Even Essential Businesses Are Losing Revenue Amid Pandemic

As the COVID-19 pandemic goes on and a record amount of people are plunged into unemployment, cleaning professionals are considered essential workers and have been called to the front line to help protect the public from the virus through cleaning and sanitation. However, even cleaning businesses are feeling the pinch to their revenue.

The Nashville Business Journal examines a facility services provider that employs about 100 employees to clean buildings, health care facilities, warehouses, entertainment venues and department stores as an example.

The owner of the business, Michael Rose, has seen a jump in demand for extra cleaning in some of the facilities his company services. However, so far, he’s lost about 10% of his revenue due to losing his biggest customers—the Grand Ole Opry House, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, and several YMCAs. All these clients are closed for at least two weeks, most likely longer.

Rose said he is not able to disinfect enough office buildings to offset the loss of these clients. And as more state governors enact shelter-in-place orders, more facilities will be temporarily closing and not require regular cleanings.

Rose  is grateful that his business still has customers at a time when others—restaurants, clothing stores, hotels—are losing 80% of their business. For now, his biggest concern is figuring out ways to keep all his employees on staff and he has been shuffling workers who usually clean large venues to other assignments. He realizes his employees are his company’s biggest asset and he doesn’t want to lose their expertise or leave them unemployed when they have helped him build his 21-year business.