February 4, 2025 • 37 mins
Our latest episode dives into five crucial mistakes we made while starting our cleaning business, sharing valuable insights on how to avoid these pitfalls. From the importance of delegation and proper pricing to the need for reviews and embracing automation, we cover the essential lessons learned for anyone looking to thrive in this industry.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Starting a business is hard, so don't make it harder
by repeating these fivemistakes that we made.
That nearly cost us our successin the very beginning.
So we're going to talk abouthow we turn these challenges
into lessons, and it helped usscale a seven-figure cleaning
business without cleaning asingle home.
You guys are new here.
We are the Heart Zogs.
My name is Anthony.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
And I'm Janoka, and thank you for returning for
another episode of More Than aSide Hustle podcast.
As you said, we're going to betalking about five mistakes that
you shouldn't make whenstarting a cleaning business.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah.
So before we get to that, wewant to just thank you guys for
being here.
If you are brand new, wepromise as you go through, we're
going to talk about fiveclosing mistakes that we made
starting a cleaning business and, more importantly, how you can
avoid them as well, but thenalso, we're going to give you a
lot of game, a lot of insightson how we scaled our business
over seven figures.
No-transcript.
(01:13):
What was the one?
What is the?
What was one of the mostchallenging things about a
business?
Speaker 1 (01:17):
and he said the people yes, and I was like even
as a barber.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
he's like the people and people and I was like yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
What else did he say?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So, no, I don't want to get into too much, you know
as a person, but I just thinkabout any business.
I was like the next business westart, how can we do one
without people?
It has to be AI, it has to beautomations, it has to be
technology, it might have to berobots, but people no.
No matter what business youstart, people are going to be
one of the most pressing thingsthat you guys could deal with in
any way, shape or form.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Service-based businesses I mean, which almost
every business deals with people, but specifically service-based
business.
You see people are going to.
You see the range of emotions,attitudes, moods, all of the
things.
So if you're one like I, can'thandle that maybe don't get into
a service-based business orhave someone else do the
people-facing part for you.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, I was talking to a cleaning business owner and
she was like yeah, I think I'mdoing well, but the hardest part
is hiring and people.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
And I was like, yeah, yeah, we mentioned that from
the very beginning.
The hardest part of thebusiness is hiring good people,
and of the mistakes we made inregards to just hiring and just
people in general, that you guyscan learn from um.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
You want to dive in?
Yep, we.
The first thing we're going tostart with is delegation but.
I think that before we get there, I want to give people some
some background.
Oh, okay, so if you guys don'tknow, we started a, an online
cleaning business, back in 2017.
You may be asking what's anonline cleaning business?
Essentially?
Um, you've seen the word remotecleaning business around a lot,
and essentially we delegate theworkout to team members and
they go out and do the fulfillthe jobs for us.
So if you think about the Ubers,you think about the lifts, you
(02:53):
think about the Airbnbs, youthink about DoorDash, all these
companies have the same exactbusiness model.
Uber doesn't own any cars.
Airbnb doesn't own any hotels.
Doordash doesn't even own asingle restaurant.
Essentially, what they do isthey connect you with people who
are already doing the work.
So, let's say, you already havea car or you're already
cleaning.
We connect you with people whoare already cleaning.
So that's how we've beenrunning our cleaning business
(03:14):
for the last seven years andwe've scaled it to over a couple
million dollars and we've doneover 10,000 jobs, to give you
some context.
So you're talking, you'relistening to people who have
done this over the course ofalmost a decade but then also
have made a few million dollars,and also we've done it over
10,000 times, and they say thatyou should do a task at least
10,000 times to have a masteryof it.
(03:35):
So I can say 10,000 is a lot10,000 hours, it might be 10,000
hours.
I was to say 10,000 times.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I don't even know if I worked out 10,000 hours.
I was about to say 10,000 times.
I don't even know if I workedout 10,000 times and I feel like
I didn't tell people.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I think it's 10,000 hours.
You worked out over 10,000hours maybe.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Not times, but maybe hours.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Maybe hours when I was speaking about delegation.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
The first thing is delegation and when I was
speaking about that I wanted tobring to the delegation of that.
But more about the delegationof the back end and I want to
say that the cleaning businesswas our first business ever, so,
(04:13):
starting out, it took us a longtime to delegate.
And you may be somebody thatyou're just starting out and you
don't want to delegate anythingout because you want to keep it
all to yourself.
So managing the client,scheduling, marketing, all these
things, you are like I can doit, I can figure it out, which
is totally fine, I get it.
Just starting out.
You may not have that muchrevenue coming in and you're
(04:33):
wanting to take it all you know,handle all of it, but it also
can stop your growth to behandling everything One, you
don't know everything.
So if this is your firstbusiness, the way it was, ours
you don't know everything.
So if this is your firstbusiness, the way it was ours,
you absolutely do not knoweverything.
You may speak to people, but atthe same time there are people
(04:54):
that can do things better thanyou and at the end, at the end
of the day, that ends upbringing you even more revenue
in.
For example, you know, at onepoint we were taking all the
phone calls.
Totally fine to take all yourphone calls, but it was
something in our growth becausewe started to lose calls.
And then we also started tothink well, nobody's going to
close these leads as quickly aswe will.
You know are as good as we will.
No one's going to get the jobsas good as we will.
(05:14):
Got a VA in place eventually andthey started killing it.
We couldn't pick up all thosecalls, so we were already losing
money in that way.
So delegation in differentparts of the business is
necessary to grow, I would say.
But I know that for us startingout it's a hard concept to want
to give up One money-wise, andtwo.
(05:36):
You just feel like you can doit better, which you may, but it
still may be stopping you fromgrowing and doing better and
getting more money in yourbusiness.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah, one of the things about and so one of the
questions I'm going to ask iswell, how can I delegate if I'm
brand new and I have no moneycoming in?
So I would give everyone, if wecan make this actionable, like
a task list so you could writedown every single task you do in
your business, like literallyevery single task you do in your
business.
And I'm literally reading thisbook called Buy Back your Time
(06:02):
and you guys can actually takethis exercise.
It's over here.
It's not that that's not thebook, it's over here.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
There's another one, though that's not the book.
Yeah, but I was going to showanother one.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Oh, okay, so you could take every single task
that you're doing.
So right now I'm doing an auditof my time and column number
one is going to be the task andcolumn number three is going to
be the dollar value that youassign to that task.
So let's say, picking up thephones like that's sales.
So column number one likeyou're going to say 12 to 1230
(06:32):
sales calls or 12 to one salescalls, and dollar value is going
to be probably the highestamount of value that you can
create in the business is salescalls that's going to be $4
signs.
And let's say you're taking outthe trash or answering emails,
that might be $1 sign.
So you're going to sign everysingle part of your day and a
dollar value amounted to it.
And you're also going to decideis this a task that gives me joy
(06:55):
or do I absolutely hate thistask?
So if it's a $1 sign and it'sred, meaning you hate it, you're
going to start delegating thosetasks so you can go through
your.
I'm literally going to exercisemyself so you could use this
framework to kind of go throughand see the things that you need
to delegate.
But start by creating a list ofall the tasks you have day to
day in your business so you canstart to see what can be
outsourced to people and I thinktoo many times we tend to
(07:16):
outsource when we reach ourbreaking point.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
so, for example, that time when I remember it was
valentine's some year, let's sayI want to say 2020, maybe.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
No, I think the trip we went on was the breaking
point.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Which one?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I don't know what trip we were on, but you were
answering a client call.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Houston for my birthday.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
We wasn't in Houston, we were in somewhere tropical.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Mexico.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
No, it wasn't Mexico.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I remember overseeing water.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I could pull up the picture.
So I wasn't it Mexico.
I could pull up the picture itmight have been Mexico, but
anyway, no, it wasn't Mexicobecause we had poor reception.
Essentially, we were somewheretropical enjoying our trip, and
what happened was is that aclient had an issue and we
decided that we were going tofix it.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
The part, the one that I was thinking about was it
was Valentine's Day of 2020.
And we had a client issue thatwas ongoing and it spilled into
us not doing anything or wantingto go out at all, and after
we're like we have to go out,it's Valentine's Day, we don't
want to stay in this house, butmore than likely a lot of times
we don't get the help ordelegate until it's a breaking
(08:21):
point and then you're likerushing to get you know to
delegate it out, versus doing itahead of the time, when you
have time to kind of make yourSOPs or think about how you do
things.
So that's another thing.
Try to get ahead of that.
If you see calls are startingto rev up, don't wait to the
point that you absolutely can'ttake calls and you just want to
pour it on someone, because thenthat becomes poor training,
that becomes frustration, all ofthose things.
(08:41):
So I think that's important aswell.
Whenever you are getting tothat point, try to delegate
prior to the point of when youabsolutely need it.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
And that happened with two of our students as well
.
They were on vacation just likeus, and before they went on
vacation, oh, they were like ona catamaran.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
They was on a catamaran when they was on
vacation.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
It was like we're trying to do these customer
services while we're on.
This catamaran Service is rockyand now, as soon as we get back
, it's like we got to hire, wegot to get somebody in, we got
to rush the training process.
It's like whoa slow down thereOn vacation getting calls.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You're like, ma'am, I don't care what cleaning you
just had, that's what you'rethinking tasks earlier, sooner
than later, even if you don'thave the money yet, so that you
can you realize you will makemore money off the things you
delegate, because now you couldspend more time doing the things
that actually bring you moneyand I also think the other other
(09:32):
thing is the thought of vas andai and the world that we live
in now.
