Hard Work Not Slogans

Before deciding to come work for the family cleaning business, I covered the stock market for about eight years. During that time I learned a lot about how the corporate world, and businesses more generally, operate. For the most part, I thought there was a bunch of nonsense out there. Quote-unquote leaders who were clearly afraid to take risks, afraid to invest in the future and invest in their workers. 

Many modern companies are run by people who are not intimately involved in the day-to-day business. They’re more focused on developing marketing plans that lack substance than actually getting their hands dirty. There are some exceptions, and those companies stand out on every level. Their customers love them. Their workers enjoy working there. There’s something more there than just making money. There’s meaning. 

The last thing I want to do as I get started with Selway Cleaning is come up with some witty slogan and create a business structure where I pay others the lowest amount possible so I can vacation 10 weeks out of the year. I want to puke every time I hear some lame slogan now. I think most Americans on every level are, as Kendrick Lamar put it, “sick and tired of the photoshop. Show me something natural.” 

I knew coming into this that it was going to be a lot of hard work. It’s not always “fun” pulling out hoses to clean carpet when it’s 42 degrees and raining — shoutout Ohio. It’s not always fun cleaning an office building at 8 PM. But when you are dedicated to the hard work, not just looking to make a dollar, you can still find meaning in whatever you do. 

To be honest, I was not always that way. In fact, years ago I lost a commercial cleaning account when I worked for Selway Cleaning part time. I didn’t care enough and I was just going through the motions. That will never happen again. I have learned that it really doesn’t matter what you do in this life, it’s how you do it. And in the cleaning business, it oftentimes comes down to just caring more.

I am grateful for the opportunity to help a business behind my family name, and to all customers, current and future, I’m not just going to guarantee my best here in writing like every other company does; I’m going to show it. Our social media is going to show the work we actually did, not stock photos with stars and clip art. I’ll personally be involved in every account, not just simply sending out others to do the work for me.

As always: Don’t talk about it, be about it. See you out there.

– Josh