February 25, 2025 • 17 mins
This episode dives into the nature of entrepreneurship and the obstacles commonly faced by business owners. We highlight a community call where we answered pressing questions and addressed real-life experiences. Listeners will gain valuable insights into navigating the complexities of running a business and the importance of community support in overcoming challenges.
• Introduction to the importance of community support in entrepreneurship
• Discussion of common hurdles faced by entrepreneurs
• Insights on handling late shows and promoting quality control
• The significance of establishing multiple streams of income without losing focus
• Real-life stories that illustrate the struggles and triumphs of being a business owner
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's going on, guys ?
Welcome to another episode ofthe More Than A Side Show
podcast, where we help 9 to 5erscreate more impact, income and
influence outside their jobs,and today is no different.
This episode is going to be asnippet of one of our community
calls, which went over for morethan an hour and a half, of just
pure Q&A, pure game, just pureconversation.
That was happening, in myopinion, some of the most
(00:22):
frequently asked questions thatwe get either in the community
or online or social media, and Itook those clips and I put them
inside of this episode.
So what you're going to hear isa little bit of Q&A, and we
even dove into some of ourpersonal lives, where one of the
questions was aboutentrepreneurship and being hard
and going through a difficultseason, so I spent a little bit
(00:46):
of time talking about that.
But this episode is going toshow you the type of questions
and comments and concerns thatpeople have even when they are
running their business.
So you're listening to peoplewho are truly running online
remote cleaning businesses, butalso people who are just in
entrepreneurship, askingquestions on how to launch, what
to do here.
What happens when there's afire not a literal fire, but a
fire in your business, right?
So we talk about those types ofthings.
So hopefully you guys tune intothis and if there's anything
(01:08):
that you find to be exciting foryou or you just want to support
us, please leave us a five-starreview.
It helps the podcast grow.
It helps us reach more peopleand create a larger impact.
So, without further ado, let'sdive into the episode Peace.
The gem that I got was that hewants to set up seven streams of
income specifically for hiscleaning business, and I know a
(01:29):
lot of times people talk abouthaving seven streams of income.
Seven streams of income onlyworks if you do one thing fairly
well.
Start with one thing grow thatin scale.
He said I want to grow mycleaning business.
I want to grow my YouTube formy cleaning business.
I want to create products andservices for my cleaning
business.
I want to create offers for mycleaning business.
So all the seven streams ofincome that he was talking about
(01:52):
stem from his actual cleaningbusiness.
So one thing we don't recommendis you bringing external parties
together and by externalparties two different cleanings,
two different companies, twodifferent people working
together without knowing whothey are.
We have never, so we don'trecommend anyone doing it.
And we say that because who isgoing to be the leader of the
(02:15):
actual cleaning If somethinggoes wrong?
Who you reach out to Ifsomething happens?
Who do you reach out to Ifsomething is?
Who do you pay?
Do you pay both of them?
Do you pay one person andsomeone wants more than the
other?
Like, how does that work?
So I can't think of anyinstance where we have done that
.
So the other question is goingto be if you have a large job,
what do you do?
We only send teams.
(02:35):
So meaning there is a personwho has a team that they will
send out to the cleaning.
That one person that weinterviewed that spoke to that
we background check.
They have a team, they have abusiness they have, they have
people on.
They might send multiple people, right, but all those people
are going to be working for them.
So in those instances where wesend a team, there's only one
(02:55):
point of contact.
If something goes well,something goes wrong, who do we
pay?
That's the only instance wherewe are sending quote unquote a
team.
So so you could do book callversus closed call.
Just move them over and it willshow you that on the
opportunity tab If you don'twanna do that.
Simple Google Sheets, simple asthat.
And the way you wanna thinkabout the KPIs from that aspect,
(03:17):
think about the entire customerjourney.
So new lead.
Did that new lead call emailtext you?
How did he get to you?
Did they book a call, yes or no?
Or was it via text message?
What was the next step from thatcall?
If you got them on the phone,what's the reason they didn't
book your services?
So what was the objection?
(03:37):
Price is too high, spousalobjection.
I got to get back to you Notunderstanding your services.
You would categorize those aswell.
That's another KPI I thinkeverybody should be tracking as
well.
So why aren't people bookingyour services?
What's the objection thatthey're coming across?
So again, price too high, priceobjection, spousal objection.
Have to get back to you or NA,not sure so that you can start
(04:01):
tracking those metrics and KPIsas well.
