Sheri Marshall, Owner and CEO of Umoveit-Wecleanit Commercial Janitorial, Inc. (center), with Cleaning Technicians (from left) Gloria Oskioe, Amarie Chukwud, Chioma Oskioe and Sonja Bennett.

Dwain Marshall, Partner at Umoveit-Wecleanit Commercial Janitorial, Inc., fogs a retail store. The company has four fogging machines used to disinfect for COVID-19.

Sheri Marshall, Owner and CEO of Umoveit-Wecleanit Commercial Janitorial, Inc. (UMWC), may have been in the military for 22 years, but when it comes to managing employees, she doesn’t bark orders. “People need to be treated with respect no matter where they come from. We check up on employees quite often—we have a reputation to uphold after all—but we avoid issues by putting in the time to make sure employees are properly trained.”

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, UMWC provides commercial and industrial janitorial services for the Greater Austin area, as well as Killeen, Waco and Houston. In addition to janitorial maintenance services for offices, retail stores, churches and car dealerships, UMWC provides post- construction cleaning, as well as house and apartment cleaning following a move or vacancy. Specialty cleaning services include fogging and high-touch surface disinfecting for COVID-19, window washing, floor buffing and polishing, carpet cleaning and pressure washing.

The company’s commitment to training keeps UMWC “smelling like a rose” in client field visits, according to Sheri. In addition to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) training, Sheri’s husband and partner, Dwain, who serves as Foreman and Trainer, works alongside new employees for two to four weeks. “We teach them how to properly do commercial cleaning, buff, strip, wax and mop properly,” she says. “We work with new employees until they can work the job on their own.”

Leading Community

The company is proud to be a second-chance employer. “From day one, I’ve hired low-level ex-offenders,” Sheri says. “At job fairs, I talked to so many people fresh out of prison who couldn’t find a job. I told myself, ‘I can train them to do this.’ These people have served their time, and I think they have something to prove to themselves and their families. They just need someone behind them who supports them and will give them a chance.”

Sheri makes sure employees understand the rules from the start. “I am no nonsense. I tell them, ‘I’m a second-chance employer, not a third. We’ll train you as long as we know you want to do the work and participate constructively in society.’ ”

This investment has not only benefited the community but also helped grow UMWC. “Our second-chance hires have made the best employees. They make my company look good, and they have helped me build this company,” Sheri says.

The company’s commitment to helping community has earned so much recognition that Sheri has had to build a special cabinet for more than 30 awards. She has received recognition and honors from the NAACP in Austin; National Association of Black Accountants, Inc.; Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church; African American Youth Harvest Foundation; Austin Woman magazine and the Austin Area Urban League. Additionally, UMWC has been featured four times in Austin Woman magazine, as well as the Austin Business Journal.

Racing Toward Success

In the company’s early years, Sheri’s community work helped her gain an understanding of how to navigate the construction industry. “As a woman- and minority-owned business, I served on an advisory committee for the city of Austin. I’d get to know about all the businesses coming to town, and I learned that the person I needed to talk to for post-construction cleaning was the project manager on a job site.”

Sheri took that learning to heart and marched right up to the project manager at a brand-new 26,000-square-foot Tesla showroom and service center. “The project manager told me to give him a bid, and we won the contract to do the post-construction cleaning,” she says. With construction behind schedule, Sheri and her team soon got a lesson in what it takes to succeed in the demanding industry. “I learned a lot about how to properly price construction projects to take into account the unexpected. Toward the end of the project, we had 20 people working around the clock.” Despite construction delays and fast turnaround, the team at UMWC stayed focused on the finish line. “This was our big chance to prove ourselves, and we were not going to fail,” she says.

UMWC not only impressed the client but also went on to win the ongoing janitorial maintenance contract for the facility. In the eight years since, UMWC has secured maintenance contracts with an additional three Tesla facilities in Austin.

The company does both ongoing post-construction cleaning and final cleaning on project sites. “We’ll go in every day or every few days to clean up areas of the construction site after the trades are done with their work, and we’ll go in after the entire project is complete and do the final cleaning before the building is handed off to the owner,” Sheri says.

