Judith Virag

Challenging Today’s Perceptions of Cleaning

Judith Virag

Founder

Clean Club Calgary

“Professional cleaning by the team at Clean Club Calgary helps free up time of customers to spend with family and friends. Or give them much needed quiet time”.

Cleanliness is prerequisite for all goodness, as it is one of the most fundamental aspects in ensuring good health of everyone. The Covid-19 pandemic has especially highlighted the importance of cleanliness even more. Evidently, cleanliness is the foundational pillar of any place. While cleaning can be time-consuming, people get less time to spend living or doing the things that are important to them. Judith Virag and her team at Clean Club Calgary understand this dilemma and thus, are offering an enriching experience in quality cleaning.

Judith is certified house cleaning technician and has been in the cleaning industry for over 12 years now. She was raised by a very meticulous mother who succeeded to raise a clean person from a tomboy. Born and raised in Hungary, she and her family were refugees and immigrated to Canada in 1989. Canada has provided so many opportunities for them over the years, as both her parents owned their own businesses. With entrepreneurship in her blood – both her parents and grandparents were entrepreneurs – she knew the traditional career route wasn’t for her. Driven by the passion for cleaning, she founded Clean Club Calgary in January 2019.

Besides, Judith has an extensive administrative background and was an executive assistant for 15 years before her cleaning career, and she believes this has helped her immensely on setting up the systems and how to deal with customers every day. What cleaning industry lacking is good customer service. Judith and the team at Clean Club Calgary strive to do better every day.

Striving For Sustainable Relationship with Clients

Clean Club Calgary provides residential and commercial cleaning services. The factor that sets the company apart is how it responds to its customers. Not one request, complaint or positive feedback goes unanswered. The team at Clean Club Calgary communicate to their customers that there will be mistakes as they are not robots but human. Once a mistake or damage occurs they deal with it right

The 10 Most Inspiring Businesswomen Making a Difference, 2021

away. They strive for long term relationship with their clients. They return all calls and follow up on all estimates received. They are serious about working.

Being a Better Business Leader by Learning from Great People and Books

Judith had a lot of influence and impact of her parents on her life. She states that her parents are the hardest working people she knows, and they have instilled this drive and work ethic in her that has made her who she is today. Judith also works with a business coach Vince Fowler. He has been instrumental in helping her grow and be a better business leader.

Besides, Judith loves listening to podcasts and audiobooks. Some of her favorites are ‘How I Built This’ by Guy Raz and she is a huge fan of Brene Brown. She has taken her ‘Dare to Lead’ training, which was an extremely eyeopening experience for her. She listens to a lot of books, but one that stands out is ‘Shoe Dog’ by Phil Knight.

Being Driven by Teamwork, Trust and Respect

When it comes to building a positive work culture, Judith believes that it is like a relationship that needs constant nurturing. What was clear to her when she started Clean Club Calgary is that she wanted to be different and wanted to provide a safe and comfortable work environment to her team. She opines that cleaning can get very hard not only on the body but mentally as well and thus, a leader needs to stand behind his or her team and support them.

Moreover, Judith has developed the company’s internal core values on which they hire. They have seven core values, but they have narrowed them down to three that encompasses all the seven viz. Teamwork, Trust and Respect. Clean Club Calgary always refer back to these. The people at the company provide instant feedback – which is crucial in their industry as they do not want their team members making the same mistake over and over. They use Slack to communicate and share their before and after pictures. They also share all of their positive reviews with the team.

Impact of Pandemic on the Cleaning Industry

The pandemic has certainly impacted most of the sectors. “I feel at this time running a business is being a teenager all over again. One minute I cry the next I laugh as there are so many frequent changes,” Judith asserts. For Clean Club Calgary, the pandemic has been beneficial in many ways. Judith thinks the general public is being more educated on what cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting is. This is crucial as a “quick dusting” doesn’t cut it anymore. Clean Club Calgary’s business has been up and down along with the frequent restrictions of its province, but in general it has been growing at a steady pace.

