​Behind the Scenes
Perhaps I am showing my age but as a child, and to this day, I Love Lucy remains a favorite sitcom that I will never tire of. One of my favorite episodes is when Lucy, while traveling through Italy, decides to soak up some local culture in order to be cast in a small part of a movie to be called Bitter Grapes. In this epic episode Lucy joins a group of women who stomp grapes in a huge wine vat. All the women speak Italian except Lucy. Calamity ensues when she fails to comprehend the orders of the lead grape stomper. Lucy has no idea the grueling exercise involved in grape stomping and soon poops out and needs to rest after a short period of stomping the grapes. The classic fight between Lucy and the Italian boss is made more memorable because the actress playing the role of the Italian boss did not speak English and misunderstood her directions. Lucille Ball nearly drowned in the vat of grapes during the filming of that scene!
 
Although I have never attended a taping of a television show, I am quite aware of the many things that must occur off-screen. The behind the scenes actions are never seen by the audience but without the people who complete those tasks there would be no show to air. Such is the case in businesses. Take the janitorial business for example. There are producers, directors, actors, best boys and clappers but they go by different titles:

• Producer- that would be the owner of the company
• Director- that’s the manager (s)
• Actors- the most valuable of all are the professionals that clean the facilities
• Best Boys- the office staff that answer the phones and handle paperwork
• Clappers- in television and cinema a clapper produces sound effects so in business they could be likened to sales or marketing agents- they make noise!

 
Hollywood Magic
It is the expectation that the actors perform well in one take. When the office cleaning crew arrives to perform their duties they must perform on cue and in one take because it’s show time. There is no time or excuse for second takes. The client might be forgiving once or twice but they have their limits. When a client places his or her trust in a janitorial company they are doing more than issuing keys, pass codes and access cards- they are expecting a grand performance each and every time. The client has a reputation and image to maintain. They expect, and rightly so, Hollywood magic!
 
Dress Rehearsal
Just as in theatre, television or cinema the entire cast must be thoroughly prepared. Every night is opening night, debut or premiere. It’s a live performance! Everybody must know their role and that requires a lot of training. When a teacher calls in sick a substitute is called. If an actor can’t perform an understudy is sent in. Many businesses rely on temp agencies to send in people to staff offices and factories. Although careful screening is often conducted, sometimes an epic fail occurs. Such chances cannot take place in the janitorial world. While most anyone has the ability to clean it doesn’t necessarily mean they are professional cleaners. Before a professional cleaner is sent to a site some formalities should take place:

• Annual Training and Certification in areas they will perform
• Communication skills
• Drug testing - frequent and randomly
• Background checks

These are the responsibility of the employer and records and certificates should be kept on file. It would be real easy to drown in that vat of grapes if everyone did not know his individual role or failed to communicate effectively. It’s time to break a leg!

​Cleaner Workplaces  
Hiring a professional janitorial service will save you bundles as compared to paying for your own janitors. Consider their salary, insurance, and other benefits that you won’t have to pay. A professional service is a perfect way to avoid these additional maintenance and business costs. Contracting a professional janitorial service for your office is more practical since they are cleaning experts, have the necessary tools, and their own efficient ways of cleaning offices. These advantages help you achieve more.
 
Trained Professionals Provide Quality Service
A professional janitorial business can start cleaning as soon as you hire them because they are trained professionals. These professionals also know how to prioritize which areas should be cleaned first and rely on their experience to clean correctly.  They’re amazing because no matter how quick they are, they can still maintain quality cleaning. These service providers also have the right manpower to do the job in less than a day, depending on how big the office is. They have special tools and techniques to make your office spotlessly clean. Professional cleaners can ensure regular and proper maintenance to your offices.
 
Practicality
Hiring a professional janitorial company is less costly compared to the salary of having your own in-house janitors. You’ll only be paying for the cleaning service on a schedule rather than paying salaries to employees who have little incentive to work quickly and efficiently.  Hiring a professional cleaning service is indeed a lot more practical. A Day Porter is often a plus if your facility is large. IMJS can provide Day Porters as well as well as professional evening crews.
 

