#186: Going From Solo Cleaner to First Hire, with Ashley O'Keeffe

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Hello, my friends.

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I cannot wait for you to hear this incredible episode with Ashley.

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This is a consulting style episode, and she has such great questions, especially if you're like teetering on a big growth spurt or looking to get out of the field, hire staff members.

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We go into a lot of nitty gritty advice, as well as production rates, auditing, all of that good stuff.

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This is your content advisory warning, though.

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I do swear a decent amount in this, including the F word.

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So if you have little ears, put those earbuds in.

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Save this one for later.

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Regardless, hit that like and enjoy.

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This is Filthy Rich Cleaners, presented by ZenMaid, the podcast where real cleaning business owners share what works, so you can earn more, stress less, and make your business filthy rich.

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Hello, friends.

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Welcome or welcome back to the Filthy Rich Cleaners podcast.

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I'm your host Stephanie from Serene Clean, and today's fabulous guest is Miss Ashley O'Keefe, and she is in Hanover, Virginia.

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She has the coolest cleaning business name, AOK Pristine Clean.

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If I could spit it out, AOK as in her initials, which is very, very clever.

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Ashley, love the name.

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Thank you for joining me today.

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Thank you for having me.

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I'm so excited and nervous.

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No need to be nervous.

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We are, we're gonna have a blasty blast.

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So, tell me, Ashley, are you always have you always been from Virginia?

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That's a weird way to ask that.

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Are you originally from Virginia?

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Born and raised, born and raised, never left, never went anywhere else for a second.

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We thought we were moving to Georgia, and my family freaked all the way out.

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So, yeah, I'm just I'm from Virginia.

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Never been anywhere else.

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That's awesome.

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What did you do before you opened your cleaning business?

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I was a stay-at-home mom for a few years, and when I decided I was ready to go back to work, I tried working for another company, and I probably only made it like six months.

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And it wasn't even really because of the company.

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I mean, they definitely had policies that I didn't love, like using rags to clean toilets and whatnot.

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I didn't love that.

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But besides that, my kids were really, really young, and I felt like I was calling out a lot, and it just wasn't really a good time for me to be an employee.

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But right after leaving there, I picked up some of my own houses, and it kind of just it snowballed.

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And I'm not really big right now, but it's getting big fast.

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Like, on the Facebook groups, my name is repeated over and over and over again.

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I posted something to my social media the other day for the first time, and that brought in a lot of leads very quickly.

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So that's kind of what's been going on the past couple of years.

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You're in a very exciting phase where things are just like taking off, and I know you have a couple staff members now, right?

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I have a couple of 1099s, and I tried a W2.

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Y'all were asking me if I had like any crazy horror stories.

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The W2 happened after I signed up for this, and now now I have a story, and I can get into that whenever you'd like.

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Oh, right now is the time.

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I would say let's hear it.

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Okay, so I really do want W2 employees, but I've been having a hard time finding them, and I'm probably going to wind up needing to pay for Indeed or whatever.

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But I posted on Facebook that I was looking to hire, and this girl that I went to school with reached out to me, and she's got a bad reputation on it, honestly, like she's got a drug history and all these things, just a terrible reputation.

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I'm sensitive to the drug addiction thing just because I don't have addiction issues, but people I'm very close to me do.

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So I looked at her background and she didn't have like theft charges or anything crazy like that.

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So I was like, I'll give her a try.

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She made it a day and a half, and we were cleaning this house.

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And I noticed after like 30 minutes, I hadn't seen her, and I was like, oh my god, I'm gonna find this chick like passed out somewhere.

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Like, so I went.

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The homeowner was there, and she's really chill lady.

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So I was like, Can you look at your camera and see if she left?

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And of course, the camera wasn't working at the time.

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Eventually, she decided to text me and was like, I'm sorry.

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Like, I just freaked out.

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I don't know what's wrong with me.

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I can't do this.

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And I was like, and she had left her purse in my car because, like, I'm just trying to make a long story short, basically.

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But like, I had gone to a gas station to pick her up that morning, and she didn't show up.

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I pulled up to the customer's house, and she was sitting on the front porch waiting on me.

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I was like, I mean, we just talked about this, that I'm gonna pick you up at Wawa, but yeah, she has some addiction issues, and she just ghosted me.

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Everybody told me not to hire her, but I was like, I've seen addicts like make a comeback, like maybe this will be her comeback story, and I can say that I took part in that.

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But lesson learned, don't hire meth heads.

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We've had that lesson stated many times on the pod.

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Unfortunately, though they can clean fast, they can be a bit sporadic on their behavior.

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So it's tough.

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I think, especially when you, I think a lot of us have experienced pretty much exactly what you're saying.

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Maybe not necessarily with addiction, but with people who are not like we're doing it because of we want.

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I don't know if it's like a savior complex or one of like, I can, I can help you, I can fix you, right?

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And I want to be that path, and you want to be that light for people.

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But I think especially when in the beginning, like, you're so, I don't want to use the word fragile in a negative connotation, but it's like a little baby bird, you have to protect, and anything can crush it.

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And so you just had that crushed.

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Yeah.

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So that was, and I've been afraid to really hire anybody legitimately because I didn't even have time to get all of like the government paperwork sent in before she was gone.

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But I mean, no, no, no.

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That's been my luck with employees so far.

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My 1099s have been fine, but well, and honestly, like if you're doing, you know, if you're growing, it's not a bad thing to start out with 1099s as long as everything's on the up and up.

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It's not a bad thing.

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You can always transition until you have more.

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I would say stable hours.

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But just remember, that's one person out of you know what is it, seven billion on the planet.

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Like, not everybody's a meth head.

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I promise.

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Or mine, not meth head.

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I'm looking for you.

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Yeah, you just need a couple.

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You just need a couple.

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You'll get a diamond in the rough, and then things will really start to escalate.

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But you are in a very, I would say, challenging part of things are getting to the point that it can't all be on you from the schedule?

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Like, that's not possible to do all of the appointments, I would imagine.

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So now you have to rely on other people.

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But in this stage of business, it's like, yeah, it's just that fragile.

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It's fragile.

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It's very discouraging because you're gonna have like probably pretty rapid turnover.

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Like, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that's not gonna happen again.

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You know, you can of course filter of like, oh, they didn't listen to instructions.

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They didn't show up to Wawa when I told them to.

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Like red flags type of thing.

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But it's just a muscle you'll build, and also you'll just, I think, get over the disappointment, like in the fear, faster.

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Because, yeah, I mean, I think I made an episode with my like first ten employees, and like there was some true nightmares in there.

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And I'm so glad I didn't like say, "Well, screw it.

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Clearly, this isn't going to work."

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Yeah, right.

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We wouldn't be having this conversation.

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So that is what I am going to implore you, is like, don't give up.

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Yeah, I'm not.

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But I mean, it kind of made me go like, maybe I should just do 1099s forever.

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But I feel it's important to me to be able to control the quality of the work.

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Like, you can't with 1099s.

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It's either cleaners or they're not.

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Well, and I really think that like it's gonna be probably like you just probably got lucky with a couple good ten, nine, ten, ninety-nines.

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It can be difficult both ways, like you said, of like getting quality issues and really like having the rules the way you want.

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That could be another pain point that you just haven't experienced on that side yet.

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So like they both can be very challenging.

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And if you want that level of control, and I think like this is probably a very like you're in a, you're responding to what just happened.

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Of like, oh, I'll just always stay like, I don't think we should ever use always or never, especially when something bad just happened.

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Like, you can, you can stay like this for now, and if the goal ultimately, I mean, in a year, you could have ten employees.

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We don't know, so it'll be okay and it will work out.

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I promise.

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With W2, if that's what you want, you're just going to have to put a process in place to get a lot more people in front of, in front of your eyeballs.

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Yeah, but you just recently started using Indeed, didn't you?

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Yeah, so we've used Indeed since day one, but not paid.

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So Indeed has pretty much eradicated any like ability to skirt around their rules, like we have been like doing for years, basically, which meant what we do to get pushed towards the top of the search results previously in Indeed or the not sponsored jobs is we would just pause a job, copy it, and make a new job off of that copy, so we get pushed to the top.

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That doesn't work anymore.

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They won't let you do it in that manner anymore.

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So we do pay.

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I do not regret paying.

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I think that, considering one employee can make us, you know, how much money a year, and that's like truly the only way for us to grow, and it's why we were struggling so bad last year.

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Like, I just have accepted it.

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You know what I mean?

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Of paying for it.

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So I think it's well worth it because that is it solved our hiring problem for the most part.

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So I don't think it's a bad thing.

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But just making sure that your job listing is the best it possibly can be and selling yourself, you know.

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So keep that in mind too, is like, oh, I'm not getting results.

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Like, well, what does the job listing look like?

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Right now, it would just I don't have anything to offer other than flexibility really.

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Flexibility.

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Yep.

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Yeah, I'd love to be able to offer insurance and 401k match and everything down the line.

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Well, and you will be able to.

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And I think like when I talk to my staff members who have been with me the longest, what they say the most, it's not our benefits, it's not the pay, it's nothing.

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It's like the respect and flexibility.

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All of my best staff are moms.

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They are parents, just in general.

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They are busy.

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They can't work a traditional nine to five.

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So they are still so appreciative of that, and of the respect, and of that type of care.

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And there is a lot of like, I would say affordable routes you can take before.

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Like we think that they want 401ks because some, some of them do, but before that, there's other things that we could do with like the bonuses or like the spin the wheel benefit that, like, that's all of my staff members say, that's their favorite benefit, is our spin the wheel, where they, like, by their behavior.

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They can qualify to spin the wheel in the office for fabulous cash prizes or gift cards or whatever PTO, that type of thing.

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So, like, there are things that you probably could do that are creative, not that expensive, and only happen based on their good behavior, which means you're making money, right?

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So, don't discount that flexibility.

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That's going to be attractive to a lot of people.

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You interviewed one girl whose ideal idea, I think, I want to steal.

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She gives bonuses based off of not missing work.

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Like they would get a month without calling, they get such and such bonus.

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And I think that maybe my previous employer might have watched you too, because she did the spin the wheel thing, which we all, yeah, it's amazing, it's awesome.

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Watched you too.

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Yeah, yeah, right.

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And so I think, yeah, bonuses based on the behavior that you want, and then you know, even if there is anything that you do in the community, like if you are gonna be a member for Cleaning for a Reason, if you are gonna do any like free cleanings in general or donating locally, like to the right people who like align with your core values and the culture that you want to build, if that is the culture you want to build, that's gonna mean a lot to them.

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Like that means a lot to my team.

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They really like that with their work.

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We are doing good things, and again, it doesn't have to be a lot.

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You could donate twenty-five bucks a month, but just then being able to say on your Indeed page, like, do you want to work for a company that aligns with your values because you care about your community?

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If so, we're the place for you, and this is what you can expect, right?

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And really, selling like who you are as a person.

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I mean, I am curious.

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Have you like really thought about what you want your core values to be in the company?

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The first thing that comes to mind is integrity, just doing the right thing when nobody's watching.

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That's the first thing that comes to mind.

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I haven't really thought about it.

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Yeah, no, that's one of ours.

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I mean, we only have three, and you know, I could definitely think of more things that we want.

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But when I think about everybody who works out, they all embody that, and really explaining like what do these things mean to us, and putting that on the Indeed, like we like we only want to work with people who align with these things, and we hold very strongly to them, right?

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And I think especially if you can, a lot of people have been so burned from former workplaces that if you can just really highlight and say like we know what that feels like because we've experienced this, and it's not going to be like that here, and then just do the thing, you know?

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So yeah, just really, really selling yourself in the Indeed listing.

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Yeah.

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So I didn't, you know, I don't mean to dominate and just be like, advice, advice, advice, but you know, that's that might be where this conversation takes it.

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So you've had this struggle with W2.

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You are with the independent contractors.

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Talk me.

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I want to go back to getting those clients.

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So has it always been through Facebook?

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Or you said, you know, you kind of glossed over, like, oh, I just started getting clients.

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How did that happen?

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I think like, I would I clean for a friend.

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That friend told an aunt.

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That aunt told her bestie.

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So, like, mainly been word of mouth.

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Well, at first it was all word of mouth.

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Like, I didn't even really advertise myself on Facebook.

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And then once I created the LLC, then I made a Facebook page, and from there a couple more customers came.

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And after, after that, like, my name is probably one of the most commented.

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Anytime, yeah, like anytime I see somebody on Facebook looking for a cleaner, I get a lot of tags, which I'm so thankful for.

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But that's, I haven't had to pay for any advertising.

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I've been very fortunate with that.

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I think this is a really wonderfully common experience when people are starting out and they have that type of community that does that thing.

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You know, that has the Facebook groups.

204
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Not every community does, but for the most part, I think most do now.

205
00:14:46,576 --> 00:14:55,136
And yeah, that is like the most amazing thing because that word of mouth business, you're not having to pay for it, and people believe it because you're not paying for it.

206
00:14:55,136 --> 00:14:57,056
They're like, oh, you know, I believe this person.

207
00:14:57,056 --> 00:15:01,376
They have no reason to to lie about this or any financial gain from it.

208
00:15:01,376 --> 00:15:03,376
So I love to hear that.

209
00:15:03,616 --> 00:15:09,376
As for any other sources, so it's been purely Facebook and word of mouth.

210
00:15:09,456 --> 00:15:10,416
You haven't paid for it.

211
00:15:10,416 --> 00:15:11,616
What is your website?

212
00:15:11,856 --> 00:15:13,536
What do you have a website yet?

213
00:15:13,536 --> 00:15:14,016
I do.

214
00:15:14,016 --> 00:15:14,816
I would.

215
00:15:14,896 --> 00:15:16,976
I would like for it to be a little bit better.

216
00:15:18,880 --> 00:15:22,720
Like, I need to take more pictures to put on the website.

217
00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:26,240
I'd like for the booking form to be a little bit more accurate.

218
00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:31,760
Like, I feel like a lot of the times, I'm not happy with the price that it comes up with for me.

219
00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:34,400
Or no, that, yeah, that's accurate.

220
00:15:34,400 --> 00:15:37,280
I'm not really normally happy with the price that it comes up with for me.

221
00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:38,400
Like, I'm going to.

222
00:15:38,880 --> 00:15:41,280
I don't really do this isn't true.

223
00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:48,960
I was about to say I don't really do walkthroughs for estimates, but I'm actually doing one tomorrow because this is a bigger house than I've ever done before.

