Handling the Chaos

By Amanda Hosey

It’s no secret things are chaotic right now. With the U.S. at a near standstill—schools, offices, stores, etc. all shuttered for weeks—in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 (Wuhan coronavirus), it can be hard to see any positives in all the chaos.

While some industry companies have seen an uptick in jobs, especially those who also offer janitorial or biohazard cleanup services, most report a significant downturn in work, with fewer and fewer new job requests and cancellations (even from contracted commercial clients).

Some in the industry, however, are marketing clean-up services for the virus and seeing a good return. Still others argue that not enough is known about the nature of the virus to market clean-up services and that doing so opens businesses up for problems down the road.

Whatever your place is in all this coronavirus mess, Cleanfax, together with our parent association, ISSA, is doing its best to keep you informed on the issue relevant to our industry. Look for news updates on the virus at www.cleanfax.com, and stay up to date on cleaning techniques and training (from the Global BioRisk Advisory Council) as new information arises with the ISSA coronavirus resource page at www.issa.com/coronavirus.

If things are a little slow, consider using the time to research new products and techniques and catch up on articles from Cleanfax. Our archive of issues if available any time online at cleanfax-digital.com/issues.

This month’s issue focuses on different kinds of chaos and ways to better manage it. In Chuck Violand’s timely “When Helicopters Crash: Preparing for Crisis in Business,” he discusses the need to be prepared for sudden catastrophes in business, whatever they might be. While there is no way to prevent chaos from descending on a business, we can be ready to deal with what gets thrown at us.

Anyone who runs their own online marketing campaigns knows how quickly things can spiral out of control. Sonny Ahuja looks at ways to manage your online advertising and avoid the mess.

Lisa Wagner explores the problems with viscose fiber, which continues to grow in popularity despite the chaos it has created for cleaners, consumers, and its producers. (I get more calls about viscose than probably anything else!)

Lastly, the Cleanfax staff looks at how to get involved in fire and smoke restoration—and whether to at all—in an interview with restoration industry expert Patrick Moffett.

I hope you all stay safe in this chaos—and stay profitable, too.