The Dirty Truth About Building a Cleaning Business | Vanessa Higgins

Everyone thinks starting a cleaning business is "just hard work"—until you're juggling hiring, scheduling, customer expectations, supplies, cash flow, and quality control all at the same time.

On this episode of The Small Business Safari, Chris Lalomia and co-host Alan Wyatt sit down with Vanessa Higgins, founder of Clean Tu Casa, to uncover what it really takes to build a premium cleaning company serving residential homes, commercial clients, and Airbnb properties across Atlanta.

Vanessa shares how her corporate marketing background helped her create repeatable systems, build a trusted brand, and deliver an exceptional customer experience from day one. She explains why investing in coaching accelerated her growth, the lessons she learned transitioning from B2B to B2C, and why every owner should understand the work before expecting others to do it well.

The conversation dives into the operational side of running a successful service business—from pricing, invoicing, profit margins, and team culture to communication that keeps both customers and employees confident. Along the way, Chris, Alan, and Vanessa swap unforgettable stories, including Airbnb turnover disasters, bizarre cleaning discoveries, and an unexpected fugitive arrest that proves no two jobs are ever the same.

Whether you own a cleaning company or any home service business, this episode delivers practical strategies, plenty of laughs, and real-world lessons on building a company that lasts.

💡 Gold Nuggets

•  Building repeatable systems that support growth 
•  Creating a premium brand through exceptional customer service 
•  Why coaching beats learning everything the hard way 
•  Residential vs. commercial cleaning: key operational differences 
•  The invoicing mistake that can destroy cash flow 
•  Building a strong team culture and clear communication 
•  Using AI to support commercial operations 
•  Giving back through Cleaning for a Reason
•  Airbnb turnover challenges and memorable job-site stories 
•  Growing through larger commercial contracts and acquisitions 

🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSmallBusinessSafari

🔗 Guest Links

Website: https://cleantucasa.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessacleantucasa

🌍 Follow The Small Business Safari

•  Instagram: @smallbusinesssafaripodcast 
•  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislalomia
•  Website: https://chrislalomia.com

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another small business owner. Your support helps us continue bringing practical business advice and inspiring entrepreneurial stories to the Small Business Safari.

Thanks to our sponsor Smart Hire Solutions LLC!

Transcript

Wild Cleaning Cold Open

SPEAKER_06 0:00

Do you have any uh okay?

SPEAKER_03 0:01

You want an example?

SPEAKER_06 0:02

No, I want I want a funny cleaning story. You gotta have one because if you don't, I've got one for you.

SPEAKER_03 0:07

The most of the c funny cleaning stories happen in the residence.

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Whether it is someone opens the door and they're completely naked.

SPEAKER_04 0:16

Oh, that's yay. This is not a nudist calendar, dude. My headphones just fell off.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

Drive to an Airbnb. Oh, I could write a book on Airbnb cleans.

SPEAKER_04 0:26

You should.

SPEAKER_03 0:27

Atlanta, there's a big porn industry here in Atlanta. Oh my gosh. So we actually weed out, we ask people prospective clients that are you in porn? That call no, I don't ask that.

SPEAKER_05 0:39

No, it's not just you can't ask that, Alan. Can you porn adjacent? You know what? I think that is the porn.

SPEAKER_03 0:45

It's people uh booking the reservation. Oh so we one of the questions that we ask and Airbnb cleans to the host is we only work with hosts that have a two-night minimum. If they have a one night minimum, so porn only goes one night?

SPEAKER_07 1:03

I guess you know what you learn everything on this episode. The small business safari guys, you learn so much.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

So ceiling on the ceiling.

SPEAKER_01 1:12

Well, what? Why is he on the ceiling? You would wonder. Urine all over the walls.

SPEAKER_07 1:20

I think you broke me. I uh I'm sitting there trying to figure out I'm actually physically trying to figure this out. I'm like, nope, king.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

Tammer to a toilet.

SPEAKER_07 1:28

Oh no. That was part of porn?

SPEAKER_05 1:30

What kind of porn is that?

SPEAKER_07 1:31

I don't know. I don't know either, Abby.

SPEAKER_03 1:33

Something else. That was probably just a party. Is that a porn?

SPEAKER_07 1:36

Oh, really? My kind of porn. You know what? I think you know, guys, small business safari, entrepreneurial, but don't forget to tell your friends, we're actually going to pop up to a new genre soon. Um, so Kate, stay tuned.

Show Welcome And Theme

SPEAKER_07 1:48

Welcome to the Small Business Safari, where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls, and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your extent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there, and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from hitting your own personal and professional goals. So strap in Adventure Team and let's take a ride through this department.

Why Legacy Matters In Business

SPEAKER_07 2:26

I remember when I had a twinkle in my eye and said, let's go start a business. Who needs corporate America? I'm gonna go make it happen. I'm gonna go make millions. And I told my dumbass you were at that point. 18, well, 19 years from the concept, 18 years in business now. What a dumbass I was, Alan. What was I thinking doing what I did? Hubris is the word of the dead. I have I have hubris. Let's tears to that. Cheers, everybody. We're gonna have a great episode. Guys, we gotta clean this shit up a little bit though. Like I did. Here we go. That's a little obvious. Guys, as you uh as you know, I we talk about this quite a bit. Um, Alan, I'm kind of a kind of a big deal. Kind of a big deal, I know. So I also have a radio show here in Atlanta, uh, where we bring on just the best and brightest uh people here locally. And I uh I did not find this person, but this person showed up at the radio show. I don't even know how they got there, and we got uh these great business owners to come in and talk to us. And it was the first episode ever where I actually had to do it, not in person, but we have to do a remote speaker. Chris had to stretch it out a little bit, bring in a remote speaker to come in, and I had to run the board and talk to them over the phone, not in the studio with me. Vanessa doesn't know this. First time I ever did it. Dan looks at me and goes, he just rolls his finger and goes, You got this.

