Obviously, women have been working for years and while it is still a little unusual to find women leading successful companies in the commercial cleaning industry - traditionally one dominated by men - there are an increasing number of women who have both started very successful commercial cleaning operations on their own, or who are the major influence in the success of the business they manage with their partners. There is also a growing number of women in control of powerful and influential supply side businesses. These are the stories of just some of the women who are defining our industry.

Elizabeth Goldsmith - Research Products/Citrus Resources managing director

Elizabeth Goldsmith never dreamt that she would end up running - and very successfully - a company supplying cleaning products to many Australian and overseas organisations, although she had worked in a supportive role in the family business which had been the brainchild of her late husband, John Goldsmith.
“John became very ill in 1996 and had major surgery. Despite the grimness of the situation he remained determined to fight the cancer.” Goldsmith battled on for another eight years before finally succumbing to prostate cancer in 2004. In the last six months he deteriorated quickly, whilst still maintaining a management role in the business up until close to the end. The couple had been married for thirty years and in that time had two daughters.
Elizabeth’s role changed almost immediately after her husband died. “ "I felt I had no alternative but to retain the business.It was John's passion and was an important part of our lives. I was very lucky to have dedicated staff who remain incredibly supportive and have played a major role in the continued smooth running of the organisation. There was simply too much emotion involved in it to sell it. It was and remains a part of my identity - and John’s obviously. Selling it would have meant giving up on his dream and I just could not do that.”
"I am very fortunate to have very loyal and experienced staff who have worked for the company for many years, Bill Barber, Steve James, Louise Mazoudier and Kerry Smallsman.” The company has a long term and loyal band of distributors and their sales figures are always steady and growing.
Elizabeth went from her long term behind the scenes administrative position to suddenly one that involved all aspects of the business that she hadn’t dreamt of being involved in - like advertising, ordering, managing. “The industry was very supportive, but a lot of people perceive that it is not a role for a woman. When going to visit manufacturers for example, people are surprised that I am running the place. Sometimes I find it daunting. I think it is more difficult being a woman in the industry, as men think they have the upper hand in negotiations - but I enjoy that.”

Background
John Goldsmith, then a marketing and product development manager for Rotobic/Aussie Products, saw a niche for carpet cleaning products in the market place and started Research Products in 1982. “John had always wanted to start his own business,” she recalled.
The two products originally formulated were Surge and Crossfire, both of which are still in the Research Products range and still remain as two of their biggest sellers. Initially the company operated out of a small factory in St Peters (Sydney, NSW) with one truck and two tanks. “Initially John would mix the chemicals and then go and sell them,” recalled Goldsmith. “But we quickly grew to employ a mixer and some warehouse staff and then he built a dealer network of distributors, most of whom are still with us from the early days.”
The business was “a success from the first week” and, apart from one large customer who had financial difficulties which caused them great anxiety in 1988, the business has grown and been profitable from very early on.

Fire
In 2002, the company factory was burnt to the ground. It was very stressful time,” remarked Elizabeth, who believes that the stress of the fire and the ensuing investigation into its cause contributed to John’s failing health.” The fire struck on Monday 1st April, 2002 and we were left with no premises and no stock at all. Despite the fact that we were insured the process of the claim is long, involved and complex and there are often delays in receiving payment from the insurer.”
She continued: “We had no raw materials and no equipment. The very next morning we had a meeting and started to look for new premises.” Following the fire, out of necessity, the company started to outsource their manufacturing and to this day they have a number of manufacturers who make product to their formulations and specifications..
Present day
“We now focus solely on marketing our products.We formulate new products where we perceive a need and are continually updating products to keep abreast of new technology. The actual manufacturing of the products is best left to professionals which gives us more time to do what we do best - deliver first class products to the cleaning industry through our loyal group of distributors.”
Elizabeth believes that females are calmer and generally more cautious than men, which can sometimes be helpful in managing a business and it is essential to have people with technical expertise who are able to offer advice and practical assistance in all area of cleaning and maintenance.

