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Introduction
Stephanie: Hello everyone, welcome or welcome back to the Filthy Rich Cleaners podcast. I am your host, Stephanie from Serene Clean, and in today’s episode we have Miss Jamie Runco. I am so excited for you guys to meet her if you have not done so. She is an amazing personality in our space, a fellow podcaster and a great business owner with an incredible story. So Jamie, thank you so much for your time today. I’m really looking forward to this.
Jamie: Absolutely, thank you for having me on here. Yeah, so I saw you over in the ZenMaid masterclass, which I mean, I think everybody goes over there. So over in the ZenMaid masterclass, Andrew, is it Andrew, was asking and I said, oh, this would be such a great moment to kind of collide because we do the same thing. It’s all about cleaning businesses and how we can run and scale. And I’m the new kid on the block. I’ve only been open for it’ll be four years in March of next year, so March 1st it’ll only be four years. But yeah, so I’m still the new kid on the block. I still get my coaching and my mentoring done for me. I still have a lot of questions. But on our podcast, it kind of morphed over to showing what coaching does for me and everybody’s watching it live because I do forget that this goes out to everybody, so it feels like I’m just talking to an old friend and but getting some training done at the same time and showing that it’s possible to grow your business like I have in such a short amount of time. It’s wild to me.
Table of contents
Finding Her Calling
Stephanie: Well, and I love that you’re highlighting that vulnerability and openness to share the process literally in real time. And that’s something that I think a lot of both of our listeners probably really appreciate, just being shown behind the curtain, behind all of the grandeur and what seems to be this perfect business or that we’ve got it all going on or whatever. It’s like no, shit is always hitting the fan. Literally every week things are always going on.
Jamie: Yeah, which is amazing. I know when I was learning about your story I was like, oh my gosh, I can’t wait to hear about this whole process of you were looking for a new life path, right, and you’re like I have been. I constantly, it’s constant ebbs and flows too. And you know it’s like I promise you, if I can get where I’m at, I promise you, you know what I started off literally praying in a church parking lot. I was their custodian at this church. My company has since taken over the account. But yeah, I was just like, man, I was literally praying and I’m praying, show me a sign God. I’m literally in the church parking lot and I’m like, show me something. And as I got done with this prayer I looked up and there was a van that went by and it was Garcia’s Cleaning Company. And I was like, there it is. I was like, I already got one foot in the door. You know, all these little ladies looking at cleaning houses. But I knew instantly, I knew as soon as I started that I wanted to, I was like I want to be big. Yeah, this is, I don’t want it just to be me because I can give other people work. I know I can do it. And there was a lot of trial and error. Oh, it was a hot mess. So I was only charging $25 an hour. You know, I think everybody was just, you know, you don’t realize that you need to charge enough to run a business. Humboldt County, California, so I’m all the way up by Oregon.
Stephanie: Oh wow, yeah, okay. I’ve spent time that’s actually my dad was born in Oregon and so he spent his summers in Northern California. So we went up to the Redwood Forest when I was in third grade. What a beautiful area, oh it’s otherworldly.
Jamie: And that’s exactly it. Yeah, I traveled the country. My parents were hippies. We moved from town to town. I mean, the bus, the school bus, the whole nine yards, like they were super, my mom was a rainbow child, the whole nine yards. So we traveled the country and whenever I got here I was just like wow, I just fell in love with the place. It was just, but it’s super when we say rural, like I live in a row, everybody lives in a rural area. I’m talking, the town that I just bought my house, I bought my house last year and the population here is 3,700 I think. And then the big town going over to the bigger town of Fortuna is like 14,000. And then the big city which is about another 30 miles away or 30 minute drive, it’s a 30 minute drive, Eureka. You know, for the whole county, it’s such a huge county, there’s probably 30,000, 35,000 people in that.
The Early Days and First Months
Stephanie: So talk to me about that first, the first couple months then, what did that look like? Did you immediately hop into commercial as well or what was that first few months like?
