely.
• Create user-friendly navigation: Intuitive navigation is integral to mobile optimizing of your landing page(s). You want users to quickly and easily find what they are looking for or to take a desired action, and the best way to do this is by offering fewer navigation options. Too many options and steps will only serve to increase your bounce rate since it expands the distance between the user and their intended goal/action.
• Strategize content placement, length, and graphics: Space is a luxury on mobile screens. You obviously want everything optimized for viewing on mobile screens. Consider replacing chunks of text content with graphics that serve the same purpose, as well as, displaying important content above-the-fold (in the immediately visible area) and using appropriate sizing so users can get to what they want without having to scroll endlessly.
• Better page load speed: Google can be punishing if your site suffers from slow page load speeds. And users even more so—They won’t hesitate to move away if your site takes time to load, so don’t ignore page speed. A common culprit here is images. Make sure they are appropriately scaled for mobile.
• Use clear and effective CTAS: Concise layout, limited navigation options, and compelling graphics can enhance and optimize your mobile landing page CTAs. By ensuring your desired action is highlighted, you make it easy for users to follow through.

The fluid nature of customer behavior and expectations and an evolving market space can make lead generation challenging for cleaning and restoration companies. However, these strategies can help you drive generation of quality leads and expand your brand presence in front of your target audiences.

Sonny Ahuja, a certified Google Partner, is an online lead-generation expert who specializes in high-conversion responsive websites, optimized mobile sites, Google Ads, and SEO. He mainly helps remodeling, disaster restoration, and cleaning companies get more leads by developing their online lead-generation systems. Visit for more from Ahuja.

The post How to Generate Online Leads During These Unprecedented Times appeared first on Cleanfax.

Perhaps you’ve heard of the “business owner’s beatitudes.” Some of the more popular ones are:

• “Blessed are the owners who work on their businesses and not in them.”
• “Blessed are the owners whose businesses are not dependent on them.”
• And one of my personal favorites, “Blessed are the owners who surround themselves with people smarter than they are.”

These are all great, and most owners would agree they are worthy goals to work toward. But this is where the rub comes in: While we may be able to recite the beatitudes, many of us struggle with the reality of what to do once we achieve them.

Having worked closely with small business owners for over three decades, I can say with confidence that there is frequently a disconnect between an owner’s words and his actions.

Most businesses aren’t started by people whose lifestyles include sitting quietly on a beach with their toes in the sand. At least not in the early years. They’re started by those whose bodies are constantly in motion and whose minds are always in the “on” position. There’s no leaning on broom handles, playing solitaire on the computer, or taking the longest, most scenic route to a job. These are high-energy, impatient, and sometimes abrasive folks with a single focus and passion for the business they’ve chosen to build.

These qualities are valuable assets, ideally suited for launching and building a business, but they become liabilities when the company is older or when it’s scaling at a pace that no longer sets the owner’s hair on fire. This is when an owner’s newly found “free time” can become very costly. Because, rather than doing what we should be doing with our time, we engage in activities that we’re comfortable doing as a hands-on owner.

Unfortunately, this is not a one-time event. We experience this dilemma at various stages of our business. We see it when we hire or promote our first manager to manage the workers and handle the daily annoyances that took up so much of our time and emotional bandwidth. We experience it when our company is running smoothly; when customers are happy, workers are enjoying their jobs, projects are getting done on time, and profits and cash flow are healthy. We even experience it at the end of our career when we’re fattening the calf for market. This is when we often have extra time on our hands and catch ourselves wondering what to do with it … or doing the wrong things.

On an intellectual level, most entrepreneurs understand the need to work on their businesses. But the reality is that many of us are so addicted to being active, so fixated on our goals from years of being fixated on our goals, that we don’t know how to work on our business. So, we default to working in it.

We don’t know what to do with ourselves when we have time on our hands. While this might sound like a dream to some, it’s not to many entrepreneurs, and it can cause real angst to an owner whose sense of purpose has become blurry and who sees no outlet for their physical and mental energy. This combination can also cause a real disruption to their company.

Many entrepreneurs struggle to transition from performing tasks as a hands-on owner to leading people. But once the goals the owner worked so hard to accomplish have been met and the company no longer requires the owner’s undivided attention, it’s a needed change. Regardless of the age of the business or owner, effectively making this transition will have a defining impact on how successful the company will continue to be.

