Episode 2: Edwin Eaton | iPro Cleaning Services
How do you grow a janitorial company into one of the fastest-growing businesses in the Northwest — and still find time to coach others, build software, and launch a podcast?
In this episode of Networked, host David Mabee sits down with Edwin Eaton, founder of iPro Building Services, a two-time Inc. 5000 honoree serving Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Edwin shares how he scaled his company with purpose, why he’s passionate about mentoring other entrepreneurs, and how his tech tool, Cinch Software, is helping modernize the commercial cleaning industry.
We also dive into his newest venture, Built After Hours, a podcast he kicked off with his son — and what legacy means to a founder who leads with heart.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:00):
Thank you.
David Mabee (00:09):
Welcome back to Network, the podcast that brings
you real talk to inspire,invest, and empower right here
in North Central Washington.
I'm your host, David Mabee,Marketing Director at the NTW
Tech Alliance.
Today's guest is someone whohas built more than a business.
He's built a legacy ofleadership, innovation, and
impact, and one of the mostessential industries out there,
commercial cleaning.
We're talking with Edwin Eaton,founder of iPro Building
(00:31):
Services, which serves clientsacross Washington, Oregon, and
Idaho, and has landed not once,but twice on the Inc's 5,000
list of fastest growingcompanies.
Edwin isn't just a CEO.
He's a coach, a softwaredeveloper, and a podcast host,
and a proud dad.
And today, we're diving intohow he's leading with purpose,
scaling with intention, andhelping others grow along the
(00:54):
way.
Edwin, how are you doing today?
I'm good.
I'm good, David.
How are you?
I'm doing fantastic, man.
Thank you for joining me.
We were just talking before wecame on, podcasting, you got to
love it.
There's a Little thingshappening here and there in the
background all the time.
So thank you for being patientwith me and we'll get rolling
with today's podcast.
Edwin Eaton (01:13):
Yeah, it was quite the introduction.
I appreciate that.
David Mabee (01:15):
Hey, no problem.
Hey, you've been in thejanitorial service now for over
18 years.
Take us back.
What was the first thing thatdrew you into this line of work?
And was this like a childhooddream or how did this all
happen?
Edwin Eaton (01:26):
Yeah, you know, I didn't raise my hand on career
day telling the teacher that Iwanted to be in janitorial
services.
But no, it was back in college,University of Washington.
Go Dawgs.
You know, we were sitting onthe couch, myself and my college
roommate, and he got a callfrom his uncle who owned a
(01:47):
pretty decent sized commercialcleaning company in Seattle up
and down the I-5 corridor.
And he called and he asked ifwe could cover and Take care of
it.
It's like, yes, absolutely.
(02:10):
We'll do it, you know.
And so that's really how I gotinto the industry.
And it was just basically for amonth, you know, and we were
thrown into it.
He said, you know, I'll sendsomebody down.
They'll give you the keys, thealarm codes, and you guys just
mop, take out trash, whatever.
And that's what we did.
And, you know, and I like tosay we never got one complaint
(02:31):
and I'm not the best cleaner inthe world.
But I mean, that's literallyhow I got into this industry.
David Mabee (02:36):
My parents owned a 10 bedroom in, so I was a
housekeeper for them for mycollege time.
So cleaning and I haveflashbacks of that as well.
What was the early moment whereyou kind of realized like, I
could make this a business orwhat was that leap from going
from college to starting yourown business?
Unknown (02:55):
Yeah.
Edwin Eaton (02:55):
Yeah, you know, I've always wanted to start my
own business, just didn't knowwhat I wanted to do.
And so I went to school forhospitality management.
I was working in hotels.
Long story short, I'm an onlychild and my parents had health
issues.
So I had to move back fromSeattle to Wenatchee.
And back when I moved back,there weren't really hotels that
(03:17):
could pay me the salary that Iwas making in the Seattle area.
And so I thought, what could Ido?
I want to start my ownbusiness.
What could I do?
And so I reached out to mycollege roommate's uncle and I
thought, what about janitorialservices?
I did it for a month.
We didn't get any complaints.
So let's give it a shot and seewhat can happen.
And him and I talked and hesaid, I have enough money that I
(03:41):
can pay you a salary andsupport you for one month.
And if you can make that salaryback in a month, Then let's
move forward with this.
And so I'm big into sports.
I'm competitive.
So I took that as a challenge.
And, you know, I told my wife,I said, I think I want to do
this.
So I dove in head first.
And after that first month, Iactually made my salary back and
(04:02):
then some.
And it just kind of progressed.
It just progressed from there.
David Mabee (04:05):
That's cool.
What were some of the biggestchallenges in those in those
early, early years?
I mean, how did you overcomethem?
Edwin Eaton (04:12):
Yeah, not knowing the industry.
That was the biggest thing, youknow, and not knowing how to
price jobs.
And, you know, with theircompany in Seattle, there wasn't
a lot of support.
So I was really on my own.
And I mean, I had salesexperience.
I had customer serviceexperience.
And that actually goes a longway in this industry because
it's a relationship typeindustry.
(04:33):
And so that kind of helped me.
And we got, you know, our firstfew accounts.
And so it was a lot of cleaningat night and then no sleep.
getting up and selling again,again, I'm competitive.
So I was like nonstop on thegrind is, you know, as quickly
as I could grow the company forhim.
And that's really, I mean,those were a lot of the pain
points and a lot of struggles inthe beginning, you know, your
(04:56):
price is too high or, you know,you have to offer these services
and, you know, it's just, itwas just a learning experience
throughout the, you know, reallythe first couple of years of
being in this industry.
David Mabee (05:07):
Right.
Yeah.
I mean, I've run my ownbusiness and undersold myself a
few times where you're doingjobs and it's basically you're
not even getting paid.
You're just doing them forfree.
So totally respect that and getthat.
So your passion clearly goesbeyond cleaning.
I see it's about people andgrowth and kind of leadership.
Where does that drive come fromand what pushes you to that?
Edwin Eaton (05:28):
Well, kind of back what we were talking about, you
know, those were the pain pointsand the struggles for me in the
beginning.
And I didn't know where to go.
And granted, you know, I hadthe big company I was working
for that could kind of help me,but not that much support.
So I had to figure out what todo.
Eventually, we butted heads andI parted ways and I started
iPro.
And again, it was just kind ofI'm on my own now.
So what am I going to do?
(05:48):
And I found a mentor and Ifound somebody who took the time
and invested, you know, Iinvested money in him, but he
invested his time with me aswell and kind of showed me the
ropes, what to do and what notto do and put me on the right
path.
And for somebody to, to dothat, granted, I was paying him,
but you know, we're goodfriends now, but he kind of took
the reins with me and kind ofshowed me the direction that I
(06:10):
should go.
And because of that, it kind ofinspired me that, you know, I
always said, if I got to a pointin business where I, I was good
and I could help otherbusinesses grow, I would want to
do that opportunity and kind ofpay it back.
And so I'm doing that now.
David Mabee (06:26):
Nice.
That's awesome.
So...
Um, so as we get rolling herewith, with iPro, how'd you,
how'd you come up with the nameiPro and, and what kind of
sparked the name there?
Is there, is there a good storythere?
Let me know.
Well, I
Edwin Eaton (06:38):
mean, you can see the, the, you know, the neon
green here and then you've gotit in your background there.
That's pretty cool.
Um, but no, when I startediPro, you know, coming up with a
name is usually, it's kind ofthe hardest thing to do, but at
the time, you know, it was, itwas 2011, 2012 and, you know,
there were iPads, iPhones, thosewere kind of the, the, the
thing at the time.
And I thought, well let's justjump on that bandwagon let's put
(07:00):
a little eye and You know,professional cleaners, let's put
it together.
And so that's how iPro wasmade.
Now you can see we've got thehouse that's on there because in
the beginning, I was taking onanything and everything I could
do.
And so it was residential, itwas commercial.
And now we've gotten rid ofresidential and we're strictly
commercial now.
But I call it the OG logo.
(07:20):
I've had some designers try toredesign a logo for me.
But for some reason, I justcan't get away from the logo
that we have.
David Mabee (07:28):
Right.
I mean, it becomes part of you,right?
Like that's your journey.
I mean, that's a great storybecause that's part of your
journey.
Even if you aren't doing itnow, the residential still
played a part in who you became.
Edwin Eaton (07:39):
Absolutely.
David Mabee (07:41):
So speaking of that, as you guys keep growing,
you're now on the Inc.
5000 list twice.
And that's huge.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
What does that recognition meanfor you and your team?
Is that a big thing in yourteam?
Does that drive your team atall?
Or is this something for you?
Edwin Eaton (07:57):
You know, I don't know that everybody on the team
really understands, you know,what it is and what it has done
for our business.
But, you know, Inc.
5000, it's not Forbes.
It's like a step down.
But, you know, it's being oneof the 5000 fastest growing
privately held businesses in thenation.
And so the first time we gotit, I mean, it just blew me away
(08:17):
that we did.
We have that award.
And I had the opportunity to godown to the conference and
receive our award.
And I was literally shakinghands with millionaires and
billionaires.