Jamie: So you know whenever I did that prayer and things started moving, I started asking all my friends, hey, want to come work for me, let’s go do some cleaning, I’ll pay you whatever. And I got introduced, I don’t even know how, of course it had to be through Facebook, but I got introduced to Shannon Miller. She is a coach and a mentor. And I got onto the phone with her and I was like, this is so weird, I don’t know that, like who does this, like you’re going to coach me to what, you’re going to consult me. And I didn’t realize the value of it. Fast forward just a couple of weeks, right, I called her back and I was like, you know, I’m trusting you, I’m going to trust you. And she took payment plans and I was like okay, you know, if you’re willing to do that, if she goes, if you can’t get to, I don’t know, at that time I was probably only making, this was before I even got my EIN number or anything. Then it just started going boom, boom, boom, boom. After I hired her I was like, she can’t, if you can’t get up from like $800 a week to $2,000 a week or something like that, then you know, we’ll pause. And I was like okay. So fast forward a couple months, it just started, I got a booking platform. Everything just started looking really professional. I went and got that EIN number. I went and did a fictitious business. I’m still a sole prop. And then she said, I think it’s time for you to hire real employees. I’m like I’ve got real employees, they’re my friends. Oh, I didn’t know, I didn’t understand what independent contractors were. You know, I don’t think, I think a lot of people that start, you know, they don’t know, they don’t understand that they’re running your business completely illegal. And it’s just, you know, so I learned that I was running illegally and went and grabbed work comp insurance and set up for payroll and you know, did all the things. And then we kept growing and kept growing. And you know, year one we grew 100%, year two we grew another 100%, year three we grew a crazy amount. And here it is going on the fourth year and I believe we’re getting ready to do another 100% growth. So it’s really went by fast, but now I have also established all these things like a car payment, a house payment. Now I have all these employees and they’re relying on me to make this work. So there is no plan B. Like this is all or nothing. I am totally 100%, this has got to work, and that’s what I do now is make it work.
Stephanie: Right, I mean it’s that when there’s no other option but to make it work, you can get very creative because it’s like I don’t, yeah, panic, desperation, terror, all of these emotions we’ve all felt, stress. However, there is something, it really changes you. It shapes you when other people are relying on you, like you got mouths to feed. That’s how I see it is, you know, I have to behave in a way and make sure that this thing is successful because I have people relying on me. And how many staff members do you have right now?
Jamie: Right, six. It ebbs and flows. I have not been able to get over 10, but it does, it does ebb and flow. And man, it’s like one minute I can have 10 and then I am just, you know, back down to six. But the six that I do have are just so perfect. You know, they’re perfect. They’ve been with me. Kayla’s been with me, she’s a team lead and she’s been with me for three years. I mean that, and that’s a long time. She’s pregnant and getting ready to go on.
Stephanie: I know, I know.
Navigating California’s Labor Laws
Jamie: So and this is, this is the first time that I’ll be going through the threshold of, because you know everybody knows how California is with their laws and all their taxes. So I’ll be going through the threshold of learning how to do maternity leave and what that looks like. You know, so.
Stephanie: Is that a requirement in California? Because in for us in Wisconsin, it’s only if you have pretty much all of the requirements for those types of benefits hit when you hit 50 employees for us. So for you guys it sounds much more stringent.
Jamie: For us it’s five employees or more they have to be able to, oh no I know, I know you do, I know you understand. But no, I think California is maybe one of the hardest places to run legitimately. There’s, I think a couple more, New Jersey maybe is, I don’t know. Anyways, that’s why I tell everybody, make sure that you’re reading your labor laws. You got to be on top of that stuff. And again, this is stuff you just learn. Like I didn’t know that I needed work comp insurance to actually have real employees and that you can’t use independent contractors. And learning from Chris Schwab, you know Chris?
Stephanie: Oh yeah, same. Yeah, I love Chris. He’s been on many episodes on this podcast. He’s one of my favorite people.
Jamie: Yeah. He’s been, we just did one on Friday. I don’t know when that’ll be released, but yeah, there’s so many things. As a matter of fact I was watching one of your episodes or listening, and I was listening to Chris Schwab and did not know about you have to have W2 employees in order to get federal jobs. And you know that sam.gov is one of the hardest, it’s so hard to fill out and make sure everything is dotted, T’s are crossed. I didn’t know that. So that kind of makes you stand out if you’re in a rural area like I am, stand out from your competitors. Really, I want to build something you don’t even really pay attention to all these micro small businesses.
Stephanie: Yeah, no that, that’s fantastic. And so you know, you brought Shannon on fairly early on and what was it like for you to have somebody to lean on? I think it can be a very, it’s such a lonely path, you know. And I know for myself I got coaching pretty early on and it was great to be like okay, how do I do this, how do I do this right. And just, I’m a very good implementer, like you tell me to do something, I’m going to do the thing. And sometimes it’s really nice to just be in execution mode instead of having to make every decision. I mean at the end of the day we still have to, but to have somebody to bounce off to. And obviously we got Chat GPT now, like there is somebody always to bounce off.
Jamie: Oh, that’s funny, that’s a good one. Yeah, chatty, just chatty with it with an eye, it’s a girl.
