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Wanda Barton, Xtremely Clean Janitorial Services Named 2022 SBA State of Florida Woman Business Owner of the Year

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Wanda Barton, Xtremely Clean Janitorial Services Named 2022 SBA State of Florida Woman Business Owner of the Year

Wanda Barton

TAMPA, Fl. – The Florida SBDC at University of South Florida, in cooperation with the U.S. Small Business Administration, recognized local business owner, Wanda Barton, on May 5, as the 2022 U.S. SBA South Florida District and State of Florida Woman Business Owner of the Year.

Barton is the owner of Xtremely Clean Janitorial Services, LLC, and a client of Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County. Her business consultant is Janette Blanco. The award was presented at The Power of Creative: A Small Business Week Lunch and Learn, sponsored by Spectrum Reach.

National Small Business Week Awards celebrate the sacrifices and achievements of small business owners and their significant contributions to our economy and our communities. The 30th Annual National Small Business Week was celebrated May 1-7.

Xtremely Clean Janitorial Services is an African American, woman-owned, certified business started in 2013. The business initially focused on cleaning foreclosed homes, but when the market turned, Barton looked for alternatives to sustain her business.

CJ Castro, Senior Area Director for the U.S. SBA South Florida District, was on hand to present the award.

“Wanda Barton’s vision for Xtremely Clean was built on a solid foundation,” Castro said during his presentation. “She is a person who has built a successful company and excelled along the way.”

He mentioned Barton’s multiple business certifications that have helped her to grow Xtremely Clean Janitorial Services into the business it is today. Her certifications include:

  • Woman & Minority Business Certification by the City of Tampa – March 27, 2021, through March 27, 2023
  • Small Business Enterprise Certification by Port Tampa Bay – November 1, 2021, through October 31, 2022
  • Minority/Woman Business Certification by Hillsborough County – January 19,2021 through January 19, 2023
  • Woman Business Enterprise (WBE) by the City of Tampa – April 12, 2017, through March 6, 2019
  • Woman & Minority Business Certification by the State of Florida – 5/15/2020 through 5/15/2022
  • Green Seal Certified since October 2013

Xtremely Clean Janitorial Services provides services throughout Tampa Bay. When Barton started as a Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County client in 2013, she had six employees and annual sales of less than $2,500. Now, the business is approaching $2 million in annual sales and 80 employees. Local, city, and state government contracting has been a large part of Barton’s growth strategy.

Barton has secured contracts with the City of Tampa, Hillsborough County, Port Tampa Bay, Florida Department of Transportation, Florida Department of Management Services, Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, and other agencies.

“Everybody knows that cleaning is not for everybody, but I will say that it is my passion,” Barton said. “I love what I do. I started my company very small. Of course, it wasn’t fun, but I knew I had to start somewhere. Today I stand here to say I am grateful that I put a lot of things aside to make sure I took my company to the next level. It was not easy, but I did it. I’m going to keep doing it as I should to take my company even further.”

While she continues to grow her business, Barton also serves as a mentor for other cleaning business owners, sharing her knowledge, passion and lessons learned, in hopes that they too can reach the success that she has.

During her acceptance speech, she credited the Florida SBDC Network, the City of Tampa, and the State of Florida with her success.

“I want to thank the City of Tampa and SBDC,” she said. “I must give special recognition to Ms. Janette because she stood alongside me and believed in me when times were hard. She was there. I could call her up at any time and just vent because it’s not easy. We run into a whole lot of challenges. There were doors that closed and I just kept knocking on them. I just kept knocking.

“I really appreciate the City of Tampa for giving me the opportunity to service them, because without the State of Florida and the City of Tampa, I would not be standing here.”

Wanda Barton, Xtremely Clean Janitorial Services Named 2022 SBA State of Florida Woman Business Owner of the Year

Pictured: CJ Castro, Senior Area Manager, U.S. SBA South Florida District; Wanda Barton, Xtremely Clean Janitorial Services LLC owner; Carl Hadden, Interim Regional Director, Florida SBDC at USF; Elizabeth Gaustad, Field Marketing Specialist, Spectrum Reach

Wanda Barton, Xtremely Clean Janitorial Services Named 2022 SBA State of Florida Woman Business Owner of the Year

Pictured: Janette Blanco, Business Consultant, Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County; Wanda Barton, Xtremely Clean Janitorial Services LLC owner; Carol Minor, Center Director, Florida SBDC at Hillsborough County; Carl Hadden, Interim Regional Director, Florida SBDC at USF

   About the Florida SBDC Network: 

