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James Barnes Jr. — Founder & President of Immaculate Cleaning — on building Northeast Ohio’s fastest growing janitorial services company.
Show Notes
Our conversation this week is with James Barnes Jr. — Founder & President of Immaculate Cleaning — on building Northeast Ohio’s fastest-growing janitorial services company.
James launched his first successful business endeavor as a high school student. From this experience he learned the basic principles of running a profitable business enterprise which he then leveraged to build Immaculate Cleaning. He’s since been able to expand from janitorial services to a broader conglomerate model rolling up and starting up service providers across other industries like lawn services.
To James, Immaculate cleaning is more than a business — it's a means to his passion for community engagement and economic empowerment — working toward social impact in the areas where he grew up in Cleveland. As of 2021, Immaculate Cleaning Company has become the proud Cleaning Partner of The Cleveland Monsters hockey team to amplify their impact in Greater Cleveland communities.
Loved learning about Jame's story and preparedness for every opportunity that comes his way. Hope you all enjoy my conversation with James Barnes.
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Creators & Guests
What is Lay of The Land?
Telling the stories of entrepreneurship and builders in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio. Every Thursday, Jeffrey Stern helps map the Cleveland/NEO business ecosystem by talking to founders, investors, and community builders to learn what makes Cleveland/NEO special.
-- AI Generated --
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:00:00]:
It sounds so cliche, man, but I I really get a thrill out of helping other people. Like, that's really, you know, the the passion behind it for me. So, when looking to the future, man, I I I love to see my key managers and people that that's been around for a long time. I love to see them be successful, not just here, but in other things. And I wanna see, you know, the hard work, pay off because that's what it's about for me, man. It's building up other people, making sure everybody else is around me is successful. You know, I don't wanna I don't wanna to, measure measure success by my own personal success. I wanna see everybody around me, you know, get a win.
Jeffrey Stern [00:00:33]:
Let's discover the Cleveland entrepreneurial ecosystem. We are telling the stories of its entrepreneurs and those supporting them. Welcome to the lay of the land podcast where we are exploring what people are building in Cleveland. I'm your host, Jeffrey Stern. And today I had the pleasure of speaking with James Barnes junior, a native of Cleveland, Ohio's Ward 7 neighborhood and the founder and president of Immaculate Cleaning Company. James had launched his first successful business endeavor as a high school student. And from this experience, he learned the basic principles of running a profitable business enterprise, which he then leveraged to build what has now become Northeast Ohio's fastest growing janitorial service company with broader conglomerate ambitions of rolling up and starting up service providers across other related industries like lawn services. And to James, Immaculate Cleaning is more than a business.
Jeffrey Stern [00:01:29]:
It's really a means to his passion for community engagement and economic empowerment, working towards social impact in the areas where he grew up in Cleveland. And as of 2021, Immaculate Cleaning Company has become the proud cleaning partner of the Cleveland Monsters hockey team to amplify their impact in Greater Cleveland Communities. I really loved learning about James' story and and his seeming preparedness for every opportunity that has come his way. I really hope you all enjoy my conversation with James Barnes. So I know your your entrepreneurial roots here are deep dating back to to when you were a child. And so I kinda wanted to start this conversation with just kinda going through some of the the formative moments throughout your life, that inspired you to build and enter this world of entrepreneurship at such a a young age?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:02:23]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Thanks for for having me, Jeffrey. So I've always been interested in business and entrepreneurship even as a kid. And, kind of the motivation behind it was, you know, seeing my my family, my mom, my dad. You You know, we struggled, you know, throughout the, the course of my childhood. Always interested in, you know, in having you know, making a change for myself and my family and my community. So those were some of the the the basis of, you know, me being driven to become an entrepreneur, have a successful business.
Jeffrey Stern [00:02:49]:
Yeah. And what were some of those things that you you had worked on when you were younger that were in this kind of world of of building things and, you know, making money and, just like what were what were some of those activities that that you started out with?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:03:03]:
Oh, man. I I I found food I could to, you know, to generate some revenue. Not even call it revenue then because there was no business. There was me trying, you know, to find ways to make make money, but I can remember as early as, I wanna say, 7 or 8 years old, maybe even even a tad bit earlier. I used to go to work with with with my dad all the time. He had a, a painting company, so to speak, or he was a painter who, you know, I wanna say maybe self employed. But, yep, that was, you know, the the beginning to develop that, that work ethic. Just the vision behind it, you know, came early on as as a child for sure.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:03:36]:
Even in high school, I can remember a group of friends. We had a a candy candy business. Man, we, you know, we're ruthless even at such a young age. I can remember taking out the competition early. You know, we unplugged the, the vending machines. It was a candy selling venture. You know, put the the out of order styles on on the the particular machines. We even went as far to set a, a deal with the administration at the school to sell candy after hours.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:04:02]:
So early on, yeah, it was always it was always a passion, you know, behind business. And then like I say, being driven by my own family financial situation, I knew early on that, you know, 9 to 5 or the traditional route wasn't for me at all.
Jeffrey Stern [00:04:16]:
Yeah. That that's really funny. Just gotta own the candy supply. That's the that's the way to start. Was it was it like something that you felt yourself naturally enjoying and and thriving at, or was it something that you worked on thinking about the different opportunities where those opportunities were? Was that something that you you had enjoyed?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:04:35]:
Yeah. I think what came naturally to me was just, building relationships with people. Right? Mhmm. Wanted to do right by people and understand that, you know, that integrity goes a long way. So in building business, which is, you know, like I said, a passion, I think I was I will say, well, I'm a born leader in a sense. Always kinda went against the grain with certain things, never kind of followed the the the path taken by most. So early on, yeah, it was it was early. There were signs if you ask my parents by a lot of science to say he's gonna definitely do something different or become a business owner.
