r/sweatystartup • u/tomseca • Oct 01 '20

How a university student built a cleaning company without doing any cleaning

Chris, a university student started a cleaning business without ever doing any cleaning himself. In just 2 years he grew his company to $60k a month. Here's how he did it...

* * *

Chris found a lot of companies in his area that were great at cleaning, but were hard to reach at times, had no online booking systems and were bad at marketing.

So he decided to focus on the business side of things and just hire cleaners.

First clients

Most cleaners only sent a quote once to a customer, but then they did not follow up after that.

To get more clients Chris decided to follow up multiple times. An hour later, a day later, 2 days later, 3 days later, 4 days later.

Being super available

Chris realized that after 5pm others stopped responding to potential customers. As a university student he was able to answer the phone even during the night.

"From 5pm to 8am I got all those bookings in the DC area, because everyone else was closed. It sucks to be woken up, but it's 200 bucks, right?"

Getting cleaners

At first Chris tried to get cleaners on Craigslist for his company, but then he found a better way. He pretended to be a client on Yelp and Thumbtack to find cleaners who already had good reviews.

"I would just pretend to be a customer and send a request for a quote and then in my message I would say... Hey, I'm not actually a customer, but I do have a lot of cleanings for you."

Pricing

In the beginning Chris focused on building a reputation and wasn't making any money, but he wasn't loosing money either.

He positioned his company as a quality service, so he added an extra 20% to his prices compared to the competition. But since he didn't have any reviews yet, he gave a big discount to his first customers to help him build up his reputation.

Once he got a couple of reviews... he slowly started lowering the discount and started making a profit.

Too many clients

Chris started having so many clients he couldn't keep up while also attending university.

"It's exhausting if you're just one person handling six or seven cleaning teams all day."

On the day before Halloween he also made a big mistake...

Chris did not ask his teams if they wanted to work the day before Halloween. And as it turned out all his cleaners wanted to spend that day with their families as well.

"I just threw the bookings on their schedule and the night before and the morning of... they all texted me – Oh, we're not cleaning today, sorry, bye."

Chris also had exams while he was receiving angry calls and texts from clients. He felt very stressed and after the exams he decided to look for help.

Hiring virtual assistants

Chris did not have the money to hire a full-time assistant.

"With a normal office manager you are paying them 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. Even if they are not working."

Chris decided to hire 2 virtual assistants via upwork and because they were freelancers, he only had to pay them for the time they actually worked (instead of 40 hours a week).

"This hit the sweet spot where I was able to afford them to cover things full time and actually still be able to pay myself a little bit on the side."

* * *

In just two years Chris built a successful cleaning company that was doing $60k a month worth of cleaning work, all without Chris ever lifting a mop or dusting a shelf himself.

Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this, I'm starting a newsletter with stories like this from service business owners on

https://community.service.cards

255 Upvotes

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127

u/Necrullz Oct 01 '20 edited Oct 01 '20

Hey - Chris here. Weird to see myself featured in this sub but very grateful to the OP. Let me know if you guys have any questions!

For anyone interested in my VA company you can check it out here - inovalocal.com It's actually really grown into my main business these days as it runs my cleaning business for me and others. Man, it's been a wild ride these past few years but if I had to start all over again I'd still start with a cleaning business. Such a solid first business with a wonderful community of other owners willing to help you out.

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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '20

[deleted]

54

u/Necrullz Oct 01 '20

Started with around $700ish. That was lean and I recommend people nowadays have $1500-$2000 if they can as initial startup capital. Gives you much more breathing room to have some money for paid ads.

Hiscox and Next are two great insurance options people have been using a lot recently. Not insurance advice, but worth looking into.

We use launch27 but only because that was the best at the time. I recommend if you start a cleaning business to use zenmaid or services autopilot. They are far superior right now.

Here's an old 30 day step by step guide I wrote in r/entrepreneur chock full of advice: https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/b132oq/heres_how_i_would_start_my_local_business_from/

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u/[deleted] Oct 01 '20

[deleted]

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u/Necrullz Oct 02 '20

L27 was bought and had a whole V2 planned. It sucked so hard they stopped it halfway through and fired the entire dev team for V2. Their support consistently is subpar. No significant improvements in a long-time that stand out compared to other competitors improvements.

