Shippensburg University is proud to announce Lance Hines-Butts as the second alumnus featured in the American the Entrepreneurial campaign, highlighting alumni who have gone on to build successful careers as entrepreneurs. Hines-Butts graduated from the John L. Grove College of Business with a bachelor’s in Entrepreneurship in 2022, and today, he owns LHB Clean Team, while also working as a real estate agent for Keller Williams of Central PA.
When he first toured Shippensburg University in 2017, he said the campus welcomed him. “Everybody was smiling; the sun was shining – I felt like I belonged here,” Hines-Butts shared. That sense of belonging helped pave the way to a notable presence at Ship, serving as a leader across campus and becoming a business owner while attending the university.
Raised in a family of business owners, Hines-Butts saw entrepreneurship as a way of life that came naturally to him. “I’ve always wanted to own multiple businesses,” he said. He chose Ship in part because its entrepreneurship program was among the few in Pennsylvania and was known for being a rigorous program.
His first business venture was a vending machine business, which he started as a source of passive income during his freshman year. The business provided a steady cash flow, but with vending machines placed throughout the Harrisburg area, it became challenging to regularly commute from Shippensburg to refill the machines. Ultimately, Hines-Butts decided to sell the vending machines – but he made a crucial mistake. Rather than marketing the cash-flowing locations as a packaged business, he sold the machines individually. This was a major lesson for him, one that he believes is worth sharing with young entrepreneurs, so they can avoid making the same mistake. “Sometimes you have to fail and make mistakes to learn,” he said.
While building his career as an entrepreneur, Hines-Butts became deeply engaged in student life. He served as vice president of Student Government, helped launch Bridging the Gap (now Bridge for Kids) to connect college students with local youth and inspired SUnity Week, a campus-wide celebration honoring the diverse cultures and backgrounds that bring the Ship community together.
As a full-time student and active campus leader, Hines-Butts found it challenging to manage working a job in between, and since he no longer had the vending machine business as passive income, he knew he had to come up with a new plan. Over the winter break period, his mother inspired him to take advantage of his entrepreneurial spirit and start another business, this time, with the potential of becoming something bigger. From there, he borrowed a commercial carpet-cleaning machine from his grandmother and started LHB Clean Team in 2019.
“What started as carpet cleaning turned into a full-service cleaning company,” Hines-Butts said. LHB Clean Team also services property management companies and professional offices throughout Central Pennsylvania. LHB eventually expanded to upholstery cleaning, tile and grout work and commercial contracts. Today, the company cleans vacant units for the Harrisburg Housing Authority, services buses for Rabbit Transit and Capital Area Transit and maintains facilities at the Harrisburg International Airport, including its private jet department. He shared that the company has plans to further diversify and commercially expand in 2026.
Real estate has also been an entrepreneurial pursuit for Hines-Butts. In 2021, he earned his real estate license and owned his first investment property, a property in Harrisburg. With his background as a certified electrician and jack of all trades, Hines-Butts was able to flip the property and sell it for a substantial gain, which he used to finance his education at Ship.
To entrepreneurial students looking to follow a similar path, he advises them to think strategically. “Have a plan. Have systems and processes in place,” Hines-Butts told students. He urged aspiring entrepreneurs to draft business plans, document operational steps, and install processes so operations can run efficiently. He also relays the message he learned during his time in Ship’s entrepreneurship program: “Always know your numbers, and always make sure your business is sellable.” For him, a sellable business is organized, has clear finances, repeatable processes and trustworthy staff.
Moving forward, Hines-Butts plans to continue to grow his company, positioning LHB as “the go-to cleaning company in central Pennsylvania,” and he also plans to become a real estate developer. Aside from his entrepreneurial pursuits, Hines-Butts serves as District Youth Department President for Upon This Rock Ministries and sits on the Shippensburg University Alumni Board of Directors.
Being selected for the America the Entrepreneurial campaign, along with supporting the promotion of the planned Charles H. Diller Jr. Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and Innovation renovation as a hub for student entrepreneurial opportunities, resonated with Hines-Butts. “It means a lot to me. Without the entrepreneurial program and opportunities at Ship, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Hines-Butts credits several people for shaping his entrepreneurial spirit and drive. First, he thanked his grandmother, who ran a daycare and lent him the equipment to start his cleaning business. He also acknowledged his mother and late grandfather, whose work ethic inspired him, and his cousins in Charlotte, who owned a successful business and showed him that “successful people can look like me.”
He also paid homage to the late Ms. Diane Jefferson (Ms. Di), who he says strongly believed in him. Hines-Butts served in leadership roles and participated in organizations connected to the Diane L. Jefferson Multicultural Student Affairs, including advising and mentoring multicultural student groups, helping organize cultural programming, volunteering in community outreach initiatives coordinated by the office, participating in university-wide and inclusion committees and collaborating with local nonprofits on programs launched through the office.
As Shippensburg celebrates Black History Month and successful business leaders, the university is honored to feature alumni like Lances-Hines Butts, who exemplify how hard work, dedication, service and having an entrepreneurial spirit can inspire others.