Jeffrey Stern [00:05:06]:
Yeah. So let's kind of paint the picture here of, you know, working backwards from, you know, let's let's call it the the founding story for immaculate cleaning and and some of your just entrepreneurial explorations in in high school from candy to whatever it it may have been. What were some of those things that kind of happened in the interim? What what kind of got you on the path towards ultimately starting what you would consider a business rather than just, you know, kind of a a project?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:05:35]:
Yeah. So I wanna say it wasn't until I, graduated from high school to where, I took those basic principles. When I say basic, I mean, the the very basic principles of running a business. Right? You talk about marketing and advertising, the financials of a business, but not on a on a, you know, on a large level at all. I already didn't even understand business financials back then, but, you know, now I've learned to to learn and understand those things. But when I graduated, I took those basic principles and wanted to apply it on a larger scale. Right? Because, you know, at a time when most of my friends are going to college and we kinda figured things out, I knew that I wanted to be involved in business in business and entrepreneurship, but I didn't know what. So I it it was at that point where I, I thought about starting a clean business for a couple different reasons.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:06:20]:
It was a very lucrative business, and it was something that people could take me serious as. As a 19, 18, 90 year old kid, if you could trust me to do anything, you could trust me to clean. Right? Okay. And I figured I can make some make some money, but I took that rule when I at the beginning, though, we clean anything. We'll take we'll clean your house, your your car, your basement, your garage. I think my first official project for my cleaning service was, cleaned up a garage that they were housing their dogs in. So it was a garage for the feces. And I thought that out, you know, it was the greatest feeling ever.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:06:50]:
I think it took me about 30 minutes in it and she paid me about $150. And I was like, you know, we are in business. I feel great about that project. But as I started to get older, you know, and figure things out, I knew that I wanted to, you know, develop a business model that could be sustainable long term. So I quickly found our niche in commercial. With commercial cleaning is a lot more it's less I'm gonna say it's less less of a headache, right, in dealing with b to c and b to b, you could imagine, you know, dealing with one decision maker versus the the everyday consumer who has, an opinion about most things or maybe expect a miracle, you know, to be performed versus, you know, you maintain in a commercial site. So it quickly dove into the commercial, started doing my research. I went to work for a local, when I'm not I wouldn't even say local, I would say a pretty big company for commercial cleaning at a local college.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:07:43]:
And, I did everything and try to play every position that I could within that time frame to get as much knowledge as I could about the commercial cleaning industry. From the general cleaning to floor servicing, I was spending a lot of time in the manager's office just trying to soak in and, you know, all the knowledge that I could. And that was at that point where I I shift maybe, you know, the shift from, alright, this is a real business now.
Jeffrey Stern [00:08:03]:
Got it. So starting really in the in the residential space, recognizing this opportunity in commercial and kind of enveloping yourself in in really understanding what commercial entails with this inclination that that's where kind of the bigger business opportunity ultimately would would lie for immaculate cleaning. Did had you kind of thought about, you know, considering and we'll get to immaculate cleaning today, but, like, the the vision for where you might wanna take the business? Or was it more just, I see this opportunity in commercial, and I wanna explore it, you know, relative to the residential space? Or was this idea of building a a real, like, company behind it?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:08:44]:
No. It was definitely, intentional when building a a sustainable commercial cleaning business. But it it was also a combination of of both. Like, we've seen the, you know, the fact that we could make some money now and then we could also build this out long term. But as we got more involved and and started to to actually develop the business, it was a no brainer for us to to move in that direction.
Jeffrey Stern [00:09:04]:
Yeah. So what what were some of those things as you were just kind of entrenched yourself in in the learning and research about the commercial space that that you didn't quite expect or or were things that that were new
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:09:16]:
to you along the way? That's a good question. I think because I took the time to do my research right and I went to actually work for a commercial cleaning company, Now that was that was kind of an eye open eye opener for me, the, the the late night, the 3rd shift, you know, the expectations in a sense of, maintaining this huge facility and and some of the things that they require of you. They're really building out a brand, you know, was was kind of a like, okay. We gotta if we're gonna do this, we gotta do it the right way instead of just, you know, hey. We'll show up in, you know, with a mopping bucket and and and, you know, offering to clean someone's house, if that makes any sense at all. We have to have our you know, the paperwork has to be correct. We have to have our ducks in a row. We wanna show up and be taken seriously to to service these high profile facilities.
Jeffrey Stern [00:09:59]:
Yeah. No. I think it makes a lot of sense. I think about one of the the roles of a CEO being just understanding of every element of the business and being able to kinda play the part and and as an exercise in in, like, empathy, not only for, like, the the business and and and opportunities you're trying to win, but for the employees and the company you're you're trying to build.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:10:20]:
Absolutely.
