Passing it on

Guy Gilbert has sold his cleaning business and will be working with Steve Hinderer to pass along his knowledge and experience.

Back in 2005, Guy Gilbert wanted to stay busy after his retirement from the catastrophic cleaning crew at the University of Michigan.

“We did flood cleaning, detail cleaning after building renovations, and we had 3 million square feet of carpeting that we were responsible for cleaning,” he explains.

When he retired, he bought some upholstery cleaning equipment and was just going to do upholstery.

“But then I’d have a customer say, ‘I have this spot on my carpeting; can you do something about it?'” he says with a chuckle. “And pretty soon, I was doing carpet cleaning, too.”

That’s what he’s been doing for the past 15 years, and he says it’s been a “pretty good gig.” But in the past couple of years he has been looking for someone to whom he could pass along his knowledge and his business. He has found that person in Steve Hinderer, who lives just west of Manchester on Austin Road.

“I found out that Steve was interested in learning the business and he has been working with me for the past few months,” Gilbert explains. “I am confident that he will be able to maintain the level of cleaning that I tried to do. I feel very confident in his honesty and his ability to meet the standards I had set for myself.”

Gilbert knows that his business requires a high degree of trust and he deeply appreciates that he has earned that from his customers over the year. He believes that Hinderer will continue that tradition by not only doing excellent work but by treating his customers right.

Gilbert has sold his cleaning equipment to Hinderer, and will slowly phase out his involvement until he can truly say he’s “retired.” He intends to stay involved as a mentoring influence and will still answer calls and schedule jobs. He also wants to personally introduce Hinderer to as many of his customers as possible, to get his business off and running.

The new business will be called “Steve’s Services” and will focus on carpet and upholstery cleaning, but also may branch out into other areas.

Gilbert concluded, “I wish to thank everyone who I have worked for, whose home or business that I have been in, for allowing me to be there. It has been a fun and rewarding time for me. It has been an honor to have the trust you have placed in me. I would also like to thank Jim Schook, Jerry Waters, and Rory Swan for being my able assistants along the way. Without them, I would not have been able to meet the standards that I set. Their work and honesty made my ‘job’ fun. Thank you, Jim, Jerry, and Rory; I appreciate you very much.”

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by Marsha Chartrand

Marsha Johnson Chartrand, a founder, writer, and copy editor with the Manchester Mirror, is a 50-year resident of Manchester. She has a long history of volunteer and community involvement.