224
00:15:49,680 --> 00:15:56,320
It's there's a successful real estate agent in the area that probably found me because of that recent Facebook post I made.

225
00:15:56,320 --> 00:16:00,480
I was like playing with my chickens and singing to my chickens and stuff, and that got a lot of.

226
00:16:02,144 --> 00:16:04,384
So, I think that's how she found me.

227
00:16:04,384 --> 00:16:10,224
And tomorrow I'm gonna go quote her house in person, just because it's way bigger than a house I've done before.

228
00:16:10,224 --> 00:16:12,704
And I have a couple commercial clients.

229
00:16:12,784 --> 00:16:16,384
It's mainly residential right now, but I want to do.

230
00:16:16,944 --> 00:16:21,184
I had a lady leave me a voicemail yesterday asking me if I just wash windows.

231
00:16:21,184 --> 00:16:23,504
I haven't even returned her call because I don't know what to do with that one.

232
00:16:23,504 --> 00:16:28,384
Like, I've never done exterior window, but I don't really want to say no.

233
00:16:29,024 --> 00:16:31,744
But, I yes, you do, you do want to say no.

234
00:16:31,824 --> 00:16:36,144
We just had one of our clients ask about window cleaning, actually, like external.

235
00:16:36,544 --> 00:16:42,224
And I mean, we could reach them from the ground, and we're still saying no because we don't want to blur that lines of like we're not window cleaners.

236
00:16:42,224 --> 00:17:00,704
So, you're definitely in the dangerous, like you're getting a lot of shit coming at you, meaning like potential business, but really, really, really have to watch the discipline of being able to say no, because what you just said of like I don't know what to do with this, but I don't want to say no.

237
00:17:01,024 --> 00:17:03,904
Well, there's other money to be made just on normal houses.

238
00:17:03,904 --> 00:17:07,424
You don't have to be climbing on ladders and doing like what if you break your ankle?

239
00:17:07,424 --> 00:17:07,984
You know what I mean?

240
00:17:07,984 --> 00:17:11,904
There goes all the you know, like, so it's just, we don't, we don't have to do that.

241
00:17:11,904 --> 00:17:13,424
There's another house that you could do.

242
00:17:13,424 --> 00:17:21,184
So I'm gonna, and the reason I'm saying this is because younger Stephanie, that's the reason that like we jokingly say, but not jokingly at all.

243
00:17:21,184 --> 00:17:27,264
Stephanie is not allowed to talk on the phone because we will be cleaning gutters and painting apartments and probably cleaning up dead bodies.

244
00:17:27,264 --> 00:17:32,864
Like, if, if I am allowed to be on the phone because I can't say like, I, I want to.

245
00:17:32,864 --> 00:17:33,984
I'm like, yeah, we can do that.

246
00:17:33,984 --> 00:17:34,624
We can figure it out.

247
00:17:34,624 --> 00:17:35,904
Like, there's money to be made.

248
00:17:35,904 --> 00:17:38,624
So, but it always is bad.

249
00:17:38,704 --> 00:17:47,616
Like, it never works out in the way that I hope, and or like my cleaners are pissed at me because they're like, "This isn't what I was hired for," you know what I mean?

250
00:17:47,616 --> 00:17:52,336
And then if window washing, for this example, you don't want to go down that path.

251
00:17:52,816 --> 00:17:56,656
And then this lady says, "Yeah, she did my windows," and then you start getting calls for windows.

252
00:17:56,656 --> 00:17:58,176
Like, do you want to clean windows?

253
00:17:58,176 --> 00:18:00,336
Because look what's happened with house cleaning, you know?

254
00:18:00,336 --> 00:18:10,976
Like, is that if that is an avenue you want to look at, that's fine, but you're probably not ready to go down that path unless you subbed it out to actual window cleaners.

255
00:18:11,376 --> 00:18:13,136
Then maybe that could be an option too.

256
00:18:13,296 --> 00:18:14,960
Yeah, I'm... No.

257
00:18:14,960 --> 00:18:15,280
I'm not.

258
00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:16,400
I don't think I really want to.

259
00:18:16,400 --> 00:18:19,440
But you, the joke about dead bodies, funny.

260
00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:29,280
I could see myself expanding to like crime scene cleanup because I'm your typical like crime junky girl listening to the murder shows and stuff.

261
00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:34,000
I could see myself expanding and having a branch that deals with crime scene cleanup or something like that.

262
00:18:34,240 --> 00:18:37,680
So I just interviewed two weeks ago.

263
00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:39,280
Our, and it's not even live yet.

264
00:18:39,280 --> 00:18:40,720
It's going to go live in the next couple of weeks.

265
00:18:40,720 --> 00:18:46,080
Our, like, I'd never talked to one before, a biohazard cleaner before, and it was so interesting.

266
00:18:46,080 --> 00:18:47,360
We talked for like two hours.

267
00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:54,000
So by the time this one, our conversation here is live, that one probably is live, and it was fascinating.

268
00:18:54,160 --> 00:19:00,160
I don't know if I would do it, but it was interesting, and I think it can be pretty lucrative.

269
00:19:00,160 --> 00:19:03,600
And a lot of people don't want to do it, so there's business there.

270
00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:03,920
Yeah.

271
00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:05,200
So the possibilities.

272
00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:12,400
I mean, I even thought about like car detailing for a second, but I'm not good at cleaning my own car, so I'm definitely not ready for that.

273
00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:27,440
But I just like how there is different avenues, avenues that you, yeah, yeah, totally, and I think the and I like it's wonderful, the possibilities, but it's also dangerous, the possibilities.

274
00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:38,880
And so again, just word of caution, of don't be Jill of all trades and master of none, because things get very chaotic the more that you accept when it comes to that stuff.

275
00:19:38,880 --> 00:19:43,840
Like if you can just grow and do houses and businesses right now, just do that.

276
00:19:43,920 --> 00:19:48,288
You know, if you can make money on the simpler path, just do that.

277
00:19:48,288 --> 00:20:00,128
And that was, I would say, one of some of my biggest mistakes looking back, was trying to introduce services that I had no business doing, whether that be carpet cleaning, window cleaning, et cetera, et cetera.

278
00:20:00,448 --> 00:20:02,448
Because, yeah, I've thought about like, oh, we should car detail.

279
00:20:02,448 --> 00:20:06,208
We should do all like, I, I want to do all these things, but then I'm like, cool.

280
00:20:06,208 --> 00:20:09,648
Like, how are we actually going to make that happen to the level of excellence that I wanted?

281
00:20:09,648 --> 00:20:12,288
Like, like if I'm going to do something, I want to be the best at it.

282
00:20:12,288 --> 00:20:17,088
Like, otherwise, it doesn't feel good from an integrity standpoint to offer that service.

283
00:20:17,488 --> 00:20:22,128
So if I can't do that and I'm not willing to do that, then I'm not going to.

284
00:20:22,208 --> 00:20:22,928
I shouldn't do it.

285
00:20:22,928 --> 00:20:24,048
That's kind of my rule now.

286
00:20:24,528 --> 00:20:27,168
Yeah, I'm just going to stay in my lane for a little while until I get this.

287
00:20:27,648 --> 00:20:29,328
Yeah, look, at it's going so well.

288
00:20:29,328 --> 00:20:34,608
You're getting, you know, leads pouring in, and that's just from completely free advertising.

289
00:20:34,608 --> 00:20:36,368
So I think you're on the right path.

290
00:20:36,368 --> 00:20:37,888
Of, there's the demand.

291
00:20:37,968 --> 00:20:39,008
How big is your city?

292
00:20:39,088 --> 00:20:40,128
Richmond is.

293
00:20:40,144 --> 00:20:42,544
Are you familiar with Richmond, Virginia?

294
00:20:42,544 --> 00:20:43,344
Yep.

295
00:20:43,344 --> 00:20:43,844
Mhm.

296
00:20:43,844 --> 00:20:45,264
So I'm just outside of Richmond.

297
00:20:45,424 --> 00:20:46,064
Oh, perfect.

298
00:20:46,064 --> 00:20:47,424
Yeah, there's plenty of business then.

299
00:20:47,424 --> 00:20:50,784
Yeah, I mean, if I wanted to go into the city, I very easily could.

300
00:20:50,784 --> 00:20:53,664
It's probably, it's like 40 minutes from me.

301
00:20:53,744 --> 00:20:53,904
Okay.

302
00:20:54,464 --> 00:20:55,024
Well, talk to me.

303
00:20:55,024 --> 00:20:56,544
I mean, I know you listed that.

304
00:20:56,544 --> 00:21:00,624
You know, you're like, okay, with like, you know, just this being more of an advice conversation.

305
00:21:00,624 --> 00:21:02,464
So I want to open it up to you.

306
00:21:02,464 --> 00:21:05,904
Like, what is it that you feel like you're struggling with the most right now?

307
00:21:05,904 --> 00:21:07,424
Hiring is the biggest thing.

308
00:21:07,424 --> 00:21:11,744
I've been tossing around doing the Debbie Sardone.

309
00:21:11,984 --> 00:21:14,544
I don't know the what is it?

310
00:21:14,784 --> 00:21:15,184
The CBF.

311
00:21:15,664 --> 00:21:16,144
Yeah.

312
00:21:16,464 --> 00:21:20,784
Yeah, I don't even know how much it costs yet, but I feel like it's probably outrageous.

313
00:21:20,784 --> 00:21:21,424
I'm afraid.

314
00:21:21,424 --> 00:21:27,424
But I'm going to say that there's a lot of resources available that would not you wouldn't need to go down that path.

315
00:21:27,744 --> 00:21:29,664
So that's one thing I wrote down.

316
00:21:31,504 --> 00:21:37,536
What do you think I should do about like to nail tomorrow's walkthrough?

317
00:21:37,536 --> 00:21:40,656
I've done walkthroughs before, but like I said, not in a mansion like this.

318
00:21:40,656 --> 00:21:43,328
What is your advice?

319
00:21:43,328 --> 00:22:07,888
Well, I think, you know, I'm just coming off of I just went to CleanCon, which was amazing, and one of the things that stands out to me from your question here was actually Drew Larison's talk, and he talked about how part of sales really needs, like, we need to lean more heavily into really understanding our client.

320
00:22:07,888 --> 00:22:11,808
Of like, and, and the question that he brought up was, why today?

321
00:22:11,808 --> 00:22:13,888
Why are you reaching out today?

322
00:22:13,888 --> 00:22:15,488
What is it that happened?

323
00:22:15,808 --> 00:22:17,728
Was it yesterday or whenever she called?

324
00:22:17,728 --> 00:22:21,008
Like, what was the catalyst of her reaching out to you?

325
00:22:21,008 --> 00:22:21,888
What does she need?

326
00:22:21,888 --> 00:22:23,168
What's the problem, right?

327
00:22:23,488 --> 00:22:27,888
And really leaning into that because if she reached out to you, like, she's already obviously seen.

328
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:30,000
I'm assuming she saw your Facebook.

329
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:32,000
She saw how people are raving about you.

330
00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:38,640
So it is a part of like educating her, but I really want you to lean into understanding, like, what is she looking for?

331
00:22:39,040 --> 00:22:40,400
What stresses her out?

332
00:22:40,400 --> 00:22:44,160
What areas make her feel ashamed or overwhelmed?

333
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:50,400
Or just really understanding the needs of the client from a feeling standpoint?

334
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:53,760
I have definitely failed at when I used to do in person walkthroughs.

335
00:22:54,160 --> 00:23:01,760
I feel like I failed at this because I just, I was so rigid and I focused on like, okay, this is the bedroom, this is the bathroom, cool.

336
00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:12,480
Like, and just, just like walking through the house, and they were so awkward and I was so awkward because instead of trying to connect on an emotional level, I was so focused on presenting myself professionally.

337
00:23:12,560 --> 00:23:14,560
I didn't want to like lean into that at all.

338
00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:25,984
So if I were to go back to in person walkthroughs, it would be really understanding their emotional, like, not emotional needs, but the emotional side of why are they asking for this?

339
00:23:25,984 --> 00:23:27,824
What is going on beneath the surface?

340
00:23:27,824 --> 00:23:34,064
Not just the walkthrough the house and like, understand why does this person even need a cleaner?

341
00:23:34,144 --> 00:23:35,824
You know, why are they asking you for this?

342
00:23:35,824 --> 00:23:37,584
Or have they make sure that you ask?

343
00:23:37,584 --> 00:23:39,744
Have they had a professional cleaner before?

344
00:23:40,064 --> 00:23:41,744
What was that experience like?

345
00:23:41,744 --> 00:23:44,224
Is there anything that you didn't prefer?

346
00:23:44,304 --> 00:23:47,424
And, and make sure you ask past the cleaning, too.

347
00:23:47,424 --> 00:23:54,144
So this is something that we always want to ensure we ask when we're talking to a lead is have you had a cleaner before?

348
00:23:54,544 --> 00:23:55,424
And what was that like?

349
00:23:55,424 --> 00:24:09,824
Like, so it wasn't just maybe that maybe they were a killer cleaner, maybe they were the best cleaner in your whole city, but they called out, you know, they didn't show up every other time, or they were shitty communicators, or the pricing was all over the place, or whatever the thing is, right?

350
00:24:09,824 --> 00:24:12,544
And then you can, like, that's your cue of cool.

351
00:24:12,544 --> 00:24:15,104
I'm gonna nail that for this woman.

352
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:40,288
Outside of that, when it comes to, and you guys can chime in the comments if this has been your experience, our experience with very very large houses is typically they are not willing to pay, in my humble opinion, the correct price for what they have in house because it's like they expect the price, like as if they expect like a quantity discount of square footage.

353
00:24:40,288 --> 00:24:43,888
Like the bigger their houses, the cheaper it gets, because there's more house or something.

354
00:24:43,888 --> 00:24:45,328
And it's not like that at all.

355
00:24:45,328 --> 00:24:53,968
Like we don't do that, because the way we see it, yes, if I can get this house and it's an eight-hour day, for example, for somebody every week, that's awesome.

356
00:24:54,368 --> 00:25:03,888
But if I could make that same money with two four-hour houses, or should I say, if I could make more money with that same labor hours just across a couple houses, I'm gonna do that.

357
00:25:03,888 --> 00:25:07,088
So, we really do not discount bigger houses.

358
00:25:07,088 --> 00:25:19,488
It's definitely been I've seen that pattern over time of like these big big houses, six thousand, seven thousand, eight thousand square-foot houses, and they want to pay literally half of what it should be.