Balancing Running a Business and Family Responsibilities: No More Guilt
 
There is life before, during and after work. The cleaning industry is extremely competitive so I made the decision early-on to be available at a moment’s notice 24 hours a day. But that comes with a, sometimes, heavy price. But this is a burden that I, really, don’t mind.
When my children were young I worked two full-time jobs and rarely had the opportunity to interact with them. That price was the guilt I suffered from not attending school functions such as PTA, school plays, band concerts and, later, sports events. My eldest son, now 35, still reminds me of how I “abandoned” him and placed work over family.
That son dropped out of school in his junior year of high school, is unemployed, unemployable and truly believes the government owes him. He is bi-polar and uses that as an excuse for everything. Somehow, I believe, he blames me for making him bi-polar by not being available to him as much as he would have liked me to. Yes, I do feel a tremendous guilt for not being at those events but, as a parent with several mouths to feed and bills to pay, I could see the big picture and placed emphasis on financial responsibilities.
As a teacher I had after school obligations and my son was insanely jealous of my compulsory attendance to monthly school dances, sporting events on Thursdays and Saturdays and U.I.L. events. I was not present at his events so why should I be available for events at the school where I worked? It’s not easy to explain to a child whose only responsibilities were to go to school, make good grades, complete homework assignments and perform a few simple chores.
Call me an enabler, and perhaps I am, but he is now 35 and he and his wife and six children live with me. Why? As I stated earlier, he is unemployable. But I, as a grandparent, cannot allow my grandchildren to suffer as a result of their father. And with that said I will now get to the point of this blog article.
A few years ago (year 17 of teaching) I started planning my nearing retirement. Knowing that I would not be able to simply sit around the house all day without going stir-crazy or plant a garden (I don’t have a green thumb) I formed a cleaning company. I secured a couple of contracts, bought insurance and made sure to have all of the legal things in place. At the time there were only four grandchildren.
You have probably heard the nursery rhyme of The Little Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe. Well in October 2020 I retired from teaching and dedicated myself to running my company full-time. But now there are six grandchildren and many contracts. Because there are so many grandchildren I often take the three-year-old with me on cleaning jobs to take some of the burden off my daughter-in-law.
Honestly, I enjoy his company and he is my favorite. But taking him with me does bring some setbacks. He usually waits until the floors are wet and the toilets have been cleaned and sanitized before announcing that he has to go potty. He can be a pain at times but I cherish our moments together. I now have the time to devote that I didn’t have when his father was a child.
Yesterday, while cleaning a church, he wanted to show me that he knew what to do. He wanted to be helpful so he ran upstairs to turn on lights but accidently pulled the fire alarm! Suddenly lights were flashing, the alarm was deafening and the San Antonio Fire Department showed up. Embarrassing does not begin to describe how I felt when I had to call the office manager. The fire department was able to silence the alarm but needed a key to insert in the fire-pull station. The manager could not find one so S.A.F.D. had to chop into the wall and break the pipe to shut it off. The church business manager was so nice and understanding about the situation. 
Balancing work and family responsibilities is nothing new. Anybody that works, and has a family, experiences balancing of the two. What I have learned from my experiences may be different from others’ but I now carry pull-ups and will make sure to take a fully-charged tablet (and charger) on future cleanings to keep him occupied and entertained. He starts pre-k in a few months and In a few years his life will be filled with other diversions. His “Bopaw” will make certain to attend all school events of all the grandchildren. There will be no guilt this time around.
​

​Iron Mountain Janitorial | March 1, 2021 | Blog Post (Sometime I forget I’m no longer a teacher) 

A story about taking a leap of faith and believing in yourself
 
Patrick, the Great Dane puppy, was a bundle of energy. It puzzled him to no end that he couldn’t jump across the stream. Then, one day, he made an amazing discovery…
 
Jumping across the stream at lunchtime was a favorite pastime of Patrick's older brothers. They weren’t fully grown yet, but they were still able to stretch their legs and make it across.
On many occasions, Patrick attempted to jump across, but landed in the stream with a splash. Whenever he came out with his head down, his mom would say, "Don’t worry Patrick. I know you want to jump like your brothers, but maybe it's a little too soon."
 
Patrick felt sad but kept his mother's advice in mind. He landed in the stream each time he jumped, but didn’t lose faith that his time would eventually come.
One day, Patrick sat by the bank as his brothers happily jumped across the stream. As he watched, he started to wonder why he was unable to do what his brothers did. He looked at himself and realized that his legs were a wee bit shorter than his brothers' legs. "That's the reason," he exclaimed. "I just haven’t grown to their size yet!"
Patrick skipped around with excitement after discovering that his height was the only thing holding him back. He knew his legs would eventually grow much longer.
 