For over forty years, the Florida SBDC Network, the state’s principal provider of business assistance [Fl. Stat. 288.001], has nourished a statewide partnership between higher education and economic development to provide existing and emerging small and medium-sized business owners with management and knowledge resources that enable overall growth, increased profitability, and economic prosperity for Florida’s economy. Since 2011, Florida SBDCs have provided 624,331 hours of professional business consulting to 58,975 client businesses, resulting in 281,831 jobs impacted; $36.7 billion in sales generated; $2.7 billion in government contracts acquired; $1.6 billion in capital accessed; and 4,520 new businesses started. A statewide network of over 40 offices, the Florida SBDC is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Defense Logistics Agency, State of Florida and other private and public partners. The Florida SBDC Network, headquartered at the University of West Florida, is nationally accredited by the Association of SBDCs and is a 2016 recipient of the President’s E Award for Export Service. Florida SBDC services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Language assistance services are available for individuals with limited English proficiency. For more information, please visit www.FloridaSBDC.org.

Employee Retention Becomes Top Priority for Businesses

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Employee Retention Becomes Top Priority for Businesses

by Jenee Skipper, SHRM-CP | March 28, 2022

While recruiting the best talent has been a priority for most organizations; one often overlooked task has been retention efforts, at least until now.  Since 2021, workforce shortages are of growing concern for most organizations and a recent report by Paige McAllister of Affinity HR Group revealed that, “recruitment and retention has been a top priority since the “Great Resignation.” More than three percent of the United States workforce voluntarily left their jobs.”

While many variables may account for workforce shortages, the COVID-19 pandemic has certainly exasperated the issue.

But wait, you don’t have to fret. There are many things an organization can do to remain competitive in today’s business climate.  Get ahead of the issues by ensuring the following things are in place:

  • A competitive compensation model
  • A robust training program that will allow the upskilling of your current workforce
  • Get back to the basics with “old-fashioned” communication to reestablish people skills

We are keenly aware that compensation is an important part of the hiring and retention process and getting it right on the front end offers extreme benefits.

Organizational benefits can be found through a decreased attrition rate, a decrease in mass exits for those seeking higher pay, and a decrease in your organizations’ overall recruiting cost.

To attract the right candidates, having a competitive compensation plan to include benefits, bonuses and or commission will not only drive increased performance but overall value.  Valued employees often display higher morale and a greater sense of loyalty and in most instances, add to your bottom-line in terms of profitability and a continuum of services.

To remain competitive in an increasingly tight labor market, employers must have more than a great onboarding process.  Committing to the learning and development of your staff is one simple solution.

Studies have shown that employees who get regular opportunities to learn, develop, and advance are more likely to stay with a company. In fact, Bob Nelson, author of 1,001 Ways to Engage Employees, reports that learning and development are among the top factors in employee engagement.

Taking it one step further; meaningful training that leads to upward mobility and the upskilling of employees not only benefits the individual, but it will also demonstrate an organizations’ commitment to employee development by strengthening both personal growth and professional growth.

Training is a specific event that teaches new information or skills and is most often provided to new and/or promoted employees.

However, ongoing employee development is the continuous effort to strengthen the overall work performance.  There are many ways to accomplish this with little financial burden to an organization.  Peer-to peer-mentoring, coaching, cross training, web-based training sessions, and train the trainer workshops are just a few training exercises to internally strengthen your workforce.

While the need to explore creative work arrangements have grown excessively, organizations can add tremendous value to retention efforts by establishing modified work schedules, male maternity leave and non-traditional shifts, to name a few, which may support a more balanced work and family life.

Another key to learning is understanding what’s important to your employees by expanding your organizations diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. The greatest return on your investment (ROI) is the investment into your staff.  Not only does it build morale, it will also build loyalty and the confidence that you are as equally concerned about their personal growth and development as you are your bottom line.  While you are enhancing your retention efforts, be sure to retain your intellectual property, which is knowledge.  Ask yourself, how much knowledge is lost when we lose an employee?

Employee engagement is one of the most effective tools in organizational improvement. Mitigating retention efforts by engaging your staff can be key to a successful process. Getting back to the basics with “old-fashioned” communication that will help your organization establish or reestablish people skills is paramount.  Gathering valuable input is not only cost effective, but also transformative thinking.

Two examples which come to mind are employee surveys which lead to actionable outcomes and exit interviews that spark change.  While artificial intelligence (AI) and automation has replaced many job functions, they can never replace the internal customer service experience that an employee’s engagement and team building experience can provide.  Just as mentoring and being coachable are not assessable through processes but more so by human interaction and feedback.

Employees are talking. The question becomes are organizations listening? If you want to know what employees are thinking, ask. The answers may provide dividends for years to come.

