Clean All Services Owner Shares BSC Management Lessons

With over 31 years of experience in the contract cleaning industry, it’s safe to say Steve Shuchat, CBSE, has experience overcoming challenges when it comes to both managing a business and finding a healthy work-life balance. Yet as the second-generation owner of Clean All Services Inc., Sidney, Ohio, his willingness to heed advice is as steadfast as it was during his first day on the job in 1993.   

It's a mentality that can be traced back to his upbringing and has since been reinforced by pivotal moments both personally and on-the-job.  

Growing up in the small community of Sidney, Ohio, Shuchat’s parents, Gary and Dee, both shared an entrepreneurial spirit. Initially running a dry cleaning and uniform rental business, they decided to shift to the commercial cleaning industry, founding Clean All Services in 1984.  

Utilizing their preexisting relationships within the community, they were able to slowly build a reputable client base. Steve, who was 14 at the time Clean All was founded, along with his siblings, would help with miscellaneous tasks around the main office.  

By extension, Steve learned about Building Service Contractors Association International (BSCAI) when his parents attended one of their conferences in Chicago in 1986. Although their business was off to a promising start, they were no exception to the hurdles that all small businesses face; workers compensation claims, employee morale, cashflow, and more. Upon their return, Steve recalls a glowing review about how many people Gary and Dee got to connect with and the sincere advice shared to keep Clean All thriving.  

“They hit it off with so many colleagues, and the support system that grew from that became a template for us to figure out how to best run the company,” Steve reflects. “From that point on, my parents regularly connected with people from the association throughout the country on best practices.” 

It both set the tone for the Shuchat family’s involvement with the association and served as a mental footnote for Steve — despite his years away from the cleaning industry attending the Ohio University and working as an executive for Boy Scouts briefly after graduation. 

Inspired by the same entrepreneurial spirit that drove his parents, Steve would return to Sidney in 1993 to join the family business. His goal was to learn the nuances of the business to eventually become general manager. After he served in that role for about five years, Gary decided to scale back his involvement in 1998 and appointed Steve as president of Clean All. By the year 2000, both Gary and Dee had completely stepped back from the business, and Steve was firmly at the helm.   

Growing Pains 

While excited to take on the challenge and continue the family legacy, the business wasn’t the only thing Shuchat inherited. He would also take on the burdens that no one was exempt from during the early days of leadership. Shuchat credits the effort his parents made to prepare him for what would lie ahead but would quickly learn that experiencing the challenges firsthand was often the only true teacher. 

Aside from the day-to-day responsibilities of running Clean All, Shuchat’s macro-level challenges came from the pressures of expectation and the weight of second-generation management.  

“My biggest fear was the fear of failure; a fear of letting anybody down,” Shuchat notes. “I worked 10-to-15-hour days, every day except for two during that first year after my parents retired. I felt that I needed to make sure that I was able to do it. Part of that early takeover is transitioning out of your support system as well, which in my case was my parents.” 

In reflecting on those early days, Shuchat believes that fear served as a double-edged sword when it came to the prospects of the business. While the importance of keeping the family business alive made him risk-averse, that type of caution also enabled him to avoid making the overly aggressive bids or budgetary decisions that could doom a lot of first-generation BSCs in the early years.  

“I think it’s an even a bigger issue to fail as a second generation than as a first. But at the same time, you put more limits on yourself because of that fear,” says Shuchat. “You are maybe limiting the growth, because the loss would be more devastating than the benefit of the growth being advantageous.” 

Cautious or not, Steve knew that his workload at the time was unsustainable, and he would need to learn to place trust in more employees, delegate properly, and organize a dependable management structure. The sheer number of responsibilities and obstacles that come with running a commercial cleaning business cannot be tackled alone, no matter how well someone can manage their time and stress levels. 

“You don't really utilize those stress-minimizing techniques that you build over the years until you're in the situation,” says Shuchat. “A customer is overwhelmingly upset about something the crew did the night before. You've got employees just about to quit.?Payroll has all sorts of issues. We have cash flow problems. These types of challenges will often hit you all at once, and you figure out within your own personality how to deal with them. I'll be honest, when I was newer to it in my 20s and early 30s, I did not deal with it as well.” 