Jeffrey Stern [00:10:21]:
So coming out out of this kind of research experience, what were, you know, some of the lessons that you kinda brought with you from earlier on in your career that you had learned, you know, from the, as early as the Kandi, endeavors to to starting immaculate cleaning. What what were what did you find that that you had learned that worked? What did you find that you wanted to do differently? What were the things you were thinking about as you started to pull together the what the culture and, and kind of strategy behind immaculate cleaning would be.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:10:54]:
Yeah. So what I what I found out was that I didn't really know much at all. You know, as a as a, you know, teenager, 18, 19 year old kid, you think that you got it all fixed. I don't wanna start this business. I'm a make a $1,000,000 tomorrow. I'm gonna we're gonna live happy ever after. Right? Now once I got into business, that was you know, that that mindset quickly changed. Just learning those early early lessons.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:11:16]:
The biggest thing for me was, discipline. Right? As like I said, as a teenager, I'm my own boss, and I have employees, and you can't really tell me much. So being disciplined to know you said you know, to say, hey. These are, you know, some of the best years of our life. Right? College years and all our friends are partying and drinking, and I gotta stay here, you know, stay focused and get this business plan together before we could, you know, make sure that things are ready to go. But, that that that would probably be the biggest lesson that I learned as far as making the transition from high school to the cleaning company. Man, it's a ton of lessons, but
Jeffrey Stern [00:11:49]:
Maybe in in the context of a story, like, how did you get your first commercial deal, like, coming out of all this?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:11:56]:
So I'll backtrack a little bit, Jeffrey. Coming out of working for the, the cleaning service, I set a date. I said, I'm gonna work for exactly 6 months to the day, and then I'm gonna, you know, set a time out, and I'm I'm gonna quit. The day the 6 months of the day, I cold turkey, I I walked away. So I never wanna get I don't wanna get caught up in the system of, you know, relying on a constant paycheck, you know, within that that system. So I I walked away. I, went and bought a pickup truck. I'm still out, you know, hustle more, like I say, trying to find my way.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:12:28]:
And, but at this time, I've made the decision to focus on commercial cleaning versus residential. So I had a couple of a couple of great mentors throughout the, you know, my business journey. One called me up one day. He said, hey. I got a someone works at, you know, this location. They're looking for an employee to service, but, hey. You could possibly turn this into a cleaning account. Okay.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:12:50]:
Perfect. So I go I, make the make the, you know, make the phone call. We set a meeting out. I go to the interview, and, tell him about all my capabilities and everything. And the guy looks at me, he say, oh, that that's great. He say, but, you know, we don't right now, we only have $20 an hour to offer you right now. I hope I really hope that's enough. And at the time, like I said, 20 9 20 year old kid, you offer me $20 an hour.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:13:13]:
I probably would've took took 10.50. So I'm with no trying to keep my composure. I'm saying, Oh, well, you know, maybe we could make something happen with that.
Jeffrey Stern [00:13:22]:
Yeah.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:13:22]:
Inside it's like, I'm like, I made it. This is it. So, I took y'all took the position. Same thing. I set the standard super high. So as and I'm doing a lot of well, all of the work myself at this at this point. And, you know, we're we're doing a bang up job. They've never seen this place look this great.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:13:40]:
We're flexible. We're building these relationships. Like, it was it was it was a great relationship. So I did the exact same thing. I worked for 3 months in that, you know, in that position. I say, hey. I gotta, you know, make a move. I wanna, hire someone to take on this because one thing I deal early on to go back to the point was you have to work on the business and not in the business.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:13:59]:
Right? So if I'm constantly, you know, wrapped up in, you know, being a laborer, I can't work focus on being a business owner. So I set that that timeline again, 3 months. Taking myself 3 months, and I I I was I was gone. I was done with it. So throughout that time that I'm working, I'm I'm setting everything up to make that transition. Right? I'm bringing people in, assisting in completing these projects. They're getting familiar with these spaces. So when it was time to go, hey.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:14:23]:
You got every everything you need necessary or anything you need to, you know, to take on this, this project alone. When I left, I presented the, the client with or my my employers at this time with the formal proposal, like, to my company take over the cleaning operations. And we did some negotiating back and forth, but, Altogether did accept the proposal, and that was our 1st official cleaning account.
Jeffrey Stern [00:14:46]:
That's awesome. We'll kinda fill in the blanks as we go here, but just like how do you describe the business today? You know, what what is immaculate cleaning at a high level, and, you know, at what scale have you kind of built it to to today?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:15:00]:
Immaculate, you know, we I look at it a couple of different ways. I mean, this is like my my baby, you know, something I created for nothing. But then again, this is we're creating an enterprise. Right? So I try to look at it that way on on a daily basis, but we built our brand in a way to where we focus on a couple different things, innovation, training systems and relationships. Those are the key differentiators of, you know, for a macro cleaning. And keeping that in mind, we're building something for the future. You know, this is not something that we're doing for the time being. It's not a lifestyle business.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:15:28]:
This is definitely, you know, something that we're we're expanding and and building on those relationships that we built in the past. So right now, we're we're leveraging to for a couple different industries. We're we're building immaculate landscapers. We're building immaculate transportation and logistics. We're building immaculate university. And all of this, will follow-up under the umbrella company of, Immaculate Management Group, which immaculate will be part of that as well. So, yeah, we we're taking those relationships, man, and, you know, things that we've built in the past, and we're creating the conglomerate.
Jeffrey Stern [00:15:59]:
That's an incredible kind of transition and, the ambition and scope of the company over time. You know, as you've built up and had success with Immaculate Cleaning, where was the seed for that kind of broader vision planted, and how did it kinda come to to Sprout?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:16:16]:
Man, well, I I feel like I've always been very ambitious with with my, my business vision. And then like I said, early on, when we made the decision to go commercial, it was that was part of that decision making process as well. We were thinking long term. I'm I'm never content with, you know, what we have going on. Always looking for the next big thing, not in the sense of overnight success, but just making sure that we align ourselves with, you know, things that could help push the vision along. Yeah, man. That that's always been who, you know, I am as a person and not less the culture of the company. Right? We we we look to the future, man.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:16:47]:
We think long term. We we execute on on the things that we said we were gonna do. It's like, you know, myself. It is a reflection of the company and vice versa.