From there you go to bookcleaning and then from there you
could go to reclean or followup.
How many cleaners orcontractors do you think that we
should have before we startadvertising to clients and
getting our website launched andready to go?
Great question Number one Iwant to commend you for not
(04:23):
waiting until you get everythingdone on the website side before
you start interviewing, becausethat's the longest you're going
to be interviewing.
In any business you are alwayshiring.
So that's number one.
Number two what's the number?
There is no number.
So we started advertising whenwe had one, maybe two.
That's totally fine.
(04:43):
I don't say you have to waituntil you have three, four, five
different teams, because at theend of the day you'll be
waiting forever and I think it'sjust a way for us to kind of
procrastinate by perfection.
And by perfection we're goingto say we need two, three, four,
five, 10 different teams, andthat's not the case.
So if you got one and you feelcomfortable with that one person
, start advertising.
We did, we were totally fine.
(05:03):
The first person called outthat's fine.
You have two, that first personcalls out Now you might have a
backup, but at the end of theday that person's not available,
then what?
So I would say one to two, ifyou feel comfortable with that.
If you want to go with one, youfeel froggy, time to leap,
let's do it.
But do not wait until you havetwo, three, four, five people,
(05:25):
just so that you can feelcomfortable, because you will
never feel comfortable.
You will never feel confident,I promise you, until you do it.
One of the biggest fears peoplehave and ask us all the time is
what happens if someone doesn'tshow up.
And I like to ask you guys whathappens if you do not show up
to your job?
If you do not show up to yourjob, does the CEO of the company
come and sit in your seat?
Samara, that wasn't for you,that was a rhetorical question,
(05:48):
but the CEO of your company doesnot come and sit in your seat.
Well, you might say my managercomes and does my job.
Does your manager stopeverything that they're doing
and then come, does your entirejob for the day?
No, then you might say okay, mycolleagues and my peers pick up
some of my slack.
If all your colleagues and yourpeers pick up some of your
slack, that means some of theirslack starts to slip as well.
So at the end of the day,something's getting dropped
(06:10):
somewhere along the lines.
The problem is, we just thinkthat the buck has to stop with
us.
So, at the end of the day, theCEO of your company is not going
to come and sit into your seatwhen you call out what you have
called out and it happens.
When you call out what you havecalled out and it happens, and
it's not a fear that I can helpyou get over, it's not a fear
that you could help yourself getover.
The only way you get over thatfear is by doing it.
And a person calls out and thenwhat?
(06:32):
You call the client and say,hey, my person is unavailable
today.
We had snow in Dallas.
Do you think all the cleaningsgot done today?
No, do you think I left myhouse?
No, you call the client.
You let them know.
Hey, it's snow outside, wecan't get to you.
Okay, cool, when can you get tome?
There we go.
Or, hey, you guys are a-holes.
(06:52):
I'm gonna give you a one-starreview.
We can't get to you becauseit's snow outside.
I'm sorry about that.
I'm still giving you a one-starreview.
Same thing we could do to makeit up.
No, okay, we get the one-starreview.
How about we come out onThursday or Friday?
Okay cool, that's all we coulddo at the end of the day,
absolutely.
Jasmine said what kept you goingwhen business was difficult in
(07:14):
the beginning?
So great question.
So what kept us going?
I think one of the biggestchallenges for us is that when
we started the business, wenever really needed it, so it
was like that's what makes itharder.
People think aboutentrepreneurship as being hard
because you need it.
The difference with us is thatwe don't need entrepreneurship.
We can always go back to ourjobs.
I'm an excellent employee.
(07:34):
I follow rules, I followinstructions.
I am very good at followingwhat I'm supposed to do.
I was great in school.
Most entrepreneurs are like oh,I was bad in school.
In schools, most entrepreneursare like oh, I was bad at school
, I dropped out.
Oh, I was bad.
As a nine to five employee, Idropped out.
Not me.
I was an excellent employee.
I was very good at what I did.
So entrepreneurship is that'sthe biggest.
That's the biggest challenge.
(07:54):
Like you, we don't.
We know we don't need it.
So we're actually choosing thisdifficult, rough, hard battle
to go through every single day.
But we know, for example, alanihas an ear infection and then
she has an ear infection rightnow and she has the flu.
She's been out all week.
We decided to stay in the bedwith her while she was just
(08:17):
laying there crying and we waslike we don't have to rush and
do anything.