Here are some of the things we should, and should not, be doing with our time.

Stop being the firefighter

Entrepreneurs are famous for our “firefighter” dispositions. We love jumping into the middle of burning problems. Solving them is where we get our adrenaline rush, where we’re comfortable and derive our sense of purpose. Despite any complaints to the contrary, this is where we feel valued.

Once things calm down and we have time on our hands but no fires left to put out, we can feel a loss of purpose. Some of us respond by lighting matches to start more fires, stoking not only the flames, but also our own sense of value.

There will always be fires, but as our business grows, our job should transition from firefighter to fire chief. Our responsibility then is to determine how the fire started to prevent similar ones from happening in the future. It is also to lead our people as they become the firefighters, rather than battling the flames ourselves.

If we never grow beyond our need to personally fight fires, then our company and our people will not continue to grow.

Focus on opportunities

Focusing efforts on ways to increase business is the job of every founder, and it starts the day our business launches. While this responsibility never goes away, it does change as the company grows and matures.

Opportunities for growth aren’t limited to finding more customers, diversifying business, or discovering ways to operate more profitably. While these tasks are important, the responsibility for some of them is delegated to others, allowing us, as the owner, to shift our focus.

Now is the time to devote more attention to enriching the culture that’s been established within the company. This isn’t accomplished by attending a workshop or by reading a few books or web articles on culture change. It is accomplished through our daily actions, through the way we interact with our people and our customers. It happens when people see the standards of behavior that are expected within our company … and those that will not be tolerated.

For many owners, this is also an opportunity to focus more attention on what I refer to as the “them” phase of business. It’s no longer just about the owner (me), and it’s not only about building the team (we). This is when we consider the legacy of the company—its impact on and place within the community and its impact on the lives of those within the company.

It’s only natural that founders who have spent their careers building a business, making decisions, and solving problems as a hands-on owner would struggle with what can feel like leading from behind. But it’s the ones mastering this transition who end up coming out ahead.

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. To reach him, visit or call 800-360-3513.

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Sometimes a company finds itself ready to venture out into new services that require new equipment but aren’t quite ready to make a big investment in something that simply might not pan out. Other times companies are in need of certain equipment for a brief time and then will never or rarely need it again. In these times, renting might be the best equipment acquisition option.

But what key considerations should industry companies take into account when deciding whether to rent, lease, or buy new equipment? We sat down with Sunbelt Rentals Director of Flooring Solutions Adam Camhi to learn how to make the decision.

Cleanfax: When it comes to equipment acquisition, what is the difference between renting and leasing within the restoration and cleaning industry?

Adam Camhi: The landscape for when it is best to rent versus lease is becoming more site specific. If an organization is equipped to manage the total cost of ownership—including preventative and routine maintenance and unexpected service needs coupled with the downtime—then lease options make sense.

On the other hand, a rental program can be more beneficial if equipment is deemed essential 24/7/365, since quick service or critical replacement can happen. Renting is also best when equipment is needed sporadically for project work or if factors are uncertain, such as when operating on a contract in which the scope of work might suddenly change.

A couple of additional key differences between renting and leasing include:

Timing:

• Lease: Long term, 36-60-month lease terms
• Rent: Short-term or long-term options, tied to equipment only when needed

Budget:

• Lease: Included in budget as a capital expense
• Rent: Pulled from operating costs.

CF: In which circumstances is it more feasible to rent or lease than buy?

AC: There are numerous examples where rental options prove to be beneficial, such as when capital restrictions exist or markets are uncertain.

Rental options are also an asset to any cleaning or restoration business planning to grow since you can immediately scale your fleet up and down to match business demand. This can be particularly beneficial in the restoration industry, as natural disasters add a high level of unpredictability to service demand.

One of the primary drivers of deciding whether to rent or buy is around product utilization. If the equipment you need will only be used sporadically or you are doing seasonal or temporary work, rental is a great option to keep overhead costs low, reduce maintenance costs, and eliminate the need for equipment storage.

In addition, if a customer is looking to explore new service offerings or wants to try new technology for emerging needs (like air sanitization), rental also offers a more viable option than buying. It provides the flexibility to utilize new equipment without the commitment, allowing users time to decide if it is worth the investment.

