How Paige Built a 15-Person Cleaning Team (Plus Her Secrets to Retention)

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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 today’s fabulous guest is Miss Paige Collins from All Spruced Up Cleaning Co. And I have been so looking forward to this conversation. I’ve seen Paige so much in the ZenMaid Mastermind and we’ve interacted so much. So Paige, I can’t wait to hear your story. It really is an incredible one. So thank you for joining me today.

Paige: Absolutely. I’m really excited to be here, very big fan of you and ZenMaid in general. So happy to be here.

From Dental Hygienist to Cleaning Business Owner

Stephanie: Well, thank you, and it’s always fun to have a listener on, I guess. But tell me, you actually opened your business kind of prompted by, I don’t want to say desperation, but a need for change, right? Because you were a dental hygienist, correct?

Paige: Yes, I was a registered dental hygienist.

Stephanie: And so COVID brought out the need to try something different. And what drew you to the cleaning business specifically?

Paige: Well, yes, so I was a dental hygienist and I had three young kids at home. So when I lost my job, I was looking into different options of a lower startup cost job, and I really didn’t have much business experience at all. So I did a lot of research, did a lot of YouTubing, watched lots of videos, and I decided that cleaning was something that was near and dear to my heart, and it’s something that I felt that I could personally start on my own and kind of build up into something great. So it’s a great avenue for giving back and just actually doing something that’s making a difference. So that was what I was most excited about when I started.

Stephanie: Yeah, and your business has grown pretty fast, I would say, because gosh, you must have started it in what, 2020? And how many staff members do you have now?

Paige: We actually started in 2021 and we’re up to 15 staff members. So yeah, we’ve been consistently growing. I would say the growth really started in that second year. The first year you’re really trying to just figure everything out and you’re flying by the seat of your pants. But come that second year, I was kind of more grounded and focused on the growth and just started hiring. And after all of the fires and the things that you’re learning that first year, the second year really took off. So really, we’re going to hit five years in January, but that first year, I don’t even count it.

Stephanie: Well, I can relate to that same experience. For me, it was the second year where things really locked in, even though for us that was during COVID. It just, yeah, the feet kind of got wet and you kind of started figuring things out. And yeah, so that’s very rapid growth. Do you guys do both residential commercial or what’s your split for type of work?

The Power of Daytime Commercial Cleaning

Paige: Yeah, mostly residential and about 15% commercial. But we have really honed in on the daytime commercial just because it really fits in with our lifestyle that we’re trying to provide for our workers. We do have one amazing technician who works in the evenings and weekends, and I’m probably going to keep it that way. And once she either moves to full-time residential or those accounts drop off, we’re not going to be taking any more weekends or evenings. It just becomes really stressful to try to manage and to try to staff for my personal experience.

Stephanie: I 100% can attest to that, and I think that just reiterating the fact that there is so much daytime commercial. So what kind of commercial accounts do you guys service during the day?

Paige: Yeah, so we’ve really, which is really interesting. It kind of came upon us by another company who does our carpet cleaning. He does a little bit of office cleaning as well, and he was basically like, “Hey, I have this union hall that I’m no longer going to service. I’m going to give them your number.” And I was like, oh, okay. I never would have thought to tap into a union hall. But we have a ton right in the town that we’re in. There’s like six of them within like 10 miles. So I was like, this is something we can really work with because we have to be there when they’re there during their regular business hours just because of, I guess, maybe money or the information that’s within the building. So union halls are great because they don’t mind if we’re there. They’re usually not there during the day, just those couple office workers. We have some dental offices and those are fun because they’re usually off one consistent day a week, so we go in those days. We have some financial offices. We have a chiropractor’s office. They close early on Friday, so we kind of go in after they close up. But yeah, there really is need for that. And I feel like once we started asking, “Hey, is it okay if we come X, Y, and Z time?” they’re like, “Oh yeah, we can make that work.” So I feel like a lot of people, if they just kind of go up and try for those daytime hours first, typically it ends up working out or maybe most of their people work from home. So yeah, it’s definitely worth trying to ask first and fill those residential girls, our full-time cleaner daytime cleaner schedules first. So that’s kind of what we’ve been gravitating towards now.

Stephanie: That’s really amazing because it is so true. In so many of these commercial offices, it is the perfect finisher for a residential cleaner or something, trying to fit in. It’s going to take an hour or two where it’s like we can’t really fit another house in necessarily, but the commercial is a great add-on for that. So yeah, and it is simple. I think people get really intimidated by commercial because they think it’s so different than houses, and I really just don’t feel like it is, easier than houses. You’re not scrubbing anything really, it’s just, it’s a lot easier on the body, that’s for sure.

Paige: I totally couldn’t agree more with that, and I think the girls really like having that mix too. Because like you said, cleaning two houses a day can be a lot, especially if they’re bigger homes. So having that opportunity to have just maybe a building or even that if they want more hours, people don’t want us at their house till seven o’clock at night. So just having that option to have that two-hour gap towards the end of the day so they’re still getting out at a reasonable time, but they’re able to make that extra income. Yeah, it’s been great for our business.

Commercial Pricing Strategies

Stephanie: Did you feel that the bidding process has been quite the learning experience? I think that pricing commercial is really all over the board for everybody. So how did you come into that? Walk me through how you guys do your pricing for commercial. Because for us, legitimately Serene Clean, we walk through, we all know how fast we are. We just take notes, this room’s going to take this long, this room’s going to take this long. I’m not measuring, I’m not going to do any of that stuff.

Paige: Yeah, it’s actually funny you ask that because I have an office assistant who takes in a lot of calls. She schedules, she gets residential estimates out. But aside from that, I was doing all the commercial walkthroughs and the house walkthroughs. So come January of last year, I hired what’s more of a field assistant. So she’s going out and doing the walkthroughs now and house checks and all those things. And I kind of basically the first eight months, I was like, all right, so you’re going to take a picture of and write down all the rooms and then come back, show me the pictures, and I’ll kind of show you what I think it’s going to take. And we’ll do it that way. So we have for about eight months. And finally, she’s like, “Paige, we need some kind of system like we have for residential.” I was like, I know, I know. So we kind of started just a Google sheet and we have, we break it down into rooms. So for an office room, it’ll either be small, medium or large. And then same with bathroom can either be a single bathroom, two stalls, three stalls, blah, blah, blah. And then we kind of basically, it’s still similar to what I was doing before, but I kind of just have her write down every room, anything specific that they ask for. And we just kind of sit down and price it out based off of the size of the rooms and bathrooms and all of that. And we do have a template that we use and we send those to our commercial clients via sign request. And we do hold a contract with our commercial, but it’s really, it’s only 30 days because I don’t want to be stuck, and if they’re truly not happy, we don’t want them to be stuck with us. So our residential, we don’t have any, it’s 24-hour cancellation notice to 48-hour cancellation notice for the bigger jobs. And then commercial is just 30 days. And I think that helps companies that have been stuck in these long contracts and they’re not necessarily happy with the cleaners that they have. So this is a nice way to kind of get ourself in the door, show them how good we are, and then they’re a lot less apprehensive to sign on with us because it is only that 30-day notice that they would need to cancel. Yeah, it’s kind of how we do it.

