From Facility Manager To Building Service Contractor

In 2007, Jerry Flug took a leap of faith and purchased a local Ma and Pop cleaning operation in Chesapeake, Virginia. As the former facilities director at his church, overseeing more than 200,000 square feet, he says he was familiar with the building service contracting industry and excited to take the business on.

What he wasn’t prepared for, however, was growing a small company in the midst of an economic downturn. Less than two years into his venture, the height of the Great Recession threatened his success.

Yet, Flug had a key advantage. Using insight gleaned from his earlier role, he was able to tap into facility managers’ needs and reinvent his business.
Underneath the bridle of customers who expected the BSC to “do more with less,” Flug nonetheless invested in an upper management team, implemented a janitor-training program and pursued technology upgrades to improve cleaning processes, customer satisfaction and operational efficiencies.

“We spent time making sure that we were building value into our services,” Flug explains. “Clean buildings are a goal of both parties. So we really needed to work together to make sure we met everyone’s goals.”

Today, Davis Professional Services is on track to earning $2.2 million in revenue, this year, and is hiring additional staff to meet customer demand.

“It really gave me a perspective on what facilities managers do each day and it really helped me understand ways that I can take the pressure off my customers,” Flug says. “The goal is to make their jobs less stressful. So, we need to make sure we understand what their needs are and build our contracts to meet those needs, implement and adjust them,
as needed.”