Peer Groups and Mentorship 

Reflecting on his biggest challenges takes him back to about 13 years ago, when he went through a divorce; a process that required him to take a deep introspection into how he was balancing his time and what he was prioritizing. While the business was growing under his leadership — overall growth of 12 percent in 2003 allowed Clean All Services to move to a scaled-up headquarters within town — it came at the cost of not being able to spend as much time with his kids. Easier said than done, Shuchat truly committed to delegating when possible and giving more agency to trusted members of his team.  

“You don't mean to prioritize work. It’s just that when an issue happens, I had put myself in a position where I was the only one that I felt could handle it. After years of taking pride in being the one that could solve issues, I needed to make corrections,” says Shuchat. “It took time, but it clicked in my mind that I'm not going to get this time back, especially with my kids —and I'm very proud of the relationship I have with both my son and daughter today.” 

Self-reflection wasn’t the only factor Shuchat credits to making improvements, however. Harkening back to the stories his parents would share about BSCAI, he became increasingly involved in the many networking opportunities the association has to offer. Shuchat found solace in a peer group of colleagues that had gone through similar personal obstacles; the perfect medium to share both how his divorce affected him personally and how it can prompt positive change in how he manages his time and business.  

“I had probably an hour-and-a-half-long conversation with one of my peer group members who had gone through a lot of those same things. It showed me that I wasn't alone in this,” Shuchat reflects. “He commiserated. It’s a really hard time, but you survive. It had been 10 years ago for him, and he really made a lot out of his life since then.” 

The experience served as an inspiration for Shuchat to get increasingly involved in both the peer group opportunities and mentorship programs offered through BSCAI. In the past few years alone, he’s been involved in four different mentorship relationships, sharing the wisdom he learned during his difficult years getting started, and then imparting how he took those opportunities and transformed them into growth for both him and Clean All.  

The eagerness of the mentees to prove themselves resonates with Shuchat. While a competitive nature is required to succeed in this industry, he credits the collaborative nature of BSCs to set that aside when it comes to giving advice and sharing stories that have been pivotal to careers. 

“Most BSCs want to find out what can be done differently to succeed within our businesses, and they have that entrepreneurial spirit. It’s contagious, and wonderful, and I love talking to the mentees that I've had,” reflects Shuchat. “With associations like ours, one may think, ‘Well, they're all competitors, they're going to put up a wall when they're at events. They're going to separate what they talk about.?They're not going to be open to each other.’ But it's the opposite.” 

Shuchat’s experiences with mentorship have also paid dividends when it comes to succession planning; a topic that became increasingly relevant about five years ago. While he intends to have some degree of involvement in Clean All for at least the next decade, Shuchat saw a lot of potential in Brad Madewell, a hire he initially made in 2016 as the company’s new general manager.  

Initially from the restaurant industry, Madewell impressed Shuchat with his ability to take ownership of the day-to-day, financial, and hiring aspects of the business. By 2019, Shuchat was inspired to hand over the reins to Madewell with a goal to gradually transition the business, like Shuchat’s parents did with him. 

Climbing from vice president to executive vice president and eventually president of Clean All in January 2024, Shuchat says Madewell kept proving himself with each opportunity. In addition to the tutelage of Shuchat, the company has an advisory board that has been in effect for over 15 years. They are a reliable cornerstone Madewell has been able to share ideas with and plan significant milestones for the future of the business. He’s also utilized his own peer group from BSCAI. 

For the past year-plus Madewell has overseen the day-to-day operations of Clean All. Shuchat still checks in to gauge the status of accounts and provide advice on any issues, but all that amounts to fewer than eight hours per month. 

“For all intents and purposes, I am retired from all day-to-day operations with Clean All, and all decisions go through him,” says Shuchat. “I meet with him and his executive team once a month to go over the financials and major things that are happening, but the company is being run by him and his team, and they're doing a great job. We're only a year in, but it’s been something I’m incredibly proud of. The whole company has really stepped up.”