Stephanie: I’m so glad you brought up the cancellation policy because this is a great way that we can differentiate ourselves, especially from larger companies or franchises where they are getting locked into a year-long contract. They are, you know, it’s terrible for a variety of reasons. And the customer is so resentful because they can’t leave. And we want to be able to leave too, right? We need to be able to cancel on people and walk away quickly if necessary. So it’s honestly mutually beneficial. And it keeps you on your toes of, okay, I can’t get complacent with anything.

Paige: Yes, absolutely. And I think 30 days is still plenty of time for us if it is a bigger account to kind of get our feelers back out there and try to fill that schedule. I think it would maybe be a little bit more intimidating if we had somewhere where we went in daily and it was a huge account. But for us, we gravitate away from those and we do the small to medium-sized businesses that it would just work for us. But yeah, maybe if there was something down the road that was a little bit more consistent as far as, hey, I’m sending a cleaner for three hours every day, we would maybe make it a little bit more than 30 days. But so far, the 30 days has been working really well for us.

Stephanie: You got most of your commercial through word of mouth or just through other clients? Or how are they typically coming to you now? Or is it some Google? What’s that spread like?

Paige: So we didn’t market commercial for probably the first three years of our business. And even my cards all say residential cleaning. So that’s something that I’m planning on working on in 2026 to try to market it a little bit better. But most of it has been word of mouth. And the only other way really is Google. They’re finding us on Google. And I do have, I think, maybe one post on Google that says we do commercial offices. So most of it’s word of mouth, though, just providing those good services. And, you know, a lot of our clients also have businesses. So they may have contacted us for their home, but then they realized that we also do businesses, or vice versa, they contacted us for their business and now we do their homes. So yeah, it’s been a good little slow. It’s not something we’re really putting out there crazy, but it is something that’s slowly growing that I would see become a higher percentage for this coming year.

Stephanie: Yeah. And the reason I’m asking so much about commercial, despite it being only 15% of your revenue, is just because I think so many of our listeners are interested in getting into commercial, but they’re overwhelmed by it. They don’t know how to get it. And how you’re describing how you’ve gotten it, I find that commercial accounts, as long as you have Google reviews, as long as you are showing that you’re a company, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have a ton of commercial experience. A lot of times they’ll just, if you can do houses well, most likely that means that they can trust you in their business, right? Because the house is way more fickle, finicky, picky, that type of thing. So if you can manage that, you can manage commercial to a point.

Paige: Yes. And I think if you, what my recommendation would be is to start in those really small little mom-and-pop places. So that way it isn’t so overwhelming because most of those places have a vacuum. They have, you know, a mop if you really needed it. Their employees are doing it or they’re doing it and they’re just looking to offer that to someone who’s more consistent and will do a better job. And I like to sell us as far as, hey, we’re not just commercial cleaners. We’re also residential and the girls do both. So they’re going to be more detailed. They’re going to take that extra time for those little details, whereas some commercial companies just don’t. They’re not trained that way. So I think sometimes that’s a huge selling point for us, as far as the businesses go, that they like, you know, they like the folded toilet paper and all those things, commercial places that strictly do commercial might not be doing.

Stephanie: Yeah, no, I can so relate to that. You know, we put all of our commercial, every person is going through house cleaning training for us, even if they are going to be specifically commercial, except in very rare circumstances where it just doesn’t make sense. But it allows us to sell on that higher quality of, I think, especially in large cities. You know, how big is your city? You’re in Ohio, right?

Paige: Yeah. So we’re in Ohio. We’re part of Youngstown, Ohio, but I want to say the town that we’re in is around 30,000. So we’re in a really good sweet spot. There’s tons of businesses. There’s a lot of homes. It’s not very rural, I guess. So there’s a lot of things and people and places around us within, we’ve been lucky. I mean, I think we’re able to keep our range 15 miles from the office. And we don’t really have to venture out of that because there is so much potential here.

The Ideal Town Size for a Cleaning Business

Stephanie: Yeah, honestly, if somebody were to ask me, if I could pick the ideal size town to open a cleaning business, it’s your size town, right? That is a juicy spot because not a lot of franchises are most likely going to look it over still. I mean, you might have that competition, but it’s not going to be as prevalent as a Dallas Fort Worth or something, right, where it’s just so heavily saturated. So there is such a benefit to that size of community. It’s still very small-town feel, almost very community-oriented, which I know is so important to you. And that’s something I can really relate to as well, that’s a huge part of your business is the community, is being a great boss. So talk to me about the flexibility aspect of it. You know, you mentioned in your intake form that being a flexible employer and being a great place to work has really fueled you and inspired you. So I’d love to hear more about that.

Creating Flexibility for Working Moms

Paige: A lot of the reason I started my business, and I’ll be honest, is I didn’t have the best employer. And I was like, I know I can do this better for people. And I could create that flexibility. And I don’t want them to be missing getting their kids on the bus and off the bus and events at the school. You know, where I worked, it was, you’re the hygienist, so when you call off, it’s your responsibility to find a sub. And if you couldn’t find a sub, it was crazy. But it’s just how it is around here. I don’t know if other dental practices are different in other towns, but that was it. If you didn’t find a sub, you were working, you were missing that. So for me, it’s like, okay, once we were able to build a decent-sized team, it’s like, okay, I want to be able to offer this flexibility because most of our cleaners are moms or caretakers or both. So, you know, I really wanted to create an environment where, hey, we’re not starting before 8:30 and we’re going to try to wrap our days up at four. So they’re not, you know, rolling in at six o’clock, having to worry about all their rags and then hurry up to get the kids ready for dinner and taking them places. And it’s just like the 8:30 to four is just such a good work-life balance time for us. So for instance, as we got bigger, obviously the last-minute call-offs, we have to kind of be pretty strict on that. But as far as needing time off, we don’t really have a policy for it. Because if we have availability and someone’s able to take that shift off their hands, we’re not going to tell them no. You know, if they want to go volunteer at the school or if they need off for family coming in town, as long as we can fill that, we’re going to try our best to give you that day off. So it’s really important to me.