Those are the things aboutentrepreneurship that you don't
see on social media.
You don't see the.
You just get to lay in bed withyour daughter, right?
If we both had to leave ourjobs, we would have to call out
of work.
We have to take PTO.
Oh, we're not coming in.
Today we got a sick kid.
Only one of us can stay home.
(08:38):
Both of us can't stay home.
Oh, we got to call the sitter.
We got to call the nanny.
Her, we got to call the nanny.
We just both laid in the bedwith her while she just cried
and I was like this is dope.
So those are the type of thingsthat you don't really, you can't
really, they aren't tangible.
So it's not a number, it's nota metric.
It's like those type of momentsthat always remind me that it's
(08:58):
worth it to keep going.
Hopefully that answers yourquestion.
I don't have a metric.
I don't have a tangible partwhere it's like oh, you get to
be your own boss.
Because that's not true.
Because now, instead of havingone boss, you got 10,000 bosses.
Instead of having a nine tofive, now you got a 10 to 10, or
you got a nine to nine, orsomething like that.
So those are the things thatpeople say is I don't want to
(09:19):
have my own boss, I don't wantto answer to anybody, but
technically I have to answer toyou guys.
I have to answer to our clients.
When my youngest brother passed, I still showed up for my
coaching calls because I knew Ihad a commitment to you guys.
So those are the things aboutentrepreneurship that we try not
to glamorize.
It is not easy, but at the endof the day it's those little
(09:39):
intangible moments.
What would I choose over this?
So those are the moments thatkept us going.
And everything in life that'shard, everything that's worth
doing, is going to be difficultIf you really think about it.
If this shit was easy part ofmy French everybody will be an
entrepreneur.
If everybody I want to make amillion dollars, everybody would
do it.
If everybody wants to be amillionaire or a billionaire,
(10:00):
everybody would do it.
But the most difficult thingsare to actually make this stuff
worth it, because if it was easy, everybody would be doing it.
So that was my answers.
What kept us going when businesswas difficult?
And it doesn't stop beingdifficult in the beginning.
It gets difficult now.
So those are the things thatyou have to just go through.
Entrepreneurship is not goingto be easy.
(10:22):
It's going to be difficult,difficult seasons, difficult
moments, and it doesn't juststop happening.
But you got to have thataccountability.
You got to have this before youhave that people who understand
what you're going through.
I can't vent to my friendsabout this because they won't
understand.
Oh, you make money in yourbusiness.
Yeah, I make money, but it'shard, it's not easy.
If I don't work, we don't getpaid.
(10:49):
When do you typically firecleaners?
Is it after multiple no-shows,poor quality cleanings multiple
times, or is it case by case?
Nixon, absolutely case by case.
We have a document.
I don't know if I can pull itup, but let me see.
I don't want to see that, Idon't want to spend too much
time trying to find this, butessentially we have a document
that monitors every single F upthat a cleaner has.
So there are a lot of a certainamount of mess ups.
(11:13):
I won't say mess ups in anamount of the time.
So every single month we'll sayall right, it's based on the
amount of cleans that they have.
So we say anything above 10% isa.
It draws a red flag to us.
So we'll see Out of themess-ups.
What type of mess-ups werethere.
Some of those are weighteddifferently.
So, for example, being latemultiple times might be weighted
(11:36):
higher than being late due tosnow or elements or something
like that.
Clients, let's say poor qualityof work.
Quality is subjective, so thatis a very difficult one.
Now the question is was theclient extremely unreasonable or
was there a few areas missed?
If our team calls a client andthe client's yeah, as soon as
(11:59):
they walked in I knew thiswasn't going to be a good
cleaning and blah, blah, blah, Imight want to use my judgment
on that one.
But if after a certain amountof cleanings let's say out of
the month, let's say they have10 cleanings and let's say two
or three there's like clientsare saying oh, there's missed
spots and stuff like that, thosewould draw red flags.
(12:24):
Especially in the beginning,when we're hiring.
We set a very high precedent onour tolerance.
So we're like, hey, after acertain amount of time we can't
work with you anymore because itdiminishes the quality of
everything else, all the jobsthe other people are doing.
So when they come on board, wehave more frequent conversations
about check-ins, how things aregoing.
Is there anything we canimprove on as a business?
Is there anything that you'veseen that you didn't like?