SPEAKER_06 3:48

He didn't want to do it because he's been doing the show for 12 years, and he was like always been live for him, and and then, but we because of the pod, you've uh you've you're used to this. So I'm used to it.

SPEAKER_07 3:58

Yeah, so we rolled with it, and I will tell you what they did is that this incredible group who we're gonna introduce in a minute did something that we talk about as business owners 18 years ago, 18 years in business. What do you do? What's the legacy you're leaving? What's the mark you're leaving? You know what? I did it and I I make no unabashed claims. I got in this to make a lot of money when I first started. Uh that hasn't happened, guys. What is the mark you're leaving? What's the mark I'm leaving? Like a skid mark. I am I definitely feel skid mark. Thank you, Alan. You know what? You are the wing beneath my wings. Actually, you're the rock on my neck, you elbatross. Oh my god, who left him in here? So these guys come in and they say, Hey, listen, in the last nine minutes, we'd rather not talk about our business, but we'd like to talk about the charities that we're investing in. And we want to see if we can bring in somebody to talk about one of the charities that we believe a lot in. And I was like, What am I supposed to say? No, screw the charities. No, I went, yeah, let's do it. Let's figure it out. We figured it out the couple days before, got them in, and they did that. And I'm telling you, what Vanessa doesn't know is that for the first time on the radio, I actually started choking up. Now I've choked up on the podcast, but I was like, wow, this is really impactful. They're really leaving a mark, doing a great job of taking not only their business, but investing back into the community and doing something that's worthy of a cause that was so

Introducing Vanessa And Clean2Casa

SPEAKER_07 5:15

important. And so we have Vanessa Higgins here with us. And you guys are amazing. What a great job that you've done. But let's let's get into it. So when you say you guys, I'm seeing one person here. Who are you referring to? Well, you know what? She's the founder and owner, but she uh she is one of many. In fact, I think they said on the podcast, and I say they, uh on the radio show, that's the all four seasons home show. Go check it out. Um, is that one of their very first employees is still with them. Is that right?

SPEAKER_03 5:43

Um several of them. Five of them are still five.

SPEAKER_07 5:46

After how many years you've been in business now?

SPEAKER_03 5:48

We just celebrated nine years last month.

SPEAKER_07 5:50

Nine years.

SPEAKER_06 5:51

All right. How many years, Chris? Have I been in business? Well, how many of your original employees? Counting uh me? So there's one. So there's one. Can I round up? Sure.

SPEAKER_07 6:06

One. I have that. You know, no, I have Cindy though. Cindy who listens to this has been with me for 17 and a half of these 18 years. So that counts. So that's something. I got that going for me. But but Vanessa and her uh husband Alex came on and uh Vanessa started this thing, but let's go back. Uh what this thing is. So, Vanessa, what is what you started? Explain to everybody what you got.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

I'm really glad to be here because you guys have really started something really fantastic too. I've been in listening to your episodes. I'm glad the inspirations that you're that you're that you're putting out in the marketplace right now, because I'm a true believer that um Main Street's gonna replace Wall Street. And um, if we can help to inspire anyone to take that leap of faith, which is a great leap of faith, um, I'm all for it. So awesome.

SPEAKER_07 6:58

Well, thanks for saying that. I appreciate that. We we appreciate it. Been doing it for four and a half years, very excited about that. So tell us a little bit about the business you start and what do you have today? And we're gonna backtrack to how you came up with this idea.

SPEAKER_03 7:10

All

Corporate Marketing Roots And Systems

SPEAKER_03 7:11

right. Well, um it origin story marketing, advertising always has been my my forte. Um, building a brand, building promote promoting companies uh was always my uh type of line of business in Fortune 500 companies. I worked for Home Depot, I worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Wow, whoa as a marketing director.

SPEAKER_06 7:33

Before the crowd housing Does the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta need a marketing director?

SPEAKER_03 7:38

I love everybody asked that question after the housing market. No, they did not. No, but before they did, they were really trying to hone in on financial responsive um management and just teaching middle school and high school students um to be better at money.

SPEAKER_07 7:56

How about that let oh my god, we're we're gonna talk about clean two costs in a minute, but we've got to stop. We didn't get there, we're gonna get there. She's got a cleaning business, guys. Check this out.

SPEAKER_03 8:07

Killing it, commercial and residential, a healthy balance between residential and commercial, and we have some really exciting opportunities. These are two totally different animals, totally different. Everybody told me you are loca. You why are you doing that? And why is your service area so large?

SPEAKER_06 8:24

How large is it?

SPEAKER_03 8:25

It's this large. I know you all can't see it right now, but we pretty much cover, it's like a cross. We cover from East Cobb Marietta down through the belt line from Vinings over to Norcross.

SPEAKER_07 8:36

So for those of us who are listening, because uh what Vanessa probably doesn't realize, is that um, well, we're intergalactic. Um we're worldwide. We have a number of listeners in Australia, number of listeners in Europe. We're talking about the metro Atlanta area.

SPEAKER_03 8:50

To areas.

SPEAKER_07 8:50

So the metro Atlanta area, which is also known as probably well, it's not probably, it is in the top 10 worst uh places to commute in America. Uh so traffic sucks. It is coming. All right, let's go back to this. I want to go back to this one because I used to work at the bank. I never thought uh in bank here locally in Atlanta, and I never knew, and I had to work with the feds. Uh the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta actually came in and out of this, and I had to work with them and do all the reporting with them. I never thought that they had to have a marketing arm. That's literally like having a marketing arm for I mean, think about this, Alan. Think of another company that would need a marketing arm that doesn't need a marketing arm.