359
00:25:19,568 --> 00:25:22,144
And so, keep that in mind.

360
00:25:22,224 --> 00:25:24,704
I would also say, like, is there a budget in mind?

361
00:25:24,704 --> 00:25:26,944
What's the frequency that you're looking for?

362
00:25:27,184 --> 00:25:29,824
And really understand the scope of work as well.

363
00:25:30,064 --> 00:25:33,744
Are you working off of cleaning checklists in any capacity?

364
00:25:33,744 --> 00:25:34,384
Yes and no.

365
00:25:34,384 --> 00:25:44,384
Like, since it's just, it's mostly just me right now, and 1099s, I don't have a checklist, but I definitely want to implement that when I get my own W-2 employee.

366
00:25:44,384 --> 00:25:55,024
And I guess this is kind of related, but something you said when we were talking about the big house was like the bathrooms are different, and just every house is different.

367
00:25:55,024 --> 00:26:04,544
And the previous employer I used to work for, she had like a, like, rooms needed to be timed, basically like a bathroom.

368
00:26:04,544 --> 00:26:08,384
She expected to be done in 45 minutes, and I just feel like that's not.

369
00:26:08,704 --> 00:26:12,784
I'm sure I know a lot of cleaners do it this way, but all bathrooms are different.

370
00:26:12,784 --> 00:26:17,104
Like my bathroom would take somebody 30 minutes, but this lady's bathroom could take me two hours.

371
00:26:17,424 --> 00:26:30,384
Kind of what I'm preparing for, and I, the ZenMaid thing estimated the price at almost a thousand dollars, and I just can't imagine me telling somebody it's going to cost you a thousand dollars every other week for me to clean your house.

372
00:26:30,384 --> 00:26:32,704
Like, she appears to be rich, I'm sure she could afford it.

373
00:26:32,704 --> 00:26:33,744
How big is the house?

374
00:26:33,744 --> 00:26:34,624
What's the square footage?

375
00:26:34,624 --> 00:26:42,304
It's a 4,000 square foot house with four bedrooms, three full baths, and one plus a half bath.

376
00:26:42,304 --> 00:26:45,664
Okay, that would probably take us about six hours every visit.

377
00:26:45,664 --> 00:26:51,072
I would say, depending on how frequent, could be a little biweekly, yeah.

378
00:26:51,072 --> 00:26:52,832
So I think that would probably be about.

379
00:26:52,832 --> 00:27:01,552
So what I just did, I just divided by four thousand divided by six hundred fifty square foot per hour, which is on a little bit of the slower side of our maintenance cleans.

380
00:27:01,792 --> 00:27:06,752
So if it is, we're talking like large master bathrooms and stuff, that is a bit protective.

381
00:27:06,992 --> 00:27:09,872
So I would think like six to seven hours.

382
00:27:09,872 --> 00:27:14,352
And so, what is your hourly rate that you're trying to aim for internally for you?

383
00:27:14,432 --> 00:27:16,512
It averages out to about fifty dollars.

384
00:27:16,592 --> 00:27:21,712
So then six times fifty, if that's what you're aiming for, that'd be three hundred bucks of cleaning.

385
00:27:21,872 --> 00:27:24,112
That sounds exactly right for that size of a house.

386
00:27:24,192 --> 00:27:34,992
So for us, when we're doing like, we don't do in-person residential walkthroughs, but commercial walkthroughs, we literally have an iPad or not an iPad, a tablet, any tablet flavor you like.

387
00:27:34,992 --> 00:27:59,200
We have a cheap tablet that just has the Google Drive spreadsheet calculator on it, and we're literally plugging in the counts of like, this is how many urinals, this is how many sinks, this is how many whatever the heck's offices, stairwells, everything, and then by the time we get back to the office, it's already spit out the bid that we should like aim for, depending on what we're trying to shoot for hourly, right?

388
00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:07,200
And that we can change that number of, like, we don't think that they have it in them to go for $55 an hour internally, but could we do $52?

389
00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:08,800
You know, and like, we can play with it there.

390
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:24,336
So I would definitely, especially if you feel like generic numbers are not like-for-like the bathroom thing, absolutely, that is one of the hardest parts about I would say the first time clean estimate, especially we're blind, we do not go do the walkthroughs.

391
00:28:24,336 --> 00:28:34,976
As you mentioned, you don't usually, you know, if they have a master bath with a walk-in shower and one of those big like climb-in tubs, I mean, we're talking double, double the time for that.

392
00:28:34,976 --> 00:28:38,416
So it could be an hour and a half to two hours for that first-time clean of that bathroom.

393
00:28:38,416 --> 00:29:10,592
So if that's the case, that's why we do add a, you know, a bit of well, first times are significantly more for that same house, of course, but we kind of we ask our cleaners to just confirm like if they think the maintenance time of what we are setting forth is that reasonable, and you can always adjust and be like, "What you could do with this woman is do the first time clean and say, you know, tentatively we're going to do this," and then I will confirm after that first maintenance clean, and we'll get that locked in for you.

394
00:29:10,912 --> 00:29:12,672
But I'm thinking it's going to be this range.

395
00:29:13,632 --> 00:29:16,112
If you're if you're afraid, so has she?

396
00:29:16,192 --> 00:29:16,672
Do you know?

397
00:29:16,672 --> 00:29:20,352
Is it is the house clean now, or what's the state of it right now?

398
00:29:20,352 --> 00:29:23,552
She said that she has had it professionally cleaned.

399
00:29:23,552 --> 00:29:24,992
She's just not happy with it.

400
00:29:24,992 --> 00:29:26,272
So you'll be able to see that detail.

401
00:29:26,352 --> 00:29:26,592
Yeah.

402
00:29:26,752 --> 00:29:42,032
So your first time clean of that may not be an actual initial like clean, because for us an initial clean of that house, if it hadn't had a professional cleaner, we would estimate that to take twenty-six point-six hours.

403
00:29:42,512 --> 00:29:51,152
So, for the initial clean of that same house, if it hadn't been professionally cleaned, so what I would suggest is going a little bit over a maintenance clean.

404
00:29:51,152 --> 00:29:52,832
You're going to see it, which is a nice thing.

405
00:29:52,832 --> 00:29:56,192
Do you feel like you could get that whole thing done in eight hours?

406
00:29:56,512 --> 00:30:02,752
Charge a little bit more on that first time to account for that extra time, and then come in at the lower price for the maintenance.

407
00:30:02,752 --> 00:30:09,952
But after that first time clean, you may be even able to say, yeah, like six hours is going to be enough, and say, like, this is what you know.

408
00:30:10,272 --> 00:30:15,504
And you can literally just explain it so you don't feel like you're being wishy-washy.

409
00:30:15,504 --> 00:30:16,784
Just say this is the process.

410
00:30:16,784 --> 00:30:17,904
This is how this works.

411
00:30:18,224 --> 00:30:23,664
We use a lot of that language to make ourselves seem very confident, even if we just made are making shit up on the spot.

412
00:30:23,984 --> 00:30:27,024
This is how this process works, is we have your initial clean.

413
00:30:27,024 --> 00:30:28,144
The price is going to be this.

414
00:30:28,144 --> 00:30:32,304
It's a bit higher because, as we see, the details are not where they need to be.

415
00:30:32,304 --> 00:30:34,384
We're going to bring that all up to our maintenance level.

416
00:30:34,704 --> 00:30:38,864
Now we are tentatively planning to have your maintenance cleans at this price.

417
00:30:39,184 --> 00:30:45,184
We will confirm this after that first either initial clean or after your first maintenance clean, and then you will be locked in.

418
00:30:45,184 --> 00:30:49,463
That's the same price every single time, unless you wanted to add on, you know, a deep clean task.

419
00:30:49,463 --> 00:30:51,264
And these are the prices for that, right?

420
00:30:51,264 --> 00:30:52,864
Like, what do we want to do here?

421
00:30:53,104 --> 00:30:57,664
So just very confident and matter of fact, of like, this is the process, right?

422
00:30:57,744 --> 00:31:05,424
And don't really like, even though I said do a lot of discovery, that is probing to understand like her needs and like what's bothering her.

423
00:31:05,424 --> 00:31:16,432
That's not to try to figure out like, well, like, like, like, I guess, don't let her or any other client allow you to piece together.

424
00:31:16,432 --> 00:31:28,209
If she says, like, "Oh, you don't need to dust in this room, but you do in this, or only the floors in this room," whatever, we really try to avoid that as much as possible because it's confusing, especially once you bring in another staff member.

425
00:31:28,209 --> 00:31:29,712
It's not because it's so different.

426
00:31:29,712 --> 00:31:34,192
Like, if we're making basically a unique task list for every house, that's not going to work.

427
00:31:34,192 --> 00:31:50,112
So, coming back to the checklist thing, the reason I asked you, even though you know you're using 1099s, you don't have W2s, I would love to see you get that structure in place now because, one, it makes it easier for you to explain your value to, like, this woman.

428
00:31:50,112 --> 00:31:51,872
If you had like the law, I wish I had.

429
00:31:51,872 --> 00:31:54,432
I don't need to have a printed checklist, so I could show you guys.

430
00:31:54,432 --> 00:31:56,032
But I'm holding up my fake checklist here.

431
00:31:56,192 --> 00:32:08,912
Like, if you saw that as a potential customer, that "wow" factor is there because now it's all tangible because you and every other cleaner that she is going to potentially meet with is probably going to say similar stuff, right?

432
00:32:08,912 --> 00:32:13,296
Like, yeah, we can, we clean top to bottom, like you know, that's what everybody says, right?

433
00:32:13,296 --> 00:32:16,256
That's what her current cleaner is probably saying, and she's doing a shit job.

434
00:32:16,256 --> 00:32:20,496
So, like, or he, it might be a man, you know, he might be doing a shit job.

435
00:32:20,496 --> 00:32:29,216
So the fact is that the physical checklist is a sales mechanism because it explains and shows what you do, not just tells.

436
00:32:29,536 --> 00:32:33,936
And people really have like a wow factor when they see that extensive checklist.

437
00:32:33,936 --> 00:32:35,376
So that's why we use it.

438
00:32:35,376 --> 00:32:37,216
And then for training, it's fantastic.

439
00:32:37,216 --> 00:32:43,456
For a new hire, like they don't know what the hell they're doing, and you telling them is not going to be a great experience.

440
00:32:43,456 --> 00:32:45,776
So, like, getting that in place now is going to help.

441
00:32:46,176 --> 00:32:58,176
Like, it's such a cornerstone aspect of Serene Clean being able to like go, and I think any company being able to like go more smoothly is everybody's working off the same list of stuff we should be doing, right?

442
00:32:58,336 --> 00:33:04,752
Being able to give an accurate price, a hard and firm price, after like the second clean.

443
00:33:04,752 --> 00:33:09,552
I love that you said that because I actually did that with one of my more recent clients that I brought on.

444
00:33:09,552 --> 00:33:19,712
I gave her a price for the first clean, and I said, and this is what I believe your maintenance cleans will be at, but I'll give you a hard price after the second or third cleaning.

445
00:33:19,872 --> 00:33:20,432
And did it work?

446
00:33:20,512 --> 00:33:21,392
That has been great.

447
00:33:21,552 --> 00:33:28,672
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448
00:33:28,912 --> 00:33:32,032
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449
00:33:32,352 --> 00:33:36,672
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450
00:33:36,752 --> 00:33:41,952
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451
00:33:42,032 --> 00:33:55,504
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452
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453
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454
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455
00:34:10,544 --> 00:34:11,344
Okay, awesome.

456
00:34:11,344 --> 00:34:11,904
I love that.

457
00:34:11,904 --> 00:34:13,264
That's great to hear.

458
00:34:13,584 --> 00:34:20,944
You know, because I know you, if you're listening, you know, we just switched over to flat rate these past few months, and so it's been a learning process.

459
00:34:20,944 --> 00:34:26,064
And that was one of my, I guess, big scares, is, well, what about those situations, right?

460
00:34:26,144 --> 00:34:28,784
And you simply just you adjust.

461
00:34:28,784 --> 00:34:38,672
Like, for example, on my operations meeting today, one of our like running tasks we do is we look over basically, after three maintenance cleans, we want to audit.

462
00:34:38,912 --> 00:34:40,112
Did we price enough?

463
00:34:40,112 --> 00:34:40,352
Right?

464
00:34:40,352 --> 00:34:40,912
Like, are we?

465
00:34:40,912 --> 00:34:50,672
So the one we looked at today that we were questioning, we it needed to get done in three and a half hours in order for us to be hitting the target we wanted.

466
00:34:50,912 --> 00:34:55,952
And two of the cleanings were at like three point seven five or four hours.

467
00:34:55,952 --> 00:34:57,792
So it's like, does this need to be adjusted?

468
00:34:58,112 --> 00:34:59,472
They just had their third one.

469
00:34:59,952 --> 00:35:06,032
She hit one of our, you know, more one of our great cleaners that is not necessarily the speediest.

470
00:35:06,032 --> 00:35:09,392
She hit three and a half, no problem, no quality issues, cool.

471
00:35:09,472 --> 00:35:10,512
It can be done.

472
00:35:10,672 --> 00:35:11,632
We're going to keep it there.

473
00:35:11,792 --> 00:35:14,032
If it could not have been done, what would have happened?

474
00:35:14,032 --> 00:35:15,232
Is one of two things.

475
00:35:15,232 --> 00:35:16,992
We would have given the client these options.

476
00:35:16,992 --> 00:35:38,346
Say, hey, now that we've done a few maintenance cleans, we are going to be adjusting the if you want the whole, you can do two things we can adjust the rate to get the whole house done, or we can switch more to a priority clean model and we are going to work off of your priority list and get as much done as we can as possible.

477
00:35:38,346 --> 00:35:43,011
Which option do you want to take, basically, and put the ball back in their court?

478
00:35:43,011 --> 00:35:51,756
So we've had to do that a couple times as those slight minor adjustments because we didn't estimate enough for whatever reason, you know, so, so keep that in mind.

479
00:35:51,756 --> 00:35:55,546
It doesn't have to be locked in if you mess up on price.

480
00:35:55,546 --> 00:35:58,753
It's even if you go see it, it's hard, you know.

481
00:35:58,753 --> 00:36:10,413
Well, this is something that is probably a no, no, but I haven't implemented like contracts yet, like I haven't had any clients sign anything, which I know is not professional and I'll need to change that at some point.

482
00:36:10,413 --> 00:36:15,078
But have you, have you found that you've needed those con, like, have you been sued?