You, a lot of people, don'teven know how much it costs.
They're like I can't afford ava.
Right, you may have come intothis business with a substantial
amount of money ready to investinto your business and things
like that.
You may have the money for a va.
You're just assuming it's waytoo expensive.
You know, if you're going out ofthe country, it doesn't really.
(09:54):
It's really not, um, thatpricey.
Maybe you just have somebodypart-time.
It doesn't have to be full-time.
So try to think that way.
Think of it in that way thateverything you may be able to
afford it and you don't evenknow it.
You're just assuming that youcan't, which I've seen a lot of
times with students.
When we talk about, they'relike oh, didn't think about that
, didn't even think about doingpart time.
You know all of these things,and that's something else to
(10:14):
consider.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So that was number one delegation.
You know, now that we've beenin business going on eight years
, that's a no-brainer for us,like if somebody else could do
it, take it.
We don't need to do it all.
If it makes sense, obviously,we don't need to do it all.
If they're expert at what it is, it's going to bring us more
money, it's going to bring usmore time.
Then go ahead.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
So yeah, that's the first thing, when you, when you
think about delegation, thinkabout it bringing, you're using
your time now to do morevaluable things in your business
and you can offset some ofthose less monetary tasks
earlier on.
So we're going to talk aboutnumber two.
It's going to be pricing toolow in the beginning, so
underpricing your servicesimpact your revenue and
confidence.
Where do you want to go withthat one?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
So pricing is, I would say, contractors, and then
pricing is like the two hottopics in our community almost
all the time when.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I think about that, but the fear of charging too
much.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Charging too much and how it holds you back Charging
too much.
You think you're charging toomuch, but you're actually
charging too low.
And I think one thing thatyou've said in the past is, if
you don't have any room on yourbooks or if you're like whatever
it is, whatever you do, you'reprobably pricing too low.
You're probably charging toolow because everybody has access
to you, everybody can book withyou, and I know you may be like
(11:28):
, well, I want that, but thenyou're pushing people out that
you may not be able to get, sopricing too low.
I think people are just afraidof the whole pricing thing.
In general, it seems like maybe,oh, I wouldn't pay for this, so
this seems too high.
Or you know I wouldn't pay forthis, so this seems too high.
Or, you know, I've never knownanybody to do this, so I don't
know if I should price this way.
And you tend to go lower justto get the customer.
(11:48):
But you'll learn, you have tolearn it sometimes on your own.
Just because you lower theprice, that can mean a whole
different type of clientele anddifferent demographic that you
bring in.
So being open to that, justknowing that there's a different
clientele from a steakhousethan mcdonald's, right, it just
is.
The way I show up isdifferently, just a whole
different clientele I can wear atuxedo to mcdonald's you can do
(12:11):
what you want.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
It's a different clientele.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Let's be clear, rolling in there, then rolling
into a steakhouse, so it's thesame thing in that way.
So we tend to, as new businessI'm speaking of like a new
business owner we tend to kindof price lower because we're
scared, um, but price it, testit out and then see right, and
you have to cover your expenses.
So you scared about everybodyelse.
(12:34):
What about the money that youneed to make?
That's just as important.
Like this is a business.
At the end of the day, you needto make some money, money.
So pricing yourself too low,even though it feels like what
I'm getting more people,sometimes it's not the best.
It kind of goes back to what wetalk about, like all money
isn't good money.
It goes back to that and Ithink that people have to learn
that.
For some reason we try to tellyou guys, but you have to feel
(12:56):
it and be like yeah, I went down60 dollars for this customer.
We did all these things, wewent above and beyond and she
still left us a bad reviewbecause the door was left open.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I don't know.
We'll talk about that.
We'll talk about that.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
But just an example of how things kind of transpire
when you go lower and then ifyou start your business, we
always tell people to do marketresearch.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
So if you go through your competitors in your area,
no matter you find out whatthey're charging, you may see a
range of people.
You may see people chargingthree, four, five times what
you're charging.
You may see people chargingthree, four, five times less.
If you find out what theaverage is, you can see okay,
here's what the average marketrate is going in my area.
You can start there and thendecide am I going to go higher
(13:35):
than that?
Am I going to go lower thanthat?
And that gives you a good rangeIf the Average is, let's say,
$250.
Like, all right, I'm rightwhere I need to be, because
that's where our competitors arecharging.
And even from there you couldalso go and see what they're
doing well, things they're notdoing well, how can I improve on
?
Like, for example, I just got amessage on one of our ads that
I called a bunch of cleaningcompanies in my area and nobody
(13:57):
picked up the phone.
Like, why is that?
And I'm telling you, these areways that you could beat the
competition from day one.
So if your prices are a littlebit higher and we're going to
talk about a little bit ofautomation and stuff like that.
But if your prices are a littlebit higher, you can now justify
.
We got automations, we gotsystems, we got team members in
place.
We got all these things thatwe're doing to make our customer
experience better.
You can now justify a higherprice target for your services.
(14:20):
And even if we talk about ifyou guys don't know, we have a
platform, a program calledCleaning Business University.
We teach you how to do thesethings inside of your cleaning
business.
You can click the link anywherearound this page.
But even inside of that program, we raise the prices over time
because we're giving all of ourbetter experience.
Now we got a full-timeoperations manager.
We got team members that answerclient's messages.
(14:41):
We got customer service reps.
We we got team members thatanswer client's messages.
We got customer service reps.
We got all these thingshappening that allows us to give
our clients a better experience.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
And that's the same thing, just with the cleaning
business when you reach to apoint where you're ready to
raise your prices and you mayhave some clients that have been
on with you for a while I mean,you've all been part of people
raising their prices.
You go to service-based placesYou're Nails, you're here.
You're Bart places your nails,your hair, your bar, whatever.
They raise their prices almostyearly or whatever, and they
have an explanation behind it.
You either stick with it or youdon't, right?
So just kind of letting yourclients know the value behind
(15:09):
the reason you're raising yourprices.
I background check my people,like you know.
We have this guarantee.
There's so many things andpeople are willing to listen and
flow with it most of the times,but a lot of times us, as
business owners, we're tooafraid to ask for it or we're
too afraid to do it.
But don't be okay, um, raisethat price and you will find
you'll, we'll find your sweetspot.
(15:34):
I would say sometimes you mayhave to go down a little bit,
but don't start so low, causethen it's harder to raise your
price, right?
You know it's hard to tellsomebody yeah, we're going to,
it's going to be be 50 extra now, huh, yeah, what, like that's a
little harder than you startingsomewhere and maybe having to
reduce by 10, 15.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So if you think about tesla, their business model was
they had the highest end uh,like gas, not gas um, electric
cars, and it was 150 000, andthen they worked their way back
all the way down to 3030,000.
And those were absolutely crazy, right, because you wanted that
same experience from thathigher end car and a more
affordable model.
(16:08):
And if you think about VeraWang.
Vera Wang has wedding dresses,right, and Vera Wang is very
high end.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
But then now.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
But she also has low end ones, yeah, she didn't start
from the low end and work tillway up.
If you think about all thebusiness models that work like
that, they usually start at thehigher end right.
They want the highest endclients and they work their way
back to different targets anddemographics.
So you guys can use that same.
You can use the Tesla businessmodel today in your business.
Start at the highest end andwork your way back.
You want to be the what was it?
(16:35):
The Model S, whatever it was tostart, and then now they got
the Model.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
The little baby one.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, the model, the little baby one, yeah, the
little baby tesla.
Right, so the little baby tesla.
Literally, when I see him Idon't want the little baby tesla
.
But listen, if you can't,everybody can't get the model x,
some people gotta get thelittle baby tesla.
So think about it that way,guys that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
That needs to be a clip so the first two we just
spoke about in regards tomistakes that we've made in the
cleaning business, one was notdelegating quick enough and then
number two was, I forget,already pricing too low.
The third one now is notfocusing on reviews and that's
social proof that's such a likea simple thing, but it doesn't
(17:18):
happen.
And the first thing I try totell our students, or just try
to tell yourself, is, when youare looking to buy something, go
somewhere, the first thing youdo is look at the reviews.
That's the first thing you do.
If it's on Yelp or Google.
If you're going somewhere arestaurant, whatever TripAdvisor
, tripadvisor, any of theseplaces or if you're buying
something from any of theseplatforms, you look at the
(17:39):
reviews that they've given theclothings or the bags that
people have written Likeplatforms.
You look at the reviews thatthey've given the clothings or
the bags that people havewritten like.
You always look at reviews.
So it is just as important foryour business to make sure that
you are getting reviews andfocusing on getting these
reviews.
We always preach that we callevery single client after every
single cleaning.
Maybe not our reoccurring isnot so frequently, but we still
call them just not every singlereoccurring.
(18:01):
And we have students that arelike, oh well, I didn't just
call them because I'm like, okay, you're just starting out, you
have 20 clients, you have thetime to call them, you have the
time to focus and find out howyour services is doing.
How does the client feel aboutbooking online?
How does the client feel aboutthe emails, about you guys
coming on time about theproducts you're using?
(18:22):
I don't know the clean, all ofthese things?
You can do market research byjust speaking to the clients and
you're not doing it.
You, I'm talking to you.
I know you're not doing it.
You're not calling every clientto get the review.
You need to call to get areview and ask for the review,
because that's another thing Iknow people get like well,
should I ask for it?
Absolutely, ask for what youwant, absolutely.