SPEAKER_03 9:30

Well, if anyone does come in for the World Cup, I highly recommend going to the museum that's down below in the Fed. It's fantastic. So it's still open. It's still open, and that was the original idea for the marketing department. But to kind of give honage to that, the the history of money from growing crops and having that come as a commodity to exchange to paper money that we are currently using now. But I dare I'm going, Alan.

SPEAKER_07 9:58

I did not closed, actually. I was gonna take uh one of my nephews who came into town.

SPEAKER_06 10:02

I mean, every single organization I think of. I can go, okay, yeah, I could they could use a marketing arm. Check this out. Except for the Fed.

SPEAKER_07 10:10

So when I was when I was in banking, well, I was in consulting before this, I got to go to a lot of presentations and when I first got started into it, I left manufacturing, left B2B, got into it, and I got to go listen to Ed Crutchfield, who was the first union CEO at the time, talk about the brand equity that banks have. And they were just above electric companies and utility companies in terms of your bank, in terms of how you felt about them and what they were. They were literally just a utility. And if I could get rid of them, I would. And that's why they had to figure out a way to rebrand themselves as banks in the late 90s. And if you look at what's going on now, they talk about the share of the wall and everything else. But I never thought that the Fed would have to have it marked now. But honestly, you think back on it, and especially right now, it's getting in the yes. Right now I could use enough. It could need a little PR right now. Yeah, so all right. Maybe Vanessa can go moonlight form, fix it.

SPEAKER_03 11:04

Hey, that's the name of the game, right? So that was actually my origin was I had that entrepreneur spirit in me. I come from a long line of entrepreneurs. My mother had uh she was a fashion designer, making gorgeous luxury handbags and shoes for with Italian leathers, manufactured in Colombia, where she is originally from, and selling it to specialty boutiques in the Hamptons and West Palm Beach and Europe and Caribbean.

SPEAKER_07 11:30

Um so your mother was an entrepreneur. She was. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 11:34

And her father was an entrepreneur. He made beautiful hat molds, and he was a hat millner from French um French French fabric and molds, and uh he had a boutique right on Avenida Séptima in Bogota, Colombia. Uh so long line of entrepreneurship. I love fashion, but I brought fashion to cleaning.

SPEAKER_07 11:53

It's it. Yeah. We're cleaning with fashion. All right, but let's let's go back. So we know we have the cleaning business, but you said you you came to America. It sounds like your parents weren't from raised here. You were born and raised here.

SPEAKER_03 12:06

I'm one of the first in my family. Um, I'm a Colombian Irish, born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia.

SPEAKER_07 12:12

But you're a native Atlanta.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

I am a native attack.

SPEAKER_07 12:15

You know I could tell by the accent, Alan.

SPEAKER_04 12:17

She had that southern draw. She was please don't do the draw. Come on, doing it, Alan. Do it at least don't.

SPEAKER_03 12:26

Um, I was raised between Bogota and Atlanta, so it maybe that so what is the name?

SPEAKER_06 12:31

There's a Colombian dish, and I've been to a Colombian restaurant, and it it was like so much food I could hardly believe. And they have yes, and I got the junior version of that. We got the vinny version, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

And it still was and I could eat a lot, and it was rice, beans, fried egg on top of steak, um, salad, avo aguacate avocados. Um, it's just a big meal.

SPEAKER_06 12:57

It is a ridiculous amount of food. And it's like this this is for somebody who is planning on working really hard today because I mean it's just an insane amount of food. Yes. And I got the small one. I'm glad you had it. Alan. It was I I I I knew I knew I saw I saw what was on the list. I'm like, I can't eat all that. Where was this? Was this here in Atlanta? Yeah, it was just inside 285.

SPEAKER_03 13:17

There's a couple of good authentic Colombian restaurants.

SPEAKER_07 13:19

Oh, you know what? I'm getting my Colombian transit tape. You know what? Vanessa will take us.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 13:24

She should her and her husband, Alex.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

Sorry. Uh, for your global um audience, Atlanta back in the day was very rural. I grew up around llamas and cows and tour toros like bulls in East Cobb Marietta. No. And the tallest building was the blue dome in the middle of the city. Oh my gosh. So I've seen a lot in Atlanta grow. Atlanta, when it had the Olympics in 1996, that was a whole other ball game. Come forward to um to now with the World Cup coming here. We're we are ready. In our cleaning company, we are doing our best to help be a partner to a lot of Airbnb hosts who are looking to um put their house up.

SPEAKER_07 14:06

That's the marketing aspect right there. All right, we gotta go back to this. So mom's an entrepreneur, dad was an entrepreneur, they move here, but you said I'm gonna go to college, and they probably told you don't be an entrepreneur. Tell me, tell me.

SPEAKER_03 14:18

They really were very supportive in anything that my brother and I, we're only two.

SPEAKER_06 14:22

What'd your dad do?

SPEAKER_03 14:24

My father is also corporate, very long time corporate, worked for Kimberly Clark as a senior mechanical engineer, um, and uh helped to grow some of the factories that were overseeing huggies and Kleenex that we're building in Mexico and then um Scotland and England.

SPEAKER_07 14:42

So I love that Kimberly Clark. Uh I know a number of guys from Michigan Tech who uh ended up at Kimberly Clark because they're out of uh Wisconsin as well. Um it's up north, but I I just love that she talked about huggies and Kleenex. That's both ends, Alan. He covered both ends.

SPEAKER_06 14:58

He probably never thought about that. But there you go. Thanks for pointing that that's right. That's why I can hear everybody. I'll keep it, I'll keep it humorous.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

With an entrepreneur mother of corporate father, and the two combined was always something I envisioned for myself. Was I really feel like systems are so important, corporate can teach you that. Bring that into a business that you can envision and solve a problem.

