George Tibil, Keith Fields·September 30, 2024

Turning Around a Blue Collar Business in Decline George | George Tibil & Keith Fields Interview

George Tibil (Romanian immigrant, finance/banking background at M&T Bank) and Keith Fields (ex-Marine, corporate banking and self-storage REIT acquisitions director) are longtime friends who left high-paying Buffalo-area finance careers to pursue entrepreneurship through acquisition. They purchased a 30-year-old Service Master Clean commercial janitorial franchise territory in Buffalo, NY in October 2023 for approximately $760k total (including a $250k office building), representing roughly 2x of a $380k SDE — a deal they considered very attractively priced given the distress. The business had been built to $1.5m in revenue by its original husband-and-wife founders, then bought by an inexperienced passive operator in 2021 who lost key management, and was in decline ($1.1m revenue annualized) when George and Keith closed. They inherited a culture of mistrust, severe staffing problems, and high turnover, and spent two to three months personally cleaning facilities overnight to keep customers served while rebuilding the team and culture. By the time of the interview (~nine months post-close), revenue had grown roughly 40% to $1.7-1.8m through inbound demand alone. Their larger vision is a holding company rolling up franchise territories and complementary businesses, using this acquisition as a foundational learning experience in frontline operations.

Deal facts

purchase price: ~$760k total (including ~$250k real estate)
multiple: ~2x SDE (including real estate)
sde ebitda: SDE $380k
revenue: $1.5m at time of contract; dropped to ~$1.1m by close; grown to ~$1.7-1.8m at time of interview
financing structure: SBA loan (via Maas Smith as broker)
notes: 30-year-old Service Master Clean franchise in Buffalo, NY. Business included commercial office building (~$250k). Business had declined under previous owner who bought in 2021; closed October 31, 2023. Third partner (Taylor) also involved.

Why this business

Recurring revenue, 30-year-old established business, physical assets and real estate included, recession-resistant (grew during COVID), attractive valuation, and a strong franchise network with new private equity ownership providing momentum. They wanted to get in the game quickly with their own capital and saw a very attractive entry price.

What's working

Recurring revenue base allowed them to stabilize and make operational changes without needing to sell aggressively from day one
Revenue grew ~40% to $1.7-1.8m through inbound/word-of-mouth alone, winning back lost customers and adding new ones
Franchise support from Service Master Clean's new private equity owners — access to president, annual conference, mentorship from top franchisees
Building a strong culture with immigrant workforce through cultural attentiveness, WhatsApp communication, translated scope-of-work documents, Ramadan accommodations, and refugee community partnerships
Going all-in on operations including cleaning alongside staff for 2-3 months built deep employee trust and operational understanding
Reinstating the missing supervisory layer that had been eliminated under prior ownership
Network and peer support from the ETA community on Twitter and LinkedIn

What's hard

Bought a distressed/declining business — by close, revenue had dropped from $1.5m to ~$1.1m; three largest customers left during the contract-to-close period
Closing took 4+ months longer than expected (targeted June 28, closed October 31)
Had to personally clean facilities overnight for 2-3 months due to severe understaffing and high employee callouts
A problematic GM discovered during the observation period had to be fired before closing, with the buyers themselves having to deliver the termination
High workforce turnover — let go of 20+ employees and rehired during the stabilization period
Culture of mistrust from employees who had been through two ownership changes; one supervisor assumed they would flip the business quickly
Radical transparency about growth plans backfired — employees feared job loss from expansion and they had to reverse course
Taking below-replacement W2 income for an extended period; Keith cashed out his 401k to fund living expenses
Previous owner had taken a full-time job while still nominally running the business, leaving operations poorly monitored

Notable quotes

The unfulfillment was getting worse and worse. I remember just driving from work and just looking back and saying, you know, this is not — there's no intrinsic motivation, there's no fulfillment.

I would have to bring my daughter to George's house, she would sleep there, and we would go out cleaning all night and then we're in the office first thing the next morning.

You get what you put in — you have to be able to articulate your ask, you have to be able to put yourself out there, and the reward can be there in a franchise model.

The questions that we're going to be asking and the due diligence that we're going to have from going down to the details is just such an invaluable lesson. I can tell very early on if someone has a deep understanding of what trickles down to the operations and the systems and the procedures all the way to the front line.