Or we always want that feedbackand we give them examples of
(12:47):
other time where we've gottenfeedback from cleaners, so we
let them know.
It's a partnership so at theend of the day, they can give us
feedback, we can accept it, wecan reject it and we can give
them feedback as well.
So it's normally oh no-shows,that is a.
That's the highest red flag,that a cleaner.
We were like yeah, you knowwhat, Everybody has those
(13:11):
mistakes.
You could have one or two ofthose, but most of the time
those type of red flags, youshould be catching them early
and often and not having themcontinue, because if it happens
multiple times, that is what'sgoing to happen multiple times.
So I would say it's case bycase, but most of the time the
no show is a big one, poorquality versus a couple missed
(13:33):
areas those are case by case.
Being late those are case bycase as well.
But big red flag is no-show,and poor quality versus missed
areas are a big difference forus In the business registration
phase.
At what point in your businessdo you suggest delegation and
task on the back end?
That's a tough one.
I don't think you shoulddelegate until you understand
(13:53):
the business.
I don't think you delegateuntil you understand what you're
delegating to the person.
So one of the things thatpeople always talk about is I
want to delegate the phones,because the phones are the least
enjoyable part of the business,no matter where you are.
I'll pick up the phone today.
I absolutely am going to hateit.
So that's one of the things youwant to delegate off your plate
as early as possible.
(14:13):
But the problem is you don'tunderstand how the clients work.
You don't understand whatproblems they will have, what
challenges they will have.
You won't understand the thingsthat you could do to actually
appease them.
You won't understand the thingsthat you could do to make them
happy on the phone until you dothose phone calls.
So I don't recommend youdelegating too soon.
(14:34):
For us we waited way too long.
So what's the good mix betweendoing it too soon and doing it
way too late?
I think five years, when you'reabout to have a baby, is way
too late to delegate yourbusiness back in support tasks.
I think earlier on, if you havethe I want to say financial
means to do, I would startdelegating little tasks.
So it might not be picking upthe phone, it might be managing
(14:55):
the KPIs of the business, so thekey performance indicators.
If you're like, hey, I want youto just document every single
phone call that comes in.
What the what was the objectionthat the person had?
Why didn't they book ourservices?
Those are the things you canstart to delegate.
We did a community call ondelegation before you hire a VA
as well, but those are thecertain tasks I would have a VA
(15:17):
or operations manager do beforeI started giving them the big
things, the phone calls, thecomplaints, the challenges I
recommend you do.
If you have the financial means,do it as soon as possible, but
make sure you're doing it in away where it is bringing you
either more time back in yourbusiness to grow it, or it's
just that, something that youabsolutely don't want to do and
it's not something that's goingto grow your business.
So one of the challenges we seeis people delegating too soon
(15:42):
and they don't have enough workto keep the person on board.
Now it's like we got to firethem because we didn't wait long
enough till we actually hadenough work.
So, before you delegate, findout the tasks that you want to
give to them and seeing how manyhours you can actually supply
them.
So you should do the task first, finding out how many hours it
takes you to actually completethose tasks, and then we go from
having those tasks on our plateto giving it to somebody else.
(16:06):
How many hours do you suggest aVA to work per week, starting
off including cold calling,appointment setting for the
commercial side?
I can't tell you what I do.
It's a tough one.
Again, it just depends on yourfinancial means.
We have VAs that work with usfull time more than one.
So we're talking about 40 plushours a week.
But when we started we didn'tneed anyone for 40 hours a week.
So I would say I'd rather youstart off on the lower end and
(16:27):
work your way up, versusstarting on the higher end and
having to work your way backdown.
So if you're saying maybe fiveto ten hours a week to start and
then you like, alright, as Igive you more tasks as we scale
up, you're gonna give them more.
You're gonna give them morehours, more time, versus saying
I'm gonna give you 40 hours andwe're you know what?
We don't have 40, we got 30.
You know what?
We don't got 30, we got 20,because now you're playing with
(16:48):
someone's livelihood.
So I think that's something tobe mindful of.
But another thing you could dois, when you're interviewing
them, you could find out if theyhave any other jobs that
they're currently workingalongside of yours.
So if they're working 10 hoursfor you, that means they have 30
other hours to work withsomeone else.
If it's a flexible job, youcould do your thing with them.
But let them know, hey, my goalis to eventually scale you up
(17:09):
to have more work.
