Our crm partner (mony) brings another success story

This one’s special because it’s a sister company of one of our Canadian members! Tori’s family has a cleaning business in Canada and in the United States, all the same brand/company – AZ Clean.

Her path was full of obstacles and required extreme perseverance – true hard work and grit. As mom of 3 (+2 doggies), recently moved back to the US from Canada, and with no experience in the cleaning industry let alone owning a cleaning business Tori, with AZ Clean Co, managed to make $80,000+ in the first 5 months of her business being open!

You read that right $80K+ in the first 5 months of opening her business up. I’d even say less than 5 months because the 1st month was turbulent

(hiring is HARD).

This should be motivation enough for everyone out there to know that it IS possible to succeed – with the right structure in place and the drive – results will come!

Don't Buy A Cleaning Franchise

Till You Have Seen This!! CLICK HERE

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I spend a total of 3 hours a day taking calls, replying to messages from leads, talking with workers…calls and texts…and finally we do daily payouts so I spend time at the of the day paying out our contractors. It’s amazing, the consistency has led to us breaking through $80,000+ in revenue in just a few months. It has been incredible!

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Mony: What an amazing journey you have been through Tori! We’ve connected a few times throughout the year because you had sent in questions that I thought were interesting – I could tell that based on the questions you were asking you were growing and I was SUPER excited to hear just how much growth you were experiencing. 
 
But enough about me telling the story…can you tell us a little more about yourself and how/why you decided to enter the cleaning industry?

Tori: Hi Mony – thank you for the compliment and thank you for including me in the success stories for Maidily CRM. I’ll do a quick intro and answer that question for you.

My name is Tori Thebaut and I’m from Atlanta, GA. I have a wonderful husband and 3 small boys. The reason I got into this is (nothing ground breaking) simple, I was looking for a way to money from home and on my own time schedule. For the last 10 years I had been hiring cleaning companies to clean my own home and I wasn’t satisfied – at all. Then I was recommended this business model by a friend and decided to take it up with no prior knowledge. 

Signing up was a no brainer – your customer service and guidance has been priceless.

I hired other cleaning companies to clean my home to learn how they operated – I studied them. I read through the articles in Cleaning HQ regarding hiring. So, I finally had a website, the knowledge on how to hire a cleaner – I had everything set up! At this point my focus was growing.

Mony: I am just amazed as to how you found the time between having 3 small boys, a husband, a new home, and no prior knowledge in this business to learn everything! That is so motivational!

Don't Buy A Cleaning Franchise

Till You Have Seen This!! CLICK HERE

 
As someone without any prior experience in the cleaning industry, what did you find to be thehardest part of managing a cleaning business?

Tori: The first thing that comes to mind is to say everything! In the beginning everything was hard – learning Maidily CRM, sending the edits in for the website, trying to hire (what do you look for, what questions do you ask), getting jobs, managing customers, and cleaners…everything!

Ultimately the hardest thing about this is managing/dealing with unhappy customers. There are tons of variables that go into a cleaning and everyone’s expectations are different, from customer to customer. It has been challenging trying to keep everything up to the standard that I want.

As a way to mitigate this we do require walkthroughs at the end of each job! If a client declines the walkthrough, we are not liable for any missed or unfinished items from the job.

Mony: I love that policy! Walkthroughs SHOULD be mandatory – we’ve encountered so many discrepancies between customers saying they are happy at one moment and then a hours later receiving a complaint that was never brought up prior. I completely agree – managing customers overall IS the hardest part!

What would you say is the most important action you have taken that has led to growth inyour business, in terms of revenue and organization?

Tori: I would say that the most important actions…there’s 2-3 things that come to mind immediately… I have taken, aside from having a website, that has led to growth in my company is investing extra in Google Local Services Ads and taking the time to hire the right people! If you don’t have solid cleaners to take on the jobs you get from Google Local Services then you’ve just wasted your money on those ads.

One cannot exist without the other! It is a delicate balance that I found difficult to figure out at first. I was not sure how to confidently secure a job while at the same time having someone ready…on stand by…to take on the incoming jobs.

Mony: Great point – one cannot exist without the other. There’s not definitive step by step process to growing a business like this because there are times where the most important things (jobs and cleaners) need to be done…or worked on…simultaneously. Both have to be carefully balanced….don’t lose workers for not having enough jobs and don’t lost customers for not having any cleaners. No way around it.

How hands on are you right now with AZ Clean Co?

Tori: I love this question because the answer to it makes me smile!

I spend a total of 3 hours a day taking calls, replying to messages from leads, talking with workers…calls and texts…and finally we do daily payouts so I spend time at the of the day paying out our contractors. It’s amazing, the consistency has led to us breaking through $80,000+ in revenue in just a few months. It has been incredible!

I don’t have an assistant, an office, no other administrators. Just me, spending about 3 hours total from my day working on the business!

Mony: WOW! $80K+ in revenue in just a few months! That is INCREDIBLE! Especially for being as hands off as you are.

Don't Buy A Cleaning Franchise

Till You Have Seen This!! CLICK HERE

Are you finding any difficulty finding jobs, although it doesn’t seem like it, or are you experiencing any difficulty with finding good workers for hire to do the jobs?

Tori: I have been very fortunate with an abundance of calls and messages from new and existing customers that fill my schedule and help me meet our monthly revenue goals. I took your advice on Yelp, Thumbtack, and Google Local Services, without those platforms we would not be where we are. So, the platforms keep on providing for us. Now we are growing organically!

I have also been very luck with solid contractors. 1 contractor I hired from Indeed and the rest have come through Facebook jobs and other social media platforms. I just do a little digging and reach out to people as well as run small budget ads on Facebook jobs and Indeed.

Mony: Hiring is the MOST difficult part in my opinion. Sometimes luck does play a factor in finding good, quality, talent but it is difficult. Getting jobs has always been the least worrisome factor for most in this business. I’m super glad to hear that you have built up a solid team, I’m sure the journey was not easy!
 
Did you think you could be this hands-off, to the extent that you are, operating a service-based business?

Tori: Oh, absolutely not! I was very nervous and unsure about how I could be so hands off owning a business like this. Reading your story inspired me, but it seemed to good to be true. But it has been the most amazing opportunity to ever happen to my family and I. 

If you have patience and keep chipping away and making adjustments, listening to customers, improving processes – big things will start happening in a relatively short period.

I’ve worked in other professional service businesses and they are extremely hands on, I did not know that opportunities like this existed.

Mony: You stuck to it! You believed. Now you are benefiting. So many give up so easily and quickly. I’m super happy to hear this.
 
What does your organizational structure look like? Do you have an admin helping you or are you the only one running AZ Clean

Tori: Staying organized and staying firm to what works is key for me! What has been working for AZ Clean is just me managing everything, for now. It has its moments but I feel really secure in me being the one to manage everything as we stabilize. So yes, as of now, I am the only one running the company. It took about 4 months to even begin feeling like it was stabilizing.

Next year – this coming year – I will be hiring an admin to help me manage everything from customer support, to the techs, to payroll, responding to quotes. At least as soon as I get a process down! I just do not feel comfortable yet.

Don't Buy A Cleaning Franchise

Till You Have Seen This!! CLICK HERE