Secret Life Ep. 65 with Dianne Beauchamp from Puroclean Regina

Barb McGrath 0:01Wow, just wow. Thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s radio fun. The volunteers, the donors, the businesses, everyone. Thank you. From the bottom of our microphones here at 91.3 FM CJ tr, we could not do this without your generous support, the station would not exist. Today’s guest is just a little more than familiar with cleanup. From spills and messes with a family of five to property restoration caused by water, fire, mold, and biohazard. This lady and her business show up when we are at our worst. We’re going to talk today with Diane Beauchamp. And she’s the owner of pure oil clean here in Regina to tell us her story, where the business came from, and why she decided to get into this type of business. So Diane, welcome. Thanks, Barb.
Dianne Beauchamp 0:59I’m glad to be here.
Barb McGrath 1:01It’s a pleasure to have you here. So I know we’ve cut you first thing in the morning, kids are still in the background, they haven’t headed off to school. So you and I are both locked in our spaces that have our conversation. And inevitably, it’ll either be a free guest that comes to join us or a shoreline that comes to join us, right?
Dianne Beauchamp 1:19Absolutely. One or the other,
Dianne Beauchamp 1:22In passing coffee.
Barb McGrath 1:25Equally important. So tell us a little bit about yourself and your business. How did you get started? What made you decide that you wanted to get into a restoration business?
Dianne Beauchamp 1:37My husband and I have been researching franchises for well over a year. We’ve been looking into anything from this like disaster restoration right through a bakery. So it was Oh, wow. That’s kind of where we’ve narrowed it down to the idea of waking up in the morning and making bread for people and making them happy, made me happy. And also the idea of being able to facilitate and help and walk people through some difficult times. That also appealed to both of us. So my background is human services. My background is mental health. I’ve done work in in both those fields with a customer service specialty. My husband’s an engineer, he’s a hydrological expert. So he is his jams, Water.
Barb McGrath 2:29Water. He’s all about the water. Yeah, he knows water.
Dianne Beauchamp 2:31Yeah, water pipes, how they how water flows. So about a year ago, actually, it’s October. So about a year ago, we were wheels up ready to go with your claim took us a while to get there. Unfortunately, life happened, only happened. You know a bunch of stuff happened. And things were put on the back burner. Until about February where we were able to go and get our certification. So Greg got hit in January, myself and our project manager who’s actually my brother, okay, well, who has a background in human services. He worked at Cosmo for a while but he’s also got a background in construction. So you know, it really is a family run business. We left for Florida in February and spent a month there getting all of our international certifications UK we got back the end of the month, went to les Lethbridge for some extra training. And very literally, while we were in Lethbridge, the second week of March the entire world shut down shut
Unknown Speaker 3:39Down like it slammed closed
Dianne Beauchamp 3:42The hotel we were in stopped taking people the they weren’t returning people away saying if you’ve crossed the border, like go sleep in the parking lot You can’t come in. It was Yeah, it was wild. We weren’t sure what was going to happen, how we were gonna get back and get functioning. And after some serious conversations we decided to to be wheeled up April 1 no matter what. So that’s, that’s kind of what we did. We haven’t looked back.
Barb McGrath 4:08So because the business does restoration for mold and biohazards does your business have anything to do with COVID? Or is that it? You do? Okay, so tell me about your your services that would be to COVID because that’s something that’s so top of mind right now.
Unknown Speaker 4:24It really is. It really is, um, one of our largest contracts that we have is actually working with loblaws out of the Gth at the global transportation hub. So they have a fleet of 40 trucks that roll in and out and their essential service they’re transporting food all across the country from Winnipeg to Vancouver. These trucks are not individually owned by the drivers they are owned by loveless with their shared vehicles. So that means that a driver can go from Regina to winter. To peg back to Regina, to swiftcurrent, back to Regina get out of the truck, somebody else gets in and they go Calgary, Vancouver, and back. So that’s local drivers in multiple trucks in multiple cities with different hotspots and different case loads. So we disinfect the trucks in between every shift in order to make sure that they are safe for the drunk drivers going back and forth. But then if there’s anybody who gets sick, if somebody gets sick, and they have to go get tested, we actually have the skills and the abilities to go and clean the vehicle to make sure that it is safe. And it’s not dominated because, frankly, people sneeze into their air vents and vehicles.
