What a Year! (so far)
Is anyone else looking at the calendar today and thinking "wait, where did summer go?" I sure am, this year has just flown by! In addition to dealing with some things that just happen in our personal lives (we all have those), this has been an extremely busy year for Zerorez® Boise. We have had lots of challenges, lots of adventures, and lots of great learning opportunities. Sometimes it feels like we've fallen flat on our faces, other times it feels like we are doing great, but this year has certainly felt like it has been a major slugfest with the challenges of growth, and, dare I say it?, success.
Earlier this year, we were awarded the honor of being voted the "Best in the Treasure Valley" by Inbound Systems for 2019. This was a major accomplishment, I feel, since the nearest competitors to us have both been in the Boise area much longer than we have. While it might seem like a given (because we are so awesome!) it was a lot of hard work that got us to that point.
In February, we were honored by the Zerorez Franchising System (Corporate) as the Franchise of the Year for Mid-Size Markets. While we aren't going to be able to compete with franchises that are in huge cities, it was quite an honor to be chosen for last year as Franchise of the Year. We work with some of the most amazing people in the carpet cleaning industry, and so to have recognition from these other owners and franchises was amazing.
Our team works really hard to provide a quality product and service for our customers, and I think it shows when we look at things like reviews on platforms like Google, Facebook, and even the BBB. As of right now, we are sitting with almost 2000 reviews on Google and a little over 200 on Facebook. It is fun to be part of such a hard working team! They show up early, stay late, and work really, really hard. It is great to see the growth!
In August, we opened a franchise in Idaho Falls, and while separate from Boise, that does take time and planning, and has been great fun. I'd forgotten how much work it is to start a business, and it has been good to be reminded of our roots. It doesn't feel like that long ago since we first came to Boise, but it has been almost 8 years now. In that time we have grown from 1 van to running 8, from a 200 sq ft garage to a 7000 sq ft shop, and from having just me doing just about everything to about 18 employees (though that number fluctuates a little).
That leads us to another major change- we've moved! Our last office had been too small for some time, and we found a great place to continue our growth. Unfortunately, it is now feeling a little too small, but maybe once we get things organized a bit... Part of the new shop is designated for office space. We now have room when people come to visit us or drop off rugs to be cleaned. We also have a much better system in place for picking up new bottles of Zr™ Water Cleaner. A major addition is the rug washing area- giving us the ability to wash and clean rugs so much faster and better. As we grow that part of the business, we will automate it more and more, allowing us to wash and clean rugs much more efficiently.
Along with the growth comes all kinds of challenges, but we are excited to learn and to keep growing. We are developing our commercial cleaning capabilities, building a fine rug cleaning division (that is a weird name for a part of a company... I think it should be more like covision instead of division...) as well as strengthening our core team. As we grow, and as we have grown, we have found keeping the high standards we set in the beginning hard to maintain. The cool thing is that now we have better training tools and methods, can be more efficient in our hiring, and are able to get better people.
Thank you for being a part of our journey!