The Value of Mentorship
Jamie: Early on I hired Shannon and like you said, it is very lonely. It can be. It’s the most fun that I have ever, but to lean in on somebody that understands, been there, done that, sold their company for a million, you know, whatever they sold it for. They’ve been there, they’ve done it. I mean just didn’t at first realize that. But as time went on and she’s like, do this, do that, some people took on to it and are ready for that. And I was one of those people. I did everything she said to do. It wasn’t like, oh I hired you now make everything work. It was, oh here, there’s the real work. Now you really got to go work. What do you mean, I have to go and talk in front of my chamber meetings, what? And that takes a lot of practice, getting up and talking to yourself in the mirror and trying to see how you’re presenting yourself. The first couple of times I fumbled, you know, but I’ve gotten a lot of business from doing that, helping sponsor and support any school functions. I have a son who’s 10 years old, sponsoring his baseball games. And you know yeah, it’s money, but you know what, it comes back to you. Your community sees that you’re doing these things for their kids and community. And it’s not a sucker thing, it’s just people love seeing that. And whenever they see that, the more you grow. So I hired her and did all those things, but I started realizing too though that I learned best whenever I’m teaching because it’s like, oh I’ve been there, but I’ve been right where, you know, $25 an hour. You know those people pricing greed, they’ll phase each other, they’ll phase out, you know. And that’s, you just start stacking it, little steps that you implement. Implementing is how you keep growing. I don’t know, I’ve been very fortunate. I know that whenever I was, I was just trying to check to see if I was qualified to even look at a house, you know last year, and I was telling Shannon, we do a little voice clips throughout the day to each other. I was like, man, I just went and seen if I was ready or not, and they’re like pre-approving me already. And she goes, oh you got this, it’s going to be, and she types it into her calculator. You only need to make about $347 a day for 45 days because I needed to come up with a huge down payment for my house. And I was like, in 45 days or less, and I was like wait what? That was wild but I did it. I felt pretty broken afterwards. I wanted to collapse but I did it. And then during that I just grew because you start thinking outside the box, going to clients and saying hey, buy one get one free, if you, you know, or just you start bringing that cash flow in like crazy. This tax bill that I just got, I’m like oh my gosh. I told her, I said oh my gosh, I was like I don’t have that right on hand like that. And she goes, oh don’t worry. I was like no, I’m going to just go jump because I’m trying to retire from cleaning. I do go in every now and again still. And I was like no, I’m going to jump back into it. And she goes, don’t you dare, don’t you dare take any job. She goes, I was like I’m going to grow it, I’m going to grow it. And that’s what I did. And gosh, we just took on I don’t know, 15 new clients, it was just crazy just last week. And for us that’s huge, for us that’s huge. And it was just because I was like, you know that anxiety of like, oh I got to come up with this money real quick. The cash flow is great, you know, once you learn to do it, you know. And having a mentor is somebody to really lean on, like you said, is so important. They understand where you’ve been and where you’re going and they’re going to try everything they can to help get you there.
Stephanie: Oh yeah, no absolutely. And that’s the thing, is when there’s no other option but to make it work, you can get very creative because it’s panic, desperation, terror, all of these emotions we’ve all felt, stress. However there is something, it really changes you, it shapes you when other people are relying on you, like you got mouths to feed.
Pricing Evolution and Strategy
Stephanie: Yeah, which is amazing. I know when I was learning about your story I was like, oh my gosh I can’t wait to hear about this whole process. So talk to me about how the pricing structure has changed. Starting out at $25 an hour, obviously pricing has probably increased and changed drastically. One, do you still charge hourly or have you switched strategies, and two, what does that look like on average for you guys now?
Jamie: So we have, we switched over once I hired Shannon and she’s like, you know, if you’re charging hourly, she’s like whenever you have cleaning techs they learn that house. They can learn the house, on their regulars, really quick. And the faster they get, you’re kind of stuck at, oh this is hourly. And I was, so I ended up changing it to flat rates. And I remember at first it started to become $150 for any of my cleaning techs to show up at your door. Now we are, our minimum is $189.50. I don’t know why I threw the 50 in there, but our average ticket, you guys hear me talk about, I do use Jobber and it breaks it down for our insight of what our average ticket is. And so the average ticket is $303. Now this is including a first time, this is including everybody so reoccurring, I wouldn’t know exactly. I really haven’t looked but I think that’s a pretty good average, you know. And we have probably about, I don’t know, 50 to 60 appointments a week.
Stephanie: Wow, that’s excellent.
