You get real satisfaction from helping others owning a cleaning business!
You should get a deep feeling of satisfaction from the fact that you’re helping people – freeing them from stress, making their lives easier by cleaning their homes, and giving them an orderly and clean place to live their lives. Everyone deserves that. I believe that regardless of what kind of business you choose to start, you will never succeed – especially in the service industry – if you don’t care. You have to care. If you get a sense of satisfaction from helping people, your business will be meaningful and fulfilling. You’ll be happy, and your clients will love you for caring for them and their homes. It will show through in your work, I guarantee. If you want to learn more check out my book
Do you have the right personality to start a cleaning business?
Cleaners need to be compassionate, independent, self-motivated, and comfortable going into strangers’ homes. Loving to clean and having an eye for what looks pretty, neat, and orderly will also help. Oh, and you should probably be good at cleaning too! Customer service skills are an absolute necessity. You should be a clear communicator, both in writing, in person, and over the phone. It’s not easy, but it comes with practice. For me it was even more difficult because English is not my first language.
Human resource skills will also be in high demand as you expand your business, especially if you’re doing the hiring and management of your personnel by yourself. If you have a mentor or another person assisting you with experience in managing people, lean on them for ideas and suggestions on how to handle situations you might not be familiar with.
One of the questions I get asked often is what advice I have for other cancer survivors on finding a new meaning or purpose after their cancer experience?
– Try out new things, take risks, start following your dreams and passions. Stop talking yourself out of ideas that may seem unrealistic. Take on this new chance, this adventure and don’t look back! Only look forward. If you loved your career before your diagnosis, be excited to start working again, if you are dreading going back, maybe think of other jobs you’d like to try out. It’s never too late. If there is one thing I learned for sure. Once you recover from cancer you will look at life through a different, much clearer lens. They say surviving cancer is like getting a second chance in life. I couldn’t agree more. It was like a wake up call for me for sure and I can’t be more thankful.
From dishwasher to millionaire
Immigrants make up 13% of the U.S. population. They come to this country to live the American Dream, an opportunity for a better life in exchange for hard work. Often times their clear vision, discipline, determination, skills, and fresh perspectives lead them to be entrepreneurs.
That may explain why so many small- and big business owners in the U.S. are immigrants. Services and businesses such es Levi Strauss, EBay, WhatsApp, Instagram as well as admin or janitorial businesses like mine boast the number of immigrant business owners. I am one of them – check out my book to find out more about my American Dream!
HOW TO START A CLEANING BUSINESS WITH NO MONEY
Besides perseverance, self-confidence, initiative and a few other important character traits with good planning and strategies, starting a cleaning business can be an inexpensive way to start a business!
Here is some great news I have for you: Your initial investment can be close to nothing if you’re willing to do a lot of the work yourself.
Before you get started you should consider a few things, such as WHO ARE YOUR CLIENTS, PLAN ON CLEANING YOURSELF AT LEAST IN THE BEGINNING, MAKE WORD OF MOUTH WORK FOR YOU, CREATE A NAME/LOGO.
Why write a book?!
There’s a certain point in life, I believe, where you begin to reflect on the things that have happened to you (or the things that you’ve made happen, like your kids) and wonder – is this it? Is this what life is all about? Have I figured it all out? Not that having kids, being healthy, and successfully working in a career for a living is anything to shake a stick at, it’s just a really good point of reflection.
For the creative types, you might also ask yourself if anyone might be interested in hearing about what’s happened to you and how you might be able to express that. Some of us express these feelings and experiences through music. Some others like to paint or draw. Still others are able to write about it. In any case, you want to tell the world about what’s happened because there might just be one other single person on earth who can relate. That’s what art is supposed to be, if you ask me – relatable. That’s really all I ever look for, is someone or something to relate to. After all, that’s how we get along best with others is by relating to them.
In the tough times though, it’s sometimes enough consolation to know that someone else has, at the very least, shared your brand of pain. Maybe you’ve lost a loved one; or you’ve gotten a serious illness that turned your life upside down; or lived through a war to tell about it. As it turns out I have done all of those things. I have also asked myself whether others might be interested in hearing about my follies, tragedies, and successes. Were there others who would be willing or able to learn something from my experiences, both good and bad? I talked a lot about it over the years and, in fact, the answer turned out to be a resounding “yes.” Once I decided that there are things in my life I believe are worth telling the stories about, it wasn’t necessarily whether people want to hear about them anymore; it became more about how well I could tell the story to those willing to listen.
How I started my business with $1
All I had were the few things I bought at the dollar store and my little red $1 bucket, not knowing if that little bit was going to be enough to pull it off and start a business from nothing. Fast forward six years through all the doubt and uncertainty, Imade my own American Dream and I am proud of my business. The funny thing about the red bucket is that I still use it six years later. The same one. Keeping that thing around reminds me of when and how I started this little “side hustle” that turned into the company that you may (or may not) know as Custom Cleanups. Find out more about my journey as entrepreneur here