Firefighter and entrepreneur carries his family business into the next generation

When Tipp citizen Ken Quinn started Quinn’s Commercial Cleaning back in 1980, he probably never expected it to expand beyond the Dayton region. But today, Quinn’s serves not just Dayton, Lima, and Cincinnati but is also exploring franchising opportunities in Arizona, California, and Washington State. And it’s part of a suite of businesses that includes Midwest Commercial Services, Midwest Commercial Flooring, and Midwest Pro Wash Services. How did the business get from there to here? We asked Ken’s son Daniel Quinn, the current president of the business, to explain.

Daniel, tell us how this all happened!

When my dad started the business, it was a one-man band, cleaning commercial properties here in Dayton and Beavercreek. I started working in the business as early as I can remember. There's a picture of me holding a vacuum cleaner from when I could barely walk.

I worked with my dad for years and then, in 2018, I left to start my own business. I was at a point when I wanted my relationship with my dad to just be son and dad, not employee and boss. My wife and I opened Midwest Commercial Services with a friend. At first, it was just me and one other employee doing property maintenance. Then Covid hit.

We looked into some fogging systems that could kill the Covid virus on contact, and we decided to invest about $20,000 in buying equipment and chemicals. We worked up a flyer and sent it out to our contacts—past and present customers, friends, anyone we knew.

We immediately had requests for help from the Ohio Department of Transportation, Wright State, University of Dayton, University of Cincinnati, Wright-Patt Air Force Base, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, all the federal buildings in Dayton and Columbus, and numerous other local commercial buildings.

Covid helped our business jump from two people to 40 in about two weeks. This was both employees and contractors. During the pandemic, between 2020 and 2023, we treated 9.5 million square feet of space. This helped people get back to work quickly with peace of mind that they were returning to a healthy and safe space.

Covid also changed the way people think about building maintenance services. Before Covid, people didn’t really care about janitorial work and didn’t value it. Now, they see what we do as providing the first line of defense against disease.

So, you were running Midwest Commercial Services … when did Quinn’s Cleaning come back into the picture?

In 2022, my dad started talking about selling Quinn’s. He asked me if I wanted to buy it, and first I was like, “no way.” But the more my wife Sarah and I thought about it, the more it made sense. If my company could offer property management and commercial janitorial under one roof, we could give our clients end-to-end care. They could call one person and get anything taken care of on the inside or outside of their buildings.

My wife and I bought the business in 2022. She’s the majority owner. We kept the name Quinn’s Commercial Cleaning Co. That was important to me. I didn’t want the family name to go away.

We took the great reputation my dad had already established and built from there. We kept the same employees who were already working there and added an entirely new division of skilled contractors. We expanded the services to include not just janitorial, but also construction cleanup, commercial window cleaning, tile floor stripping and waxing, and commercial carpet cleaning. We moved to using environmentally friendly cleaning products. Everything we use you could literally dump on your grass, and it wouldn’t hurt the grass. We also moved to an online work order system, so our customers can easily make special requests. And we started to transition from commercial office space to more government, healthcare, school, and university buildings.

Today, we take care of most of the Dayton Public Charter and Stem Schools, every homeless shelter in the Dayton area, buildings at Wright Patt Air Force Base, and several nonprofit agencies. In fact, the smallest facility we take care of in the Dayton area since the acquisition is 90,000 square feet. We’ve kept most of our smaller long-term customers so we could continue to provide them quality services.

And we still take care of our legacy properties here in Tipp City. I’ve lived here my whole life, and I really enjoy helping the citizens of this town. I’m active in Rotary, and I’ve been a Tipp City volunteer firefighter since 2009. I obviously don’t do it for the money; it’s something I pour my heart and soul into because it’s important to me. It’s something I don’t think I’ll ever give up.

What’s next for Quinn’s Cleaning?

At our Christmas party last year, we let our team know that starting in 2025, we’ll be offering the Quinn’s Company as a franchise opportunity across the US. We already have interest from folks in Fresno, California; Flagstaff, Arizona; and in Washington State. Our goal is to have at least one franchise location in all 50 states by 2030. Our staff was talking about how crazy it would be if they were vacationing in Florida and saw a Quinn’s truck drive past. But that could totally happen.

We’re also striving to hire people with disabilities, minorities, veterans, and first responders. I’ve had first responders leave a job after 20 years and come work for us. Even my old fire chief from my prior department came over and works full-time for us.

I think it’s because we treat people right. We’re one of the few janitorial companies in the state that offer a complete benefits package, including a great retirement package and a funded life insurance package. I’ve seen other companies treat their employees like a number, and their retention is terrible. At all our companies, we treat employees like family. Once they get here, they don’t really leave. And that’s good: we want folks to move up in their careers with us—maybe even retire from here.

It all goes back to my dad’s original business. I definitely would not be where I’m at today without his help.

You can learn more about Quinn’s and Midwest Commercial Services at https://midwestcommercial.com.