And, you know, I'm the littleguy in the totem pole at this
conference.
But I had an opportunity tokind of rub elbows and network
with some of the who's who inthe business world.
(08:37):
And I got to pick their brainson what works and what doesn't.
And, you know, they gave meaction items.
And I put those to work into mycompany.
And so we're not just here andwent at you.
And I think a lot of peoplethink that, you know, they see
us here in town.
This is just where our mainoffice is.
But we're throughout thePacific Northwest and, you know,
we're growing in multiplestates.
(08:59):
And so eventually we're goingto get over to the East Coast
and, you know, we'll make itnationwide.
My wife will tell you that Ijust need to stop and just
concentrate on what we're doing.
But, you know, I mean, theaward itself is healthy.
you know, propel us and hasgiven us other opportunities
where if we didn't have that andwe weren't in that limelight,
we wouldn't have got some of theopportunities that we currently
(09:20):
have now.
David Mabee (09:22):
Yeah.
I mean, obviously that doesn'thappen by accident.
So what kind of mindsets havehelped you scale that
successfully?
I know you said you talked tothe mentors and you rubbed
elbows.
I mean, is that what helped youscale is just seeing other
people kind of like you beingable to do it or what shifted
that mindset in your mind?
Edwin Eaton (09:39):
Yeah, I think a little bit of that.
And then just knowing that, youknow, it's my business and it's
me on the line.
And so if I want to create alife that I want, I've really
got to bust it out there.
I got to grind and I got toreally got to work at it.
And that's just kind of my workethic.
And again, I mentioned itbefore, you know, I'm
competitive.
I've been playing sports mywhole life.
And I just, if I see somebodydoing something and they're at a
(10:01):
level that I want to be at, I'mgoing to follow that person.
I'm going to get to know them.
I'm And I'm going to findsomebody else.
And then what I've learned inthe business is once you hit
certain plateaus in yourbusiness, you know, you get to
your first hundred thousand.
Well, if you want to get to twohundred and fifty thousand, you
can't do things the exact sameway.
You've got to change yourbusiness.
(10:22):
And so we've just constantlybeen reinventing ourselves to
each plateau that we reach.
And that's helped us just it'slike throwing fuel on the fire
and we just continue to growlike crazy.
David Mabee (10:32):
Right.
That's awesome.
So I see you guys, you're bigin promoting.
I see on LinkedIn and thingslike that, people's
anniversaries, workanniversaries, things like that.
How do you build a strong teamculture in an industry that's so
behind the scenes?
Edwin Eaton (10:47):
Yeah, I think it's like a 200% turnover rate in the
commercial cleaning industry.
So it's brutal turnover rate.
But what I learned, and just aquick story, is everybody does
the employee of the month.
And I started to do that kindof in the beginning.
And what happened was after thethird or fourth employee of the
month that we were having, theywould start to quit.
(11:09):
And I couldn't figure out why,because they were rock stars.
They were our studs of themonth.
And then all of a sudden,they're quitting.
When we got to the fourth one,they told me, you know, I sat
them down.
I said, what's going on?
They put in their two weeksnotice.
And I said, you just gotemployee of the month.
Like, what?
Why are you trying to quit?
And they said, well, it'sbecause you put me on a pedestal
(11:29):
now.
And so all the other employeesfelt like they should have
received it instead of me.
And, you know, what stuck isthis person told me that it
should be a team award.
And so I scrapped the employeeof the month and I said, OK, I
went back into the lab.
OK, what can I do that's goingto start building a culture?
Because company culture to mewasn't a thing.
(11:50):
I just thought it was abuzzword.
And so I started to really diveinto it more.
And it's like we could dobirthdays, but then there's some
religions that don't celebratebirthdays.
So I don't want to alienatethem.
So what can I do?
And it was like, what aboutanniversaries, work
anniversaries?
Somebody's put in the time.
They work their butt off.
Let's celebrate that.
And crazy enough, that juststarted to take off and it
(12:12):
morphed itself.
And then all of a sudden, we'reposting them on our social
media.
And they think they're justlike local celebrities once they
go on the social media becausepeople are posting and
commenting about them.
And so now it's just that's howit is here at iPro.
Like today, today, we're havinga huge anniversary party.
And so we're doing a barbecue.
You know, we've got abasketball hoop out here.
(12:33):
But the crazy thing is, is evenif it's your one year
anniversary compared to a sixyear or a ten year anniversary,
That's awesome.
We bring them in as we'rewaiting for the people that are
(12:55):
receiving their awards.
They're going to wait and we'regoing to surprise everybody.
Well, they're in this room andthey're all talking to each
other where they wouldn'tbefore.
And so that's really helpedwith the culture and really
build the team as well.
And so we've built a very solidteam.
Our turnover rate is very lowcompared to the national average
for this type of industry.
David Mabee (13:14):
That's amazing and good on you for having the
foresight or whatever to see–okay, this is a problem.
Why is this not working?
And let's go.
Because as an employee fordifferent companies, it's like
sometimes just, hey, you did agreat job is enough.
And some people don't like thespotlight.
(13:34):
Some people don't like to beput up there.
Like you said, I mean, itdrives people to quit, which is
crazy.
You think you're doing a goodthing and it's not working.
So, good on you for looking atthat.
As we go on here, what'ssomething that Just that they
don't
Edwin Eaton (13:55):
need it.
I think when COVID hit, whenthe pandemic hit, it kind of put
the cleaning industry in thelimelight.
It's like, oh, wow, if we wantto keep our doors open, we
actually have to be clean.
And, you know, there's a ton ofcompanies that get into, a ton
of business owners that starttheir own cleaning company.
They may have been goodcleaners, but they don't know
(14:15):
the business side of things.
And what happens is you'regetting a lot of mom and pop
companies that just, they don'thave licenses.
They don't have insurance thatare getting into this industry.
And it can actually affect, ifyou're the company that It could
actually affect you ifsomething gets stolen or they
break something like they don'thave insurance.
So you're on the hook for that.
So I think a lot of people lookat bigger companies and they
(14:38):
just think that our price isgoing to be way higher than, you
know, a small mom and pop,which it is.
But there's a reason why.
So a lot of people just kind oflook at that again, like
pricing, like they're really,really expensive.
Well, it's not that we'reexpensive.
It's we pay our people well.
we're giving you reliablecleaners.
We're giving you great serviceservices that maybe some other
(14:59):
companies can't offer you.
Um, and we're going to makesure that we take care of your
facility.
And you know, our, what we say,our love language is, is
communication.
And that's one thing I thinkthat a lot of businesses and
companies don't have iscommunication.
And we pride ourselves on ourcommunication.
David Mabee (15:14):
Right.
And it's crazy to think that acompany would be, take the
cheapest person to let somebodyinto your facility where you're
You've probably got millions ofdollars worth of equipment.
I always say
Edwin Eaton (15:26):
you get what you pay for.
David Mabee (15:28):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, for sure.
That's crazy.
That's well said.
So you're not only just anentrepreneur with the iPro
building, you're coaching,you're consulting.
So in addition to running iPro,you coach other business
owners.
You've talked a little bitabout it in the commercial
cleaning world.
Yeah.
you've talked a little bitabout this, but was there a
particular moment that made youwant to give back?
(15:48):
You talked about your mentor.
Was there like an aha momentwhere you're like, Oh, this is,
this is the, what I want to doto pay it forward?
Edwin Eaton (15:54):
Yeah.
You know, it was, uh, I was ona podcast and this was probably
five, six years ago.
And the podcast actually gaveme street cred and I was just
coming on, you know, it was acleaning podcast and I was just
talking about my journey and itresonated with, some other
commercial cleaning businessowners and they started reaching
out to me and they wanted help.
(16:15):
Hey, we love what you weretalking about.
Can you help us out?
So I was like, sure.
So I'm helping one person.
Then next thing you know, it'slike seven, eight people.
And then my wife's like, whatare you doing?
You're taking your time awayfrom my pro.
If you're going to help people,you at least have to charge to
make it worth your while.
And that's kind of how itstarted.
And so now I've created what Icall blueprint janitorial
(16:36):
consulting.
I literally have clients in all50 states And just as of last
year, I mean, I have clients inAustralia, over in Europe, in
Canada, in Mexico.
So it's really spiraled justcrazy and everybody wanting
assistance.
And, you know, that's kind ofone of the things that I try to
teach.
And, you know, the greatphilosopher Pitbull said it.
(16:58):
He said, ask for money, getadvice.
Ask for advice, get moneytwice.
And I love that statement inhis song because really, you
know, people get into this andthey want money.
And they think that they canjust get money right away in
this industry.
But you need to have a mentor,somebody that has that can give
you the advice and put you onthat right path.
That's what happened with me.
And, you know, I've been onthat path and it's it's, you
(17:22):
know, it's up and down, but it'sa great path that I'm on.
And so that's what I'm tryingto teach everybody that's
partnering up with me.
David Mabee (17:29):
That's amazing.
So now you're locallyrecognized, internationally
known, and you're quotingPitbull.
I love it, Edwin.
So what are some of the biggestmistakes or blind spots that
you see when you're working witha new business owner or
somebody who comes to you forhelp?