Unknown Speaker 5:43Yes,
Dianne Beauchamp 5:44They do. Like you can be the best person coughing into your arm, but you get in your car and you sneeze directly into that air vent?
Barb McGrath 5:53Yes. So never thought about it that way. But that is such a good point. I’ve seen those videos where they show how a sneeze spread. Right? And and we’ve, when the kids were little we used to talk about that kind of thing. So they understood, like how you think about the spaces, it goes that you can’t get to?
Dianne Beauchamp 6:12Well, hey, yeah, so if you know, we’ve luckily not been requested to clean in a home, or in a space that has had a person that’s COVID positive. But we have done preventative, we’ve consulted with a lot of businesses in town, because pure clean Canada actually has the exclusive rights nationally to a very specific product that keeps the microbial and bacterial load down on surfaces. It once you put it on, it stays on, and it stays on for a year. Now, I’m not going to come out and say we’ll kill it, we can kill COVID. I can’t say that.
Dianne Beauchamp 6:52But I can tell you, it kills Norwalk. And that’s good for me.
Barb McGrath 6:57When you see it stays on for a year, I don’t understand because a cleaning solution is on and off.
Dianne Beauchamp 7:02Right. So there’s the way that it works is that we go in, and we did this on the trucks, we’ve done it on the fleet of police cars out in weyburn, you know, all sorts of all sorts of places, not just vehicles, but buildings and businesses. We go in and we disinfect, we use a Health Canada approved COVID kill certified, disinfectant disinfected, go in clean the surfaces make sure all the high touch points are, are clean, because frankly, when you go in a really good example, as you when you walk into the washroom, you open the bathroom door and you don’t push the door open with the handle, you put your hand on the door. So all of those things you have to be really you become very hyper aware of wherever you are aware.
Dianne Beauchamp 7:47Yeah, and I think everybody’s a little bit of that. So we’re even more so aware of where people touch and disinfect everything. And then after the disinfection and then we go in and we put this on, it’s a product that adheres to whatever surface it is put on it molecularly bonds to the surface. So personally, I have it on my computer, I have it on my mouse and have it on my work desk, I have it on my cell phone, that I have it on my my steering wheel of my car, once it’s on, it’s on and cleaning practices, regular general cleaning, cleaning practices won’t remove it. It stays in place for we say for about up to a year. And it actively it actually attracts the bacteria and the germs and then penetrates it kills it on contact keeps the surfaces cleaner, and just continues to work.
Dianne Beauchamp 8:46And actually, the more you actually wipe it, you don’t have to use Lysol, you can just steal from water. But the more that the more that you wipe the surface that actually.
Dianne Beauchamp 8:57The best way to describe it is looks like a bed of nails. And the germs are fractured. They kind of get in there. So the more that you clean that out, the better the product works. Yeah, so we’re we’re doing a lot of that sort of stuff, protecting businesses as they’re trying to open as they’re trying to get people coming back in. People are really nervous about coming back in a lot of times.
Barb McGrath 9:23Exactly. And that’s you hear that from so many businesses, whether it’s an office based business or an industrial based business, that fear of opening right now. And I think for a lot of especially that local business, small business family business, like if they don’t open, their likelihood of survival is limited. And so there’s it’s the devil on both shoulders like which What do I do?
Dianne Beauchamp 9:48Well, and then you add in the extra cleaning protocols that that like salons are a good example the extra cleaning protocols that salons are supposed to do so Did one of the things you have to think about when you’re opening your business is do you have the staff to clean up to the expectations of not only the government, but of your clients that are coming in? Yes. So you can have some people who are very nonchalant and don’t really care, but there will be people who come in and really do, watch what you’re touching what you’re cleaning what you’re doing. And that’s right down from the front door, opening and closing the front door to the counter at the salon to the pin pad that you’re using to the shelves where your product is held. And a lot of places don’t have the funds, especially after COVID hire that extra staff that you just about need to follow everyone around to clean after the fact. So what it does is, it’s it’s that safety net in between the cleanings, right, it just sort of makes sense.
