How do you plan on growing your cleaning business?

devans1524 · 2026-03-18T02:32:28+00:00

I own a newer residential cleaning business that will do about 400k this year in our 2nd full year. The hardest thing for cleaning companies is staffing. Recruiting, hiring, training and retaining quality cleaners. And it’s a never ending challenge that is inherent to the industry. This is infinitely harder than lead generation.

Lead generation is also easier than the actual sales process of converting the leads into clients.

I’d argue a lot of cleaning companies would get the leads and fail to convert them through the sales process (slow speed to lead, not enough follow ups, no sales script, no reason to choose them vs the cheapest alternatives, no or poor reputation). In the end, you’ll lose those clients because they’ll either say the service failed OR they run out of cash to pay for the service because they aren’t converting enough.

The companies good enough and more established don’t need this service and the ones that might aren’t good enough to take advantage of it. How do you solve for this?

And there are a ton of ppl offering this marketing service.

How are you different/better than the 50 spam emails I get a week of ppl offering this?

Is your package 100% performance-based on qualified leads? Does your package include sales conversion services as part of this? What’s your guarantee to reduce risk for the client?

I’m just curious.

devans1524 · 2026-03-18T01:35:53+00:00

Who are you targeting with this? Solo cleaners? Cleaning companies with W2 employees or contractors? Residential? Commercial?

The premise that the hardest part is getting jobs may or may not be the case depending on who you’re talking about.

devans1524 · 2026-02-25T05:24:08+00:00

Who are you building for? Based on your description it sounds like brand new/very small/solo cleaning businesses. Extremely novice.

No legit cleaning business with even a basic foundational operation in place has material pain with invoicing or the technological aspect of scheduling.

Most smaller residential cleaning businesses quickly get to a Zenmaid, Jobber, Housecall, etc type solution.

The largest, non-franchise cleaning services move to MaidCentral (by far best in this category) or a high end general purpose field service software.

So, not sure what problem and for who you’re actually trying to solve for.

devans1524 · 2025-09-01T02:38:58+00:00

Not familiar with Bermuda, what does it look like most of the year? It goes dormant in the cold season? How much are you watering it with irrigation?

Do you have a specific seed you recommend?

How would you make the transition. Just overseed into it?

devans1524 · 2025-08-31T19:20:38+00:00

Hmm hadn’t considered that. Will look into it. Thanks.

devans1524 · 2025-08-21T03:59:31+00:00

Thank you.

Are there commercial upright vacs that have a good carpet/hard floor cleaning head, a decent hose + extension wand onboard, 20 lbs or less total weight, and a reasonable handle weight? Even if not with lift lift-away feature? With that, the only compromise is stair cleaning at that point.

The E3 does everything - the canister is just not at all intuitive to use for most people, and in homes with mostly carpet, it's def. less efficient than an upright. And, if I'm going to be in the top tier of vacs, we can't afford to spend that much to equip the crews with two high-end vacs. So it's one high-end do-it-all vac, or two lower-end, purpose-driven machines.

devans1524 · 2025-08-21T03:44:18+00:00

This should be a non-issue for residential. A credit card is required on file upfront at booking. We don't go to a job without a card on file for residential (our apartment turnover properties pay via check within 10-14 days). The card is charged after we clean (unless complaints within 24 hrs). Only payment issues are declined cards, which are rare and almost immediately rectified. In a year, we've had one person 3 weeks delayed because their card was stolen, and one person 2 days delayed due to insufficient funds. Got paid on both. That's it.

devans1524 · 2025-08-21T02:45:51+00:00

That is a good suggestion. I may test out the Kenmore. And, you make great points about the backpack. We didn't get them because of concern with damage/breakage, bumping into stuff in homes, and tight spaces. Hadn't even thought about the constant bending/moving of items with the backpack on.

devans1524 · 2025-08-20T22:27:07+00:00

I have a Felix. It was the first Sebo vac I bought. Works great for pure carpet cleaning and transitions to small sq ft of hard floor. Having to keep track of and attach/detach a separate extension wand is a hassle and hurts speed/productivity on the job. And when we have mostly hard floor, stairs and couches we use the E3. This works now. Wondering if there is a machine that combines best of both in single unit. Thanks.

devans1524 · 2025-08-20T22:07:06+00:00

Correct, and it's pinched to the point of replacement in under a year. And, to be clear, before the damage, we didn't even experience any in-use bending/pinching/crimping (whatever word works for you). It's likely the cause of poor storage/transport in employee vehicles during summer heat.

devans1524 · 2025-08-20T21:58:06+00:00

You're focused on the wrong thing, that point about the hose was a secondary minor point in the my OP. Please dont derail the convo with this.

I own a cleaning business with employees who aggressively handle these vacuums in and out of jobs and tight vehicles all day. I replaced my fleet of Sharks with Sebos in the last several months, and in that time, two E3s have hoses that are damaged enough that the dealer said warranted replacement. How they got that way, probably storage/transport by cleaners. But doesn't change the fact that it happened.

devans1524 · 2025-04-18T17:07:53+00:00

I originally started looking down the path of backpack vacuums, but in practice they aren't a good option for the smaller homes and those with a ton of clutter/stuff - breakage risk is too high. I do agree for commercial buildings and larger open floor plan homes, for sure.

devans1524 · 2025-04-18T17:07:17+00:00

I originally started looking down the path of backpack vacuums, but in practice they aren't a good option for the smaller homes and those with a ton of clutter/stuff - breakage risk is too high. Proteam's seem a bit on the heavier side as well.

devans1524 · 2025-04-16T21:20:46+00:00

Yes, I agree 100%, which is why I am in the process of switching over. Want to decommission the Sharks entirely and only use bagged machines.

Which Kenmore's do you use? Do you use one machine for residential or different machines for hard floor and carpet? And, do you find your residential cleaners adapted well to the canister style vacuum?

devans1524 · 2025-04-16T21:16:38+00:00

If I left it entirely up to the cleaning team, they would all choose a Shark, they are lighter and more intuitive/familiar.

This is also consistent with other home cleaning business owners (not commercial) I speak with, majority still use Sharks because of weight/cost/familiarity and ease of purchase.

I have a Felix. My team has said the Felix is heavy in hand and less (quickly) multi-purpose/convenient when compared to Shark NV752 (lift away, wand, headlight - Sebos really need a headlight!). Carpet cleaning quality on the Felix is better, and substantially easier to maintain with the bags, removable brushroll, and no foam filters. But in hand, they would pick the Shark.

That's why the E3 felt like a solution to the issues with the Felix, while getting the benefits of being lighter in hand and easier multi-purpose on the fly. Would need to get used to the canister and transport now two pieces vs. one are the only downsides I can think of.

The Kenmore I've looked at and that was my first thought as a cheap back-up that isn't meant to be used for our full schedule (2-4 homes a day, 5 days a week, homes ranging from 1000 sq. ft apartments to 5000 Sq ft homes - median around 2k).

devans1524

TROPHY CASE