Ruth Travis: IICRC - President and Certification Instructor

With the unique perspective of a small fabric care and rug store business owner, and flooring inspector, IICRC President Ruth Travis has over 20 years experience in maintenance, restoration and inspection of carpet, rugs and upholstery.
She has been a registrant of the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification for 17 years, and has taught IICRC-Approved Certification courses in colour repair, carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, odour control and rug cleaning over the past 10 years.
Prior to her appointment to the IICRC board, Ruth operated a fabric care service for 13 years with her partner, Ginger in Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA, where she performed fabric cleaning, protection, and inspection and colour correction services for her clients, interior designers and carpet mills. After selling her share of the business to her partner in 2001, Ruth shifted her focus to training and instructing others in the fabric care industry.
In her years of service to the IICRC, Travis has served on several committees including:
• Marketing and PR Committee, as Chairman
• Paid President’s Feasibility Task Force
• S-300 Upholstery Cleaning Standard Committee and Editing Committee
• S-100 Carpet Cleaning Standard Committee and Editing Committee
• S-500 Water Damage Restoration Standard Committee
• S-520 Mold Remediation Standard Committee Supporters
• Certified Firm
• Registrant Standards Committee

In addition to her involvement in the IICRC, Travis served as the president of the Society of Cleaning and Restoration Technicians (SCRT), formerly known as the International Society of Cleaning Technicians, from 1991 through 1996, and later from 2002 through 2006. In that role, she supervised the execution of two industry studies (in affiliation with Shaw Industries) on strength loss of wet carpet and water extraction equipment.
Travis currently owns R L Seminars, Inc., a fabric care consulting business. Previously, Travis co-owned the Rug Exchange and Gallery, which fostered her love for rugs and earned her the nickname “The Rug Lady.” She is also a carpet inspector and carpet colour restoration specialist. She was formerly co-owner of Interior Care, Inc. a fabric care service specialising in residential and commercial cleaning and maintenance.
As an industry leader, Travis has written many columns and articles for several trade publications. For five years she wrote a column for Cleanfax Magazine entitled “Rug Lady Report” and currently writes the IICRC President’s column in ICS magazine. Her articles have also been published in Pro-Chem Trend Tracks and on the Housekeeping Channel.
Travis holds a Bachelor’s Degree in textiles from the University of Tennessee.

Kylie Lindsay: Swifty Clean, Moranbah, near Mackay, QLD - proprietor

Kylie Lindsay, 33, has lived in Moranbah Queensland for all of her thirty two years. Moranbah - a thriving mining town situated about an hours drive inland from Mackay in Far North Queensland - only has a population of around 12,000 and therefore is not the type of town where you would imagine someone could build a company from turning over nothing to $400,000 in around two years. And even more surprising is the fact that Kylie’s main competition in town is another cleaning business run by yet another local woman! “I guess it is because the mining industry employs just about all men, so the bulk of the people left in the town during the day are women,” laughed Kylie, when asked about this apparent anomaly.
Kylie’s business - a carpet and hard surface, and general cleaning business only employs women. With twelve on the payroll, the business specialises in carpet and hard surface cleaning as well as general cleaning in a town where a lot of the houses are company owned and provided free of charge to the employees of the mine as part of their package.

In short, seemingly not a lot of incentive for people to really care about the state of their carpet as it is, more often than not, owned by someone else other than the house occupant. Despite that environment, Kylie has built her business on the quality of the service offered - and charges accordingly, No budget priced cleaning allowed, Swifty Clean charges by the room - and charges $35.50 per room.

Married with two young children and a partner who works in the coal mines (like just about all the males in the town), Kylie has always been a hard worker. “I started the business two years ago after working for a lady doing cleaning and found there was a market for carpet cleaning in the town,” Kylie recalled. She ended up purchasing a Kerrick Pullman portable and started the business as a one person operation.

Kylie built Swifty Clean from a one person operation to 12 in two years and it’s still growing. “We clean offices, rentals and we clean to a very high standard. We charge more than anyone else but people like it because we won’t leave until it is perfect.” Kylie and her friend and employee Nyrie Turpin (above) both run the truck mount while Kylie also does all the books and handles the employees, contracts, etc.