Corporations Make Historic Commitments To Black-Owned Brands and Businesses

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Corporations Make Historic Commitments To Black-Owned Businesses

by Yolanda Goodloe | January 25, 2022

If you’ve ever tried to start a Black-owned business, you’ll know that one of the most challenging aspects of starting or running it is access to capital or the lack thereof.  According to an article by McKinsey & Company titled, “Building supporting ecosystems for Black-owned US businesses,” black entrepreneurs are three times more likely than their white counterparts to state a lack of access to capital as negatively affecting their business profitability.

A study published in the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing in 2019 called, Shaping Small Business Lending Policy Through Matched-Pair Mystery Shopping, showed that African-American testers (or test subjects) were more frequently asked to provide information from their business financial statements, personal financial statements, amount of their accounts receivable, and personal W-2 forms when compared to Caucasian testers.  Some loan officers even asked about their marital status and the employment status of their spouse, which is dangerously close to directly violating fair lending laws.

The issue at hand is not about Black people not being creditworthy.  Reports show that Black business owners and other marginalized entrepreneurs are about half as likely as their white counterparts to receive full financing, even with strong personal credit.  The issue is about the racial biases that are so ingrained into lending practices that there’s no way for Black entrepreneurs to win against a system that is set up for them to fail.

The recent focus on racial inequalities within the nation has awakened a reflective review of many practices that have been taken for granted.  These practices include the ability of minority-owned businesses to access funding.  As a result, the following businesses have made commitments to help build up Black-owned brands and businesses.

Amazon

The Black Business Accelerator aims to help Black entrepreneurs build sustainable equity and growth to enable their success on Amazon.  The program provides access to financial support, strategic business guidance and mentorship, and marketing and promotional support.  Black-owned U.S. businesses stand to gain access to services and grants that are geared towards helping them jump-start business growth and customer acquisition.  They also have access to a network of business mentors and coaches, including Amazon experts and small business thought leaders.

In addition, the Black Business Accelerator creates marketing and promotional support. Black-owned business can also receive opportunities to be featured in the Black-owned business storefronts for Amazon retail customers and Amazon Business customers and promotions featuring Black-owned businesses.

Walmart

The Walmart.org Center for Racial Equity gave Winrock International a grant of $900,000 to support the Readying Small Business for Access to Capital program.  This program helps small Black-owned businesses to seek, prepare for and tap into alternative sources of capital to sustain and expand their businesses.

This grant aims to help provide business development support for Black-owned e-commerce and wholesale-retail enterprises in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.  According to Linsley Kinkade, Winrock’s Senior Director of U.S. Programs, “many businesses have experienced hardship during the pandemic, but Black-owned small businesses in the South’s retail sector have been hit especially hard,” To buttress her point, studies have shown that the impact of COVID-19 and the subsequent economic downturn has had a bigger impact on minority-owned businesses largely because of their inaccessibility to bank financing, funding, and poor cash flow.

With this grant, Winrock can help Black-owned businesses find alternative sources of capital to keep their businesses afloat and expand their enterprises.  The Readying Small Business for Access to Capital program will also help connect entrepreneurs to potential loan, grant, and investment opportunities through programs such as Calvert Impact Capitals’ Southern Opportunity and Resilience (SOAR) fund.

Target Corporation

The Target Corporation has committed to spending $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025.  The organization intends to accomplish this laudable goal through various means, that includes hiring more Black-owned companies. Target will seek Black-owned advertising firms, suppliers, construction companies, and other related businesses. They also plan on launching a program to identify and support promising minority entrepreneurs.

The company also launched a program called Forward Founders for start-ups led by Black entrepreneurs to help them develop, test, and scale products to sell to mass retailers. It will also be adding products from more than 500 Black-owned brands to its shelves or website.

Already Target is working with 50 Black-owned beauty brands, but they want to expand. According to the company, by 2025, Target will exceed its goals and will have spent more than the committed amount.

Microsoft

In January 2022 Microsoft launched a three-month program called The Black Partner Growth Initiative. This program aims to create pathways for Black-owned partners to engage with the Microsoft Partner Network successfully. The program provides access to information, financial management, tech solutions, and go-to-market readiness training all to help Black partners accelerate their business growth.

Additional benefits to this program include strategic partnerships. Partners are paired with a dedicated specialist through the Cloud Enablement Desk (CED) that will help them grow their cloud business. Partners can also connect to the Solution Workspace to build solutions.

Published solutions and services in the Commercial Marketplace are showcased in the business directory, receive go-to-market benefits and access to readiness training.  The Accelerator program provides the additional support needed for Black-owned partners to take their business to the next level through personalized, 1:1 engagement.