Barb McGrath 10:56Exactly. One of the things that I have found really interesting, I don’t want to say post COVID. But sort of, I can’t even say tail end of COVID. But what I found interesting at this point in the process is there’s a little bit more comfort level, so we’re not afraid to leave our houses anymore. But when we go places, things like the pain pad, the pen you have to sign with, they keep handing the same one back to people. And you know, I’ve mentally made that note, I’m like, Oh, I gotta put my own pin, you know, someplace, and then you find out or you don’t have it with you. But it’s that it’s those contact points in the process that are so much more difficult to figure out. And I’m surprised more businesses aren’t either. Here’s my pen dark. Here’s one this morning. Here’s the next one. Here’s the next one. And now disinfect at the end of the day. I have yet to see that
Unknown Speaker 11:50Run store
Unknown Speaker 11:51They have seen in one
Dianne Beauchamp 11:52Had two jars you take from the clean jar. Right? Put it in the dirty jar that goes to the side.
Barb McGrath 11:57Exactly. Yeah. And and I think honestly, like they almost all need that. If I rounded up the pens in our house, you know, I could probably donate them to a business for three months. So they could do as we’ve got Jasmine’s Oh, exactly. And it’s a small contact points that you forget about, like you said, nobody uses a door handle. We all push on a door. Right? And I become like the queen of using my elbow. You know, the back of something and see what the kids every time I see the kids I’m like, Yeah, right, are screaming at the kids to do that. So no, it’s it’s a crazy time that we’re living in. So aside from the COVID stuff, talking about the restoration side of the business, what, like, have you still been very busy? Or you know, because people aren’t going anywhere has that?
Dianne Beauchamp 12:52It’s been quiet. It’s been quieter. But but we’re still busy. We’re still active. And frankly, if you’re calling us you’re having a really bad day,
Barb McGrath 12:59Bad day. Exactly, diagonally. Dan, I really enjoyed this conversation. I never want to talk to you again. Right? Yeah,
Dianne Beauchamp 13:05No, my friends, my friends, like, good job. That’s fantastic. I don’t ever want to see you in my house like never work. Because if you’re in my house, it means that something’s gone completely sideways. So, you know, I’m in June and July when we got over those rains. I live in the Douglas Park area. And there was one storm where it right in the middle of the storm. Dennis Park lost power, like right in the middle of the storm. And it was one of the heavier ones that we got. And a lot of people sump pumps failed. So yes, basement flooding, a lot of basement flooding with the rains in June and July. There’s not been so much for severe damage when your water heater burst because water heaters can burst at any point in time. But with people being home, they catch it in a couple of hours rather than 12.
Barb McGrath 14:04Right. Yes. Right.
Dianne Beauchamp 14:05So there’s still things happening, but they’re happening smaller scale. You know, fires, there’s been less fires. One of the things with bio is that we’re actually trauma certified as well. Yeah, so that’s it. That’s an interesting that when I could, you know, I get lots of really interesting questions about that one, but we are actually crime scene and trauma certified. So
Barb McGrath 14:32Really, so as you’re doing cleanup, you would have the ability to recognize something that’s also out of the ordinary or nefarious,
Dianne Beauchamp 14:40Um, sometimes Yes, most times we’re called in after the police have already done their their job and taking their photographs and then there’s an unfortunate family who has to go back to a house that’s that’s the house is a victim as well as the family is and they don’t need to be traumatized. So we go in and we clean or tear out or Do whatever we need to to get rid of the biological evidence that’s left.
Barb McGrath 15:06Okay. Yeah, yeah, when you put it that way, understand what we’re talking about now. Wow. Get that way. Yes. Okay, so, so take me back because deciding to start a franchise or not just a franchise, that’s a big decision. And you know, when I think between a bakery and restoration, like, that’s a really wide range. So, so what drove you to the franchise market? I know, I’ve done a little bit of research myself, and never did find the right opportunity.
