Don’t let her platinum blonde looks fool you: Amber Douglas isn’t afraid to get dirty. As vice president of Xtreme Cleaners, a crime scene and hazardous cleanup company, Douglas regularly deals with scenes most people would run from.
As Business Report details in its latest Executive Spotlight feature, Douglas entered the crime scene cleanup business after marrying her husband, Larry, back in 2011. With his law enforcement background and her experience in marketing and promotions, they rebranded the former part-time operation into a full-time gig.
While the job is downright dirty sometimes, Douglas says crime scene cleanup is the most rewarding work she has ever done.
“There is no better feeling than when a member of a family who has suffered a tragic loss … hugs you and tells you that you are their hero or angel,” she says.
Douglas says the business’s greatest challenge is making people aware of what exactly it does. Their best strategies for success are grassroots marketing and referrals.
Douglas also runs Xtreme Promotions, a promotional product distributor she and Larry formed after their cleanup company was featured on the TLC show Ultimate Cleaners. She says the TV exposure garnered international attention for Xtreme Cleaners.
“One job in particular was at a hotel, and the maintenance manager was so excited to meet us. He said, ‘Last week it was Snoop Dogg; this week it’s you guys,’” Douglas says. “We just laughed, as we do not consider ourselves anywhere close to the popularity of Snoop Doggy Dogg!”
Read the full Executive Spotlight feature. Here’s a sample of what you’ll find:
What is a typical day like at your business?
People are always surprised at how often our phone rings. Whether it’s a crime scene, meth lab, hoarding situation, an infectious disease outbreak like c-diff, Ebola or Norovirus, or something off the wall—like, “Raccoons broke into my attic and we need you to clean the dung left behind”—we know our phone will ring. Our business is quite different from others in that we don’t have worked lined up for months out. Normally, we don’t know what tomorrow brings; we just know the work will be there.
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