Jeffrey Stern [00:16:57]:
Yeah. No. But before we kind of explore some of the the alternative business, opportunities that that you have in play, I know I just kinda wanna, you know, wrap up where immaculate cleaning has come and and how, like, how you came to to be here, really with kinda 2 specific paths. One is I'd love to hear the story of how you became the official kinda cleaning partner for the Cleveland Monsters. And then we before that, I I'd love to also understand the the role of Jumpstart in in immaculate cleaning's development as well.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:17:29]:
For sure. First, I wanna say not official, but proud cleaning partner of the of the Cleveland Monsters. But, so that that came across. Everything I like to like to do is, you know, I like things to happen organically. Like, we don't force anything. Things kinda just play themselves out. We know it's meant for us. You know, it's meant for us.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:17:47]:
So that conversation started. We were contacted, from a rep from the Cleveland Cavaliers, actually, and he wanted to have a conversation. And we entertain the conversation thinking about our employee or development, our employee incentive program. Alright? So we like I said, we talked about relationships. That's not just relationships with clients, that's relationship in house as well with our employees, you know, with their families, and so on and so forth. So in developing that plan, you know, we we had an agreement. So, you know, we could send some of our key employees down with their families to enjoy the game, all the perks of being down at Rocket Mortgage, some of the concerts and events, and they know it was great. We noticed one day when we were down that there was an advertisement of, claiming another company to be the official cleaning partner of Cleveland Cavaliers.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:18:33]:
So, yeah, immediately, my my mind went, hey. We're we're gonna do something. No. You're being in business. You want me I wanted immediately. So we you know, they started having conversations just about, you know, what what it takes to be a partner and some of the things that they offer and, you know, how we could help with, build a community with this with this with this partnership. And I'm all about you know, we haven't touched on it, but I'm I'm I'm all about, you know, the community and the people. But, yeah, so it it we the the talks developed and, you know, we we reached an agreement and yeah.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:19:03]:
So we became the official or the the proud cleaning partner of Proud. Of the cleaning of monsters. But, yeah, those those guys are are great. One of the things that drew me to the organization was no. I I I try not to get blindsided by the glitz and glamour behind certain things. Right? People will get so caught up in doing business with the name of, oh, the Cavaliers are, you know, the the monsters. But if it doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense. So we tried to be, you know, conscious of, you know, what we were doing in that space and what the goal was, which was ultimately to, you know, benefit our employees.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:19:37]:
And then it made sense to, you know, from a partnership standpoint for us to do business together.
Jeffrey Stern [00:19:42]:
Yeah. What what do you think has, kind of allowed you to win some of these larger deals in what I understand to be a very competitive space, you know, speaking to the some of the other companies claiming to be the the official, you know, spa the sponsoring cleaners out there. What is the been the competitive edge for you and has allowed you to to kinda thrive and grow in this market?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:20:03]:
Man, a couple different things, but, like, I'm a go back to the things I said before, which is the training systems. Right? We make sure that each employee is trained properly, but they all claim so I'm a I'm a take it back to the drawing board. When I when I rebranded and I was thinking about, you know, who we are as a company, I noticed that every cleaner service claims to have a quality service. They all claim that, hey, do we have we're a quality cleaning service, quality this and quality that. What is quality? Like, what defines quality? So I I broke it down. I say, for us, quality is being innovative in our our field, having the most up to date tools and equipment, being knowledgeable and and also incorporating technology into our day to day operations. We talk about training systems. Right? In order to produce this product, we have to have make sure that people's our service, you have to make sure that people are trained.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:20:48]:
So I like to compare it to, you know, the McDonald's system. Right? You can go to a McDonald's over it in California, in Cleveland, in Africa, and and wherever, you know, the locations are. And it the burger is gonna taste exactly the same. The fries are gonna taste exactly the same. So that's part of the system that's in place. Right? The training systems, which is huge for us. And then the last and most important piece of it is the, relationship portion of it. When you buy into well, I wouldn't even say, buy into when you become a partner with the immaculate cleaning.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:21:16]:
Right? You get me. And I'm huge on relationships, you know, a lot of integrity. We make sure that we treat, you know, my dad has a quote. He say immaculate where where you treat like family, and family is treated like a friend. And that's, you know, we we stick to that. That's who we are. Right on.
Jeffrey Stern [00:21:32]:
As you kinda grew the business, you know, it it requires capital to to bring on more people and and set up these systems for training and get those tools in place. And so was this kind of always a bootstrap business where just as you brought on more deals, you were able to hire more people. Was there any capital brought on at any point to kind of to jumpstart, not, not in the jumpstart sense, but like to jump start the business, and and then where did actually jump start the the Cleveland organization come into play as you were as you were growing the the organization?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:22:03]:
Yeah. Absolutely. For a long time, you know, like I said, it was bootstrapping. We we funded ourselves to the company. No no funding. We we kinda just fund you know, in house, organically funded our opened ourself. It wasn't until 2018. And the funny thing is so the chain reaction competition was just released.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:22:20]:
I don't know if you're familiar with the chain reaction competition.