Quality comes first, last
Kylie has based her business entirely on quality. “I made the decision from the very first day that the entire focus of the business would be quality in everything we do. I believed that the end result and the way we went about it would be our point of difference between us, our local competitors and those who choose to ‘fly’ in from larger surrounding towns like Mackay.”
Rather than start her career using a portable, which she saw as an inferior machine both in results and also in perception, Kylie took the plunge and leased top of the range equipment and vans.
“I found Prochem on the internet and after many late nights researching it all, I purchased a Legend XL, sight unseen from them. I trusted Teresa who advised me to think big after I expressed concerns about physically being able to lift portable machines back into a van. Once I understood the enormous differences between portables and truck mounts, I was sold on the concept of truck mounts both from a professional point of view in terms of end result Vs time spent and also from the professional image they portray.”
Both Kylie and Nyrie attended IICRC training in Brisbane before they returned to their home town with their new truck mount in November of last year.

Always busy and lots of fun
According to Kylie, the business is always busy even though there are 3-4 other carpet cleaners in the town and the “blow-ins” from Mackay!” She has also invested in a tile cleaning tool even though the “town is not really up to tile cleaning at present and I am the only one who has a tile cleaner.”
“I love the work, it keeps you fit and it’s really good fun. The locals love dealing with women and I think they think it is really good to see. A lot of them expect a man to turn up but they think it is great once we get there.”

Lea Auerbach: ELECT AMS, Hobart, TASMANIA - proprietor

According to Lea Auerbach, a lot of people’s response to women in the cleaning industry is “to see us as a bit of a novelty act. They do a double take but I think generally people like it. “
Auerbach, 28, has only been in business for two years starting with general and contract cleaning. “I got work from word of mouth and in fact picked up a sizable contract as our first job. A lot of our work is early morning stuff and I focussed on real estate agency work as not many people did.”

Lea has a daughter, now 4, who was born with a cleft pallet and has had ongoing operations to remedy the situation and will do so until she is eleven years old. “I grew up in Melbourne, lived in Adelaide for ten years and from there have been in Tassie for four years. By her own admission, Lea was not good at working for others, which is why she decided to start her own business. It also gives her more time to be with her daughter.

A lot of property managers are female and Lea believes that they enjoy dealing with other women and that actively helps her in growing her business. “You still have to be good at what you do and there are definately no free rides, but if you are prepared to work hard and provide the service they need, they will reward you with loyalty and a lot of work.” Lea was initially very nervous about doing the job properly, “even though I was doing rentals I was trying to do the best job I could. I always focus on doing a good job even though I am working for estate agents, who a lot of people believe have lower standards than homeowners. Maybe they do but I try and deliver the very best results and that effort has paid off with a lot of regular work from their rent rolls around Hobart.”

Loyalty
“The property managers have showed a lot of loyalty towards me. They were all using different cleaners prior to me but they stay loyal even though I was not willing to do the work as cheaply as they wanted. But I get away with it because they are happy with our service rather than worried about the price.”
After two years in business, the company is still concentrating mainly on doing general and office cleaning for agents and office managers. “It’s not great money but I can’t complain as we were very green when we first started and we went in at a very cheap rate to get the work in the door.” After a while Lea went to see them all and put in for a hefty rate rise and, luckily they stuck with her.

Carpet cleaning
Lea runs the business with her business partner, Laura Whalland and they have recently taken on another employee after making the move into carpet cleaning in January last year. “I kept on having to run back into town to drop off keys for carpet cleaners which I thought it was silly, so I decided to look at a carpet cleaning machine.” Auerbach researched the market for six months or so before taking the plunge and buying a truck mount. Lea ended up purchasing a second hand Bridgepoint Lancer from Ken Wilson in the Blue Mountains. “I got it at a good price and despite some troubles along the way, nothing has stopped me for too long.”

Lea had the machine for a month before she started using it. She initially cleaned all the carpets herself, undertaking a IICRC carpet cleaning course before she started, while Laura concentrated on the general cleaning. But now she employs a full timer, Gordon, who does the carpet cleaning work.