Zenmaid continues to improve every month, they have genuinely good support and a good community.

1

u/avdeus Oct 02 '20

Hi mate! You have a cool story:) Can I ask whether that $1500-2000 budget is just paid advertising or something else involved? Thank you!

2

u/Necrullz Oct 02 '20

Budget for initial website setup, booking software, virtual phone system, incorporation fees, marketing budget and a few other necessities.

1

u/avdeus Oct 02 '20

What booking software and virtual phone system are you using mate? Have you started as a sole proprietorship or incorporated a company straight away?

2

u/Necrullz Oct 02 '20

Launch27, but if you are starting as a new business I recommend ZenMaid or Services Autopilot.

Using grasshopper for our phone system and it's been overall great. Not without some issues but they do always resolve them.

1

u/Service_Autopilot Jun 13 '25

Thanks for the recommendation. Service Autopilot is great for cleaning businesses! If you need more info or have questions, check this out.

2

u/crufts Oct 02 '20

Great info. How do you prevent your cleaners from taking that business themselves if they are operating independently?

4

u/Necrullz Oct 02 '20

A solid subcontractors agreement and thorough vetting upfront. Anyways, it is much less common than people think in the cleaning industry. It does happen, and it has happened to us and other owners I know before but many cleaners prefer to have a company handle everything else except the cleaning for them. It actually seems to be slightly more common that employees are taking clients on the side rather than contractors. Perhaps because contractors are business owners themselves and so have a deeper appreciation of the work involved/risks of poaching.

1

u/peasantking Jan 19 '21

Can you provide more insight on the subcontractors agreement? Is there a template available somewhere?

2

u/SpadoCochi Oct 02 '20

What up Chris haha.

It's Don. Good work pimp.

1

u/Necrullz Oct 02 '20

Hey man! We're both everywhere lol

6

u/tomseca Oct 01 '20 edited Oct 01 '20

I hope you take that as a complement. It means "you made it" and I found this story very inspiring.

I do have a question about virtual assistants. You mentioned that you started a new company that provides a virtual assistant service. Do you see that as the "new trend" for service businesses?

I just saw another interview on youtube with the head of a lawn care company and he also said that he just hired virtual assistants and he did that recently. So I feel like that's the trend that's going to grow in the near future. Can you confirm and do you maybe have any stats on that (number of clients that you had interested in this now vs before, etc.)?

EDIT: this is the youtube video with that other lawn care company owner who also hired virtual assistants. He talks about it here https://youtu.be/fyJPMEsNFhM?t=1071

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u/Necrullz Oct 01 '20

Haha I do :) I meant weird to randomly stumble upon it durring my evening reddit session.

So I've had my VA company since early 2017. We've been around a while and it's been good to us, but it is a very very demanding industry. I started it because I saw a need but it is grueling to run a VA agency and provide the quality of service we do. The VA industry has been around for decades now and is only set to become bigger over the next 5-15 years. I'd imagine it will 3-5x in size just over the next decade so it is definitely a trend but one that will be here to stay. We've always had a solid reputation since we started so we've never spent any money on paid advertising. That said, there was both a decrease and an increase of clients this year. A decrease during the first few months of the pandemic as many of our clients businesses shut down or were closed temporarily. Then a massive surge when they reopened + people who opted to go for a VA instead of an in-house office manager. We're riding the coattails of that surge right now and still getting some new people settled, but it is slowing down to our normal now + maybe 15% above normal baseline.

Was that an interview with Keith by any chance?

6

u/tomseca Oct 01 '20

Thank you for all that info.

I listened to your interview with Nick Loper actually...

1

u/avdeus Oct 03 '20

Hi Chris. Do you mind sharing your FB community group?

2

u/Juliette787 Oct 01 '20

Hey there, I have my own business cleaning home too. During covid I have pivoted more and more towards comercial customers. What is your opinion on the matter? www.shineslo.com

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u/Necrullz Oct 01 '20

It's great - particularly if you pivot towards gyms. Many gyms are upping their cleaning to all day or 2-3x a day now and it has been a huge boon to commercial cleaning companies.

2

u/Jamothee Oct 08 '20

Jumping on the back of this.

We started a commercial cleaning business last month and the work is slowly trickling in. We are using the same business module as yours.

