SPEAKER_06 0:21

I see Neil Glory and Travis joining as well. Um, I think I tell you all this every week, but just in case you don't know, turn your mics and camera back on just in case because it flips us off when we there we go. Perfect. Hello, welcome, welcome. Nice to see you guys. Thanks for joining today. Um, this week we have Jeff, and Jeff is in Blue Ridge, Virginia. He is going to get us started by giving us his background and tell us a little bit about him. And then you guys please feel free to jump in and either just come off mute and ask your questions directly or raise your hand whenever works for you. And we'll make sure that you guys come and get all of your questions answered today. So thanks for being here. And Jeff, go ahead and kick it off.

unknown 1:06

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:07

So yeah, my name is Jeff Gilley. I'm one of the franchisees for uh the Blue Ridge Territory, which is uh Roanoke, Virginia. That's our home office. Um our territory goes up to Winchester, out to Lynchburg, and even out to Martinsville, Danville, and the surrounding areas. Um, before citywide, I'm from the northern Virginia area. Um, in Northern Virginia, I started kind of my sales career working for a speakers bureau, uh, working with the managing keynote speakers like you know, Pate Manning, Barbara Corcoran, Damon John, business leaders like that, and then great life subjects from films like Catching You Can, 127 Hours, um, inspirational films like that. Uh, met my wife in 2019, moved down to Richmond and found citywide. Um, was in the Richmond Citywide location for about two or three years. Um, I was the top uh janitorial sales executive in the country in 2022, um, which led Chris Sweeney, who's the majority owner of Richmond and Blue Ridge, to approach me about opening uh location in Roanoke. And given my wife is from Roanoke, we have lots of connections, you know, friends and family down here, it was a pretty easy decision. Um, so we opened in 2023 and things have been really good so far.

SPEAKER_06 2:22

Awesome. Thank you, Jeff. I appreciate that background. I'm gonna kick it off right now because I was on a call earlier this morning and we talked a little bit about sales executives, retention, base compensation, um, plus plus bonuses and all things like that, and just how you're finding the right people and how you're retaining them. So I'm wondering if you can just go ahead and start us off with that, um, talking about all things first hire and sales executives.

SPEAKER_05 2:50

Yeah, so our first hire was actually a very good hire. Um, she was a very good sales executive, uh, did very, very well, probably brought in an average of about six grand per month. Uh, but due to some reasons outside of our control, um, we had to let her go. She was working a second full-time job and working with us. I don't know how she was doing it, but she was doing it. So we unfortunately had to let her go. Um, the second SE was just a bad choice. I think we were looking to hire someone too quickly. Um, we had to let go of her, but our third SE, his name is Jeff. Uh, he's done a fantastic job. He's averaged about between five to about $10,000 a month in sales. Um, his first sale was with a big surgery center and was actually the biggest first sale for any sales executive in the country. Um, so I think we learned a lot from our first two. Um, I think I probably tried to let the first two go and kind of be on their own too soon. Um, but with Jeff, I made sure I rode along with him every day for the first three months, uh, shadowed call blocks um every day for the first few weeks, uh, gave him feedback, and I think that's what really helped. So I was just a lot more hands-on with our third SE, and I think that was uh the big difference.

SPEAKER_06 4:06

Awesome. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_05 4:08

Actually, I didn't cover compensation. Uh, we pay our SEs between you know 50 to 60 a year, and then they get 65% of everything that they close. Um, we used to do like a tiered, so if they sell between, you know, 1,500 to 4 grand a month, they get this percentage. If they sell four to six, they get this percentage, kind of so on and so forth. But we just it was a lot of work to keep track, and you know, the SE's always had questions about it. So we just made it a whole lot easier and said, hey, you get 65% of everything that you close.

SPEAKER_07 4:51

Hey, Jeff Gilly, and uh you guys be thinking of some questions for this guy because where he rocks it out is sales. Maybe talk a little bit about um why Chris Weeney gave you the opportunity he did and the great things you did in Richmond. And don't be humble. Be don't just be honest.

SPEAKER_03 5:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:14

So um I really started sticking when I first got to Richmond, I didn't really have a schedule. I was just kind of going with the flow and trying to each day was this was not very organized. So we started implementing a pretty strict schedule. So we made Mondays and Wednesdays are call days, Tuesdays and Thursdays are field visits and appointments, and then Friday was just a flex day. And with the different KPIs that we put into place, it was a thousand phone calls a month, uh 12 to 15 meetings per month, and then four to six booked deals per month. So that should average about 7,500 closed per month in new janitorial contracts. Um, I think the previous record was 288 in a year, and I did 326 just because I stuck to that schedule. I didn't move off of it ever. Um, and if clients wanted to meet at a time when I had a call block, unless they were like a top account that could generate you know $50,000 a month in contract revenue, I was not meeting with them. So stuck to that schedule, didn't change it at all for hardly anyone except for like top 10 accounts. Um, and something else I did was every single Friday, no matter where I was within the week, I started the uh every Friday with 40 calls. Just because that gives me a lot of flexibility going to the next week. So, for example, if I you know start my first call block on Monday and the biggest private school in Richmond, I quoted, was like 50, 60 grand a month. If they're available one Wednesday at 10 o'clock, that call block gave me some flexibility where I didn't have to worry about making that up later that week. So I started implementing that as well, and it worked really well just because it got me ahead for the next week, but it also sometimes got me some really great appointments. You know, people are feeling good on Fridays, and sometimes they're more willing to talk to you.

SPEAKER_11 7:12

What verticals did you focus on in those first that first year? And what were some of your uh approaches in the doors?