Is there like a pattern or iseverything pretty different
or...
Edwin Eaton (17:47):
Yeah, I know a lot of new business owners in the
commercial cleaning space getinto it.
Like I mentioned before, when Igot started, I didn't know how
to bid.
So that was the big thing.
They don't know how to pricejobs.
They don't know how to puttogether professional proposals.
They don't know that they needa website.
They don't know how to markettheir business.
I mean, the list goes on andon.
And so those are just thethings where I start from,
(18:07):
number one, getting yourbusiness name to getting your
LLC or whatever it is, and thenjust kind of working them step
by step.
I don't work with a lot of...
well-established businesses.
These are just basically a lotof startups to maybe a couple of
years in business that I'mworking with to really help them
fine tune their business.
David Mabee (18:26):
And is this, so if somebody wanted to get ahold of
you for that, is that somethingthey can reach through iPro or
is there, or sorry, you have awhole nother business with that,
right?
Could you let them know justhow to get in touch with that or
shoot me that?
And I guess we can put that inthe notes.
Edwin Eaton (18:38):
Yeah.
Yeah.
The website is justblueprintjanitorial.com.
David Mabee (18:41):
Okay, Blueprint.
Okay, that's the other one.
Because you got another thinggoing on here.
You're a man of many thingsgoing on.
Let's talk about Sync.
Is it Sync?
Cinch.
Cinch, sorry.
Cinch software.
How did you come about thatidea?
And what is Cinch?
Edwin Eaton (18:56):
So that came from, again, it started with iPro and
then into the consulting sidethat just kind of segued into
software.
It was, I didn't know how tobid, so I had to learn how to do
it and put togetherspreadsheets.
And then The clients that I hadon the consulting side, they
wanted assistance with bidding.
And so it was like, Hey, whydon't I put together a
calculator that I use?
(19:16):
And so I did that.
It took off on the consultingside.
And then they said, what aboutproposals?
What about scheduling?
I don't want to buy thisplatform and that platform.
So, you know, the light wentoff and I thought, you know
what, why don't I just startjanitorial software?
And again, I can hear my wifein the back, just saying, stop,
just stop.
What are you doing?
So that's kind of how ithappened.
(19:37):
And so basically everythingthat's within my software, my
janitorial software system iseverything that I use within my
company to get me to where I'mat now.
And so we've made it simple.
So you don't have to have fiveor six different platforms.
We've got our CRM that's inthere.
You can invoice from it.
You know, we have what we callour create a bid button that
walks you through the wholesales process, you know,
(19:58):
proposals, scope of work,inspections, scheduling, work
orders, everything's there.
We've made it at a competitiveprice because I don't have any
angel investors or anything likethat.
It's just me.
And so we've I've been able tokeep the price down to make it
something so that brand newcommercial cleaning business
owners, they can actually affordit.
And it's going to be something,it's going to be a tool in
(20:21):
their arsenal that they're goingto use on a daily basis.
David Mabee (20:25):
Cool.
And did you work with softwareengineers locally or how did
that come about?
So
Edwin Eaton (20:32):
right now, the big thing is working with software
engineers in the Middle East andin India.
And so I actually partneredwith somebody.
I actually found him on Fiverrwhen I started my calculator.
Got to know him pretty well.
Actually, he invited me to hiswedding, which is actually this
weekend.
It's in Pakistan.
I'm like, yeah, I appreciatethe invite.
(20:52):
I don't think I'll be able tomake it.
But what's nice is It startedwith just me and him.
And I think now just witheverything that we've done over
the course of the last two and ahalf years with the software
system, we're up to a webdevelopment team of about 14
individuals now that work justsolely on Cinch.
David Mabee (21:09):
That's crazy.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Is that a download app or dothey have to purchase it through
you?
And how does somebody get it ifthey need that software?
Edwin Eaton (21:19):
Yeah.
So the website iscleansinch.com.
And then they sign up directlythere.
And then we have the mobileapps in the App Store and Google
Play Store that they can use aswell.
David Mabee (21:29):
Cool.
Well, we're rolling along.
So, I mean, you're a man ofmany talents here.
I'm loving it.
I'm a little nervous about mypodcasting because you just
launched your own podcast aswell, Built After Hours.
Another thing, right?
Your wife must love it.
But your first guest was yourson.
What was that like for you as adad?
(21:50):
How cool was that moment foryou?
Edwin Eaton (21:52):
Well, I've always been wanting to do it.
I've been on a few podcasts andpeople in my network have been
asking me like, man, when areyou going to launch your own
podcast?
And then the consulting clientsthat I have.
And I never really wanted to doit.
And then they kept pushing.
And I thought, you know what?
I'll give it a shot.
If it works, it works.
If it doesn't, it doesn't.
And I thought, who better couldI put on as a first guest than
(22:12):
my son?
And he's 23 right now.
He's been in the industry sincehigh school, since he was 16
years old.
And he's kind of gone througheverything from cleaning
toilets, taking out trash tobeing the night supervisor to
hiring to firing to selling imean he's kind of seen a little
bit of everything and he's stillyoung and i thought this would
(22:32):
just be great to kind of sharehis story on on this first
episode and because there's alot of other people that i think
are going to resonate with kindof his journey that he's going
through
David Mabee (22:42):
yeah so that's awesome when he i have a
nine-year-old and a six-year-oldso i'm not there yet but um
We're in baseball season, lotsof baseball.
Did you make your son startworking for you when he was 16?
Or was that something he cameto you like wanting to do?
And how has that progressiongone?
Has it been like a resentmentto like a better relationship?
(23:02):
Or what's that been like?
Edwin Eaton (23:04):
Yeah, no, you know, as he puts it, I asked him in
the show, you know, what's oneword you would describe working
with your dad?
And his word was challenging iswhat he came up with.
But no, it's one of thosethings.
He started working in highschool at Three Lakes Golf
Course, and he was a cart boythere.
And then he was actuallycleaning toilets and mopping
floors there.
(23:24):
And then right around the timeof the pandemic, we asked him if
he wanted to come work for usso that he could have some set
hours that would work within hisschool schedule.
And he agreed to do it.
And yeah.
I mean, he hasn't looked backsince.
And I think he is right.
It's challenging in a way, butit's more of me challenging him
(23:45):
to see where his mindset is atand to get him to really
understand this.
Because eventually, you know,this is a family legacy is what
I'm trying to create.
So eventually I want him totake over the business.
So I'm giving him really acrash course in what commercial
cleaning and the commercialcleaning industry is all about.
It's not cleaning toilets allthe time.
There's other business side ofthings.
(24:06):
There's the employee I mean,there's all kinds of stuff and
he's, he's starting to see thatnow.
And, and, you know, it's kindof crazy because he started
selling a year and a half ago.
He made his first sale twoweeks into the new position.
His first sale was like 10grand.
I was like, what?
Like my first sale wasn't thatmuch.
(24:27):
And then, Just last year inNovember, he set a record for
himself.
He sold $37,000 in one month innew janitorial contracts, which
is just...
It was just phenomenal.
Blew me away that he was ableto do that.
David Mabee (24:40):
That's awesome.
It's so cool.
I mean, you hope...
As a father, I guess, I justhope that my kids resonate and
the lessons I'm trying to teachthem will turn from like, oh,
you just don't like me.
You're trying to make me dostuff to like, oh, thank you,
dad.
So...
Kudos to you, man.
I know that's a tough path togo and to see it happen is
(25:01):
really awesome.
I caught the first part of thepodcast and I was excited for
you.
I was like, man, this isawesome.
What's it been like, though,watching your son find his path
in this industry?
You just talked about hittingthe sales marks and things like
that.
But is there anything elsethat's kind of stood out to you
and made you proud or timeswhere you have to bite your
tongue so you don't say thewrong thing?
(25:23):
Or what's that like walkingthat line?
Edwin Eaton (25:25):
No, I mean, you know, when he was in high school
and at home, he was listeningto me all the time on the phone
because it was like 24 seven.
I was always working.
And so he was able to hear alot of the conversation.
So he's almost like a sponge.
He just he soaked all thisinformation in, even when he
wasn't really in a in amanagement position with us.
And so he kind of retained thatinformation.
And, you know, I mentioned itin the podcast because he was
(25:48):
20, maybe at the time, 1920.
And he was a supervisor and hewas making money.
executive decisions on the flyat night.
And, you know, he couldn't evengo in a bar and order a drink,
but he was making thesedecisions at night that were
impacting the business.
And so to me, that's just, youknow, it's like, wow, like he's,
he's far above a lot of peoplehis age and what he's learned in
(26:12):
this industry that, you know,his mom and I have just told
him, you know, the sky's thelimit for him at this point.
And just what he's putting intoit and what he's learning now,
he's just, he's on a, he's on awhole nother trajectory.
David Mabee (26:22):
That's amazing.
And part of me thinks it'sprobably because you've
entrusted him and you're givinghim confidence and he's probably
got confidence just fromwatching you.
So, that's stuff that takesyears to build if you're in a
corporate environment withsomebody you don't know, right?
Because then you're walking theline of like, I don't want to
make this new person mad.