At present Lea is not really interested in the residential market; rather she is happy to stick with rentals as it is not as fussy a market. “We do private work only by referral, but as we gain more experience we will probably start to focus on it more.”
According to Lea, the business just pays the bills at the moment. “I don’t think, or I have been told, that I won’t start making real money for three years, so at present I am happy with it breaking even and sometimes making a bit of money.”

Change
But this year all that could change. Lea has a very important meeting in the next few weeks which could decide the course of her fledgling business. A large property management firm has approached her with a view to using her business to clean a lot of office carpets. “Most of the work would be at night time, but it would turn my business around purely doing carpet cleaning. If it comes off I would go back to working for a while at night time to see how it goes.”

Lea is planning, if it all comes off, to clean the office carpet using the encapsulation method. “I cleaned a dirty, dirty commercial carpet with my old Polivac and some Releas-It I bought from Jim Bethel (Powerclean) and both myself and the client were blown away by the results. Not only did it look great but it stayed looking great for ages. And long term? Lea strongly believes that ‘Green’ cleaning is where she wants to go.

Kaye Gough: Drizair, FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND - Managing Director

A marriage failure was the catalyst for the birth of one of Australia’s most unique restoration businesses - and possibly the only mobile flood and fire restoration business in the country. Kaye Gough - with her partner John - travels the length and breadth of Far North Queensland restoring water and fire damaged properties.

“Mine is a mobile business meaning we can pack up at a moments notice and be gone for two days or a month or more,” remarked Gough. Until she moved to Townsville in 1992, Kaye, 46, was a primary school teacher in Melbourne, Victoria, before her marriage fell apart. “I decided I wanted to be as far away from Melbourne as I could so I chose Townsville. My mother was horrified but I made the move.”

The very next day after arriving in Townsville she met her current partner John, who was an officer in the air force and was based up there. John was cleaning offices part time in Townsville to support two earlier marriages and three children. Gough: “After John retired from the airforce, we started full time in general cleaning and while we were doing that, we couldn’t help but notice all the carpet cleaners moving in similar circles to us and the money they were earning.”In 1993 they purchased a Johnson re-cycler carpet cleaner and started doing the office carpets for themselves. The business took off. “We still have the machine and we did heaps of work with it. We were mainly cleaning at night time working 6 and a half days a week flat out. They were crazy times...never had any trouble getting cleaning contracts.”

As the business developed, Kaye stopped cleaning and moved into the managerial side of the business. “I visited the property managers - who loved us as we did such a good job - and took charge of the employees.”
The business continued in this manner until 1996 when John and Kaye were persuaded to attend a water damage course in 1996 - the first ever held in Australia with Claude Blackburn, the then founder and CEO of Dri-Eaz. Fired up with enthusiasm - and necessity as they had hurriedly purchased restoration equipment before they had any need for it - Kaye introduced restorative drying to the Nth Qld insurance industry. Kaye: “Before us they were throwing stuff away, or taking carpet out and moving it to warehouses for drying. We showed them how to dry in place and I spent many hours presenting to cynical, cranky old assessors. We invited them all along and showed them we could detect moisture in walls and all the other fancy things we had learned how to do.”

The presentations worked instantly and work flooded in and for years after that Kaye spent a lot of her time presenting to loss adjustors, educating them on new techniques and advancements “and have them understand why we invested in equipment.”
Over the ensuing years, Kaye undertook more and more courses. “We went to the States to do courses and attended the Dri-Eaz symposium and also did a Steamway course.”
Kaye learnt how to dry out a wooden basketball court at the Dri-Eaz symposium, and within a matter of weeks of returning to Australia the Townsville Crocodiles basketball stadium got flooded and Kaye was given the job. She also learnt how to dry documents and books and invested in a freeze drying machine.

In 2003, Kaye was a finalist in Townsville Business Woman of the Year.
The business grew and grew but in 2005, after more than ten years, the couple decided to sell their carpet cleaning business. They promptly sold it to an employee Malcolm Barnes. Once they had sold, they began to scale the restoration business back, selling a lot of their accumulated equipment. “We were a bit tired by this stage, we had made a bit of money and were looking for a break,” recalled Gough.
The scaling down wasn’t to last long.

