Succeeding In A Man’s World
CEO Karen Billings doesn’t ask employees
to do jobs she wouldn’t do

Don’t be fooled by her looks. Karen Billings, the petite, blue-eyed blonde president and CEO of Day & Night Power Sweeping in Kearny Mesa, can more than hold her own in the competitive, male-dominated world of commercial street sweeping and parking lot maintenance.

Since she bought the business in 1994, Billings has purchased six small competing companies and merged them to form a larger Day & Night, as well as creating a separate firm, Ellis Power Wash, a commercial steam cleaning and pressure washing business.

When Billings purchased Day & Night, the company had 12 employees and six vehicles. She now has 40 to 50 employees and 26 vehicles. Sales last year were $1.5 million, a 400 percent increase from 1994. Billings currently maintains 100 percent ownership of both Day & Night and Ellis Power Wash. Day & Night operates on a 24/7 basis; in the middle of the night its crews scrub shopping mall parking lots and parking garages, clean up road-building and construction sites or sweep streets for military housing.

Billings, 50, is proud of the changes she has made not only in her own businesses, but in the industry as a whole. She has worked hard to professionalize and organize it by helping found a local trade association. And Ellis Power Wash was one of the first steam-cleaning firms in San Diego to address the storm drain runoff/water pollution issue. Before it was required, Billings purchased a specialized vehicle that scrubs, vacuums, separates and recycles the runoff that is created when crews clean streets, sidewalks or buildings.

“The environmental issue is one I take very seriously,” says the single mother of two grown sons. Much of the respect Billings enjoys from employees stems from one of her mottos: “I never ask anyone to do a job I wouldn’t do myself.” She can operate all of the sweepers, scrubbers, power washers, water tanks and other vehicles she owns, and has done so.

Not long after buying Day & Night, for example, Billings took on several of the power sweeping routes herself. Not bad for the original Sunbeam Bread model, whose golden-haired image at the age of 3 was plastered on millions of checkered bread packages.

Billings has more than 400 contracts a month, which are won through formal bid processes. Contracts generally run from one to four years. Her largest clients include the Navy and the cities of La Mesa, Rancho Bernardo, Tierrasanta and Carmel Mountain Ranch.

She’s also started a new business, K-Line Marketing and Promotion, which imprints corporate or promotional logos on products and clothing. “Sometimes I think I’d like to slow down, relax and travel more,” Billings says. “But it looks like that won’t be happening any time soon.”

— Cheryle L. Besemer

Home | Features | Info | Cover Story | About Us | Back Issues | Search