Jamie: So yeah, we started charging flat rates and then so we have a minimum of course for our standard weekly, biweekly, $187.50, that right around $225 is about what we average because people have pets, kids, blah blah blah. Move in, our deep cleans, I just bumped that up from $450 to $500 start. And move in, move outs, we all know those are so hard, hard on the body, hard on your cleaning techs. Those start at $550 and they go up. So our average ticket on a move in, move out is about right around $1,000 bucks. But yeah, of course. And yeah, so a lot of those come in at the end of the month. As everybody should know, you’ll see that come in at the move in, move outs at the end of the month.
Stephanie: First times and yeah, move outs. Imagine.
Jamie: We are doing, I also have a VA, her name is Sarah, and she helps run all my social media because it was just getting to where it was too hard because jumping out and cleaning, get everybody’s schedule ready, get payroll done by Thursday at 5pm, like it was just too much. And it was like I need to be seen out that we are active, we are involved, we are doing stuff. Recently I found that this is a good way to get a great lead. We’ve offered a huge discount for your first time clean, but you have to have nine reoccurring services thereafter for only weekly and biweekly. And a lot of people, 30% off. And I’ve seen a lot of people take that on, but then there’s also people that are leery of taking on that amount of services.
Stephanie: Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. So how will you handle, I’m curious, in that situation they say yes, like they do that, they get the discount and they cancel after four cleanings, how would you mitigate, how would you handle that situation?
Jamie: So if they, yeah, we charge before we even show up. So they have to have a credit card on file. They have to have a deposit. I take a deposit for every first time clean because then it automatically holds on to that card for me. They cannot continue services without that card on file. And then down in my terms and conditions it states that if you do, like I have different settings for commercial, for residential, and then for this discount I have one that says that we will charge prior to getting there. That way it’s only fair that if my cleaning techs go they deserve to still get paid. Like here in California you have to pay a minimum of two hours no matter what if they show up to the job.
Stephanie: Yep, sure you got it. So if somebody were to take advantage of that discount on that first time clean, but in return they must have this package, right, they have to get nine things. So say they change their mind and then they want to cancel four cleanings in, like would you charge them the difference on that first clean or how would you handle that situation?
Jamie: Yeah, I mean sure. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, that makes perfect. I am not going to charge them, but I will charge that last kind of like a cancellation fee, which would be their cleaning fee and we’ll just call it good, you know. I don’t want people to feel so stuck to where they’re like, oh man, I can’t get out of this. You know, that’s an automatic one star review.
Stephanie: Yeah, oh that’s awesome. Yeah, yeah we use it. I mean literally every day in the business, in my personal life. I mean I fixed my dishwasher the other day because it walked me through it and it was clogged. I’m very empowered now.
Jamie: Yeah, right, exactly.
Stephanie: Yeah, no it is fantastic. It’s such a wonderful resource for us. And so when it comes to your virtual assistant that you have, what types of tasks are they doing for you? Is it, I know you mentioned the marketing side of things, is there anything else that you’ve delegated so far?
Building Systems and Delegation
Jamie: Yeah, there’s, it’s not that I don’t want, I want to stick it to anybody because I don’t. And I say that, I was like it’s not because, but I’ve shown up and people up in the front of their house and they’ve left a note at the door, sorry we want to cancel today. No, no, no, no, no. That’s not how this works. That’s whenever this all evolved. And honestly Shannon was like, I told you so. I hate to tell you that, I told you. She didn’t, she don’t do I told you so, but it was a told you so moment and I even told her as such. I was like I know you’ve told me this, you told me to implement. So if we show up to your house we’re definitely charging for the full price of the cleaning. If your kid is sick, if you’re sick and you have, I’m sorry, do what you got to do, I’m not going to, you know.
Stephanie: Yeah, no, yeah, it’s frustrating for us in the office as well because we’re last minute trying to fill things or rearrange schedules to get everybody their hours. So yeah, you got to have those policies in place. And again coming back to the pain is sometimes the biggest teacher. And it’s like I’ll get emails sometimes from our listeners who are like, well I heard you say this seven times and then it happened to me and now I’m finally putting this. Sometimes we just got to get burned.
Jamie: Yeah, oh tell me about that. Yeah, those same days are like oh my gosh because you know your cleaning tech is already, they’re prepared, they’re ready to go. And then sorry that your client canceled, you know. And it’s like gosh, it’s so hard on them, you know.
Learning Hard Lessons
Stephanie: Yeah, that’s awesome. And that’s it really is, it’s like people need to be exposed to your business multiple times, whether that be in person, they’re okay, they’re coming across you on Facebook, they may have Googled it, right. So the more interactions and the more we can get in front of our ideal and likely buyer or the people who work at the facilities that we want to clean, the better our chances because it’s just this proximity, right. Like they’re familiar, oh I talked to that lady Jamie, she’s got a cleaning company.