483
00:36:15,078 --> 00:36:17,118
I guess is what I'm getting at.

484
00:36:17,118 --> 00:36:18,528
So we've never gotten sued.

485
00:36:18,528 --> 00:36:19,488
Have we got sued?

486
00:36:19,488 --> 00:36:20,928
Well, not, not on the client side.

487
00:36:21,328 --> 00:36:22,608
We've never gotten sued.

488
00:36:22,928 --> 00:36:26,528
So, yes, I think, and you can call it a con.

489
00:36:26,528 --> 00:36:34,128
We call it our customer guidelines or client guidelines, and everybody, we will not step foot into a house without that being signed.

490
00:36:34,208 --> 00:36:49,168
And I think that this is going to be a huge, could be a very big lesson, painful lesson, and you don't even know what it is yet, like because it could be about seven thousand different things because you're not having them sign and say yes, this is what we're agreeing to.

491
00:36:49,168 --> 00:36:54,048
So I think number one, ours are literally on our website for anybody to access.

492
00:36:54,608 --> 00:37:00,288
If you want to throw me a bone for it, you can buy it for $20, or you can just access and see ours.

493
00:37:00,288 --> 00:37:04,048
It's right on Serene Clean's website, so that any of our clients can access it too.

494
00:37:04,048 --> 00:37:09,472
So literally, it's right there, and along with AI, like you can, you can decide what your policies are.

495
00:37:09,472 --> 00:37:14,112
Obviously, those policies are specific to what you know is important to us and our experience.

496
00:37:14,112 --> 00:37:18,432
But those have been like painfully trial by fire because we've had shit happen.

497
00:37:18,432 --> 00:37:24,752
So, so you haven't had anything bad enough yet to like feel like you need to do this.

498
00:37:24,752 --> 00:37:28,992
But I'm gonna tell you right now, and like I want, like I, this could be done by the, this.

499
00:37:29,072 --> 00:37:29,712
It's Wednesday.

500
00:37:29,712 --> 00:37:30,752
This could be done by Friday.

501
00:37:30,832 --> 00:37:32,672
Literally, that's how fast this could be.

502
00:37:32,752 --> 00:37:34,992
Literally, make it into a PDF.

503
00:37:35,552 --> 00:37:37,632
Go get SignRequest, which is $8 a month.

504
00:37:37,712 --> 00:37:42,832
Send an email out to all of your current clients saying, hey, just want everybody to be on the same page.

505
00:37:42,832 --> 00:37:45,472
Here are here are updated guidelines before your next cleaning.

506
00:37:46,032 --> 00:37:47,952
Get this signed so we have it.

507
00:37:47,952 --> 00:37:49,712
You know, and if you have any questions, just let me know.

508
00:37:49,952 --> 00:37:52,432
All future clients is just part of your onboarding process.

509
00:37:52,592 --> 00:37:53,312
They sign it before.

510
00:37:53,392 --> 00:38:00,178
So like, it like I think with a lot of these things we are like, oh my gosh, this is a big thing.

511
00:38:00,178 --> 00:38:13,117
It's like, no, this could be done, especially with AI guys, it can be so fast of just getting something, and then something's gonna happen in your business, something crazy, and you're gonna have to adjust, but at least this will get something in place to protect you.

512
00:38:13,117 --> 00:38:24,978
And there is, like, trust me, there will be nothing more satisfying than when a client's trying to pull bullshit, and then you're like, well, actually, according to your signature at 12:57 on October 10th, you agreed that this is what we're doing here.

513
00:38:24,978 --> 00:38:34,952
Because if you want to do a cancellation policy, you know, enforce like any of those things, you know, I could think of so many, you know, if you break something, like, how do you handle that?

514
00:38:34,952 --> 00:38:38,726
If they try to solicit one of your employees, how do you handle that?

515
00:38:38,726 --> 00:38:40,073
Like, all of these things.

516
00:38:40,073 --> 00:38:44,656
So, especially, like, I guess we haven't even really talked about, you know, I want to like...

517
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:45,680
What is your goal?

518
00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:46,240
What's your like?

519
00:38:46,240 --> 00:38:51,440
What would you like to accomplish with this business ultimately, as well as maybe within the next year?

520
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:53,920
So I can tailor the advice a little bit more.

521
00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:56,960
Well, I don't mind cleaning right now.

522
00:38:57,040 --> 00:39:03,520
But I know I don't, I don't know, but I imagine that I'm not going to be able to do this for the next 40 years.

523
00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:04,000
I don't want.

524
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:07,840
I mean, I don't want to screw my back up for life or anything like that.

525
00:39:07,840 --> 00:39:19,040
So I would like to be able to just do the admin type stuff, or do what you do, and just like completely back away and let other people handle it.

526
00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:20,560
Like I love that idea too.

527
00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:23,440
So I guess what I'm all that to be said.

528
00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:27,408
I guess I just need to look to look at the next year.

529
00:39:27,568 --> 00:39:28,288
What do I want for that?

530
00:39:28,288 --> 00:39:30,928
I want to finally have some employees, is what I want.

531
00:39:31,168 --> 00:39:34,688
Well, that absolutely can happen, a hundred percent.

532
00:39:34,688 --> 00:39:39,488
So, with your ten ninety nines currently, what is their workload looking like?

533
00:39:39,488 --> 00:39:41,000
Like, how many hours do they do?

534
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:41,648
They each have?

535
00:39:41,648 --> 00:39:43,088
How much are you cleaning right now?

536
00:39:43,088 --> 00:39:45,008
I'm doing most of the cleaning.

537
00:39:45,008 --> 00:39:51,808
I only one of my two of my ten ninety nines are actually just friends that are helping me out.

538
00:39:51,808 --> 00:39:52,288
Absolutely, yeah.

539
00:39:52,528 --> 00:40:01,472
I have one legitimate ten ninety nine who is just strictly cleans for me, and she only probably does like two to three houses a month.

540
00:40:01,712 --> 00:40:02,832
Okay, so very little.

541
00:40:02,832 --> 00:40:05,072
You're pretty much doing most of the workload right now.

542
00:40:05,072 --> 00:40:12,912
Yeah, I mean, those friends I was telling you about, they come with me to a couple, well, one commercial location twice a month.

543
00:40:13,392 --> 00:40:14,192
So yeah, I mean, mainly.

544
00:40:14,352 --> 00:40:21,152
I'm mainly doing it all myself, but I have enough work to where I could hire a W2, and then I'd be able to take on more.

545
00:40:21,152 --> 00:40:25,232
Like, I'm getting to the point now where I'm going to have to start turning down work, and I don't, I don't want to have to do.

546
00:40:25,232 --> 00:40:39,552
Yeah, I would love to see you back off the cleaning, especially, and then stay backed off and just start hiring and transitioning clients off of, off of you, if that's the ultimate goal, because you're going to be tempted if you're already almost loaded up.

547
00:40:39,712 --> 00:40:46,592
If you hire, you're going to keep your loaded up schedule, and then you're going to load them up, and then they're going to quit, and you're going to want to jump off a building.

548
00:40:46,592 --> 00:40:51,952
So this is why it's so important that we get your schedule cleared, so that you can be the backup.

549
00:40:52,112 --> 00:40:55,839
Like, that's what the owner's role is when you are like owner operator.

550
00:40:55,839 --> 00:41:03,152
And you start hiring, we're gonna, we are so tempted to like, keep all of our clients and then load up somebody else because more money, right?

551
00:41:03,152 --> 00:41:24,432
And you don't have to give any of that up, but it is so highly likely that those first couple cleaners that you hire are not going to work out in some capacity, and you're going to set yourself up to literally not be able to function because if you load them up, say even 20 hours a week, and they quit, and you're still loaded up with yours, what happens, right?

552
00:41:24,432 --> 00:41:25,792
What happens with that work?

553
00:41:25,792 --> 00:41:26,672
So we have to think.

554
00:41:27,152 --> 00:41:34,352
I mean, this like in a positive way because we have to plan for worst-case scenario, which is they're going to leave, and if that happens, it doesn't mean don't hire, right?

555
00:41:34,352 --> 00:41:35,712
Of like, well then why should I hire?

556
00:41:35,712 --> 00:41:38,112
It means cool, like this could happen.

557
00:41:38,112 --> 00:41:40,832
So if that happens, how are these clients going to get covered?

558
00:41:41,232 --> 00:41:48,512
That's why we have the hiring pipeline, so we always have people that we're interested in and talking to, and we can talk further about that.

559
00:41:48,832 --> 00:41:56,912
But this is where I would say having you as the buffer, like there always has to be somebody for that field buffer of fill-in, right?

560
00:41:56,912 --> 00:42:04,432
And so when it was just me, and I like was the only cleaner, and I started hiring people, I was the only buffer, which was difficult.

561
00:42:04,432 --> 00:42:11,792
And then once I started hiring more, we all started becoming more buffers because they were all part time and flexible.

562
00:42:11,952 --> 00:42:14,192
So that's another thing, is hiring part timers.

563
00:42:14,192 --> 00:42:18,832
I think is going to be definitely the way to go because less eggs in one basket.

564
00:42:18,832 --> 00:42:20,992
If one doesn't work out, it's not so painful.

565
00:42:20,992 --> 00:42:26,992
And a lot of times, if you had two part timers, one could absorb some of the hours, and you absorb the other hours, right?

566
00:42:26,992 --> 00:42:29,552
So it's not as it's not all on you, if you will.

567
00:42:29,552 --> 00:42:30,912
If it was just one full timer.

568
00:42:30,912 --> 00:42:38,256
So I also think that you probably can't, you can't guarantee full-time hours for anybody right now.

569
00:42:38,256 --> 00:42:41,936
So that you're setting yourself up for failure if you attempt to.

570
00:42:41,936 --> 00:42:47,136
I definitely didn't for the first several years hire full-time people because I couldn't guarantee the hours.

571
00:42:47,136 --> 00:42:49,776
So that's going to be one of the things.

572
00:42:49,856 --> 00:43:04,016
And you know, this is this answer depends everybody, is completely individual based on your financial needs because some people who I talk to do not like they are not dependent on that income as a cleaner.

573
00:43:04,096 --> 00:43:10,176
They can live off of their spouse or whatever, and they can immediately get all of those clients off of them.

574
00:43:10,496 --> 00:43:21,216
So that may be your case, or it may be the case that you need to still be cleaning at least on some of those houses, so that you have a higher percentage of income from those cleans.

575
00:43:21,216 --> 00:43:25,216
So that, and for the most part, it's probably going to be gradual anyway.

576
00:43:25,296 --> 00:43:32,496
It's not like you hire somebody tomorrow and next week you're off of all of your cleans and you're only making a percentage of the cleans all of a sudden.

577
00:43:33,056 --> 00:43:36,096
So it's probably not likely that would happen anyway.

578
00:43:36,096 --> 00:43:39,616
It would be a gradual, you know, shift over.

579
00:43:39,936 --> 00:43:48,096
So I think, you know, for like, if I were you, if I were you, I would hire a very part-time person so that it's not so painful.

580
00:43:48,096 --> 00:43:48,976
You train them up.

581
00:43:49,216 --> 00:43:53,776
They go to a couple, maybe they help you with first times.

582
00:43:53,936 --> 00:43:55,776
Well, I it just depends.

583
00:43:55,776 --> 00:44:00,016
So you could do a couple different things depending on how many hours they're available.

584
00:44:00,416 --> 00:44:01,616
So let's say they are part time.

585
00:44:01,616 --> 00:44:07,616
You could have them come to any first time clean with you, and that client is now their client, and see how they do.

586
00:44:07,856 --> 00:44:14,896
And then any of your clients that are like pretty flexible or agreeable, have that new staff member come with you like twice.

587
00:44:15,296 --> 00:44:16,656
Make sure they do it perfect.

588
00:44:16,976 --> 00:44:22,016
You hand it over to them, and you do a quality check on that first or even second clean by themselves.

589
00:44:22,016 --> 00:44:25,536
That's how you do the proper pass off, and you're seeing, are they reliable?

590
00:44:25,536 --> 00:44:30,976
Because if they don't show up for you on a first time, like, it's not as bad as like a recurring client, right?

591
00:44:31,056 --> 00:44:38,576
If they, if they ghost you or something like that, because you haven't really established that relationship, and you could bust out a first time if you need to.

592
00:44:38,896 --> 00:44:40,976
So sorry, I know I just babble a lot.

593
00:44:41,376 --> 00:44:43,296
That Celsius is just hitting right now.

594
00:44:43,296 --> 00:44:45,536
I'm like, I love that for you.

595
00:44:45,536 --> 00:44:46,176
I'm with you.

596
00:44:46,176 --> 00:44:56,608
But the only thing that gets me about it is, so, like, let's say I hire somebody and over time it could take six months, I give them all of my houses, and I'm no longer cleaning anymore.

597
00:44:57,488 --> 00:45:03,888
Like, then they quit, and now I've got two people's worth of regular business.

598
00:45:04,048 --> 00:45:06,128
How do you navigate that?

599
00:45:06,128 --> 00:45:12,688
If it's just me plus an employee, and I give them everything as well as take more, and then they leave.

600
00:45:12,768 --> 00:45:13,968
So, I mean, that's going to happen.

601
00:45:13,968 --> 00:45:16,288
Like, that's the natural like progression of things.

602
00:45:16,288 --> 00:45:18,048
Is that literally is going to happen?

603
00:45:18,288 --> 00:45:24,288
You always have to be looking at capacity of like, once they start to get full, you should already be hiring again.

604
00:45:24,288 --> 00:45:31,248
If you are having that kind of lead pipeline, it's you need to have this pipeline of people to hire so that you could talk.

605
00:45:31,248 --> 00:45:38,048
Like, if I quit, if I work for you and I quit today, you should be messaging somebody today that you already have in mind.

606
00:45:38,368 --> 00:45:39,728
When can you start, right?

607
00:45:39,728 --> 00:45:50,208
Or if my schedule, if I'm at, if I'm available for 40 hours, and I'm at 30 already, and you're getting a steady amount of leads and your close rate's good, well, we literally know I'm about to be full.

608
00:45:50,288 --> 00:45:52,528
So hire now, because training takes a while.

609
00:45:52,528 --> 00:45:53,648
And what if that person does not?

610
00:45:54,048 --> 00:46:02,848
Like, depending on what your close rate is and how many leads you're getting, like it's going to be a very rapid, like one to maybe four cleaners, like part timers for you.

