About Us
Who Are We, And How Did We Get Here?
Michael Shemwell – Owner and founder of Everclean, sports fan, nature lover, bathroom cleaner extraordinaire.
Yep, that’s me. Believe it or not (most don’t), I started this cleaning business. Yes, me. Nope, not my wife, it was really me. I’ve always been involved in cleaning, starting as a teenager washing windows for a friend’s business. The fast food restaurants were my playgrounds, washing windows at the local Burger Kings, Dairy Queens, Arby’s, Taco Bells, etc. I eventually got into pressure washing with that same friend, and we cleaned the parking lots for many of the same restaurants. Then I got into………………you guessed it! Telemarketing! Everyone that knew me back then, a shy, reserved kid, was surprised. However, I not only enjoyed it but was very good at it. Eventually I was promoted to marketing manager of a large home improvement company, which I enjoyed for a few years. After that, I did a lot of things because I like a varied work life. I’ve read meters for LG&E, bought and sold cars, worked as a contractor providing detailed reports for home and business insurers/mortgagors, had an online jewelry and watch store, and plenty more.
One day, I met my wife to be, Jennifer.
Jennifer Shemwell – Co-owner of Everclean, shoe fan, loves to read, queen of kitchen cleaning.
She too had a background in cleaning, as she had cleaned residences with a friend of hers. It was a match made in heaven! We were married on March 4, 2000.
After six months of wedded bliss, and a subsequent six months of reading meters, I decided that potentially getting mauled by dogs wasn’t worth the meter reading pay, and we were quickly on our way to what eventually became Everclean. At first, we cleaned banks and car dealerships at night for, once again, some friends of ours. They were eventually underbid on some of the larger accounts and we found ourselves scrambling to develop our own business.
Everclean was born.
We knew that we liked working together, and we knew that we were going to clean, but we also knew that we hated working nights. So, we needed something to clean during daytime hours. I fell back on my telemarketing background, picked up the phone, called five apartment communities and told them that we were starting a cleaning service, landed three appointments, and two property management companies became clients of ours within no time.
After about four or five years of cleaning for various apartment communities and property management companies throughout the Louisville and Southern Indiana areas, we had quite a nice business going. My father and brother worked for us too. Then one day our largest account sold off their local properties, and we came in to find that none of us were needed anymore by the new management. We were devastated, and in one fell swoop we had to let my father and brother go, and scramble once again for survival. That account was probably 65% of our business.
Mobile Car Care was born.
It was the summer, and my wife and I needed work fast. So, without much knowledge of the detailing process back then, we jumped out and started a mobile auto detailing service. We quickly got work detailing cars for many of the largest realtors in the area, and eventually set up group discount rates through Semonin Realtors, UPS, and many other small businesses locally.
At the same time, we were moving into the residential cleaning business. That quickly overtook our detailing services, we dropped our rental cleaning because there was so much turnover in the business and we wanted stability, and here we are!
It has been just over 11 years in our journey as Everclean. We are constantly growing and changing to meet the needs of our clientele. In 2011 we added carpet cleaning to our repertoire, we power washed and sealed our first aggregate concrete job (patio, sidewalk, porch, driveway) for a regular cleaning client, and we started house and dog-sitting for some of our clients too.
Each year brings new challenges, and we look forward to meeting them with the wonderful families that we work with day in and day out. It is truly a blessing to be able to meet and work with such nice people, their children, and their four-legged family members as well.
Whether it is cleaning your home, your carpet, or your car, we hope to meet many more families in the coming years and to be of help to them.
Mike & Jenny
Everclean