One thing that Judith noticed that at this time in the cleaning industry, the pandemic is setting the competition apart. Some of the solo cleaners are folding in as they don’t have the structure and the funds for advertising and also a lot of other cleaning companies are struggling because they are not invested in proper training.

Being Charitable and Bridging the Communication Gap

Talking about giving back to the community, Judith shares that Clean Club Calgary supports various local charities. It has volunteered at Brown Bagging for Calgary’s Kids. Also, every Christmas the company sponsors a family and provides free cleaning to cancer patients through Cleaning for a Reason.

Judith thinks she would like to eliminate this “not talking to each other”. She is one of the council members of the Canadian Residential Cleaners Committee. The committee started regular monthly “Coffee Talks” where they hop on a zoom call and answer any questions their peers have. It has been a great success and Judith believes that if they all work together as an industry it is better service all around for customers and employees.

Building the Best Team Possible

In the next five years, Judith would like to continue building the best team possible. She would definitely like to triple in size. She does have a dream of providing work to newcomers and to strive for the opportunity to help new immigrants.

We live in a world filled with tremendous distractions at every moment. There are distractions in the form of diversions from our most cherished goals. These diversions or distractions can be due to distracting people or distracting information. We should make sure that we are always choosing positive and uplifting associations around us. It is very important, especially for business leaders, to maintain a safe distance from envious and insecure people who do not support their goals.

There is also a huge overload of information in the world. Having access to only the necessary information is an important part that helps in making clever business decisions. It is essential to filter out all the available information and make sure that we refer to the most authorized and essential information.

The world is filled with a massive amount of data; therefore, it is absolutely important to know what to read and what not to read. The information does not have to be always new to be helpful but what matters is having timely access to the most important information.

It matters that we are selective in choosing everything carefully in this world. There is absolutely no point in wasting time with people who deplete our precious energy and willpower. We should not waste our time fighting wrong battles. If we waste time in fighting the wrong battles, we will be left with very little energy for our most important battles or goals. We need to utilize our time and fighting spirit for our most important goals or battles. To accomplish anything substantial in this world, we need to pay the price of our sincere efforts and commitment.

Nothing is more dangerous in this world than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. Sincere ignorance of not knowing what is right and what is wrong is not at all helpful in making informed and clever decisions. Conscientious stupidity based on emotional or instinctive, or irrational approach towards decision making is fatal. The weight of regret is heavier than paying the price of sincere efforts. Right association and access to the right information help us to take brilliant decisions. We should not make any room for regrets by being haphazard or inconsistent approach. Minding our own resolutions to be successful in this world is more important than anything else. Science is organized knowledge, and wisdom is organized life. Organized life and having an organized approach in business is praiseworthy, and it helps you in making wise choices. Having well-organized systems that deliver consistent results is also essential for the sustainable growth of the business. Those leaders who create organized systems in their businesses are able to ensure sustainable success in their businesses. An organized approach is many times pleasing to the clients, and it becomes an important factor in the growth of the business.

The most important attribute of organized business leaders is their ability to take the right decisions based on the authorized information and inputs from intelligent advisors in the business. The organized business leaders are never haphazard or irrational in their approach. They know that an instinctive or irrational approach is detrimental. They believe in taking logical, analytical, rational, and calculative decisions. Such decisions lead to the most constructive actions and constructive results. They take decisions based on the cognitive-intensive thought process. They prefer thinking deliberately and acting on the conclusion of most logical thought. That is the most precise, clever, and pragmatic approach to decision-making.

An organized approach and wise choices help leaders to be able to run their business in the right direction and with the right approach. This way, they are able to take the business to great heights..

The organized business leaders are not complacent in their approach. They lead with calmness and alertness of mind. They try their level best to lead with discipline, consistency, and with the right mindset. They make sure that they are not giving in to negative distractions. They never get bewildered by the illusory or destructive opinions of others or wrong information. These leaders plan their actions well and execute with utmost perfection. They promote the right culture in their team members and build the team with adequate talents, skills, abilities, and resourcefulness. They have the courage to lead by taking calculative risks and execute grace even under pressure situations or tough times. The organized business leaders are decisive and lead with pragmatism and presence of mind. This approach helps them to drive the sustainable growth of their businesses.