Cyclone Larry
“We decided to move to the Gold Coast, so we sold our house, packed up our things and moved on.” They had been there for only two weeks when Cyclone Larry hit. “Even though we had moved, all of the assessors we had worked for previously started ringing, the phones were going crazy, so we packed up a couple of trucks (they still had 50 airmovers and 20 dehumidifiers and 1 van) and were away for 6 months drying out.”

No-one else
Gough continued: “There was just no-one else up there who could do the work that we did. Who else will get through a 50 room resort and then be able to dry out a wooden floor? We stayed in motels and we got all the work we wanted.”
After the success of that exercise, Drizair became more and more in demand all over Far North Queensland. “We restored Innisfail City Council offices, we restored a resort at Mission Beach in 2006 - the assessors knew what we could do and did not hesitate to phone me.”

Dessicant dehumidifier
In what was both their biggest investment to date and the most pivotal, Gough purchased a Dessicant dehumidifier direct from the United States. Kaye: “It arrived in July 2007 and it enabled us to dry commercial properties very quickly. It was an extremely large investment as we had to purchase a crane truck and generator to go with it.” Why a dessicant dehumidifier? “Dessicant can get grains of moisture down to lower levels than refrigerant. They work by evacuating the wet and pumping warm air back into the property. The big unit (they have portables as well) can dry an entire house in a matter of days. “

The largest job the couple have completed was after a mud slide in Townsville in 2000 when a multi million dollar mansion had mud up to three metres deep through all the rooms. “There were two mini bob cats in the house. We rented a few warehouses, got casuals organised. I rang my resources in the States and asked them how the hell I was going to restore the property! On advise from restorers who had experience with this type of work over there, we ended up pressure washing everything. It was a huge project which we loved.”

These days, the couple, who are body builders in their spare time (their first date was at a gym!) couldn’t be busier - or happier. “We have a passion for restorative drying and we invest in the technology for it. We own 3 trucks. We always go out in a 7 metre Pantec and we have a large crane truck. We have one big dessicant dehumidifier but aim to have multiple dehums on trucks. All our drying is in situ drying but we sometimes rent a warehouse if we need it and we are in one place for long enough. We don’t care how long we are away for.” With no plans to retire - “we’re not interested in sitting round and going fishing” - Kaye Gough plans to keep on working forever!”

Diana and Leah Price: Price Rite Cleaning, WESTERN AUSTRALIA - proprietors

Following the protracted illness and subsequent retirement of her husband, Diana Price was forced to take a hands on role in the family carpet cleaning business, or watch her family start to struggle to make ends meet. These days, Diana, 41, and her daughter Leah, 18, work the van full time five days a week cleaning carpets, upholstery and, more recently, floor tiles. The mother and daughter combination is reputed to be the only mother and daughter cleaning team in Australia. “Leah actually really enjoys working with me and we do get on very well,” said Diana. “Her friends are surprised that she is cleaning carpets, but she genuinely enjoys the work, it keeps both of us very fit and she earns far more money doing this than if she was working in an office, shop or a factory.”

The Prices have “always been involved in the cleaning industry” and for years have run their own commercial cleaning and more recently carpet cleaning businesses. “My husband Peter and I bought the business in 1994 and I ran the office while he cleaned.” Initially, the company worked mainly for estate agents and also did a lot of commercial work. “We always had plenty of work, even from the early days and we have never, ever advertised. All our work is word of mouth and we have grown to include a lot of domestic work as well - enough to keep our one van busy all the time.”

Operating an aging McConnell truck mount, the business continued on in this manner, with Peter cleaning and Diana running the office until 1997, when Peter fell ill. “I took over the cleaning while Peter was recovering, but his illness stretched on and on and eventually I realised that I would have to become the carpet cleaner full time!”

Diana’s daughter Leah joined 2 years ago at the age of 16, when she left school. “Leah loves a chat so I leave her to it and we divide the work so that I do all the cleaning while she chats to the customers,” Diana laughed. “It is an arrangement that works for us well.” Leah excels at selling add on services.

The business now runs a Prochem Performer 405 Dual Wand, which for the two of them is ideal. “We often clean using two wands, especially when we have upholstery to clean, so we save a lot of time.”