Jamie: Yeah, having those policies, yes, and then hiring friends. That’s a hard one that I learned. And I was like, there’s no way Shannon, you don’t know. She’s like, oh okay. Yes, I’ve had people flipping me off. I mean that’s how bad it was. It’s like going through a divorce almost.
Stephanie: Yeah, it’s, and that’s the thing, is once you introduce money into a relationship, the relationship changes, absolutely. Whereas you know with my employees who, I mean I would consider them my friends, the money’s always been there, right, because they’ve been my employees first and then we became friends. But people who were friends first, now I’m writing the paychecks, all of a sudden everything is shifting.
Jamie: Yeah, it is. Yeah, and then whenever you have to lay the hammer down on them, it’s so much harder and it’s like geez. And then you know, yeah, yeah. I’ve had a couple of experiences, I mean and that’s you know part of the growth process though too, learning. You know people can say until they’re blue in the face and then you’re just like, well you know you got to live and learn. But the one thing is you cannot, cannot let that put a sour taste in your mouth about hiring because not everybody is like that. And there are some real gems out there. You just got to keep at it. And like you said that, I’ve heard you, sifting through the ashes, they are out there. Those little gold nuggets are out there. Even in small towns like this where almost everybody knows who I am, I’m still finding great people and I’m going to, I will continue to hire and fire. It’s all about the process and learning, learning about that.
Stephanie: Well yeah, and we’re very rural too. Where Serene Clean started was 5,000 people, so we’re right there with you with the rurality. And so yes, and so the nice thing is though when you do, when you are a good employer and you treat people well, is that that word of mouth happens as well because the people that are really bad to work with in our town or work for, some of the factories are terrible to work for. They just don’t give a shit at all. That reputation gets around and people don’t apply because of that. And the reverse happens too, of like hey I heard about you from my buddy or you know my so and so, my neighbor works for you and that, like they talked about what a great employer you were. And so that kind of small town vibes, it’s a good thing too. Sometimes it’s just you have to be really on it, the small towniness can bite you in the ass but sometimes it really helps you.
Jamie: Yeah, oh it can, oh my gosh it can. And that’s just it too, it’s like now that I’ve become, I’m going in and speaking and doing all these things, it’s like all these eyes are on you all the time. I’m on all the time, which isn’t a bad thing, I don’t mind. I mean it’s like, but yeah, I know. Well and this is whenever I come, I do the podcast or do an interview on a podcast and talk to people that can totally relate to me because it’s like gosh, I’m so not alone and neither are the listeners. Whenever you get up there you’ll feel what we’re talking about about this, you know. So yeah, yeah, I love it.
Stephanie: Yeah, you just can’t drive like an asshole anymore, unfortunately.
Jamie: No absolutely, and you know with you guys in your journey, I’m sure you know you’re kind of touching on friendships being strained. What other kind of challenges have you faced when it came to hiring? I mean we’ve had, the whole industry, turnover is going to be pretty much our number one problem typically. So how have you guys kind of mitigated that? What processes do you have in place to help to keep up with hiring? For example we do group interviews. Is there anything that you guys do that help keep up with the flow?
