Steven Harper Built the Cleaning Company He Wanted To Work For

In the latest episode of Contracting Conversations, Steven Harper, president and CEO of Spectrum Building Services of America shares his career path: from electrical engineer to working with Fortune 500 companies and finally founding Spectrum, a commercial cleaning company that now generates eight figures in annual revenue. Tune in as he shares how he scaled his business over time and built a company rooted in trust, systems thinking, and a people-first culture. Steven opens up about the early challenges of entering the janitorial industry, how he learned “you can’t scale chaos,” the ways he engineered a service model focused on accountability, and why he believes the future of cleaning lies in a hybrid model of human expertise, robotics, and AI. Conversation Highlights • Applying systems thinking to scale janitorial services • The importance of building infrastructure before chasing growth • How Spectrum doubled its revenue in six months without chasing new clients • The role of AI, robotics, and automation in scaling a service business • How company culture and employee trust drive long-term success • What cleaning-as-a-service means and why it’s the future of the industry