I will never forget when I first started hygiene, I was working 45 minutes away from home. And my youngest, my oldest, well, she’s my oldest now, but at the time she was my only baby. And she was, her very first spring school singing concert. And I remember thinking, I’m not going to make it. I’m not going to make it. And I was driving home. And lo and behold, I freaking walked in and everyone was walking out. I missed the whole thing. And that stuck with me. I know. So it’s like, when it came time to something like this, I never want anyone to miss something like that. You know, we’ve jumped out in the field. I mean, I’ve jumped out, my assistants have jumped out, we’ll do anything. And as long as they’re communicating that with us, you know, they tell us, hey, I really need this off, we’ll do anything we can to make that happen for them.

Stephanie: And that’s so important. And that’s honestly one of the reasons I think that you probably have grown so quickly because, again, I can relate to literally so much of what you’re saying right now of all of our staff are moms, like 99% of them, right? They’re working mothers and they are amazing at what they do. They can really connect to our clients, but maybe, yeah, the straight 40-hour work week does not work for them. And same thing. When I opened, we started at 8. I realized that doesn’t work for moms. 8:30. All the appointments start at 8:30. And it’s not like we need to, why do they have to have an eight-hour workday? As long as financially it’s okay with them to not get, very rarely does anybody get 40 hours with us. It’s just not really easy to schedule, honestly.

Paige: It’s not. It’s not. And we’re very upfront with them, too. When we’re interviewing people, we’re like, hey, look, it’s never 40 hours. So if that’s something you absolutely need, this might not be the best fit for you. However, if you’re used to making $13 an hour and you’re going to start at $17, $18, $19 here, it might work out for you financially. You know, plus you’re getting tips and things like that if you’re doing a really good job. And you’re working less. You’re making more and working less. So, yeah, it’s a beautiful thing to be able to offer that to people here in the community for sure.

Stephanie: Oh, I love that. I love that so much. And it creates a particular sense of, I would say culture. It’s just a very specific kind of culture I find. I mean, for me, at least it’s mostly women. I’m assuming most of your team are women, if not all of them.

Paige: Yes. Right now, yes. We’ve tried to hire guys. It just never works out.

Stephanie: I know. I try. You know, we have hired some and it doesn’t end up usually working out. And I used to think a lot of it was because, oh, I can’t offer benefits. And I felt like I wasn’t able to offer them this job that most males need. But I don’t think that’s it. I just think females are just so good at multitasking and being able to connect with the clients better that it just ends up not being the best fit. But I don’t know. I’m waiting for my unicorn.

Paige: I know it’s interesting because I’ll see in the Facebook group sometimes people post that they have, you know, multiple male teams. And I’m like, well, in what universe does this exist? Because, yeah, obviously we do residential and commercial and I have men working for me, but they’re all on the commercial side. They have no interest in doing houses at all. So it’s like they’re not even applying. They apply to the janitorial. So I think it also could just be the cultural thought process of maybe they don’t want to be a house cleaner, and they’re feeling some sort of negative connotation to that. But the nice thing is, when you do have a mostly female team, it’s a little bit easier to know what to expect. I feel like women, and we know how to manage them kind of thing.

Paige: For sure. Yeah, for sure.

Overcoming First Year Challenges

Stephanie: So taking me back to that first year, because I mean, obviously, the explosive growth kind of happened in the second year. What were some of those key challenges you had to overcome, whether as yourself as a leader, considering you’d never ran a business before? Was it operations? Was it sales? What was really, oh my gosh, this is overwhelming?

Paige: So the first thing that I did that really helped lay the groundwork for how I needed to financially operate my business, I did read that Profit First and that really helped me feel more confident in making sure I’m pricing enough and making sure that I’m putting this much aside for this and this much aside for that and not spending every dime that we were getting. So that really helped lay the framework, I guess, for my business. But as far as everything else, it was all just trial and error. And I want to say, I don’t know if you’ve heard the term valley of despair, but I felt like I was in that for two years straight. So I think the biggest thing was hiring the wrong people and maybe more hiring out of desperation instead of just growing nice and slowly and making sure I was interviewing and checking references and being more diligent about that. Now it’s like we do all the things now. So we’re checking everything. But so just that was a struggle. I felt like, oh, you know, I saw the red flags at the interviews, but I was like, oh, it’ll be fine. You know, I can train because I was with them. You know, it was just me. So I was with them every time we went to a house and I was like, oh, it’ll be fine, you know. And then, you know, those flags, they always come back. They always come back. So when you notice them, don’t just put a blind eye to it. Really just, unfortunately, it doesn’t change. So, you know, paying attention to those red flags and just being able to be honest and tell them, this might not be the best job for you. Not that there’s not something out there that won’t work for you and you’ll find something great that you’re good at. But unfortunately, attention to detail and having that eye to be able to go back and clean it till it’s clean, those things can’t always be taught. And I feel like that was really hard for me to grasp. Because, you know, obviously you’re so nervous to hire, you finally hire, you train them and now they’re off on their own. And you’re just like, oh gosh, they’re not getting it. And you try so hard, you retrain them, you spend time, you have them come to your own house, you’re doing things. And even a month later, it’s not changing. And it’s not necessarily that they’re a bad employee or that they’re not good at their job. It’s just, this might not be the best fit for them. So being able to have the confidence to just say that, and, what do they say? Hire slow, fire fast. It couldn’t be more true. Unfortunately, if it’s not working after 30 days, chances are, it’s probably not going to work out even after 60, 90 days.

Stephanie: Yeah. And I think we really get caught in the sunk cost fallacy of it all of when we hire somebody and we pour all this time and energy into them where the thought of getting rid of them after we put all this effort into them feels so painful. But the thing is, the paradox of it all is all you’re doing is actually increasing the pain instead of just making this decision. You know, they’re not going to work out. I have so many consult calls where people are like, yeah, this person’s doing this. And I’m like, you know, they’re not going to work out. Why are we holding on?

Paige: I’ve done it too, though. It’s so hard. It’s so hard.

Stephanie: Yeah, it’s so hard. And I think the other thing that we really struggled with that first year is for me, I was juggling, I was still doing part-time hygiene and I have my kids that are all kind of young. And the calls would come in and I wouldn’t answer them right away. And, you know, not getting those estimates out right away were such a killer for us. And that was the first thing I noticed that really helped our growth was once I hired someone who was always answering the phone, we just blew up. And then at that time, she handled all the estimates and I was able to just train, train, train and continue to build our team. But just getting those estimates out. And we didn’t really have any automation back then. So it was really everything. I didn’t even have a sheet. I just kind of talked to them, wrote it down on any piece of paper that I had. So, you know, just getting organized, having that lead sheet, the way to capture the information that you need to be able to get them the estimate. I was literally typing on Word. I feel like for the first year of all of our, I’m pretty sure I was just doing typing up the scope of work. I made it way too much work. So it was daunting to do. So yeah, make it easier for yourself.