CF: Which industry equipment is rented/leased most often?

AC: Historically, we have focused on the floors at facilities. Some of our most popular equipment includes mechanized sweepers and scrubbers for hard surfaces and vacuums and extractors for soft surfaces.

However, with the pandemic, we have seen a surge in the need for the full deep cleaning of facilities with an emphasis on high-touch areas. This has led to an increased demand for electrostatic sprayers, touchless cleaning systems, indoor air quality equipment and autonomous cleaning equipment.

CF: Have you seen an uptick in rentals of equipment that has been unavailable during the pandemic?

AC: We have seen rental demands increase during this pandemic, including a surge in longer term rentals on lower cost items—such as electrostatic sprayers. This demand has been stimulated by the heightened awareness of cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting matched with market uncertainty. Given our supplier network and quick action, we were able to amass a large fleet of electrostatic sprayers and other equipment in low supply during these unprecedented times.

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The customer called us to take care of this thick, blue slime (a.k.a. “unicorn poop”) on light colored carpet. We used Pro’s Choice Pro-Solve Gel and a shark comb to loosen and remove the big glue chunks. Then came the color; we used a combination of things: a spray solvent for ink removal, dawn dish soap, and lots of extraction and agitation until it was no longer visible or extractable. In the end, we had restored the carpet back to slime free, and the customer was super pleased!

For an opportunity to win a gift card worth $250, send your images and a brief 100-word description on how you obtained your results to Amanda Hosey, managing editor, at amandah@issa.com, or submit via Facebook Messenger at . Contest rules available by request.

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Most synthetic stains require using a reducing agent. You can perform a simple experiment to see for yourself: Add a reducing agent to a glass of red Kool-Aid, and watch the red disappear.

Read more at cleanfax.com/red-stain-removal.

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Risk is a very broad term. In business, risk is always present. Business owners choose daily what risk they want to retain, avoid, or transfer.

Offering a new service or taking on a new job is what we insurance nerds call taking on “risk.” Simply put, to avoid risk is to not take on the new service or job. To transfer risk is to purchase an insurance policy where they pay a small percentage of premium for the coverage amount purchased. To retain risk means that if a loss were to occur, the business would pay the loss with their own assets. The last option is unsustainable for many business owners, which is why insurance plays an integral role in the overall operation of a business.

Transferring risk

On a macro scale, offering COVID-19 services certainly is taking on additional risk in business operations. What increases the risk is that there is not enough data to predict how detrimental taking on these new operations is.

What we do know, is it is not economical to determine if a virus is present or not. It is very small and expensive to detect. Thus, we do not know if a jobsite has active viral particles present, which could cost a fortune to defend against in the case of a loss. Therefore, all jobs performed under this service need to be treated as contaminated due to the high risk of unknowns.

The natural response would be to transfer this associated risk to someone else. For example, an insurance company wherein the business owner pays a premium and, in exchange, gets into a contract with the insurance company to cover the associated risk(s). Without a hefty amount of actuarial data, insurance companies will run for the hills. Since the unknowns are too risky for them to insure the associated liabilities, it leaves business owners to retain the liability or to avoid the risk altogether.

For insurance advisors, it is scary to us that business owners are unknowingly retaining COVID-19 liabilities. The quality of liability insurance purchased for the cleaning and restoration industry is lacking. Insurance needed for the industry is some of the most complex insurance placements, period. Not only are there sneaky exclusions in standardized general liability (GL) policies that could very well deny coverage for a claim such as a communicable disease exclusion, but also, what is not mentioned in a policy could be detrimental to a business. This is largely due to the standard GL policy never being intended or created to cover risks from a viral pandemic, leaving business owners uninsured for COVID-19 jobs they take on.

In my opinion, business owners put too much trust in general insurance products at the lowest cost. This is a recipe for disaster. As consumers, we know that using the least expensive available product often leads to problems, especially when using a product in a way it wasn’t intended to be used. Why would we think it would work? The same goes for insurance products.