Dianne Beauchamp 15:37Well, and see, we couldn’t either we, like I said, we’ve been looking for a long time. The values that my husband and I hold, they weren’t there, there was a very competitive zone between different franchises sometimes where they sort of fit one franchise in one area against the other and, and there’s not a lot of communal education, and, and sharing knowledge. And one of the things that really drew us to this one was the people. So Canada’s been around for about 10 years. The US side of puroclean, has been around for longer. But the Canadian group, when we started calling individual owners, when we started talking to gore to the head of the National Office, when we started talking to people really seriously, and saying, how, how do you feel within this network? Is it a network that supports you? Is it a network that promotes the education? Because we are in the business of helping people? Is this something that we are focusing on? Or is it all about, you know, pull out your walls at two feet or run it through to the insurance company.
Dianne Beauchamp 17:00And the focus is really people centered. Their tagline is the paramedics have property damage, and they really actually do focus like paramedics and the different owners with there’s one here Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Lethbridge, Calgary, and then a couple more in Alberta, and then BC, but those are the ones that were closest to. They really are like a family they have, they like to say that they’re like a family. They’re definitely a network. They work together. If we have any questions, we can call them if they have questions they can call us. That’s what drew us to this one. Besides the fact that it’s people centered, customer service based, it really ticks all of our boxes in terms of skill sets. It was the people that that own these franchises that really truly want to help people on their worst day.
Barb McGrath 17:53Exactly. And I would think that having I’ll say, sister companies in all these different locations, also creates a large network opportunity for you. So when a contract like loblaws comes up, if you need multiple locations, you just pick up the phone and go, Hey, Jim, in Winnipeg or so and so in Calgary.
Dianne Beauchamp 18:13Yeah, that’s exactly what happened. I didn’t source the original contract on this Calgary did. Calgary has 18 tracks, and hot air distribution hub. And they said, Hey, you guys are doing a great job. Gth has 40 do you have someone in the area and Calgary? Absolutely. So then we negotiated our contract with them.
Barb McGrath 18:36Oh, yeah. See, I that’s, that’s exactly why you’d want to look at a franchise for that type of business opportunity. So awesome.
Dianne Beauchamp 18:43The other thing is, too is that when there’s a cat event, so that a catastrophic event. They call in the owners from other locations to assist so when fort Mac burned our teams were one of the leads on their Lethbridge team was one of the leads on there. So Lethbridge, Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton. They all went to Fort Mac, and those guys were locked in for eight weeks. Once you got on site, you weren’t leaving. So they were they The first thing they remediated was an apartment building. Okay. They set it up for living spaces for the teams and the crews. And then they set up an office stronghold in the the, on the main floor and brought in office desks because they knew they were going to be there for a while and they sat there they were they were locked in very literally for eight weeks and we’re not allowed to leave. Canada Day there was a smaller event it was still classified as a cat event, but so Calgary got the hail. The pure clean office in Calgary has 200 individual insurance claims on The books after that hail. Oh, that’s 200 homes.
Barb McGrath 20:05Yeah.
Dianne Beauchamp 20:08And we’re Calgary is actually a smaller office. So one of our competitors I know has about 500. So they are still in the midst of doing that. and Canada Day rolls around, and Lethbridge gets its entire season of rain in 36 hours. So by the time I finished my barbecue on Canada Day, I got a call at seven o’clock that night saying it’s raining in Lethbridge. And I said yeah, they said, No, you don’t seem to understand.
Barb McGrath 20:40It’s still raining in Lethbridge,
Dianne Beauchamp 20:42No rain, again Lethbridge. And by the next morning, they had 76 individual homes that they had been called to. and couldn’t handle it
Barb McGrath 20:50Be well, exactly.
Dianne Beauchamp 20:52So we picked up our team and we moved to Lethbridge for 10 days. Saskatoon as well. They picked up their team, they moved to Lethbridge. Unfortunately, they had to leave early, because then North battleford flooded.