611
00:46:02,848 --> 00:46:15,888
Like it, it, it ideally goes quick, quicker than you think, in that first time of getting part timers in, because you have a full schedule, you have new clients that are coming in, so they have to go somewhere.

612
00:46:16,208 --> 00:46:22,176
And so when that person does inevitably quit, you have a plan in place so that you're not full.

613
00:46:22,256 --> 00:46:26,576
You can step in, cover that temporarily, and a new person is starting right away.

614
00:46:26,576 --> 00:46:27,936
You train them on these houses.

615
00:46:28,016 --> 00:46:28,976
Now it's their houses.

616
00:46:28,976 --> 00:46:30,576
Like, that's how I would do that.

617
00:46:30,576 --> 00:46:49,296
So we want you not on any houses, so that when slash if that happens, you step in, you train the new person, boom, and it's just that's the cycle until you can afford to get a buffer person or have buffer hours, meaning building like on-call time into one of your cleaner schedules.

618
00:46:49,296 --> 00:46:50,576
Like, that's what we do.

619
00:46:50,576 --> 00:46:52,256
Now we have a fully on-call person.

620
00:46:52,256 --> 00:47:04,667
So that is what I would, and that's why it's so important we get your schedule open, because then when that situation happens, it doesn't like, there's no, there's no, it, it sucks, but it's not like impossible, right?

621
00:47:04,667 --> 00:47:10,752
Because you do have to like I had to go back into the field again and again and again, right?

622
00:47:10,752 --> 00:47:16,272
For frankly years, as I was building, because I was pushing hard and fast.

623
00:47:16,592 --> 00:47:21,792
And so when somebody quit, and we had, oh shit, there's 20 hours, I would spread it.

624
00:47:21,792 --> 00:47:28,112
You know, we'd all kind of work together as a team, but I would get pulled back into cover, but I'd be immediately hiring.

625
00:47:28,112 --> 00:47:42,032
So that's where I would suggest, you know, my group interview process, getting Indeed ads going, or just Indeed in general, like really pushing that, and not being afraid to even pay, like, I think we pay like fifteen dollars a day or something like that.

626
00:47:42,112 --> 00:47:43,392
Oh wow, they charge by the day?

627
00:47:43,552 --> 00:47:46,672
Yeah, I think they charge by the day, and you can like turn them off and things like that.

628
00:47:46,672 --> 00:47:50,672
So either way, you just need to be interviewing every single week.

629
00:47:50,752 --> 00:47:52,192
Like, that's what you need to do.

630
00:47:52,912 --> 00:47:55,536
We literally are interviewing every week.

631
00:47:55,536 --> 00:48:00,176
We do group interviews, just virtual, multiple times a week that they can sign up for.

632
00:48:00,416 --> 00:48:06,656
We invite everybody who applies, unless we happen to personally know them and that they're, you know, a crackhead or a psycho, and then we don't invite them.

633
00:48:07,056 --> 00:48:11,536
Or if they didn't show up, like, to a previous invite, we don't invite them.

634
00:48:11,536 --> 00:48:15,136
So we do track who no-shows, and then you do the group interview.

635
00:48:15,216 --> 00:48:25,696
If you like somebody and they tell you the availability, we invite them to a individual solo interview, which is more like a traditional conversation, and that's also virtual.

636
00:48:25,696 --> 00:48:26,816
And then we offer them the job.

637
00:48:26,816 --> 00:48:46,273
So because we're doing that, like, if somebody quit today, we have a list of people that we have talked to in the past month who we have options, and that's what I want for you, is like, it like people are going to quit or you're going to have to fire, like, you're held hostage if you don't have this pipeline going.

638
00:48:46,273 --> 00:48:55,122
Because if you wait to start looking for people until somebody like quits, you are like, that's when people are like, screw this, I I can't do it because it's too late.

639
00:48:55,122 --> 00:49:02,589
And so I think this would be one of the first things to implement and just say, if if people are like, well, when are you hiring?

640
00:49:02,589 --> 00:49:18,628
Like, we, we typically hire one position a month because most likely you are right, so, like, with the way you're growing and, like, especially over the next couple months, you're going to be bringing in people pretty rapidly, so that, that is where I think, I think you need to get that moving sooner rather than later.

641
00:49:18,628 --> 00:49:21,116
How long does it take you to train somebody?

642
00:49:21,116 --> 00:49:28,992
It depends how many hours they are available because obviously, the, the fewer hours they are available in a week, the longer amount of days, if you will.

643
00:49:29,152 --> 00:49:38,752
But let's say a traditional full-time person, so 30 hours or more a week, they are going to be training for like seven to ten days before they are released.

644
00:49:38,752 --> 00:49:41,152
Yep, meaning work days, not like weekdays.

645
00:49:41,632 --> 00:49:52,352
So Monday through Friday of the first week, if they are available full-time, the first day is going to be orientation, the and getting like their kit and supplies, that type of thing.

646
00:49:52,592 --> 00:49:59,632
Days two through four, they are going to be with the trainer, and those are going to be control homes, so my manager's houses.

647
00:49:59,872 --> 00:50:02,032
And we used to not do it that way.

648
00:50:02,352 --> 00:50:05,792
We didn't do that for years, and you may not be able to do that either right now.

649
00:50:05,792 --> 00:50:07,712
So don't hold yourself to that level.

650
00:50:07,712 --> 00:50:20,032
But is there some aspect of control that you could have over those first couple houses, whether it's your house, a friend's house, a client who gets a discounted rate in order to use be used as a training home, or things like that?

651
00:50:20,032 --> 00:50:29,456
Just so it's very hard to train when you're trying to stick to a like normal schedule, like, and get through a house, and also teach them how to do it.

652
00:50:29,456 --> 00:50:38,953
That's how I did it for years, and I just threw them to the wolves, and they sunk or they swam, but it's not the swam, they sunk, swam, they sunk or swam.

653
00:50:39,056 --> 00:50:42,496
I think that's the way to say that, or I'm going to say swam.

654
00:50:42,496 --> 00:50:46,256
That's a good one, but it's not ideal.

655
00:50:46,256 --> 00:50:50,976
That's not the best way to have somebody learn, and the turnover was high because it was stressful.

656
00:50:51,296 --> 00:50:55,536
So if you can do any aspect of control, that's great.

657
00:50:55,856 --> 00:51:02,336
And then actually on the fourth control home, technically, is my best friend's house, where you know we have a lot of flexibility.

658
00:51:02,496 --> 00:51:06,976
She gets free house cleanings whenever we need to train somebody, so it's a nice perk.

659
00:51:07,296 --> 00:51:12,976
And then the following week, that like seven through ten time is going to be, they're going to go with any cleaner.

660
00:51:12,976 --> 00:51:17,376
Then at that point, go to regular clients' houses, and they're getting that independence.

661
00:51:17,376 --> 00:51:20,416
But the biggest thing is, do not let them clean by themselves.

662
00:51:20,576 --> 00:51:36,320
So like when you were talking about Matthew McMetherson, and she was like off in the house and she wandered off, like that wouldn't have even been possible unless they said they went to the bathroom or went out to get milk or something and they left completely, because they are, they are glued to the trainer, right?

663
00:51:36,320 --> 00:52:00,880
Like, they are watching the trainer, like it's, they watch, then it's, they like the first day of cleaning, they are watching and observing, the second day they are cleaning and the trainer is observing, the trainer is not touching anything, they are correcting in the moment, because if you separate too fast, of like, cool, you saw this, now go clean this bathroom by yourself, they may get the end result right, but they may have done it in like the most inefficient, stupid way possible.

664
00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:07,600
They may have done the floors first and then worked all the way back and then redid the floors, like you don't know if they're moving efficiently.

665
00:52:07,920 --> 00:52:12,528
You also don't know if it was a kind of clean house, if they actually touched everything, right?

666
00:52:12,528 --> 00:52:14,448
Like, it could be that they didn't.

667
00:52:14,448 --> 00:52:15,808
They didn't do everything correctly.

668
00:52:15,808 --> 00:52:22,368
So, it's so important that you do not separate from them really at all, especially in those first couple days.

669
00:52:22,368 --> 00:52:30,848
Do you ever have them like watch any kind of training videos, or is it all hands-on in the house with your trainers?

670
00:52:30,928 --> 00:52:38,048
So, we have our orientation process, which is many, many hours of like video content.

671
00:52:38,048 --> 00:52:39,728
It is not how to clean, though.

672
00:52:40,048 --> 00:52:43,808
There is a like start of the clean.

673
00:52:43,808 --> 00:52:52,368
Like, we have start, start and end procedures that they follow, and that's actually like a printed out list that they everybody has access to.

674
00:52:52,688 --> 00:52:54,608
And so, we go over that.

675
00:52:54,608 --> 00:53:02,208
We go over like how to behave in a house, how to communicate with clients, how to like move throughout a house, and, and all of these things.

676
00:53:02,208 --> 00:53:04,768
But, we don't actually have like, this is how you clean a toilet.

677
00:53:04,768 --> 00:53:08,203
We do that all, all of that hands-on.

678
00:53:08,203 --> 00:53:10,976
However, there are some good, like, online.

679
00:53:10,976 --> 00:53:18,096
Like, if you want that, I know that Rescue My Maid Service has a good training cleaning tech boot camp.

680
00:53:18,576 --> 00:53:24,096
We tried it, but honestly, like, I didn't feel like it was like with what we are, like, very robust hands-on.

681
00:53:24,256 --> 00:53:27,056
I didn't feel like it was adding enough value to keep it.

682
00:53:27,216 --> 00:53:33,296
However, if you aren't able to do that robust, which I wasn't able for a long time, then it could be a really good one.

683
00:53:33,296 --> 00:53:40,096
Also, Sharon Tinberg has a really good, like, video training modules as well.

684
00:53:40,096 --> 00:53:42,176
That's based on, like, speed cleaning methods.

685
00:53:42,496 --> 00:53:44,096
I have not used it personally.

686
00:53:44,096 --> 00:53:46,096
I have seen it though, and it's pretty well done.

687
00:53:46,096 --> 00:53:50,416
So, if that's something you would like, then there are resources available.

688
00:53:50,576 --> 00:53:53,696
I will never be creating that in my business.

689
00:53:53,696 --> 00:53:57,216
It's something that's came up multiple times, and I'm like, they're just going to learn it.

690
00:53:57,216 --> 00:54:00,224
Like, I'm not gonna make them watch a video on how to clean a toilet.

691
00:54:00,224 --> 00:54:02,704
They're gonna just watch and then do cleaning a toilet.

692
00:54:02,944 --> 00:54:03,904
Yeah.

693
00:54:04,064 --> 00:54:13,264
The company that I worked for, she did have training videos, but I'm, I don't really, I don't necessarily think it's something that I would require of an employee that I hired.

694
00:54:13,264 --> 00:54:21,984
I kind of would be interested in seeing, like, just seeing for myself how somebody did that, because I really don't necessarily believe that I'm the best cleaner out there.

695
00:54:21,984 --> 00:54:26,384
I think that my clients like me because they trust me.

696
00:54:26,544 --> 00:54:31,824
I'm when I say I'm gonna come, like I don't even necessarily think that it's about the cleaning.

697
00:54:31,904 --> 00:54:34,624
Like I'll probably hire people that are better cleaners than me.

698
00:54:34,704 --> 00:54:41,424
Yeah, I have definitely better cleaners for sure than me, and you know, I was good, but I wasn't like probably the best.

699
00:54:41,504 --> 00:54:52,855
But the point was, is because I had the checklist, even like when it was me cleaning from day one, I had the checklist, and I was leaving it behind, so that when and that's why I'm like, I think you should start doing this now.

700
00:54:52,855 --> 00:54:56,976
Because when you do, if the goal is in one year you're out of the field, well, guess what?

701
00:54:56,976 --> 00:55:05,376
All of your current clients are going to have a stranger in their house, and the checklist is something that would unify what you're doing now to what they're going to be doing.

702
00:55:05,616 --> 00:55:13,696
And so, if you can provide that, it eases that transition, because it's like, okay, they're following Ashley's same checklist, like they're doing the process.

703
00:55:13,696 --> 00:55:14,576
She trained her.

704
00:55:14,816 --> 00:55:24,896
There was this transition period, like it's going to make them feel less likely to look around and start trying to find stuff, because if you just look at, the, cool, this is all that was done.

705
00:55:24,896 --> 00:55:28,336
It's not me trying to like discern, okay, what did they do?

706
00:55:29,296 --> 00:55:35,376
It just, we, I feel like that helps us get less complaints, you know, and a lot, a lot less qual, and just a lot less quality issues.

707
00:55:35,376 --> 00:55:49,568
We have excellent quality because of the checklist, because they know damn well if they fill that thing out, like they're there to do it, and we are still doing paper, even though ZenMaid has the digital checklist feature, which I think is wonderful, a wonderful addition.

708
00:55:49,888 --> 00:55:52,928
From a sales perspective, I really like that tangible.

709
00:55:53,008 --> 00:55:54,608
Like, this got left behind.

710
00:55:54,608 --> 00:55:56,448
The cleaner can leave a little cute note.

711
00:55:56,688 --> 00:55:58,848
So, it's a it's a great tool.

712
00:55:58,848 --> 00:56:04,368
But I also we have a lot of houses with very bad reception because we're in such rural area.

713
00:56:04,368 --> 00:56:10,288
So I don't want my cleaners like struggling because they're not on the Wi-Fi or whatever and trying to see what they need to do.

714
00:56:10,288 --> 00:56:18,448
So I still, I'm, that's the one thing that is the one piece of paper I'll be like, yep, still, we're still doing that, a paper checklist.

715
00:56:18,528 --> 00:56:20,448
I can definitely see the value in that.

716
00:56:20,448 --> 00:56:26,608
I've looked at the checklists on ZenMaid, and I think that they're perfect.

717
00:56:26,608 --> 00:56:36,176
I mean, it, I guess lays out every little thing that needs to be, but I, I guess I feel like it's kind of time-consuming to have to pull out your phone so frequently.

718
00:56:36,176 --> 00:56:38,816
Yeah, especially if you're touching, if you're cleaning.

719
00:56:38,816 --> 00:56:41,376
It also could be a perception thing.

720
00:56:41,456 --> 00:56:43,296
We have had issues with that in the past.

721
00:56:43,296 --> 00:56:55,536
Or we tell our cleaners that if a client is around and they see you, if you are talking or on your phone for work purposes, say it to the client because they, it's a bad impression of like, oh, the cleaner was on their phone the whole time.

