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Woody and Elaine Deaton
were married in 1967. At this time, Woody was attending East
Tennessee State University completing his degree in Social Work.
Five years and three children later, Elaine began working full-time
as a bookkeeper for a local firm. She then took the position
of credit manager for Dayco, a large company that provided car
parts for Chrysler. |
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| 1979 |
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During the economic down
turn of the late 1970’s, the reduction of supply needs
at Chrysler resulted in significant downsizing at Dayco. Thus,
in 1979 Elaine was laid off. Elaine needed to make money, but
she also had a family and wanted to have a career that would
enable her to be there for her family. While growing up, Elaine’s
mother earned extra money by cleaning houses. Elaine had never
thought about cleaning as a career. However, at this time in
her life, Elaine began to see the benefits of cleaning houses:
she would be able to set her own schedule and be home with her
family in the evenings. Thus, Elaine began cleaning houses.
What started as cleaning a few houses quickly grew and soon
Elaine enlisted the help of her mother and a neighbor. |
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Elaine’s husband Woody
had always considered the idea of owning his own business. As
he saw the success that Elaine was having, he realized the growth
potential of the cleaning business that Elaine had started.
At this time, Woody was working for the community mental health
clinic. Upon their move to a newly remodeled facility, Woody
approached his supervisor and bid on the cleaning of this facility.
Woody and Elaine were awarded the contract and obtained an additional
contract in another facility in Xenia. |
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This additional contract
at the Xenia facility was managed by a recent Wright-Patterson
AFB retiree. This person gave Elaine and Woody valuable information
about bidding for jobs at Wright-Patterson AFB. They followed
his instructions to look at the bid board at Wright-Patterson
AFB and found that the government was accepting bids for janitorial
service at the NCO Club. Elaine and Woody bid on this contract
under their operating name of Elaine’s Cleaning Service
(ECS) and were awarded the contract. |
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| 1983 |
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The company was growing
while still operating out of the family home. Elaine worked
full-time in the business while Woody continued his job in Social
Services helping with the business during nights and weekends.
In 1983, ECS had outgrown the family home, so Elaine and Woody
rented office space for the company. In 1985, Woody reduced
his Social Work hours to part-time and began working in the
business full-time. |
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Wright-Patterson AFB was
accepting bids for a substantial contract. The “Top of
the Hill of Area B” contract was for janitorial maintenance
of over 2,000,000 square feet. Elaine and Woody worked hard
to produce a bid that met all government requirements. After
much discussion, ECS was awarded this contract. This was the
company’s first contract on a government installation
employing people other than family and friends. Elaine and Woody
learned a great deal about government contracting and some invaluable
lessons from the experience of cleaning the NCO Club at Wright-Patterson
AFB. |
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| 1987 |
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In 1987, ECS purchased a
building at 909 Watervliet Avenue in Belmont. After remodeling,
this building became the headquarters for ECS. In 1988, the
company was incorporated as Elaine’s Cleaning Service. |
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Woody had begun subscribing
to the “Commerce Business Daily,” a government paper
listing all types of contracts up for bid. ECS began bidding
on contracts all over the country and was awarded a large government
contract at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, Alabama. |
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| 1990 |
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In 1990, ECS was awarded
an extremely large contract at Wright-Patterson AFB. This 5,000,000
square foot contract includes all of Area B as well as the U.S.
Air Force Museum. |
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Because ECS was working
many large commercial contracts in addition to the government
contracts, ECS was purchasing large quantities of janitorial
equipment and supplies. ECS now had the revenue to establish
their own janitorial supply company, so in 1992 Elaine and Woody
started Apex Supply. |
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In 1994, a small company
called Complete Home Services was up for sale, and the Deaton’s
decided to purchase it. This decision turned out to profitable
since one of the accounts that ECS inherited was the Ameritech
account. That account has since grown from 3 buildings to more
than 250 buildings including all of the Ameritech/SBC buildings
in Ohio south of Interstate 70 and several north of I-70 as
well. |
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| 1992 |
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With the additional commercial
and government contracts as well as the starting of Apex Supply,
the company had outgrown the building on Watervliet. ECS looked
for a facility that would allow them to have office space, a
warehouse, and a showroom under one roof. In 1992, they found
a facility at 4108 Dayton-Xenia Road which was large enough
and had adequate parking. Elaine and Woody decided to purchase
the facility and oversaw the complete remodeling that was necessary
for the building to meet the company’s needs. In the summer
of 1993, ECS moved into this building which continues to be
the company’s headquarters to this date. |
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By this time Elaine and
Woody’s two younger children were working in the business:
Kathie in Human Resources and Steve in Commercial Management.
Their spouses were also employed by ECS. The four of them currently
work in the company gaining valuable experience as they help
ECS continue to grow. |
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| 1995 |
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By 1995, Elaine and Woody
felt that the name “Elaine’s Cleaning Service”
did not adequately convey the type of company that ECS had become.
At this time ECS had many commercial contracts and was working
on one of the largest government janitorial contracts in the
country. Elaine and Woody decided to change the name of the
company’s commercial division to Apex Building Maintenance.
The company was then doing business under three names (Apex
Supply, Apex Building Maintenance, and Elaine’s Cleaning
Service) which became increasingly difficult since they were
incorporated as Elaine’s Cleaning Service. In 2002, the
decision was made to purchase Patti-Maids/Family Helpers. This
purchase added another company under Elaine’s Cleaning
Service. |
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For years, Patti-Maids,
Inc. was a chief competitor with ECS in residential cleaning.
This merger made ECS the largest company doing residential cleaning
in the greater Dayton area. The inclusion of Family Helpers
allowed ECS to venture into a previously unexplored revenue
source – that of providing non-medical assistance to elderly
clients in their own home. |
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| 2002 |
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Later in 2002, Elaine and
Woody changed the name of the corporation to Deaton Enterprises,
Inc. to enable all the divisions to fall under one corporation
name. Since ECS and Patti-Maids/Family Helpers were both servicing
residential clients, the two names were merged to Patti-Maids/Family
Helpers to provide additional clarification. |
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| Today |
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In October of 2003, Deaton
Enterprises purchased Finer Services, a restoration company
that specializes in restoration, reconstruction, and cleaning
after catastrophic events such as floods and fires. The purchase
of Finer Services expands the range of services that Deaton
Enterprises can provide. Deaton Enterprises now has the ability
to address any cleaning needs from a routine house cleaning
to reconstruction and cleaning of a large corporation after
a fire. |
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What started as Elaine cleaning
a few houses to make some extra money after being laid off is
now a multi-divisional corporation. In its 23rd year of operation,
Deaton Enterprises, Inc. currently includes a Residential Division
(Patti Maids/Family Helpers), a Commercial Division (Apex Building
Maintenance), a Government Division (also Apex Building Maintenance),
a Restoration Division (Finer Services), and a Janitorial Supply
Company (Apex Supply). |