Jeffrey Stern [00:22:22]:
No. What what what is that?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:22:24]:
It was a spin off of the Lebron show, Cleveland Hustles. They had some success the 1st year, but they didn't wanna pick it up for a second year. So you had the local business organizations who wanted to pick it up, Jumpstart, Cozy, GCP. A couple others, I think, were involved, but they wanted to pick it up and, you know, keep it moving. So, I think I was involved, excuse me, year 2 of the Chain Reaction. At that time, the funny thing is I I was I was gonna submit it came across my email. I was gonna submit an application, but I was gonna submit an application for a separate entity that I had with, some of my partners. And, we I ran it past them, and, I had a writer that I was dealing with at the time, and I ran it past her as well.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:23:05]:
And, the guys didn't wanna proceed. They had some, you know, some reservations about it, and the writer was like, this is perfect for you. Like, you should definitely get involved with this with this program. And I was like, you know, we're we're pretty good. No. I think we can manage, but, you know, she's like, no. I think this is this is real quick. So I say, hey.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:23:23]:
So, you know, go let's let's do it. So we we sat there. We, we put together a nice executive summary we submitted to the, you know, the application. I wanna say there were over a 100 applicants. They nailed it down to 20. We were one of the top 20. Then we had to go through what you, called the, like, the boot camp series or whatever it is. It was, like, 6 weeks where they teach you how to, present to the, the investors and everything.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:23:46]:
So I'm I'm sorry. I didn't didn't actually explain the, the competition. So pretty much, the chain reaction was they pick a specific community in Cleveland. That particular year, it was, the old Brooklyn neighborhood. And there were there were 5 investors. They were each going to pick a business and invest a 100 k into the business of their choosing. But that business had to set up a, you know, brick and mortar in that particular community, which was old Brooklyn. So you went through the, the boot camp, came down to and the boot camp was kind of funny because, you know, I'm a very quiet, you know, person.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:24:20]:
I'm very observant, but I'm already working on my plan and, you know, throughout the source of the course of the, the boot camp series, these guys are, like, throwing out these ideas. And I'm like, man, I was gonna use that, but now they might so it's like almost yeah. It was like, man, you guys will hurt me more than you. It was like a good insight. They taught, you know, how to get projections and things prepared. So we actually presented, and we were one of I think they chose. I think there were 7 winners that year, and we partnered with an investor, Vanessa Whiting. She's a great, great, great business man, a shark here in Cleveland, man.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:24:55]:
She's she's, you know, been nothing but less than great. Oh, so, yeah, that was how I got into this. The the context. Right. So I got how I got introduced to, Jumpstart because they were the main however, you know, they they were in control of that at the time, like the the yep yep, the breeze was at Jumpstart. Man, I when I did my presentation, I think I did a pretty, pretty good job, man. And, from there, I got involved in the, the Cleveland Impact Program. I didn't win, but, you know, it was a great, great opportunity.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:25:24]:
And now I just kept working closely with with jump starting staff, got some great advisers over there. Yeah. We, you know, wanted to one of their premier businesses. We've seen a lot of success from, 2 years ago, and we've, you know, been scaling every single year. So, yeah, it's it's a good relationship.
Jeffrey Stern [00:25:38]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, may maybe that's a good segue talking about impact and kind of local focus to to kinda work in how the work you're doing with immaculate cleaning ties into community engagement and economic development. Something I know that that is important to you, but but how do you think about that? How how does it, you know, translate into the into the day to day of what you do? And then at a higher level, how you're thinking about that?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:26:03]:
Yeah, man. So I am from, well, I was raised on the east side of Cleveland in, like, the the Hough neighborhood. Like I said earlier, some very, you know, impoverished area, a lot of lot of crime, a lot of, you know, a lot of negative things, so to speak, going on over there. As I grew my business, that was one of the things that that has always been near to dear near and dear to me in my mind and in my heart, just uplifting and and building that that community, the youth over there. Yeah, man. So the community, you know, that's that's that's huge for me. And a lot of a lot of employees come from over in that area. We try to put different programs place, like, we talked about the the incentive program, but, you know, we try to assist in purchasing homes wherever we can, you know, help build value, you know, in their lives.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:26:42]:
Like, it's not about the business here. We wanna make money, man. But at the end of the day, you know, we wanna we care about the individual, first. So much so we have a back to school drive in, conjunction with the Cleveland Monsters. We'll be giving away some some backpacks and, you know, just give it back to the community. That's, you know, that's that's big to me. And all Yeah. I always think, like, you know, we didn't have access to a lot of things back when I was growing up in that neighborhood.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:27:05]:
So we got in we got into a lot of negative things because of that. So, you know, being able you know, being in a position to give back and provide resources is huge for me.
Jeffrey Stern [00:27:15]:
You. Yeah. Yeah. No. That that that's very cool to hear. It reminds me, you know, we had a a Mansfield Frasier on the show towards the beginning of it, but he he was also building Chateau Hough, also, you know, focused really locally on on recidivism and and kind of the triple bottom line business, but having an impact locally in in the in the community to to kind of build people up, it's it's very cool.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:27:39]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's really, like, you know, who I am as a person. I'm I'm all about the community, all about doing good. You know, I know it's a balance to everything, right? So talk about success and and doing certain things in the business community. Right? You can't have one without the other, so we understand the importance of philanthropy and giving back.
Jeffrey Stern [00:27:57]:
Yeah. So with that, I do wanna get your perspective on on the future and, you know, you mentioned kind of a handful of other industries that you you are taking Immaculate to kind of, you know, Immaculate as a management company, as a holding company, as a conglomerate to kind of off offshoot a few of these other businesses. Have you had to gone through kind of the same research and understanding exercises that you went through with specifically the the industry of cleaning to to understand the the specifics or the nuance of how those industries work? Or how have you gone about, like, figuring out, you know, this particular industry of, you know, maybe like lawn work versus a a different industry? Like, how have you thought about that, and and where what are what are the factors weighing different different, industries?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:28:47]:
Each of these industries is like we we didn't, choose them. They chose us.
