June 1, 2017

Greg Heibert is a 55-year-old Pittsburgh native. He began his career in the carpet cleaning industry in 1983, first at Stanley Steamer, and then at Adler Services. He started out cleaning carpets but quickly moved into a management position, traveling around the country for his role. Though Greg was happy in the industry he'd built his career in, he'd always dreamed of owning his own business. Being a business owner was his goal, not necessarily because of the potential money he could earn, but because he felt that he could do things in a way that others could not when it came to taking care of his customers and employees.

In 2001, Greg had the opportunity to purchase a Sears Carpet Cleaning franchise and decided to go for it. Three years later, in 2004, his family purchased another franchise in Cleveland, Ohio where his son moved to run the family business. In 2008, business was doing well, and they decided to expand again when they were offered the chance to purchase another franchise, this time for Sears Garage Doors. They bought a pair of them, one in Pittsburgh and one in Cleveland and the Heibert family has been running all four franchises ever since.

To Greg, this business is all about helping the people in his community. He remarked, "When we're out doing our services, the customer is not just a number. It's a customer that has a problem and an issue. Whether it's a broken door, whether it's an emergency situation, whether it's safety involved in their house… What we want to do is make sure that the customer and the problem are taken care of and the home is safe."

Greg's greatest joy as a business owner is hearing from the people his family has helped over the years and seeing the ability they have to make a difference in their customers' lives and home. "Many of our guys that work for us we've had for over 15 years. It's like they're part of the family. These guys that we send into your home, I would send them into mine. And they're not just service techs," Greg says. "They feel like they have the ability to really make a difference in a customers' home. If it's carpet cleaning – with kids, and dogs, and pets and messes – we can refresh their house. If it's air duct cleaning – if they have allergies, we can make them breathe again. We can make our customers love their home again."

Something else that makes Greg's business stand out is the emphasis that they place on family and the community. Both their Sears Clean and Sears Garage Doors franchises have many loyal customers for many different services because their customers know that this is a family and a business they can count on. "What we have is we are just going to present the best service we can each and every time to each and every customer," Greg remarks. "You know, we have the backing of the Sears name which obviously brings trust, but it goes further because it's a family owned operation and it's local."

When you talk to Greg, you can tell how much he loves his city. Whether he's talking about Pittsburgh Sports and the Steeler's season tickets his family has had since 1969 (Chuck Noll's first year!), the Northway Christian Community Church that he's heavily involved in, or Hampton and Pine Richland High Schools, where his kids graduated from high school, Greg is a guy that is proud of where he comes from. Even though he owns two franchises in Cleveland and that's where one of his son's lives, this is a Pittsburgh family through and through. "I'm a Pittsburgh guy for life," Greg says. "Pittsburgh is who we are."

After his business suffered two catastrophes, one in 2004 and one in 2014, where they lost everything to a flood and a fire, respectively, Greg was shown just how special his Pittsburgh community really is. Greg reminisces, "In both cases, the community rallied around us and our employees and our people. A lot of people were there for us when we needed it. A lot of times when you suffer from floods or fires, you don't survive, but it shows me that this business is bigger than just being a business."

These trying times showed Greg that his business was strong and that his community was strong. Even before that, and certainly ever since, he does whatever necessary to ensure both remain that way. "I meet people who do all kinds of great things around the city and I ask how we can be of service to them, Greg says. "Our business always gets involved in charitable contributions. We'll give away whatever we can to help in the community. We do work with Light of Life, it's work for the homeless. We've done work for Hosanna Industries, where if people will need something they'll call me and we'll go ahead and take care of it. We've been blessed to have a franchise and good people to work for us, so we like to give back as much as we can."