722
00:56:55,776 --> 00:56:57,936
It's like, well, yeah, they were checking their checklist.

723
00:56:57,936 --> 00:56:59,936
They were communicating with the office.

724
00:56:59,936 --> 00:57:01,536
So it's like they need to verbalize it.

725
00:57:01,536 --> 00:57:04,016
So if we can just eradicate that.

726
00:57:04,096 --> 00:57:08,736
Not to knock the digital, like, anybody using the like, that's awesome, fantastic.

727
00:57:08,736 --> 00:57:10,416
I'm glad you're using the digital checklist.

728
00:57:10,816 --> 00:57:13,776
This is the one thing I'm old school, and I think that there's a lot of benefits to it.

729
00:57:13,776 --> 00:57:20,400
So if you started doing that now, Ashley, one, it's going to allow you to discern, like, okay, what is it that I do?

730
00:57:20,400 --> 00:57:23,280
What is it that the company, like, I want our standard package to be?

731
00:57:23,280 --> 00:57:24,960
What is our add-on services, right?

732
00:57:24,960 --> 00:57:33,280
Like, if you can't very succinctly, like, describe what is it that you do, and, like, in a list form, it's going to be really hard to train.

733
00:57:33,280 --> 00:57:36,400
It's also hard to sell because it's like, well, what makes you, like?

734
00:57:36,400 --> 00:57:39,280
What do you have versus, you know, Sally down the street?

735
00:57:39,280 --> 00:57:43,760
So I think that would be really valuable, especially when you're going to these higher-end homes.

736
00:57:43,760 --> 00:57:45,600
Like, a lot of them aren't used to that.

737
00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:51,280
Like, they're used to hiring, like, an individual cleaner and who just shows up and, like, that lady did a good job.

738
00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:54,640
Maybe they're nervous to hire a company or what have you.

739
00:57:54,640 --> 00:58:00,160
So I think it just is such a, it's a weirdly, very, like, impactful thing.

740
00:58:00,160 --> 00:58:02,160
I remember when I still was doing walkthroughs.

741
00:58:02,160 --> 00:58:05,440
One of my very first houses, and we had them for years.

742
00:58:05,680 --> 00:58:08,800
The husband was a surgeon, she was a stay-at-home mom.

743
00:58:08,800 --> 00:58:11,920
They had four kids at the time, and gorgeous house.

744
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:15,680
They lived on the golf course, and I walked in, and I was so nervous.

745
00:58:15,680 --> 00:58:21,040
I was 22, and I liked I had my polo shirt, and I had my checklist, and I put it on the counter.

746
00:58:21,040 --> 00:58:22,640
I was like, this is everything I can do for you.

747
00:58:22,640 --> 00:58:24,720
And they, when I say, they freaked out over this.

748
00:58:24,720 --> 00:58:27,120
They're like, I've not, I've never seen anything like this before.

749
00:58:27,120 --> 00:58:33,520
They were just, I don't know if it was because he was a surgeon, and they probably follow checklists, but like, they were so dazzled.

750
00:58:33,520 --> 00:58:39,360
Like they literally handed over their key, and like, because they were going to Disney World, and they're like, just come whenever, deep clean the house whenever you can.

751
00:58:39,360 --> 00:58:42,480
Like the first time they met me, because it looked like I had my shit together.

752
00:58:42,480 --> 00:58:44,560
So like, it's very impressive.

753
00:58:44,960 --> 00:59:00,912
I mean, at 22 years old, me and my husband were talking about this the other day about how my business is growing, and 35 years old, I guess I finally figured out what I'm gonna do with my life, and I was telling him about your success, and he was like, "Damn, I wish you had like figured.

754
00:59:00,992 --> 00:59:03,712
We just wanted to scrub toilets for a living ten years ago.

755
00:59:03,712 --> 00:59:06,272
We would have bypassed a lot of stress that we went through."

756
00:59:06,272 --> 00:59:16,672
But I feel like ten years ago, my mindset was like, "I'd rather chew glass and shit razor blades than clean shit off the toilet for the rest of my life."

757
00:59:16,672 --> 00:59:18,752
And now I'm like, "Great, nobody talks to me."

758
00:59:18,752 --> 00:59:24,352
I listen to music or I listen to Stephanie while I clean shit off a toilet."

759
00:59:24,352 --> 00:59:40,032
And I'm... Oh, it really is amazing, just like how much when we change, but also like what we perceive as like the a career path, like an actual viable career path that can make us a lot of money, and I think like one part of that is just the ego of it.

760
00:59:40,032 --> 00:59:46,352
Of, when I was younger, especially, I was so concerned about how I was perceived by others and what people thought.

761
00:59:46,352 --> 00:59:47,792
So, like, yeah, it's embarrassing.

762
00:59:47,792 --> 00:59:50,512
Of, like, what, like this is an embarrassing thing to do.

763
00:59:50,512 --> 00:59:53,072
Where now it's just like the one.

764
00:59:53,072 --> 00:59:55,632
I mean, genuinely, we get to help people, so that's an amazing thing.

765
00:59:55,632 --> 00:59:59,152
But just knowing of, you know, you're laughing all the way to the bank.

766
00:59:59,152 --> 01:00:00,752
Like it's not embarrassing.

767
01:00:00,752 --> 01:00:02,512
We're probably going to make more money than them.

768
01:00:02,592 --> 01:00:04,672
We have freedom and we get to genuinely help people.

769
01:00:04,672 --> 01:00:05,952
So, like, I don't know.

770
01:00:05,952 --> 01:00:08,432
It just, I feel very differently that I did when I was younger.

771
01:00:08,432 --> 01:00:09,872
A hundred percent.

772
01:00:09,872 --> 01:00:10,352
I would have.

773
01:00:11,280 --> 01:00:15,280
I mean, I'm not a pretty, I'm not really a judgy person, but I probably would have liked.

774
01:00:15,280 --> 01:00:17,680
So you're 35 and, you're cleaning out.

775
01:00:17,920 --> 01:00:23,040
And what pisses me off is that I have a I have a college degree that I wasted money on.

776
01:00:23,040 --> 01:00:24,800
Like, I didn't need it to do what I'm doing now.

777
01:00:24,800 --> 01:00:29,600
If I had figured this out a long time ago, I would have saved money and time.

778
01:00:29,680 --> 01:00:30,320
Yeah, I know.

779
01:00:30,320 --> 01:00:35,040
I definitely feel like when I do have kids, like, I'm not going to push them to do, you know, anything.

780
01:00:35,040 --> 01:00:42,320
Of course, but I definitely want to like not necessarily be like the traditional path of you have like there's only one way, right?

781
01:00:42,400 --> 01:00:45,120
Of this, you know, you go get a four-year or even longer.

782
01:00:45,120 --> 01:00:50,000
Obviously, if you want to be, you know, a certain thing like a teacher or a doctor or a lawyer or something, you have to.

783
01:00:50,080 --> 01:00:58,080
But, I mean, yeah, like being self-employed, there's so much like ability to learn without going to college.

784
01:00:58,080 --> 01:00:59,440
It's just, it's amazing.

785
01:00:59,440 --> 01:01:00,768
So, yeah.

786
01:01:00,768 --> 01:01:08,288
I mean, you're on the path that you know you're meant to be on, and this is clearly the time for you to do this thing.

787
01:01:08,288 --> 01:01:18,208
So I think there's some very like quick wins that you can implement to set yourself up for more success with what you're trying to achieve.

788
01:01:18,208 --> 01:01:33,648
So definitely the client guidelines, getting checklists in place, maybe AIing a pricing calculator that suits you and based off of like how fast you clean and what you guys do, just as a baseline, just so you know.

789
01:01:33,728 --> 01:01:41,328
Based on our checklists, our first-time cleans we do 150 square foot per hour of occupied homes, of vacant homes.

790
01:01:41,328 --> 01:02:00,976
So a move-out or deep clean for us is going to be 100 square foot per hour, and that's all the interiors of everything, the cabinets, the appliances, that type of stuff, and then maintenance cleans can be anywhere from 650 to like 800 square foot per hour, just depending on how they live, you know, master bathroom, that type of stuff, how many pets.

791
01:02:01,696 --> 01:02:08,416
So yeah, those are kind of the numbers that we are looking at, and that seems to be, you know, when I first started, I was way off of what I like.

792
01:02:08,416 --> 01:02:13,376
I would consistently underestimate because I was like, oh, we can get this done, and we just we couldn't.

793
01:02:13,376 --> 01:02:14,576
It was just not possible.

794
01:02:14,576 --> 01:02:25,136
So, that like those numbers may sound slow, but it's like it started out a lot faster, and we just kept getting like more accurate with what reality was when it came to those first times, especially.

795
01:02:25,136 --> 01:02:28,576
So, I would really start locking in on your production rates.

796
01:02:28,576 --> 01:02:29,696
Like, time yourself.

797
01:02:29,776 --> 01:02:35,360
Like, I like maybe not in every in every house, but you do need to figure out like, like, audit it.

798
01:02:35,360 --> 01:02:39,760
And what you can do is, if you are like, you're using ZenMaid, are you actually clocking in and out?

799
01:02:39,840 --> 01:02:41,680
Not consistently, no.

800
01:02:41,760 --> 01:02:49,920
Okay, start doing that right now because you need to like actually get those that data so that, like, that's your goldmine of information of how fast you're actually cleaning.

801
01:02:50,160 --> 01:02:55,280
Make sure the square footage is entered in there, and then once you export those appointments, give it to Claude.

802
01:02:55,280 --> 01:02:59,840
It can figure out all of your, like, how fast does Ashley clean on these types of houses?

803
01:02:59,840 --> 01:03:02,080
Because it'll be able to see, was this a first time clean?

804
01:03:02,160 --> 01:03:03,280
Is this a maintenance clean?

805
01:03:03,280 --> 01:03:04,560
How often are you going?

806
01:03:04,880 --> 01:03:15,120
And if you're putting notes in there like they have dogs, it can start to see pattern of like, if one dog it takes on average 20 more minutes, and then now we can price like going forward.

807
01:03:15,120 --> 01:03:21,136
So that's one tool where like the AI is really amazing of just like discerning the data.

808
01:03:21,296 --> 01:03:24,976
But the only way it can do that is if it, if you're inputting that stuff.

809
01:03:24,976 --> 01:03:32,016
So immediately start clocking and act as if you're an employee of yourself, like, and just do everything that you would want an employee to do.

810
01:03:32,096 --> 01:03:39,456
So your price estimator, like, do you just type like a formula into Excel based on what Claude told you?

811
01:03:39,456 --> 01:03:40,736
Is that how it works?

812
01:03:40,976 --> 01:03:42,736
It can just build it for you, like, literally.

813
01:03:42,736 --> 01:03:45,376
So we use Google Drive for pretty much everything.

814
01:03:45,376 --> 01:03:49,616
So Google Sheets is the like Google equivalent of Excel.

815
01:03:49,616 --> 01:03:52,816
So I say Drive or I see say Sheets versus Excel.

816
01:03:52,816 --> 01:03:54,896
So when I say that, it all means the same thing.

817
01:03:55,136 --> 01:04:01,296
But yeah, if I literally am like, cool, I'm trying to make this pricing calculator, here is all of my production rate information.

818
01:04:01,296 --> 01:04:07,056
Just export all of your past appointments that you have clock in data and the square footage and those notes in.

819
01:04:07,296 --> 01:04:12,656
It can say, awesome, looks like these are your production rates, and just say, great, can you build me a calculator for this?

820
01:04:13,248 --> 01:04:14,288
And it'll build it for you.

821
01:04:14,288 --> 01:04:23,248
And then you can just, when you're on the phone or whatever you're doing a walkthrough, you can just plug it in, and it'll spit out those numbers for you, or a range, depending on you know what you're kind of aiming for.

822
01:04:23,248 --> 01:04:24,848
So yeah, AI is amazing.

823
01:04:25,328 --> 01:04:34,128
So do you think that tomorrow, when I go do this walkthrough, I should say I'm gonna take all these notes home, and I'll give you an answer tomorrow morning?

824
01:04:34,128 --> 01:04:37,008
Or do you think that I should have some kind of figure?

825
01:04:37,008 --> 01:04:38,768
No, don't give her a price during the walkthrough.

826
01:04:38,768 --> 01:04:39,088
Nope.

827
01:04:39,168 --> 01:04:42,688
Even if she pushes you, just be like, I really like, I'll get back to you tomorrow.

828
01:04:42,688 --> 01:04:53,568
I'll send over the full proposal, like, and you could even call her and be like, I will call you tomorrow, and we can go over the proposal together on the phone, so that you can answer objections during that phone call.

829
01:04:53,888 --> 01:05:04,448
That's really the ideal, is to go over the price on the phone, so you can, when she is like gasping or pissed off, you can be like, well, this is why, you know, like what or what is the budget you had in mind?

830
01:05:04,528 --> 01:05:06,768
That type of thing, or like, what what could you do?

831
01:05:06,768 --> 01:05:14,368
And if she says, "Well, I was hoping to be $250," because we, you know, if I throw out that $300 number, she's like, "I was really hoping to keep it at about $250 per visit."

832
01:05:14,688 --> 01:05:20,848
Well, great, we could rotate these, or we could work off of a priority list, and I'll just get through as much as I can.

833
01:05:21,168 --> 01:05:31,008
And maybe there's some like spare bedrooms that don't need to be done every time, or a whole floor that, like, there's some houses we just wouldn't do the basement every other time, or whatever the heck, you know, solutions.

834
01:05:31,008 --> 01:05:40,608
You can come up with solutions, but if you send it over email and don't hear back from her, like, you can't give her those options because you're not there to answer all of the questions in her head.

835
01:05:40,608 --> 01:05:43,648
So, yeah, do not give her a price in person.

836
01:05:43,728 --> 01:05:46,928
Any time I've been pushed to do that, I always kick myself.

837
01:05:46,928 --> 01:05:49,488
Of like, you don't actually know if that's the price.

838
01:05:49,488 --> 01:05:50,448
You haven't thought about it.

839
01:05:50,448 --> 01:05:51,808
It's like a pressure thing, you know.

840
01:05:51,808 --> 01:05:53,248
You need to, you need to see it.

841
01:05:53,408 --> 01:05:58,288
It's wild to me that ZenMaid gave me like the $900 whatever dollar price.

842
01:05:58,288 --> 01:05:59,968
Yeah, I'm curious like how it.

843
01:05:59,968 --> 01:06:12,640
When you inputted it, it wasn't even $400, which I think based off of what this house looks like, 400 would be too low based off of what I've like I looked it up on Zillow and it looks like there's a lot to it.