Jeffrey Stern [00:28:52]:
Yeah.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:28:53]:
So we we see an opportunity in in giving back. I'm I have a close group of friends and and people that I deal with, and they you know, some are involved in in landscape, some in transportation, but we're seeing opportunity. Right? And then we're seeing opportunity to merge them with the cleaning to build off of those same relationships. Right? So, for example, with the landscape, I had invested a lot of lot of time and and and money into one of my friends' business. Very small landscape. Wasn't, you know, wasn't really thinking about b to b or anything. Just, you know, just basically maintaining some, you know, 9 to 5 type of or self employed type of type of setup. But, man, we got we got approached more than once more no time to say, hey, maybe we should, yeah, make this make this this move.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:29:37]:
And that would it made it made all the sense in the world. Right? We already invested some money into this, you know, to this venture. We we've seen a chance to collab and, you know, help this individual build build his business as well. So we kinda just came in, and and, you know, it it made sense. He had some knowledge, behind it, and we just, you know, take it to the next level. We're just going just plan to scale it. But, you know, it it it's gonna be interesting. We plan to launch the landscape.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:30:02]:
I wanna say October 1st Mhmm. Which I will you know, we'll we'll move right into, like, the spring cleanup type of thing. During that time, like, we developed so much. I think it'll be, you know, kind of to fall around software. I went to, like, the Uber of Land Stick Services. So, you know, you won't have individual, but we'll be dealing with a lot of different contractors as we build no. Go out and get these contracts work. We'll be dishing it out, giving other, business owners opportunity as well.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:30:28]:
So we'll we'll let the brand, we'll build out the, the company, and we'll, you know, initially or essentially give opportunity to other, you know, landscape businesses or smaller landscape companies throughout throughout Cleveland. And then this is a model that we plan to take or scale nationally as well.
Jeffrey Stern [00:30:43]:
So these systems that you had kinda put in place for immaculate cleaning are systems that you think and feel are extensible to these other lines of businesses where you can kinda reuse the the technology, the the the training, the programs across different industries to to kind of effectively scale and and run the business?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:31:03]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Like I say, the most important to me is relationships. I've been trying to scale down from getting any landscape accounts right now. The relationships that we built, if we mentioned it, man, we've been swamped in landscape services. Right? When I'm trying not to do anything until we officially launch. So that's that, you know, that that kind of plays into that, as well as innovation, you know, the software that we're using. The, it'll be an application customized for, you know, for immaculate landscaping.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:31:29]:
We'll go out and get clients and everything will work. No other functions through this through this application. But, yeah, so like I said, the relationship that we built, it made sense. You know, it's showing that we made the the right decision because, man, man, I'm yeah.
Jeffrey Stern [00:31:45]:
Yeah. No. Focus is important. One of the things you know, it sounds like most of the the growth in the past has been just organically, like, how how you've how you've grown it. And it sounds like potentially going forward, there could be more of an opportunity for you to acquire businesses and kind of, you know, roll out your your infrastructure that that you're that you're using in house and and and in other lines of the business. How how are you kinda thinking about organic versus acquisatory growth going forward?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:32:15]:
Man, it's something to think about. Something to think about. I always thought that always heard that, excuse me, you should sell your first business. And, we're weighing all options. I read a book early on in my entrepreneurial journey called Built to Sale, and it was probably one of the greatest books I've ever read. Right? Because it talks about building a system. Same thing go back to the McDonald's system, building a actual system that you can sell in the scalable instead of doing multiple different no. I don't being scattered.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:32:42]:
Right? You talk about focusing on and honing in on on on a specific system. But with that system, man, you you you build to sell, man. And, we, you know, we built a system that we could definitely step. We can definitely sell. So it's not up to question. We know maybe might acquired other business, but, you know, everything is is an option, man. We're, you know, more focused on building it to a point to where if we choose to sell, it'll be a nice a nice, offer. Yeah.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:33:07]:
Sky's the limit.
Jeffrey Stern [00:33:09]:
Yeah. What what excites you most about about the future kinda looking forward where where the sky is the limit?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:33:15]:
But I get it really it sounds so cliche, man, but I I really get a thrill out of helping other people. But that's really, you know, the the passion behind it for me. So, when looking to the future, man, I I I love to see my key managers and people that that's been around for a long time. I love to see them be successful, not just here, but in other things. And I wanna see, you know, the hard work, pay off because that's what it's about for me, man. It's building up other people, making sure everybody else is around me is successful. You know, I don't wanna I don't wanna to, measure measure success by my own personal success. I want to see everybody around me, you know, get a win.
