George Tibil and Keith Fields Rebuild a Declining Buffalo Janitorial Franchise

The Setup ServiceMaster Clean Buffalo was a commercial janitorial franchise on the wrong side of a trend line. Revenue had slid from $1.5M to $1.1M before George Tibil and Keith Fields closed in October 2023. Seller discretionary earnings sat near $380K. The business cleaned offices across the Buffalo metro overnight, staffed largely by an immigrant workforce, and the slippage looked like classic owner-fatigue drift: accounts churning quietly, pricing stale, supervision thin. For a two-partner team, the bet was that a declining blue-collar book of business is not the same as a broken one. Contracts still existed. Crews still showed up. What was missing was an owner in the building at 11pm. The Deal George and Keith bought the franchise territory as partners. Specific price and financing were not disclosed in the episode, but the profile (sub-$2M revenue, ~$380K SDE, franchise janitorial) puts it squarely in SBA-friendly small-business territory. The franchise relationship came with ServiceMaster brand, systems, and national-account referral flow attached, which matters in commercial cleaning where procurement teams often shortlist by brand recognition. The partnership structure was load-bearing from day one. Commercial janitorial is a nocturnal business. One owner cannot be in every building every night, and hiring a GM before you understand the work is how new owners get fleeced on hours billed versus hours worked. First 100 Days Rather than sit in an office reading P&Ls, George and Keith put on the uniform. For several months after close, both partners worked overnight shifts cleaning offices alongside their crews. Not as a photo op. As the actual headcount. What that bought them: - Ground-truth on labor hours per account, which is the single biggest lie in janitorial P&Ls - Direct relationships with supervisors and cleaners, most of whom spoke English as a second language - Visibility into which accounts were underpriced, which were over-serviced, and which customers were one complaint away from churning - Credibility with a workforce that had watched revenue decline under the prior owner and had every reason to be cynical about new ownership Keith's line on the experience: "I wouldn't change a thing." That is not nostalgia. It is the recognition that the overnight shifts generated information no due diligence report could surface. Operating Moves With the floor-level data in hand, the partners course-corrected the business. They tightened communication with an immigrant workforce (translation, clearer expectations, faster feedback loops), pruned or repriced the accounts that the numbers could not support, and leaned back into sales now that service delivery was stable enough to promise. Nine months after close, revenue was $1.8M. That is roughly 60% growth off the $1.1M base and, notably, past the $1.5M high-water mark the prior owner had surrendered. Operating Lessons