From Delta To Cleaning Startup

SPEAKER_03 15:24

And if that's where the the the birth of the idea came from, I was working at Delta Airlines at the time. I was doing B2B global marketing for some specialty markets, Ireland in particular, Japan, Latin America, Caribbean. Um, and the idea came to me with so many people asking me, Hey, do you know someone that's a reliable person that can show up and clean my house? That got to I'm a networker. I like to connect people with opportunities.

SPEAKER_06 15:53

I mean, but that has nothing to do with what you did.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

So people are asking you Yeah, so you would never think that I never thought my life would turn into a home service provider slash always doing something where instant results, gratification with cleaning. And I love it. I absolutely love it. It's the best career decision I ever did, but I needed that corporate background to get the systems in place. I really feel like this wouldn't have happened if I didn't have the corporate background. And I felt like um you really need to understand all the ins and outs of what corporate can offer you. It's not only offering you how to train a team, how to manage a team, how to hire a team, it's also training you how to put systems into place because that ultimately what is going to be your secret sauce of success. You just got to have a vision of what you want to do with your entrepreneur spirit. And for me, I just love the instant before and after result of transforming an environment, whether it's a home or whether it's an office space. And it's just like instant gratif gratification.

SPEAKER_06 17:02

Clients can see it from a market to dive into very challenging, highly competitive. So you have a lot of national brands, a lot of franchise brands, and then you've got the individual, the solo operator who's doing it for next to nothing.

SPEAKER_05 17:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 17:22

And then you've got the national brands who are, you know, offering, okay, you know, guaranteed and we're licensed and bonded and insured and all that stuff for a lot more. How do you how do you niche into that?

Coaching And Premium Service Plan

SPEAKER_06 17:34

Great question.

SPEAKER_03 17:35

I decided I did not want to reinvent the wheel. I wanted a proven system. My go-tos were I wanted customer service like a Chick-fil-A, a system of run of a very well-operated machine like a Target. I really felt like those two were my vision for how do I apply that into a cleaning scenario. And I found a business coach. I looked for a business coach because I told my husband, I want to do this. I think I would be really good at developing a team, promoting a brand, and getting creating jobs for people that really could use it. But they just don't know how to talk to homeowners or they don't know how to talk to a building facility manager to be able to create work. So that's my forte. That's what I could do. I really felt like I needed I I wanted to be more I I could sell as many airline tickets as possible or cro contracts. But I felt I wanted to move towards a service side, really serving a community, people that can't lift up their arms to actually do cleaning. Maybe they just have no clue how to clean. It felt like it was a calling to me that ended up being really natural transition for me. But I needed to have the experience to roll up my sleeves. And majority of cleaning business owners don't do the cleaning, they go right into it like it's another business. And I really felt for me personally, I wanted to be known as really good high-end quality. And I wanted to roll up my sleeves and be taught what do I need to do with different surfaces? What cleaning products do I need to use? PH balance is a big you know the chemistry of it is huge. It's chemicals that we're working with. So you don't want to be um in a marble floor making a mess.

SPEAKER_06 19:24

Oh, you put the wrong, you put the wrong chemical on the wrong surface and suddenly you've got to. Let's go move on. Move on. Let's keep it moving on. We're moving on, please. No, moving on. No, because I am dying to know how do you go from being, you know, oh world.

SPEAKER_07 19:36

No, I just meant let's not talk about screwing up marble surfaces. Sorry.

SPEAKER_06 19:40

Did I did I hit a soft? No, let's keep going, please. Back to Vanessa, please, Alan. How do you go? You're you're a delta and you're dealing with Ireland and all this stuff, and you're like, oh, people are asking me about cleaning. And it's like, how do you how do you learn how to bid a house? How do you learn what chemistry, you know, chemicals you need to have? How do you need the process of efficiency?

SPEAKER_03 20:00

I would say try to learn this while you're part-time well on the side. This

Taking The Leap With Deadlines

SPEAKER_03 20:06

is your side hustle. I ended up taking the leap of faith. I completely dropped Delta. And I told my husband this.

SPEAKER_06 20:14

I said, we feel benefits and then retirement and then the flight.

SPEAKER_07 20:21

God, the finesse goes first to the flight bed of the crown room. Girl, I did the same thing you did. I I took the leap of faith. I put that in my book from The Zoo to the Wild. I said, I had a buddy say, if you're gonna try to do this as a side hustle, you're gonna be halfway in, but you'll be all the way out, you'll be out of business before you know it. And he was right.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

The motivation for it was my husband. Uh, he worked for IHG at the time. He said, you know what? I got us, I can support us to make this happen, but I give you a deadline of two years. If this turns into a hobby, you're going right back to corporate. And I that was the kick in the butt I needed.

SPEAKER_07 20:54

You know, that's a great point. I uh I've I talked about this in the book, and I've talked about this with other people who've called in. Um, gotta have a business plan. And in the business plan, you if you've got a spouse or a partner or somebody you're is counting on you as well, you don't get to pitch the business plan to them. You go find somebody else to pitch it to them because you're gonna sit there with all optimism going, oh, babe, I got this. Oh, I'm gonna kill this. Two years, watch this. I'm gonna be cleaning the whole nation by the in two years, Alex. Watch this, buddy.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

Your weaknesses start to show, right? Yeah. And your strengths.

SPEAKER_07 21:26

Yep.

Charity First Then Cash Flow

SPEAKER_03 21:27

Because on day one, I opened Clean Tukasa, the doors I opened with my LLC, signing out for my LC, my business license. I became a member of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, the Georgia's Bank Chamber of Commerce, and a partner of Cleaning for a Reason, which was a near and dear to my heart to really help out cancer patients in their homes. A little victory while they're going through a difficult time of going through active chemo treatments.