SPEAKER_05 7:20

So our best verticals are you know, medical, manufacturing, logistics, um, any standalone building over 10,000 square feet. But you know, I mostly focus on medical and um manufacturing, and it was basically just following the model. I didn't do anything differently, I didn't change the 30-second commercial, I didn't change anything. I just went into it with the training and lots of internal looks that I made. Um and I didn't change anything. I just went in, did the pitch, and you know, success followed.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

So I I have to ask you a question. Can you hear me? Yes, I can hear you. You burned through your metric so fast, I couldn't grab a pen and paper. Could you go through those one more time? I was like, if I'm gonna be disciplined, I want to follow this guy. And if I'm like, you you yeah, you were just so fast. If you could say those again, I'd really appreciate them. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 8:16

So a thousand cold calls a month. It was somewhere between a hundred to a hundred and fifty in-person cold calls per month.

SPEAKER_05 8:32

Richmond was a pretty spread out territory. So some days I might have been in downtown Richmond and could get 50 done in a day. But if I'm I was going up to Fredericksburg, which is an hour north of Richmond and a little bit more spread out, I might only get 10 to 15. So I really looked at the field of physics metric as kind of a month metric, not as so much a weekly metric. Um, and same here in Blue Ridge, we're just so spread out that it's hard to stick by that number weekly when the territory is so spread out. And then for meetings, uh 12 to 15 meetings a month, and then four to six closed deals a month.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Well, and did you do it like I like the Friday thing? I I didn't even think about that, but that sets you up for the next week. Did you do anything else kind of like that that sets you up for success so your flow of lead generation just kept going?

SPEAKER_05 9:32

Um yeah, something I did when I first got to Richmond is I basically got a client list of who do we currently work with. And I went to that client in my territory and I just looked around and started knocking on doors. Uh so I basically started with you know who's paying us currently in different areas and just going and knocking on doors and asking for referrals, uh, but first making sure the cleaning's going well with our FSMs. Um so yeah, mostly focusing on where our current customers are and trying to grow business in that area. Um, but the most important thing is sticking to that schedule. Um, you know, Chris and I basically say the two most important things are activity and attitude. If you have those two things as a sales executive, there is no chance you will not be successful here. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

And did you find, real quickly, and then I'll be quiet, did you find that like door knocking or phone calls was, you know, what's like percentage of success rate? I don't know if you found some elasticity associated with what you were doing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:34

Um I can be a lot more effective in person, um, mostly because there's a lot of creative ways just to get in the building and get some information. Um, I can certainly book more appointments over the phone, uh, but I'm I'm I'm a lot more effective in person.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

Great.

unknown 10:54

Cool.

SPEAKER_06 10:54

Jared, ask ask all the questions you want. No need to be quiet.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

No, I appreciate that. I take up the whole meeting, truthfully, so I'll give somebody else a turn for a minute. Thank you, Savannah, though. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_10 11:06

Of course. Can you talk a little bit about how you attack a spread out territory and what you know, multiple locations? Is a lot of a lot of farmland. Like I don't really know your layout, but uh I'm gonna feel like my territory is similar.

SPEAKER_05 11:21

Right. I think the most important thing is time management. So if I have one appointment in Lynchburg, which is probably about an hour away from us, it really doesn't make a lot of sense to go out to Lynchburg for one appointment. So what I tried to do is I have a six-week rolling calendar that basically says I organized all of my zip codes into what has the highest concentration of buildings over 10,000 square feet and what has the least. And then I prioritize those zip codes into a six-week rolling calendar so I know where I'm gonna be at all times throughout the next six weeks. So if I get in on a Monday and I see, okay, I'm gonna be in Lynchburg in three weeks, that's pretty spread out. So I'm just gonna focus on calling and booking appointments because there's nothing worse than traveling an hour just for one appointment and just doing door knocking. Unless it's a you know, Liberty University is in our territory and could be endless JS and OS opportunity, then okay, I might go for that. So it's mostly time management, making sure you have lots of meetings booked in faraway areas so you're not just going for one. Um that was that's probably the one thing I really focus on is time management and making sure I have lots of appointments for far out areas instead of just one.

SPEAKER_04 12:39

That's great advice and great organization. Thanks, Jeff.

SPEAKER_11 12:44

What are some of the most common bottlenecks you faced when it comes to growth?

SPEAKER_05 12:51

Since our territory is so spread out, I see resources, you know. Since I've moved in kind of to this role, I sell with much more like operation, operations in mind. Whereas when I was enrichment, I was just hey, let's close it and move on to the next one. But especially when I started, I had to think completely differently about it. And I had to walk away from a lot of contracts because it's you know, I couldn't handle this. I don't have a contractor who can clean a you know 10,000 square foot surgery center. Like that's that's just not going to be set up for success. Um, so a lot of it is your independent contractor resources when when you first start. It's you know, trying to focus on smaller stuff because what I found for smaller stuff is it's harder to get rid of you, and there's sometimes a lot more OS opportunity. You know, a lot of people are calling on these big, you know, Abbott, Cisco, these huge companies, but then those companies have national contracts for consumables, they have national contracts for landscaping, they have national contracts for everything that we do. So the you know, the bar to get into these smaller accounts is not as high, and then you can do a lot more with them, so it's harder to get rid of you. So I think when I first got here, a big challenge for me was I'm used to going after the big stuff as a SEO executive, and I have to completely change my way of thinking.

SPEAKER_11 14:12

That's great. If I could have a follow-up to that, it would be what was your, you know, you you shifted your mindset from small to or big to large. What would you say was your underlying success for your first year? I'm gonna be walking into a new market, right? And um opening a new market. So with that said, large metropolitan, but there's a lot of pocket communities around, right? No one knows who we are. What's the advice you would give me? And what was your mindset going through your first year?