But I mean, this is afather-son relationship.
(26:44):
Yeah.
That's awesome.
How do you see this Built AfterHours podcast working?
Are you envisioning this aslike telling your story to
inspire others?
Or do you see this as kind of away to help people?
What's kind of the...
goal of the podcast, I guess.
Edwin Eaton (27:00):
Yeah.
Well, a lot of the cleaningpodcasts out there, you're kind
of seeing the same guests.
They're established people inthe industry and there's nobody
that's talking about the newstartups and the people getting
into it and the issues thatthey're having.
And maybe they're working anine to five job and then
they're doing this as a side gigto try to build it up to become
what they want to do.
And so I'm trying to showcasethese people, share their
(27:23):
stories, and then it's going toresonate with other new
commercial cleaning owners thatare trying to get into the
space.
You know, the crazy thing aboutthe podcast is it actually
launched today, which is cool.
David Mabee (27:34):
Congratulations.
Edwin Eaton (27:35):
Yeah, thank you.
But the day before, I got acall from the number one
cleaning podcast.
And so it's crazy because youthink of ESPN.
ESPN has like Around the Horn,E60, all these secondary shows,
right?
So they asked me if Built AfterHours would be showcased on
their website and be a secondaryshow to what they have.
Oh, and I'm like, yeah.
(27:57):
I said, you haven't even heardmy first episode yet.
Like I want to do it, but youshould probably listen because
if it completely fails, you'renot going to want me on your
show.
Right.
But, but.
We've got that in the worksright now.
And so I'm getting access totheir tens of thousands of
subscribers.
And then they're getting accessto what I have right now.
That's awesome.
(28:18):
So it's a pretty cool feelingto think that I just started it.
The first episode just wentout.
And we're already going to beon this big platform with
another big podcast that's outthere.
David Mabee (28:29):
And that's half the battle.
How do you separate yourself?
And that's what we're trying tofigure out.
So this podcast will probablyevolve and go.
But I was a part of apodcast...
15 years ago in LA.
And we ended up getting pushedbecause we were a video game
podcast.
And we ended up number one oniTunes.
And it was insane.
We were getting like 50,000downloads all of a sudden.
And it was like, what is goingon?
And that was before video.
(28:51):
So...
I can only hope that somethinglike that happens with this.
The podcast realm is a lot morecompetitive now, but I'm
wishing you luck.
And I'm glad we have you on oursecond episode right as your
first episode launches.
So we're on this journeytogether.
I have to follow up with youand we'll have to have another
podcast moment here in a yearand see where we're at.
Edwin Eaton (29:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
David Mabee (29:14):
What's been the most rewarding part of building
something that your family is apart of?
Edwin Eaton (29:21):
Yeah, you know, I think I was talking with
somebody about that the otherday.
I think in business, and I'llcall it the ultimate flex for
business, is when you get to acertain point in business that
you have more time for yourfamily.
And I'll just briefly touch onthis.
My wife last year, towards theend of last year, was diagnosed
with stage four cancer.
And so it was one of thosethings that just completely
(29:43):
changed everything.
way we were doing our everydaylife and so i mean it just
flipped us upside down but thethe beauty of it is again with
my son he's he's in thisindustry he knows it i've got a
great general manager we've gotgreat managers all across the
board that i i'm able to stepaway and spend time with my wife
and help her out and not haveto worry about the business um
(30:07):
and then just to be able to dothat be able to pick up my
daughter when she gets off offof school A lot of business
owners can't do that.
But you just got to keepgrinding to get to that point.
And again, I'm just thankfulthat over the years, I've been
able to find the right peopleand put those right people in
place to really take care of thebusiness so that I can take
care of my family and do what Ineed to do.
David Mabee (30:29):
Right.
I mean, one of the greatestquotes I've heard, and I think
it was like two years ago,because I was working a lot of
hours and This was before I wasat the tech Alliance.
And I was just like, I got tofind something.
Cause I'm missing weekends.
I'm missing.
Somebody said, nobody's evergoing to remember or your
family's never going to rememberhow much time you put in at
work, how much this you're gonnaremember the moments you
(30:50):
missed.
So like, yeah, I've gonethrough some stuff last year
too, as well.
That's really changed my lifewith family issues and things.
So totally understand that partof the story.
And, and I think we're alltrying to find that balance of
how do you spend more time withyour family and still, still get
things done and be successful.
Edwin Eaton (31:07):
We are.
Unknown (31:08):
Yeah.
David Mabee (31:08):
Yeah, as we wrap this up, we'll get into a little
bit more fun here.
We just have our littlesignature questions here.
You know, we inspire, invest,and empower.
So on the inspire side, what'sone piece of advice you'd give
to someone starting aservice-based industry if they
were starting today?
Edwin Eaton (31:24):
You, you know, for this industry, it's a $90
billion a year industry.
So if you think about that, $90billion a year, and I think it
was less than 20% of commercialcleaning business owners have 20
employees.
So sky's the limit in thisindustry.
If you work hard and you reallyput your nose to, to the ground
(31:45):
and just start going andgrinding every day, um, you can
etch out your little piece ofthis industry out of that $90
billion.
David Mabee (31:53):
That's insane, $90 billion.
Right?
On the invest side, what's oneskill that you're still working
on as a founder?
Edwin Eaton (32:02):
On the invest side, it's investing in myself and
investing in my leadership team.
And so I've hired a leadershipcoach who comes in once a
quarter and works with our team.
And we're not talking aboutbusiness, but we're talking
about...
how to relieve stress and howto make more time for ourselves.
And then also on the businessside, how to interact with your
(32:23):
employees, how to be empatheticabout things and how to get
people to want to work with youand to trust you.
David Mabee (32:30):
That's awesome.
And then one more here onempowering.
What's kind of your superpower?
What do you think yoursuperpower is as a business
leader?
Edwin Eaton (32:38):
Oh boy, as a business leader, you know, I
think it's just the fact that Icommunicate, right?
And that's the biggest thing.
I'm trying to remember who saidit.
It might have been CodySanchez.
He said, complexity makes youseem smart, but simplicity makes
you money.
And I think that's kind of whatI look at is just keeping
things simple, being real aboutthings and not trying to
(32:59):
overcomplicate it.
I think it's really the biggestthing.
And my staff will tell you thesame thing.
I'm pretty basic and to thepoint when it comes to things.
I just want to get to the pointand let's move on and let's
move forward.
David Mabee (33:09):
Right.
That's awesome.
Okay.
If your business was a realityTV show, what would it be
called?
Edwin Eaton (33:15):
Oh, gosh.
You know, it would have to besomething.
I don't know the name, but thecamera crew, the production crew
would have a heck of a timefollowing us around seeing what
we see in bathrooms and juststuff that we find in some of
these locations.
I mean, it would be a goodreality TV show, maybe
Janitorial Diaries or JanitorialChronicles or something like
David Mabee (33:39):
that.
And then is there a local placethat you go to or a spot you
have to do when you want tothink big?
Edwin Eaton (33:46):
Um, I, when the pandemic hit, uh, you know, a
lot of the gyms closed and I hada empty space under my house.
And so we, we built a gymthere.
So every morning, that's justwhere I go.
There's, there's no devices.
I go down there and I get in aworkout for a good hour.
It's just my spot down there.
Um, you know, I've got my musicplaying, I've got all the, all
the workout equipment that Ineed.
(34:06):
And it's just, it's the placethat I just clear my mind to, to
get my day started on the righttrack.
David Mabee (34:12):
That's awesome.
Yeah.
I love outdoors.
I love to go mountain bike, uh,no phone, uh, and I love to
snowboard.
Um, so that's kind of my,that's, that's awesome.
And
Edwin Eaton (34:21):
this is the, this is the place to live if you want
all those activities.
David Mabee (34:24):
Oh yeah.
I mean, we're 20 minutes awayfrom mission Ridge.
I'm, You know, I can ride mybike to the mountain or it's a
five minute drive, but that'sawesome.
Hey, Edwin, I want to thank youfor sharing your story today.
That's awesome to see you comefrom humble beginnings, the
janitorial industry to buildingone of the fastest growing
companies in the Northwest.
I love that you focus on yourpeople, your leadership, and the
(34:46):
legacy.
That's kind of what network'sall about.
If you want to learn more aboutiPro building services and the
softwares and all that, whereshould someone go?
Is there one spot in general?
Or can you just plug some ofyour places you want people to
go?
And how can they find out aboutyour Built After Hours podcast
as well?
You got a lot of stuff topromote, but I'm going to give
you a second here to tell themwhere to go.
Edwin Eaton (35:06):
Yeah, I mean, for iPro, I mean, that's where it
all started.
It's just worry-free dockcleaning.
I'm big on LinkedIn And so ifyou just type in my name, Edwin
Eaton on LinkedIn, you're goingto get access to all the sites.
Um, be, be great to link upwith a lot of people here,
especially locally and just tofollow each other and support
each other.
But LinkedIn is probably thebest place to go.
David Mabee (35:25):
That's awesome.
I'm going to make sure Isubscribe to your podcast today.
I hope you do the same.
And if you're liking this andyou're out there, please hit
subscribe.