Barb McGrath 21:04Oh, my goodness. So you will remember whether instances now for the next 20 years where the rest of us like you get out and we forget. Oh my goodness, yes. When you start to put it in that context, you’re right. Weather is, is such a huge factor in everything. And we get it too. And we have a neighbor who we get the big storm, we honestly we feel terrible for them. Because you can literally see the water going like this under their basement. And yeah, it’s we feel for them. Absolutely. And I you know, I know they’ve had to do cleanup more than a few times. So. So think about those. you’ve walked into someone’s house in Lethbridge. I don’t know, they just, you know, their basement is literally floating at this point. How do you help them? How do you? How do you dig deep? And just like oh, my goodness, you know, you’re seeing the antiques, the pictures of great grandma and grandpa like how, how do you emotionally help them but then help yourself as well?
Dianne Beauchamp 22:08Well, I think that that’s where our backgrounds come in really handy in this. I worked in mental health for 10 years. I’m not a mental health professional in terms of, you know, a psychologist or psychiatrist. But I have enough experience that we’ve sort of come up with a plan that we divide and conquer. So we go into we go into a home, I’ve got all of the paperwork, I’ve got all of the really like the things that we’re gonna have to explain three or four times. Because they’re, they’re very worried about their antiques, they’re very, like grandma’s got six inches of poop in her basement. All right. So I sit upstairs with her in the kitchen, and let my guys go in my project manager, project manager go in and make an assessment.
Dianne Beauchamp 23:03And the first thing that they start with is photographs, tape, they do photographs of the scene, they take photographs of absolutely everything, and document all of the content. So anything that belongs to a homeowner needs to be moved or disposed of has to be documented. So if we’re going to pack it, we have to document that it’s put in a box, if we’re going to throw it away, we have to document it and the homeowner has to actually sign off that these things are going to be disposed of before we can do their property. Right. So so the boys start that process. And then they bring in really big cleaners fans. vacuums shut like I call it a shop back.
Barb McGrath 23:47Exactly. It’s a monster size shop back.
Dianne Beauchamp 23:51Yeah, yeah, it’s a monster sized shaft rack, I’ve got a big blue one and a big red one and my my five year olds about as tall as they are. And you know, and and the guys just they just start pulling this stuff out. And then I put on my boots and go and help them as well. But my job is mostly to to worry about the details worry about making sure that the homeowners understanding what’s happening, being that liaison between them and the insurance company and making sure that what we’re doing is covered. Because the last thing you want to happen is for us to get halfway through something and the insurance company to say, Oh, yeah, I know that you don’t have any coverage. That’s a private pay. And the person stuck with 1000s of dollars on their bill.
Barb McGrath 24:33Exactly. Yeah. And we’ll count on that. Diane, believe it or not, we are at a time today this this time goes so fast when I’m looking at other people’s businesses it does. Just as we wrap up, can you tell us a little bit about where people would find you whether it’s social media, your website, things like that, can you let us know how to contact you?
Dianne Beauchamp 24:53Absolutely. We are on Facebook at pure clean Regina we are at pure clean dot Ca, slash regina online if you want to look at our website, and you can google us, Google now recognizes that we exist. So that’s another another thing with COVID. That’s very slow getting set up for new businesses. So Google recognizes we exist now. So you can check in pure clean Regina Titus pretty quickly.
Barb McGrath 25:21Perfect. That sounds awesome. So thank you very much for joining me today. I I really did enjoy the conversation. But I hope to see you in my home time.
Dianne Beauchamp 25:34I completely understand no offence taken at all.
Barb McGrath 25:39Oh, my goodness. And you know, I really enjoyed hearing a bit about your story and choosing a franchise because I think a lot of business owners go down that same path. Yeah. Do I want to do this? Do we want to do that? Right. And it’s finding fit. So knowing that you in Greg took the time to find the fit. I really I kudos to both of you, too, for doing that homework and taking the time.
Unknown Speaker 26:01Oh, thank you.
Barb McGrath 26:03So I will be back for our next show in just a couple of weeks. But if you’d like to be a guest on the show, you can email me at Barb at Google girl.ca or reach out on Facebook and Instagram at Above the Fold. ca. Just a reminder, you can even submit your questions in advance of the live show on our Facebook page. I’m your host, Barb McGrath, local business owner and Google girl. Remember, you worked hard for your success. Don’t keep it a secret. Bye for now.