SPEAKER_05 14:38

Well, to be honest, we did not have a great first year. Um, we lost a big staffing contract where we kind of started in Richmond. It was staffing with a senior living home. So we had like 15 people in each of these senior living homes, and their budgets just got slashed. So we lost that. We started a big surgery center that we just were not ready for. Um, so to be honest, it was not a great first year. And that lesson from the surgery center really taught me a lot about okay, let's refocus and get back to the basics. So after that, we really got back to focusing on the basics. I went through all the training again in like three days and just focused on the basics. Because when I first got here, I was like, hey, let's go, go, go. But then I got too far ahead of myself, and that cost us to lose some business. So I just re-watched all the training, focused on the basics, and with every new account that I got, I was very intentional about, okay, now we need to do this. Okay, that's done. Now we need to do this, okay, that's done. Um, so I think just being intentional about following the model and not appearing too too far away from that.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Thank you.

SPEAKER_10 15:55

You know, starting out uh what was too big for you to manage, what was manageable year one to two building IC basically.

SPEAKER_05 16:04

Yeah, so that surgery center, um, it was terminal cleaning. I'm not sure if y'all are familiar with that, but it's one of the most specialized things that you can do. And I just didn't have the ICs for it. So basically an average account is probably gonna be 1500 to 2500 a month. Would you say that's about right, Paul? Yes. Yeah. So I tried to focus on those, and then I set a minimum for us. So any minimum for us is 1250 a month. Doesn't matter if it's one, two, three, four, five days a week. Um, just because I can't find people to clean for anything less. Um, so I really focused on the 1250 to 225 or $3,000 a month accounts. Um, and just based on my experience in Richmond, I just driving around, I just kind of knew what those were, um, which you guys will learn in time, but I just focused on those core accounts. And if something big came my way, I really sat down and thought, hey, can I do this? And I'd actually bring independent contractors into the office and say, hey, I've got this opportunity. I didn't give them the client name or give them much information, but I showed them some pictures, I showed them the scope of work, I said, here's how many square feeds it is, you know, here here's how many people we think it is. He it needs, can you fulfill this? And I would only move forward with the contract if they said yes. Or sometimes, if it was something really large, I would actually bring independent contractors through before I got the contract and said, This is what we're dealing with. Can you fulfill this?

SPEAKER_01 17:41

So as a follow-up to that, you don't bring the contractor on the job site to like bid it out, maybe for some of your OS stuff, but more like you just take pictures and then talk about it over online through email on a phone call, something like that.

SPEAKER_05 17:57

Typically no. Um, but if it's something very big that I'm working on, then I I don't want to commit to something really large if I'm not confident in fulfilling it. Yeah. For example, I'm working on something now. It's fifty thousand dollars a month for a medical device company. They make pacemakers, they have clean rooms, there's a mix of night cleans and day porters. It's it's just a really big job for a really high-profile account. And so I brought in three to four independent contractors into our office, said, hey, here's what I'm dealing with. Can you fulfill this? But I only do that for very large opportunities because I don't want to get something very large that's 50,000 plus a month. And then, you know, for one, something that large, you have to think, how am I gonna fulfill it? And two, you have to think, what if I lose it? Because that just cripples you, right? That just sets you back so far, right? Because an account like that, I could hire two people, two, three people potentially, just off of that account alone. So you really have to think for opportunities that large. What if I lose it and how am I gonna fulfill it? So only for opportunities that large am I bringing independent contractors through before I even get the contract to see if they can fulfill it.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

That makes sense. I was curious uh about two questions, if uh that's okay. One on revenue, like what are your one to two year like ramp up numbers? If you could talk about that, if it's not prying too much, and then also like where are you currently at right now? Um, and then also the percentage of like the breakdown, how much are you doing in JS, how much are you doing in OS, um, in both reoccurring, and then how much are you doing in like OS one-time-based project stuff?

SPEAKER_05 19:42

Great question. So, year one we did 4 million, but a lot of that was due to the staffing, and that just killed us. Um, we've rebounded, we're probably gonna finish shy of three this year. So staffing is just so up and down that it's we can't really, it's it's hard to manage.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

But which year you said you're gonna do three this year. What year are you in right now? We're in year three.

SPEAKER_05 20:08

Year one, we did about four, and we're still recovering from the staffing losses. Um, so we just crossed 200,000 in recurring janitorial revenue. In the beginning of the year, at the beginning of the year, we were below 100 grand a year in recurring revenue. So my new sales executive Jeff has really made a huge difference, and I've gotten a few big accounts here and there. Um, when we first started, we were probably doing about 40 grand a month in recurring revenue, um, janitorial revenue, but a lot of that was from um accounts that were already established in national accounts. So uh the Greensboro office was selling and managing stuff in my territory, and we just inherited it. Um, so yeah, we just crossed 200, and then if all goes according to plan, we could be at 300 by February. So a lot of monthly growth. Um, thanks. It's you know, sticking to that schedule. Um, OS has been a little bit of a struggle. Um, when we first started, a lot of our focus is getting the cleaning right. And you know, you need to you need the independent contractors to get the contracts, but you know, you also need the opposite. And when you first start, you're kind of working with people that you never worked with before. And so sometimes it was a challenge getting the OS up and running because the cleaning wasn't where it needed to be. So we've probably done in the beginning, we were probably doing because our staffing was so high, our OS percentages were very high. But when you took the staffing out, it was probably about 20 to 30 percent. Um, and we've kind of hovered around that area. So I'm trying to maintain that 30 to 35 percent of our janitorial revenue per month, and we've really made some changes in our kind of walkthroughs and processes to really position ourselves as that full, you know, one stop shop. For new contracts. Um, and it's things we're still perfecting.

