Steve Peterson joined his father's small dry cleaning business which later became a COIT franchise. He grew the single franchise location to acquire all of Colorado, expanding to over 120 employees servicing 30,000 customers annually across multiple locations. Peterson was drawn to COIT due to the opportunity for growth and appreciates their strong support and training. He recommends COIT for others wanting to start a franchise with a reliable business model centered around customer service.

1. f ra nchisee in action
COIT
COIT Cleans Colorado
“I saw that something could be taken from its
infantile stage and turned into something much
bigger by following the processes correctly and
doing the regimented follow through.”
Steve Peterson
“Whenever an
opportunity came to me
I always seemed to be
more willing to jump into
it than shy away from it,”
Steve Peterson, COIT
franchise owner says.
From humble beginnings with his father’s
dry cleaning business to running a COIT
franchise regime expanding the entire
state of Colorado, Peterson is more than
pleased to be where he is today.
However, Peterson’s interests did not
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always lay in the cleaning industry. Before
being introduced to the COIT concept
he was more interested in numbers and
equations than he was customer service,
which is why he studied Business
Finance and Marketing at Colorado State
University. Upon graduating with a major
in the field, the savvy young Peterson
began working for Johns Manville
Corporations, a national sales organization
for building materials. Employed with
the finance department, Peterson quickly
discovered that his motivation was
fueled by being involved in running a
small business versus parts of a large
corporation. “I had a passion to see the
whole picture and to be involved in the
growth of the whole organization, and
that was impossible to do working in a
department of a large national company,”
he says.
Peterson’s involvement with COIT began
in 1978. At the time Norman Peterson,
Steve’s father, owned and operated a
small dry cleaning company. Interested in
extending his services to include drapery
cleaning but not a clue on how to go
about the task, he began investigating the
process and equipment required. Then,
while flipping through the pages of a trade
magazine one afternoon, he stumbled
upon an ad offering training and courses
in drapery cleaning. The business offering
the course was in fact COIT. Attending
the workshops he was introduced to the
possibility of owning his own COIT
franchise. Following up on the option,
this is when Norman, a soon to be retiree,
invited his son to come aboard and help
grow the business.
Buying their first COIT franchise, Peterson
agreed to join in his father’s endeavor
and attended the Discovery Day and
comprehensive two-week training program
offered in San Francisco, CA. “For the
most part the training involved learning

2. all the COIT lingo and their way of doing
things,” Peterson says. “I learned about the
personnel of the business, the technicians,
their processes of running daily routes,
how it all tied into the computer software
and how to use the software. I also learned
about their daily and weekly reporting
and how to interpret the information so to
utilize it efficiently in our operations.”
Adding the ten lines of cleaning services
COIT offers to the small dry cleaning
shop, today the Peterson’s original
store poses as a production shop for all
drapery and area rug cleaning facilities.
All previous existing offices including
the account and management team have
relocated to a much larger building two
blocks away. Purchasing a third building
to act as their material warehouse for the
brand’s restoration services and vehicle
parking, “When I came aboard we had
three vehicles, now we have around 85
vehicles,” Peterson says, emphasizing their
incredible growth over the years.
Peterson has since grown the company
from the original single unit to acquire
the entire state of Colorado, the major
hubs being Colorado Springs, the Denver
metro area, Boulder and Fort Collins. With
the entire territory under his jurisdiction,
COIT allows Peterson to select his own
site locations based on population centers
of his choice. Corporate then assists
in the set up of computer systems and
communication networks.
Having made the switch from the finance
world into COIT cleaning, Peterson says
that while his decision was partially
based on his father’s proposition, the
other selling point was his drive for a
challenge. “I saw that something could be
taken from its infantile stage and turned
into something much bigger by following
the processes correctly and doing the
regimented follow through,” Peterson
explains. “All that motivated me incredibly
and I had quite a bit of energy in that
direction.”
Today COIT is the nations largest and
most experienced cleaning company
with over 60 years of practice through
its corporate and franchise locations.
Specializing in carpet cleaning, upholstery,
drapery, tile and grout, air ducts, wood
floors and natural stone services, as well as
a 24-hour emergency restoration service,
COIT provides its franchisees with the
company’s proprietary software system
to assist in ongoing training, as well as
access to their strong support team, which
Peterson notes, are “very pro-active.”
Additional training and support is also
available from the primary training center
in San Francisco to all COIT franchisees
and their employees. “There is an open
avenue of opportunity in all the different
departments of COIT to either go back
personally for additional training, or
to send specific personal for specified
training,” Peterson explains, noting that
every facet of the company has it’s own
extensive training process.
Peterson’s franchise locations currently
employ 120 individuals to service around
30,000 customers a year. The most popular
service Peterson’s franchises perform is
carpet cleaning, with air duct cleaning
following closely behind. “The success
we’ve had as a franchise in Colorado has
been extremely rewarding and personally
gratifying for the goals I’ve had in my life
to grow a business,” Peterson says, adding
the relationships he has established over
the years with the COIT management
team and long term employees has also
been pleasing. Attending two annual COIT
conventions a year, here franchisees have
the opportunity to come together, interact
and learn new practices from each other.
“Seeing the organization grow personally
in the lives of my employees makes me
feel good about belong to the team,” he
says.
Quick to recommend the COIT business
model to anyone interested in joining
the industry, Peterson says COIT has
a very strong, reliable way of doing
things with top-notch customer service
as their priority. “If someone wants to
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f ra nchisee in action
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3. f ra nchisee in action
COIT
“The success we’ve had as a franchise in
Colorado has been extremely rewarding and
personally gratifying for the goals I’ve had in
my life to grow a business.”
get into a business where they know that
“You can be successful only to the extent
successful and grow, then COIT has a
company, learn the procedures, and adopt
through customer service they will be
great systematic process for maximizing
by performing in such a manner,” he
says. Well versed in the industry, the
most important advice Peterson has for
those intending to join a franchise is this:
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you’re willing to invest yourself into the
the system, and stick with it!”
Carrying on his father’s legacy with a
solid management team in place, Peterson
has plenty more free time now than when
starting with the company, yet he still
chooses to remain actively involved on a
daily basis. “I still get a lot of enthusiasm
out of coaching and mentoring the team,”
he says. “Quite often it’s a challenge
keeping up with my bright associates, but
that’s the best challenge I could ask for.”
When Peterson isn’t working there are
three notable activities he enjoys: golfing,
playing classical guitar, and riding his
motorcycle. Otherwise Peterson can be
found spending time with his wife Janie,
daughter Megan, son in-law Taylor, and
two young grandchildren, Benjamin and
Belle. “I love what I do, and I love the
gratification I feel as a member of the
COIT team, they really have become my
second family.”
For more information:
Website: www.COIT.com/
Phone: Pat Saign, 800-243-8797 X108.