Absolutely Clean and Owner Stephanie Nesseth are honored to be featured in Cleaning Business Today! Below is the article!

Concern for health and desire for time leads to winning growth formula for community-oriented cleaning company.

CBT: Tell us about when and why you started Absolutely Clean.

SN: I had dabbled in Nursing school, had been a stay-at-home-mom for 12 years and had taught pre-school. For a few years, I was the director of a facility in Nebraska. But when my son was diagnosed with cancer, I had to find a job where I was in charge of my schedule

At that time, I was on the procurement committee for a local charity and had collected a gift certificate for one of the franchise maid services. They told me that the $65 gift certificate might clean a kitchen – and that was 15 years ago. So when it was time for me to make choices about what kind of business to start, that concept was always in my head because I’m a rock star cleaner with a touch of OCD.

CBT:  How large is your company now and how big would you like it to be?

SN:  Today, Absolutely Clean has 20 employees, though we operate comfortably at 25 with our current client base. We’re not quite large enough yet to consider opening a second location right now; for that, we will need to grow to about 35-40 employees.

CBT: One of the things you’re known for is your seasonal update of your logo. How do you keep the new designs fresh while staying true to your core brand?

SN:  I have a great designer – Right Eye Digital – in my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska. His team knows who we are and hits it on the head every time. I have only sent a design back once; they consistently nail it on the first try. He listens and has a great eye for our style and concept.

CBT: Through Absolutely Clean, you work hard to raise money and awareness for various community outreach programs. How do you balance your marketing and community outreach efforts?

SN:  My cleaning company, Absolutely Clean, is definitely a for-profit company, and I also have a not-for-profit organization, Time in a Bottle, through which we donate cleanings within our local community.

My secret: I have a great team, and we advertise through the community. Instead of traditional flyers that list what we can do, we highlight how you can help us give back to the community.

People want to do business with us because of our mission; part of the Absolutely Clean mission statement is “fostering service to others.” We believe strongly in that. In fact, we had an employee quit once over this part of our mission, writing on the exit statement that “all you care about is giving.” True story. If we are not promoting our annual carnival, then we have a monthly charity we’re working with. I network with our food bank and the local chapter of the American Cancer Society, to name a few. And leaders in our community also seek us out for networking. It’s a win-win. We don’t sell a clean home; we consider that a “given.” We sell time.

CBT: You’re among a small but growing group of cleaning business owners who find it valuable to make the professional products you use available for your clients to purchase from you. How do you make it work – balancing both service sales and product sales?

SN:  We believe strongly in the products we use professionally, so we want our clients to clean in a healthy manner when we are not there. We don’t worry about them wanting to clean on their own; buying the products we use doesn’t necessarily save them the time we sell, but it does ensure that the air they breathe is healthy between visits. I mean, we all have to clean up after ourselves after dinner!

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