We went to St Martin for ourcousin's birthday and after we
(18:46):
did what was it?
Atv?
I don't remember what we did.
We did something.
We came back to the store.
They're like we'll give you ashot and a t-shirt if you write
us a review right now A shot anda t-shirt On TripAdvisor A a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
They said they will give you a shot and a t-shirt if
you leave us a review onTripAdvisor.
But they didn't just say leaveus a review on TripAdvisor.
They said leave us a review nowon.
TripAdvisor In the store Rightnow.
So you are losing out oncustomers who are extremely
satisfied with your services bynot getting that review in real
time because you are afraid ofthem saying no or not even.
They won't even say no.
(19:20):
They said I'll get back to youor I'll do it later.
Now, what incentives can weprovide the client?
You might lose a little moneyon the front end, but you're
like, if I could provide anincentive to this client to just
get this done now.
It takes less than five minutesto do so and it doesn't even
break a sweat for them to do it.
But we have to put a little bitof pressure and we didn't do
this in the beginning as well.
This is why this these aremistakes that we made as well.
(19:41):
Now we got over 500 plusreviews, but in the beginning we
weren't pressing these things,even though if we would call
them, we would text them allright.
Then they leave us a review.
We'll move on.
Now you want to, let's say,after every single cleaning.
You are now calling the client,you're getting them on the
phone.
You're asking them to to dothis.
Today we are able to do X, yand Z.
We're able to give you anincentive for your next cleaning
(20:03):
or something like that.
Okay, cool, we found that wewere able to get more reviews by
just asking for more up frontand giving them something in
return, so that they gotsomething tangible that they
could use today, and then so dowe, so that gives them more of
an incentive to leave it today.
So do not take that partlightly.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And when you focus on that, the reviews make you more
money.
I mean you're thinking of it aslike oh well, it's not such a
big deal.
The reviews make you more moneyCause people go on and see the
reviews and they're like okay, Itrust this company enough to
give them my money withoutspeaking to someone.
With speaking to someone,whatever it may be, but in the
long, reviews is important.
So just set something up foryourself Like how can I get five
(20:42):
more reviews this month,depending on how many clients
you have?
Like, what can I do to makesure I get more reviews this
month, whenever month you'relistening to this podcast?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Put that in your goal .
Put that in your goal sheet.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
What can I do to 10% more reviews than I got the
previous month or the previousyear?
Do you know how many reviewsyou got last year?
We do no reviews.
You got last year.
I don't do no, we do.
You do yeah, for our cleaningbusiness.
How much was it?
uh, 85, 85 no, no it was 105,which was 20 more from the last
year, was about 85.
So, okay, yeah, so how manyreviews did you get?
(21:14):
That breaks down to how many.
How many bookings did I have?
Should I have gotten more?
What did I do?
I mean, a lot of people don'trespond.
I get that, but, like, is thereother things that can be done to
make sure that we do get thereview if they are happy with it
, all of these things beingintentional.
If you're like, well, we'retrying and it's not working,
maybe you need to try whatyou're saying, change up your
script, maybe it's tired.
If you tried for five months,you're not getting a review.
(21:36):
It's something Right.
So, all of those things youneed to consider when it comes
to reviews.
That's a huge focus that Ithink slips by for people
because it doesn't seem assomething that would make you
money right away.
But it's just as importantbecause social proof is
everything.
No matter whatever you purchaseonline, which we purchase our
world online you look at thereviews Amazon, wherever you go,
(22:02):
you're looking at the reviewsbefore you do it.
So why wouldn't you treat yourbusiness the same way and think
of how the customer is gonnaexperience your business?
Speaker 2 (22:06):
all right, and next one is I'll skip this one.
We'll put this one last, butI'll, since we're talking about
getting reviews and someconsistent follow-ups you want
to talk about.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
We'll talk about neglecting automation early on
well, speak about whatautomation even is, because I
don't think we spoke.
It wasn't spoken about as much.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I feel back today don't worry, I'm gonna do a
whole episode on automation, butfor example um.
Automation are things that youwould manually do, like
invoicing, scheduling, review,follow-ups, lead management,
lead nurture.
And the lead nurture sequenceis just a lead comes into your
business.
They don't book.
They don't book with yourservices.
Now they go through emails andtext messages, follow-ups and
funnels where you aren't havingto manually do that work.
(22:45):
So anything that you wouldthink about you were doing
manually in your business.
That's what automation wouldtake over.
So, for example, we justsomehow um reviews.
So neglecting reviews orneglecting automation earlier on
is something that we we shouldhave definitely taken advantage
of.
But ai automation was not whatit is today, where it was seven,
eight years ago.
So let's go back to that.
(23:07):
Review part of things, right?
So if you have this ability todo this today, so after a client
says they're extremely happywith your services, you call
them and text them.
They don't leave you a review.
Okay, you're like, all right,most of the time we're like you
know what, moving on, weappreciate it.
Thank you, maybe we'll get themon the next go around or next
thing, right, most of the timethat's not going to happen.
So, having an automation inplace where this client did not
(23:30):
leave me a review, now we'regoing to request it and give
them more incentives over thenext couple days so that they
could go back and leave thatreview, so that we could be on
top of mind when they're readyto book or when they're ready to
get their next service orwhatever it may be.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So those are some things that you use automation
for when it comes to review,management, reputation
management and, like you said,automation saves you on time, so
it saves you on money, it savesyou on things that and you may
be like I don't know where tostart.
I think it goes back to youwhat you're saying, like making
those that list of things you'redoing and if you figure out
delegating, does this delegateto a person?
(24:03):
Does this delegate to automation?
You know what I mean?
Does it mean that I can have anautomatic email that goes out
three times a week versus mewriting it?
Things like that.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
And that's a good point too, because when we ask
people and I ask them what'stheir are you currently emailing
and just letting clients knowthat you exist?
And most of the time they'relike I was like last time you've
done it, like oh three monthsago and we made that same
mistake too.
We had an email list ofthousands of people that we
never even reached back out to,like year one or year two.
It was like, all right, well,they booked us once.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Hopefully they come back and I always give that
analogy with these big companiesall of of them Amazon, uber,
airbnb, target, macy's.
Victoria's Secret SephoraLiterally all of them are
emailing multiple times andthese are billion billion dollar
companies Emailing multipletimes.
Target don't text me, butemailing multiple times a week
(24:55):
about their newsletter, theirads oh, you missed it.
Whatever, it doesn't matter.
They're emailing and you arenot emailing at all and you
think that people are going toremember your services.
There's no reason for them tostay top of mind.
You don't have to always askfor something, meaning you don't
have to always ask for a sale,but there's something called
nurturing.
So just sending tips oncleaning or whatever.
Happy holidays, make sure youbook.
(25:16):
You know whatever it may be,following up with the clients.
Part of that automations issomething that was a huge
mistake where you're leaving somuch money behind.
We are specific in breakingdown, like okay, between texts,
callbacks and emails.
How much money are we bringingin every month?
that's important for us to makesure that we're aware of and
sometimes it's fifteen thousanddollars that we brought back in
(25:40):
because we decided to reach backout via text, email or phone
call.
That you are not doing andyou're just like, oh yeah, I got
it, like he said that we didbefore.
So that is a huge opportunity.
Following up with clients is ahuge opportunity that we missed
out on for years, but we ain'tmissing it now and we're making
sure that you know that if thatbecomes automated, that becomes
(26:02):
manual, it needs to get doneregardless, absolutely to
clients again and if you guysneed a tool to do that, you can
check out tidy trackio,essentially all-in-one crm,
built to transform your cleaningbusiness, streamlining your
operations, automationsrepetitive tasks, and helps you
scale your residential cleaningcompany.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
This is software that we use and actually we've been
using it for quite some time now.
We actually own the company.
Okay, well, you had a longpause I was going to say, but
essentially we createdautomation because we knew the
challenges that our students had.
So if you want to check outtidytrackio, we'll put the link
in the show notes and it helpswith all these tasks we're
talking about as well,especially the automation.
That's why we built it, becausewe heard the challenges that
(26:40):
our students had, because thoseare the same challenges we had
when we first launched ourcleaning business.
Like, I don't know what emailto write.
Here's the emails in a sequence.
I don't know what text messagesto send.
Here's the text messages tosend.
I don't know how to get reviews.
Here's how you get reviews anyof these email and text message
(27:04):
softwares.
But you need to be utilizing AIin your businesses and
automation so that you canstreamline those processes that
you are doing day in and day out.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
But even with those platforms.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
So check out TeddyTrackio, don't check out
anything else that I said.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Even with those platforms you mentioned, you
still service to email, but youstill gotta write it, the copy.
I should say absolutely, um, sowhere do we?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
oh, number five, so just to recap, oh sorry, recap
yeah, because depending on whereyou start in they nobody's
starting the middle of a podcastepisode at the end that's fair.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
So number five trying to serve everyone is the last
mistake that we've made.
Um, when it comes to ourcleaning business and getting up
and running Back to thatpricing yourself lower because
you want everybody, all moneyain't good money.
Trying to serve everyone, likeyou know, somebody calls in and
you're taking off this and Ionly want one room and I don't
want the carpet and I don't want.
(27:57):
Sometimes it's okay to say like, okay, I don't think we're the
cleaning service for you becausewe like to do the full package
or whatever the case may be.
Trying to serve everyone in anybusiness, I think is a mindset
of someone that's just startingout.
Because you want all the money,you're scared to lose the
business.