Stephanie: Well, yeah. And anytime you’re finding yourself doing the same thing over and over, if you’re typing the same thing over and over, it’s like, well, this could be a template that I save and just literally copy and paste it. You know, just those little types of administrative improvements. It may not seem like a lot in the moment, but they really kind of snowball of, oh, I’m making everything more efficient now. And yeah, that’s just the type of stuff that we learn over time. And obviously you learned it quite quickly. How soon did you integrate ZenMaid into the business? What were you doing beforehand?

The Game-Changing Power of ZenMaid

Paige: Okay, so I still have it. And I should have grabbed it before. But I had just a paper calendar for the first six months. And I was writing everything in. And then at about the six-month mark when I hired my first employee. So that’s really what led me. And I can’t even tell you how I came about ZenMaid. I’m assuming something on YouTube, if I could guess. But, yeah, six months in when I hired my first employee, I said, there’s just no way I could do this without a CRM system. And I do, I think back to before phones and I don’t know how maid businesses, I don’t know how they ran their business. Honest to God. I don’t know how they did that.

Stephanie: I know. Sharon Cowan episode probably about a month ago that came out, she had 120 employees, I think, when she sold. And they started in what? I think the 90s. And I’m like, how the fuck? How did this work? Because I could not do this.

Paige: Yeah, I would never have been able to grow. I probably would have stuck with just three cleaners and been like, oh, just still do hygiene on the side. It’ll be fine. But yeah, I do not envy them and how they had to operate. But yeah, ZenMaid’s been wonderful. And we’ve grown into it. So, obviously, they changed their dynamic about, I don’t know how many months it’s been now since they have the different levels. But it was really just an easy transition to get everything in one place. And then I had a paper calendar. So it was literally on the side of it, I would write their name and address and some details about their house. So, whoa. Yeah, it was. Yeah, I had no organization at all. So it really helped me. And I felt like, oh, this is great. Now we can be more professional. Now I can start to hire and have everything in one place. And, it was everything we needed, right? Locations, be able to charge cards, everything. So we’ve stuck with it. And it’ll be almost five years soon.

Stephanie: That’s amazing. And I love that you started that before you brought a cleaner on because then you’re not trying to figure out the system. It’s a lot harder to transition scheduling into a scheduling software or between scheduling softwares, the bigger you are, because then way more moving parts, right? Way more customers to put into a new software. So I think a lot of people are like, oh, I’ll just wait to do that. But I’m a big fan of getting those processes. Because that’s actually what’s going to cause, it may not seem like it’ll cause you to grow, but you’re not making mistakes that you would otherwise. Because writing on the calendar, I mean, how many potential mistakes is there? You know, no shade for all of us.

Paige: Yeah. I mean, I would say, we have a pretty good, I think there’s only been almost five years. I think it was only two appointments that we didn’t, we no-showed because I messed up. So I think it’s pretty good for five years.

Stephanie: That is pretty amazing, yeah.

Paige: Yeah, knock on wood. But, yeah, we’ve been able to keep it together, but barely. So ZenMaid really helped with all of that. So I would not recommend waiting. Even now, there’ll always be other programs that everyone thinks is better than one or this one has these bells and whistles, but this one doesn’t. I don’t ever want to leave ZenMaid simply for that task bar that’s up. We don’t use any sort of other managing system. We literally put everything in the tasks in ZenMaid on the top. So sometimes there’s a list that thing. That feature alone to me is gold. And we eat, breathe and live by that task list. So yeah, no, I love that. I love it.

Building Essential Systems

Stephanie: What other kind of systems did you have to put in quickly? Or did you realize that things were kind of breaking down? Maybe going into that year two, where things started to really pick up and probably I assume feel more chaotic? Was there a certain level of staff where you felt totally out of control? Or has it always felt pretty slow and steady?

Paige: No. I think back. Okay. So I feel like the first thing that I really knew I needed to hone in on was solidifying our training system. And that’s always changing as we evolve and get bigger and better and things like that. But I sat down and I wrote, okay, what am I going to do every day when I’m training these new employees? And then the next big step was taking my longtime employee and making her a trainer. Now we have two trainers. But yeah, just handing off those things that help you grow is what helped us so much. And it’s so hard to do, right? Because no one is going to clean just like you and no one is going to do everything the same way you do it. But if you can train people well enough to do it, at least 98% as good as you, then you’re fine. And they’ll just, you know, you keep duplicating that and replicating that. And then we’re able to kind of hone in more on the hiring process. So are we asking the right questions during interviewing? Are we following up with the references and checking the background checks and all of that? So once I passed that off, things started to go a little bit smoother.

But then there was, I think it was 2024, it was turnover crazy. I’ve listened to some of your podcasts recently and how you had to go back and fly back in and that, I felt like 2024, I was really close to quitting. Yeah. I just was like, why can we not hire the right people? And I think a lot of it was that whole hiring out of desperation and just not catching. I saw the red flags, but I was like, oh, it’s fine. We have full schedules for these people. We’re just going to wing it. But we also did implement something that really helped in 2025, which was our follow-up system for once we have new trainees hired. So we got them and we got them trained. They spend the week with the trainer and then the trainer’s like, okay, they’re ready to be off on their own. So once we let them off on their own, we are really on them for the first 90 days. So we do check-ins, many house checks the first 30 days, so many house checks the first 60 days, so many house checks the first 90 days. But we also check in with them verbally a lot. It’s almost like the first two weeks, three weeks, we’re really asking them every day, how’s everything going? Is there anything that, you know, you need extra help with? We’re sending little videos, little snippets to strengthen their skills and get them confident in what they’re doing.

So I feel like that has been a game changer because we’ve caught so many little things that we don’t think of on the back end that they are either confused about or didn’t know they didn’t need to do or maybe they didn’t remember it from training. I think back to any job that you’ve ever had. Obviously, the first six months, you’re almost like I still don’t know what I’m doing. And I found that if we can just hone in on that and really try to always make ourselves available to them when they had questions and just kind of giving them those little tidbits of training, even after training, that’s what’s really helping my retention and just overall building that culture of, hey, they got my back and they’re not gonna let me fail. And that’s pretty much what I call my two office girls. I’m like, okay, our job is to set these girls up for success. Anything that we’re doing in the office or in the field, it’s to set them up for success. So if we fall short on getting the notes in on time for a cleaning and they, you know, the communication wasn’t there, we need to take accountability for that on our end and not just instantly get mad at them. And I feel like that’s really helped build a stronger team and it’s helping us retain good employees.

