Take 5 With Cleanfax – an ISSA Podcast
Take 5 With Cleanfax is a video and podcast program from ISSA specifically for the contract carpet and floor cleaning and disaster restoration industries. The series focuses on management and marketing topics, technical tips, emerging news and more, all in five minute segments for busy business owners, managers, and technicians. Want to be a guest on the show? Connect with Jeff Cross, Cleanfax Media Director, at jeffcross@issa.com.
Episodes
79 episodes
Five Lies Cleaning and Restoration Owners Tell Themselves
Every business owner tells themselves an occasional lie—but those lies often sound so reasonable that they're easy to believe.
Is This the Most Expensive Business Mistake You're Making?
Are you stuck somewhere way in the past when it comes to pricing your services?
Margins, Money, and Manpower: The Pressures Squeezing Restoration Contractors
The restoration industry is facing some real challenges in 2026, but the latest Restoration Benchmarking Survey Report shows there is plenty of reason for optimism.
The Real Reason Customers Say, “Let Me Think About It”
You walked the job. You measured every room. You wrote a clean, fair, professional proposal. And then your prospect looked you dead in the eye and hit you with the five most expensive words in our industry: “Let me think about it.”
Autopsy of a Complaint
It is time to grab your gloves, a pen, a clipboard, and something sharp…because we are about to perform an autopsy.
Is Your Company Pretty on the Outside but Ugly on the Inside?
You are hungry. You walk into a restaurant that looks pretty fantastic. You glance at the menu, and there it is — a glossy photo of a burger that seems almost too good to be true. You order it with high hopes. Then the server sets down somethin...
The Danger of Comfort in Business
When business is steady, referrals are coming in, and the schedule stays full, it is easy to believe everything is fine. But comfort has a way of quietly slowing innovation, weakening culture, and making companies vulnerable to change.
What It Really Means to Look and Act Like a Pro
In the cleaning and restoration world, there are a lot of people who know what they’re doing technically. They have the skills. But knowing your stuff and being seen as a professional—those are two very different things.
The Race to the Bottom Has No Winners
Ever had a customer hear your price and say, “Oh… that’s it?” That’s not a win. That’s a warning sign. In this Take 5 With Cleanfax, we dig into one of the most common traps in the cleaning and restoration world: pricing too low and ca...
The Fine Art of Mansplaining
In this episode of Take 5 with Cleanfax, we tackle a common—and costly—habit in the cleaning and restoration world: over-explaining to your clients.
The Real Cost of “I Will Deal With It Later”
There’s a small sound in the Jeep. Just a little tick. Nothing urgent… until it is. In this Take 5 With Cleanfax, we turn a simple (and expensive) lesson into a bigger conversation about something every business owner deals with: tolerating sma...
The Silent Killers of Your Business
Think about the last time you ate at a restaurant where the fork had something crusty on it you couldn't identify. Then you headed to the restroom, and it looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in a year. You back out slowly from the restaurant, to...
You Don’t Need to Be Bigger—You Need to Be Faster!
Why do small companies lose jobs to bigger competitors—even when they know they could do better work? In this five-minute episode, we break down the one advantage small companies have every single time… and why most don’t use it.
The Most Dangerous Phrase in Business
There may be no more dangerous phrase in business than "We've always done it this way." It sounds reasonable. It even sounds like loyalty to a craft. But often, it's a quiet barrier between where your business is and where it could be.
Stop Rolling the Dice on ROI: Use Metrics That Matter
Listen to business coach John Clendenning describe strategies for tracking marketing results.
The Human Side of Trauma Cleanup
Listen to how companies should focus on the human side of trauma cleanup.
Stop the Guessing Game: Here’s How You Boost Online Visibility
Listen to John Clendenning describe online strategies for cleaning companies.
Weak Foundations, Strong Response: Mitigating Storm Damage in Aging Homes
Listen to DRYmedic Restoration Service's Ben Gergis discuss challenges with aging homes and the increasing severity of weather events.
First-Time CEO, Big-Time Impact: Kelly Brewer on Her First 90 Days
Listen to Kelly Brewer, the new CEO of Insurcomm, describe her journey and the future of the company.