SPONSOR | PIKES PEAK SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT CENTER

EST. 1987SUPP O RTING LOCAL BUSINESS EST. 1987

PIKES PEAKSBDC

Colorado Springs, CO americanveteranscleaningservice.com veteran | 20 years in the u.s. Air force & army

A Matter of Service

Despite military experience and more, Robin Bell felt institutional racism was depriving him of one job after another. So he created his own business, began employing other veterans and working to break down barriers to success for the disadvantaged.

By Matthew Schniper, SBDC Story Teller Robin Bell has worked since he was eight years old, and proved himself every step of the way. As a kid he mowed lawns, shoveled snow and delivered newspapers, learning the basics of reliability, punctuality and hard work: “You owe 110 percent of what you’re getting paid,” he believes, partly in acknowledgment of “that one step further” people of color have to go to succeed in the world. “Just like women in the workplace, whatever I do, I need to do twice as well... I’m being judged at another level.”

As a teenager, he was denied a job at a car wash twice, resorting on a third approach to negotiating: “I said let me work two weeks, and if you don’t like me in any way, don’t pay me and tell me to leave and there’ll be no discussion.” Six months later he was a manager there.

Bell spent six years in the Air Force out of high school, learning missile mechanics, and another 14 later in the Army, nine of those as a Ranger, serving domestically and abroad.

“My curiosity is to take things apart and put them back together, that drives my understanding of things,” he says. He’s also musically inclined, playing bass, percussion and keyboards, and he used to play in and manage touring bands. During his time in the military he also taught at and later directed IntelliTec College. He has instructed project, business and supply chain management, statistics and logistics.

But even with all that experience, plus more than ample qualifications, he says he couldn’t get hired in his late 50’s, enduring multiple interview rounds, only to be defeated at the finish line for reasons he believed led back to his being black, and older. “The system has been working against me,” he says, citing the message of the Black Lives Matter movement and institutional racism. After one particularly disappointing experience he says he was “done beating my head against a tree — I shouldn’t have to beg someone for a job.”

So, instead, he decided to create his own, and launched American Veterans Cleaning Service (AVCS) in 2015. He already possessed the business savvy and mechanical skills to work with all types of machinery. The company now employs six people, three of them veterans and two others related to those who served in the military. Bell, now 65, targeted vets and their families with his hiring to create mentoring and entrepreneurial opportunities for veterans and to serve other veterans as customers wherever possible.

In working with disadvantaged communities, he acknowledges that often “you can’t succeed without help.” He knows this, because in order to start AVCS, he reached out for a lot of assistance from the Pikes Peak Small Business Development Center (SBDC), as well as the Colorado Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) and SCORE Colorado Springs.

Bell had worked with SCORE years prior when he’d wanted to launch a climbing business, starting from scratch when it came to learning how to write a business plan. PTAC later helped him understand the methods for landing government contracts. While the SBDC proved a valuable link, connecting him both to classes and the mentorship he required. “They teach you what you need to know — it can be a better process than going to school,” he says.

The systemic racism had once again worked against him in earlier attempts to secure loans. In an SBDC class, he gleaned the importance of creating a strong relationship with a banker, and the instructor said “you come see me, we’ll make sure you’re square.” And they did.

“The SBDC is well aligned to connect you with the right people that will help your business,” he reiterates, noting the lines of credit he finally accessed threw open the doors for AVCS to thrive. The company specializes in post-construction work, and commercial contracts compose about 97 percent of Bell’s business. He’s aiming to expand his residential clients, in part to employ more vets.

Grateful for the education he received from our region’s training agencies, Bell has made it a point to give back. Since AVCS’ launch, the SBDC has used him as a resource to mentor others. “It would be such a plus for minorities if they would utilize these free resources,” he says.“It would change their lives, just connecting with a mentor. They just need accessibility and opportunity, and they will succeed.”