So you let them know that fromthe very beginning you have that
conversation with them so thatnow you could say all right,
we're at the 10 hour mark,they're every day.
They're clocking out at theright time.
I got some more tasks for youto do.
Can we bump you up to 15 hours?
Can we bump you up to 20?
So again, I'd rather you startat the low end and work your way
up, versus going from the
What's going on, guys ?
Welcome to another episode ofthe More Than A Side Show
podcast, where we help 9 to 5erscreate more impact, income and
influence outside their jobs,and today is no different.
This episode is going to be asnippet of one of our community
calls, which went over for morethan an hour and a half, of just
pure Q&A, pure game, just pureconversation.
That was happening, in myopinion, some of the most
(00:22):
frequently asked questions thatwe get either in the community
or online or social media, and Itook those clips and I put them
inside of this episode.
So what you're going to hear isa little bit of Q&A, and we
even dove into some of ourpersonal lives, where one of the
questions was aboutentrepreneurship and being hard
and going through a difficultseason, so I spent a little bit
(00:46):
of time talking about that.
But this episode is going toshow you the type of questions
and comments and concerns thatpeople have even when they are
running their business.
So you're listening to peoplewho are truly running online
remote cleaning businesses, butalso people who are just in
entrepreneurship, askingquestions on how to launch, what
to do here.
What happens when there's afire not a literal fire, but a
fire in your business, right?
So we talk about those types ofthings.
So hopefully you guys tune intothis and if there's anything
(01:08):
that you find to be exciting foryou or you just want to support
us, please leave us a five-starreview.
It helps the podcast grow.
It helps us reach more peopleand create a larger impact.
So, without further ado, let'sdive into the episode Peace.
The gem that I got was that hewants to set up seven streams of
income specifically for hiscleaning business, and I know a
(01:29):
lot of times people talk abouthaving seven streams of income.
Seven streams of income onlyworks if you do one thing fairly
well.
Start with one thing grow thatin scale.
He said I want to grow mycleaning business.
I want to grow my YouTube formy cleaning business.
I want to create products andservices for my cleaning
business.
I want to create offers for mycleaning business.
So all the seven streams ofincome that he was talking about
(01:52):
stem from his actual cleaningbusiness.
So one thing we don't recommendis you bringing external parties
together and by externalparties two different cleanings,
two different companies, twodifferent people working
together without knowing whothey are.
We have never, so we don'trecommend anyone doing it.
And we say that because who isgoing to be the leader of the
(02:15):
actual cleaning If somethinggoes wrong?
Who you reach out to Ifsomething happens?
Who do you reach out to Ifsomething is?
Who do you pay?
Do you pay both of them?
Do you pay one person andsomeone wants more than the
other?
Like, how does that work?
So I can't think of anyinstance where we have done that
.
So the other question is goingto be if you have a large job,
what do you do?
We only send teams.
(02:35):
So meaning there is a personwho has a team that they will
send out to the cleaning.
That one person that weinterviewed that spoke to that
we background check.
They have a team, they have abusiness they have, they have
people on.
They might send multiple people, right, but all those people
are going to be working for them.
So in those instances where wesend a team, there's only one
(02:55):
point of contact.
If something goes well,something goes wrong, who do we
pay?
That's the only instance wherewe are sending quote unquote a
team.
So so you could do book callversus closed call.
Just move them over and it willshow you that on the
opportunity tab If you don'twanna do that.
Simple Google Sheets, simple asthat.
And the way you wanna thinkabout the KPIs from that aspect,
(03:17):
think about the entire customerjourney.
So new lead.
Did that new lead call emailtext you?
How did he get to you?
Did they book a call, yes or no?
Or was it via text message?
What was the next step from thatcall?
If you got them on the phone,what's the reason they didn't
book your services?
So what was the objection?
(03:37):
Price is too high, spousalobjection.
I got to get back to you Notunderstanding your services.
You would categorize those aswell.
That's another KPI I thinkeverybody should be tracking as
well.
So why aren't people bookingyour services?
What's the objection thatthey're coming across?
So again, price too high, priceobjection, spousal objection.
Have to get back to you or NA,not sure so that you can start
(04:01):
tracking those metrics and KPIsas well.
From there you go to bookcleaning and then from there you
could go to reclean or followup.
How many cleaners orcontractors do you think that we
should have before we startadvertising to clients and
getting our website launched andready to go?