“Women are great when they see us and very surprised when they realise we are mother and daughter.” With another daughter who may yet choose to join her mother and sister in the business when she is old enough - she is still only thirteen - the business is “going very well and has grown a lot. It supports the two of us and we are planning to expand the business and get a van for Leah on her own, hopefully in the not too distant future.”

Teresa Fomiatti: Prochem distributors, AUSTRALIA - Brisbane manager

When people ask me if they should start up a cleaning business, my reply is that if a registered nurse and a licensed kangaroo shooter can make good in our great industry, then anyone can!”
And that is exactly what Teresa Fomiatti and her husband Brett have done - made good. As the Prochem distributors for Australia, they occupy a commanding position as the undisputed market leader in their chosen field.

Teresa grew up in Cairns, with two siblings, her father who was an engineering surveyor for the local council, and a mother who was a director of Nursing and Speech and Drama teacher. These days, Teresa runs the Brisbane outlet of the company run by her husband, which the two of them started from a bedroom of their home in Townsville in 1998.

Teresa first met Brett when she was a teenager living in Cairns. “Brett lived in Winton (outback Queensland) and we used to see each other a few times a year. I did my nursing degree in Brisbane and worked at the Wesley hospital for a number of years before moving to Mackay to a nurse educator position. Brett and I had a long distance relationship for a few years, and I finally took the plunge and moved from Mackay to Townsville to live with him. Brett was running a carpet cleaning business owned by friends of his at the time called Combination Services. I started running the office for him and nursing on weekends and doing night duty shifts to make ends meet.

First we will be best and then we will be first
The couple purchased the business from Brett’s friends in 1994 and with training, new equipment and systems in place, the business really started to fly. Teresa: “I did the day-to-day administration, co-ordination of staff, and put procedures in place while Brett ran the operational side of things. We had a motto from our early days which has stayed with us through our entire business career – First we will be Best, then we will be First.”

The couple was approached to take over the Prochem distributorship in 1998, after Brett won the Carpet Cleaner of the Year award at CarpetClean Expo. At the time, the Prochem distributorship in Australia was run by Glenn Thomson and Prochem wanted the couple to work with Thomson but, “it would never have worked. We have very different business ethics.”
Financing the entire business themselves, they started their Prochem distributorship in Townsville in a bedroom of their home. Teresa: “We quickly identified the need to move to a more central location as we could not service Australia from Townsville,” so by 1999 Brett had moved to Melbourne and rented a unit in Knoxfield.

“It was tough to start with a relatively new name not well established. I think there were only ten machines in oz at the time - and there is now around 600+.” Teresa stayed on in Townsville to run the carpet cleaning business until they decided to sell in 2000.
“I then moved to Melbourne where we lived in a dingy little room above our office which we had to reach by climbing a ladder.” We weren’t able to stand up straight in the room because it was so close to the roof. The couple lived there for 12 months as they grew the business. “When we outgrew that office, we made the move into our current premises in Scoresby.”
Teresa sees herself as the support person behind the business and has been behind the initial development of the systems and procedures necessary to run what is the largest supply side business in the industry in Australia.

“In the early days I used to do a bit of everything,” she laughed. I used to do accounting, debt collecting, assist in the workshop, packing the truck! We would think nothing of packing the truck at 11pm in Melbourne and then drive it overnight to do a demo in Adelaide the next morning at 8 am. The boys would drive 40 hours straight from Melbourne to Perth in the early days (Teresa flew). I saw Brett for 6 weeks out of an entire year! All we did was work, we had no social life at all but we did have solid growth as a result. In the 8 years the growth has been unbelievable.”

Teresa moved back to QLD in 2004 and set up their Brisbane office. “Opening a branch helped sales as people like a local presence.” Brett moved back to Brisbane in 2005 due to the rapid growth of the outlet and Melbourne had management staff in place.

These days, Teresa takes every Friday off and has moved back from the business a little. She hopes to have a family one day soon. “Brett is the visionary of our business,” she said. That may well be the case, but there is no doubt that Prochem would not have been the success it is today without her!