Uh, we're going to be on ourYouTube channel.
We're also on all the otherplatforms you can find us.
So if, Stay tuned.
We got more stories,entrepreneurs, changemakers, and
NCW.
Thank you, Edwin, for being ontoday.
(35:45):
Thank you.
And that's going to do it forthis episode of Networked.
Thank you.
David Mabee (00:09):
Welcome back to Network, the podcast that brings
you real talk to inspire,invest, and empower right here
in North Central Washington.
I'm your host, David Mabee,Marketing Director at the NTW
Tech Alliance.
Today's guest is someone whohas built more than a business.
He's built a legacy ofleadership, innovation, and
impact, and one of the mostessential industries out there,
commercial cleaning.
We're talking with Edwin Eaton,founder of iPro Building
(00:31):
Services, which serves clientsacross Washington, Oregon, and
Idaho, and has landed not once,but twice on the Inc's 5,000
list of fastest growingcompanies.
Edwin isn't just a CEO.
He's a coach, a softwaredeveloper, and a podcast host,
and a proud dad.
And today, we're diving intohow he's leading with purpose,
scaling with intention, andhelping others grow along the
(00:54):
way.
Edwin, how are you doing today?
I'm good.
I'm good, David.
How are you?
I'm doing fantastic, man.
Thank you for joining me.
We were just talking before wecame on, podcasting, you got to
love it.
There's a Little thingshappening here and there in the
background all the time.
So thank you for being patientwith me and we'll get rolling
with today's podcast.
Edwin Eaton (01:13):
Yeah, it was quite the introduction.
I appreciate that.
David Mabee (01:15):
Hey, no problem.
Hey, you've been in thejanitorial service now for over
18 years.
Take us back.
What was the first thing thatdrew you into this line of work?
And was this like a childhooddream or how did this all
happen?
Edwin Eaton (01:26):
Yeah, you know, I didn't raise my hand on career
day telling the teacher that Iwanted to be in janitorial
services.
But no, it was back in college,University of Washington.
Go Dawgs.
You know, we were sitting onthe couch, myself and my college
roommate, and he got a callfrom his uncle who owned a
(01:47):
pretty decent sized commercialcleaning company in Seattle up
and down the I-5 corridor.
And he called and he asked ifwe could cover and Take care of
it.
It's like, yes, absolutely.
(02:10):
We'll do it, you know.
And so that's really how I gotinto the industry.
And it was just basically for amonth, you know, and we were
thrown into it.
He said, you know, I'll sendsomebody down.
They'll give you the keys, thealarm codes, and you guys just
mop, take out trash, whatever.
And that's what we did.
And, you know, and I like tosay we never got one complaint
(02:31):
and I'm not the best cleaner inthe world.
But I mean, that's literallyhow I got into this industry.
David Mabee (02:36):
My parents owned a 10 bedroom in, so I was a
housekeeper for them for mycollege time.
So cleaning and I haveflashbacks of that as well.
What was the early moment whereyou kind of realized like, I
could make this a business orwhat was that leap from going
from college to starting yourown business?
Unknown (02:55):
Yeah.
Edwin Eaton (02:55):
Yeah, you know, I've always wanted to start my
own business, just didn't knowwhat I wanted to do.
And so I went to school forhospitality management.
I was working in hotels.
Long story short, I'm an onlychild and my parents had health
issues.
So I had to move back fromSeattle to Wenatchee.
And back when I moved back,there weren't really hotels that
(03:17):
could pay me the salary that Iwas making in the Seattle area.
And so I thought, what could Ido?
I want to start my ownbusiness.
What could I do?
And so I reached out to mycollege roommate's uncle and I
thought, what about janitorialservices?
I did it for a month.
We didn't get any complaints.
So let's give it a shot and seewhat can happen.
And him and I talked and hesaid, I have enough money that I
(03:41):
can pay you a salary andsupport you for one month.
And if you can make that salaryback in a month, Then let's
move forward with this.
And so I'm big into sports.
I'm competitive.
So I took that as a challenge.
And, you know, I told my wife,I said, I think I want to do
this.
So I dove in head first.
And after that first month, Iactually made my salary back and
(04:02):
then some.
And it just kind of progressed.
It just progressed from there.
David Mabee (04:05):
That's cool.
What were some of the biggestchallenges in those in those
early, early years?
I mean, how did you overcomethem?
Edwin Eaton (04:12):
Yeah, not knowing the industry.
That was the biggest thing, youknow, and not knowing how to
price jobs.
And, you know, with theircompany in Seattle, there wasn't
a lot of support.
So I was really on my own.
And I mean, I had salesexperience.
I had customer serviceexperience.
And that actually goes a longway in this industry because
it's a relationship typeindustry.
(04:33):
And so that kind of helped me.
And we got, you know, our firstfew accounts.
And so it was a lot of cleaningat night and then no sleep.
getting up and selling again,again, I'm competitive.
So I was like nonstop on thegrind is, you know, as quickly
as I could grow the company forhim.
And that's really, I mean,those were a lot of the pain
points and a lot of struggles inthe beginning, you know, your
(04:56):
price is too high or, you know,you have to offer these services
and, you know, it's just, itwas just a learning experience
throughout the, you know, reallythe first couple of years of
being in this industry.
David Mabee (05:07):
Right.
Yeah.
I mean, I've run my ownbusiness and undersold myself a
few times where you're doingjobs and it's basically you're
not even getting paid.
You're just doing them forfree.
So totally respect that and getthat.
So your passion clearly goesbeyond cleaning.
I see it's about people andgrowth and kind of leadership.
Where does that drive come fromand what pushes you to that?
Edwin Eaton (05:28):
Well, kind of back what we were talking about, you
know, those were the pain pointsand the struggles for me in the
beginning.
And I didn't know where to go.
And granted, you know, I hadthe big company I was working
for that could kind of help me,but not that much support.
So I had to figure out what todo.
Eventually, we butted heads andI parted ways and I started
iPro.
And again, it was just kind ofI'm on my own now.
So what am I going to do?
(05:48):
And I found a mentor and Ifound somebody who took the time
and invested, you know, Iinvested money in him, but he
invested his time with me aswell and kind of showed me the
ropes, what to do and what notto do and put me on the right
path.
And for somebody to, to dothat, granted, I was paying him,
but you know, we're goodfriends now, but he kind of took
the reins with me and kind ofshowed me the direction that I
(06:10):
should go.
And because of that, it kind ofinspired me that, you know, I
always said, if I got to a pointin business where I, I was good
and I could help otherbusinesses grow, I would want to
do that opportunity and kind ofpay it back.
And so I'm doing that now.
David Mabee (06:26):
Nice.
That's awesome.
So...
Um, so as we get rolling herewith, with iPro, how'd you,
how'd you come up with the nameiPro and, and what kind of
sparked the name there?
Is there, is there a good storythere?
Let me know.
Well, I
Edwin Eaton (06:38):
mean, you can see the, the, you know, the neon
green here and then you've gotit in your background there.
That's pretty cool.
Um, but no, when I startediPro, you know, coming up with a
name is usually, it's kind ofthe hardest thing to do, but at
the time, you know, it was, itwas 2011, 2012 and, you know,
there were iPads, iPhones, thosewere kind of the, the, the
thing at the time.
And I thought, well let's justjump on that bandwagon let's put
(07:00):
a little eye and You know,professional cleaners, let's put
it together.
And so that's how iPro wasmade.
Now you can see we've got thehouse that's on there because in
the beginning, I was taking onanything and everything I could
do.
And so it was residential, itwas commercial.
And now we've gotten rid ofresidential and we're strictly
commercial now.
But I call it the OG logo.
(07:20):
I've had some designers try toredesign a logo for me.
But for some reason, I justcan't get away from the logo
that we have.
David Mabee (07:28):
Right.
I mean, it becomes part of you,right?
Like that's your journey.
I mean, that's a great storybecause that's part of your
journey.
Even if you aren't doing itnow, the residential still
played a part in who you became.
Edwin Eaton (07:39):
Absolutely.
David Mabee (07:41):
So speaking of that, as you guys keep growing,
you're now on the Inc.
5000 list twice.
And that's huge.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
What does that recognition meanfor you and your team?
Is that a big thing in yourteam?
Does that drive your team atall?
Or is this something for you?
Edwin Eaton (07:57):
You know, I don't know that everybody on the team
really understands, you know,what it is and what it has done
for our business.
But, you know, Inc.
5000, it's not Forbes.
It's like a step down.
But, you know, it's being oneof the 5000 fastest growing
privately held businesses in thenation.
And so the first time we gotit, I mean, it just blew me away
(08:17):
that we did.
We have that award.
And I had the opportunity to godown to the conference and
receive our award.
And I was literally shakinghands with millionaires and
billionaires.
And, you know, I'm the littleguy in the totem pole at this
conference.
But I had an opportunity tokind of rub elbows and network
with some of the who's who inthe business world.
(08:37):
And I got to pick their brainson what works and what doesn't.
And, you know, they gave meaction items.
And I put those to work into mycompany.
And so we're not just here andwent at you.
And I think a lot of peoplethink that, you know, they see
us here in town.