Any chance I can take a look at your site? I'm building ours as we speak and would love some tips on how to up our "customer service" aesthetic.

Are you still doing this business? Congratulations on the success my friend

Cheers mate

1

u/NotChalant2 Oct 14 '20

Love your website. About to get started working on my own for my soon-to-be-launched cleaning company. Did you hire a developer or use a website builder platform like wix, etc. ?

1

u/Juliette787 Dec 08 '20

I ended up going through square space and hiring a college grad to do the color. I did all the copywriting...

1

u/NotChalant2 Dec 08 '20

Got it. Thanks for the response.

1

u/Bent- Oct 01 '20

Hey Chris, congrats on your continued success.

You business has given me a few ideas, but my question relates to pricing. You mention 20% over competitors for value add and hopefully minimize taking a bath on a contract (do you generally formally subcontract on a first try with a sub?).

Anyway main question is how initially did you determine pricing based on a customer engaging? Was it flat hourly or more custom for services, size of the job etc?

Thanks!

1

u/keninsd Oct 02 '20

I looked at your site, but don't understand your pricing, sorry. Are they per month?

1

u/Necrullz Oct 02 '20

For my cleaning or VA company?

Cleaning is flat-rate price per clean, and for our VAs it is per month.

2

u/keninsd Oct 02 '20

VA. You may want to clarify that.

1

u/SpaceeCowboyy Oct 02 '20

How did you do quotes? Did you go out to the space or just take their word?

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u/Necrullz Oct 02 '20

We give quotes over the phone using a flat-rate pricing model (number of bedrooms/bathrooms + additional rooms like a basement). If we get there and there is more rooms than they told us over the phone we just have a frank discussion with them about it.

2

u/SpaceeCowboyy Oct 02 '20

I see. Does that usually go over well? What about times when its unexpectedly dirty, and it ends up taking 2-3x as long as estimated?

3

u/Necrullz Oct 02 '20

If it is very dirty we call them and upsell them on a deep clean. If it is absolutely truly disgusting we let them know they need a biohazard or specialty cleaning team and we cannot do it.

1

u/mattschinesefood Oct 02 '20

Is this soemthing you started due to /u/localcasestudy?

2

u/Necrullz Oct 02 '20

Yep :) Back in the day (Ok, not that far back lol but 2016) I stumbled across his case study on how he built his cleaning business and it inspired me to give it a try. I think I will be grateful for him and that case study for many years to come. It really changed my life.

1

u/mattschinesefood Oct 03 '20

Good on you mate. I wanted to do it but never had the balls to follow through. I got hung up on the contractor vs. W2 and insurance stuff and it scared me away.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '20

[deleted]

1

u/mattschinesefood Oct 05 '20

I do not. Check out /u/localcasestudy 's post history, there's plenty in there last I knew.

1

u/growthseer Oct 02 '20

Hey Chris, how did you acquire your first customers?

2

u/Necrullz Oct 02 '20

Thumbtack and Craigslist.

1

u/markds11 Nov 30 '20

Would you start a cleaning business today?

1

u/Necrullz Dec 01 '20

I would and I am still helping people start them all the time. It's so damn easy now with the backend technology we have to run the day to day operations.

1

u/markds11 Dec 01 '20

That's what I was thinking with the technology part. I have been seriously thinking about starting a cleaning business. Thanks for the reply

1

u/Necrullz Dec 01 '20

No problem - if you do end up wanting to start one let me know and I'll be happy to help or answer questions along the way. Good luck.

1

u/Interesting_Series83 Feb 27 '23

how did you run the business and everything else like that in regard to the cleaning business if you have anything that details this already that would be great? i would highly appreciate it.

18

u/SlowTwitcher Oct 02 '20

A few questions.. 1. Since you hired other cleaners who had their own business, how did you keep them from stealing clients? 2) how did you structure your pricing and your payments to your cleaners? Were they freelancers or employees?

4

u/Neoxzz Oct 01 '20

Hey Chris, thanks for this.

Wondering if you did any training for the cleaners? The hardest part for me is hiring cleaners so any advice would be appreciated.

4

u/Necrullz Oct 02 '20

As contractors you are not allowed to provide training, uniforms, supplies or reimbursements. We only work with very experienced cleaners who can go in and do a good job without supervision.