SPEAKER_03 22:04

So cool.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

And do you do a lot of like one-time-based project stuff at all?

SPEAKER_05 22:13

Um, not a lot. We got a contract to for window washing and pressure washing at Liberty University. It's a $400,000 contract doing about 26 buildings twice a year. Um, so that's probably our biggest like one-time project. Um, a lot of citywide locations have a what we call complete building specialist. So they go out and sell those sort of one-time projects. Um, we tried hiring someone, they were just they were just not a good hire. We originally had to let them go. Um and we done about there was a customer we did about $90,000 worth of handyman last year for them alone. Um, so we might look into hire look to hire someone for that position again. Um, but a lot of cities do have those sales executives that go out and sell those one-time projects. So we don't do a lot of it. We kind of take leads as they come in and leads that are janitorial SEs generate and kind of take things selectively. Um, you know, we just don't do a ton of one-off stuff.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

That's okay. Just curious, just trying to get a feel for it.

SPEAKER_02 23:22

Uh hi Jeff.

SPEAKER_09 23:23

Uh just a quick question. Um, you you talked about the issues with staffing. As you were growing, and I I know the growth can be kind of up and down, and that's probably part of the problem or the the challenge that you face. Did you kind of devise your own model and your own kind of jobs and job descriptions uh and decide when to hire people based on your own needs? Is it or is there kind of a is there like a citywide model that you can follow that says at a certain uh revenue or a certain number of um contracts you want to hire a person that does this kind of work? Like how do you navigate that?

SPEAKER_05 24:01

Great question. So it's a little bit of both. So citywide does have a basically plan you can look at and say, okay, at this much revenue, I should be have this many FSMs, this many managers, so on and so forth. So according to that plan, we need to hire our second janitorial SC by February based on growth. Um I think we're kind of at that staffing point of like our revenue is what the citywide model recommends. Um, so we're following that to the best of our ability. But then for job descriptions. Sorry, by the way. For uh for job descriptions, we get a lot of help from um a person named Morgan Nivera in our Richmond office. Um the leadership in Richmond and Blue Ridge is the same, and so people in Richmond are helping me out a lot with like accounting and hiring. So Morgan will put together the job descriptions and kind of use the same for both markets. And she handles a lot of the like first screenings for me, and then they get past uh my office admin, and then I interview them and they spend a day in the field with our with our people uh before we decide to move forward with them or not.

SPEAKER_09 25:11

Also, um early on, I I guess you're probably wearing all the hats, but over time do you find um has it been your experience yet that there's kind of a shift where you are managing more your own people, your own managers than you are managing contractors? Um and like when does that kind of happen, I guess?

SPEAKER_05 25:31

I think it really happened when we got our second FSM because when we only had one, he was managing close to $200,000 in recurring revenue. When a single FSM should really manage between 100 to 115, 150 at the max. And so I was really helping out Zach and kind of holding his hands through a lot of stuff, like, hey, and having daily recaps with him about where are we having trouble, where do we need more ICs. Um, but now that we added our second FSM, I'm driving around with all of them, and then I get back at three 233 and I have 50 emails to go through. So I'm still adjusting and figuring out how to best manage my day and my schedule to where I can get my stuff done while I'm driving around with them, coach them up, and you know, finish the day, you know, with everything I need to accomplish. Um so once I got that second FSM, that's when it really changed to okay, I'm really managing people now. And Sergio in Richmond helps us out with independent contractor recruiting. So I delegate a lot to him of hey, we need more people in this market. Um so yeah, that did that answer your question?

SPEAKER_02 26:42

Yes, it did. Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 26:47

Hi Jeff, I have one um for you. Just curious, with I know you mentioned some stats early on about the like 1,000 calls per month and then 12 to 15 meetings per month, four to six closed. Have you noticed something like have you noticed a difference in your close rate based on like changes in how you approach these meetings, or is it like representative FSM specific? You know, and I'm curious, then another follow-on would be I know you mentioned kind of the national accounts at first. They or if it's a large account, they have likely a bunch of national partners, right? Um, so it's a challenge going to those. So I'm kind of curious like what are the biggest hurdles you've encountered when you go to different accounts and um how have you overcome those?

SPEAKER_05 27:33

So I really have not swayed much from the citywide model. If you take the sales training with uh Jeff Odo, the art of selling citywide, and you follow the process, you'll be successful. I think I've changed of little things here and there about like asking opening questions to kind of take the prospect's guard down. And I've added a little, you know, changes here and there. But in terms of like once I'm in the door, once I like get them engaged, nothing changes from the citywide model. Um, we have tools like Zoom Info that I've really gotten into where I can find decision makers' numbers pretty pretty efficiently. Um, but that just helps so much, it cuts down a lot of prospecting time to where I can just call the decision maker's cell phone. Um, and I just stick to that most of the time. Um for larger accounts, a lot of the hurdles are hey, they have a security guard out front and they're not allowed to give you names. So that's where Zoom info helps a lot. Um for medical, sometimes, you know, for especially at like a dialysis clinic, sometimes they are booked, and the practice manager is out on the floor working with patients, so they have no time. Um it really just depends from industry to industry. Um, there's really no one way to, you know, one thing I encounter all the time. It just changes from industry to industry and from building to building.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

So long did it take.

SPEAKER_11 29:06

Thanks, Jared. Um two questions. How long did it take for you to become cash flow positive? And how did you balance growth and quality service?

