Where I started
I had been cleaning for four years and I was busy. That was the problem. Busy is not the same as growing. I was doing six days a week, quoting in the evenings and doing invoices on a Sunday.
Every time someone asked me to take on another property I had to say no, or squeeze it in somewhere it did not fit.
What I struggled with
I had tried hiring once before. I took on a lad, showed him round two houses, and within a month a client rang me to say the kitchen had not been touched. I decided people were the problem and went back to doing everything myself.
Looking back the problem was that I had nothing written down. I had four years of standards in my head and I expected someone to absorb them in an afternoon.
What changed
The Growth Blueprint made me build the specification before the job advert. That order matters. I wrote out exactly what a standard domestic visit includes, room by room, then a checklist for the end of each visit.
Then I hired. Two part timers to start, both trained against the written standard, both shadowing me for three visits before working alone.
Managing quality
The quality control section was the part I would have skipped if it had been optional. Spot checks on a rota, a short photo confirmation for commercial sites, and a monthly conversation with each cleaner that is not a telling off.
I have had two complaints in fourteen months. Both were fixed the same week because there was a process rather than a panic.
Where I am now
Five cleaners, three of them full time. I clean three days a week now instead of six, mostly commercial sites where I want to keep the relationship close.
Turnover has roughly doubled. My hours have not. That is the number I actually care about.
Daniel Okafor's advice for other cleaning entrepreneurs
- Write the standard down before you hire anyone. Nobody can meet a standard that only exists in your head.
- Your first hire will expose every gap in your systems. That is useful information, not a disaster.
- Keep a couple of clients yourself so you never lose touch with the work.