The Power of One (2)

At Zenith Cleaners, we are understanding more and more the power of an individual. We place value on individuals, every individual, and strive to honor them as the closest resemblance to the supreme being.

Entrepreneurs intuitively get the power of one because more often than not, you start with just one client or one staff or one partner and how you treat that one person determines the future of your enterprise. In essence, the future of every enterprise is in the relationship with one person at a time. As enterprises grow, there is a tendency to lose that understanding and start to aggregate, abstract and disconnect from individuals.

At Zenith Cleaners, we try to ensure we do not lose sight of that principle, that our future is in one person at a time, one staff at a time, one client at a time, one partner at a time. We see each relationship as a seed. Every staff we will ever have is in each staff and how we treat the one staff determines our future regarding staffing. Every client we will ever have is in each client we presently have just as every client we presently have was in the first client we ever had.

We endeavor to treat each person as though they are the only ones we have to serve, as though our destiny as an enterprise depends on them. We endeavor to nurture relationships. We are very imperfect and we do make mistakes, but we strive to honor each individual and nurture the relationships we have with each person.

So far, we have had positive results from doing so and we intend to continue as long as we exist. For us, the nurturing of every relationship is the foundation for true sustainability. For us, love is the foundation for true sustainability and love, is an individual thing. How can love be woven into the fabric of an organization, even a for-profit enterprise?

Counting our blessings: Great Clients

When Roni and I started Zenith Cleaners, we were new in Montreal and a number of the people we call friends in Montreal today, we met as clients of Zenith Cleaners.

We are blessed to have clients who believed in us when we were unsure of ourselves. Clients who believed in us enough to demand excellence from us when we could have followed the beaten path of shoddiness.

We are blessed to have clients who care so much about us as to tell us when we make mistakes and do it respectfully.

We are blessed to have clients who do not leave us or beat us on the head for our imperfections.

We are blessed to have clients who, realizing that we are imperfect, still spread the word about Zenith Cleaners, saving us from the need to advertise.

We are blessed to have clients who realize that we need to be paid on time and ensure we get paid on time.

We are blessed to have clients who write "Thank you" with every single payment. As a service provider, that is more gratifying than any amount of money.

Thanks to the blessing of great clients, we have grown consistently since inception. There has not been a single year worse than the previous year, with or without recession.

We are blessed to have clients who open up not only their homes, buildings, offices, schools, churches, organizations but also their hearts to us. Clients that invite you over to their homes, that invite you for tea or coffee, that send you get well wishes and even visit you when you are sick, that shower you with baby gifts when you have a baby, that give our staff huge tips even though we do not (even subtly) solicit for tips are no longer mere clients, they are people with hearts and they should be appreciated, not just at Christmas but all through the year.

Thank you from our hearts, for supporting and loving these group of cleaners called Zenith Cleaners. Thank you for helping us to make 2010 the best year we have had.

Have a beautiful Christmas and a prosperous 2011.

Counting our blessings: Great Staff

2010 has been a great year at Zenith Cleaners. We consider ourselves blessed to have the best staff in our industry.

Our staff are far from perfect but every year has been an improvement on the previous, because we have been blessed with great people, some of whom are no longer with us. We have and have had people who enjoy doing the work that they do, not minding the lowliness of it. Most employees do not enjoy going to work, even those who do much more "noble" work but we are cleaners and our people enjoy coming to work! We consider that a blessing.

In our industry, dishonesty and theft are common but we have not had a case of theft since inception and we have been blessed with staff who are trustworthy, who are true custodians of clients' information and physical assets.

It is rare to have staff who go out of their way to cook meals, send flowers, write 5-page get-well letters when their "boss" is ill. We are blessed to have staff who do.

Our staff go beyond the call of duty. They do everything they can to ensure clients are satisfied and to correct mistakes when they happen.

We are cleaners and we are "supposed" to be at the "bottom of the pyramid" but we are blessed with staff who volunteer to clean for non profit organizations, with no less commitment to excellence than if they were paid for it.

It is a blessing to have staff who clients love to see and have around. It is a blessing to have staff who clients notice are happy to work, even while cleaning up dirt.

We are blessed with staff who spread the word about Zenith Cleaners. Almost every one of our staff today learnt about Zenith Cleaners from a current or former staff.

We are blessed with staff who show up for work! As simple as that may sound, it is not that easy when you have to clean dirty floors and bathrooms in a public space on a snowy Sunday morning, when you would rather be in bed. Our staff show up!

Thanks to the staff we are blessed with, Zenith continues to go from strength to strength in a virtuous and unending upward spiral. We could not possibly compensate them for who they are. When they have to leave us, we are not sad to see them go but we are glad for who they have been with us and happy to see them flourish elsewhere.

Merry Christmas.

Zenith Cleaners, 6 years after

This week made it 6 years since Ronke and I started Zenith Cleaners. It has been a rewarding adventure. We have had staff, clients and suppliers who have been with us almost since inception. People who believed in us when we were not even sure of ourselves. We are grateful to them because without them we would not have made it this far. I have to say Namaste, "I salute the God in you."

Some staff, clients and suppliers were with us but no longer. We are grateful to them because they contributed to what we are now. We are grateful to them because they help to drive home the reality that we are only with each other for a short while and that creates an urgency to make a difference with each other, while holding each other loosely. We realize that we may not become what we are not yet, if we have no freedom to leave where we have always been. Namaste to those who touched our lives and allowed us to touch theirs.

We have learnt many things doing this and this is an experience Ronke and I will not trade for anything else in the world. We came into this knowing that it was a 'lowly' occupation but we chose to be 'lowly' instead of 'exalted' and while we had a sense of it when we started, we realize in retrospect that there are many things you learn in lowliness that you cannot learn otherwise. We are grateful to all the people who gave us and continue to give us the opportunity to make mistakes, to learn and to attempt to love.

We have tried to show that we are not so much about cleaning and contracts and payments as we are about relating with people. For us, being environmentally friendly is only part of relating with people. We are grateful to the people who allowed us to enter into and to be in their lives through Zenith Cleaners.

One of the things we have learnt is that true greatness is at home with smallness and the true test of a person's greatness of heart is how they treat people who appear 'insignificant', people they can get away with mistreating. We appreciate our staff, clients and suppliers for exemplifying that.

Has Zenith Cleaners been successful? We have existed for 6 years so something is working, financially. However, we are neither inspired nor motivated by traditional definitions of success. For us, success has more to do with our contribution to people and that exists only in the heart. We believe J.F. Kennedy's statement: "After the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we will be remembered not for our victories or defeats in battle or politics (or if I may add, business) but for our contribution to the human spirit."

Looking forward, we do not know what is in store. We know we will keep learning and we will keep loving even though we make mistakes in the process. We believe that the future holds boundless opportunities to make a difference and we will seize those opportunities, which our experience at Zenith Cleaners has prepared us for, thanks to all the people who allowed and allow us to be.