When COVID first hit back in March of 2020, businesses were forcibly being shut down or being shut down voluntarily due to the shear chaos and uncertainty. No one really knew what their place was in the business world.
While everyone was in panic mode, scared and unsure of their future let alone the future of their business, the City and County of Denver mandated that only “Essential Businesses” could drive on the city streets and operate within the county. Businesses were scrambling to determine who was considered “Essential” and who wasn’t. The information or lack thereof made your head spin and it really came down to the individual owner deciding how they wanted to interpret this new mandate. We printed “We are Essential” flyers and taped them on our car windows and kept a copy of the description we could find online defining what “Essential” meant in case we were pulled over –
All we could find that related to our service was – Services necessary to maintain the safety and sanitation of residences or essential businesses including security services, towing services, custodial services, plumbers, electricians, and other skilled trades;
To me, that was all I needed to say my business fit within those parameters – “Services necessary to maintain the safety and sanitation of residences”.
If you wanted to boil it down to interpretation, we traveled to residential homes to clean and maintained their grills to prevent health and safety issues.
While COVID impacted and destroyed so many people and so many businesses that never recovered, I can humbly and thankfully say the Lord blessed me and my family; I was not impacted by COVID.
I don’t recall taking one day off due to the pandemic.
Sure, I had to cancel or reschedule oven cleaning appointments or appointments where I had to be in the home or go thru the house to get to the grill but otherwise, I kept cleaning every day. Even when I had to cancel or reschedule appointments my backlog of grill cleaning customers allowed me to pull up someone who was booked out a ways. If I was able to go around back and have little to no interaction with the homeowner, there was no reason for me or us to cancel the appointment.
It certainly was a strange time for a home service business though. If you recall, we were all leery of strangers. Especially if anyone came knocking on our door or had to come into our home. We simply didn’t know where you’ve been, what you touched and who you’ve been around that could bring COVID into our homes.
I was treated no differently, I was a pariah around some people.
I had to show up with a bottle of hand sanitizer, gloves and mask on and was still peered at thru the blinds from some customers. I recall early on, a long time customer was standing at her back door talking to me while I was at the grill, maybe 20 to 25ft from where the door was. I was masked up, gloves on and already in the process of cleaning. We were having a decent conversation when I made the mistake or gesture that I was going to walk towards her. Her eyes lit up in panic like I had the Devil behind me. She stepped back away from her door and closed it on me so quick that I wasn’t sure what happened. I realized my gesture frightened her. Realize, I was 20 to 25ft away from her at this time, not 6ft or less. She just happened to be the type of person who was paralyzed with people being near her. A few minutes later, standing behind her door like it was a shield, she cracked the door open just enough to bark out a “Sorry about that, will you email an invoice?”
Where COVID did have an impact on me was the employees I had at the time quit. I had two employees quit in 2020. Not at the beginning of the pandemic but more towards the middle and end of 2020. It wasn’t so much a worry about COVID, it was the government checks that were being handed out like candy. One of the guys got tired of seeing his buddies sit around the house getting checks while he was out working hard so he decided to quit. The other one decided he wanted to move back home out of state to be with family (can’t deny that!).
If I was able to retain those employees, 2020 would have been a record top line revenue year for me. Like a lot of other home service businesses who were having a record year in growth and revenue, I would have also had a record year but I fell just a little short. I don’t blame the employees for quitting or not wanting to work. The system was rigged against most employers in favor of enticing employees to stay home.
While there is no technical verbiage that states grill cleaning is considered an essential service, it can be lumped into the same classification as a janitorial or cleaning company.
Again, an essential service is considered “Services necessary to maintain the safety and sanitation of residences”.
So, how does grill cleaning fit within this definition?
So, one could argue that grill cleaning is IN FACT, an essential service! A maid service isn’t going to clean a grill. A handyman isn’t going to clean and maintain a grill. An appliance repair company can maintain a grill but won’t clean and sanitize it. So, who else is available to provide this essential service to homeowners other than a professional grill cleaning company?
