You don't own a cleaning business

Brought to you by

Running a cleaning business comes with its share of risks—whether it’s accidental damage to a client’s property or an injury on the job. Without insurance, one unexpected incident could end up costing you thousands and put your business at risk. Don’t wait until it's too late—get a free quote today and see how affordable it can be to safeguard your cleaning business!

You don’t own a cleaning business.

What? Yep, it’s true. If you’ve been feeling stressed out about growth recently, it’s probably because you think you own a cleaning business. You don’t.

You’re probably thinking: “Why is he saying this? Is he crazy? Of course I’m building a cleaning business.”

I’ll tell you why I’m saying this. To the untrained eye, it might look like you are building a cleaning business. But you’re actually building a staffing & training business disguised as a cleaning business.

Reality Check

When we had 20 properties, I was positive we were running a cleaning business. Then, things got a little out of hand. I realized that selling the services wasn’t the problem. It was getting the right people on the team. It was a staffing issue that was holding me back.

Think about it. If you have scale of any kind (+20 properties) what’s your biggest bottleneck? What’s preventing you from breaking through that wall and building a $1M business?

Is it your ability to clean well? No.

Is it your ability to refill consumables or stage the home? No. 

It’s your ability to find, attract, train, and retain talent.

Proof This is True

Want some proof? Alex Hormozi, an entrepreneur famous for scaling businesses, dropped a great video diving into this exact concept. Watch from 6:48 - 10:00.

In this clip, Hormozi shares a conversation he had with a friend who had started an Airbnb cleaning business. This friend shares that getting customers is easy. Just put up a website, run some ads to it, and for $25 you can get a customer.

The tricky part is having enough people to perform the job. Even if you could invest an infinite amount of money into marketing and sales, you’d still have one big gap - not enough cleaners.

Let’s Keep it Real

If you’re dealing with this, take my story for instance.

We just crossed 50 properties a few days back. Now we’re at 55 properties. And this Sunday (in 2 days), we have 35 cleans to get done 😱 

I’m not stressed about our ability to clean. I’m stressed about finding enough people to show up and do the job right! Thankfully, we use Breezeway to schedule, track, and provide checklists for each clean. If our cleaners follow our checklist exactly, it’s nearly a guaranteed 5-star clean.

However, if I don’t have enough people or if those people don’t show up, I don’t have a business.

Change your perspective, change your business

So, if I’ve convinced you that you’re in the hiring & training business (not the cleaning business) here’s a challenge. Start to think about your business in terms of its limiting factor. In Airbnb cleaning, once you’ve passed 15 - 20 properties, your limiting factor is your ability to find, attract, train, and retain talent.

You have to attack hiring with as much focus and energy as you attack marketing. You are still marketing your business. The only difference is your target audience is potential cleaners, not customers.

Some things that we use to attract cleaners to our business:

• Weekly pay

• Bonus opportunities

• Ability to become an inspector/lead cleaner

• Pay is $25/hr

• Culture of support and encouragement

• Etc.

Conclusion and cliff hanger

I hope this triggered something in your mind that might have been holding you back. Remember, after a certain number of properties, your business shifts to a staffing business. Once you learn how to acquire customers, that part is easy. Acquiring cleaners so you can get the job done, that’s where the tricky part lies.

Next week, that will be the focus of the newsletter - how do you actually attract, hire, train, & retain cleaners!

Until next time,

Logan

Get the goods 🧼 

Want more knowledge to build your cleaning empire? The below are some of the best pieces of information to grow your business, perfect your clean, and become an expert in the field.

• Complete Airbnb cleaning checklist

• Airbnb cleaning business course

Some of our greatest hits:

• How to get customers - the ULTIMATE list

• Cleaners, protect your worth

• If a host says this, RUN!

• Levels to Airbnb cleaning