NEA Outstanding Businesses: Swept Away wins Large Business Award 

Talk Business & Politics, in partnership with Arvest Bank, recently honored the top businesses in 2024 throughout Northeast Arkansas. Nominees were gathered from around the region and a select panel of judges chose four finalists in each of these categories: large, small, startup and nonprofit. This week, we will feature the finalists and winners by category in a four-part series.

On Monday, we profiled our nonprofit winners, which you can read about here. On Tuesday, we highlighted our small business winners, which you can read about here.

In the large business category, Swept Away was the winner as chosen by the judges. The company was started in Jonesboro in 2021. It offers commercial janitorial services.

Other finalists in the small business category include Ritter Communications, Haag Brown, and First Community Bank.

Swept Away Janitorial (Jonesboro)
Founder: Ernesto Saucedo
Year founded: 2021
Line of work: Commercial janitorial services
Website: sweptawayjanitorial.com

In the late 1990s, Ernesto Saucedo and his family moved to Jonesboro. A family of first generation migrants, they quickly acclimated to their new community and it became their permanent home. By 2021, Saucedo decided to take a big business step and Swept Away Janitorial was born.

The janitorial services company has grown during the last three years and has been listed as one of the largest minority owned businesses in Arkansas.

“We offer commercial cleaning services – daily cleaning, nightly cleaning, carpet and floor care. We can clean any school, factory, medical facility, bank, office, pretty much any business in the area. We offer services seven days a week, 24 hours … We have always been proactive on investing in resources and talent. We knew that if we operated in an honest and professional way eventually our community would bless us by supporting us and we wanted to be ready,” Saucedo said.

Swept Away began with one client and it has now grown to more than 100 commercial clients. The list includes local school districts, banks, factories, medical facilities, and commercial facilities.

Employee development has been one of the keys to the rapid growth, Saucedo said.

“We encourage them to get involved and participate in professional development opportunities such as Leadership Jonesboro and Leadership Paragould, among others. We enjoy celebrating the wins of all our associates; anniversaries, birthdays, professional achievements. We take care of them and they care of us. We like to be involved in the community and when possible, we like to give back by supporting local charities,” he said.

One of the industry trends Saucedo has noticed in recent years is the sector being dominated by big brand janitorial services. Many of these companies are from out of state. He doesn’t necessarily think it’s a bad dynamic, but he thinks many businesses that utilize Swept Away like dealing with a local company.

“What we can tell you is that the revenue that our business generates now stays in Northeast Arkansas. We also continue to use that revenue to invest back in our community from investing in sponsoring soccer team jerseys to programs such as A Family For Me,” he added. “We are committed to lead the industry by example of what a professional commercial company should be.”

Other finalists in the large business category, which you can read more about here, include:

Haag-Brown Commercial Real Estate & Development (Jonesboro)
Founders & principal brokers: Greg Haag & Joshua Brown
Year founded: 2010
Line of work: Real estate development
Website: haagbrown.com

First Community Bank (Batesville)
Chairman & CEO: Dale Cole
Year founded: 1997
Line of work: Banking
Website: firstcommunity.net 

Ritter Communications (Jonesboro)
CEO: Heath Simpson
Year founded: 1906
Line of work: Communications provider
Website: rittercommunications.com