And when Sheri arrives to inspect work, she better not find any grime or dust. “I’ll put on a white glove and touch every surface,” she says. Since that first post-construction cleaning job eight years ago, UMWC has had many noteworthy projects, including Austin’s entire The Domain shopping center. “I tell project managers that if you want cleaning done right, hire a woman; we get it right the first time,” she says.

One sweet construction cleaning job the company landed was for Austin’s new Museum of Ice Cream, which features interactive, multisensory installations. The 15,000-square-foot facility, which is the company’s third location in the world, has a variety of unique surfaces that needed initial cleaning, including a carousel, a diving board and a swimming pool filled with giant sprinkles. “We pulled paper and painting tape off the floors, walls and cabinets, mopped, dusted and buffed the floors, dusted and polished the chrome in the retail area, removed dust from walls and vents and cleaned out brand-new freezers,” Sheri says. To make sure an indoor jungle gym was clean and free of dust, UMWC called on the smallest member of the team. “We had a 16-year-old crawl through and inspect each surface for us.

“The museum is just beautiful,” Sheri adds. “It was such a fun project for us.”

Gaining National Attention

UMWC’s work has not only garnered local attention but attracted national interest as well. W Services Group, a national commercial janitorial services company, saw the company’s work 11 years ago and a representative flew down personally to meet Sheri and her team. “I remember he asked me if I’ve ever thought about getting into commercial cleaning. I told him, ‘I’ll try everything once—twice if I like it.’ And I’ll tell you what, it’s been popping ever since.” Today, UMWC manages 14 janitorial maintenance service contracts for W Services Group, including contracts for large retailers like Michael Kors, Kendra Scott and Tesla stores.

‘Not all Money Is Good Money’

For Sheri, UMWC is her second career. With an accounting degree, Sheri served in a finance and accounting role for 22 years with the Air National Guard, while Dwain served with the U.S. Army. The couple, who have been married for 47 years, traveled the world twice, according to Sheri. “While I was working as a mortgage loan officer for the military, I was cleaning houses on the side for realtors in Alaska. When I got out of the military, I decided that I was done with finance and accounting and opened my own cleaning business.”

While Sheri began doing residential cleaning, she very soon discovered it wasn’t for her. “I figured out real quick that ain’t for me. People don’t clean their own houses, and they expect you to work miracles for very little money,” she says. “They’d bark orders at us to wash their clothes and dishes. We’re not a maid service. We’re a cleaning company.”

With a team of 22 employees, Sheri still works on-site, but the company doesn’t take just any job. “I don’t ask employees to do anything I wouldn’t do myself. I always do a walk through before giving an estimate. This one house I walked through looked like it might have been a crack house. We don’t touch that! As I tell my mother, not all money is good money,” she says.

She and Dwain often work new jobs for months to make sure they know and understand exactly what the client wants. “We recently secured a contract with a large Baptist church in Austin. The pastor is very particular about how it should be cleaned so Dwain and I have been cleaning that church for two months now,” she says. “We knew we couldn’t put just anyone on that job. Recently, we hired a former Marine who used to be a facilities manager. He is going to be amazing in that position.”

A Livable Wage

Sheri learned early on that inspiring employee loyalty takes more than just being a good leader. “We don’t have a high turnover of employees because we believe in paying people a livable wage,” she says.

And though Sheri is firm and considers herself a straight shooter, her door is always open. “I make things plain to employees—they can always come to me. I want to give them whatever they need to make sure this company flourishes.”

Clients can count on UMWC to be professional, but not more expensive, according to Sheri. “I believe your appearance makes a difference. We have high-end clients. Team members show up with shirts pressed, nice blue jeans and hair clean cut.”

With 36 cleaning contracts, the team stays busy; however, Sheri is always looking out for that next job. “I look for new business so I can put more people to work. I’ve helped a lot of people in 16 years, and in turn, they’ve helped make this business successful.”