Great question Number one Iwant to commend you for not
(04:23):
waiting until you get everythingdone on the website side before
you start interviewing, becausethat's the longest you're going
to be interviewing.
In any business you are alwayshiring.
So that's number one.
Number two what's the number?
There is no number.
So we started advertising whenwe had one, maybe two.
That's totally fine.
(04:43):
I don't say you have to waituntil you have three, four, five
different teams, because at theend of the day you'll be
waiting forever and I think it'sjust a way for us to kind of
procrastinate by perfection.
And by perfection we're goingto say we need two, three, four,
five, 10 different teams, andthat's not the case.
So if you got one and you feelcomfortable with that one person
, start advertising.
We did, we were totally fine.
(05:03):
The first person called outthat's fine.
You have two, that first personcalls out Now you might have a
backup, but at the end of theday that person's not available,
then what?
So I would say one to two, ifyou feel comfortable with that.
If you want to go with one, youfeel froggy, time to leap,
let's do it.
But do not wait until you havetwo, three, four, five people,
(05:25):
just so that you can feelcomfortable, because you will
never feel comfortable.
You will never feel confident,I promise you, until you do it.
One of the biggest fears peoplehave and ask us all the time is
what happens if someone doesn'tshow up.
And I like to ask you guys whathappens if you do not show up
to your job?
If you do not show up to yourjob, does the CEO of the company
come and sit in your seat?
Samara, that wasn't for you,that was a rhetorical question,
(05:48):
but the CEO of your company doesnot come and sit in your seat.
Well, you might say my managercomes and does my job.
Does your manager stopeverything that they're doing
and then come, does your entirejob for the day?
No, then you might say okay, mycolleagues and my peers pick up
some of my slack.
If all your colleagues and yourpeers pick up some of your
slack, that means some of theirslack starts to slip as well.
So at the end of the day,something's getting dropped
(06:10):
somewhere along the lines.
The problem is, we just thinkthat the buck has to stop with
us.
So, at the end of the day, theCEO of your company is not going
to come and sit into your seatwhen you call out what you have
called out and it happens.
When you call out what you havecalled out and it happens, and
it's not a fear that I can helpyou get over, it's not a fear
that you could help yourself getover.
The only way you get over thatfear is by doing it.
And a person calls out and thenwhat?
(06:32):
You call the client and say,hey, my person is unavailable
today.
We had snow in Dallas.
Do you think all the cleaningsgot done today?
No, do you think I left myhouse?
No, you call the client.
You let them know.
Hey, it's snow outside, wecan't get to you.
Okay, cool, when can you get tome?
There we go.
Or, hey, you guys are a-holes.
(06:52):
I'm gonna give you a one-starreview.
We can't get to you becauseit's snow outside.
I'm sorry about that.
I'm still giving you a one-starreview.
Same thing we could do to makeit up.
No, okay, we get the one-starreview.
How about we come out onThursday or Friday?
Okay cool, that's all we coulddo at the end of the day,
absolutely.
Jasmine said what kept you goingwhen business was difficult in
(07:14):
the beginning?
So great question.
So what kept us going?
I think one of the biggestchallenges for us is that when
we started the business, wenever really needed it, so it
was like that's what makes itharder.
People think aboutentrepreneurship as being hard
because you need it.
The difference with us is thatwe don't need entrepreneurship.
We can always go back to ourjobs.
I'm an excellent employee.
(07:34):
I follow rules, I followinstructions.
I am very good at followingwhat I'm supposed to do.
I was great in school.
Most entrepreneurs are like oh,I was bad in school.
In schools, most entrepreneursare like oh, I was bad at school
, I dropped out.
Oh, I was bad.
As a nine to five employee, Idropped out.
Not me.
I was an excellent employee.
I was very good at what I did.
So entrepreneurship is that'sthe biggest.
That's the biggest challenge.
(07:54):
Like you, we don't.
We know we don't need it.
So we're actually choosing thisdifficult, rough, hard battle
to go through every single day.
But we know, for example, alanihas an ear infection and then
she has an ear infection rightnow and she has the flu.
She's been out all week.
We decided to stay in the bedwith her while she was just
(08:17):
laying there crying and we waslike we don't have to rush and
do anything.
Those are the things aboutentrepreneurship that you don't
see on social media.
You don't see the.
You just get to lay in bed withyour daughter, right?
If we both had to leave ourjobs, we would have to call out
of work.
We have to take PTO.
Oh, we're not coming in.
