Small-business savvy runs in Shawn Lynch’s blood.
He grew up entrenched in his father’s carpet-cleaning company, which was a part-time complement to his full-time job at now-defunct local grocery chain Almacs. It was only natural, then, for Lynch to take over the family business when he graduated high school.
“It’s all I’ve ever known,” said Lynch. “I never thought I’d do anything different.”
In the intervening years, Lynch has transformed Lynch’s Cleaning & Restoration Service Inc. from his late father’s part-time side hustle to a full-time business with a 10-person staff and a steady supply of jobs – not just cleaning carpets and floors but also providing professional restoration services for water, fire and mold damage.
In fact, disaster restoration services have become the primary source of business, with steam-cleaning carpets now relegated to an accessory role, Lynch said.
The shift was a slow but deliberate effort over the past 15 years to make the business more competitive – janitorial services such as cleaning were rapidly growing, saturating the market in a way that made the original business model less successful. Lynch saw disaster remediation and restoration as a natural extension of the carpet-cleaning business, but with a specialized focus that lent itself to steady growth.
He credited networking and word-of-mouth referrals to growing his company, which now boasts a steady stream of requests for disaster remediation and restoration. A majority of the jobs are typical homeowner mishaps: burst pipes, leaking water heaters and basement flooding.
Every so often, a major disaster has prompted an explosion of business – the historic floods of 2010, for example. That’s when the 24/7 phone line really started ringing off the hook.
“We were slammed,” Lynch recalled of the water extraction and drying services in demand after record rainfall.
Even the less spectacular water leaks and mold growth still require professional service, though. Lynch said many of his customers call after attempting to clean the mess themselves, only to find that their household vacuums can’t cut it.
That’s when they call in the big guns – in this case, specialized trucks with extraction equipment built inside, hyper vacuums, special chemical sponges and industrial-grade fans and dehumidifiers.
Sometimes, particularly with large fires, even the industrial-grade cleanup can’t salvage much, Lynch said. Water damage, on the other hand, is usually reversible.
All restoration efforts start with an evaluation – including a price estimate for the work – and usually end with the steam cleaning that once comprised the business’s mainstay. Occasionally, the company gets requests for cleaning-only jobs, typically for restaurants and other commercial properties.
Despite changing hands and an expanded business model, Lynch said he has kept his father’s emphasis on family values and customer service.
OWNER: Shawn Lynch
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Cleaning and disaster remediation
LOCATION: 25 Starline Way, Cranston
EMPLOYEES: 10
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1976
ANNUAL SALES: WND
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.