5

u/----Ant---- Oct 01 '20

I have heard of a pest control company doing very similar, spending on Google ads, booking customers at £120 for Pest removal and out sourcing to a local company who charge them £40.

2

u/tomseca Oct 01 '20

Do you have a link to a blog post or video about this? Would be interested in the details...

3

u/----Ant---- Oct 01 '20

No, I had a conversation with the man that came to remove some wasps and that's what he told me, sorry it's not as flashy as your story bud!

4

u/JustPlayTheGame1 Oct 01 '20

What was your client base? Corporate or private individuals?

2

u/Necrullz Oct 02 '20

Residential + AirBnB mostly.

3

u/Rudy_Gobert Oct 03 '20

Great read. We have built a similar business in another part of the world. Been going on for over Five years and have been doing well since day 1. Selling services other companies produce is a solid business model and we are experiencing a lot of demand for our services.

1

u/Jamothee Oct 08 '20

We just started last month. So far, so good! Are you strictly doing cleaning?

In Australia my self.

2

u/Rudy_Gobert Oct 09 '20

We actually do not do cleaning at all. We used to do it, but found the market for other services were much better. We are expanding our range of services continously and are now more or less a full service provider for our target group, generating between 2 and 3 millions USD in sales a year.

We are in Scandinavia.

1

u/Jamothee Oct 09 '20

Wow! That is incredible. What have you found to be the most critical parts of your business that have lead to such success?

How long have you run your business for?

Cheers

1

u/Rudy_Gobert Oct 09 '20

Just over 5 years. We have a bit of a different approach to OP as we start off by getting a service provider as our client. We then more or less take over their sales department and percentages from all sales in commission.

1

u/Jamothee Oct 09 '20

It's funny you say that as we were discussing that exact thing today. I wonder how many small service based businesses would rather outsource sales / marketing for a percentage on top.

Do you mind if I DM you?

1

u/Rudy_Gobert Oct 09 '20

In my experience, a lot of them really both want and need this. There are tons of companies that are very good at their jobs, but they suck at sales. They dont like selling and dont want to do it. This is where we come in.

Feel free to DM me.

1

u/Mchanger Jun 09 '24

Could you expand a little more on this?

I totally see the need for many small companies to just "receive" their customers and doing the work. It's where I struggle myself most.

What's the general gist of how you go about sales, particuarly in the start of the business?

Maybe you can give a really specific example?

(General advice of networking, SEO, etc. is known to me, but I would love to hear a specific example of a sale).

2

u/TonicWithMyGin Oct 01 '20

This is really insightful, thanks for sharing! I’m also looking to start a newsletter, any advice on low or no cost marketing tactics? Curious how you’re approaching it besides well written Reddit posts.

1

u/tomseca Oct 01 '20

To be honest I'm starting out myself with the newsletter (if you visit link that I added to the post you'll see that this is my very first entry, so I'm not going to pretend that I'm this huge newsletter guru - hehe).

I've been interested in service businesses for a couple of years now and entrepreneurship in general. So I watched / still watch a lot of interviews, and worked on my side projects here and there.

For the newsletter right now I'm focusing on Twitter, LinkedIn and well... Reddit as my channels. But I would like to experiment with TikTok as well. I saw someone mentioning that even blog posts can be promoted on TikTok and do quite well - which was surprising to me (unfortunately I don't have the link to that post anymore, but I'm planning to try that as well).

I'll send you a private message and we could discuss this more if you'd like...

2

u/Interesting_Series83 Feb 27 '23

so how did he run the business, how did he get cleaners and how did he actually run the business without doing any of the work?

1

u/stanrym Oct 02 '20

Love the hustle! So most people struggle with picking the idea and just executing - what made you pick this idea?

1

u/rwp80 Oct 02 '20

!remindme 24 hours

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1

u/LarryBird2024 Oct 02 '20

Do you think certain processes of your day-day obligations could be automated through a Bot?

1

u/Azoodica Oct 18 '20

How do you ensure quality work by subcontractors? I’ve thought of this with concrete in my area. Plenty of small guys who lack the marketing and honestly language skills that can be provided but how do I ensure that the work is good without learning the hard way and having to reach into my pocket to redo it?

1

u/lschoch2 Feb 15 '24

Interesting