You got a client on the phone,you're nervous, you just want to
get them in, but you willrealize over time that not
(28:20):
everyone is for you and that'stotally okay.
And that's one of those thingsagain, that somehow some reason
people need to learn, versusjust listen to us on the podcast
when we're telling you this.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
But for some reason people need to feel that no good
, it's telling you guys how itis, and I was.
I was literally talking to astudent and she said I know I
shouldn't have taken this clientin and you always know, though,
whenever you, you always know,stop trying service anyone.
That's how she started hersentence.
She went to this long story andI was like everything that
you're telling me they told youon the phone and you knew it was
(28:48):
a red flag and you felt it.
You felt it was a red flag andyou continued to move on anyway.
So stop trying to serveeveryone in your business.
Find out what type of clientsare your most your favorite
clients to work with your idealclient yeah, your ideal clients
where they live at, what do theydo, so that you could start to
put a client profile together,so that when this type of client
comes in, who are we serving?
And then your marketing andyour targeting could actually be
(29:08):
more effective when you knowthe type of people you're
looking for.
If you're looking for moreelderly people, you might have
an elderly person in your ad.
If you're looking for moms andpops or busy entrepreneurs, you
might have those type of peoplein your marketing, your ads,
your emails, so that you canknow how to service those people
, because those are your idealclients you were talking about.
We were just talking abouttrying to serve everyone and
challenges.
We've done that as well tryingto serve everyone, saying yes to
(29:31):
people where we knew they werered flags and more than likely
your red flag clients will letyou know they are a red flag.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
One.
Okay, did you have anythingelse to say with that?
Speaker 2 (29:43):
So be slow to hire and quick to fire.
So our hiring process.
I want to break down what ahiring process is, because
people ask us all the time.
It's like, oh, you fire peopleoff the street and you just
bring them into the people'shomes and I want to say no, stop
commenting on ads, thinking youknow everything about how we do
things, so I'm going to breakit down and I personally listen
to this, by the way, but'tlistening.
I'm sure if you've seen one ofour ads you thought like, oh,
(30:03):
we're bringing people up thestreet and sending them to
people's homes.
That's not how we run ourcleaning business.
So, for example, we have a verystructured job ad that we send
to that we post online.
No-transcript people apply tothe job that they see.
(30:30):
Out of those a hundred people,there is a job ad, then there's
a qualifier, so they'll see alink and then they go to the
qualifier on our webpage.
On some specific things aboutinsurance Are you background
checked?
Do you have?
Are you willing to getinsurance?
If you don't have it, how longyou been cleaning?
Who you been cleaning for?
That application itself weedsout the other 50% of people.
So out of the 100 people thatapplied, 50% of people are not
(30:52):
making it through theapplication.
Let's say 25 people make itthrough the application.
Now there is a interviewscheduler so you have to go
through and schedule yourinterview and if you don't show
up to that interview actuallythe day before, are you still
interested in this job?
Are you going to show up?
Respond to this.
If you don't, your interviewwill be canceled.
Out of those 25 people, we mayget 10 people on the phone.
(31:14):
So out of those 10 people wemay talk to five, because even
if they aren't, even if they arequalified and they say they're
going to show up, they probablywon't be on that call.
So out of those five peoplethat we actually interviewed,
then we do the background check,we do the insurance, we do the
first test job, we do all ofthose things and then out of
those five people you might haveone.
If that so our hiring process.
And now it's at the point wherewe are not trying to get
(31:36):
everyone in, we only want themost qualified people.
So that's our hiring process indetail, so that we are making
sure we are not we are hiringslow and we are firing fast
going back to trying to serveeveryone we don't need.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
We don't need everyone that's going to be
working for us, because that hasbit us in the you know what in
the past.
What was an?
Speaker 2 (31:53):
example of that wasn't?
Uh, there was one time somebodydidn't have a bank account.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Oh who.
What was the couple?
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I don't even remember so we had a couple that worked
with us at one point.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
We had a few couples before.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Well, one couple.
We knew that they weren't agood fit and I wanted to take a
chance on them.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Oh, that couple I forgot.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
I be trying to serve people, guys.
I think I am a servant at heartand I think somebody called me
a narcissist because I feel likeI can save everyone and I
didn't example and I was like wecould help them out.
They're a black, not everybodycan be helped.
Let's give them the benefit ofthe doubt janelle was like no,
they are not a good fit, weshould not do it.
And she said they're not a goodfit because of this, this, this
(32:28):
and this.
I was like, well, let's lookpast all of that and, long story
short, all the red flags.
You sound like a woman.
We look past all the red flagsand, honestly, they were not a
good fit for us and we shouldn'thave.
We shouldn't have hired them,we shouldn't have kept them so
long.
But you live and you learn, andthat's it.
Listen to your wife more of thestory.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
That's the end of the story, but the bonus I did have
about um one more mistake thatwe've made in regards to
starting our cleaning businesswas not putting money into
marketing fast enough um andthat, once again, I think goes
back to being the first timebusiness owner and really trying
to pinch pennies, if you will.
That's a lot of times we start.
(33:06):
This is our last dime, etcetera, et cetera.
And in order to make money, youhave to put money out there,
like you have to pay to play.
You know that's about sayingpay to play.
So in order to get customersand get clients, you have to
market yourself.
Now can you do word of mouth?
(33:27):
Absolutely Majority of you guysare not going to, though A lot
of people say I don't wantpeople in my business, I don't
want the person at church, Idon't want the person at home at
work, I don't want nobody toknow I got this business, so
y'all ain't telling anyway socan you make money from word of
mouth?
Speaker 2 (33:45):
go for it, you should .
I would if.
If we were back in new york, wedefinitely would have done that
.
One of our students, uh,stephanie, she did like 20
clients her first month inbusiness because she told
everybody her job, everybodywherever she was at.
So that's example word, that'san example.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
But many people do not do that.
But you have to put money into.
We don't have nobody to tell,that's true.
So you have to put money intomarketing to get people in to
see you, because even if you doword of mouth, at some point
that's going to run out.
You don't know that many people.
Putting money into marketingallows strangers and other
people that you would have neverseen your business, see your
(34:15):
business and then book yourservices because you got all
those reviews, remember, um?
So then they will book yourservices.
Right, you got to put the moneyin.
Now I'm not saying you jumpinto $3,000 a month somewhere,
but you got to put it in slowly,build it up, build it up.
Sometimes you'll be like, oh,I'm losing money, but you're
getting leads, right, you're not.
A lot of times we feel like Iput $300 in and I only got $400
(34:37):
in clean, so it really wasn'tworth it.
But you got seven or eightleads that you can remarket to
and send those emails to andtext you know.
So you are getting leads and itmay not feel like an automatic
ROI or automatic win whereyou're getting money back, but
you are, you know, in some point.
So I think it's important tonote.
That's something that was, Ithink, hard for me as well, like
putting more money intomarketing because it feels like,
(34:59):
no, I want to hold on to it andno, I'm not seeing it right
away maybe, but that isimportant for you to get to even
have a business Like how dopeople know you exist if you're
not putting any marketingdollars out there?
How do they know who you are?
They're not going to just findyou randomly.
So that's important to makesure that's.
Number six costing mistake thatmany people would make, and we
had made, is to put money intomarketing.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Marketing is an investment, not an expense.
Yes, and going back to whatJanoke said, like Facebook ads
we were putting, I think theamount of money we put into
Facebook ads was I think wetried it for like a month or so,
we were playing around with it.
I think we put like $300, $400into it and we had 21 leads and
nobody booked.
And I'm like these leads arenot good, they're not ideal, but
then our follow-ups, ournurture, our automation brought
(35:45):
us to like an $800, $900 booking.
Yeah, Like an $800, $900 bookingon the back end of those leads.
So you might say today I put in$300, I got nothing.
But 30 days from today, oh, oneof those leads actually closed.
Now does that even become arecurring client?
So now you put $300 in, you gotthat $800 booking and then they
booked you again 250, 250, 250,250.
(36:05):
So you turn that 300 into acouple of thousand dollars
because that client actuallyclosed long-term nurture
sequence that you put in placeusing your automations.
So don't think about marketingas an expense.
Think about it as an investmentin your business, because if
nobody knows you, how are theygoing to support you?
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yes, those are the mistakes that we've made.
We want to make sure that weshare that.
It's the top of the year.
People are starting theirbusinesses.
You're getting your goalsstarted and use this information
.
I'm sure there's something youcan take from it that you are
not doing in your business rightnow, and this is just a way to
kind of get you jumpstarted intoyour, your year to make sure
you crush your business, crushthose goals by not making these
(36:43):
mistakes.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Have you guys made any of these mistakes in the
past?
Let us know in the comments,and also let us know how you
overcame them.
What's the mistake you'recurrently working through as
well?
Share with us so that we couldhelp you and guide you, and we
encourage you to connect with uson social media Instagram,
youtube, follow us and alsosubscribe to the page if you are
(37:05):
here.
Did you know?
Speaker 1 (37:05):
most people watching our videos are not subscribed,
that's shade.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
So just letting you guys know the Heart.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Chimony is where you can subscribe if you're
listening to us, if you go ontoYouTube, the Heart Chimony is
where you can subscribe and findus at, and we have all of our
podcasts there.
So if you're looking listening,thank you for joining once
again.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
And drop us a five-star review on a podcast
platform to check out CleaningBusiness University.
If you want to learn how tostart and scale a remote
cleaning business withoutcleaning any houses Link will be
in the show notes See you nexttime.