The Hiring and Training Process
Jamie: Yeah, well I had Sarah, so my funnel was not good, it’s still an area that I need to work on. And my training system, gosh it’s like, yeah, just do just, God, it’s like go just do what I do. I don’t know, I can’t, but you can’t. You know the other day I was, oh one of my employees Chris, I was telling them, I was checking in on the church as a matter of fact. And I was like, you know where they get the coffee and stuff. And I was like Chris, I was like, you got to take your wet magic eraser and go like that. He goes, oh man Jamie, I would have never, thanks for pointing that out to me. And I’m like, I just, it dawned on me, like wait, do you know? Like I’ve had one person say, oh there’s different settings on the vacuum cleaner. And I was like, oh yeah, you know, it’s just stuff that you just, little minute things like that. But the process of hiring, I always meet them in a public place. I do working interviews. Now as a matter of fact we just did a podcast about this, a working interview. I make sure I get their ID, a copy of it, emergency contact, and let them know I print it out because everything, those terms and conditions save you so much. And just say hey, this is a working interview until we go. I put because I don’t want to go through all the hassle of putting them on payroll, taking them back off of payroll, putting them on payroll, putting them on Jobber for their scheduling and getting, because let’s face it, whenever we’re training it’s expensive, it is, and you’re not, you’re not going to make it but you got to go with it. I mean if you want to grow and scale you have to be willing to do that. You’re going to be paying extra, you’re not going to be making a lot of money that 10 days, you’re not going to be making a lot. But it’s a working interview. So here in, I don’t know if this is federal or not, here in California you can work up to $600, that means that I don’t have to give them, put them on payroll yet. Yeah, you’re just kind of basically almost like an independent contractor. It comes out as casual labor for my bookkeeper. But we do a working interview and then I, it’s not about are they a good cleaner. So I’m looking for, are you vibing well, are you showing up, are you? No. So I meet them at my local Starbucks, I buy her or him a Starbucks and I’m just talking to them and making sure that the vibe is good. Are they going to be good with, not me because you know some people just don’t like me and that’s fine, but are they going to vibe well into our business? Are my customers going to like them? Are they showing up on time? Are they showing up early? Are they showing up clean? I’ve had a couple people that they didn’t smell the nicest, you know, and it was just like okay, if you’re showing up to just your first in, it’s just like you’re going in people’s houses. So anyways, and then once that’s established I get all that information I told you about and then I’m like, okay let’s go over to the office. And my office is a huge storage that we’re getting ready to grow out of, anyways I’ve been looking for a brick and mortar, but that’s anyways. So we go and I just kind of show them, okay this is what you’re going to be working with. I’ll introduce them to one of their team leads which will be either Kayla, Miriam, or Cece. And then we go over in the other, in a chat room, like hey okay, so how did you guys feel? So I’m very transparent with everything, with a lot of my employees, at least all my team leads. I have a team lead for commercial which is Chris, it’s only one person but he will have his own set of employees to run. And then for the residential, you know, I got a couple of people because it’s so much more. But and I just ask them, what did they, what are, what did they feel about them, you know, how are they in kind of in line with how we all run it and operate. And we have a great sheet, so if they get hired for this working interview, okay show up the next day, you’ll be meeting with Kayla or Miriam or Cece, somebody, and they’ll show you what to do, what’s expected, how to clock in and clock out, and we take it from there. Basically I do a five solid days of that. It’s only, I’m not going to do several houses on them because you know, I automatically tell them, this is a physically demanding job. You got to get your running legs, man. You’re going to have to get your running legs and you’re going to be sore. You’re going to feel like two or three girls jumped you. But you’ll keep, it’ll get better. Yeah, it gets better. And I know for a fact that I do, our minimum wage here $16.50 an hour.
Stephanie: That’s literally higher than our starting wage. So Wisconsin is still $7.25 which is crazy, terrible. But it’s like that’s to think about, like that’s the minimum. That is, I literally, you know how many times I say, you know at least several times a year, I’m like geez I’m glad I don’t own a business in California.
Jamie: Yeah, right, and it’s going up in January. Yes, yeah, no kidding, seriously. So our $16.50, so our starting wage because basically you’re getting day labor right now, right, they’re a day laborer. So they start off at $20 an hour. Let’s see what you can do cleaning. I’m okay with cleaning. If you can’t clean really that can be taught, that can be taught because not everybody knows how to clean. But you know are you taking directions okay? Are you, and they’ll have a grade sheet. I wish I could find it to show you guys, but they’ll have a grade sheet and it’ll just say pass or fail, how did, and then I’ll have the cleaning techs they’ll leave notes down at the bottom and I’ll get their clock in, clock out, and that’s it really. I mean I just kind of, it just kind of ebbs and flows. That’s one thing that I’m still really, it’s my area of focus right now is how to get this. First it was the work funnel, okay now I got that, you know, uploading documents of what everybody needs over to QuickBooks because that’s who we use for payroll. And then you know, see if so that, that’s been built and that funnel has been built. And now it’s the whole process of how do I want this to look because these girls, I’ve had them forever, they just know what’s inside of this crazy head of mine and can pull it out. And it was like, oh I got this, just hang on. So you know and they’re better at it than I am. Whenever it comes to training I suck. Oh yeah, just do whatever I do.
Stephanie: Yeah, describe this. I’d love to hear what this working interview looks like. Is this an actual customer’s house or do you guys have a control home?
Jamie: Yeah, that’s it. Well, yeah, now we know that right. Now I know that and it took forever. It was just like, why are these people not getting, what am I? So it’s just one thing that I suck at and I know I’m good at creating the systems, getting the jobs for them, creating a schedule. So yeah, every step there it feels like, okay in the beginning it was when we’re just growing, right, the way I think now is not the way that I thought then. Does that make, do you know what I’m talking about? That every area it seems like the way you’re building a different system now. Right now it’s working on this whole what we were just talking about, my training, my SOPs, and not being so over complicated with it. And it is hard to get what is inside of my head out and put it down to where it’s understandable. And hence where Esther comes in, the Chat GPT. Mind you, I’ve just learned how to start really utilizing that probably about a month and a half ago. Like I’ve been paying for this prescription forever.