Insuring COVID-19 work

Properly transferring the liability risk of COVID-19 work, in theory, would make it worth risking your business for the increased revenue potential. However, it is more complex than calling an insurance advisor and asking for an insurance policy. Insurance underwriters conduct a risk analysis when determining if they are comfortable enough to offer coverage. They want to see, for example, if the key personnel have experience with similar operations, the field employees are trained and equipped with the correct personal protective equipment, the products are being applied accurately, the marketing of the services are high end, etc. If a business is not taking the increased risk of COVID-19 work seriously, the chances of obtaining the proper liability insurance is almost nonexistent.
There are, however, a few insurance carriers who are not running for the hills. They are taking a very cautious approach to offering liability coverage for COVID-19-associated operations. Knowing where to go and what to ask for is extremely complicated, as it changes every single day. Our insurance brokerage firm has been tracking the offering of associated COVID-19 liability coverage from the start of this pandemic, and the only solution we have concluded is for every business offering COVID-19 clean-up services to purchase specialized contractor’s pollution liability (CPL) with affirmative coverage for COVID-19 operations.

The additional policy is needed, as the GL policy includes a pollution exclusion; it just so happens to be the longest exclusion within the policy. I have yet to see a GL policy that does not have the exclusion. In general, the definition of a “pollutant” is “any solid, liquid, gaseous, or thermal irritant or contaminant, including smoke, vapor, soot, fumes, alkalis, chemicals, and waste.” In Florida, the courts held that someone falling ill from a virus is a viral contamination. Thus, the pollution exclusion applied, and the loss was denied, resulting in the business owner indemnifying the plaintiff with their own monies.

This approach varies by states. There has been an ongoing dispute regarding whether a virus is considered a pollutant long before the emergence of COVID-19. Being blindsided after a loss occurs is risky business. It is impossible to determine how a carrier or court system would approach a specific COVID-19 liability dispute since each one is unique. Thus, we do anticipate such disputes resulting in hefty defense costs. If an insurance carrier does not specifically affirm their intent of the policy coverage for COVID-19 work, the business owner is most likely taking on more risk than they can handle.

CPL policies were designed to fill the gap in GL policies for pollution exposures. In fact, the insuring agreement of a pollution liability policy includes bodily injury, property damage, and cleanup costs due to a “pollution condition,” the actual discharge, dispersal, release or escape of smoke, vapors, fumes, acids, alkalis, toxic chemicals, liquids or gases, waste materials, or other irritants, contaminants, or pollutants. There are varying definitions, but they are similar to this one. Over the years many of these policies have been expanded to include loss exposures such as mold and bacteria.

Because GL policies are silent on viral loss exposures, having a pollution exclusion and other environmental risk loss exposure exclusions—such as a fungi and bacteria exclusions—drive the need to purchase a CPL policy. However, even carriers who write CPL policies are not willing to provide the affirmative coverage grant for COVID-19 operations.

The coverage is extremely difficult to obtain. The prequalification includes extensive job-site experience related to biohazard work, prior training for biohazard work, and multiple certifications held by key employees. All field personnel must be trained in “The COVID-19 Pandemic: A Report for Professional Cleaning and Restoration Contractors” (Third Edition; May 28, 2020 or later), and special legal contracts are in place for virus decontamination work.

So, is COVID-19 work worth risking your business? In my professional opinion, it is a choice specific to each business and should be approached as a long-term service offering. If a business is contemplating taking on the risk without biohazard experience or training prior to the pandemic, I caution them to pause and evaluate if taking on that much risk is worth the potential reward. It would be nearly impossible to transfer to a third party when something bad happens.

Kari Dybdahl has a decade of experience in the environmental insurance industry assisting clients from carpet cleaners to municipalities. She has received multiple awards and recognition for her work placing compliant insurance for Crawford Contractor Connection members, ICRA members, and many others. As president of American Risk Management Resources Brokerage, Dybdahl designs custom insurance programs alongside Dave Dybdahl. Please reach out to Kari A. Dybdahl with any questions at 608-824-3341 or kari@armr.net.

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For carpet cleaners looking to diversify and expand their business, adding rug washing services may seem like a logical next step. While rug washing can be a solid venture, experts in the field are quick to caution that it should function as a separate business unto itself, not merely an extension of a carpet cleaning operation. Proper rug care involves a new set of skills, a new set of equipment, possibly a new location for your business, and likely a different clientele than the one your carpet cleaning company serves.