SPEAKER_07 21:50

Cleaning for a cause. Beautiful. That's the one of the things you talked about. Again, you did that right off the rip. I didn't uh because I was there to make money. And I I started, I was like, I'm a hustling, I was rocking and rolling, I was not thinking big picture.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

That's where I messed up. I had the business coach, I had the community cause, I had the business purpose, I had great quality. I started to build up the team. In year one, I moved along pretty quickly. I moved to already four employees by by the end of year one.

SPEAKER_07 22:21

Well done. Yeah. In fact, that's almost the same trajectory. Everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:25

And and my weakness was not in finances, financial management. I didn't charge a lot of my corporate clients that.

SPEAKER_07 22:36

So let's let me get that right.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

Charge credit card, no problem.

SPEAKER_07 22:39

Yeah. So corporate clients didn't pay uh because you didn't charge them.

SPEAKER_03 22:42

I didn't invoice them.

SPEAKER_07 22:44

So uh that's a gold nugget. Um you can't get paid unless you give somebody an invoice. I'm having a hard time processing this. Right. Well, you know what? Check this shit out, dude. Uh it's similar, right? I came from banking, I knew finances, and sure enough, I didn't invoice people after we finished jobs. And guess who didn't get paid? This guy. Yes, and this gal. Vanessa didn't either.

SPEAKER_06 23:06

And you're like, it sounds it sounds like a morons, but it happened to you. You both sound like morons. Why didn't you not invoice? Because we were well, I this guy was, yeah. She wrote the button.

SPEAKER_03 23:16

Call it as it is because I wasn't blind to call it as it is.

SPEAKER_06 23:21

I was certainly I don't even know if that counts as a gold nugget. It is such a gold nugget because I'll tell you because you're hustling so hard you forget to invoice.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

An eleven thousand dollar invoice that I did not over-accumulate it over time. We cut we constantly went back, kept them, kept them going.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

My husband was literally found out.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

So when COVID came around, it turned out to be a really good opportunity. He put his name in the hat at IHG and said, if I can save somebody's job, I think I'll I would like to resign. And and it ended up being, he asked me, Would you would you take me on? And I said, I can't afford you. I can't afford you, but let's grow. Let's grow together. And I can't afford you.

SPEAKER_07 24:03

I'm busy not invoicing people, dude.

SPEAKER_06 24:05

Come on, I'm over here running a killer business. This great idea. I will actually charge people for the job that you're doing.

SPEAKER_07 24:11

You know, honestly, guys, this is uh it's it sounds moronic, but we've all done it. We haven't, yeah. No, no, we have. No. Oh, I have. Yes, no, I'm telling you, no, we've all done dumb things. Uh certain businesses have been one of them.

SPEAKER_03 24:26

To carve out your strengths and your weaknesses.

SPEAKER_07 24:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Um, I

Residential Versus Commercial Culture

SPEAKER_03 24:29

think what corporate brought me, um, having both of us with corporate, our company culture was is solid. It's a pretty awesome culture, I have to say. We treat each other like I think that's why you people stay. I really agree. Like you need to treat them with respect, hear their voice. We're in an industry where home services, we get an earful of things that could be negative during a a job that is completed. It's our job to try and find just quick to resolutions. How do we make it a positive? Not only for the client, but also for our employee, because you don't want them to feel like, oh my gosh, I'm constantly messing up.

SPEAKER_07 25:08

Right. That you know, it's funny you should say that, and that's why I said you're back. Uh because you're on the show because we we talked, and I was like, she's saying so many things. It's right. What's crazy about our employees is that they don't work under a uh, they do not like working in the environment of stress. In corporate America, we're taught to learn to work under corporate stress. But these guys are creative artists. If you're cleaning a house and I have this lady following me around, when you miss a spot, you miss a spot, you miss a spot. You're you're you're killing my confidence, girl. I can't I can't do anything if you're just gonna keep telling me I'm doing everything wrong. That's the big difference between residential and commercial, which are two completely different.

SPEAKER_03 25:45

Oh my goodness on sale, Alan, because in the court commercial, you're not gonna get right into the weeds and details.

SPEAKER_06 25:51

No, you're doing it after hours, and you just kind of do a little this and a little that, and just do it a couple times a week and you're good. But at home, it's like where's where's my ring? Oh, it must have been the cleaner. It definitely was the cleaner.

SPEAKER_03 26:04

Where the value is on the commercial side, you need to have really good communication. That's where we have have found success.

Communication Plus AI For Commercial

SPEAKER_03 26:12

If you're able to communicate really well, you have a tight communication with your team to be able to relay that to the client, they feel like everything's under control. That is super important. If you can find a way to combine AI to help you out with that communication piece, that's my biggest um advice on the commercial side. If you're interested in going into clo commercial cleaning, that component of communication is so so near and

Airbnb Turnovers And A Fugitive Arrest

SPEAKER_03 26:41

dear.

SPEAKER_06 26:41

Do you have any uh okay?

SPEAKER_03 26:43

You want an example?

SPEAKER_06 26:44

No, I want I want a funny cleaning story. You gotta have one because if you don't, I've got one for you.

SPEAKER_03 26:48

The most of the c funny cleaning stories happen in the residence.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Whether it is someone opens the door and they're completely naked.

SPEAKER_04 26:57

Oh, that's yay. This is not a newest calendar, dude. My headphones just fell off.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

Drive to an Airbnb. Oh, I could write a book on Airbnb cleans. You should in Atlanta. There's a big porn industry here in Atlanta. Oh my gosh. So we actually weed out, we ask people prospective clients that are you in porn? That call no, I don't ask that.

SPEAKER_05 27:21

No, it's not just you can't ask that, Alan. Can you porn adjacent? You know what? I think that is the porn.

SPEAKER_03 27:27

It's people uh booking the reservation. Oh so we one of the questions that we ask in Airbnb cleans to the host is we only work with hosts that have a two-night minimum. If they have a one-night minimum, so porn only goes one night. I guess you know what?

