Hey Ron,
I sort of knew this board existed, but had no real reason to follow it when working for Cleaner Times. I was primarily given assignments by the editor. However, the board is addicting!
Cleaner Times is a great publication and one we want to support and promote. I think it's an important element of every contract cleaner's business toolket. However, they have NOTHING to do with this new publication. In fact, we've struggled with this idea because we did not want to betray CT. They have been very good to both Steve and me over the years, and one of Steve's biggest supporters since his accident. I have been in contact with them since Steve and I decided to go forward and have been keeping them posted of our plans and progress. We want to remain friends with them, not make enemies. That's not the type of business Steve and I run.
However, I don't necessarily see us as a competitor to CT. We are totally different entities with different income sources and different focuses. Cleaner Times will never be able to focus on the contract cleaner solely, or even make them their primary focus. They tried with a separate publication -- PRessure Concepts -- back when I first started working there (1994), but ther was not enough advertising to support it. So they incorporated contract cleaners into Cleaner Times, which was going to disributors/manufacturers and suppliers.
We, on the other hand, are going to be SOLELY for the contractor and are going to be written, in large part, by contractors. We will be getting into the nitty gritty details on running a successful contract cleaning business that CT cannot cover. We will be writing in first person, which is something I couldn't do with CT, but I think will add to the value of the publication. Real contractors. Real experiences. Real topics. Real support.
We are going to be subscription based, so our advertising will be minimal (we're still figuring that out) so as not to take from CT's pockets. We also will be online, which will tremendously cut our overhead and allow us to keep costs down.
For those who don't know Steve Stephens, he is a dynamic person with eternal optimism and he works with integrity. When I first met him, he was a leader in the industry (owner of HydroTech Pressure Cleaning Technologies in Raleigh), on the PWNA board, then soon running a nationally-recognized training facility. His motto has always been to run his company of integrity, character and reputation. He is a great writer, and wrote several articles for CT when I was editor, so we worked together quite a bit in those days.
As you may know, he was in a BAD car wreck in 2008 that left him temporarily paralyzed and without use of his hands. (He's made tremendous strides in his recovery.) He had already downsized his company because it had just gotten too darn big. But after the accident he could not guarantee the quality of his services, so he just gave away most of his accounts to his technicians. As it stands now, he cannot get out and clean much. A few specialty jobs here and there, but he's had to stop doing the day-to-day work that had been his livelihood for 30 years. This is where he was last year when we reconnected.
Steve was always my best friend in the industry, and I told him when I discovered his situation that this could be an opportunity for him to do what he really loves -- writing, teaching, consulting and speaking. I was at a place in life where I could voluntarily devote my time and energy into working alongside Steve in helping him reinvent his business. And this is the industry he knows and has served since he was 18 years old, so what better place to implement his gifts (and mine) than right here?
We've spent the past year planning -- and surviving (Steve is in constant pain due to neurological damage) -- and now it's time to launch. Thus, Pressure Cleaning Monthly is being born. I think it's going to be an exciting ride!