SPEAKER_05 29:16

We were cash flow positive right away because of the staffing that we had in the hospitals. Uh the hospitals and the nursing homes. When that went away, we were cash flow negative for a few months. Um we took on some accounts after that that had really poor margins that were just further away. We took it on for the revenue, but then when we for accounts that are further away, sometimes you have to pay a contractor a higher margin. So we were like, oh yeah, no problem, we'll just pay them a higher margin to keep them there. And then we looked at our PL and we were like way negative. So like, okay, now we have to work on fixing that. So it was a lot of okay, we have the contract and then making small adjustments, putting new contractors in there, where you can get, where you can make that adjustment. Um, what was your other question after the cash flow positive?

SPEAKER_11 30:04

Yeah, how did you balance your growth while maintaining quality service?

SPEAKER_05 30:11

That was really hard. Um, I actually had to convince my wife to work for me for a lot of money. Um for probably about six months. Uh, she obliged and did a fantastic job. She was actually the number one FSM in the country for probably about six months. And she told me that she didn't want to do this forever. Um, we got really lucky and started an account here locally for Carillion Clinic. Um, they're a local hospital system that probably has 300 locations. It's any service company that comes here wants to work with Carillion. And again, we're not doing anything but following the citywide model. The property management executive, who's been there for 45 years, told us that Citywide has the best inspection process and the best business model for any cleaning contractor he's ever seen. And again, we did not do anything different than the citywide model. We got in there and we followed it. And then that was really took us off. He gave me a he put it in writing in an email, and I put that on all of our proposals, without him knowing, of course. And then it was just anything medical, it was just close, close, close, close, close. So that that really took us to another level and really just helped us close a lot of deals, you know. It they carry a lot of weight in this region, and so that's what really got our name out there and helped us grow. But to answer your service question, it was just, you know, Jackie, my wife, did an awesome job. She took the training and again didn't change anything from the model. She followed the model, and that's how you provide great service.

SPEAKER_03 31:59

So, what I heard is we all need to get our wives working for us for free.

SPEAKER_05 32:06

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

Sorry, Adria.

SPEAKER_05 32:10

Well, um, you know, she was a former teacher, and uh I think teachers make great salespeople and great account managers because at a school you have to manage the relationship between the kids, the parents, and the principal. You have to make your own schedule, you have to again balance a lot of relationships, and it's a pretty thankless job. So um hire teachers.

SPEAKER_03 32:31

I'm teachers.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Um I I like I'll interject again. I just I had a question about like now that you're down the road this far, hindsight, looking back, what do you wish you knew that would have made you a better operator, a better business person in the very beginning, you know, and then some of those blind spots or pitfalls along the way? Um, just you know, compliance, uh independent contractors, insurance, liability, risk management, you know, just kind of looking at the the blind side of things. So what do you wish you knew versus um uh what what sort of pitfalls could a new person start out um you know standing on your shoulders and learning from that's that's a good question.

SPEAKER_05 33:17

Um I think I wish that I took more time to learn about the industry. I think I already knew a lot, but again, going back to that surgery center, if I had really taken the time to sit down and say, okay, what is really a terminal clean? But I was just managing so much that I just kind of gave the contractors a scope and said, here, follow this. Um, I was just doing so much and had so many hats that I just didn't really sit down and say, okay, what does this really take? Um, so I think I just really wish I slowed down and reached out to people and just asked questions. Um, one thing I love about the citywide model is I could you could reach out to anyone anywhere and they will make time for you to answer questions. So I think I wish that I utilized the citywide model a little bit more. Um, I was very lucky because when I opened, kind of what Chris Chris's whole idea behind me coming here was my expertise is sales. And so Morgan and Richmond, Kelsey, like a whole team took a lot off my plate, so I could just focus on sales. So I might not be the best person to answer that, the rest of your your question, because there was truly so much off my plate. You know, of course, I had monthly meetings with them about all those different things, um, but they really brought me here to focus on growing it so then I can hire people for those things. Um, of course, I still have to focus on those things and learn on them and um be a good operator, but I have a lot of people that just take that stuff off my plate in Richmond.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

Sure. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_10 34:55

Um speaking of Richmond, that all that uh the um contract work, you did you walk into that, all the staffing stuff when you started? Like was that given basically given as part of territory, or did you land that right away? Um and as a follow-up or kind of related. Uh I'm also uh and has I'm a sales director now, but I was a you know hiring sales executive before that, a very, very JS traditional model of growing you know revenue. But I hear from some of what you're saying, you know, you struggle with the OS side, and I see myself going down that road too, because we follow what we know, right? So what would you what would you have done different if you're in my shoes, new sprawling territory like yours? I I draw a lot of uh correlation to you uh both in past and in the future. So I'd love to hear more on that.

SPEAKER_03 35:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:47

So for the senior living staffing, I actually sold those contracts in Richmond. And then they had some facilities out here that we helped manage, but you know, I didn't get any credit for those, of course. Um, so it's an account that I already sold, and we kind of just inherited it. It was given to us. And we did a lot of staffing in Richmond with uh HCA. Um, they have about eight hospitals in Richmond that they do staffing for, they do floor tech, station ambassadors, um, housekeepers, a lot of things. Um so we inherited a lot of that staffing, and that was just kind of there for us. And then Kyle in Richmond helped me manage that. Um, and in terms of kind of growing the OS, something I definitely do differently, instead of just telling people, I would show them. So I put together probably about six months ago, like a list of, hey, here's our core services. It's strip and wax, carpet cleaning, handyman, window washing, pressure washing, parking lots. I basically said, hey, who are my best OS partners who can do the best job? And I'm just gonna push this, push this. And what I start, and something else that I started doing was being very consultative when I was on site. So it's like I would use the example of, hey, in these medical sites, we're required by contract to strip wax their floors once a year, clean their carpets four times a year, and do a top scrub of their LVP once a month. That's typically what you know is recommended. Here's a price for all of that, you know, sign here essentially. And that really started picking up where instead of asking, I showed them, right? Instead of asking, hey, can I quote this? Here's a quote. We can start Tuesday, right? And I would do a lot of work with the contractor beforehand to say, okay, I think this needs a strip wax in September. When do you can you do this September 20, the weekend of September 27th, for example? And so I went to the client, I said, hey, here's a quote. We can do this the weekend of September 27th. You know, let me if you want, can I go ahead and get this scheduled for you? Kind of changing the top tracks a lot from hey, we can do this to I'm gonna do this has really helped.

