Member Stories: Ian Christensen - Owner of Perfection Cleaning

When other people make a mess, Ian Christensen is there to clean things up.

But when Christensen’s finances are a little untidy, he can turn to Adirondack Regional Federal Credit Union.

The owner of Perfection Cleaning in Plattsburgh has been a credit union client since 2009. There have been times, he says, when he’s needed money quickly when cashflow got tight—and the credit union has always been there, ready to help.

“It’s like a family environment,” Christensen says. “It’s like I’m dealing with my brothers and sisters. That’s what I appreciate the most.”

Christensen moved here in 2008 from South Carolina, when his mother saw a cleaning business for sale and suggested he look into it. He’d been in that line of work for years, and after he ran the numbers, he realized a cleaning service in the North Country could be more profitable than in Myrtle Beach, where competition is stiff. Growth was steady: Soon after starting with two Kinney Drugs locations, he was cleaning 17. Today, his company employs a half-dozen workers and services about 40 commercial clients across the region, from Gouverneur to Vermont. Revenue has grown more than tenfold since he picked up his first mop.

The whole time, Adirondack Regional FCU has been by his side. He’s turned to the credit union for four commercial vehicle loans, help lining up his PPP loan when COVID-19 struck and all his everyday banking.

“I’ve always looked to work with credit unions, because they make getting loans a little easier,” he says.

While other banks have rigid demands to take out a loan that can’t be bent, he knows Adirondack Regional FCU is able to look beyond a balance sheet and make a loan based on the relationship they already have.

In fact, Christensen says, whenever Perfection Cleaning needs a new vehicle, the credit union already has most of the information it needs on file. So he can spend his time worrying about keeping other businesses looking good, and less time trying to convince a banker to finance a new truck.

That relationship means he can count on Adirondack Regional FCU to let him know if he’s out a little far over his skis, also. “Lauren always takes really good care of us,” he says of the Plattsburgh branch manager. “She’s given us good advice on what we should or shouldn’t get into.”

And in a time when the economic environment is a little uncertain, he knows it’s good to have a banking partner you can count on.

“All my friends complain every day about their banks,” Christensen says. “And I only have good things to say about mine.”