Jeffrey Stern [00:33:49]:
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. As you kind of reflect on on all your entrepreneurial journeys over the the last few years here and also in contrast to, you know, some of the learnings that you had starting the business, What are the some of the things that that have, you know, kind of challenged you, struck you, you didn't expect along the way? I mean, all of it is very hard, but, like, what are what are some of the learnings that you've taken with you so far?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:34:15]:
Man, Jeffrey, I mean, when I say we had some and still we deal with challenges, man. But we've we've you know, I've seen a lot in the short time I've been in business. When I I've been the other business owner who like I said, I'm very ambitious, so you're not gonna see me turn down too many projects or not try to figure things out. So I've been in positions to where, hey, you know, we, have a 20 20 k payroll Friday. Today is, Thursday, and we looking at maybe, 3, 4 k in the bank bank account. So just know learning how to work around those things, man, and having patience and dealing with different personalities in in in those type of situations, man, and controlling the situation. Is is been a lot like just for example, right now, our biggest challenge is hiring and retaining employees. You know, there's there's a lot of incentives for people not to come to work now.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:35:02]:
So, you know, reach the point to where we gotta be innovative and find new ways to to hire and retain, you know, employees. The hourly wage is not is not just the people around anymore. Right? So we got to find ways to go out and make it appealing, which you know, talking about the employee incentive program. But for example, there was a big concert here in Cleveland, the the summer jam concert at a rocket mortgage. Yeah, we took 18 employees down, man. And it was it was a great feeling. Great feeling.
Jeffrey Stern [00:35:27]:
Yeah. In the context of the pandemic over the last year and a half, I imagine that is something that that probably had some, like, material impact on on the the day to day of the business. And how did you kinda weather that storm?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:35:41]:
Man, it was unexpected. You know, it was it's I think it started off as as a joke to everybody. Like, oh, it was that. And slowly but surely, it became a real thing.
Jeffrey Stern [00:35:51]:
Yeah.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:35:52]:
Yeah. We we had to adjust, man. We had to adjust. But not to sound insensitive, but we, you know, we're in a position to capitalize, you know, off of off of, you know, the pandemic but also make, you know, help out in a sense. Right? To to make spaces safe and disinfect. And we, you know, we took pride in that as well. But it was it was helpful to us because, you know, as we we work on our marketing, our marketing strategies. Right? In dealing in commercial and business to business, our our challenge was always how to find a way and how to get to the decision maker.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:36:21]:
Right? So you try to offer a specialized service. Hey. We'll, you know, come clean the carpet or we'll service this or, you know, but that gave us, you know, a way in. And and we weren't we didn't have to look for them because they were looking for us. So so definitely gave us a, you know, a way to to get inside. And once we're inside, we can then talk about, hey. We can maintain or we could, you know, you know, further the conversation about how we could transition this into a long term contract. But, yeah, we we we definitely seen an increase in, in sales.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:36:47]:
And we were happy to, you know, help make a difference as well. But it was it was definitely an adjustment with employees. You know, as we increased our workload, we've seen a decrease in in employees. So that was a huge challenge, man. My my my, shout out to my team, and they were overworked and tired. And we really, really did a lot of lot of work during that time, but it still is. But, we're starting to see a change. Now people are starting to, you know, come back, get some traction with with hiring.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:37:15]:
But, yeah, we definitely had to make some some real, you know, key adjustments, man, and making sure that we kept everyone safe and did our part to to to, you know, keep the the buildings maintained properly as well.
Jeffrey Stern [00:37:28]:
I love hearing how just a lot of the the opportunities that you've had have just, you know, kind of presented themselves to you, and you've had this preparedness to kind of run with them and and capitalize on them.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:37:39]:
Yeah. We try we try to, you know, stay prepared for any opportunity. And like I said, we I've been grooming myself in the business for this a long time. You know, if we get addressed with opportunity, last thing we wanna do is grow ourselves out of business. So we're strategic about how we take on these different projects. But, you know, I'm confident, you know, myself and my team that, you know, no matter the challenge, we will definitely get it figured out. We were presented with a lot of different opportunities. And man, shout out to my team again, but we we we definitely figured it out.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:38:05]:
Definitely figured it out. Yeah.
Jeffrey Stern [00:38:06]:
No. I I feel like we missed maybe a a basic point early on in the conversation. How how long have you been working on immaculate cleaning?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:38:13]:
So officially right. I said officially, that's from the date of, like, the state certification.
Jeffrey Stern [00:38:19]:
Yeah.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:38:19]:
March of 2011. So we're we're approaching 11 years now. But unofficially, like I say, fresh out of high school, man, I was doing all type all type of gigs to, to make some money and to stay afloat. Yeah, man. That that was, you know, coming out. You know, I didn't have much responsibility because I, you know, stay with my parents. But things got got real quickly, you know, when when you're doing, you know, paying the phone bill and just trying to maintain as a young adult. You know, I definitely was ambitious back then, but man, we had to figure things out back then as well.
Jeffrey Stern [00:38:53]:
Yeah. Now I'll kind of open the the floor to you here for for anything that you feel is important about the immaculate cleaning story that maybe we haven't covered yet and that you wanna share about about the journey and and where you're taking it.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:39:07]:
I think we covered a lot, man, but it it it was definitely a long journey. Took a lot of lot of lot of discipline, lot of hard work. I remember I tell this story all the time. I I met a guy years ago. He he excuse me. He owned a janitorial service as well. I was always I I when I say I was very ambitious, I was very ambitious. I I was always looking for the next opportunity, you know, to to present myself in the business.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:39:34]:
I was not Johnny on the spot, but, someone introduced me to this guy. He he had a janitorial service. He had just signed, like, some huge deal with I wanna say, like, Dollar General or something like that. And, they made the introduction. I jumped right in. Hey. I can get a team together. We could, you know, make something happen.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:39:49]:
I was always, you know, observant how how things work, and things didn't quite quite work out. But I remember asking him, I say, I say, how did you, you know, get to this point? And he was, like, hard work and dedication. I say, come on. You I give you give me yeah. Like, let no. Let me know what's really going. He say hard work and dedication. And, at the time, I didn't get it.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:40:09]:
But now it's like, you know, it's really about hard work and dedication. And persistence is everything. Now we got a million nos, but maybe we got, you know, the yeses that we did get economy for sure.