We spoke with rug cleaning experts to find out what you should know before branching out into this industry sector.

Know before you start

Rug repair being taught at an educational event. Image courtesy of Centrum Force.

As a carpet cleaner, it may be tempting to think that you already know most of what you need to start washing rugs, but Randy Hyde, a 30-year veteran of the industry and owner of Renaissance Oriental Rug Cleaning, says, “Don’t treat your rug cleaning business like it’s part of your carpet cleaning business because it’s different.”

Tom Monahan, co-founder and owner of rug washing equipment manufacturer Centrum Force, knows the importance of looking at the two skills as completely separate. He started out in the carpet cleaning industry in 1977 and didn’t beginning rug cleaning until 2005. Monahan agrees that it takes years of education and experience to develop the skills needed to wash rugs well.

For example, a rug cleaner must know about rug identification, construction, dye methods, and more in order to determine which chemicals and cleaning methods are appropriate. Rugs are often highly valuable textiles and without proper training, inexperienced rug washers can make costly mistakes that hit both your bottom line and your reputation.

A successful rug business begins with a commitment to education and building a strong foundation of knowledge specifically about specialized rug services and equipment. Robert Mann, owner of Robert Mann Rugs in Denver, started as an apprentice in the industry in 1978, learning to restore and reweave damaged rugs. He researched cleaning at the library and began washing in his bathtub. For those new to the industry, Mann suggests spending at least two to three hours every day reading or taking classes.

Monahan says rug washing is not a business to jump into lightly and that there is much for potential owners to consider and become knowledgeable of, including the skills, space, and marketing needed to be successful. You can also diversify beyond rug washing into retail, restoration, and repair, as both Mann and Hyde have, but these areas require additional training and education.

Find your clients

One of the ways a rug washing business differs from a carpet cleaning business is in clientele, so it is important to ensure the demographic in your area would support a rug cleaning operation. Specialized rug services are typically marketed to wealthier clients who have made an investment in a quality rug and are equally willing to invest in the proper care of that rug. Depending on your service area, this pool of clients might not significantly overlap with your current carpet cleaning clients.

Mann advises that before ever starting the business, cleaners should do research on the potential pool of customers by looking at zip codes and home prices. In his city of Denver, he found that most rug washing customers own houses that cost more than $500,000 (this number will of course vary based on the real estate market and cost of living in different cities), so he looked at neighborhoods with a high concentration of houses in this price range to determine his potential pool of clients. Mann stresses that this research is an important step because some locations simply may not have the client base to support a rug washing operation.

If you already operate a carpet cleaning service, connect first with your residential or commercial clients who may have rugs to wash. Hyde adds that it’s also a good idea to engage with rug retailers and restoration companies in your area, as they may be willing to refer customers or subcontract work to you. Monahan suggests that towns with universities, medical centers, and professional businesses are also good candidates for a successful operation because these businesses tend to support a demographic that is likely to take advantage of rug cleaning.

Cost

A top question when exploring any new business venture, of course, is the cost to get started. How much initial capital will you need to start a rug washing business? Can you do it on the cheap?

“The short answer is, ‘sure,’ absolutely you can do it on the cheap,” Hyde says. After all, he started his own business with little more than a bucket and a scrub brush, but it comes at the cost of time and effort. “The cheaper you get, as a general rule of thumb, the more time and labor it’s going to take, so you actually are inherently less profitable.”

It’s possible to start small with less expensive equipment, but ultimately you will be limited by that equipment and may struggle to scale your business and become more profitable until you are able to invest in more efficient equipment. It’s possible to start a rug washing business for $10,000 to $20,000 for something very small and limited, but if you want room to grow and scale, those numbers go up very quickly.

Rug wash floor during an educational event hosted by Robert Mann. Image courtesy of Centrum Force.

Mann says you can expect to spend $100,000 to $300,000 to set up a mid-sized plant that is prepared to wash 3,000 to 4,000 square feet a week because you need more real estate, more water, more power, and big-ticket equipment.

