February 12, 2009

It’s time for innovation
Several businesses take root in southern NH

Manchester: Cleaning up
Two New Hampshire couples started their own green business last fall. Bernadette and Don Douzanis and Rob and Jocelyn Deoleo run A Cleaner Solution, a commercial building cleaning service that uses environmentally friendly products.

“We’re finding that even with the economy the way it is, there’s still a number of businesses that can’t or don’t ask their own employees to clean internally,” Bernadette said. 

It’s also a business they can balance with their other jobs and family life. The Douzanises are raising three young children. Don and Rob work in food service, Jocelyn is in healthcare and Bernadette works part-time for The Caregivers.

“We’re all very big on customer service. We saw this is the type of business that can really make an impact with excellent customer service,” Bernadette said. She noted, “Quite a few accounts just appreciate that we’re locally owned and operated.” Dental offices, salons and hardware stores are among their accounts. Their territory is Greater Manchester through Merrimack and Weare.

“We really believe New Hampshire is on the cutting edge of embracing the green movement,” Bernadette said.

Although green cleaning products used to be expensive, demand has grown enough to push manufacturers to develop more effective and cheaper products, Bernadette said. A Cleaner Solution mainly uses Green Seal-certified (www.greenseal.org) Clean by Peroxy, which is hydrogen peroxide-based. Bernadette said their costs are comparable to other services.

The company belongs to the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and its Green Committee, and New Hampshire Businesses for Social Responsibility, and the International Janitorial Cleaning Services Association.

“We’re all very invested in our communities ...  personally and professionally,” Bernadette said.

For more on A Cleaner Solution, go to www.acleanersolutionnh.com.   — Heidi Masek

Nashua: Nationwide job board
Business growth is stumbling, unemployment rates are rising, and for InovaHire founders, there’s no better time to launch a free job board.

InovaHire (www.inovahire.com), which officially launched nationwide Jan. 15, offers candidates and employers free resources for job searches and hiring processes, including live video interviewing.

“It’s going great,” co-founder Tanya Willette of Nashua said, adding that she now has several Fortune 500 companies on the site. 

“Unemployment rates are climbing. Companies are closing,” Willette said in December. “There’s lots of people looking and relocating ... We’re giving employers and candidates a free and easy way to connect. It’s something that’s definitely needed out there.”

The Nashua-based job board allows candidates to upload examples of work, such as photographs, artwork or presentations. The board hits on every industry and occupation, Willette said.

Willette said InovaHire provides the opportunity for companies small and large to post job openings.  She said that other job boards only allow candidates to see and apply to companies that can afford to post.

InovaHire will gather revenue from advertising, though Willette said she’s looking to build a substantial base before pushing ads.

The site offers live interviewing, free. Users can videoconference using only a webcam. “We have a lot of things a lot of people have likely not seen,” said Willette, who teamed up with long-time friend Eric Schifone to create InovaHire.For now, it’s just the two of them, but they hope to expand.

A key component of InovaHire is its auto-private feature, which switches profiles to private if account holders don’t sign in for 30 days. This helps ensure the displayed candidate base is truly looking for jobs and employers are truly looking for workers, Willette said.  — Jeff Mucciarone

Pelham: Purposeful placemats
With people seemingly on the go all day every day, Pelham resident Lisa Brown wants to help parents sit down and talk about life’s important issues with their children.

Brown developed a series of placemats, called Mat Chats, that list topics and questions to discuss at the supper table. With eight different topics and four questions on each mat, she’s hoping the mats keep the conversations going. The mats cover the topics of friendship, attitude, vision, gratitude, reflection, mindfulness, health and fun/work, said Brown, who is a psychiatric nurse practitioner and a nursing professor at Salem State College.

The 43-year-old mother of two started working on this idea in July 2007, and Mat Chats were ready for the marketplace this past June, she said. Brown’s son Joey, 12, and daughter Sarah, 10, helped bring the mats to fruition.

“It really came out of our hectic lives,” she said. Kids are so involved with sports and extracurricular activities — and she has no problem with that — that she wants to make sure that family time together is meaningful.

“It keeps you on task,” she said. “We may only have a little time together, so let’s use it. Let’s use our time together more efficiently.”

Brown sees the business aspect of Mat Chats as an educational tool for her children as well — showing them the importance of following through with an idea. And if she really starts to turn a profit, she’s planning to invest it for her children’s college educations. She wants that to be a lesson too, as her kids are going to need to know how to manage money down the road.

Mat Chats are available for purchase at www.matchats.com, at the Country Store in Pelham and at Welles Emporium in Lowell, Mass. According to the Web site, a set of eight Mat Chats sells for $14.95.  — Jeff Mucciarone

Rob Deoleo, co-owner of A Cleaner Solution, uses an environment-friendly vacuum at UBS on Elm Street in Manchester. Heidi Masek photo.