SPEAKER_10 38:02

Yeah, that's really helpful. Thank you. Um, I think the last follow-up I have is uh not unlike yourself, you know, I'll be uh adjoining uh a territory, you know, that's close to Cleveland. I'm c I'm from Cleveland, right? Um and it and I'm also inheriting, you know, I think uh a lot of it's NBD, but I think around 80 grand a month in business, right? So about a million bucks a year, which I see as a great jumpstart, but also scares the hell out of me because some of it's NBD and could go away, right? So it the it's not anything that's guaranteed. Um, and you I also draw a correlation with you and some of that. Um did that scare you or able to maintain MBD stuff? Like a little bit more about like what you brought in yourself versus inherited and how that's gone for you would be helpful for me. I'm sorry for people that aren't speaking citywide lingo, but like it's uh helpful.

SPEAKER_05 38:55

Well, I think what I like about MBD is they have a process for complaints and they have a process for you know resolving those complaints. So they were they're a great partner in helping you stay kind of having a visual of what the problems are. So like Octopharma is a national client that we've had issues with for various reasons. So before we go into the account, we can look at the history and see these are all the complaints. So then when you go in from a service standpoint, hey, six months ago we had a problem with this, just want to make sure that's still resolved. Hey, last week we got a complaint about that, we resolved it the next night. Just want to make sure that's still not a problem. So I like MBD because they can really give you us a good snapshot of what's going on and they keep us organized of complaints, and it just helps serves the account overall.

SPEAKER_02 39:44

Um but I I hope that answered your question.

SPEAKER_06 39:58

Hey Jeff, you guys are big users of Power BI, which Power BI is our reporting and analytics software. Can you talk a little bit about how what you guys use it for mostly, um, how it has helped you with your management of your employees and anything that you can touch on related to the software?

SPEAKER_05 40:16

Yeah. Uh one thing I really like about Power BI is it gives you a list of neglected accounts. So, you know, your FSMs go through and fill out their reports, and you can look at what accounts they haven't been to in, you know, however many weeks. So it helps us make sure that they are on their route, they're maintaining it, they're visiting all their customers, um, gives you great reporting figures for contract retention, total revenue retention, um, their OS sales. Um the part that I kind of like most about Power BI is has this demographics feature where let's say CBRE, which is a management uh property management company, they're a national client of ours. If we sign up a building, I can go to this tool and type in CBRE, and it'll literally tell me month by month, year by year, what the janitorial spend has been and what the OS spend has been. So when we get a new contract with a national client, I can walk in with the list and say, this is everything that we've done for you on a national level. What can we do for you? Right? And it helps me get OS with those clients quicker. Um, but also if I'm prospecting a national client that's preferred that I can prospect, it gives me tools to say, hey, we work with these locations near you. This is what we do for them. This, you know, we can help them get a better idea of their spend for facility management. Um, that's what I like most about Power BI.

SPEAKER_06 41:44

Awesome. I think that's a great golden ticket of information for y'all to pay attention to and keep in the back of your mind of how the software has benefited him in that fashion. Um, and just taking after those kind of notes of being able to get into the doors a little bit quicker.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

Jeff, I had a quick question. I met with a candidate this morning, and it's a very common question that I get. I'm sure people, um, Savannah, you'll feel the same. The question that came up was how are you identifying independent contractors? How are you sourcing them? Is that the biggest challenge of running the model? Um, and I had responded that a lot of people ask that, and that's a big fear. But you know, we have a support center, the business development center is going to be helped kind of identifying independent contractors for them. But I would love to know kind of how you're sourcing, if you feel like that's one of your biggest challenges, or you know, kind of just get your thoughts around that.

SPEAKER_05 42:43

Yeah, so I'll tell you a quick story. When we first got to the market, you know, I was SE, I was the uh FSM, I was the night manager, I was everything. And so um, we were having a hard time finding really good independent contractors. And so before we started this relationship with Carillion, before they had any idea who we were, I parked behind their children's hospital, which is probably, you know, three, four hundred thousand square feet. They're probably about eight to ten cars out back. They all kind of looked like cars of cleaners because they had equipment in the back and buffers and mops and all this stuff. And I just waited for an hour and a half until someone walked out the door. And I approached them and I said, Hey, I'm Jeff with CityWide. This is what I do. Are you looking for additional work? And of course, they were an independent contractor through one of my competitors, and I talked to the owner and he said, You know, right now I can't take on a lot more, but my friend Amano is really looking for business. Umano is now our best independent contractor. We pay him probably about $40,000 a month between cleaning and the handyman work that he does. And he is just everything he does turns to gold. He got, we did a daycare, and that was his first building, and we got 10, a 10 out of 10 for daycare. For the three months that he cleaned it. And if you have any experience with daycare, if you know how difficult that was. So I know I had a winner then. And then once we had a model, it was about, hey, who do you know? Right? We're going to take you from this daycare to this manufacturer that's going to pay you two to three times the amount. Who do you know that I could take this? And I called his friend, you know, Jack. And then Jack started. And then we operate Jack. And you know, it just keeps on. We asked for a lot of referrals. And then we give them, you know, here's a $150 program gift card. Thanks for giving us this referral, right? Um, so it's mostly asking a current independent contractor base. Um so that's mainly how we got started finding really good contractors.