Stephanie: Yeah, that’s so funny because when I started, I started the podcast, this podcast, you know the beginning of 2025, and it is, there is something about speaking out what your intentions are and then you know a giant torpedo hits, it just hits the fan. I’m like, oh this is embarrassing. Like I thought that we would be in a different spot at the end of the year and we’re not going to be. But I think that level of vulnerability and just being really candid of like, you know the best laid plans, yeah this is how we’re going to pivot and this is real life, right? It’s not just this linear trajectory the whole time.
Jamie: Yeah, get out, are you serious? So it’s also like the new YouTube. You know how if something broke, if you’re like okay YouTube will help you fix it. Oh wow, wow great, that’s awesome.
Stephanie: Yeah, that’s awesome. Training is a bitch. Training is hard.
Jamie: Yeah, I, that whole hiring funnel to help me put, because I’m not really the techiest person ever, to put all of that into QuickBooks so that they, you know, stuff like their I-9, make sure that they filled out all their paperwork that, you know, they can’t talk about what happens in a home and what they see and not a lot of gossip, you know, just your rules and everything. So that was built, she gave my website a facelift. Whenever I first started it was such the bare basics and I spent $350 to have this thing made. But it worked. It worked. As long as it works, you know, you can work on getting it to look pretty down the road. It’s got to be something, yeah, it’s got to be something up there. So and then she took that and started making it all nice and pretty and how I, and she would send me over, like does that look good. And she’s stateside so that’s, yeah she lives in Missouri or something like that. But so she did that, the employees, she’s working on an employee handbook. Oh, my brochures, I got commercial and residential brochures that instead of cards, especially for those move out cleans and somebody’s buying a new house that’s in an area that we really want, we leave them a nice little brochure with welcome home because we want to get that client too for the reoccurring. And commercial of course, Chris, and showcasing you know him doing his thing. And he goes out and helps canvas for commercial because he’s really, he works at the casino, he’s a security guard at a casino and he knows all the inside scoops about. Well I’m like hook it up, Chris, let’s get them. We’ll do it. So you know we, I have a bunch of banks and the church, couple of churches, Ghirardelli, associate thingy, it’s a huge office over here.
Stephanie: Oh yeah, no I know what you mean. I started at 30 and it’s like gosh if I could have just gone back and shook myself.
Jamie: Yeah, I know, I know. That has to be some sort of relation there because we’re like, they’re just, Ghirardelli is down in San Francisco. So it’s almost to where I kind of want to move. You know I think once we start and we see how much commercial can actually bring us, it’s like we are, I want that commercial, I want that. But commercial, so hard to break into because they have those contracts. You know you’re under contract. And if they’re just getting subpar cleaning services, it’s not like, but also this is where you’re speaking, you know at those engagements at your Chamber of Commerces and you’re not saying I need commercial account, of course you spin it different, so it’s important.
The Power of Networking
Stephanie: Yeah, networking. Networking, networking is so important, specifically for commercial. That’s how we got a lot of contacts in our commercial accounts was yes, I was going to those business after fives and just talking to people.
Jamie: Yeah, just and that’s it, and that’s what networking is. I want people to understand what is network, that’s just going out and talking to people. You’re out there having the elbows of who’s who of the town because they show up to those places. And that’s who I want to be hanging out with, is those people. And they’ll help your business a lot. You know.
Stephanie: Yeah, and that’s it really is, it’s like people need to be exposed to your business multiple times, whether that be in person, okay they’re coming across you on Facebook, they may have Googled it, right. So the more interactions and the more we can get in front of our ideal and likely buyer or the people who work at the facilities that we want to clean, the better our chances because it’s just this proximity, right. Like they’re familiar, oh I talked to that lady Jamie, she’s got a cleaning company.
Jamie: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you become trusted, right, you become trusted and memorable. You’re memorable. You’re not just, you know, constantly putting on social media, hey I’m a housekeeping, you know, no, it’s a company. We are, we have employees, we do background checks on all of them. You know, depending on what it is, especially if I’m trying to get into the government, the federal side of things, and that all in its own, trying to fill out the sam.gov checklist, they really make you jump through hoops. It’s pretty intense. Oh no, it makes my toes curl right now. It’s like oh, but it’s, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, I know and I’m thankful that you know we can give our employees jobs. You know I had Kayla sit there, one of these moments of just my heart was so filled, I’m going to get emotional. I didn’t know this was going to come out. So she took a video and she was like, look at this, this is what you created. She was like, I can’t ever thank you enough. And it was her son’s eighth year old birthday party and she got a new, I mean it was just, it was one of those moments. I just, I don’t know, it was like I picked the right thing to do or maybe it picked me, I don’t know, but I love it.
