In a recent LinkedIn post, Scott Dalton of H2Only Cleaning Systems reflected on a big year: three companies, multiple states, 200 five-star reviews, and hundreds of hours saved through smarter documentation.
We sat down with the serial entrepreneur and inventor to learn more about his business journey. It’s a long way from 2007, when he started the business with a credit card, a used bakery van, and a stack of flyers. Here’s that story:
Building from the ground up
H2Only Cleaning Systems was established on Long Island, New York, in 2007. After deciding to go all in on the new venture, Scott’s wife put $350 worth of cleaning supplies on a credit card:
“And I got a used van from a Bakery and started knocking on doors and putting flyers out, and grew the business from the ground up.”
Scott saw an opening in the market and differentiated H2Only from the outset by using pure-water cleaning. This, along with a combination of Angi leads, word-of-mouth, and hard work, secured a list of HOA and commercial contracts (some of which they’ve held for 15+ years).
Growing despite challenges
The realities of the New York market — weather, traffic, labor — began to occupy more time on both their minds and the balance sheet:
“Every year, there’d be this big giant drop in revenue [in the winter]. We’d be sitting there twiddling our thumbs waiting for spring to come.”
And once spring came, Scott had to hire and train a new wave of workers. Winter weather “destroys everything,” so getting these crews up to speed on how to properly clean delicate cedar shingles and asphalt roofs is essential, but takes more instruction time.
Operating in the New York Metro also meant that he and his crews were at the whims of traffic, which could eat up 2 – 3 working hours a day.
The business was doing well enough, running five trucks at its peak. But after a decade-plus of the same cycle, they started to ask: What if the business didn’t have to stop when the temperature dropped?
Heading south for the winters
In 2024, they decided to make a bold move: Scott and his wife sold their house, relocated to Naples, Florida, and brought their services to an entirely new market:
“Einstein says if you do the same thing over and over again expecting the same result, that’s the definition of insanity. So we had to branch out.”
The Florida market is different in meaningful ways. The materials used on homes are more durable, and the climate keeps things in relatively good shape year-round. The pace is steadier, the traffic is lighter, and for the first time, the business generated revenue through the winter months.
Scott still managed the New York operations — remotely. Operating a business across different markets, with crews he couldn’t always be with, made one thing clear: He needed a way to stay in the loop no matter where he was in the world.
Being there when you can’t be there
Scott demoed CompanyCam and saw the benefits right away. Before, job photos would get buried in a phone, with no context, no organization, and no easy way to share them.
Now, every job is documented from the moment a tech arrives. The first photo is always the house and address. From there, the crew logs water hookups, electrical outlets, and delicate landscaping. It’s the simple things like this that help the next person on site without having to call and re-explain everything.
“A picture is worth a thousand words — even in two different languages.”
Photo documentation has been especially valuable, especially when coordinating with Spanish-speaking crew members. Instructions that might get lost in translation are replaced with annotated photos that give both Scott and his crews the correct context.
Protecting the work with photos
For a cleaning business, before-and-after documentation is more than just a nice touch. It’s proof of work, and sometimes, it’s the difference between a dispute and a resolution.
Recently, a member of a New York homeowner’s association filed a claim against Scott and one of his partners, alleging that their property was not maintained to HOA standards. Scott’s solution was simple: he pulled up the CompanyCam record that showed before-and-after photos of their recent visits and exactly what was done at the house. The claimant backed down immediately.
“You can’t deny the time the picture was taken, when, where, how, what it looked like.”
The documentation pays off in other ways, too. In Florida, insurance companies are increasingly requiring homeowners to prove their roofs have been properly maintained or risk losing their policy. H2Only now sends customers a photo gallery along with their paid invoice, which customers can forward straight to the insurance company. It’s a value-add that costs him nothing extra and keeps customers coming back.
And when those returning customers call to add a service, there’s no need to schedule a visit because the previous job and property photos are at his fingertips. He can pull up the CompanyCam map, review the property, price the work, and move on to the next job.
The proof is in the numbers
When CompanyCam sent Scott H2Only’s Year in Review numbers, he saw the 30,000-foot view of the impact his and his team’s daily documentation had on the business, and the savings generated.
“Most service people claim to have a smooth operation, but they’re just running around like headless chickens. When I received that, I realized this really, really does work for us very well.”
He shared it on LinkedIn with a simple message to anyone in the service industry: If you don’t have this, you’re leaving time and money on the table.
“Together, we’ve taken 9,523 photos across 453 projects. And since we’re all doing more in less time, we have saved about 811.53 hours in labor.
Oh, and by documenting in CompanyCam, we have saved 33.3 GB of storage across our devices.”
Building a franchise (and more) on a solid foundation
The Long Island and Naples operations are running smoothly. The next stop is Miami. After that, Scott’s thinking bigger.
H2Only plans to franchise the business model to other states, with CompanyCam as a key component of the tech stack. To Scott, that means consistent documentation, consistent quality, and the ability to monitor multiple locations from a single screen, ensuring every project meets the H2Only standards.
“I would be able to, from one location, monitor the franchisee — what they’re doing, where they’re going, if they’re doing a good job.”
A serial entrepreneur, Scott is the inventor and creator of Urin-solutions and holds several patents for urinal screens located in offices, airports, hotels, and gyms across the globe. And he uses CompanyCam to document, in real time, the installation and maintenance of these screens by janitorial crews.
Nearly two decades after starting with a few cleaning supplies and an old bakery van, H2Only Cleaning Systems has grown into a multi-state operation with a fleet of trucks, a loyal customer base, and franchise ambitions on the horizon. CompanyCam has been a recent addition to his business, but a key part of that growth — helping him run a lean, accountable operation from anywhere in the world.
We love to hear user stories like Scott’s. Getting the good, bad, and ugly feedback from one helps us make CompanyCam better for all the pros who use it daily to do good work.