SPEAKER_06 44:42

And that is why Jeff is not only the top sales executive in the system, but has also been rookie market of the year. He can sell to both the contractors and all of the clients.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

That's fantastic. What a great story. Oh, I was curious along those same lines, like, do you how you know what's your percentage of how much you actually keep? Meaning work. Because you just and I I apologize, I don't remember his name. He just said he was making $40,000 um a month. Was it auto? Amato. Amato, sorry. Um, who what's the percentage of how much you have with each IC? You know what I'm saying? Are you trying to keep it under 10%? Are you trying to keep it under 5%? Like what's realistic there?

SPEAKER_05 45:31

Um it really depends. So Amato's our top contractor. He we basically told him, hey, when you get when you are managing a bunch of small stuff, we're gonna continue to upgrade you. So anytime we've got a bigger building, we've always brought him to those walkthroughs. If he's accepted it, we try to say, okay, what can we take away to make your life a little bit easier? Right. Yeah, that's the best use. Yeah. So I try to focus on our biggest and best contractors and our biggest and best stuff. Um, he probably has about 20% of our business, I'd say. And then as we get new independent contractors in, they start from small stuff. So we find like our public services that is a very desperate environment, is very challenging to keep clean, but the client understands that it's challenged, challenging to keep clean. So then those are the buildings that our new contractors work in, and we just continue to upgrade people. Um, so yeah, I'd say a model probably has 20%, another contractor probably is about 10 to 15, and then it's a mix. But I would not want anyone to have more than 20.

SPEAKER_03 46:38

So okay, cool.

SPEAKER_01 46:44

Can you talk a little bit about your sales? Um, where are you finding your leads at, or like what's your approach or your um I just how do you get through? I know we kind of touched a little bit on it. Maybe I'm just trying to dive a little bit deeper, like you know, phone calls, but like what's your approach? What's your door? You know, just anything of that as you're as you're trying to ramp up, which would be like a zero, you know, not coming into an emerging market that's already established, but to one that's that's up and going.

SPEAKER_05 47:14

So like when I make sales calls, my goal is to talk. This might sound weird, but especially for larger accounts, my goal is to talk to anyone but the gatekeeper. Because I've found that especially large accounts, these gatekeepers are specifically paid to keep you away. And so I'll go into Middle and I'll find Jeff in accounting. And they're much less used to getting those sorts of cold calls. Yeah, you know, who's the last accounting person? I got a cold call about janitorial services. So sometimes it just really catches them off guard and they're like, oh, that's that's Bob and facilities. Here's his number. Um, so I try to do that with all my top 100 accounts. Um, try to schedule a little bit of time each week to find direct numbers for like these really big clients. Um, that's another really important metric for citywide to keep a top 100 list going. And it can be big accounts, it can be you know your neighbor that you're just really excited to potentially get in the door, it could be anything that you're just excited about. So yeah, I just try to focus on talking to anyone but the gatekeeper at these really large accounts and just trying to make calls to different people within the accounts. Um, I find that gets me really far than just picking up the phone and trying to talk to a gatekeeper who just is paid to keep me away.

SPEAKER_01 48:28

I love it. I love it. You just talked about the top 100 accounts, and you said citywide wants you to keep that list, but also you can put anybody on there. How are you like approaching that top 100 list? Is it by size or revenue, or is it by you know square footage of the building, or is it relationships that lead into other you know opportunities? What are you thinking? Or is it all the above?

SPEAKER_05 48:51

Great question. So it's a little bit of a mix of everything. So for example, here in a market, um you know, we service a manufacturer, and they probably have three called WebTech. That's a national client of ours. There's probably about five or six manufacturing facilities around it. So all of those are in my top 100 because it's really easy to pop in and say, hey, we work with Ben at WebTech right over there. And most of the time they'll be like, oh yeah, I know that. Um about 20 to 30 percent of my top 100 are just very, very large accounts. Um there's a lot of uh defense contractors in our region. Um, so all those guys are in my top 100. Um then I try to filter like put a lot of medical in there because we do a really, really well at medical. Even like, you know, four to six thousand square foot dialysis clinics are in my top 100 because there's also 20 more of these dialysis clinics in my region. So I want to get into there so I can get more of those companies' facilities. So it's a little bit mixed up everything, you know. And what I've found is looking at you know my SE's top 100, every top 100 to list is different, right? Like John Cook in Richmond, he only does big stuff. Like his top 100 accounts are the biggest 100 accounts in his territory, right? So I think people approach it differently, but I think as long as you're excited about getting into the accounts, then that's what matters for the top 100.

SPEAKER_03 50:26

Cool. Is there any one you would stay away from? Daycares. Yeah, no daycare. No daycares, do not do it.

SPEAKER_07 50:38

And that's from a guy that's that's from a guy that's having a baby. How how are those daycares gonna be clean and and healthy for your new baby?

SPEAKER_05 50:48

Well, Jackie wants to stay home for the first Jackie has a Jackie is very anti-daycare, so is there any uh like low-hanging fruit?

SPEAKER_01 51:02

Meaning like auto dealerships, someone just fast and quick that you know, starting out car dealerships are a good one.

SPEAKER_05 51:13

Um I have not had much luck with them locally because one guy guy does all of them in my territory, which um can I work on that every month, but uh yeah, car dealerships are great because a lot of the times they're you know their service people and the general manager are very you can just walk in the door, they could be helping the customer, they're just they're very active in the business. So walking in and finding decision makers can be pretty easy, and most of the time they'll take a meeting with you. Um anything medical, especially independent medical, because the company's not large enough to hire a facility manager, right? And so oftentimes the front desk or the practice manager has to call handyman to come and fix this wall. And so I've been in buildings where you know my first door knock, there was a hole in the drywall in the lobby, and the three months later is still there. So the pitch is well, if you work with citywide, I'm here once a week, I can bring in handyman and fix it for 200 bucks. So the lucky fruit is people who don't, buildings that don't have a facility manager that would find a lot of value in what we do because we can do so much.

