Meet Everyday Hero Joemaine Spears

“Building a positive legacy which can be elevated by the generation that follows me is a huge motivator.”

In 2016, engineer Joemaine Spears took his career on a whole new path, opening a ServiceMaster Clean franchise in Houston, Texas. Last year, he was named one of our top performing franchisees serving national accounts. Here Joemaine shares his advice for other entrepreneurs, the secrets to his success and in honor of Black History Month, his perspective on being a black-owned business owner.

What is your best advice for people who want to open their own business or franchise?

I have three pieces of advice. First, make sure you’re pursuing something that fits your skillset and passion. These are the things that will both keep you motivated and able to overcome challenges as they come. For example, if you’re highly skilled at sales, but not interested in providing services; steer away from a service-based company.

Next, thoroughly analyze and research the business sectors of interest to ensure that you realize what it will take to achieve success but also understand the pitfalls that lead to failure. Make sure you fully understand the costs associated with any business venture.

And last, decide how much support you need to be successful. If you are considering a non-franchise business, you should need very little to no support. When pursuing a franchise-based business, choose one that will give you the best combination of desired support and desire to be innovative.

What about ServiceMaster made it the right company for you and your career?

I decided to become a ServiceMaster Clean owner because it’s a well-recognized brand with a strong network of national clients that could help grow my territory and business. My whole team believes in the brand and in providing the highest service quality. It’s made us effective and consistent in our cleaning and helped us maintain strong, lasting relationships with our customers.

What does it mean to you to be a black-owned business leader?

Being a black-owned business leader carries a lot of responsibility because I’m not only representing myself but representing something much bigger than myself or even my family. That responsibility to build a positive legacy which can be elevated by the generation that follows me is a huge motivator to build success the right way with integrity and class.

However, the challenges that are faced on a day-to-day basis keep me humbled. Through that humility and perseverance, I’m able to build the character necessary to continue elevating to a different level of challenges which ultimately corresponds to a higher level of success.

In a nutshell, the success that our business is able to achieve isn’t for my benefit, but for the benefit and empowerment of African Americans who have an ambition for an even higher level of success.