T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY A&M Cleaning Owner Alexa Mitchell poses for a photo at Grounded inside the old Willard’s building last week. She and her husband Myles launched their business in October of 2021, and it has grown steadily since.

Lifelong Marshalltonian and Class of 2018 GMG graduate Alexa Mitchell’s first professional passion was healthcare as she spent several years working at the Iowa Veterans Home. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and she lost so many of the patients she had come to know and love, she decided it was time for a change.

“I loved it, but losing all those people, it was like ‘My heart’s not in this. It’s just not,'” she said.

It was Mitchell’s grandfather who first suggested that “Smacky,” as he affectionately calls her, should open a cleaning business. With a little help from grandpa, she filed the necessary paperwork and opened A&M Cleaning late in 2021 with the intention of focusing on residential jobs, but within a few months, she had already secured three commercial contracts.

“We’ve just gone from there and exploded,” she said. “(It took off) instantly, definitely more than what I expected it to be, so the mindset switched to ‘OK, we’re gonna do boss mode. Let’s see what we can make this with adding medical and factories and stuff like that.'”

By 2022, Mitchell, who works with her husband Myles and a small team of two full-time helpers and temporary staffers who fill in as needed, had added a large Marshalltown factory to her client list. As the business continues to grow, she is always on the hunt for reputable people who can clean in a way that makes customers happy and keeps them coming back.

“A lot of people don’t like to clean, and if you like to clean, you have to really be in it. You have to have a niche for it,” she said.

With spring cleaning in full swing, Alexa and Myles are headed into a busy season, but they’re thankful to be trusted by an ever-growing list of customers — the new downtown coffee shop Grounded and The Flying Elbow and Most Wanted Coffee on 13th Street, to name just a few. Looking forward, she would like to venture more into medical cleaning contracts, which would constitute a full-circle moment of sorts for Alexa given her history in healthcare, and service clients as far away as Ames and Des Moines.

Alexa was raised by a single dad, Travis Peters, who owned a trucking company and reminded her that she could do whatever she wanted as long as she worked for it, and she credits him as her biggest inspiration.

“No matter what, he provided for my brother, my sister and me, never a question about it. He went to work every single day,” she said. “My whole family’s entrepreneurs. My great-grandpa owned a trucking company before my dad, and then my dad obviously is an entrepreneur. My grandpa has helped my uncles and my dad, plus me now, start our businesses, so it’s kind of like a whole family thing.”

A&M takes on all forms of cleaning except carpet, and they recommend Jordan Stucky for that. Alexa loves what she’s doing now, loves the bonds she’s built through A&M and remains optimistic about the future of Marshalltown.

“We’re always pro-Marshalltown, born and raised, families have businesses here, so we’re in Marshalltown for the long haul no matter what. No matter what, we’re here,” she said.