Butler did it: Cleaning firm polishes $1.6M in sales

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Annual sales are up nearly 50% for the second year in a row at Cleaning Butlers of Sarasota, a local franchise-based business founded in 2009.

Sales in 2012, says the firm in a release, were up 49% over 2011, from $1.1 million to $1.64 million. Revenues rose 47% in 2011 over 2010, when it had $750,000 in sales.

Lakewood Ranch-based entrepreneur Lynne Dowd founded Cleaning Butlers in 2009. She previously ran operations for Jan-Pro Cleaning Systems' offices in Augusta, Ga., and Orlando. For the Sarasota-Bradenton region, though, Dowd sought to build a business in small-scale franchising, where the accounts are spread among independent business owners/franchisees.