The Importance of Post-Training Support

Stephanie: Oh, so many things you just said are so fantastic. And I’m so, I totally can relate to that, that follow-up after instead of just, okay, they went through this training, but it’s not like it’s still not incredibly overwhelming for them. So just touching base. And, you know, my best friend always says a closed mouth doesn’t get fed. And unfortunately, a lot of people, they will keep in even just from previous workplaces where they know they didn’t matter to them, right? So they just kept their mouth shut and then they quit when they’re overwhelmed. And instead of saying, hey, I could, you know, they don’t take the initiative, of course, not their fault to say, I’m struggling with this or X, Y, Z, I’m feeling overwhelmed. I’m not feeling competent in these things. So it’s our jobs as the management team to say, give them that opportunity, just like a client, to say, yeah, you guys missed this thing. Same thing with the employees, right? They’re still, the employees are kind of our internal customers, right? And so we have to be constantly checking in. And for us, our most likely complaint is going to be on a new staff member. And the person who’s most likely to quit without notice is going to be a new staff member. So if we can avoid that with this follow-up and communication, I love that you said to show them that you have their back. Because every employer says they have their staff’s back, but not in practice, do they? So you’re literally showing them with your guys’ behavior, we’ve got you and we want you to be successful.

Paige: And I’m like, I have 15 things that I want to make small little videos. So that way throughout these first couple months of their employment, we’ll hit on each one of those. Or if they need a little refresher, I’m able to just kind of copy and paste that and get it over to them quickly. So it’s not just reading because what I find, we have 99% of this in the manual that we give them, but it’s a lot of reading. So some people are great at reading. Others are like, get this away from me. And so I want to make sure that we’re able to kind of deliver that information to them in a way that they’re going to actually watch it. Right. And they’re actually going to get in and use it and be able to implement it while they’re working. So that’s my goal for 2026 is to get all those done and to just have them in one space to be able to get those out routinely to our girls.

And we have a phone system that allows us to save what they call little snippets. And it’s really great. Yeah, it’s really great because we can just label the snippet and then just send it out. And one text we can attach the YouTube video or whatever right to it. And so that’s kind of what we’ve been doing for those follow-ups every day for their first week after. And then everything else is kind of, let’s bring them into the office. Let’s give them a phone call type thing. So, but I’m excited.

Stephanie: What’s the phone system? If you don’t mind me asking, what is the software you use?

Paige: Yeah. So we use Open Phone, but they recently changed their name to Quo, which is a dumb name. No offense. It’s a terrible rebrand. I still have such a hard time saying it. Open Phone was just, I don’t know. We, yeah, we would switch to that. I didn’t even know that it had that ability. So I’m going to have to look into that because we just switched over maybe four to six months ago and we love it. Highly, highly. Yeah. Nothing but great things. I think in the last three years that we had it, maybe two times it went down for a half hour, but they always get it resolved pretty quickly. But yeah, you can create a bajillion different snippets. And even for our office staff, when somebody says they would rather text for their estimate, we have the whole snippet saved. So they’re not typing this up every time. I’ll have to show you. It’s really simple.

Stephanie: That’s fantastic. And what you’re mentioning and hitting on right now is you’re talking about systematizing things that are happening again and again. I think people hear the word system and they’re like, what is this magical, mysterious thing? And it’s like, truly, we just mean a repeatable process, right? That makes it as fast as possible to do the same thing over and over in a consistent manner. And, you know, even talking about training of all of this documentation and relinquishing the control to a trainer, I think especially once when people have been full-time cleaners and they’re trying to hire and actually get some of the cleaning off of them, that’s probably one of the biggest areas that the hardest struggle is, they’re not going to clean like me. And I think we have to be okay with relinquishing some sort of control because one, well, and frankly, it’s kind of arrogant because there are, I’ve had cleaners who can clean way better than me, honestly, but consistently or faster, maybe they’re faster.

Paige: Yeah. Yeah. Just the little things. But if anyone’s discouraged out there, I will say, okay, so when I first started my business, I knew I wanted to grow. I knew I needed to pull myself out as fast as possible, but I still had a good 15 to 20 clients that I was servicing. So when I hired my first employee, we lost 11 or 12 out of those 15 to 20 clients. So that was, it wasn’t all at once, but they trickled pretty quickly. So don’t be discouraged. I lost almost all of my clients and I had to build that back up. But what’s beautiful is once you start with that that are used to, you know, what your cleaners are delivering, then it’s so much easier to build on because they already have that as a standard. So as the business owner, sometimes we do go above and beyond and do the extra things. But once I started implementing the checklist and making it more clear to what they are to expect, that’s what really helped us grow. So don’t be discouraged if that happens. I would actually expect some people to not really, you know, be on board and they might say, well, they’re not cleaning as well or doing this and that. It’s going to happen. So don’t get discouraged. You’re still going to be able to grow. It’s just make sure you’re, I didn’t give them, I basically just went in and cleaned. I didn’t give them a checklist. And I basically deep cleaned every time, everything. So once you train somebody, make sure they know what they’re doing in every room and make sure the client knows what to expect every cleaning.

Stephanie: Yeah. And that’s why utilizing checklists, training off of them. And I honestly, most of the clients that we still have some of the clients that I clean for, you know, that were my clients six years later. That does exist, but they’ve obviously seen all of the growing pains. And the only way that they have stuck through multiple price increases, a lot of staffing changes, right, is because we have that consistent scope of work. It’s like this, and obviously quality control.

Quality Control Systems That Actually Work

Stephanie: So talk to me about your quality control. You mentioned that in the early days of a new hire, they’re getting checked very frequently. What does that look like, practically speaking?

Paige: Okay, so initially we had zero quality control. I basically threw them out, hoped for the best, waited to hear from the client. We weren’t even following up. We weren’t even, I didn’t even want to know because it was just me. I couldn’t, my heart couldn’t handle, I couldn’t. I didn’t. If I don’t look at the problem, it doesn’t exist. No, that’s basically the first two and a half to three years. That’s basically how we operated. We didn’t hear from the client the next day, good, great, charge them. We’re good to go.

So I would say the last year and a half to two years, our system is kind of, okay, we call a couple days before we collect any final details, where the toilet bowl brush is located, where’s the trash, anything that they want us to add to the notes for the girls, we do that then. Then we have team leads and we started implementing what’s called a deep clean specialist. So those girls, whoever holds that title, they do all the initial cleans and the deep cleans, move-ins, move-outs, post-construction kind of stuff. So how it works now is there’s that one person who goes in and we have a system of how many times they contact the office and what kind of information they’re giving us each time they contact us. And we found that doing a little voice memo, so that way they’re not having to text in front of the client or, we want to make it as simple as possible for them. So they send a quick voice memo with the info we need at the beginning, the middle and towards the end. And then we’re relaying that information with the client in real time. So if there’s something that’s not coming clean, something that happened, we broke something, God forbid, or, you know, this isn’t coming as good as we want, we talk to the client. We don’t wait till the end. If we need more time to establish that, you know, during the cleaning midway through.

