Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Pittsburgh. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Leila Carter helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Is your business serving the residents of Pittsburgh? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpPittsburgh.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh
E19: Cleaning with Care: Dust, Determination, and Dirt Doctors
What makes Tim Maloney with Dirt Doctors Cleaning Services a good neighbor?
What happens when life's setbacks become your greatest opportunity? Tim Maloney, founder of Dirt Doctors Cleaning Service, joins Leila Carter to share how being fired from his job in 1994 with a two-week-old baby at home became the catalyst for launching a successful business that's still thriving nearly 31 years later.
Tim takes us through the origins of Dirt Doctors, which began as a residential cleaning service but evolved into a comprehensive commercial cleaning operation serving offices, churches, event spaces, retail locations, and medical facilities. With refreshing candor, he dispels common misconceptions about the cleaning industry, particularly the notion that companies secure contracts only to provide diminishing service over time. His company's 30-day out clause keeps them accountable and focused on consistent quality.
Beyond business insights, Tim opens up about his personal journey of entrepreneurship, sharing how he's overcome the mental challenges of maintaining confidence through difficult periods. He credits his success to what Angela Duckworth calls "grit"—the powerful combination of perseverance and passion—along with the support of business communities like Truth at Work. As Tim says, "You can't do it by yourself." His story serves as powerful testament to how relationships, genuine care, and staying the course can transform a moment of career crisis into decades of business success.
Want to build a business that stands the test of time? Listen to Tim's journey and discover how caring for clients, team members, and vendors creates the foundation for sustainable growth. Check out Dirt Doctors at dirtdoctorscleaning.com or find them on social media to learn more about their services.
To learn more about Dirt Doctors Cleaning Services go to:
https://dirtdoctorscleaning.com/
Dirt Doctors Cleaning Services
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lila Carter.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a commercial cleaning business? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor Tim Maloney with Dirt Doctors Cleaning Service. Tim how's it going?
Speaker 3:Great Thanks for having me on your show.
Speaker 2:Thanks for being here. We're excited to learn all about you and your business. So tell us about your company.
Speaker 3:So Dirt Doctors was founded in 1994 by me and a partner named Scott Gossick. We started out as a residential cleaning service, but today we are a full-service janitorial and commercial cleaning business. How did you get into the?
Speaker 2:business.
Speaker 3:That's a good question. It all started being fired from a job. I was fired from a job in July 28th 1994, and had a two-week baby at home and thought this is the perfect time to start a business. So actually it was a little more of a journey than that. I had the inclinations of wanting to be an entrepreneur for many years and I really thought this was the opportunity to do it, because I just been putting it off and it took like a moment of like you don't have a job, so you got to do something to actually make, make make me focus and really like nailed down Like what do I want to do? I want to be an entrepreneur. But I didn't have any idea and that just came through a process between praying and doing some research. And my partner and I, scott, said you know, the cleaning business is a great business to get into because every building, every house, everything you see, somebody needs to clean it right. So we thought it was a great market and a great opportunity and September of 1994, we launched Dirt Doctors.
Speaker 2:Excellent. So what are?
Speaker 3:some myths or misconceptions in your industry. There are definitely a few. I think the biggest one is that all cleaning businesses are the same. You guys come in, you get the contract and then you just don't care about it anymore because you're tied into this contract. That couldn't be further from the truth for us. You're tied into this contract. That couldn't be further from the truth for us. I can't speak for every cleaning business, but basically our contract is you have a 30-day out, so it might be a year contract, but if we can't satisfy, we can't fulfill your needs, then it's really a 30-day contract. So what that really does is that keeps us on our toes and makes sure that we are continuing to provide a great cleaning service day in weekend, month in, month out. So that is a misconception that I hear a lot.
Speaker 2:Right, so you mentioned that nearly everyone needs this service, but who are your target customers and how do you track them?
Speaker 3:Yes, you're right, we can't clean for everyone. So we have narrowed it down over the years through, I think, trial and error and just like we might have been doing residential for a long time but we decided that commercial is more where we wanted to head. So when I say commercial.
