Angela L. Dills is the owner and operator of Angela’s Custodial Service, a commercial janitorial services company cleaning retail, office, and municipal spaces in the Douglas City, California, area since 2008. Before launching the company, Ms. Dills had spent several years as a county government employee. She began making plans to move on after work furloughs became more frequent and rumors that her position might be outsourced started swirling. Located in a county with fewer than 10,000 residents, Douglas City lacked a reliable after-hours janitorial service, and Ms. Dills sensed an opportunity.
Angela’s Custodial Service started with just a single account, her local credit union. Ms. Dills approached the owners after noticing dust and spiderwebs in the lobby, remembering that it “looked like it was already decorated for Halloween,” and offered her services. They agreed to give her a temporary contract, and after only a few weeks, word of mouth had spread to other businesses in the area. Ms. Dills signed contracts with an auto parts store and an animal hospital, and business started to build quickly.
While Ms. Dills dabbled in residential and hotel cleaning shortly after launching her business, her passion and primary focus is maintaining clean and hygienic commercial spaces. Growing up with asthma, she understood acutely the difference that fresh air and a clean space could have on quality of life and the ability of a business to run smoothly, and she enjoys having the opportunity to help prevent others from getting sick. Ms. Dills believes that “cleaning is in the details,” and has developed a professional reputation for thoroughness and quality, with clients often remarking that she cleans areas that they had never previously noticed. She is trained in hazardous materials and crime scene cleanup, and continued to work during the COVID-19 crisis, pursuing additional training in UV surface disinfection.
Currently, Angela’s Custodial Service has more than 15 regular commercial clients, including local offices for the Bureau of Land Management and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, for which she was granted a special security clearance from the Department of Homeland Security. While Ms. Dills retains one part-time employee, she continues to do the majority of the business’ custodial work herself. She is proud to have built her business from the ground up with no outside advertising, relying only on networking and client referrals, and attributes her success to hard work, a good personality, and taking pride in her services. In the coming years, Ms. Dills hopes to continue working and hopes to have more opportunities to use her position as leader in the local business community to pay it forward to others.