So I think the follow-up starts there, you know, making sure we’re having that clear communication with the client throughout their cleaning. And a lot of times too, I don’t know about you, but if I have someone working on something for the whole day and I’m not home and my pets are there, I want to know how it’s going. So I think that’s been helpful and so just give them that little, hey everything’s going great. So whether or not there is a problem, we usually follow up anyways, you know, at some point in the day and let them know how everything’s going and then if there was anything we could do better for them next time if they want to schedule routine, blah, blah, blah. And then now with ZenMaid, they have that service rating that goes out. And if they’re an afternoon client and, you know, we don’t have time to call them at the end of the day. So there’s that, which is great. Cause sometimes when we come back to the office, that feedback’s already there for us, which is great. Otherwise we call and just kind of talk to the client and see how everything went.

Most of the time it’s really good. It’s a routine client. We have a task in ZenMaid and we follow up with them every six months. And then same with commercial clients, we have a task in ZenMaid that reminds us, you know, specific month every year, we’re really reaching out and having that phone conversation with them and just making sure that they’re happy. But yeah. And just so, I guess training somebody to be that lead, to be able to check everyone’s work and go through that checklist at the end and just do that final walkthrough with the client if they’re home. I guess that’s biggest way that we are quality checking everything.

We do have for routine girls who get done early, I did create a specific checklist in ZenMaid that is called the done early checklist. And what that is is they cannot leave that house until all of these things are checked off. So it’s no crumbs on the floor, rechecking X, Y and Z, hand wiping the baseboards in the bathrooms, I don’t know, checking all the blinds, making sure they’re placed right, making sure pillows are all tidy, wiping off nose things from the dogs and little things. If we have the extra time, I want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can do before we leave that house. So that way the clients keep coming back to us. So that’s been great. I guess that’s another quality thing that we do for quality is just having that done early checklist so that they, you know, those little extra things that if there’s time I want to be doing.

Stephanie: That’s fantastic. So you made this digital checklist and then, so if they’re going to be done early, do you then go and assign that checklist to that or is it assigned to all of the reoccurring?

Paige: Yeah, so we try to assign it to all the reoccurring, but the girls know they’re, it’s to the point now because we’ve reiterated it a few times in our meetings, if the done early checklist isn’t on there, you have to call the office and we’ll just throw it on there for them and make sure that it’s repeating. But yeah, I just, we pretty much don’t utilize the checklist for just all the regular cleanings, but we have utilized it for custom cleaning, some of the deep cleans, and then always that done early checklist for all of our routine clients.

Stephanie: That is such a really creative way to utilize that feature that I’ve never heard anybody do something like that specifically. Obviously, checking work and checking over your work is a thing. But that’s really creative. And what I love what you’re highlighting is the fact that you could take that little bit more extra profit, right? If they’re done early, you could just cut with the goal of them getting out as fast as possible. And same with, we do the same thing with commercial. Okay, we’re charging flat right there. We could, speed is one thing. However, the retention of that client is so much more important to me than that little smidgen of profit that we could get. Because what you’re doing is making sure all of those little details are perfect because the reason our businesses are so fantastic and why the cleaning industry is so amazing is the recurring revenue, right? So if we lose a client, I mean, we’re talking, you know, the average residential customer, that could be a couple grand to, hell, somewhere 10 grand a year for the bigger houses, right? So it’s so worth it to take that time. And it’s okay that maybe you’re not going to make as much profit on that, but you’re going to keep them in the long run, right?

Paige: Yeah. And most of the things on there, it’s 10 minutes tops, right. But it makes such a big difference. I mean, coming home and everything’s in nice order. There’s no dog prints on my window that’s always dirty every day. Those little things are what make the difference. And you know, whether or not the staff does them, I mean, it shows over time whose clients are actually staying, who’s consistently tipping, you know, who’s always doing those service ratings and who’s really happy. So I always tell the girls, you know, I’m not there watching you. I said, you know, but if you do these things, your schedule is going to stay full. You’re going to get more tips. You’re going to make more money. So if you’re in this to make money, which most people go to work, unfortunately we got to pay the bills, the little things. And, you know, I don’t want to make them mandatory because I don’t want to, I’d rather under-promise clients and over-deliver than have every little tiny thing on our checklist, which I still think our checklist is pretty extensive, but I’d rather over-deliver and make that client happy. But with that, you have to also train your staff to know, even though this isn’t on the checklist, if you have that extra time, this is what you should be doing. And I feel like that checklist has made it so much easier because for us, it’s just things. Right. And it’s automatic. Right. But for them, they’re thinking, okay, I did the checklist. I did what I was supposed to do. I’m going to move on and go to my next house. I have an extra half hour, but what 10 minutes could do in those fine little details could make such a difference in the retention of your client. So I think having that has held them accountable and it’s really pushed them to do a better job at their cleanings and not just do what we’re promising, but going above and beyond and making that a better experience for the client.

The Power of a Signature Scent

Stephanie: That is so true. And honestly, even just for myself, when I’ve had, you know, my house cleaned, when what typically happens is say, you know, things aren’t as tidy as they could be, right? Maybe the bed’s not made perfectly, things like that. All of a sudden in the client’s brain or my brain is okay, they couldn’t get that right. What else did they mess up? And I start then, you start to look. We start to look. Yes. And that’s human nature. Like, okay, I paid for service. I want to make sure that I’m getting that service.

So we ran into that. We’re more of a natural cleaning company. So our products that we use, they smell great while they’re using them, but they do not linger. So we were having that struggle where people would come home and everything looks great, but there’s no wow factor. So in the last year we’ve created, yeah, we’ve created our own signature room spray. And while it is an investment.

Paige: Oh my gosh, so did we. We’re the same. We’re the same person.

Stephanie: Yeah. I feel like that was the final thing to get people to come home and just be, oh, and they’re not double checking everything. Is it clean? It looks clean. So I feel like having that signature scent really helped us with that. Because, you know, people, unfortunately clean, well, I don’t know, unfortunately, clean is associated with that. Yeah. A lot of times, even I was, I was having that feeling too. When I was having my house cleaned by myself, you know, I walk in, I’m like, okay, the floors look great. Everything’s tight. Everything’s clean. But you don’t have that overwhelming, oh, it’s clean. Fresh. Yeah. Smell. So we, I think this signature scent really helped us kind of achieve that. Okay. People aren’t, they know we were there. They’re not going to go around the house checking and making sure we did everything. It’s okay. They were here.