SPEAKER_03 52:25

Well, thank you. I like it.

SPEAKER_05 52:28

But also stay away from property managers at the beginning. They're often very price-driven. And you know, if some you sell one and six months later, some slick sales guy walks in and says, I'll do everything Citywide's doing for a hundred bucks less, they might do it just because they're so price focused. So I'd stay away from property managers um, unless it's a national account like a CBRE or a JLL. Some of those companies get it. Um, and they've heard about Citywide through other company friends. But yeah, I'd in general also stay away from property managers.

unknown 53:06

Cool.

SPEAKER_11 53:06

You mentioned you'd mentioned competition earlier. How do you how do you manage competition? And ultimately, what does earning business from a competitor's contractor look like?

SPEAKER_05 53:18

I think a lot of that depends on the market you're in. So down here at Roanoke, the big franchises like Jampro, Janakin, Coverall, Cleaners of America, they've all tried and failed here. Um they still have national accounts here, but they don't have an office like we do. Um my biggest competitor, I've taken eight accounts from him in the past four months. Um and so when you start meeting with these customers of your competition, you start to hear the same things, you know how to sell against it. Um but to be honest, we really don't have a lot of competition down here. It's a lot of mom and pops, you know, the ABMs and the KBSs have all the big stuff, but that's not really our wheelhouse. Um, like the Amazon distribution centers and you know, Redcoats is a company that handles a lot of high rises, so they do all the high rises in downtown Bronck. But you know, that's not really our model. Um, that's not our wheelhouse. So it really depends on your market, right? If you're in New York City, yes, everyone's gonna be there. Um but here in a smaller market, there's very little competition, which is good for us.

SPEAKER_02 54:28

Perfect, thank you.

SPEAKER_08 54:35

Just one question, Jeff, about scaling, I guess. Since you're in year three now, do you um and I know he know mentioned the challenges with staffing and how you know revenue is moved, but do you ever feel like because if you're hitting the same accounts, you know, so frequently, like every month, a thousand when you call it code calls, I guess those are new ones, but after a while, like you know people and you're trying different people at the accounts. Like, I guess how do you think about scaling and you know, do you like what keeps you up at night with that versus you know, where do you think are the opportunities?

SPEAKER_05 55:07

So I think our industry changes so quickly. I've called someone who cursed me on the phone and said, never call me again, and then they called me the next day and said, Hey, my cleaning company forgot to vacuum my CEO's CEO's office. He wants to fire them tomorrow. Can you come on and give me a quote? Like it happens all the time. Um, there was an account in Richmond where I tried to call, it was so big, it was a permafisher scientific building. I tried to call five people every month. It was, I called scientists, I called lab technicians, I called accounting, I saw security. So for bigger stuff, I tried to focus on, hey, let's call this facility guy, but let's also call all these other people, right? Because some lab technician might tell you, my lab hasn't been cleaned in six months. Like, here's the guy, I'm pretty angry at my cleaning company. Um but for us, you know, we've tried to call places like Martinsville, which is an hour southeast of us, and we've got this in accounts, and we've had tremendous service issues because it's really far away, we have less independent contractors. So I've doubled down and told us, told my sales guys, hey, we are not selling in anything an hour away from us unless it's Lynchburg, where we have really independent contractors and um independent clients. Um, and we kind of have a second janitor lesson soon, and we're just doubling down and focusing on nothing but our just immediate area. And I think we could get to 10 million a year just by focusing on local, um, especially with current relationships we have. Um so it was a lesson that I learned the hard way. Just focus where you are and kind of drop from there. Um, because eventually we do have to get into Winchester and Harrisonburg, which is North Virginia. There's too much stuff not to do up, you know, not to do anything up there. But it's just we just have to slow down a little bit, focus on local, uh, because we have less less service issues with the whole stuff.

SPEAKER_08 57:10

Thank you.

SPEAKER_10 57:11

Yeah, I know we're gonna say one more but for to that point, Jeff, because my territory will be similar. Do you plan on then building uh a satellite office in the next spot? Because it's easy for you to bounce to each spot, you know, uh on a weekly basis or check in, but can't expect FSMs to drive. You can't uh we get new STs. Like, what's your approach as you conquer this area to take over your next town?

SPEAKER_05 57:37

I'm not sure yet. Um I don't know if we can answer that yet because I think we've really just been set back recently by a few service issues in areas that are far away. And I just want to focus on mobile, and that's kind of all that I'm focused on right now. Um, but I think some conversations that Chris and I have had is you know, when we're ready to move up there, eventually we'll have a DOO that manages the FSMs. Um, I'll be able to manage the salespeople, but then I drop up, drop up the Harrisonberg, you know, once every two weeks, try to sell stuff and event go up myself and manage it. And eventually maybe we can hire an FSM full-time up there. Um, so I think once we're ready, that will probably be our approach.

SPEAKER_04 58:26

Awesome.

SPEAKER_06 58:27

Awesome guys, thank you so much for asking such wonderful questions this week. I feel like it was a wonderful use of time, and Jeff, these were just phenomenal answers. So thank you guys all so much.

SPEAKER_00 58:38

Thank you so much, John, for your time. Thanks to everybody else for spending some time with us this afternoon.

SPEAKER_02 58:43

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 58:43

Take care of you. Have fun in cancelling. Bye.