SPEAKER_07 27:46

You learn everything on this episode. The small business safari guys, you learn so much.

SPEAKER_00 27:52

So ceiling on the ceiling.

SPEAKER_07 27:54

Well, what?

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Why is it on the ceiling? You would wonder. Urine all over the walls.

SPEAKER_07 28:01

I think you broke me. I uh I'm sitting there trying to figure out I'm actually physically trying to figure this out. I'm like, nope, king.

SPEAKER_03 28:08

Tammer to a toilet.

SPEAKER_05 28:09

Oh no. That's part of porn. What kind of porn is that? I don't know. I don't know either.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

Something else. That was probably just a party.

SPEAKER_07 28:16

Faces of death.

SPEAKER_03 28:17

Is that a porn?

SPEAKER_07 28:18

Oh really. You know, guys, small business safari, entrepreneurial, but don't forget to tell your friends, we're actually gonna pop up to a new genre soon. Um, so Kate, stay tuned.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Sex sells.

SPEAKER_07 28:32

Sex sells, baby. Are you joking? Oh my god. Not joking. I I got it.

SPEAKER_03 28:36

The worst one was two fugitives were found in an Airbnb that we were we just arrived to for cleaning. We had just opened our cleaners, it was a two-person team. They had just opened a door. It was in Brookhaven, they had just opened the door and they heard sounds and they let us know at back at our office. We hear someone inside the house. We're like, oh, okay, just close the door and we'll tell the host. The host told us, please stay, tell your crew, go back in their car. We're having a little bit of a situation. I was like, What's the situation? She said, Well, the cops are coming because we believe that they are the cops called me to tell me that they believe two fugitives are in the house. I was like, What? Two guys stole a BMW from a BMW car dealership right near Brookhaven, drove to that Airbnb after hitting a jewelry store, they stupidly posted pictures of themselves in post with the jewelry, and the Airbnb had photos of the paintings in the background and the decor. The I'm I have to give props to the Brookhaven police. They looked up Airbnbs in that area and and called different Airbnb hosts. Is this your home? Is this your home? And they came and they ended up arresting the two fugitives in the house.

SPEAKER_07 29:58

Great question, Alan. And we've just dropped up another of genre, baby. We are killing it. We got Vanessa Hudgens on. I've got one clean to casket.

SPEAKER_06 30:06

I got a cleaning story I got to tell Vanessa. Okay. All right.

Biohazard Scene That Got Cleaned

SPEAKER_06 30:09

So a friend of mine became uh, I don't know, the VP of operations for a uh biohazard cleaning franchise. And so they sell a franchise to you or me, and then you come in for training. And part of the training is they have this room that's set up, and then they create a crime scene because that's some of the things that they have to clean up, like somebody offs themselves in a hotel, or there's you know, some sort of whatever.

SPEAKER_03 30:38

Getting a lot of those calls out what type of clean we do, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_06 30:42

So well, so you know it takes a special and I have an amazing husband and wife team that does it do it though. Oh so anyway, they they had their franchisees coming in the next day, and so they set up this crime scene and they're using pig's blood, and they like the lamps are broken on the floor, and it's like a kitchen scene, and there's blood dripping off the counter and all this stuff. And they show up to have training the next day, and it's all gone. It's perfectly clean. Apparently, the commercial cleaning crew the night before came in and saw this mess and just cleaned it up. No, nothing maybe. No, but if I'm a cleaner and I come into a room and there's like blood dripping all over the floor and the lamps. You think you call the cops or you know what?

SPEAKER_07 31:28

I actually, if you're here in the Atlanta area, what I just heard is uh if you have something like that, God forbid, don't talk to anybody, don't tell anybody what's going on, just call Vanessa clean to call and ask for the special husband. All you're gonna say is special husband wife team. That's all you're gonna say. In fact, anybody listening to the podcast, Brandon and Terry. You just call up and you say uh small business safari, special husband wife team. No questions asked, it's cleaned, no problemo, nobody knows anything, it's all gone. It was good. Goodbye. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

That's right.

SPEAKER_07 31:58

Now that's a business you build right there, Alan.

SPEAKER_02 32:01

They're T A C T.

SPEAKER_07 32:02

You can charge a lot for it.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

They're called tact. Yeah, they're actually they're pretty reasonable. They do it out of the goodness of their heart. They really do. They do charge it for it.

SPEAKER_07 32:11

But what I'm talking about probably didn't happen out of the goodness of my heart. You know what I mean? I've had a lot of employees, Vanessa. I've got a lot of uh customers that you know, if there was ever a purge, I I actually I'm going in. I'm gonna load up. No, you can't do that, everybody. No, we love our customers. Everybody, let's stay back on this. Sorry, Vanessa.

Staying In Your Lane

SPEAKER_03 32:30

Well, you know, on that point, it's interesting we talk about that because as an entrepreneur from corporate, leaving corporate, I think sometimes we may get a little bit too greedy where you think I want all the business. You can't serve everybody. There's so many places to clean. It's the reverse. Use your corporate experience to really try to network and grow your network of people because you can't serve all areas, you can't serve all different types of cleans. Like, for instance, we don't do restaurant cleans. You need to be certified sometimes for that. Um, so we have a very specific target market. Sustain your lane, sustain your lane, and thank you, Ellen. And help grow the community. I want to see other cleaning companies succeed, so I I refer them.

SPEAKER_06 33:14

Do you want to see other uh let's go back to Vanessa?