Paige: I’m glad you brought that up because we got really great with the same thing, with the natural products. And as long as they do a really good job, the house looks clean. And so it was the same thing of just it doesn’t smell clean. And so the nice thing is, at least in my mind, maybe this is overthinking. I’m like, we’re Pavlov dogging them so that when they smell this, this is, you know, the sleeper agent of, oh, they want Serene Clean back because it always smells a certain way. Right. And even it is, it does make you stand out. I think especially when it is that signature scent and who doesn’t like, you know, Febrezing things. It’s like that same thing of now it’s clean. Yeah, the girls love it. My staff’s always trying to buy it from us and now just recently too, in the last, we’ve been doing it for about a year, but in the last maybe four or five months everyone’s like I need that spray I need that spray. And even some of our commercial clients, they’re buying the spray because they want it for their offices. So it’s pretty cool. I’m excited what we could do with it in the future, creating things for holidays and stuff like that. We’ll see. We’ll see where it goes.

Stephanie: Yeah. Well, what we did, just maybe a little idea for you is we actually got that same scent made into candles and candles are given then at the third cleaning and then at every anniversary after. And so, and some of our clients are buying the candles now. And again, the same kind of Serene Clean scent, right? So it’s actually, it’s a fun way to stand out and make it more of an experience, you know, having a cleaner should be an experience. It’s like going and getting your hair done. It’s not just about that. It’s, how does it make you feel? You know?

Paige: Right, right. I love that. Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’m gonna have to talk to the girl who makes them. Yeah, see if she can do candles, because that would be fantastic.

Learning from Problems and Solving Them

Stephanie: So gosh, it’s so funny, like hearing just all of your growth. It’s pretty, it’s interesting, because I think what it boils down to of any successful cleaning business is instead of just dealing with the same problems over and over again and beating your head against the wall, you’re coming up with solutions to mitigate the effects of that problem, right? You’re learning very quickly. And instead of just saying, oh, that sucks that that happened again, you change your behavior, right?

Paige: Yes. And no matter how well you prepare yourself, no matter how much experience you have in business, no matter what field you go into, there will always be fires every day. And I love to watch it. I love listening to one of your podcasts because it reminded me there’s always going to be something wrong. It’s how we deal with it. And I try to teach my office staff that too, take the emotion out of it. What are our options and figure it out. And I loved it. Last week was insane. Everyone’s kids were sick. People were sick. Cars were breaking down. I had to go out and clean a couple of days last week. And I came through, we went to one of the commercial buildings and it’s a sign that I always say, it’s everything is figureoutable. Everything is figureoutable. And I could not believe that it was there because I never see anyone saying that. I never see it anywhere. And you can tell she handmade the sign and I’m going to share it later this week in our social media. But if you can just hone in on figuring out that specific situation and what can you do for it to not happen next time, what can we do to make it a little bit less of a sting? That’s the key and successful and just not giving up and try to look at everything as, you know, an opportunity to be able to be figured out. Because ultimately, okay, we’re not brain surgeons, which God bless them. I don’t know how they do it. But, you know, everything is figureoutable. We can fix it. Just stay calm, tackle the situation and move forward.

Stephanie: Yeah, no, it’s so true. And I think it’s so easy to turn molehills into mountains. And it may be a really shitty molehill, but it doesn’t need to be a mountain, right, that is insurmountable. We can tackle anything. A lot of times, it’s just, I like that you brought up the emotion of it, because oftentimes, it’s our emotions that are making the problem way worse than what it actually is, of, this is not the end of the world. We are turning it into the end of the world because we have so much going on. And it’s, just stating it, putting it on paper of, this is what is happening right now. And just even looking at it and be like, oh, okay, this is the problem. Why am I freaking out right now?

Paige: I’m so glad that my field assistant is totally opposite from me. I overthink everything. And actually my office assistant, same way, she’s kind of just like blind. And she’s like, no, our prices are this. And I’m over here like, oh, but this, this, that. But they’re so straightforward. I need that because I overthink everything all the time. And they’re, you know, they just ground me. Yeah.

Stephanie: Oh, I love that because, you know, my managers are some of my best friends, but they are very different than me in the business. And I find that, yeah, as the owner, sometimes, you know, we just react differently. And so it’s really because I think because it’s our baby, right? So it’s hard to not take things personally when this is just your job. There’s, you know, my manager still, you know, of course they care very much about it. But at the end of the day, they’re way better at holding boundaries than I ever am in the business.

Paige: A hundred percent. No question. Yes. Yeah. And I feel like when you get to the point to be able to delegate those things that you struggle with the most, that’s where you really are able to shine in the things that you’re really strong at. And that’s helps you not get burnt out because I feel like when you’re handling it all and everything’s just coming at you at once, that emotion is just, you’re constantly stressed. You’re constantly worried about everything. And then too, when you’re always, you know, when you’re thinking about those things constantly, what do they say? That’s in the universe and bad things are going to keep happening. But when you do finally get to delegate that, make sure it’s tasks that, you know, you’re not strong at. So that way they can excel in that. And then you’re able to step into something different to be able to help the company grow.

Stephanie: Yeah. It’s like when you’re car shopping and you’re looking at a red car and then you see all the red cars everywhere. It’s just the same with problems of, oh, hiring such a bitch. We can’t, nobody stays. It’s like then all of a sudden, yeah, you are putting that out. You start to hone in on that fact as opposed to it really, and it sounds so hokey of your mindset at all, but it’s, okay, the situation is happening. And the only thing I can change right now is literally how I’m behaving or how I’m thinking about it. So me being pissy and bitching about it isn’t going to solve anything.

Paige: No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, I remember waking up every morning, checking my phone. And I’m like, okay, who’s calling off today? Who’s calling off today? And then eventually, I just stopped doing that. And I’m like, barely anyone calls off anymore. So it’s, you know, just get it out of there. Get it out of your head.

Stephanie: No, oh, 100%, 100%.

Goals for the Future

Stephanie: Well, so you mentioned for next year, the goal is to add more processes and procedures to the training process when it comes to those video snippets. What other things are you looking for in this next upcoming year for the business? What is the, do you have any specific goals in mind?

Paige: Yeah, so I would love to make it to a million-dollar company. We got, we’re on track to get to it this year. So it was kind of a bummer. 86K a month, that’s what you need, 86K.

Stephanie: I know, right? I know.

Paige: So we are three-fourths of the way there. So that is my big goal is to absolutely hit that in 2026. And to really hone in on marketing, I have just been flying by the seat of my pants, posting things here and there. I have no marketing strategy, zero anything. So really to hone in on that, and to just tighten those things up. We have 1,400 contacts in ZenMaid and I don’t do anything. I don’t do email marketing. I don’t do anything. So yeah, that is my goal is to really hone in and start, you know, instead of always trying to chase new clients, how can I create income and revenue with the people that we already have and that we’ve already spent the time with. And even our routine clients, I want to start implementing things where if they end up getting a last-minute cancellation, I want to reach out to the current clients that they’re at and say, hey, is there anything we can do extra for you today? Just to get the girls, you know, keep their schedules full and to just work on, you know, boosting that revenue without having to just always seek out new. Cause there’s, you know, some of us may not know we even do deep cleans cause they’ve been with us for so long and they’ve never had one. So yeah, I just need to hone in on the marketing. I think that’ll get us to the next level for sure.