Speaker 3:We're really talking about, like office cleaning, a variety of facilities that we will clean for churches, event spaces, retail, medical facilities. So sometimes it's easier for me to just to say this is what we don't do. So we've decided that we don't want to be in the restaurant space and we also don't clean for schools. But beside that, if it's a commercial building, that is our target market.
Speaker 2:Very good. So I know it might seem a bit unconventional for me to ask this have you ever thought about doing your own podcast?
Speaker 3:That is funny. You mentioned that I actually have. About 10 years ago it was, it was a goal and somebody told me something that made me just completely turn away from it. And that is like once you start a podcast, you need to be committed to it, like you can't just like do it when you want to. If it's a weekly podcast, you know you need to be doing this every week and with my busy schedule of everything else that I'm doing, I decided that that probably wasn't going to be a good fit in my life, but it's. It was a dream at one point.
Speaker 2:So outside of work.
Speaker 3:What do you do for fun? What do I do for fun? Well, I really like getting together with family and friends, especially on the weekends, just hanging out. My wife and I really love to travel, so we try to go somewhere interesting a couple of times a year schedule permitting a couple of times a year schedule permitting. And something I took up during COVID is I started playing the guitar. Don't ask me to perform for you. I'm still learning, but I enjoy the process of it.
Speaker 2:You didn't bring it on the show here today. I was expecting a little tune.
Speaker 3:You want a little tune? I'm sorry, you have to prepare me for that one.
Speaker 2:All right, tim, so let's switch gears here. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you overcame and how it made you stronger? What comes to mind so when you do something?
Speaker 3:for almost 31 years. You're obviously going to have some struggles, right. You're going to have some life hardships, like parents passing away, you know medical issues which I've had but I think the biggest struggle for me was just persevering. I'm reading a book right now called Grit I don't know if you've heard it by Angela Duckworth. It's fantastic. I wish I would have you've heard it by Angela Duckworth. It's fantastic. I wish I would have had it like 20, 30 years ago. But Grit is basically having perseverance and passion in the same direction and staying with something which apparently I have because I'm still doing it.
Speaker 3:But there was just many times where things were not going well and I think the struggle is here in your head. Like you can lose confidence, you can start having a head full of doubt that this can actually become something bigger and better than it is today. So just pushing through, I think it's not something you do on your own either. I've had great friends. I've been in like roundtable groups with other business people who have been invaluable. One today that I'm in is called Truth at Work, and because you can't do it by yourself, you know, even though owning your own business, you are, I guess, the top guy, the buck stops here, type of thing. You still need people in your life to guide you and help you through the tough times and the good times.
Speaker 3:So I guess bottom line it's just the struggle of keep on believing that you're doing the right thing and stay in the course.
Speaker 2:for me, Certainly that's such a good nugget of information. Yeah, I love that you said that. So, tim, please tell our listeners how they can learn more about Dirt Doctors Cleaning Service.
Speaker 3:Well, if you type in Dirt Doctors Cleaning Services, you're going to find a lot of information about us. So we have a website, dirtdoctorscleaningcom, facebook page, linkedin page, instagram page, google a lot of information on just our Google listing. I'm sorry to say, for those that are a big X user, formerly Twitter, I have chosen not to be on that platform, but almost everywhere else you certainly can find out a lot about us.
Speaker 3:And please tell our listeners one thing that they should remember about Dirt Doctors, clean Service. I think the one thing that I hope people even just from hearing me speak today is that we actually care. I am passionate about serving our clients, serving our team members and even relationships with our vendors. You know it's a relationship-driven business, to be honest with you. I mean, a lot of people can have a mop and a broom and clean, but it's maintaining those relationships, maintaining the quality over a long period of time and keeping communications open with all parties interested. So hopefully people can tell that we care and we do really want to serve our client. So that's what I'll leave you with, I guess.
Speaker 2:Very good.
Speaker 3:It's Dirt.
Speaker 2:Doctors, the caring cleaning company, that's right. Well, Tim, I really appreciate your time today and having you a guest on the show. We wish you and your business the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, lila. It was great speaking with you today and it was fun, so thanks.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnppittsburghcom. That's gnppittsburghcom, or call 412-561-9956.