Peace.
Starting a business is hard, so don't make it harder
by repeating these fivemistakes that we made.
That nearly cost us our successin the very beginning.
So we're going to talk abouthow we turn these challenges
into lessons, and it helped usscale a seven-figure cleaning
business without cleaning asingle home.
You guys are new here.
We are the Heart Zogs.
My name is Anthony.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
And I'm Janoka, and thank you for returning for
another episode of More Than aSide Hustle podcast.
As you said, we're going to betalking about five mistakes that
you shouldn't make whenstarting a cleaning business.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah.
So before we get to that, wewant to just thank you guys for
being here.
If you are brand new, wepromise as you go through, we're
going to talk about fiveclosing mistakes that we made
starting a cleaning business and, more importantly, how you can
avoid them as well, but thenalso, we're going to give you a
lot of game, a lot of insightson how we scaled our business
over seven figures.
No-transcript.
(01:13):
What was the one?
What is the?
What was one of the mostchallenging things about a
business?
Speaker 1 (01:17):
and he said the people yes, and I was like even
as a barber.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
he's like the people and people and I was like yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
What else did he say?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
So, no, I don't want to get into too much, you know
as a person, but I just thinkabout any business.
I was like the next business westart, how can we do one
without people?
It has to be AI, it has to beautomations, it has to be
technology, it might have to berobots, but people no.
No matter what business youstart, people are going to be
one of the most pressing thingsthat you guys could deal with in
any way, shape or form.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Service-based businesses I mean, which almost
every business deals with people, but specifically service-based
business.
You see people are going to.
You see the range of emotions,attitudes, moods, all of the
things.
So if you're one like I, can'thandle that maybe don't get into
a service-based business orhave someone else do the
people-facing part for you.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, I was talking to a cleaning business owner and
she was like yeah, I think I'mdoing well, but the hardest part
is hiring and people.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
And I was like, yeah, yeah, we mentioned that from
the very beginning.
The hardest part of thebusiness is hiring good people,
and of the mistakes we made inregards to just hiring and just
people in general, that you guyscan learn from um.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
You want to dive in?
Yep, we.
The first thing we're going tostart with is delegation but.
I think that before we get there, I want to give people some
some background.
Oh, okay, so if you guys don'tknow, we started a, an online
cleaning business, back in 2017.
You may be asking what's anonline cleaning business?
Essentially?
Um, you've seen the word remotecleaning business around a lot,
and essentially we delegate theworkout to team members and
they go out and do the fulfillthe jobs for us.
So if you think about the Ubers,you think about the lifts, you
(02:53):
think about the Airbnbs, youthink about DoorDash, all these
companies have the same exactbusiness model.
Uber doesn't own any cars.
Airbnb doesn't own any hotels.
Doordash doesn't even own asingle restaurant.
Essentially, what they do isthey connect you with people who
are already doing the work.
So, let's say, you already havea car or you're already
cleaning.
We connect you with people whoare already cleaning.
So that's how we've beenrunning our cleaning business
(03:14):
for the last seven years andwe've scaled it to over a couple
million dollars and we've doneover 10,000 jobs, to give you
some context.
So you're talking, you'relistening to people who have
done this over the course ofalmost a decade but then also
have made a few million dollars,and also we've done it over
10,000 times, and they say thatyou should do a task at least
10,000 times to have a masteryof it.
(03:35):
So I can say 10,000 is a lot10,000 hours, it might be 10,000
hours.
I was to say 10,000 times.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
I don't even know if I worked out 10,000 hours.
I was about to say 10,000 times.
I don't even know if I workedout 10,000 times and I feel like
I didn't tell people.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
I think it's 10,000 hours.
You worked out over 10,000hours maybe.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Not times, but maybe hours.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Maybe hours when I was speaking about delegation.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
The first thing is delegation and when I was
speaking about that I wanted tobring to the delegation of that.
But more about the delegationof the back end and I want to
say that the cleaning businesswas our first business ever, so,
(04:13):
starting out, it took us a longtime to delegate.
And you may be somebody thatyou're just starting out and you
don't want to delegate anythingout because you want to keep it
all to yourself.
So managing the client,scheduling, marketing, all these
things, you are like I can doit, I can figure it out, which
is totally fine, I get it.
Just starting out.
You may not have that muchrevenue coming in and you're
(04:33):
wanting to take it all you know,handle all of it, but it also
can stop your growth to behandling everything One, you
don't know everything.
So if this is your firstbusiness, the way it was, ours
you don't know everything.
So if this is your firstbusiness, the way it was ours,
you absolutely do not knoweverything.
You may speak to people, but atthe same time there are people
(04:54):
that can do things better thanyou and at the end, at the end
of the day, that ends upbringing you even more revenue
in.
For example, you know, at onepoint we were taking all the
phone calls.
Totally fine to take all yourphone calls, but it was
something in our growth becausewe started to lose calls.
And then we also started tothink well, nobody's going to
close these leads as quickly aswe will.
You know are as good as we will.
No one's going to get the jobsas good as we will.
(05:14):
Got a VA in place eventually andthey started killing it.
We couldn't pick up all thosecalls, so we were already losing
money in that way.
So delegation in differentparts of the business is
necessary to grow, I would say.
But I know that for us startingout it's a hard concept to want
to give up One money-wise, andtwo.
(05:36):
You just feel like you can doit better, which you may, but it
still may be stopping you fromgrowing and doing better and
getting more money in yourbusiness.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah, one of the things about and so one of the
questions I'm going to ask iswell, how can I delegate if I'm
brand new and I have no moneycoming in?
So I would give everyone, if wecan make this actionable, like
a task list so you could writedown every single task you do in
your business, like literallyevery single task you do in your
business.
And I'm literally reading thisbook called Buy Back your Time
(06:02):
and you guys can actually takethis exercise.
It's over here.
It's not that that's not thebook, it's over here.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
There's another one, though that's not the book.
Yeah, but I was going to showanother one.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Oh, okay, so you could take every single task
that you're doing.
So right now I'm doing an auditof my time and column number
one is going to be the task andcolumn number three is going to
be the dollar value that youassign to that task.
So let's say, picking up thephones like that's sales.
So column number one likeyou're going to say 12 to 1230
(06:32):
sales calls or 12 to one salescalls, and dollar value is going
to be probably the highestamount of value that you can
create in the business is salescalls that's going to be $4
signs.
And let's say you're taking outthe trash or answering emails,
that might be $1 sign.
So you're going to sign everysingle part of your day and a
dollar value amounted to it.
And you're also going to decideis this a task that gives me joy
(06:55):
or do I absolutely hate thistask?
So if it's a $1 sign and it'sred, meaning you hate it, you're
going to start delegating thosetasks so you can go through
your.
I'm literally going to exercisemyself so you could use this
framework to kind of go throughand see the things that you need
to delegate.
But start by creating a list ofall the tasks you have day to
day in your business so you canstart to see what can be
outsourced to people and I thinktoo many times we tend to
(07:16):
outsource when we reach ourbreaking point.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
so, for example, that time when I remember it was
valentine's some year, let's sayI want to say 2020, maybe.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
No, I think the trip we went on was the breaking
point.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Which one?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I don't know what trip we were on, but you were
answering a client call.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Houston for my birthday.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
We wasn't in Houston, we were in somewhere tropical.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Mexico.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
No, it wasn't Mexico.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I remember overseeing water.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
I could pull up the picture.
So I wasn't it Mexico.
I could pull up the picture itmight have been Mexico, but
anyway, no, it wasn't Mexicobecause we had poor reception.
Essentially, we were somewheretropical enjoying our trip, and
what happened was is that aclient had an issue and we
decided that we were going tofix it.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
The part, the one that I was thinking about was it
was Valentine's Day of 2020.
And we had a client issue thatwas ongoing and it spilled into
us not doing anything or wantingto go out at all, and after
we're like we have to go out,it's Valentine's Day, we don't
want to stay in this house, butmore than likely a lot of times
we don't get the help ordelegate until it's a breaking
(08:21):
point and then you're likerushing to get you know to
delegate it out, versus doing itahead of the time, when you
have time to kind of make yourSOPs or think about how you do
things.
So that's another thing.
Try to get ahead of that.
If you see calls are startingto rev up, don't wait to the
point that you absolutely can'ttake calls and you just want to
pour it on someone, because thenthat becomes poor training,
that becomes frustration, all ofthose things.
(08:41):
So I think that's important aswell.
Whenever you are getting tothat point, try to delegate
prior to the point of when youabsolutely need it.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
And that happened with two of our students as well
.
They were on vacation just likeus, and before they went on
vacation, oh, they were like ona catamaran.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
They was on a catamaran when they was on
vacation.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
It was like we're trying to do these customer
services while we're on.
This catamaran Service is rockyand now, as soon as we get back
, it's like we got to hire, wegot to get somebody in, we got
to rush the training process.
It's like whoa slow down thereOn vacation getting calls.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
You're like, ma'am, I don't care what cleaning you
just had, that's what you'rethinking tasks earlier, sooner
than later, even if you don'thave the money yet, so that you
can you realize you will makemore money off the things you
delegate, because now you couldspend more time doing the things
that actually bring you moneyand I also think the other other
(09:32):
thing is the thought of vas andai and the world that we live
in now.
You, a lot of people, don'teven know how much it costs.
They're like I can't afford ava.
Right, you may have come intothis business with a substantial
amount of money ready to investinto your business and things
like that.