This is just where our mainoffice is.
But we're throughout thePacific Northwest and, you know,
we're growing in multiplestates.
(08:59):
And so eventually we're goingto get over to the East Coast
and, you know, we'll make itnationwide.
My wife will tell you that Ijust need to stop and just
concentrate on what we're doing.
But, you know, I mean, theaward itself is healthy.
you know, propel us and hasgiven us other opportunities
where if we didn't have that andwe weren't in that limelight,
we wouldn't have got some of theopportunities that we currently
(09:20):
have now.
David Mabee (09:22):
Yeah.
I mean, obviously that doesn'thappen by accident.
So what kind of mindsets havehelped you scale that
successfully?
I know you said you talked tothe mentors and you rubbed
elbows.
I mean, is that what helped youscale is just seeing other
people kind of like you beingable to do it or what shifted
that mindset in your mind?
Edwin Eaton (09:39):
Yeah, I think a little bit of that.
And then just knowing that, youknow, it's my business and it's
me on the line.
And so if I want to create alife that I want, I've really
got to bust it out there.
I got to grind and I got toreally got to work at it.
And that's just kind of my workethic.
And again, I mentioned itbefore, you know, I'm
competitive.
I've been playing sports mywhole life.
And I just, if I see somebodydoing something and they're at a
(10:01):
level that I want to be at, I'mgoing to follow that person.
I'm going to get to know them.
I'm And I'm going to findsomebody else.
And then what I've learned inthe business is once you hit
certain plateaus in yourbusiness, you know, you get to
your first hundred thousand.
Well, if you want to get to twohundred and fifty thousand, you
can't do things the exact sameway.
You've got to change yourbusiness.
(10:22):
And so we've just constantlybeen reinventing ourselves to
each plateau that we reach.
And that's helped us just it'slike throwing fuel on the fire
and we just continue to growlike crazy.
David Mabee (10:32):
Right.
That's awesome.
So I see you guys, you're bigin promoting.
I see on LinkedIn and thingslike that, people's
anniversaries, workanniversaries, things like that.
How do you build a strong teamculture in an industry that's so
behind the scenes?
Edwin Eaton (10:47):
Yeah, I think it's like a 200% turnover rate in the
commercial cleaning industry.
So it's brutal turnover rate.
But what I learned, and just aquick story, is everybody does
the employee of the month.
And I started to do that kindof in the beginning.
And what happened was after thethird or fourth employee of the
month that we were having, theywould start to quit.
(11:09):
And I couldn't figure out why,because they were rock stars.
They were our studs of themonth.
And then all of a sudden,they're quitting.
When we got to the fourth one,they told me, you know, I sat
them down.
I said, what's going on?
They put in their two weeksnotice.
And I said, you just gotemployee of the month.
Like, what?
Why are you trying to quit?
And they said, well, it'sbecause you put me on a pedestal
(11:29):
now.
And so all the other employeesfelt like they should have
received it instead of me.
And, you know, what stuck isthis person told me that it
should be a team award.
And so I scrapped the employeeof the month and I said, OK, I
went back into the lab.
OK, what can I do that's goingto start building a culture?
Because company culture to mewasn't a thing.
(11:50):
I just thought it was abuzzword.
And so I started to really diveinto it more.
And it's like we could dobirthdays, but then there's some
religions that don't celebratebirthdays.
So I don't want to alienatethem.
So what can I do?
And it was like, what aboutanniversaries, work
anniversaries?
Somebody's put in the time.
They work their butt off.
Let's celebrate that.
And crazy enough, that juststarted to take off and it
(12:12):
morphed itself.
And then all of a sudden, we'reposting them on our social
media.
And they think they're justlike local celebrities once they
go on the social media becausepeople are posting and
commenting about them.
And so now it's just that's howit is here at iPro.
Like today, today, we're havinga huge anniversary party.
And so we're doing a barbecue.
You know, we've got abasketball hoop out here.
(12:33):
But the crazy thing is, is evenif it's your one year
anniversary compared to a sixyear or a ten year anniversary,
That's awesome.
We bring them in as we'rewaiting for the people that are
(12:55):
receiving their awards.
They're going to wait and we'regoing to surprise everybody.
Well, they're in this room andthey're all talking to each
other where they wouldn'tbefore.
And so that's really helpedwith the culture and really
build the team as well.
And so we've built a very solidteam.
Our turnover rate is very lowcompared to the national average
for this type of industry.
David Mabee (13:14):
That's amazing and good on you for having the
foresight or whatever to see–okay, this is a problem.
Why is this not working?
And let's go.
Because as an employee fordifferent companies, it's like
sometimes just, hey, you did agreat job is enough.
And some people don't like thespotlight.
(13:34):
Some people don't like to beput up there.
Like you said, I mean, itdrives people to quit, which is
crazy.
You think you're doing a goodthing and it's not working.
So, good on you for looking atthat.
As we go on here, what'ssomething that Just that they
don't
Edwin Eaton (13:55):
need it.
I think when COVID hit, whenthe pandemic hit, it kind of put
the cleaning industry in thelimelight.
It's like, oh, wow, if we wantto keep our doors open, we
actually have to be clean.
And, you know, there's a ton ofcompanies that get into, a ton
of business owners that starttheir own cleaning company.
They may have been goodcleaners, but they don't know
(14:15):
the business side of things.
And what happens is you'regetting a lot of mom and pop
companies that just, they don'thave licenses.
They don't have insurance thatare getting into this industry.
And it can actually affect, ifyou're the company that It could
actually affect you ifsomething gets stolen or they
break something like they don'thave insurance.
So you're on the hook for that.
So I think a lot of people lookat bigger companies and they
(14:38):
just think that our price isgoing to be way higher than, you
know, a small mom and pop,which it is.
But there's a reason why.
So a lot of people just kind oflook at that again, like
pricing, like they're really,really expensive.
Well, it's not that we'reexpensive.
It's we pay our people well.
we're giving you reliablecleaners.
We're giving you great serviceservices that maybe some other
(14:59):
companies can't offer you.
Um, and we're going to makesure that we take care of your
facility.
And you know, our, what we say,our love language is, is
communication.
And that's one thing I thinkthat a lot of businesses and
companies don't have iscommunication.
And we pride ourselves on ourcommunication.
David Mabee (15:14):
Right.
And it's crazy to think that acompany would be, take the
cheapest person to let somebodyinto your facility where you're
You've probably got millions ofdollars worth of equipment.
I always say
Edwin Eaton (15:26):
you get what you pay for.
David Mabee (15:28):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, for sure.
That's crazy.
That's well said.
So you're not only just anentrepreneur with the iPro
building, you're coaching,you're consulting.
So in addition to running iPro,you coach other business
owners.
You've talked a little bitabout it in the commercial
cleaning world.
Yeah.
you've talked a little bitabout this, but was there a
particular moment that made youwant to give back?
(15:48):
You talked about your mentor.
Was there like an aha momentwhere you're like, Oh, this is,
this is the, what I want to doto pay it forward?
Edwin Eaton (15:54):
Yeah.
You know, it was, uh, I was ona podcast and this was probably
five, six years ago.
And the podcast actually gaveme street cred and I was just
coming on, you know, it was acleaning podcast and I was just
talking about my journey and itresonated with, some other
commercial cleaning businessowners and they started reaching
out to me and they wanted help.
(16:15):
Hey, we love what you weretalking about.
Can you help us out?
So I was like, sure.
So I'm helping one person.
Then next thing you know, it'slike seven, eight people.
And then my wife's like, whatare you doing?
You're taking your time awayfrom my pro.
If you're going to help people,you at least have to charge to
make it worth your while.
And that's kind of how itstarted.
And so now I've created what Icall blueprint janitorial
(16:36):
consulting.
I literally have clients in all50 states And just as of last
year, I mean, I have clients inAustralia, over in Europe, in
Canada, in Mexico.
So it's really spiraled justcrazy and everybody wanting
assistance.
And, you know, that's kind ofone of the things that I try to
teach.
And, you know, the greatphilosopher Pitbull said it.
(16:58):
He said, ask for money, getadvice.
Ask for advice, get moneytwice.
And I love that statement inhis song because really, you
know, people get into this andthey want money.
And they think that they canjust get money right away in
this industry.
But you need to have a mentor,somebody that has that can give
you the advice and put you onthat right path.
That's what happened with me.
And, you know, I've been onthat path and it's it's, you
(17:22):
know, it's up and down, but it'sa great path that I'm on.
And so that's what I'm tryingto teach everybody that's
partnering up with me.
David Mabee (17:29):
That's amazing.
So now you're locallyrecognized, internationally
known, and you're quotingPitbull.
I love it, Edwin.
So what are some of the biggestmistakes or blind spots that
you see when you're working witha new business owner or
somebody who comes to you forhelp?
Is there like a pattern or iseverything pretty different
or...
Edwin Eaton (17:47):
Yeah, I know a lot of new business owners in the
commercial cleaning space getinto it.
Like I mentioned before, when Igot started, I didn't know how
to bid.
So that was the big thing.
They don't know how to pricejobs.