Stephanie: Oh it’s those moments that one, that’s very beautiful, but two, it just those are the types of things that really solidify that we’ve made the right choice and that we are genuinely doing something that is good and that money is simply a tool and we are literally creating, you know, this environment that people can thrive in and for their families. And that’s one of my favorite things to ask staff members of, like what have you been able to accomplish because you’ve worked here. It’s like, oh I bought a new truck, I bought a house, I was able to go on this school trip. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing because it’s generationally affecting people and the community as well, right. We’re able to give, we are able to support different community initiatives, give free cleanings. It just, there is something very very special about owning a business that you cannot replicate just by working for somebody else, right. Like we have, no, I couldn’t, nobody having a boss.
Jamie: Yeah, I don’t think I could ever go back to it. Yeah, they wouldn’t want me, so yeah. I just, I’m having a lot of fun doing it. I love growing, I love learning. Gosh, I know, I always want to be in a room with people that are like minded and way smarter than I am. I love it because that’s who we learn from. And yeah.
Future Plans and Growth
Stephanie: Yeah, that’s so funny because when I started, I started the podcast, this podcast, you know the beginning of 2025, and it is, there is something about speaking out what your intentions are and then you know a giant torpedo hits, it just hits the fan. I’m like oh this is embarrassing. Like I thought that we would be in a different spot at the end of the year and we’re not going to be. But I think that level of vulnerability and just being really candid of like, you know, the best laid plans, yeah, this is how we’re going to pivot and this is real life, right. It’s not just this linear trajectory the whole time.
Jamie: Yeah, it’s hard, yeah it’s always hard. No, I forgot. Yeah, but it keeps you motivated, you know, to keep pushing when you can’t do it for yourself, doing it for those around you. And that can be incredibly motivating. And if anybody wants to listen to your podcast Jamie, tell us about it. What kind of topics do you guys cover, the frequency of episodes, what are we looking at for that because we’d love to have them go subscribe to you.
Stephanie: So what does the rest of this year look like? Obviously you’re podcasting. What other kind of things are you trying to button up before the end of the year?
Jamie: We are trying to open up another location and I am trying to, I may have to talk to Chris because he’s doing some things that are really, it’s got me interested, not selling, not doing nothing like that, but busting out of this county. I know, I know, there is a ton of opportunity down south. And I think he is somebody that can bridge that gap and help me get out of here and just instead of just doing Humboldt County, I would be doing all of Northern California. And that’s, I mean not by the end of this year we’re trying to, but I don’t know. Those are the talks, you know. If I speak it out loud then you’re kind of under the thumb of everybody because everybody’s watching you now. Like oh she said it, so you know, stay tuned.
Stephanie: Yeah, no absolutely. That’s beautiful and we’ll definitely link the podcast down below. And this has been so wonderful to finally meet you Jamie. I know we’ve seen each other online so this is great that we were able to connect. And I really loved hearing your story. It is really inspirational and I’m really excited to see where things go in the new year for you as well.
Jamie: Right. So we are the Cleaning Business Life with, I’m the co-host with Shannon Miller and we talk about just everything that, pretty much just about the same thing. I have some show notes here. We talk about everything from running your business to what your cleaners come across. I’m really, actually what it morphed into, I was just a sidekick there for a little bit but really it became so much more than that because I am actually Shannon’s mentee and it’s kind of like real life experiences of cleaning business owners and what a mentor can help do for you. So once a week, I think we’re going to probably maybe go boost that up to twice a week. And I’m just, I love enjoying showing everything, on my failures, my wins and all with the help of Shannon. And I hope that this reaches out to somebody that was just like me, you know.
Stephanie: Yeah, everybody leave Jamie some love in the comments, hit that like, hit that subscribe, and then head on over to her podcast and give it a listen, give it a like and leave her some love there as well. And we will see you guys in the next episode of Filthy Rich Cleaners.
Note: This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
- ZenMaid
- ZenMaid Masterclass
- Cleaning Business Life Podcast
- Shannon Miller Consulting
- Watch Chris Schwab’s Episode on Independent Contractors: Filthy Rich Cleaners – E71: Deep-Dive into Scaling with Independent Contractors
- Jobber
- QuickBooks
- ChatGPT
- sam.gov
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