You may have the money for a va.
You're just assuming it's waytoo expensive.
You know, if you're going out ofthe country, it doesn't really.
(09:54):
It's really not, um, thatpricey.
Maybe you just have somebodypart-time.
It doesn't have to be full-time.
So try to think that way.
Think of it in that way thateverything you may be able to
afford it and you don't evenknow it.
You're just assuming that youcan't, which I've seen a lot of
times with students.
When we talk about, they'relike oh, didn't think about that
, didn't even think about doingpart time.
You know all of these things,and that's something else to
(10:14):
consider.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
So that was number one delegation.
You know, now that we've beenin business going on eight years
, that's a no-brainer for us,like if somebody else could do
it, take it.
We don't need to do it all.
If it makes sense, obviously,we don't need to do it all.
If they're expert at what it is, it's going to bring us more
money, it's going to bring usmore time.
Then go ahead.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
So yeah, that's the first thing, when you, when you
think about delegation, thinkabout it bringing, you're using
your time now to do morevaluable things in your business
and you can offset some ofthose less monetary tasks
earlier on.
So we're going to talk aboutnumber two.
It's going to be pricing toolow in the beginning, so
underpricing your servicesimpact your revenue and
confidence.
Where do you want to go withthat one?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
So pricing is, I would say, contractors, and then
pricing is like the two hottopics in our community almost
all the time when.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I think about that, but the fear of charging too
much.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Charging too much and how it holds you back Charging
too much.
You think you're charging toomuch, but you're actually
charging too low.
And I think one thing thatyou've said in the past is, if
you don't have any room on yourbooks or if you're like whatever
it is, whatever you do, you'reprobably pricing too low.
You're probably charging toolow because everybody has access
to you, everybody can book withyou, and I know you may be like
(11:28):
, well, I want that, but thenyou're pushing people out that
you may not be able to get, sopricing too low.
I think people are just afraidof the whole pricing thing.
In general, it seems like maybe,oh, I wouldn't pay for this, so
this seems too high.
Or you know I wouldn't pay forthis, so this seems too high.
Or, you know, I've never knownanybody to do this, so I don't
know if I should price this way.
And you tend to go lower justto get the customer.
(11:48):
But you'll learn, you have tolearn it sometimes on your own.
Just because you lower theprice, that can mean a whole
different type of clientele anddifferent demographic that you
bring in.
So being open to that, justknowing that there's a different
clientele from a steakhousethan mcdonald's, right, it just
is.
The way I show up isdifferently, just a whole
different clientele I can wear atuxedo to mcdonald's you can do
(12:11):
what you want.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
It's a different clientele.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Let's be clear, rolling in there, then rolling
into a steakhouse, so it's thesame thing in that way.
So we tend to, as new businessI'm speaking of like a new
business owner we tend to kindof price lower because we're
scared, um, but price it, testit out and then see right, and
you have to cover your expenses.
So you scared about everybodyelse.
(12:34):
What about the money that youneed to make?
That's just as important.
Like this is a business.
At the end of the day, you needto make some money, money.
So pricing yourself too low,even though it feels like what
I'm getting more people,sometimes it's not the best.
It kind of goes back to what wetalk about, like all money
isn't good money.
It goes back to that and Ithink that people have to learn
that.
For some reason we try to tellyou guys, but you have to feel
(12:56):
it and be like yeah, I went down60 dollars for this customer.
We did all these things, wewent above and beyond and she
still left us a bad reviewbecause the door was left open.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I don't know.
We'll talk about that.
We'll talk about that.
Speaker 1 (13:07):
But just an example of how things kind of transpire
when you go lower and then ifyou start your business, we
always tell people to do marketresearch.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
So if you go through your competitors in your area,
no matter you find out whatthey're charging, you may see a
range of people.
You may see people chargingthree, four, five times what
you're charging.
You may see people chargingthree, four, five times less.
If you find out what theaverage is, you can see okay,
here's what the average marketrate is going in my area.
You can start there and thendecide am I going to go higher
(13:35):
than that?
Am I going to go lower thanthat?
And that gives you a good rangeIf the Average is, let's say,
$250.
Like, all right, I'm rightwhere I need to be, because
that's where our competitors arecharging.
And even from there you couldalso go and see what they're
doing well, things they're notdoing well, how can I improve on
?
Like, for example, I just got amessage on one of our ads that
I called a bunch of cleaningcompanies in my area and nobody
(13:57):
picked up the phone.
Like, why is that?
And I'm telling you, these areways that you could beat the
competition from day one.
So if your prices are a littlebit higher and we're going to
talk about a little bit ofautomation and stuff like that.
But if your prices are a littlebit higher, you can now justify
.
We got automations, we gotsystems, we got team members in
place.
We got all these things thatwe're doing to make our customer
experience better.
You can now justify a higherprice target for your services.
(14:20):
And even if we talk about ifyou guys don't know, we have a
platform, a program calledCleaning Business University.
We teach you how to do thesethings inside of your cleaning
business.
You can click the link anywherearound this page.
But even inside of that program, we raise the prices over time
because we're giving all of ourbetter experience.
Now we got a full-timeoperations manager.
We got team members that answerclient's messages.
(14:41):
We got customer service reps.
We we got team members thatanswer client's messages.
We got customer service reps.
We got all these thingshappening that allows us to give
our clients a better experience.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
And that's the same thing, just with the cleaning
business when you reach to apoint where you're ready to
raise your prices and you mayhave some clients that have been
on with you for a while I mean,you've all been part of people
raising their prices.
You go to service-based placesYou're Nails, you're here.
You're Bart places your nails,your hair, your bar, whatever.
They raise their prices almostyearly or whatever, and they
have an explanation behind it.
You either stick with it or youdon't, right?
So just kind of letting yourclients know the value behind
(15:09):
the reason you're raising yourprices.
I background check my people,like you know.
We have this guarantee.
There's so many things andpeople are willing to listen and
flow with it most of the times,but a lot of times us, as
business owners, we're tooafraid to ask for it or we're
too afraid to do it.
But don't be okay, um, raisethat price and you will find
you'll, we'll find your sweetspot.
(15:34):
I would say sometimes you mayhave to go down a little bit,
but don't start so low, causethen it's harder to raise your
price, right?
You know it's hard to tellsomebody yeah, we're going to,
it's going to be be 50 extra now, huh, yeah, what, like that's a
little harder than you startingsomewhere and maybe having to
reduce by 10, 15.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So if you think about tesla, their business model was
they had the highest end uh,like gas, not gas um, electric
cars, and it was 150 000, andthen they worked their way back
all the way down to 3030,000.
And those were absolutely crazy, right, because you wanted that
same experience from thathigher end car and a more
affordable model.
(16:08):
And if you think about VeraWang.
Vera Wang has wedding dresses,right, and Vera Wang is very
high end.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
But then now.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
But she also has low end ones, yeah, she didn't start
from the low end and work tillway up.
If you think about all thebusiness models that work like
that, they usually start at thehigher end right.
They want the highest endclients and they work their way
back to different targets anddemographics.
So you guys can use that same.
You can use the Tesla businessmodel today in your business.
Start at the highest end andwork your way back.
You want to be the what was it?
(16:35):
The Model S, whatever it was tostart, and then now they got
the Model.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
The little baby one.
Speaker 2 (16:40):
Yeah, the model, the little baby one, yeah, the
little baby tesla.
Right, so the little baby tesla.
Literally, when I see him Idon't want the little baby tesla
.
But listen, if you can't,everybody can't get the model x,
some people gotta get thelittle baby tesla.
So think about it that way,guys that's a good one.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
That needs to be a clip so the first two we just
spoke about in regards tomistakes that we've made in the
cleaning business, one was notdelegating quick enough and then
number two was, I forget,already pricing too low.
The third one now is notfocusing on reviews and that's
social proof that's such a likea simple thing, but it doesn't
(17:18):
happen.
And the first thing I try totell our students, or just try
to tell yourself, is, when youare looking to buy something, go
somewhere, the first thing youdo is look at the reviews.
That's the first thing you do.
If it's on Yelp or Google.
If you're going somewhere arestaurant, whatever TripAdvisor
, tripadvisor, any of theseplaces or if you're buying
something from any of theseplatforms, you look at the
(17:39):
reviews that they've given theclothings or the bags that
people have written Likeplatforms.
You look at the reviews thatthey've given the clothings or
the bags that people havewritten like.
You always look at reviews.
So it is just as important foryour business to make sure that
you are getting reviews andfocusing on getting these
reviews.
We always preach that we callevery single client after every
single cleaning.
Maybe not our reoccurring isnot so frequently, but we still
call them just not every singlereoccurring.
(18:01):
And we have students that arelike, oh well, I didn't just
call them because I'm like, okay, you're just starting out, you
have 20 clients, you have thetime to call them, you have the
time to focus and find out howyour services is doing.
How does the client feel aboutbooking online?
How does the client feel aboutthe emails, about you guys
coming on time about theproducts you're using?
(18:22):
I don't know the clean, all ofthese things?
You can do market research byjust speaking to the clients and
you're not doing it.
You, I'm talking to you.
I know you're not doing it.
You're not calling every clientto get the review.
You need to call to get areview and ask for the review,
because that's another thing Iknow people get like well,
should I ask for it?
Absolutely, ask for what youwant, absolutely.
We went to St Martin for ourcousin's birthday and after we
(18:46):
did what was it?
Atv?
I don't remember what we did.
We did something.
We came back to the store.