Two weeks later, Patrick woke up at sunrise. "There's something different about me today," he exclaimed. "I think today is my day to do something amazing!" He ran down to the stream. Without a second thought, he jumped and landed squarely on the other side.
 "I did it! I did it, mom," he screamed. His mother had come outside just in time to see him accomplish the feat. He was filled with pride, not just because he did it, but also because he persevered.
 
Moral: Believe in yourself and keep moving forward toward your goals, despite your current situation.
 
The Persevering Puppy Self-Reflection
 
The sky was the limit for Patrick. Although not being able to jump to the other side of the stream made him sad at times, he was committed to persevering. Thanks to his mother's advice, he continued to believe that his time would eventually come.
 
Think back to a time in your life when it seemed like everyone around you was doing well. When you compared their circumstances to your own, you felt cheated because your life wasn’t at the same stage as theirs. But look at you now!
 
There’s no greater joy than experiencing success after perseverance. Knowing that you didn’t give up makes the victory so much sweeter.
 
There isn’t a guarantee in life that you'll achieve what you want at the time you want it. But luckily, hard work produces satisfying results. Be patient. Use your drive and motivation to keep working towards your goals.
 
In the meantime, enjoy what life has to offer you today. Be at peace with your circumstances and give thanks for what you’ve achieved. One of the shortest routes to where you want to go is to be happy with where you are today. Gratitude brings benefits of its own!
 
Self-Reflection Questions:

1. When have I felt like giving up because I was unable to achieve my goals by a certain time?
2. How can I ensure that I am grateful for life's small blessings?
3. Why is it important to seek advice from friends and family members during difficult times?

According to San Antonio Office/Q 1 2018 our city boasts 93 high-rises- 8 of which are skyscrapers. Make that nine with the addition of the new Frost Bank Tower.
Continuing to use data from 2018 there was a total inventory of 58,686,342 sf of office space available. That inventory requires cleaning. These are submarket statistics reflecting the total of all class A/B/C buildings in San Antonio. Construction of new buildings has continued steadily but I do not have current figures for 2019.
A further breakdown of sf by class is as follows:
Class A- 16,634,071
Class B- 34,993,982
Class C- 7,058,289

My point is that there is an awful lot of office space being cleaned by a handful of large companies. A few are known nationally and at least one internationally.
From my experience it is nearly impossible to speak with or connect with the decision makers/property management of such buildings. They have long and happy relationships with their current vendors and that is good. My question is how did these huge companies initially establish such long and happy relationships?

As the idiom implies, one must be a step ahead of the competition. If the bird dawdles, the other birds will find the early-morning worms and, his catch will be difficult to find. The bird has many competitors (red, blue, brown, black, large and small) looking for survival. The same can be said for the business world.
Owning a business requires much behind-the-scenes effort. Many nights, after the grandchildren are settled and asleep, it is not uncommon for me to burn the midnight oil and actually run this business. There is much research to do in order to stay afloat and actually get ahead. There are 328 cleaning companies in Bexar County so the competition is fierce. Learning about keywords, back-links, Word Press and CSS files can be daunting but necessary. Studying the websites of my competitors has become a new norm for me. What does my competition do differently than me? Why do I receive less traffic to my website than others? These are questions that I had to find answers to.
 Not that I subscribe to Darwinism, something I do remember studying, briefly, in high school and university, but I do believe, strongly, in Survival of the fittest. It’s a dog-eat-dog world and in order to survive one must be strong. The answers were staring me in the face all along. Firstly, being I’m not an IT expert or website guru-I should let someone else handle the headache. I have since turned that over to professionals. Secondly, I observed something that really should not have been missed. Nearly every competitor (that actually had a website) claimed business hours as Monday through Friday.  Closed offices on weekend?
Availability is extremely important - especially in an emergency situation! With the Corona virus still impacting our planet it is crucial to set peoples’ minds at ease knowing they can call at any time 24 hours a day. This realization has certainly impacted my business and now I find myself scheduling crews to travel to different cities to disinfect “Big Box” stores. Yes, the early bird does get the worm!