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Clean Team
Bob Armbruster
By
Rod Brandt |
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He
was all of 18 years old when he became an entrepreneur.
“I was so naïve and young, it just happened,”
said Bob. “I was still living in my parents’
house, so I set up an office in the basement and filled
their garage with cleaning supplies.”
“I tell my customers no matter how big I get,”
said Bob, “if need be, I’m going to be
the one out there with a broom and a dustpan. I’ve
done it before; it’s not above me. And, at the
end of the day, it’s my customer.”
It’s not an easy thing, starting a business.
Many would say it’s more perspiration than inspiration.
In some cases, like Bob Armbruster, it also helps
to be a little green. He was all of 18 years old when
he became an entrepreneur. “I was so naïve
and young, it just happened,” said Bob. “I
was still living in my parents’ house, so I
set up an office in the basement and filled their
garage with cleaning supplies.”
That was 12 years ago. Today, Clean Team, Inc. is
a robust company providing an array of janitorial
services, including general office cleaning, floor
stripping and waxing, carpet cleaning, and window
cleaning. The business also provides supplies, such
as soap and paper towel dispensers. “We try
to be a single-source supplier for our customers–anything
related to the janitorial industry,” said Bob.
“We want to take our customers’ headaches
away, and we know better than they do what they need.”
Business is good for Clean Team, and the business
is growing at a sustainable rate “I enjoy growth,”
said Bob. “I’m the kind of person I don’t
like to come into the office if everything is just
going to run smooth. If we’re not growing, I
get antsy. I enjoy working on the growth, the marketing
and just talking to people, meeting people.”
Bob got the idea for his business while working for
a magazine company, a job he had taken right out of
high school. “I made a sales call on a guy up
in Michigan who owned a cleaning company, and just
started picking his brain,” said Bob. “I
had a few phone conversations with him. One thing
led to another. I bought a few vacuums and started
knocking on doors.”
He still remembers his first customer–a small
business on Southwyck Boulevard. “I think it
was the second door I knocked on, and I got a customer,”
said Bob. “I thought that’s pretty good
luck. The next day it didn’t go so well. I just
kept knocking on doors.” He made sales calls
in the mornings and serviced his accounts at night,
and within two years was able to hire his first employee.
Having another person share in the cleaning freed
Bob up to do more marketing, and they quickly established
a sizeable number of small-business clients.
“We learned as we went,” said Bob. “And
we grew, and we grew and we grew. We got to a point
where the references are good, we were growing even
more. So that’s when I brought on some management,
and we’ve grown each year from there.”
With additional personnel to build the organization’s
infrastructure, Clean Team started going after larger
accounts, and then things really took off. “We
got outside our comfort zone,” said Bob. “We
were comfortable with cleaning those accounts three
times a week or the smaller buildings. Once we landed
that big one and we were able to execute it …
we said, ‘Well, let’s do it again; let’s
do it again.’”
Growing quickly is great for the bottom line, but
it also presents challenges–in the hiring process,
for instance. “Sometimes you grow really quick
and you need people and the first thing you want to
do is grab up anybody that’s out there,”
said Bob. “I’d rather go out and clean
a building or have my managers do it than hire the
wrong guy, have them screw up and lose the account.
We take our time. It takes us longer to find that
right person, but once we find them, they stay with
us.”
Bob’s dad, himself a veteran of the industry,
joined the company within the past year, giving father
and son the chance to work together on a daily basis.
“It was a bit bumpy at first because we’re
both used to being in charge,” said Bob, “but
we defined our roles here and we’re knocking
out new customers left and right.”
Bob has worked hard to build his company and hopes
to continue expansion. His utmost concern, however,
is maintaining quality service. He has seen too many
companies grow large, only to forget what made them
successful. “Sometimes bigger in our industry
is not better,” said Bob. “The top guys
lose interest in the business, and they go on to do
other things and they assume that things are being
done the way that they always had been. That’s
the wrong attitude. You have to have your hands in
it no matter how big you get.”
He vows not to make the same mistake. “I tell
my customers no matter how big I get,” said
Bob, “if need be, I’m going to be the
one out there with a broom and a dustpan. I’ve
done it before; it’s not above me. And, at the
end of the day, it’s my customer’s satisfaction
that matters most.”
CLEAN TEAM, INC.
Bob Armbruster
4731 South Avenue, Unit 4
Toledo, Ohio 43615
Phone: 419-868-3993
Website: www.cleanteamclean.com
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