They're like we'll give you ashot and a t-shirt if you write
us a review right now A shot anda t-shirt On TripAdvisor A a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
They said they will give you a shot and a t-shirt if
you leave us a review onTripAdvisor.
But they didn't just say leaveus a review on TripAdvisor.
They said leave us a review nowon.
TripAdvisor In the store Rightnow.
So you are losing out oncustomers who are extremely
satisfied with your services bynot getting that review in real
time because you are afraid ofthem saying no or not even.
They won't even say no.
(19:20):
They said I'll get back to youor I'll do it later.
Now, what incentives can weprovide the client?
You might lose a little moneyon the front end, but you're
like, if I could provide anincentive to this client to just
get this done now.
It takes less than five minutesto do so and it doesn't even
break a sweat for them to do it.
But we have to put a little bitof pressure and we didn't do
this in the beginning as well.
This is why this these aremistakes that we made as well.
(19:41):
Now we got over 500 plusreviews, but in the beginning we
weren't pressing these things,even though if we would call
them, we would text them allright.
Then they leave us a review.
We'll move on.
Now you want to, let's say,after every single cleaning.
You are now calling the client,you're getting them on the
phone.
You're asking them to to dothis.
Today we are able to do X, yand Z.
We're able to give you anincentive for your next cleaning
(20:03):
or something like that.
Okay, cool, we found that wewere able to get more reviews by
just asking for more up frontand giving them something in
return, so that they gotsomething tangible that they
could use today, and then so dowe, so that gives them more of
an incentive to leave it today.
So do not take that partlightly.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
And when you focus on that, the reviews make you more
money.
I mean you're thinking of it aslike oh well, it's not such a
big deal.
The reviews make you more moneyCause people go on and see the
reviews and they're like okay, Itrust this company enough to
give them my money withoutspeaking to someone.
With speaking to someone,whatever it may be, but in the
long, reviews is important.
So just set something up foryourself Like how can I get five
(20:42):
more reviews this month,depending on how many clients
you have?
Like, what can I do to makesure I get more reviews this
month, whenever month you'relistening to this podcast?
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Put that in your goal .
Put that in your goal sheet.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
What can I do to 10% more reviews than I got the
previous month or the previousyear?
Do you know how many reviewsyou got last year?
We do no reviews.
You got last year.
I don't do no, we do.
You do yeah, for our cleaningbusiness.
How much was it?
uh, 85, 85 no, no it was 105,which was 20 more from the last
year, was about 85.
So, okay, yeah, so how manyreviews did you get?
(21:14):
That breaks down to how many.
How many bookings did I have?
Should I have gotten more?
What did I do?
I mean, a lot of people don'trespond.
I get that, but, like, is thereother things that can be done to
make sure that we do get thereview if they are happy with it
, all of these things beingintentional.
If you're like, well, we'retrying and it's not working,
maybe you need to try whatyou're saying, change up your
script, maybe it's tired.
If you tried for five months,you're not getting a review.
(21:36):
It's something Right.
So, all of those things youneed to consider when it comes
to reviews.
That's a huge focus that Ithink slips by for people
because it doesn't seem assomething that would make you
money right away.
But it's just as importantbecause social proof is
everything.
No matter whatever you purchaseonline, which we purchase our
world online you look at thereviews Amazon, wherever you go,
(22:02):
you're looking at the reviewsbefore you do it.
So why wouldn't you treat yourbusiness the same way and think
of how the customer is gonnaexperience your business?
Speaker 2 (22:06):
all right, and next one is I'll skip this one.
We'll put this one last, butI'll, since we're talking about
getting reviews and someconsistent follow-ups you want
to talk about.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
We'll talk about neglecting automation early on
well, speak about whatautomation even is, because I
don't think we spoke.
It wasn't spoken about as much.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I feel back today don't worry, I'm gonna do a
whole episode on automation, butfor example um.
Automation are things that youwould manually do, like
invoicing, scheduling, review,follow-ups, lead management,
lead nurture.
And the lead nurture sequenceis just a lead comes into your
business.
They don't book.
They don't book with yourservices.
Now they go through emails andtext messages, follow-ups and
funnels where you aren't havingto manually do that work.
(22:45):
So anything that you wouldthink about you were doing
manually in your business.
That's what automation wouldtake over.
So, for example, we justsomehow um reviews.
So neglecting reviews orneglecting automation earlier on
is something that we we shouldhave definitely taken advantage
of.
But ai automation was not whatit is today, where it was seven,
eight years ago.
So let's go back to that.
(23:07):
Review part of things, right?
So if you have this ability todo this today, so after a client
says they're extremely happywith your services, you call
them and text them.
They don't leave you a review.
Okay, you're like, all right,most of the time we're like you
know what, moving on, weappreciate it.
Thank you, maybe we'll get themon the next go around or next
thing, right, most of the timethat's not going to happen.
So, having an automation inplace where this client did not
(23:30):
leave me a review, now we'regoing to request it and give
them more incentives over thenext couple days so that they
could go back and leave thatreview, so that we could be on
top of mind when they're readyto book or when they're ready to
get their next service orwhatever it may be.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
So those are some things that you use automation
for when it comes to review,management, reputation
management and, like you said,automation saves you on time, so
it saves you on money, it savesyou on things that and you may
be like I don't know where tostart.
I think it goes back to youwhat you're saying, like making
those that list of things you'redoing and if you figure out
delegating, does this delegateto a person?
(24:03):
Does this delegate to automation?
You know what I mean?
Does it mean that I can have anautomatic email that goes out
three times a week versus mewriting it?
Things like that.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
And that's a good point too, because when we ask
people and I ask them what'stheir are you currently emailing
and just letting clients knowthat you exist?
And most of the time they'relike I was like last time you've
done it, like oh three monthsago and we made that same
mistake too.
We had an email list ofthousands of people that we
never even reached back out to,like year one or year two.
It was like, all right, well,they booked us once.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
Hopefully they come back and I always give that
analogy with these big companiesall of of them Amazon, uber,
airbnb, target, macy's.
Victoria's Secret SephoraLiterally all of them are
emailing multiple times andthese are billion billion dollar
companies Emailing multipletimes.
Target don't text me, butemailing multiple times a week
(24:55):
about their newsletter, theirads oh, you missed it.
Whatever, it doesn't matter.
They're emailing and you arenot emailing at all and you
think that people are going toremember your services.
There's no reason for them tostay top of mind.
You don't have to always askfor something, meaning you don't
have to always ask for a sale,but there's something called
nurturing.
So just sending tips oncleaning or whatever.
Happy holidays, make sure youbook.
(25:16):
You know whatever it may be,following up with the clients.
Part of that automations issomething that was a huge
mistake where you're leaving somuch money behind.
We are specific in breakingdown, like okay, between texts,
callbacks and emails.
How much money are we bringingin every month?
that's important for us to makesure that we're aware of and
sometimes it's fifteen thousanddollars that we brought back in
(25:40):
because we decided to reach backout via text, email or phone
call.
That you are not doing andyou're just like, oh yeah, I got
it, like he said that we didbefore.
So that is a huge opportunity.
Following up with clients is ahuge opportunity that we missed
out on for years, but we ain'tmissing it now and we're making
sure that you know that if thatbecomes automated, that becomes
(26:02):
manual, it needs to get doneregardless, absolutely to
clients again and if you guysneed a tool to do that, you can
check out tidy trackio,essentially all-in-one crm,
built to transform your cleaningbusiness, streamlining your
operations, automationsrepetitive tasks, and helps you
scale your residential cleaningcompany.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
This is software that we use and actually we've been
using it for quite some time now.
We actually own the company.
Okay, well, you had a longpause I was going to say, but
essentially we createdautomation because we knew the
challenges that our students had.
So if you want to check outtidytrackio, we'll put the link
in the show notes and it helpswith all these tasks we're
talking about as well,especially the automation.
That's why we built it, becausewe heard the challenges that
(26:40):
our students had, because thoseare the same challenges we had
when we first launched ourcleaning business.
Like, I don't know what emailto write.
Here's the emails in a sequence.
I don't know what text messagesto send.
Here's the text messages tosend.
I don't know how to get reviews.
Here's how you get reviews anyof these email and text message
(27:04):
softwares.
But you need to be utilizing AIin your businesses and
automation so that you canstreamline those processes that
you are doing day in and day out.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
But even with those platforms.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
So check out TeddyTrackio, don't check out
anything else that I said.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Even with those platforms you mentioned, you
still service to email, but youstill gotta write it, the copy.
I should say absolutely, um, sowhere do we?
Speaker 2 (27:25):
oh, number five, so just to recap, oh sorry, recap
yeah, because depending on whereyou start in they nobody's
starting the middle of a podcastepisode at the end that's fair.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
So number five trying to serve everyone is the last
mistake that we've made.
Um, when it comes to ourcleaning business and getting up
and running Back to thatpricing yourself lower because
you want everybody, all moneyain't good money.
Trying to serve everyone, likeyou know, somebody calls in and
you're taking off this and Ionly want one room and I don't
want the carpet and I don't want.
(27:57):
Sometimes it's okay to say like, okay, I don't think we're the
cleaning service for you becausewe like to do the full package
or whatever the case may be.
Trying to serve everyone in anybusiness, I think is a mindset
of someone that's just startingout.
Because you want all the money,you're scared to lose the
business.
You got a client on the phone,you're nervous, you just want to
get them in, but you willrealize over time that not
(28:20):
everyone is for you and that'stotally okay.