Stephanie: Oh, 100% because look at where you are now without really having a lot of strategy around that. It just goes to show how big you can grow a company without being an expert in that particular area. You have quality service, you’ve got great communication and you really give a shit. That’s the trifecta. The other stuff is icing on the cake. That’ll get you to that. I mean, you’re going to hit it next year. Nope. I’m putting it out there. That’s, I’ll talk to you. We’ll have a round two and this is going to happen. Trust me.

Paige: It’s inevitable. It will happen. It’s just when. And then the other thing that we’ve really, I really want it. So I was hoping to get to a million dollars and open up a nonprofit in the same year and neither of them happened. So I was really, I’m kind of beating myself up this fourth quarter, but I’m trying to just readjust for next year. Cause we see so many people that need our services that just cannot afford it. And even last week I posted, my field assistant went out to this lady’s house and God bless her. She has no family here. She didn’t, can’t really afford a cleaning service. And she couldn’t afford what we quoted her, but she called us crying. So we went out there and she got her in contact with her family out of town, tried to help get that situated. And then she called different organizations to help come in for home health, just something that she can have there helping her through it.

So I really want to open up our nonprofit next year and really start to be even more of an impact in the community and be able to help more people. We do Cleaning for a Reason. We’ve done so many cleanings this year. But I just want something else that we can really choose who we can help, and we’re not, you know, basically at the mercy of our revenue to choose who we can and cannot help. So that’s the goal.

Stephanie: That’s amazing. And it just, it’s highlighting, everybody, money is a tool. And the more we have of it, the bigger lever that we can pull of impact. And, you know, there is no moral ground around it. It’s about who you are as a person. And that’s why I’m so passionate about us all being as successful as possible and having as much money as possible because that allows us to do what we can have a bigger impact. And it’s just, it’s really incredible that it feels like, of course, we’re in the cleaning industry. So that’s who I talk to the most. I feel like our industry is made up of people who are particularly loving in that manner of, we really love to pour into people in that way. I don’t see that as much in other industries necessarily. I think because we’re so connected, it’s such an intimate thing that we do, you know?

Paige: It is. I mean, we’re in these people’s homes. We’re around their families. We’re seeing the good, the bad, the ugly. And I don’t know. I think just generally, if you’re opening up a cleaning business, most of the time it’s because you want to help people. I mean, yeah, we all have to pay our bills too. But I feel like it really just allows us to put ourselves in a situation where we can continually help people if we want. And that’s what drives me. I still have to take care of my family and make sure my bills are paid, but I will always give back when and where I can. And it really excites me. I know once we get to this level, I’m gonna be able to do so many more things. And I think our staff gets excited about it too. And I know we have to get to that point to be able to do it. So I’m really excited. I hope it all works out. But yeah, just having that servant heart, that was the thing that was missing in my life. Truly I wanted to be able to do more. And, you’re so limited, you know, you can always donate your time and, you know, make things for people and that, but when you have your own business and you have extra money every month, it’s the sky’s the limit as to what you want to do with that. And I just think that really drives me to grow is creating good jobs and being able to give back as much as possible.

Stephanie: And just the level of impact, the more people that we have on our team, the more ability that we can do that in a variety of ways. And like you said, the cleaners, we always make it clear that this is free or this is a Cleaning for a Reason because it impacts them. It gives them an even bigger drive and purpose of this isn’t just a job. We are really helping people. And, you know, if you’re getting treated well, paid well, and you know that your work matters, of course they’re going to be motivated. They’re going to do a great job because of that. You give people purpose. So I just, yeah, it’s so exciting. It is really such an exciting business. I know, people probably are, cleaning, really? It’s like, yes, it’s so exciting.

Paige: It really is. I love it. I love it so much. And I can’t even imagine, I’m just so glad that I took the chance because it’s very scary, especially when you have a family who counts on your income. It’s extremely scary. But I couldn’t imagine not doing what I’m doing every day. And I truly am, I just feel like there’s so many things to look forward to in the future that if I was just still sitting behind a chair working, you know, cleaning people’s teeth, yes, it’s great. But this really lets me do the things in life that I really am passionate about. And I could only hope that my family sees that and my kids can grow up also wanting to do that for other people.

Stephanie: Oh, guaranteed. You’re literally making a legacy of giving and people who are empowered to take the bull by the horns and go do the thing. You know, and all of our listeners are doing it too. It’s very exciting. So, wow, I could literally talk to you for hours, Paige. I know. We’re going to have a second episode, okay? So, put it on your calendar. It’s going to happen. Where can the people follow you and your business?

Paige: Yeah, so we’re pretty active on Instagram, just All Spruced Up Cleaning Co., and then Facebook as well. Our website is allsprucedupcleaningco.com. And, you know, we’re local to Youngstown, Ohio. So, you know, we’re only servicing that area. But, you know, follow us on social media. It’s obviously the more followers, the better. And we’re just happy and hopefully inspiring other business owners. I know there’s a lot of people in my community that look up to me. And it’s really humbling sometimes because I am young and I didn’t have a lot of experience. But I feel like if you have the right heart, you can continue to grow and make an impact.

Stephanie: That’s amazing. We’ll make sure to link everything down below. Paige, you are such a kindred spirit to me. I really feel very connected to you. So I’m so happy we had this conversation. Everybody give Paige some love in the comments. Hit that like, hit that subscribe if you have not done so. And Paige is in the Mastermind on Facebook. So make sure you pop in and say hello if you’re not a member there. But thank you so much, Paige. This was amazing. I love this.

Paige: Yes, it’s truly a pleasure. I know I did do a little bit of coaching with you, Stephanie. And I will say that one coaching call transformed so many things in my business. And I really honed in on tracking things. And it really helped me. So I appreciate it. And hopefully we can talk.

Stephanie: Aw, shucks. Link in the bio, guys, if you want to book a consulting call. You betcha. And everybody, we will see you in the next episode of Filthy Rich Cleaners. And thanks for watching, guys. We’ll see you next time. Bye.

Note: This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• ZenMaid
• Gusto
• Cleaning for a Reason
• All Spruced Up Cleaning Co. Instagram
• All Spruced Up Cleaning Co. Facebook
• All Spruced Up Cleaning Co. Website
• Book a Consulting Call with Stephanie

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