SPEAKER_07 33:17

No, all new man people, the rest of you die, die, die. Chris wins, wins, wins. No. Uh so Vanessa, one of the things I've been dying to ask since you started is I read I want everybody to grow and win outside of Atlanta, actually. And if I'm coming to your neighborhood, uh, which I might be, then I hope you're going down too. No, everybody, that's called competition. Don't worry about it. I'll take you out at your ankles. I will do anything to anybody at any time. Still, after 18 years, Alan. Haven't stayed in my lane. Vanessa, when you started your business, all of your experience to that point had been B2B. And you realize now you're in a B2C world.

SPEAKER_03 33:55

Yep. Totally.

SPEAKER_07 33:56

I totally didn't know that until I was two months into it. I'm like, holy shit, I just started a B2C business. Yep. What did you do? Did you change your mindset? Did you, I mean, obviously, you talked about how did you change your mindset and to realize that working with people is nuts?

SPEAKER_03 34:11

Oh, yeah. You have to. And honestly, that was my motivation for rolling up my sleeves and wanting to clean toilets for at least a year while I was growing a team. While I was growing the team, they were teaching me all the ins and outs of cleaning along with my business coach. But I was bringing more of the business aspect. So I already had that background to know where systems need to be, how what's the formula of success here? But I needed to know hands-on what needs to happen there so I can respond to Did you go work for somebody else, or how did you get that experience?

SPEAKER_06 34:46

Because I think that's a you know, like they always say, if you want to open a restaurant, you better go work in a restaurant. Where did you get that experience?

SPEAKER_03 34:54

I

Learning Construction Cleaning Hands On

SPEAKER_03 34:55

call it karma because I live in East Cobb Marietta. There was a house being built right next to my house, and I saw one lady driving up, and it was like a 6,800 square foot home. And I saw one lady call going with her cleaning supplies right when I was opening my doors of clean to casa, and I saw her going in to clean that house as a post-construction clean. I remember I mentioned to you, Chris, that was my first type of clean. I felt like that was the hardest clean to master. If we could master that, everything else.

SPEAKER_06 35:29

That's another very different kind of clean.

SPEAKER_03 35:31

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_07 35:32

Thank you, Alan, for telling us all that. Are you calling me Captain Obvious?

SPEAKER_06 35:36

You're you're that's awesome. So let's go back. So they don't realize the post-construction clean, you've got you're dealing with a lot of a lot of dust. Yeah. I mean, you know what?

SPEAKER_03 35:46

A 6,800 square foot home to do it all by yourself. I was intrigued. I remember driving up in my driveway and seeing her arrive at the same time. She was arriving at 5 p.m. at night to do the cleaning. And I remember going to my my family. We were about to sit down for dinner. I said, You know, you guys know what? I'm gonna leave a little bit early, the dinner table, and go next door and go meet the lady next door. I'm just intrigued. I'm I want to meet her. Janetta, being from Mexico, we are like best friends. We still are best friends today. She was my first employee. She left California in LA, growing an 11-year business of residential cleans, and one of her her stick was commercial construction. She loved construction cleans. She came over to Atlanta for love and was doing individual work. So I told her, I said, we could we could help each other out because I said, if you have a business that is 11 years, and she told me that her cousin and her sister that she left in charge in California with her business, they were running it into the ground. And I said, No, no, no, no. You built that for 11 years. You gotta get that back up and running. Because if something should go wrong here and you need to return back to California, you need to have a good, well-oiled machine. So we helped each other. She taught me construction cleaning, I taught her how to promote her business. She didn't even know. She was like, Oh my gosh, you have a business card.

unknown 37:13

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 37:14

Oh she's like, wait, you have online scheduling? How does that work? I use paper and pen. So we taught each other. And I think that was super necessary from for my particular circumstance to really understand from a consumer point of view when we're going into a homeowner's house. So I can address, oh, they didn't really clean the faucets very well in my bathroom, or my shower door still has a lot of uh a foggy film on it. What what can be done? I could address it right then and there, we'll come back the next day, or even if we're still there to get to get that taken care of. I think that um hands-on experience really helped me troubleshoot it over the phone so we sound competent because I think that's number one. A lot

Where AI Helps And Fails

SPEAKER_03 38:04

of us in home services is maybe they don't feel like we sound competent. And that's one thing that is a concern with AI coming into play. Does AI really know how to address those types of concerns? Not really. It's I think the human aspect combining to both timeliness, AI, right? Easy, easy A to B type of scenarios, AI. But when it comes to complex situations, that maybe AI is not well trained yet. Who knows? Maybe they will be trained.

SPEAKER_07 38:37

But Ellen, I think what she's saying basically is that we're gonna have an AI senator before we'll have an AI house cleaner because it's more complex. What I heard was house cleaning, handyman business more complex than being a senator. Uh we can have an AI senator, but we cannot have this. So file that away. We'll come back to because we're not a political channel. No, we're uh but but but actually now I'm thinking about maybe you know, now we actually we've got true crimes and sex in it. So I mean we've just gone up, we've gone up to the top two, baby. Uh we're skipping right over news. All right. Vanessa, so you're you guys uh obviously great foundation. You talked about this. I I say this all the time. I don't think I would run the business I did without having the experiences I had. And those experiences, while it cost me a lot of money in the beginning, if it were, because I was actually doing the work and not growing the business, but you know, trying to do it all. But when I talk to guys, they can't bullshit me. They can't say, Hey, uh, I can't do that. I'm like, well, as a matter of fact, uh you can because I did. Um, or if a customer calls and says, I haven't seen this, you know, I've seen over 20,000 houses now after uh being in it for 18 years. Um, I always see stuff that's new. In fact, I just saw another one that was new uh yesterday. This is a crazy homeowner special, but uh you but you had that experience. I think that's so invaluable, and that's the stuff where you slow down to speed up.

SPEAKER_03 40:01

And choose to your 18 years. That's that's amazing. Yeah. There's growth in that a lot.