And that's one of those thingsagain, that somehow some reason
people need to learn, versusjust listen to us on the podcast
when we're telling you this.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
But for some reason people need to feel that no good
, it's telling you guys how itis, and I was.
I was literally talking to astudent and she said I know I
shouldn't have taken this clientin and you always know, though,
whenever you, you always know,stop trying service anyone.
That's how she started hersentence.
She went to this long story andI was like everything that
you're telling me they told youon the phone and you knew it was
(28:48):
a red flag and you felt it.
You felt it was a red flag andyou continued to move on anyway.
So stop trying to serveeveryone in your business.
Find out what type of clientsare your most your favorite
clients to work with your idealclient yeah, your ideal clients
where they live at, what do theydo, so that you could start to
put a client profile together,so that when this type of client
comes in, who are we serving?
And then your marketing andyour targeting could actually be
(29:08):
more effective when you knowthe type of people you're
looking for.
If you're looking for moreelderly people, you might have
an elderly person in your ad.
If you're looking for moms andpops or busy entrepreneurs, you
might have those type of peoplein your marketing, your ads,
your emails, so that you canknow how to service those people
, because those are your idealclients you were talking about.
We were just talking abouttrying to serve everyone and
challenges.
We've done that as well tryingto serve everyone, saying yes to
(29:31):
people where we knew they werered flags and more than likely
your red flag clients will letyou know they are a red flag.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
One.
Okay, did you have anythingelse to say with that?
Speaker 2 (29:43):
So be slow to hire and quick to fire.
So our hiring process.
I want to break down what ahiring process is, because
people ask us all the time.
It's like, oh, you fire peopleoff the street and you just
bring them into the people'shomes and I want to say no, stop
commenting on ads, thinking youknow everything about how we do
things, so I'm going to breakit down and I personally listen
to this, by the way, but'tlistening.
I'm sure if you've seen one ofour ads you thought like, oh,
(30:03):
we're bringing people up thestreet and sending them to
people's homes.
That's not how we run ourcleaning business.
So, for example, we have a verystructured job ad that we send
to that we post online.
No-transcript people apply tothe job that they see.
(30:30):
Out of those a hundred people,there is a job ad, then there's
a qualifier, so they'll see alink and then they go to the
qualifier on our webpage.
On some specific things aboutinsurance Are you background
checked?
Do you have?
Are you willing to getinsurance?
If you don't have it, how longyou been cleaning?
Who you been cleaning for?
That application itself weedsout the other 50% of people.
So out of the 100 people thatapplied, 50% of people are not
(30:52):
making it through theapplication.
Let's say 25 people make itthrough the application.
Now there is a interviewscheduler so you have to go
through and schedule yourinterview and if you don't show
up to that interview actuallythe day before, are you still
interested in this job?
Are you going to show up?
Respond to this.
If you don't, your interviewwill be canceled.
Out of those 25 people, we mayget 10 people on the phone.
(31:14):
So out of those 10 people wemay talk to five, because even
if they aren't, even if they arequalified and they say they're
going to show up, they probablywon't be on that call.
So out of those five peoplethat we actually interviewed,
then we do the background check,we do the insurance, we do the
first test job, we do all ofthose things and then out of
those five people you might haveone.
If that so our hiring process.
And now it's at the point wherewe are not trying to get
(31:36):
everyone in, we only want themost qualified people.
So that's our hiring process indetail, so that we are making
sure we are not we are hiringslow and we are firing fast
going back to trying to serveeveryone we don't need.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
We don't need everyone that's going to be
working for us, because that hasbit us in the you know what in
the past.
What was an?
Speaker 2 (31:53):
example of that wasn't?
Uh, there was one time somebodydidn't have a bank account.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Oh who.
What was the couple?
Speaker 2 (31:58):
I don't even remember so we had a couple that worked
with us at one point.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
We had a few couples before.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Well, one couple.
We knew that they weren't agood fit and I wanted to take a
chance on them.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Oh, that couple I forgot.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
I be trying to serve people, guys.
I think I am a servant at heartand I think somebody called me
a narcissist because I feel likeI can save everyone and I
didn't example and I was like wecould help them out.
They're a black, not everybodycan be helped.
Let's give them the benefit ofthe doubt janelle was like no,
they are not a good fit, weshould not do it.
And she said they're not a goodfit because of this, this, this
(32:28):
and this.
I was like, well, let's lookpast all of that and, long story
short, all the red flags.
You sound like a woman.
We look past all the red flagsand, honestly, they were not a
good fit for us and we shouldn'thave.
We shouldn't have hired them,we shouldn't have kept them so
long.
But you live and you learn, andthat's it.
Listen to your wife more of thestory.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
That's the end of the story, but the bonus I did have
about um one more mistake thatwe've made in regards to
starting our cleaning businesswas not putting money into
marketing fast enough um andthat, once again, I think goes
back to being the first timebusiness owner and really trying
to pinch pennies, if you will.
That's a lot of times we start.
(33:06):
This is our last dime, etcetera, et cetera.
And in order to make money, youhave to put money out there,
like you have to pay to play.
You know that's about sayingpay to play.
So in order to get customersand get clients, you have to
market yourself.
Now can you do word of mouth?
(33:27):
Absolutely Majority of you guysare not going to, though A lot
of people say I don't wantpeople in my business, I don't
want the person at church, Idon't want the person at home at
work, I don't want nobody toknow I got this business, so
y'all ain't telling anyway socan you make money from word of
mouth?
Speaker 2 (33:45):
go for it, you should .
I would if.
If we were back in new york, wedefinitely would have done that
.
One of our students, uh,stephanie, she did like 20
clients her first month inbusiness because she told
everybody her job, everybodywherever she was at.
So that's example word, that'san example.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
But many people do not do that.
But you have to put money into.
We don't have nobody to tell,that's true.
So you have to put money intomarketing to get people in to
see you, because even if you doword of mouth, at some point
that's going to run out.
You don't know that many people.
Putting money into marketingallows strangers and other
people that you would have neverseen your business, see your
(34:15):
business and then book yourservices because you got all
those reviews, remember, um?
So then they will book yourservices.
Right, you got to put the moneyin.
Now I'm not saying you jumpinto $3,000 a month somewhere,
but you got to put it in slowly,build it up, build it up.
Sometimes you'll be like, oh,I'm losing money, but you're
getting leads, right, you're not.
A lot of times we feel like Iput $300 in and I only got $400
(34:37):
in clean, so it really wasn'tworth it.
But you got seven or eightleads that you can remarket to
and send those emails to andtext you know.
So you are getting leads and itmay not feel like an automatic
ROI or automatic win whereyou're getting money back, but
you are, you know, in some point.
So I think it's important tonote.
That's something that was, Ithink, hard for me as well, like
putting more money intomarketing because it feels like,
(34:59):
no, I want to hold on to it andno, I'm not seeing it right
away maybe, but that isimportant for you to get to even
have a business Like how dopeople know you exist if you're
not putting any marketingdollars out there?
How do they know who you are?
They're not going to just findyou randomly.
So that's important to makesure that's.
Number six costing mistake thatmany people would make, and we
had made, is to put money intomarketing.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
Marketing is an investment, not an expense.
Yes, and going back to whatJanoke said, like Facebook ads
we were putting, I think theamount of money we put into
Facebook ads was I think wetried it for like a month or so,
we were playing around with it.
I think we put like $300, $400into it and we had 21 leads and
nobody booked.
And I'm like these leads arenot good, they're not ideal, but
then our follow-ups, ournurture, our automation brought
(35:45):
us to like an $800, $900 booking.
Yeah, Like an $800, $900 bookingon the back end of those leads.
So you might say today I put in$300, I got nothing.
But 30 days from today, oh, oneof those leads actually closed.
Now does that even become arecurring client?
So now you put $300 in, you gotthat $800 booking and then they
booked you again 250, 250, 250,250.
(36:05):
So you turn that 300 into acouple of thousand dollars
because that client actuallyclosed long-term nurture
sequence that you put in placeusing your automations.
So don't think about marketingas an expense.
Think about it as an investmentin your business, because if
nobody knows you, how are theygoing to support you?
Speaker 1 (36:21):
Yes, those are the mistakes that we've made.
We want to make sure that weshare that.
It's the top of the year.
People are starting theirbusinesses.
You're getting your goalsstarted and use this information
.
I'm sure there's something youcan take from it that you are
not doing in your business rightnow, and this is just a way to
kind of get you jumpstarted intoyour, your year to make sure
you crush your business, crushthose goals by not making these
(36:43):
mistakes.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Have you guys made any of these mistakes in the
past?
Let us know in the comments,and also let us know how you
overcame them.
What's the mistake you'recurrently working through as
well?
Share with us so that we couldhelp you and guide you, and we
encourage you to connect with uson social media Instagram,
youtube, follow us and alsosubscribe to the page if you are
(37:05):
here.
Did you know?
Speaker 1 (37:05):
most people watching our videos are not subscribed,
that's shade.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
So just letting you guys know the Heart.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Chimony is where you can subscribe if you're
listening to us, if you go ontoYouTube, the Heart Chimony is
where you can subscribe and findus at, and we have all of our
podcasts there.
So if you're looking listening,thank you for joining once
again.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
And drop us a five-star review on a podcast
platform to check out CleaningBusiness University.
If you want to learn how tostart and scale a remote
cleaning business withoutcleaning any houses Link will be
in the show notes See you nexttime.
Peace.
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