Today we got a sick kid.
Only one of us can stay home.
(08:38):
Both of us can't stay home.
Oh, we got to call the sitter.
We got to call the nanny.
Her, we got to call the nanny.
We just both laid in the bedwith her while she just cried
and I was like this is dope.
So those are the type of thingsthat you don't really, you can't
really, they aren't tangible.
So it's not a number, it's nota metric.
It's like those type of momentsthat always remind me that it's
(08:58):
worth it to keep going.
Hopefully that answers yourquestion.
I don't have a metric.
I don't have a tangible partwhere it's like oh, you get to
be your own boss.
Because that's not true.
Because now, instead of havingone boss, you got 10,000 bosses.
Instead of having a nine tofive, now you got a 10 to 10, or
you got a nine to nine, orsomething like that.
So those are the things thatpeople say is I don't want to
(09:19):
have my own boss, I don't wantto answer to anybody, but
technically I have to answer toyou guys.
I have to answer to our clients.
When my youngest brother passed, I still showed up for my
coaching calls because I knew Ihad a commitment to you guys.
So those are the things aboutentrepreneurship that we try not
to glamorize.
It is not easy, but at the endof the day it's those little
(09:39):
intangible moments.
What would I choose over this?
So those are the moments thatkept us going.
And everything in life that'shard, everything that's worth
doing, is going to be difficultIf you really think about it.
If this shit was easy part ofmy French everybody will be an
entrepreneur.
If everybody I want to make amillion dollars, everybody would
do it.
If everybody wants to be amillionaire or a billionaire,
(10:00):
everybody would do it.
But the most difficult thingsare to actually make this stuff
worth it, because if it was easy, everybody would be doing it.
So that was my answers.
What kept us going when businesswas difficult?
And it doesn't stop beingdifficult in the beginning.
It gets difficult now.
So those are the things thatyou have to just go through.
Entrepreneurship is not goingto be easy.
(10:22):
It's going to be difficult,difficult seasons, difficult
moments, and it doesn't juststop happening.
But you got to have thataccountability.
You got to have this before youhave that people who understand
what you're going through.
I can't vent to my friendsabout this because they won't
understand.
Oh, you make money in yourbusiness.
Yeah, I make money, but it'shard, it's not easy.
If I don't work, we don't getpaid.
(10:49):
When do you typically firecleaners?
Is it after multiple no-shows,poor quality cleanings multiple
times, or is it case by case?
Nixon, absolutely case by case.
We have a document.
I don't know if I can pull itup, but let me see.
I don't want to see that, Idon't want to spend too much
time trying to find this, butessentially we have a document
that monitors every single F upthat a cleaner has.
So there are a lot of a certainamount of mess ups.
(11:13):
I won't say mess ups in anamount of the time.
So every single month we'll sayall right, it's based on the
amount of cleans that they have.
So we say anything above 10% isa.
It draws a red flag to us.
So we'll see Out of themess-ups.
What type of mess-ups werethere.
Some of those are weighteddifferently.
So, for example, being latemultiple times might be weighted
(11:36):
higher than being late due tosnow or elements or something
like that.
Clients, let's say poor qualityof work.
Quality is subjective, so thatis a very difficult one.
Now the question is was theclient extremely unreasonable or
was there a few areas missed?
If our team calls a client andthe client's yeah, as soon as
(11:59):
they walked in I knew thiswasn't going to be a good
cleaning and blah, blah, blah, Imight want to use my judgment
on that one.
But if after a certain amountof cleanings let's say out of
the month, let's say they have10 cleanings and let's say two
or three there's like clientsare saying oh, there's missed
spots and stuff like that, thosewould draw red flags.
(12:24):
Especially in the beginning,when we're hiring.
We set a very high precedent onour tolerance.
So we're like, hey, after acertain amount of time we can't
work with you anymore because itdiminishes the quality of
everything else, all the jobsthe other people are doing.
So when they come on board, wehave more frequent conversations
about check-ins, how things aregoing.
Is there anything we canimprove on as a business?
Is there anything that you'veseen that you didn't like?
Or we always want that feedbackand we give them examples of
(12:47):
other time where we've gottenfeedback from cleaners, so we
let them know.
It's a partnership so at theend of the day, they can give us
feedback, we can accept it, wecan reject it and we can give
them feedback as well.
So it's normally oh no-shows,that is a.
That's the highest red flag,that a cleaner.
