Spaulding Decon topped the Entrepreneur Franchise 500 crime-scene cleaning category in 2022. Here, CEO Laura Spaulding shares her journey from humble beginnings as a solo-, woman-led startup, to 20 to 30 new franchises a year and millions of social media followers.

Barry Rice, CSP, considers Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) the user manuals for chemicals. In this column he highlights three of the most valuable parts of an SDS and how OSHA expects U.S. organizations to manage them. He also provides reference information and advice for training on SDS use.

The approach often taken by contractors is the simple and quick method to set up containment. In reality, the design and construction of containment often takes far longer than the actual remediation. Containment is one of the highest liabilities that impacts the contractor, as well as the client, and should be given priority.

The Indoor Air Quality Association is hosting its 2022 Annual Meeting & Expo February 22-25 in Tucson, Arizona. In this episode of Ask the Expert, IAQA President Jay Stake discusses the educational program of more than 40 sessions on topics including infectious diseases, mold remediation, and regulations and standards.

“Hideous piles of plastic in our landfills or incinerators aside, containment is never a bad thing. Just like running a HEPA on every job site is never a bad thing, building containment is also never bad, from a purely scientific perspective. These decisions, however, do not happen in a vacuum,” Keith Gangitano writes.

In this episode of Ask Annissa, Annissa Coy responds to a question from a restorer who disposed of contents on a non-salvageable list and now is dealing with an unhappy homeowner. She clarifies how they can avoid going through this in the future.

What does the Restoration Industry Association have planned for the new year? We invited CEO Kristy Cohen, President Mark Springer, President-Elect Katie Smith and Restoration Advocate Ed Cross to share the many fresh RIA initiatives in the works. 

We must resist the subconscious urge to hire people in which we see ourselves — the full gamut of self from physical appearance to hard skills — and instead, map talent acquisition strategies to our deficiencies. This begins with an objective evaluation of your teams’ strengths and weaknesses, and from their hiring to resources that fill the empty spaces on your mantle.

In this installment of “7 Lessons Learned from $500 Million in Restoration Transactions,” Gokul talks about identifying what is important and understanding the leverage you have as you sell your business.