844
01:06:12,640 --> 01:06:19,760
So I don't even think that 400 would be enough, but I'm gonna have to put thought into it before tomorrow because I'm a little bit nervous.

845
01:06:20,240 --> 01:06:25,680
Yeah, and don't be afraid to be like, you know, is there Zillow interior pictures like of the house?

846
01:06:26,000 --> 01:06:26,880
Okay, cool.

847
01:06:26,880 --> 01:06:29,680
We'll give that listing to AI and be like, here's the actual house.

848
01:06:29,840 --> 01:06:31,200
Like, what do you think?

849
01:06:31,200 --> 01:06:38,080
You know, like get that information and here's the things that I'm going to do and like, like really utilize those online resources to come up with a price.

850
01:06:38,080 --> 01:06:50,832
If you're nervous because you're, you see it like because you don't have that production rate auditing in place yet for yourself, you are still like guessing a little bit because you don't know, so you know, it's like just literally tallying up.

851
01:06:50,832 --> 01:06:51,392
Okay, cool.

852
01:06:51,392 --> 01:06:52,432
There's this many bathrooms.

853
01:06:52,432 --> 01:06:53,392
There's this many kitchens.

854
01:06:53,392 --> 01:06:59,792
There's this many bedrooms, and you just start tallying it up, you know, and until you're feeling confident in that number.

855
01:06:59,952 --> 01:07:01,472
I've never used Claude before.

856
01:07:01,472 --> 01:07:04,832
Is it that much of a difference in what you can get out of AI?

857
01:07:05,472 --> 01:07:06,192
Pay for Claude?

858
01:07:06,352 --> 01:07:07,392
Paying, not necessarily.

859
01:07:07,392 --> 01:07:08,752
I don't think you need to pay for it.

860
01:07:08,752 --> 01:07:13,312
I think that's based on like usage rates, is what the cost is.

861
01:07:13,392 --> 01:07:17,872
I might be totally wrong because we pay for it, so I'm not sure what the free versus paid is.

862
01:07:18,272 --> 01:07:20,592
But I think it works just as good.

863
01:07:20,832 --> 01:07:22,192
And ChatGPT can do this too.

864
01:07:22,192 --> 01:07:23,472
Like, you don't need to use Claude.

865
01:07:23,472 --> 01:07:24,992
I am a big Claude fan.

866
01:07:24,992 --> 01:07:27,552
I think it's we use it for different things.

867
01:07:27,552 --> 01:07:31,216
So, any like hard thinking, definitely I prefer Claude.

868
01:07:31,536 --> 01:07:34,416
But I think ChatGPT is excellent for design and photos.

869
01:07:34,656 --> 01:07:38,736
Like, for example, I am redoing our now hiring page on our website.

870
01:07:39,056 --> 01:07:42,736
I went to ChatGPT and said, "Please help me come up with ideas visually."

871
01:07:43,056 --> 01:07:45,536
And then, because when I had Claude do it, it looked like shit.

872
01:07:45,616 --> 01:07:51,776
And so then I screenshotted and sent it over to Claude, be like, "Build this for me," because I have it connected to my website.

873
01:07:52,096 --> 01:07:53,936
It literally built the whole page like that.

874
01:07:53,936 --> 01:08:00,816
So, like, when I think of like your website, for example, like I would love to see that look a bit different.

875
01:08:00,816 --> 01:08:03,376
And I think you could really build it out of like what services.

876
01:08:03,456 --> 01:08:12,016
Like, it's probably not showing up at all from a search engine optimization perspective, like SEO, because when I look at your website, I'm looking at it right now.

877
01:08:12,576 --> 01:08:16,176
Expert home cleaning services, reliable thorough cleaning for homes and offices.

878
01:08:16,176 --> 01:08:17,056
That's your top.

879
01:08:17,536 --> 01:08:24,400
That is your above the fold, like what I can see when I first load the load the page.

880
01:08:24,640 --> 01:08:28,960
I don't know what town it's that you're what, what area you're in, should be in there.

881
01:08:28,960 --> 01:08:38,000
Like, it should be clear immediately where you service when the page loads because it doesn't say it.

882
01:08:38,080 --> 01:08:39,040
Okay, says in Hanover.

883
01:08:39,040 --> 01:08:41,760
When I scroll down quite a bit, it tells me in Hanover.

884
01:08:41,920 --> 01:08:47,120
So, yeah, this I would, I think you could build this website out really really amazingly.

885
01:08:47,600 --> 01:08:52,080
And how you can do that again is with Claude or ChatGPT.

886
01:08:52,080 --> 01:08:58,896
Actually, if you already are paying for Chat, what you're looking for is, well, where did this website get built?

887
01:08:58,896 --> 01:09:00,576
Like, what is the platform it's built on?

888
01:09:01,296 --> 01:09:02,736
Go, you know, GoDaddy.

889
01:09:02,736 --> 01:09:04,416
So, is it a WordPress website?

890
01:09:04,416 --> 01:09:06,576
Do you know, or what's that mean?

891
01:09:07,056 --> 01:09:11,376
Okay, it's kind of the platform that it's built on, is a WordPress type.

892
01:09:11,616 --> 01:09:15,376
But when you want to make a change, where do you go?

893
01:09:15,696 --> 01:09:18,336
You log into GoDaddy, or yeah, okay, okay.

894
01:09:19,056 --> 01:09:22,016
So you may be able to connect your AI to that.

895
01:09:22,256 --> 01:09:22,656
I'm not sure.

896
01:09:22,656 --> 01:09:24,496
It just depends what that looks like on the back end.

897
01:09:24,496 --> 01:09:27,936
But literally, I have Claude build my website.

898
01:09:27,936 --> 01:09:32,016
Like when I want to rebuild something, it can do that just by, you know.

899
01:09:32,016 --> 01:09:33,856
And then you can say like, this is the goal.

900
01:09:33,856 --> 01:09:35,056
This is what I want it to look like.

901
01:09:35,056 --> 01:09:41,776
And you may not even know what you want it to look like, but like you can ask, "What are best practices for a home service website?"

902
01:09:41,776 --> 01:09:43,136
I these are my core values.

903
01:09:43,136 --> 01:09:46,448
This is what I want to focus on, and this is the area I want to serve.

904
01:09:46,928 --> 01:09:47,568
Blah blah blah.

905
01:09:47,568 --> 01:09:53,008
Like, even just coming up with the wireframe, so you know what direction of like what pages do I need, that type of thing.

906
01:09:53,088 --> 01:09:57,008
And you can shamelessly look at my website if you want, because I'm pretty proud of it now.

907
01:09:57,168 --> 01:09:59,168
So I looked at it yesterday, I believe.

908
01:09:59,568 --> 01:09:59,808
Yeah.

909
01:10:00,448 --> 01:10:02,128
Heck yeah.

910
01:10:02,448 --> 01:10:05,328
So yeah, I would, I would definitely lean into that heavily.

911
01:10:05,328 --> 01:10:11,088
If you're doing it yourself, of course you can hire out any of that stuff, but it does cost money.

912
01:10:11,088 --> 01:10:15,728
So I think you can bootstrap a lot of stuff now because of AI.

913
01:10:15,728 --> 01:10:17,088
So I definitely would start.

914
01:10:17,168 --> 01:10:26,768
I would start first in all those protective things, like, get registered with the state to hire, make sure that you have the insurance in place, make sure that you get those client guidelines in place.

915
01:10:26,768 --> 01:10:34,448
Like, there's so many like those kind of protective mechanisms, as well as employee documents in place, so that when you are ready to hire, you have stuff for them to sign, right?

916
01:10:34,448 --> 01:10:38,848
Because they should be signing about 30 things when you hire them that protect you.

917
01:10:38,848 --> 01:10:46,896
Yeah, I had the W-2 paperwork printed off for the one that didn't work out, and I like filled in what I like the date.

918
01:10:46,896 --> 01:10:55,056
I filled in a couple things for, and I was like, I could have like not wrote anything and saved this in case I ever actually... Yes, yeah.

919
01:10:55,056 --> 01:11:20,016
So there's and then just like protective policies of you know, like the employee agreements, like they need to have you know, just we have them sign so much stuff, saying like this is what you're being held accountable to, so that if they come back and say anything or try to get unemployment wrongly or say you did XYZ, you can protect yourself because a hundred percent of the time employees are gonna are the hardest part of this job.

920
01:11:20,016 --> 01:11:29,776
Like, especially, you've never really had them before, like I didn't, and so just like the shit show that was employees and still is, sometimes is it's the hardest part.

921
01:11:29,776 --> 01:11:41,184
So things that you could put into place to protect yourself would be very, very wise, so that even if they do leave on a bad note, at least they're not coming back to bite you, you know, in other ways.

922
01:11:41,264 --> 01:11:44,224
Have you had to pay unemployment yet to anybody?

923
01:11:44,384 --> 01:11:44,624
Yeah.

924
01:11:44,624 --> 01:11:47,024
So as a business, we have unemployment insurance.

925
01:11:47,024 --> 01:11:50,944
So as soon as you read, you know, you're registered with the state, you start hiring W-2s.

926
01:11:50,944 --> 01:11:54,944
You have something called unemployment insurance, and so you don't pay that.

927
01:11:54,944 --> 01:11:58,704
Like, if say their paycheck from unemployment is 300 bucks, they're not.

928
01:11:58,704 --> 01:11:59,904
That's not getting paid from me.

929
01:11:59,904 --> 01:12:04,144
That's getting paid from my unemployment insurance, like pot, if you will.

930
01:12:04,304 --> 01:12:11,584
And if I have enough people that get unemployment, that rate is going to go up, and that's so it's you're paying it indirectly, if you will.

931
01:12:11,824 --> 01:12:18,144
And so that's where if they don't work for you long enough, it's going to actually draw from their former employer, which is nice.

932
01:12:18,144 --> 01:12:25,312
So yes, we have absolutely had people get unemployment much more successfully in the earlier years.

933
01:12:25,312 --> 01:12:30,344
Very rarely, I don't think anybody has successfully gotten unemployment on us for years now.

934
01:12:30,344 --> 01:12:35,712
And that's because if they are leaving, they have there is a policy, they broke, right?

935
01:12:35,712 --> 01:12:39,072
So, meaning they got fired because if they quit, they're not going to get unemployment.

936
01:12:39,072 --> 01:12:39,792
That's not possible.

937
01:12:40,112 --> 01:12:48,912
But if they get fired, which has happened many times, and they try, like, there because we are so we are like ironclad with our documentation.

938
01:12:49,152 --> 01:12:55,072
We are ironclad with our written warnings and having them sign and saying, "Yes, I acknowledge that I broke this policy."

939
01:12:55,072 --> 01:12:55,632
Blah blah blah.

940
01:12:55,632 --> 01:13:02,368
So that when they try to get unemployment, we you have to have everything like buttoned up to the letter, of like, nope.

941
01:13:02,368 --> 01:13:06,448
They did this, this, and this, and they said that they understood that this is against policy.

942
01:13:06,448 --> 01:13:09,968
Like, so that's where all that comes from, of like, protecting yourself.

943
01:13:09,968 --> 01:13:13,008
And I'm not opposed to people getting unemployment if they rightfully should.

944
01:13:13,008 --> 01:13:17,328
But if they got fired for bullshit, like, they shouldn't get unemployment off of me.

945
01:13:17,328 --> 01:13:19,488
Like, they didn't, they didn't act right, you know?

946
01:13:19,808 --> 01:13:21,168
Yeah, I completely agree.

947
01:13:22,608 --> 01:13:31,168
So yeah, I think there's a lot of a lot of little steps, and obviously, I'm, I'm like so used to having a Fathom, like, summary to send you.

948
01:13:31,248 --> 01:13:40,448
Like, don't worry, the Fathom's recording, but like, this is obviously this is recorded, but you'll, you'll be able to work through all of the to-dos, if you will.

949
01:13:40,448 --> 01:13:50,880
But yeah, I think even if you could put together like a checklist, like today to have printed off, so that you can show that lady something of like, "Cool, this is my standard package.

950
01:13:50,880 --> 01:13:52,480
These are the add-on services.

951
01:13:52,720 --> 01:13:56,640
Like, if you like, whatever you offer, you know, just so you have something tangible for her."

952
01:13:56,640 --> 01:13:59,760
Okay, yeah, I'll probably do that this afternoon.

953
01:13:59,760 --> 01:14:03,360
I will put some documentation together to make me look a little bit more.

954
01:14:03,360 --> 01:14:04,800
Yeah.

955
01:14:04,800 --> 01:14:08,720
It'll make you feel more confident too, because you have something to cling to as you're doing the walkthrough.

956
01:14:08,960 --> 01:14:11,360
I'm not nervous.

957
01:14:11,360 --> 01:14:17,600
Like, I mean, I've done this before, but because she seems a little bit more higher end than what I'm used to, I'm like, I really want this.

958
01:14:17,760 --> 01:14:19,520
I really want this house because I feel like that.

959
01:14:20,240 --> 01:14:27,040
Like, this is the push I need to maybe pay some on paying to try to get our first employee, I guess.

960
01:14:27,120 --> 01:14:28,000
No, I agree.

961
01:14:28,000 --> 01:14:35,440
I think you could really open some doors for you, and you know, higher end clients can be really great because they have higher end friends who have houses.

962
01:14:36,640 --> 01:14:44,288
Yes, she's definitely in a higher tax bracket than me, so I want all higher tax, yeah, to house, okay.

963
01:14:44,288 --> 01:14:51,248
I know we have a one family who all of the daughters at one point, except the youngest, had us in their home.

964
01:14:51,248 --> 01:14:52,528
We still clean out the mom's house.

965
01:14:52,608 --> 01:14:57,888
We clean out their business and like they, I mean, I, it was my personal client that I would.

966
01:14:57,888 --> 01:15:06,208
She was my last client that I refused to give up until I was pretty much like, I can't keep cleaning like this because she was weekly and I mean she tips so good.

967
01:15:06,208 --> 01:15:15,088
My whole like apartment and our office was like furnished with her like hand me down like home decor because she was always redecorating and just like she, like, she's still.

968
01:15:15,088 --> 01:15:21,488
I mean, she's been with us for seven years now, and like just, I mean, a house that you could only dream of, you know.

969
01:15:21,488 --> 01:15:26,528
Just, and I like every week I'd be like, oh, I love, and she'd let me eat her snacks and all sorts.

