This recent article confirms the trend I’ve been experiencing.

More than 3.5 million Canadians and 1.6 million Brazilians visited Florida last year, “up solidly from the prior year,” the forecast says. The top destinations were again Orlando and Miami.

Wells Fargo senior economist Mark Vitner said the surge in overseas visitors is one reason Orlando and Miami bounced back sooner than other parts of the state.

Vitner is less cheery about Florida’s labor market and its lazy income growth.

The statewide jobless rate has been steadily improving, but that’s largely been driven by hiring in the state’s lowest-paying industries. Restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions added about 40,500 jobs in the past year, with restaurants leading the way.

Tourism accounts for about 10 percent of the state’s economy. The statewide unemployment rate in March was 7.5 percent. For Metro Orlando, it was 6.6 percent.

“While serious efforts have been made to diversify Florida’s economy, and many have been successful, the growth of higher paying jobs continues to lag behind,” the forecast says.

Vitner also said it appears that many employers in both Florida and across the country are adding part-time workers – perhaps to test customer demand or avoid possible cost increases associated with new health-insurance requirements….More at Florida economy’s bounce-back is real, report says – Orlando Sentinel

For Image One, the increase in janitorial customers also means that we need to bring on more folks to service those accounts. These workers include cleaning staff, operations, support and sales. It’s an economic growth cycle for the Orlando area that we are pleased to be a part of and is certainly a win-win situation for all of us!

ProTeam High-filtration HEPA Vacuum

Carpeted floors are pretty much the norm in most office environments. In fact, carpet accounts for between 70-80 percent of the floor coverings in US workplaces. Not only do they help with the noise level, increase comfort and look great, they also help keep the building healthy.

What most people don’t realize is that carpets actually trap particles so that dust and other allergens are kept out of the air. By trapping these particulates in the carpet, it reduces their circulation and therefore improves the indoor air quality.

But, what happens to all these trapped particles? Well, they are vacuumed up by the cleaning company. Or so most people assume. The fact is, which vacuum cleaner makes all the difference as to whether those particulates are removed from your facility or just tossed back into the air. According to ProTeam, “Some vacuums used in commercial cleaning applications return up to 40% of all dirt collected right back into the air.”

At ImageOne Janitorial Services, Inc. we use ProTeam 4-level HEPA backpack vacuums in order to remove 99.97% of the dirt, dust, bacteria and particulates smaller than .3 microns. When it comes to removing debris from your carpets, these high-powered vacuums really do the job.

ImageOne Janitorial Services, Inc. provides commercial cleaning to businesses across the Greater Orlando / Central Florida area.

Years ago, we had a couple who had absolutely no experience in the janitorial industry. After proper training, Lori and Johnny quickly became very good at their work. When their facilities were inspected, they rarely had problems. And the office never received complaints on any of their accounts.

One day, our operations manager came back to the office and reported that the hard floors in one of Lori and Johnny’s accounts needed some work. I went out to visit with one of the owners of the building. I asked her about the cleaning and she said everything was fine. But what she shared next told me why — even when the cleaning wasn’t always perfect — Lori and Johnny’s customers were so loyal:

This was a law firm with expensive hardwood floors in the lobby. Lori had noticed that one of the potted plants was repeatedly leaking water onto the floor, something that could have damaged the wood long-term. She mentioned it to the owner but nothing was done. So, Lori picked up an inexpensive pot liner and put it under the plant. This took care of the problem. About a week later the owner noticed the liner, but no one could figure out who took care of the problem. Finally, someone thought to ask Lori. Needless, to say, the customer was impressed.

Without being asked, Lori had taken the initiative to find a solution for their customer. Now I knew why their accounts were so loyal and appreciative: Lori and Johnny understood that going the extra mile can make all the difference between good service… and GREAT service!

ImageOne Janitorial Services, Inc. provides commercial cleaning to businesses across the Greater Orlando / Central Florida area.

Michael Bennett – ImageOne Operations Manager since 2005

People are the foundation of the commercial cleaning industry. No matter how many technological breakthroughs, nothing gets done without a dedicated, trained professional cleaning staff and supporting office personnel.  The biggest challenge in the cleaning industry is extremely high turnover. Not only does it affect the morale of the company, it also compromises the quality of service a janitorial company is able to provide.

At ImageOne Janitorial Services, we recognize that the folks that clean the buildings are the engine of our business. Without them, our business can’t run. And, without the proper office support, the business can’t move forward. We like to refer to these individuals as our People-Power.

It obviously takes People-Power to grow and operate a highly successful janitorial company. So, we spend a lot of our time developing the relationships within our organization and with our business partners.

Building business relationships is similar to building family relationships: open, honest communication; spending quality time with each other; encouraging one another; doing little things for each other; saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’; supporting each other through difficult times. Although we don’t do it perfectly, our intent is to build a company based on those principles. Because of this, we are able to attract and retain quality people. By building and maintaining our business relationships, we have found that our best source of leads for new personnel, comes from folks who are already part of the ImageOne family. The result is a janitorial company in which the machinery works relatively trouble-free and with lots of positive energy!

At the end of the day, people just want to feel respected and appreciated. They want to feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves. Together we can accomplish so much more than we can individually. By working as a team on a common goal, while also supporting our individual goals, we can do great things! All it takes is People-Power!

ImageOne Janitorial Services, Inc. provides commercial cleaning to businesses across the Greater Orlando / Central Florida area.

Looks can be deceptive-germs hide in plain view!

Probably the number one way that I determine the quality of a restaurant or store is by the cleanliness of the restroom. If I detect an unpleasant smell or see toilet paper on the floor, smudges of something (!) on the partition, dirt on the countertops, etc I immediately correlate that to the values of the facility. And, I know I’m not alone.

We tend to apply that same criteria to the workplace. But here’s the danger: while most commercial office buildings LOOK clean, it can be deceiving. The real test as to the cleaning quality is in what you DON’T see.

Public restrooms are notorious for harboring health-threatening germs including E coli, Shingella bacteria, Hepatitis, Strep, Staph, TB and the common cold. The door handles, toilet handles & seats, sinks and faucet handles, buttons on the dryers & feminine-hygiene units are all known as disease transfer points because they are touched by almost everyone who enters the restroom.

So what can we do to protect ourselves? First and foremost, wash your handles thoroughly each and every time you leave the restroom. The second thing, is to be sure that your janitorial company is properly cleaning your facility.

The biggest mistake made in restroom sanitization is the lack of appropriate dwell time for disinfection. Just spraying and immediately wiping makes the surface look clean, but the solution did not have a chance to eliminate the hidden germs. That’s because some disinfecting cleaners need as much as 10 minutes of dwell time in order to do its job.

At ImageOne Janitorial Services, Inc. we teach our crews to pre-spray the entire restroom with the disinfecting cleaner. By giving the solution the appropriate dwell time, we can achieve a kill rate of 99 percent. Now, that’s a restroom I feel comfortable using. If only we could figure out how to get everyone to wash their hands!

ImageOne Janitorial Services, Inc. provides commercial cleaning to businesses across the Greater Orlando / Central Florida area.