They don't know how to puttogether professional proposals.
They don't know that they needa website.
They don't know how to markettheir business.
I mean, the list goes on andon.
And so those are just thethings where I start from,
(18:07):
number one, getting yourbusiness name to getting your
LLC or whatever it is, and thenjust kind of working them step
by step.
I don't work with a lot of...
well-established businesses.
These are just basically a lotof startups to maybe a couple of
years in business that I'mworking with to really help them
fine tune their business.
David Mabee (18:26):
And is this, so if somebody wanted to get ahold of
you for that, is that somethingthey can reach through iPro or
is there, or sorry, you have awhole nother business with that,
right?
Could you let them know justhow to get in touch with that or
shoot me that?
And I guess we can put that inthe notes.
Edwin Eaton (18:38):
Yeah.
Yeah.
The website is justblueprintjanitorial.com.
David Mabee (18:41):
Okay, Blueprint.
Okay, that's the other one.
Because you got another thinggoing on here.
You're a man of many thingsgoing on.
Let's talk about Sync.
Is it Sync?
Cinch.
Cinch, sorry.
Cinch software.
How did you come about thatidea?
And what is Cinch?
Edwin Eaton (18:56):
So that came from, again, it started with iPro and
then into the consulting sidethat just kind of segued into
software.
It was, I didn't know how tobid, so I had to learn how to do
it and put togetherspreadsheets.
And then The clients that I hadon the consulting side, they
wanted assistance with bidding.
And so it was like, Hey, whydon't I put together a
calculator that I use?
(19:16):
And so I did that.
It took off on the consultingside.
And then they said, what aboutproposals?
What about scheduling?
I don't want to buy thisplatform and that platform.
So, you know, the light wentoff and I thought, you know
what, why don't I just startjanitorial software?
And again, I can hear my wifein the back, just saying, stop,
just stop.
What are you doing?
So that's kind of how ithappened.
(19:37):
And so basically everythingthat's within my software, my
janitorial software system iseverything that I use within my
company to get me to where I'mat now.
And so we've made it simple.
So you don't have to have fiveor six different platforms.
We've got our CRM that's inthere.
You can invoice from it.
You know, we have what we callour create a bid button that
walks you through the wholesales process, you know,
(19:58):
proposals, scope of work,inspections, scheduling, work
orders, everything's there.
We've made it at a competitiveprice because I don't have any
angel investors or anything likethat.
It's just me.
And so we've I've been able tokeep the price down to make it
something so that brand newcommercial cleaning business
owners, they can actually affordit.
And it's going to be something,it's going to be a tool in
(20:21):
their arsenal that they're goingto use on a daily basis.
David Mabee (20:25):
Cool.
And did you work with softwareengineers locally or how did
that come about?
So
Edwin Eaton (20:32):
right now, the big thing is working with software
engineers in the Middle East andin India.
And so I actually partneredwith somebody.
I actually found him on Fiverrwhen I started my calculator.
Got to know him pretty well.
Actually, he invited me to hiswedding, which is actually this
weekend.
It's in Pakistan.
I'm like, yeah, I appreciatethe invite.
(20:52):
I don't think I'll be able tomake it.
But what's nice is It startedwith just me and him.
And I think now just witheverything that we've done over
the course of the last two and ahalf years with the software
system, we're up to a webdevelopment team of about 14
individuals now that work justsolely on Cinch.
David Mabee (21:09):
That's crazy.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
Is that a download app or dothey have to purchase it through
you?
And how does somebody get it ifthey need that software?
Edwin Eaton (21:19):
Yeah.
So the website iscleansinch.com.
And then they sign up directlythere.
And then we have the mobileapps in the App Store and Google
Play Store that they can use aswell.
David Mabee (21:29):
Cool.
Well, we're rolling along.
So, I mean, you're a man ofmany talents here.
I'm loving it.
I'm a little nervous about mypodcasting because you just
launched your own podcast aswell, Built After Hours.
Another thing, right?
Your wife must love it.
But your first guest was yourson.
What was that like for you as adad?
(21:50):
How cool was that moment foryou?
Edwin Eaton (21:52):
Well, I've always been wanting to do it.
I've been on a few podcasts andpeople in my network have been
asking me like, man, when areyou going to launch your own
podcast?
And then the consulting clientsthat I have.
And I never really wanted to doit.
And then they kept pushing.
And I thought, you know what?
I'll give it a shot.
If it works, it works.
If it doesn't, it doesn't.
And I thought, who better couldI put on as a first guest than
(22:12):
my son?
And he's 23 right now.
He's been in the industry sincehigh school, since he was 16
years old.
And he's kind of gone througheverything from cleaning
toilets, taking out trash tobeing the night supervisor to
hiring to firing to selling imean he's kind of seen a little
bit of everything and he's stillyoung and i thought this would
(22:32):
just be great to kind of sharehis story on on this first
episode and because there's alot of other people that i think
are going to resonate with kindof his journey that he's going
through
David Mabee (22:42):
yeah so that's awesome when he i have a
nine-year-old and a six-year-oldso i'm not there yet but um
We're in baseball season, lotsof baseball.
Did you make your son startworking for you when he was 16?
Or was that something he cameto you like wanting to do?
And how has that progressiongone?
Has it been like a resentmentto like a better relationship?
(23:02):
Or what's that been like?
Edwin Eaton (23:04):
Yeah, no, you know, as he puts it, I asked him in
the show, you know, what's oneword you would describe working
with your dad?
And his word was challenging iswhat he came up with.
But no, it's one of thosethings.
He started working in highschool at Three Lakes Golf
Course, and he was a cart boythere.
And then he was actuallycleaning toilets and mopping
floors there.
(23:24):
And then right around the timeof the pandemic, we asked him if
he wanted to come work for usso that he could have some set
hours that would work within hisschool schedule.
And he agreed to do it.
And yeah.
I mean, he hasn't looked backsince.
And I think he is right.
It's challenging in a way, butit's more of me challenging him
(23:45):
to see where his mindset is atand to get him to really
understand this.
Because eventually, you know,this is a family legacy is what
I'm trying to create.
So eventually I want him totake over the business.
So I'm giving him really acrash course in what commercial
cleaning and the commercialcleaning industry is all about.
It's not cleaning toilets allthe time.
There's other business side ofthings.
(24:06):
There's the employee I mean,there's all kinds of stuff and
he's, he's starting to see thatnow.
And, and, you know, it's kindof crazy because he started
selling a year and a half ago.
He made his first sale twoweeks into the new position.
His first sale was like 10grand.
I was like, what?
Like my first sale wasn't thatmuch.
(24:27):
And then, Just last year inNovember, he set a record for
himself.
He sold $37,000 in one month innew janitorial contracts, which
is just...
It was just phenomenal.
Blew me away that he was ableto do that.
David Mabee (24:40):
That's awesome.
It's so cool.
I mean, you hope...
As a father, I guess, I justhope that my kids resonate and
the lessons I'm trying to teachthem will turn from like, oh,
you just don't like me.
You're trying to make me dostuff to like, oh, thank you,
dad.
So...
Kudos to you, man.
I know that's a tough path togo and to see it happen is
(25:01):
really awesome.
I caught the first part of thepodcast and I was excited for
you.
I was like, man, this isawesome.
What's it been like, though,watching your son find his path
in this industry?
You just talked about hittingthe sales marks and things like
that.
But is there anything elsethat's kind of stood out to you
and made you proud or timeswhere you have to bite your
tongue so you don't say thewrong thing?
(25:23):
Or what's that like walkingthat line?
Edwin Eaton (25:25):
No, I mean, you know, when he was in high school
and at home, he was listeningto me all the time on the phone
because it was like 24 seven.
I was always working.
And so he was able to hear alot of the conversation.
So he's almost like a sponge.
He just he soaked all thisinformation in, even when he
wasn't really in a in amanagement position with us.
And so he kind of retained thatinformation.
And, you know, I mentioned itin the podcast because he was
(25:48):
20, maybe at the time, 1920.
And he was a supervisor and hewas making money.
executive decisions on the flyat night.
And, you know, he couldn't evengo in a bar and order a drink,
but he was making thesedecisions at night that were
impacting the business.
And so to me, that's just, youknow, it's like, wow, like he's,
he's far above a lot of peoplehis age and what he's learned in
(26:12):
this industry that, you know,his mom and I have just told
him, you know, the sky's thelimit for him at this point.
And just what he's putting intoit and what he's learning now,
he's just, he's on a, he's on awhole nother trajectory.
David Mabee (26:22):
That's amazing.
And part of me thinks it'sprobably because you've
entrusted him and you're givinghim confidence and he's probably
got confidence just fromwatching you.
So, that's stuff that takesyears to build if you're in a
corporate environment withsomebody you don't know, right?
Because then you're walking theline of like, I don't want to
make this new person mad.
But I mean, this is afather-son relationship.
(26:44):
Yeah.
That's awesome.
How do you see this Built AfterHours podcast working?
Are you envisioning this aslike telling your story to
inspire others?
Or do you see this as kind of away to help people?
What's kind of the...
goal of the podcast, I guess.
Edwin Eaton (27:00):
Yeah.
