On the Job: Still Steaming Ahead

 At age 64, isn’t thinking about retirement.

There’s going to be no early retirement for him. And as far as he’s concerned, anything in his 60s is going to be too early.

The former Michigan farm kid who milked cows seven days a week, twice a day, loves to work and likes to keep busy.

So Simon, who’s into his third – or is it fourth? – career as the owner and operator of in Santee, figures he’s years away from parking his van and walking away from the working life.

His dad, you see, ran a farm in Michigan for some 60 years. At age 86 – two years before he passed away – he was still tilling 1,200 acres. As Simon recalls, his father’s mantra was “hard work never killed anyone.”

The son has the same work ethic.

“My goal is to do it (the job) at least until I’m 70 if my health stays good,” says Simon, sitting at the desk at his home office in Santee. “My dad worked until he was a lot older than that.”

Simon joined the Navy at age 17 and wore the uniform 20 years before going to work for Southwest Marine for another 14 years. While working there, he got the notion he was getting too old for some of the physically demanding jobs he was doing, so he and his wife, Magdalena, started a janitorial business on the side. For four years, he was doing both. Holding down two demanding jobs concurrently was a killer, though, so he made his big leap.

He left Southwest Marine, dropped the janitorial business and invested his savings into a new venture, Simon’s Carpet Care, which launched in January of 1999.

After being a cow-milker, sailor, shipyard worker and janitorial service owner, Simon’s been happy the past 12 years building his carpet-cleaning business, being his own boss and plotting his own course.

“Oh yeah. I used to have a little sign,” he says, motioning to the wall above his desk. “I wasn’t being negative to the shipyard, but it said, ‘If you don’t work hard today, Phil, you’ll be back at the shipyard.’ ”

It’s a solo act

Today, Phil Simon is Simon’s Carpet Care. He’s it, the one and only.

Except for five years when one of his sons worked with him, it’s been a solo effort.

He has a specially designed van with all his equipment, and works at residential and commercial properties all over San Diego County.

He got the idea for branching out into carpet care while he and Magdalena were operating their janitorial service. He was intrigued by the work and the know-how required to learn how to clean not just carpets, but flooring of every kind.

He still has to be re-certified each year as a master textile cleaner, which involves instruction in the latest techniques, equipment and chemicals.

To Simon, the job provides a daily challenge and a chance to not only prove what he can do, but do it for a client who’s put his trust in him. He specializes in extra tough jobs -- getting special textiles clean, removing pet urine and working on commercial rental properties – and uses a special two-headed, steam-cleaning power wand that takes a little more time to operate but does a better job.

Over the course of his dozen years in the business, he’s managed to build up a client list of more than 1,200, which has allowed him to weather the economic storm. With money tight, clients may not be able to get their carpets and floors cleaned as regularly as they’d like, he says, but that may just mean they call for his services every 18 months instead of every year.

He figures the word-of-mouth has been his lifeline.

“I never let time get in my way,” he says. “I ask a lot of questions, I talk about issues. I want to satisfy them. That’s why I have referrals, I’d say 90 percent, from customers. There’s not a week goes by I don’t get a new customer.”

When a job is complete, he sends out thank you cards and signs each one. He’ll also send out reminders. For a while, he did a newsletter. Customer service, he figures, is one way he can compete with bigger companies.

Working at the shipyard, in fact, was good preparation for the way he runs his business.

While he was eager to get out on his own, he enjoyed working at Southwest Marine, respected the folks he worked with and picked up some valuable business lessons. He admired their dedication to customer service and learned the value of doing things the right way first – because having to go back and do something over again costs time and money.

In fact, he’s maintained a great relationship with the company, which is now one of his many commercial clients. Every week, he’s back on his old job site, keeping things clean.

A couple of concessions

Several years ago, Simon used to work seven days a week. No more. That’s his one concession to aging and trying to keep some balance in his life.

He tries to keep his weekends clear now, but every now and then a weekend project from a good client will pop up that will require his attention, so he’ll work a sixth or seventh day.

But working a seven-day week or extra-long hours can wipe him out – especially considering the physical nature of his job -- so he’s learned “to listen to my body” a little more.

“I did a 12-hour day a while back, and I was fatigued,” he says. “It’s harder to recover.”

He’s also learned to say “no.” Sometimes, he says, his gut and experience tells him there’s no way he can do a good job. He recalls regretting a job once, when it involved stripping wax off Mexican pavers. Little did he know when he started, that the pavers were covered in layer upon layer of wax.

“That was the most labor-intensive job ever,” he says.

Away from work, he’s equally busy.

For 10 years he’s been a member of the (and is a past president) and the professional networking group LeTip of Santee, and has a busy home life. He and Magdalena have four grown children and several grandchildren they help take care of. Also, Simon’s 92-year-old father-in-law recently moved in with them. The Simon home can be a hive of activity.

Plus, there is his passion: old farm tractors.

What farm boy from Michigan – who’s worked with machines all his life -- wouldn’t like to collect tractors?

Simon owns two antiques – which he keeps on the property of his son in Lakeside – a pair of old Allis-Chalmers models, and is in the process of buying a . Occasionally, he’ll travel the country in search of equipment, to see other tractors or to show off his own.

He’s a member of a local antique tractor club, which participates in events all over San Diego County. Members drive their tractors in parades and display them at car shows. On Oct. 8, Simon and other club members will be sharing their antique tractors at the .

As an old farm boy, he says, he’s been drawn to it.

“It’s just been my hobby,” he says.

Passing on the work ethic

For about five years, Simon enjoyed working with his youngest son, Alonzo.

Alonzo learned the trade, earned money to pay for his education at UC San Diego and gave Phil some rare flexibility, a helping hand and a navigator sitting in the van’s passenger seat as they traveled the county.

Now that Alonzo has graduated and gone to work for a local publishing company, Simon’s had to go back to being a solo act – and buy a GPS.

But the work ethic that Simon learned from his father was passed on.

“In fact, my youngest son, who’s the editor, I was at his company’s place,” Simon says. “The owner came up to me and said I don’t know how you taught Alonzo how to work, but he is by far the best worker. That was a big compliment.”

One Alonzo’s grandfather would have been proud of, too.