970
01:15:26,528 --> 01:15:30,608
She was just amazing, and so, so yeah, those clients can be really wonderful.

971
01:15:30,688 --> 01:15:33,808
She ever complain about your work or your employees' work?

972
01:15:33,808 --> 01:15:36,848
Oh yeah, my employees for sure, never me because I'm, you know, perfect.

973
01:15:36,848 --> 01:15:37,408
But just kidding.

974
01:15:37,648 --> 01:15:47,056
But yes, actually, she was my very, my very first employee I hired, Gabby, the infamous Gabby.

975
01:15:47,056 --> 01:16:04,256
She went to this woman's house and she cleaned so fucking badly, and so that is how I... She was like, "I just want you," and so I went back and I cleaned for her, and I was her cleaner for years after that because she was so burned by Gabby.

976
01:16:04,256 --> 01:16:16,416
She also liked having the owner, and I liked having her so, but all of her daughters were, or let's see, two of them are still clients, and I never cleaned for either of them.

977
01:16:16,416 --> 01:16:22,736
So, but yeah, she definitely had her, we had some some bad experiences with her for sure.

978
01:16:22,736 --> 01:16:32,496
Yeah, I mean, I just hear you say so so much positive things about how you don't get a lot of complaints and your Google reviews are always fabulous.

979
01:16:32,496 --> 01:16:34,656
So, like, I don't, I don't know.

980
01:16:34,736 --> 01:16:35,936
I aspire to be you.

981
01:16:35,936 --> 01:16:38,016
You're that's many years into it, hon.

982
01:16:38,016 --> 01:16:39,776
Because yeah, I mean, that was literally one.

983
01:16:39,776 --> 01:16:41,056
That was my first employee.

984
01:16:41,056 --> 01:16:46,736
It was a shit show, and yeah, it never reached Google, but internally, like, it was a fucking mess, you know.

985
01:16:46,736 --> 01:16:49,216
And so there was a lot of problems.

986
01:16:49,216 --> 01:16:50,256
There was a lot of things.

987
01:16:50,256 --> 01:16:57,536
I think that the checklist definitely helped in those early days because that, like, at least there was a baseline of like, what the hell are we even doing here?

988
01:16:57,856 --> 01:16:59,296
Of like, okay, cool.

989
01:16:59,296 --> 01:17:01,136
At least we're all working in the same language.

990
01:17:01,456 --> 01:17:08,096
But yeah, there, there was definitely issues going back, re cleans, you know, refunds, that type of stuff.

991
01:17:08,096 --> 01:17:14,672
It just luckily we did not have a lot of things going to like online reviews.

992
01:17:14,672 --> 01:17:16,592
Like people were willing to handle it internally.

993
01:17:16,592 --> 01:17:20,672
So I think also just me being like psychotic about asking, like, how did it go?

994
01:17:20,672 --> 01:17:22,272
Like, what, you know, how are you feeling?

995
01:17:22,272 --> 01:17:23,472
Like, are you happy right now?

996
01:17:23,472 --> 01:17:27,952
Like, is there anything we can do better to really get that, like, force them to give that feedback?

997
01:17:27,952 --> 01:17:37,072
Which the service rating features is really wonderful in ZenMaid now, because like, it can, it can send out and ask for that internal feedback, especially when you have new hires.

998
01:17:37,072 --> 01:17:44,272
Like, that's a really useful feature because then you can get that internally before they go on online and blast you.

999
01:17:44,272 --> 01:17:46,992
So, but the biggest thing is just ask people.

1000
01:17:47,072 --> 01:17:48,672
You know, like, don't let it fester.

1001
01:17:49,152 --> 01:17:53,792
Anytime you have a new person in a house, that is the most likely time that they're going to be pissed off.

1002
01:17:53,792 --> 01:17:55,072
Like, and that person is going to fuck up.

1003
01:17:55,072 --> 01:17:59,072
So, like, just if you send somebody new into a house, follow up.

1004
01:17:59,312 --> 01:17:59,872
How did it go?

1005
01:18:00,032 --> 01:18:01,632
Anything that we can do better for the next time?

1006
01:18:01,632 --> 01:18:05,552
You know, like, that simple little thing can help solve a lot of problems.

1007
01:18:05,552 --> 01:18:23,120
Yeah, I will say that, like, the few times that I have passed over a client to somebody else, like my 1099s, for the first clean that my 1099 does, I always give like a fifty-dollar discount for that, and they've been very happy with the few times that I've had to do that.

1008
01:18:23,120 --> 01:18:29,040
So I'm gonna, I'll continue to do that in the future, give a little discount as an incentive to letting me send in somebody new.

1009
01:18:29,040 --> 01:18:30,720
Yeah, and that's a good tool for sure.

1010
01:18:30,720 --> 01:18:38,352
I mean, it just, if they're really like feeling hesitant to try somebody else, that kind of thing.

1011
01:18:38,352 --> 01:18:41,072
So that can be great when you do get employees.

1012
01:18:41,072 --> 01:18:44,272
I think like you just going with, and then being like, this is the handoff.

1013
01:18:44,272 --> 01:18:45,552
I'm handing off the baton.

1014
01:18:45,552 --> 01:18:48,912
I'll come, that like, and again, just saying this is how it's going to work.

1015
01:18:48,912 --> 01:19:04,032
I am going to come the next two cleans with Jessica, and then she is going to come and clean independently, and I will come check her work, and we will make sure you're happy because I want this to be as perfect as it is right now, and like just be very like, not like, is this okay?

1016
01:19:04,032 --> 01:19:05,232
Like, no, this is what's happening.

1017
01:19:05,232 --> 01:19:06,272
Like, I'm hiring.

1018
01:19:06,512 --> 01:19:10,752
Yeah, I mean, luckily most of my clients are like fantastic.

1019
01:19:10,752 --> 01:19:17,392
They trust me, and they know that I wouldn't send somebody into their home that I don't that I think would disrespect their home or anything like that.

1020
01:19:18,400 --> 01:19:25,360
I'm sure that will change as time goes on, and I'm not as hands-on as I am.

1021
01:19:25,360 --> 01:19:29,680
But so far, all of my clients that I have right now know me, and they trust me, and they know that I would.

1022
01:19:29,680 --> 01:19:32,320
Yeah, I mean, I'd say just stop hiring meth heads.

1023
01:19:32,320 --> 01:19:33,187
That would be the goal.

1024
01:19:33,187 --> 01:19:49,968
I guess I just lied right there because I did bring a meth head into that one lady's house, but he was, he's like one of my coolest clients, and she likes me because I break bake her sourdough and bring her chicken eggs, and so she was like, "I'll forgive you one time with the, this one time with the meth head."

1025
01:19:50,368 --> 01:19:51,648
I said, "Appreciate you."

1026
01:19:51,728 --> 01:19:52,448
That's awesome.

1027
01:19:52,448 --> 01:19:56,848
So don't, yeah, don't let that, you know, dissuade you from hiring again.

1028
01:19:56,848 --> 01:19:57,568
It's gonna happen.

1029
01:19:57,568 --> 01:19:59,248
Just, just accept it.

1030
01:19:59,248 --> 01:20:11,888
It's like, yep, like we're just trying this out, and, and just not having that, having high expectations of their performance, but also knowing like the faster you can get over that disappointment, the better you're gonna be.

1031
01:20:11,888 --> 01:20:18,608
Because if you let that get you down like too long, and, and like scar you, it's gonna stop you from getting where you need to go.

1032
01:20:18,608 --> 01:20:22,848
Because literally, like, I mean, that, like, probably everybody's gonna.

1033
01:20:22,848 --> 01:20:30,816
Everybody, I mean, again, everybody is going to leave at some point, whether through death or you know some other obscure way, like they're going to leave.

1034
01:20:30,816 --> 01:20:38,096
So just having a healthy understanding of like, cool, if that's the reality, how do I make it so that is less impactful, right?

1035
01:20:38,176 --> 01:20:42,096
Like, how do I make it so that the client doesn't feel that, or that I don't feel it as much?

1036
01:20:42,096 --> 01:20:52,896
Well, you need hiring processes in place, and you need to have very strict standards of what is it that we do, so that it is as simple as possible for somebody new to come in and nail it, right?

1037
01:20:52,896 --> 01:20:56,496
And that means really good ZenMaid notes on every client, right?

1038
01:20:56,496 --> 01:20:57,376
Like, what do they like?

1039
01:20:57,376 --> 01:20:58,496
What are they picky about?

1040
01:20:58,496 --> 01:21:01,296
And like, so all of our notes are the same exact structure.

1041
01:21:01,616 --> 01:21:02,576
This is how you get in.

1042
01:21:02,656 --> 01:21:03,936
This is where the garbage bags are.

1043
01:21:04,176 --> 01:21:05,856
This is where the toilet brushes are kept.

1044
01:21:05,856 --> 01:21:07,216
This is where you put the garbage.

1045
01:21:07,456 --> 01:21:14,736
This is the dog's name, like so that when somebody new comes in or fills in because somebody's sick, they can seamlessly come in and nail the clean, right?

1046
01:21:14,816 --> 01:21:22,656
And so that's we just encourage that level of extensive note taking, so that pass off can be really smooth.

1047
01:21:24,784 --> 01:21:25,104
Yeah.

1048
01:21:25,344 --> 01:21:25,744
Cool.

1049
01:21:25,824 --> 01:21:26,304
Okay.

1050
01:21:26,944 --> 01:21:27,504
Hell yeah.

1051
01:21:27,504 --> 01:21:29,344
Well, you got a lot of things to do, Ashley.

1052
01:21:29,344 --> 01:21:37,024
I hope you're ready to be busy, and hopefully we can reconnect at some point in the future, and I'll have all kinds of updates for you.

1053
01:21:37,024 --> 01:21:37,664
Hell yeah!

1054
01:21:37,664 --> 01:21:38,944
I'd love to do a follow-up.

1055
01:21:38,944 --> 01:21:47,744
We could do a catch-up in a few months, maybe even like six months, and see what you're, what you're doing, and that could kind of be a good, like, all right, let me get shit done.

1056
01:21:47,744 --> 01:21:48,704
Like, cool.

1057
01:21:48,704 --> 01:21:53,024
If you want to be out of the field in a year, well, let's, let's, let's make it happen.

1058
01:21:53,024 --> 01:21:53,984
All right, I'm all for it.

1059
01:21:53,984 --> 01:21:56,704
Thank you for your help, and I hope to stay in the future.

1060
01:21:56,704 --> 01:21:59,024
Oh, I don't know what CleanCon is, but it sounds fun.

1061
01:21:59,024 --> 01:22:00,384
Could I hang out with you at CleanCon?

1062
01:22:00,384 --> 01:22:01,904
Oh, it was amazing.

1063
01:22:01,904 --> 01:22:07,216
It was last week, so the next one won't be till I think it's next September.

1064
01:22:07,296 --> 01:22:13,616
They haven't announced where it is yet, but highly recommend if you if you like can can make it there.

1065
01:22:13,616 --> 01:22:17,216
It was really valuable to businesses of all sizes.

1066
01:22:17,216 --> 01:22:20,016
I learned a lot, and I have a lot of things that I want to implement from it.

1067
01:22:20,016 --> 01:22:26,576
So yes, and of course, if you're ever in Savannah, Georgia, you hit me up, and we'll hang out.

1068
01:22:26,896 --> 01:22:28,336
I bet we would have a lot of fun together.

1069
01:22:28,416 --> 01:22:33,936
You seem a lot like me, except for you had your shit figured out 15 years ago and I don't.

1070
01:22:33,936 --> 01:22:34,656
I'm divorced.

1071
01:22:35,376 --> 01:22:37,216
I'm, you know, I got lots of problems.

1072
01:22:37,216 --> 01:22:38,096
Don't worry, honey.

1073
01:22:38,096 --> 01:22:38,656
Don't we all?

1074
01:22:39,056 --> 01:22:40,336
We all got things going on.

1075
01:22:40,656 --> 01:22:42,656
Yeah, exactly, exactly.

1076
01:22:42,656 --> 01:22:50,656
But yes, I would, I would love, and really, if you if you seriously like, I've had that where listeners have connected and we hang out in person when when they're coming through town.

1077
01:22:50,656 --> 01:22:52,960
So definitely, doors always open.

1078
01:22:53,040 --> 01:22:54,640
You're ever in Richmond?

1079
01:22:54,640 --> 01:22:55,680
Yeah, absolutely.

1080
01:22:55,680 --> 01:22:56,400
I love Virginia.

1081
01:22:56,400 --> 01:22:56,960
It's beautiful.

1082
01:22:57,040 --> 01:23:01,040
I've driven through it a couple times, and the, the, like, mountains freak me out.

1083
01:23:01,040 --> 01:23:08,000
Like looking over the cliff, and I'm like, I couldn't live here because it's just that, like, the gulches, like, are just really scary.

1084
01:23:09,440 --> 01:23:11,760
Yeah, yeah, but they're beautiful, but the draw.

1085
01:23:11,760 --> 01:23:12,320
Yeah, I don't know.

1086
01:23:12,320 --> 01:23:12,960
It freaks me out.

1087
01:23:12,960 --> 01:23:16,640
Like my stomach drops when I, like, can look over and it's just a giant cliff.

1088
01:23:17,120 --> 01:23:19,840
That can be kind of that can be intimidating.

1089
01:23:19,840 --> 01:23:20,160
Yeah.

1090
01:23:20,240 --> 01:23:21,920
Well, this has been awesome, Ashley.

1091
01:23:22,000 --> 01:23:27,520
Please, guys, leave her some love in the comments for being open, vulnerable, honest.

1092
01:23:27,520 --> 01:23:28,960
This is how we all learn.

1093
01:23:28,960 --> 01:23:32,880
I know that somebody listening has learned something from this conversation.

1094
01:23:33,200 --> 01:23:34,400
Leave it down below.

1095
01:23:35,040 --> 01:23:35,600
Hit that like.

1096
01:23:35,840 --> 01:23:36,960
Hit that subscribe.

1097
01:23:37,360 --> 01:23:39,280
And we'll see you on the next episode of Filthy Rich Cleaners.

1098
01:23:39,520 --> 01:23:39,840
Bye, guys.

1099
01:23:40,160 --> 01:23:46,960
If you enjoyed this episode of the Filthy Rich Cleaners podcast, please be sure to leave us a five-star review so we can reach more cleaners like you.

1100
01:23:47,200 --> 01:23:50,400
Until next time, keep your work clean and your business filthy rich.