SPEAKER_07 40:07

Spend the best two years of my life. There's two of them in there somewhere. No, thank you. So uh where are you guys now? How

Scaling Commercial Pricing For Volume

SPEAKER_07 40:16

many employees? Where do you want to go? What what what are your dreams now?

SPEAKER_03 40:19

The exciting agenda ahead of us this year. Um, we have uh rolled, been expanding our commercial services. Um, we just put a bid in for some universities in Atlanta. Oh, that's big time. So that is big time, isn't it? It's uh it's a 10-person crew, five days a week, eight-hour shift for each person. Um we uh I I I wanted to share this actually because this is something interesting. Um so if someone is interested in getting into that commercial sector, completely different pricing, completely different model, completely different type of clean um than residential. But when you're getting into that commercial sector, um know your worth, know what's going to be your good, what's a good comfortable profit margin, and what's gonna make sure that your team is gonna show up every day.

SPEAKER_07 41:09

So, what's the nuance there? Are you saying that um if you come out of residential to go to commercial, we're a little tight on our margins when it goes to commercial? You should be a little higher.

SPEAKER_03 41:17

Because you wanna be know uh you're you gotta you can't discount that you're getting volume. You're getting volume rather than a one-time clean per week or per every two weeks or every four weeks, like a monthly clean. It's in the commercial model, you're getting per day. So you you gotta make sure that your team is motivated and compensated well, especially with gasoline these days.

SPEAKER_06 41:44

A.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

And the cost of living going up.

SPEAKER_06 41:46

And I mean, residential during the day, commercial tends to be at night. Um, commercial could, like if you get the university, you're talking about maybe a machine that does tile floors. I mean, you're you're talking about some heavier equipment.

SPEAKER_03 42:02

Yeah, you mean decide what what services you want to offer.

SPEAKER_06 42:05

Yeah, yeah. Huge difference.

SPEAKER_03 42:07

We've been known to take care of spaces like a home. And Delta Airlines is one of our clients for the last six years. They have told us that was their line. You take care of our offices like it's home. Because they have a a 24-7 um cleaning company that that handles the whole campus. We're brought in as the deeper cleaners, the ones that go down into the nitty-gritty details and really keep things sanitized and clean. Because janitors, they just if you ask them, if you ask someone that is in charge of trash to do something about the floors, they're like, oh, no, no, no, no. Not my job. My job.

SPEAKER_05 42:50

That's a floor cleaner. Not my job, Alan. Not my job. Vice versa. How's that feel, buddy? You're giving me the gut stare.

SPEAKER_03 42:58

Pass the buck, right? Yeah. The corporate pass the buck. We're viewed as more of the detail cleaners, really getting spaces productive, clean, sanitized.

SPEAKER_07 43:07

Do you see your growth in the commercial space? Is that where you guys are thinking?

SPEAKER_03 43:10

We're doing both.

Acquisition Teaser And Contact Info

SPEAKER_03 43:11

We're um, I mean, you're you're catching me during a time where we're finalizing a potential acquisition um for a residential business that's been in the market for 15 years.

SPEAKER_07 43:21

Holy cow. Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 43:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 43:24

Oh my gosh. And I hate this. We're coming to the end, and she just dropped that huge like we could go for another hour on this one. I mean, guys, we can't do it. That's a teaser. That's what in the radio business, that's what we like to call a teaser. We're gonna have to bring Vanessa back on to talk about that stuff. Vanessa, this is great. Uh it's clean to casa. If you're here in Atlanta, get them to clean your house, get them to clean your office. If you aren't in Atlanta, get them to clean your house. I'm kidding. Uh it's a great website, by the way. The website looks amazing. Maybe you want that franchise idea.

SPEAKER_02 43:56

A business in a box, right?

SPEAKER_07 43:57

You got it. The clean to casa box.

SPEAKER_03 44:00

So the marketing side of it.

SPEAKER_07 44:02

I I like where you're at. Vanessa, how can I regulate a hold of you?

SPEAKER_03 44:05

Uh, everyone can go to clean2casa.com. It'd be very easy. You can get a quote within minutes, and um, we'd love to help out. No obligations, honestly. We're here to really make spaces clean, make people happy when they don't have time to clean.

SPEAKER_07 44:21

Well, so one quick question. Uh, you showed us your service area. I just wonder, is is um is Australia in that? No. Uh wait, the island. Where's our buddy from Tasmania? Tasmania. Is Tasmania no? Yeah. So in fact, I just heard from him a w uh a week ago, um, our Tasmanian buddy, because he's always on the lookout for great guests for us. Guys, another great episode learning stuff about how to start a business. She went B2B, she went B2C, she got her arms, and she actually she got the toilet.

SPEAKER_03 44:52

And and honestly, if anyone has any questions on cleaning, uh what they need to do, let me know. Let me know if you want to start a few.

SPEAKER_06 45:03

Is where you're an expert.

SPEAKER_07 45:05

Um well, actually, after we're done with the podcast, guys, I'm gonna I am gonna ask how do you get blood off a ceiling? Um that's a spray pattern. I don't know how it got there. Uh the answer is vinegar. That's the title of this one. Uh, you want to clean blood spots, you go with vinegar, or you go with clean two casa. Guys, start a great business, make a great business. He had she had also great, we had so many angles we could have gone with this one. But Vanessa, you got a great business going, great family. Love what you've done. You're giving back to the community already. You started off from day one doing it, you're giving back to two already. So clearly, you guys are doing great after nine years and continued success. Let's make it happen. Let's keep making it up that mountain. We got a lot to cover, but let's get it covered the right way. Get up that mountain, we gotta go. Thank you both. Cheers, everybody.

Closing Thoughts And Cheers

SPEAKER_07 45:52

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Small Business Department. Remember, positive attitude will help you achieve that higher altitude you're looking for in the wild world small business understanding. Until next time, right?