Various companies such as Nike, Ulta Beauty, and even Walmart and Microsoft (besides their above-mentioned commitments) have committed to addressing racial inequality by promising to devote more shelf space to Black-owned products, evaluate how they hire and promote employees, feature more Black people in their ads and reduce the number of police or security in stores to prevent racial profiling.

Retailers such as Macy’s, Sephora, and Gap, have signed the 15 Percent Pledge, started by Brooklyn-based entrepreneur Aurora James. The 15 Percent Pledge is a promise to commit 15 percent of shelf-space to Black-owned businesses, which is in proportion to the population of Black people in the U.S.

The fight for racial equality is nowhere near completion.  However, the progress made gives us hope for a more equitable future.  With support from big corporations, as mentioned above, the future we dream of is closer to being a reality.

Author

Yolanda Cowart

Yolanda Goodloe

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Florida PTAC at Pinellas County Economic Development
Specialty: Procurement

Yolanda Goodloe has more than 20 years of experience in public service at the local and municipal levels. Early in her career, she worked as a human resources and relations professional while serving as a liaison to the business community and advocacy groups. Her prior experience includes being a human relations specialist for Lee County Government, and an equal opportunity director for the City of Fort Lauderdale. Her background combines public service and human relations experience with hands on leadership in equal opportunity, supplier diversity, business certifications programs, organizational training and development, and managing workforce diversity principles. Goodloe is the procurement specialist for the Florida PTAC at Pinellas County Economic Development. She connects businesses to resources and tools for state, local, and federal contracting opportunities. She is a Certified Procurement Professional (CPP), a Supply Chain Management Professional (SCMP), and a Certified Verification Counselor. She graduated from Florida State University with a bachelor of arts in political science and history.

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Black Women In Business Embracing Entrepreneurship At Historic Rates

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by Yolanda Goodloe | January 25, 2022 Struggli​​ng and fighting against racial inequality and oppression is part and parcel of the minority experience in the U.S.  Perhaps no other group knows this better than Black-American women.  Despite the overwhelming obstacles before them, Black-American women still make their impact known.  In the political arena, for example, […]

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Celebrating the Legacy of Black Business Owners and the African American Entrepreneurial Experience

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by Yolanda Goodloe | January 19, 2022 Do you ever look at the African American experience and feel pride in all that we’ve managed to accomplish?  Blacks are faced with constant change and challenges in the business arena. While managing and operating any business is tough, people of color face many unique obstacles. Black business owners are often marginalized and hindered from […]

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Show Me the Money: Funding Opportunities for Startups and Minorities Now Is the Time to Persue Funding the American Dream

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by Yolanda Goodloe | January 19, 2022 For the last few years, the world has been in a constant state of chaos.  First, it was political upheaval, then racial unrest, and now a major health crisis.  We’ve become almost used to the tumult, to the extent that we barely bat an eye when a new […]

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Tax Preparation Tips for Businesses

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by Simplice Essou, CPA | December 28, 2021 For most taxpayers the preparation of and filing for taxes can be a daunting task. However this can be mitigated by adequate preparation and yearlong bookkeeping and accounting. Do not wait until the end of the year to start working on the bookkeeping. It is essential that […]

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Accounting Tips for E-commerce Businesses

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by Simplice Essou, CPA | December 27, 2021 For most business owners the accounting function is one they would rather not deal with. However, it is one of the most important functions for a business. For e-commerce, as for any type of industry, accounting is a vital function of your business as it allows for […]

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Part 4: The Who, What, Where, Why and How of Exporting in Business Why Export?

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by Selma Canas, CGBP | December 22, 2021 In this four-part series, we’ve covered the who, what, and where of exporting and I think we can all agree that export readiness does not happen overnight. Export readiness takes commitment, time, money and a lot of education. So, “Why Export?” There are many reasons for a […]

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Part 3: The Who, What, Where, Why and How of Exporting in Business Where to Export

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by Selma Canas, CGBP | December 22, 2021 In part two of this series, “Who Can Help,” I provided information on the many resources available to enterprises that are looking to expand internationally – the U.S. Commercial Service (USCS), Enterprise Florida (EFI), Global Tampa Bay (GTB) and the Florida SBDC at USF (SBDC). These resources […]

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The Florida SBDC at the University of South Florida is a member of the Florida SBDC Network, a statewide partnership program nationally accredited by the Association of America’s SBDCs and funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Defense Logistics Agency, State of Florida, and other private and public partners, with the University of West Florida serving as the network’s lead host institution. Florida SBDC services are extended to the public on a nondiscriminatory basis. Language assistance services are available for limited English proficient individuals.

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