Michael, who runs Better N Clean in Richton Park, explains his rule about time in the plainest terms he can. “With our company, time is money,” he says. “We’re definitely on time, definitely ahead and early in most cases ‘cause you never know what the situation is or what could go wrong.”
The reasoning is practical. A crew that runs late at one stop throws off the next. “By not showing up on time, that could possibly hinder the next customer that we have lined up,” he says.
He traces the habit to growing up in Chicago. At Better N Clean it is written into how the crew works. He gets it across to his workers, he says, by “leading by example and also making that a policy.” He has a team of workers and no partners.
The company handles commercial and residential cleaning. If he had to pick one to be known for, Michael says, it would probably be commercial. Archived copies of its website show it operating since at least 2021. According to the site, its clients include office buildings, restaurants, schools, churches, medical facilities and private homes. The work covers janitorial service, carpet cleaning and pressure washing, on daily, weekly or biweekly schedules, and contracts are welcome. The service area is Chicago and the surrounding suburbs, including Orland Park, Richton Park and Matteson.
What Michael wants a client to come away with is a working relationship. “We don’t just look at it as a job,” he says. “We look at it as a relationship.” He calls personal contact with clients, both the ones on ongoing service and the rest, the best way to build a name.
Some of that shows in what customers write. One business owner wrote in a 2023 Google review that the company had been cleaning her business for more than a year and had stayed reliable the whole time.
The company also does electrostatic disinfecting. According to its website, the sprayer puts a positive charge on the disinfectant so it clings to surfaces and wraps around objects, reaching corners and high-touch spots an ordinary spray can miss. The company’s Google listing describes the service as aimed at viruses, COVID-19 among them.
Some jobs fall well outside a cleaning checklist. One customer wrote in a Google review that after heavy flooding, Better N Clean pumped about 2½ feet of water out of her basement. She wrote that the crew worked to save the belongings the water had not already ruined.
The company’s website describes the business as growing out of an idea for a service that is always in demand. It says the company wants to give people a chance to grow with it, including by starting businesses of their own from within. The site also describes a growing network of outside professionals who handle repairs, painting, landscaping, moving and other property work. Cleaning, it says, is often where those relationships begin.
Michael’s long-term goal fits that outline. He puts it in four words: “Franchising in multiple states.”