It’s important to know where you’re headed and what you want out of the business before you start so that you can invest accordingly, Monahan explains. Those entering the rug washing arena need to decide if this is just a side hustle or a business that will expand. Think about what you will need a year down the road and even five years down the line and let the business plan drive your purchasing so that you avoid spending a lot of money on equipment that is unlikely to serve your long-term goals.

Location

Since one of the most expensive elements of a rug washing business is the real estate it takes to operate, many potential owners wonder if it’s possible to start the business at home, using real estate you already own. It is possible; both Mann and Monahan started their businesses at home, but it’s challenging.

A Star Rug Cleaners technician loading a rinse wringer. Image courtesy of Centrum Force.

Monahan first operated out of a 1,200-square-foot pole barn, but this set-up limited the size and volume of rugs he could service. Hyde, who today operates a larger-end wash plant at 7,000 square feet, points out again that saving money on the location comes at the cost of time and labor, ultimately limiting profitability. He explains that rug washing and drying requires a good deal of space, and even if you can make it work at home in a garage or other space, you will likely spend a lot of time maneuvering the equipment around.

Having a dedicated space with a functional layout becomes important if you want to do a significant volume of business. Mann explains if you are washing 800-900 square feet a week, you can do it with a smaller, cheaper operation and can make good revenue if you work in a market where the rates are high enough. However, if you want to move up to washing 3,000 to 4,000 square feet a week, it’s nearly impossible to do that volume with a smaller operation. He says, “Making that scale jump is very tough because it takes either credit or capital, and a lot of people haven’t got that.”

As for what type of location is needed, Mann explains that a visible location is expensive and not necessary for this type of business. He suggests choosing an industrial location with high ceilings and plenty of space and power to create an efficient operation with the right equipment.

Business model

Another aspect of planning your rug washing business is to determine your precise business model. What kinds of jobs will you take? Who in your company will do the work? Which tasks will you delegate, and which will you do yourself?

The experts say it depends on your own goals and preferences, but they agree that it is beneficial for the owner to start out on the wash floor, performing all the tasks. As the owner, you should know everything about the rug washing process, so don’t start delegating until you build your own expertise.

“I have seen wash operations where some guy on the wash floor knew a whole lot more about the process than the guy who owned the company, and that always seemed dysfunctional to me,” Mann says. The owners we spoke to started out doing all the grunt work out of necessity, but as their businesses grew, they moved into more of a management role.

As for which types of jobs to take and which to subcontract out, the experts say that depends too. It can be smart to contract out some jobs in the beginning because it takes time to develop all the skills needed to run a successful, full-service rug washing business. While you are acquiring the necessary equipment and experience, consider contracting out the jobs you don’t yet know how to do while focusing your business on the skills you’ve mastered. The last thing your business needs is a dissatisfied customer because you took on a job you weren’t prepared for.

Additionally, Hyde points out there may be a strategic reason to contract out certain kinds of work depending on your business model. If a specific type of job slows down the rhythm of your wash plant or requires specialized skills or equipment that won’t pay off for you in the long run, you may simply choose to always contract out those isolated jobs in order to streamline your operation.

Note: Hyde says one common mistake new rug washers make is not being well-organized. He has seen operations where a new owner starts taking in rugs for cleaning without a system in place for ensuring the right rug always makes it back to the right customer. As business volume increases, this can become a huge problem. Hyde recommends a system of tagging rugs when they come in and tracking them as they move through the wash plant and return to the customer. He adds that organization isn’t just about the rugs; new owners need systems to organize their accounting, marketing, and all aspects of the business.

Final tips

Hyde, Mann, and Monahan have more than 85 years of combined experience in the rug cleaning industry, so with all that they now know, we asked them what they would have done differently early in their careers.

Hyde and Mann both said they would invest more in their businesses sooner, such as buying the equipment or real estate needed to scale their business. “I would have taken bigger risks sooner, spent more money sooner, bought more real estate,” said Mann. “Rug washing doesn’t necessarily provide such a fantastic source of revenue, whereas over the long run, investing in equipment, real estate, and people will pay you back.”

Monahan agrees that strategically placing your rug plant can mean that the real estate investment itself becomes your retirement plan more than selling the rug washing business.

Amy Hughes is a freelance writer who has worked with Cleanfax for more than two years and has worked as a writer and editor for more than eight. Reach out to her at amylynn.alh@gmail.com.

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