Jeffrey Stern [00:40:21]:
Yeah. I know. It it sounds it sounds trite, but it is true.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:40:26]:
It is such a cliche story. Right? It's like, oh, man. It's like like a movie. Yeah. But, no, this is all all facts.
Jeffrey Stern [00:40:32]:
But there there's truth in the cliches. I think that's why they're they're cliche.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:40:37]:
No. Absolutely. Absolutely. But, yeah, but we we no plan to continue to to grow and scale. I'll see no no limits for for a macular cleaning in the just immaculate group of companies that were that were creating, but got it got a great team got a couple other ventures in the works as well. My God, shout out to my God, Charles Hubbard with an in-depth data building a, I'm not sure if you heard about it. He works closely with Johnson. Well, he is building a, financial platform for business owners and helping them understand the financials and, you know, the the profitability of of their own business.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:41:08]:
But just it it that that'll be huge. That's something that, you know, take a lot of my time as well. I said, no. No. I think you covered a lot a lot of things.
Jeffrey Stern [00:41:16]:
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. I I appreciate you you going in in deep on on all the aspects of of the journey so far. Well, we'll tie it back local to to kinda wrap it up here. One of the the questions that I'm asking everyone who who comes on the the podcast is trying to paint a a collective collage, not necessarily of people's favorite things in Cleveland, but of things in Cleveland that other people may not know about that they should. And so with that, I'll I'll ask you what what some of those things might be to you.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:41:46]:
That is a very interesting question, partly because I love Cleveland. Born to Rhodes. You know, I I I always say that if you make it in Cleveland, you can make it anywhere. I kinda like, those people that that that come or leave Cleveland and they say, oh, there's nothing in Cleveland. You don't know Cleveland if you if you feel that way. Right? There's a ton of things to do in Cleveland. In downtown, Cleveland is awesome. You have the Universal Circle area, which is awesome.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:42:09]:
The Tremont area, which is awesome. There's a ton of things to do. I'm I'm a big supporter of local businesses and, you know, black owned, minority owned businesses as well. Downtown Cleveland is is, you know, it was some of my favorite hangout spots. I really enjoyed going to the lake off of East 55th and and Marina. That was, you know, kind of where to free my mind every now and then. Just a matter of fact, there's a couple different locations of the lake that, not really enjoy going to. I don't wanna say it wrong, but it's off further up.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:42:37]:
Lakeshore is a spot in it, man. It's it's a lovely view. Lovely view. I love Cleveland, man. I think Cleveland is a great place to be. I think it's a lot of potential here. A lot of, a lot of great business owners, a lot of great people, period. There's definitely a transition going on right now is is a shift.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:42:53]:
We wanna see what Cleveland is really made of. Shout out to the Browns. You know, they're they're they they should be pretty decent this year. The Cleveland month is, of course, that the the head on.
Jeffrey Stern [00:43:03]:
Yes. Proud. Proud. Well, James, I, I I really appreciate you coming on and and, and telling your story and and sharing all all the work that you're doing and, very excited to hear about all the the success that that you're having. So so thank you.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:43:19]:
Absolutely. I really appreciate that. Real quick, Jeffrey. I wanna give just Yeah. Yeah. A couple of my my my my guys, my partners who know different business venture. I mentioned in-depth data. You you'll definitely hear more about that.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:43:30]:
A great platform, a business community online, and you a lot of different resources, but they specifically focus on financial tools and, you know, minority and and small businesses. Make sure that they're managing the finances the right way. Ryerson, of course, you know, DQ and V, that's our marketing team. Great guys, man. We couldn't do, you know, do some of the things we do without them. And then my my guys everywhere at Strong-arm Mobile, Mobile, Detail Watch, great guys. It's another business that we're building now, but, yeah, feel free to check them out as well.
Jeffrey Stern [00:44:00]:
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. If folks have anything they wanna follow-up with you about, what is the best way for them to do that, James?
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:44:06]:
Email info at immaculatecleaningohio.com, and that's immaculatecleaningohio.com. Feel free to hit with any questions or or anything. And then, oh, you always call our office, 440-721-1024. Feel free to reach out. And if you want, you know, social media person, I'm just terrible with social media. I never know the my ankles of of so we're going to let me check it out. J.barnes4 is my my Instagram. So that's j.barnes4, the number 4.
Jeffrey Stern [00:44:38]:
Perfect. Well, yeah. Thank you again, James. Really, really enjoyed this one.
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:44:42]:
Likewise, man. Likewise. Thanks for having us again, Jeffrey. I really appreciate the, you know, you taking time to have a conversation. Was it my best work? Thanks. Shout out to, the coffee that I've that I'm juiced up off of right now. I hope I hope that, you know, the listeners could could could definitely get some good insight and learn something from our conversation.
Jeffrey Stern [00:45:01]:
I think I think,
James Barnes Jr. (Immaculate Cleaning) [00:45:02]:
I think they all will. I appreciate that.
Jeffrey Stern [00:45:06]:
That's all for this week. Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's show, so if you have any feedback, please send over an email to jeffrey@layoftheland.fm or find us on Twitter at podlayofthelandor@sternjefe, j e f e. If you or someone you know would make a good guest for our show, please reach out as well and let us know. And if you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or on your preferred podcast player. Your support goes a long way to help us spread the word and continue to bring the Cleveland founders and builders we love having on the show.