Well, a lot of the cleaningpodcasts out there, you're kind
of seeing the same guests.
They're established people inthe industry and there's nobody
that's talking about the newstartups and the people getting
into it and the issues thatthey're having.
And maybe they're working anine to five job and then
they're doing this as a side gigto try to build it up to become
what they want to do.
And so I'm trying to showcasethese people, share their
(27:23):
stories, and then it's going toresonate with other new
commercial cleaning owners thatare trying to get into the
space.
You know, the crazy thing aboutthe podcast is it actually
launched today, which is cool.
David Mabee (27:34):
Congratulations.
Edwin Eaton (27:35):
Yeah, thank you.
But the day before, I got acall from the number one
cleaning podcast.
And so it's crazy because youthink of ESPN.
ESPN has like Around the Horn,E60, all these secondary shows,
right?
So they asked me if Built AfterHours would be showcased on
their website and be a secondaryshow to what they have.
Oh, and I'm like, yeah.
(27:57):
I said, you haven't even heardmy first episode yet.
Like I want to do it, but youshould probably listen because
if it completely fails, you'renot going to want me on your
show.
Right.
But, but.
We've got that in the worksright now.
And so I'm getting access totheir tens of thousands of
subscribers.
And then they're getting accessto what I have right now.
That's awesome.
(28:18):
So it's a pretty cool feelingto think that I just started it.
The first episode just wentout.
And we're already going to beon this big platform with
another big podcast that's outthere.
David Mabee (28:29):
And that's half the battle.
How do you separate yourself?
And that's what we're trying tofigure out.
So this podcast will probablyevolve and go.
But I was a part of apodcast...
15 years ago in LA.
And we ended up getting pushedbecause we were a video game
podcast.
And we ended up number one oniTunes.
And it was insane.
We were getting like 50,000downloads all of a sudden.
And it was like, what is goingon?
And that was before video.
(28:51):
So...
I can only hope that somethinglike that happens with this.
The podcast realm is a lot morecompetitive now, but I'm
wishing you luck.
And I'm glad we have you on oursecond episode right as your
first episode launches.
So we're on this journeytogether.
I have to follow up with youand we'll have to have another
podcast moment here in a yearand see where we're at.
Edwin Eaton (29:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
David Mabee (29:14):
What's been the most rewarding part of building
something that your family is apart of?
Edwin Eaton (29:21):
Yeah, you know, I think I was talking with
somebody about that the otherday.
I think in business, and I'llcall it the ultimate flex for
business, is when you get to acertain point in business that
you have more time for yourfamily.
And I'll just briefly touch onthis.
My wife last year, towards theend of last year, was diagnosed
with stage four cancer.
And so it was one of thosethings that just completely
(29:43):
changed everything.
way we were doing our everydaylife and so i mean it just
flipped us upside down but thethe beauty of it is again with
my son he's he's in thisindustry he knows it i've got a
great general manager we've gotgreat managers all across the
board that i i'm able to stepaway and spend time with my wife
and help her out and not haveto worry about the business um
(30:07):
and then just to be able to dothat be able to pick up my
daughter when she gets off offof school A lot of business
owners can't do that.
But you just got to keepgrinding to get to that point.
And again, I'm just thankfulthat over the years, I've been
able to find the right peopleand put those right people in
place to really take care of thebusiness so that I can take
care of my family and do what Ineed to do.
David Mabee (30:29):
Right.
I mean, one of the greatestquotes I've heard, and I think
it was like two years ago,because I was working a lot of
hours and This was before I wasat the tech Alliance.
And I was just like, I got tofind something.
Cause I'm missing weekends.
I'm missing.
Somebody said, nobody's evergoing to remember or your
family's never going to rememberhow much time you put in at
work, how much this you're gonnaremember the moments you
(30:50):
missed.
So like, yeah, I've gonethrough some stuff last year
too, as well.
That's really changed my lifewith family issues and things.
So totally understand that partof the story.
And, and I think we're alltrying to find that balance of
how do you spend more time withyour family and still, still get
things done and be successful.
Edwin Eaton (31:07):
We are.
Unknown (31:08):
Yeah.
David Mabee (31:08):
Yeah, as we wrap this up, we'll get into a little
bit more fun here.
We just have our littlesignature questions here.
You know, we inspire, invest,and empower.
So on the inspire side, what'sone piece of advice you'd give
to someone starting aservice-based industry if they
were starting today?
Edwin Eaton (31:24):
You, you know, for this industry, it's a $90
billion a year industry.
So if you think about that, $90billion a year, and I think it
was less than 20% of commercialcleaning business owners have 20
employees.
So sky's the limit in thisindustry.
If you work hard and you reallyput your nose to, to the ground
(31:45):
and just start going andgrinding every day, um, you can
etch out your little piece ofthis industry out of that $90
billion.
David Mabee (31:53):
That's insane, $90 billion.
Right?
On the invest side, what's oneskill that you're still working
on as a founder?
Edwin Eaton (32:02):
On the invest side, it's investing in myself and
investing in my leadership team.
And so I've hired a leadershipcoach who comes in once a
quarter and works with our team.
And we're not talking aboutbusiness, but we're talking
about...
how to relieve stress and howto make more time for ourselves.
And then also on the businessside, how to interact with your
(32:23):
employees, how to be empatheticabout things and how to get
people to want to work with youand to trust you.
David Mabee (32:30):
That's awesome.
And then one more here onempowering.
What's kind of your superpower?
What do you think yoursuperpower is as a business
leader?
Edwin Eaton (32:38):
Oh boy, as a business leader, you know, I
think it's just the fact that Icommunicate, right?
And that's the biggest thing.
I'm trying to remember who saidit.
It might have been CodySanchez.
He said, complexity makes youseem smart, but simplicity makes
you money.
And I think that's kind of whatI look at is just keeping
things simple, being real aboutthings and not trying to
(32:59):
overcomplicate it.
I think it's really the biggestthing.
And my staff will tell you thesame thing.
I'm pretty basic and to thepoint when it comes to things.
I just want to get to the pointand let's move on and let's
move forward.
David Mabee (33:09):
Right.
That's awesome.
Okay.
If your business was a realityTV show, what would it be
called?
Edwin Eaton (33:15):
Oh, gosh.
You know, it would have to besomething.
I don't know the name, but thecamera crew, the production crew
would have a heck of a timefollowing us around seeing what
we see in bathrooms and juststuff that we find in some of
these locations.
I mean, it would be a goodreality TV show, maybe
Janitorial Diaries or JanitorialChronicles or something like
David Mabee (33:39):
that.
And then is there a local placethat you go to or a spot you
have to do when you want tothink big?
Edwin Eaton (33:46):
Um, I, when the pandemic hit, uh, you know, a
lot of the gyms closed and I hada empty space under my house.
And so we, we built a gymthere.
So every morning, that's justwhere I go.
There's, there's no devices.
I go down there and I get in aworkout for a good hour.
It's just my spot down there.
Um, you know, I've got my musicplaying, I've got all the, all
the workout equipment that Ineed.
(34:06):
And it's just, it's the placethat I just clear my mind to, to
get my day started on the righttrack.
David Mabee (34:12):
That's awesome.
Yeah.
I love outdoors.
I love to go mountain bike, uh,no phone, uh, and I love to
snowboard.
Um, so that's kind of my,that's, that's awesome.
And
Edwin Eaton (34:21):
this is the, this is the place to live if you want
all those activities.
David Mabee (34:24):
Oh yeah.
I mean, we're 20 minutes awayfrom mission Ridge.
I'm, You know, I can ride mybike to the mountain or it's a
five minute drive, but that'sawesome.
Hey, Edwin, I want to thank youfor sharing your story today.
That's awesome to see you comefrom humble beginnings, the
janitorial industry to buildingone of the fastest growing
companies in the Northwest.
I love that you focus on yourpeople, your leadership, and the
(34:46):
legacy.
That's kind of what network'sall about.
If you want to learn more aboutiPro building services and the
softwares and all that, whereshould someone go?
Is there one spot in general?
Or can you just plug some ofyour places you want people to
go?
And how can they find out aboutyour Built After Hours podcast
as well?
You got a lot of stuff topromote, but I'm going to give
you a second here to tell themwhere to go.
Edwin Eaton (35:06):
Yeah, I mean, for iPro, I mean, that's where it
all started.
It's just worry-free dockcleaning.
I'm big on LinkedIn And so ifyou just type in my name, Edwin
Eaton on LinkedIn, you're goingto get access to all the sites.
Um, be, be great to link upwith a lot of people here,
especially locally and just tofollow each other and support
each other.
But LinkedIn is probably thebest place to go.
David Mabee (35:25):
That's awesome.
I'm going to make sure Isubscribe to your podcast today.
I hope you do the same.
And if you're liking this andyou're out there, please hit
subscribe.
Uh, we're going to be on ourYouTube channel.
We're also on all the otherplatforms you can find us.
So if, Stay tuned.
We got more stories,entrepreneurs, changemakers, and
NCW.
Thank you, Edwin, for being ontoday.
(35:45):
Thank you.
And that's going to do it forthis episode of Networked.
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