We were like yeah, you knowwhat, Everybody has those
(13:11):
mistakes.
You could have one or two ofthose, but most of the time
those type of red flags, youshould be catching them early
and often and not having themcontinue, because if it happens
multiple times, that is what'sgoing to happen multiple times.
So I would say it's case bycase, but most of the time the
no show is a big one, poorquality versus a couple missed
(13:33):
areas those are case by case.
Being late those are case bycase as well.
But big red flag is no-show,and poor quality versus missed
areas are a big difference forus In the business registration
phase.
At what point in your businessdo you suggest delegation and
task on the back end?
That's a tough one.
I don't think you shoulddelegate until you understand
(13:53):
the business.
I don't think you delegateuntil you understand what you're
delegating to the person.
So one of the things thatpeople always talk about is I
want to delegate the phones,because the phones are the least
enjoyable part of the business,no matter where you are.
I'll pick up the phone today.
I absolutely am going to hateit.
So that's one of the things youwant to delegate off your plate
as early as possible.
(14:13):
But the problem is you don'tunderstand how the clients work.
You don't understand whatproblems they will have, what
challenges they will have.
You won't understand the thingsthat you could do to actually
appease them.
You won't understand the thingsthat you could do to make them
happy on the phone until you dothose phone calls.
So I don't recommend youdelegating too soon.
(14:34):
For us we waited way too long.
So what's the good mix betweendoing it too soon and doing it
way too late?
I think five years, when you'reabout to have a baby, is way
too late to delegate yourbusiness back in support tasks.
I think earlier on, if you havethe I want to say financial
means to do, I would startdelegating little tasks.
So it might not be picking upthe phone, it might be managing
(14:55):
the KPIs of the business, so thekey performance indicators.
If you're like, hey, I want youto just document every single
phone call that comes in.
What the what was the objectionthat the person had?
Why didn't they book ourservices?
Those are the things you canstart to delegate.
We did a community call ondelegation before you hire a VA
as well, but those are thecertain tasks I would have a VA
(15:17):
or operations manager do beforeI started giving them the big
things, the phone calls, thecomplaints, the challenges I
recommend you do.
If you have the financial means,do it as soon as possible, but
make sure you're doing it in away where it is bringing you
either more time back in yourbusiness to grow it, or it's
just that, something that youabsolutely don't want to do and
it's not something that's goingto grow your business.
So one of the challenges we seeis people delegating too soon
(15:42):
and they don't have enough workto keep the person on board.
Now it's like we got to firethem because we didn't wait long
enough till we actually hadenough work.
So, before you delegate, findout the tasks that you want to
give to them and seeing how manyhours you can actually supply
them.
So you should do the task first, finding out how many hours it
takes you to actually completethose tasks, and then we go from
having those tasks on our plateto giving it to somebody else.
(16:06):
How many hours do you suggest aVA to work per week, starting
off including cold calling,appointment setting for the
commercial side?
I can't tell you what I do.
It's a tough one.
Again, it just depends on yourfinancial means.
We have VAs that work with usfull time more than one.
So we're talking about 40 plushours a week.
But when we started we didn'tneed anyone for 40 hours a week.
So I would say I'd rather youstart off on the lower end and
(16:27):
work your way up, versusstarting on the higher end and
having to work your way backdown.
So if you're saying maybe fiveto ten hours a week to start and
then you like, alright, as Igive you more tasks as we scale
up, you're gonna give them more.
You're gonna give them morehours, more time, versus saying
I'm gonna give you 40 hours andwe're you know what?
We don't have 40, we got 30.
You know what?
We don't got 30, we got 20,because now you're playing with
(16:48):
someone's livelihood.
So I think that's something tobe mindful of.
But another thing you could dois, when you're interviewing
them, you could find out if theyhave any other jobs that
they're currently workingalongside of yours.
So if they're working 10 hoursfor you, that means they have 30
other hours to work withsomeone else.
If it's a flexible job, youcould do your thing with them.
But let them know, hey, my goalis to eventually scale you up
(17:09):
to have more work.
So you let them know that fromthe very beginning you have that
conversation with them so thatnow you could say all right,
we're at the 10 hour mark,they're every day.
They're clocking out at theright time.
I got some more tasks for youto do.
Can we bump you up to 15 hours?
Can we bump you up to 20?
So again, I'd rather you startat the low end and work your way
up, versus going from the
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