More Than A Side Hustle

How Correy Scaled His Cleaning Business to Multiple Six Figures

Anthony & Jhanilka Hartzog Episode 151

Discover the strategy that took Correys Remote Cleaning business to doubling revenue in just 12 months. 

In this episode , he breaks down exactly what he changed, why it worked, and how you can implement the same approach in your own business. 

What you'll learn: 

  • How he went from doing everything myself to 90% hands-off operations
  • The contractor model that eliminated employee headaches 
  • Why he stopped being scared to scale after my bankruptcy experience
  • Specific systems that allowed him to expand
  • How to build generational wealth while teaching your kids entrepreneurship 

Whether you're a new entrepreneur or looking to break through a revenue plateau, this one change can transform your business growth.


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Speaker 2:

what's going on guys? Welcome to another episode of the more than a side hustle podcast. We help nine-to-fives create more impact, income and influence, and today is no different. We got my main man, cory, founder of real men, get it done cleaning services. If you guys don't know, you could. He is a returning guest on the show. His episode actually was recorded back in april of 2023, so we got a lot of catching up to do with him. We're going to talk about some of his largest contracts that he secured, but if you want to get the full, foundational story of Corey, you could go back and listen to episode 74 on the podcast. And welcome on, corey, excited to have you.

Speaker 1:

Yes, sir, appreciate you and appreciate being here.

Speaker 2:

No, appreciate you, man. So let's go ahead and get it rocking. So I know we recorded back in 2023, but I do want to give the people a little bit of overview about yourself you know who you are and what you do in case they don't go back to listen to that amazing episode you did so. Just give them a brief background about yourself and we could get it started from there.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I'm originally from Ohio, have been in Louisiana close to what 2016 is when we moved to Louisiana. So start the cleaning business roughly 2019, I want to say, or between 2019 2020, as Jeff, a outlet for me and the cleaning company actually started with the brand. So I guess to take a step back, I started the YouTube channel first, which was called real man get it done, and in I really just showcased life and part of that life was cleaning. So I saw a dope Instagram post from Michelle Welch and she's been on the podcast before, but she's dope and she's out of Florida and she was just showing what she did to make money cleaning and she had like $600 of just cleaning, like a moving out clean, and I'm like I'm already cleaning my home. I'm showcasing that. I think I want to start a cleaning business.

Speaker 1:

So, from that inspiration alone, started a big cleaning business, still having a nine to five and just working in the evenings for the cleaning business, and then really wanted to scale and kind of grow it. After about a year and a half I connected and saw y'all on Instagram and Facebook, chimed in on some of y'all lives, but I was like I don't know if that's the route I want to go. So I probably let it go, probably a half a year, even close to a year later, and I was like I think I'm ready and so I think in 2022 is when I actually got the course Cleaning Business University and have just taken off from there. So transition myself to getting out of the business from the day-to-day cleaning and then growing to have up to I think we have 18 contractors now and the business just has been evolving. So the past three years being a part of CBU, I've grown exponentially from when I started my first year and a half.

Speaker 2:

Let's go so a few notes.

Speaker 1:

Let's go. No, you're good.

Speaker 2:

So a few notes on that I want to things that I do want to highlight. So you also had your nine to five and you were building a cleaning business that night. So you were leaving your nine to five and after hours going out and doing move in, move out or late night cleanings.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that's what made it a beautiful thing, because I knew I had a nine to five and so my only niche was moving out, because I didn't have any daytime and I used my few lives. My family, my family, has been a big support with my kids, putting them in the business to work. My parents were here as well. Everybody has helped supporting me with like this dream and vision. So after hours just made it make the most sense, because everyone that's doing moving cleans or moving out, they don't care when you clean. So that's why it was a perfect fit. I would just kind of tell people during the day I'm like sorry, we're booked, we don't have any availability. So, no, we couldn't do any like regular kind of recurring cleans and all of our business was just the evenings and with the moving in or moving out cleans, and we were on the weekends as well and we just were doing amazing. It was crazy how much it really was coming to fruition just by jumping into the cleaning business.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, we got a little bit of Corey's backstory. So it's been about two years since our last interview and during that time, we talked about a few things. We talked about potentially expanding to different locations. We talked about you know your business growth, so give us a little bit of a summary on let's start with the numbers, because that's what people want to know. So, back in 2023, when we last interviewed you, do you remember what your revenue was for that year? And then also, um, what are you projecting in 2025?

Speaker 1:

I don't know exactly where I was, but I do remember like after the first year being a part of the dentistry university. So this is going on year number again three. Um, the first year I know I just cracked six figures. And then when I first cracked six figures, that's when you learn six figures isn't a lot of money because you're like I did it, I made it. But it's not a lot of money because when you think of what people don't say is that yeah, I made the six figures, but when you're paying out for your insurances or your contractors and stuff and that pie gets a little smaller. So that was a learning experience.

Speaker 1:

So then year two coming in, which was this past year, did better, did better. I know it was well over the six figures. I can't remember exactly, but definitely maybe, let's say, 20,000 more over the six figure mark First time I just made it. Next year I surpassed a little bit more. This year at six months in I'm already at six figures. Wow. So that's six months in, yeah, that's six months into this year. Just with how I've grown, expanded the business into um, going more on the commercial side also, adding carpet cleaning, adding flooring, uh, waxing and stripping, so just adding those pieces alone has kind of grown the business to be able to be a one-stop shop. So if someone has a moving out clean, yeah we can do the carpets. If someone is a commercial or wants some janitorial work, we're always going to ask them. You know your floors look kind of bad. So jumping and adding those add-ons in have just boosted and grown business tremendously.

Speaker 2:

Congratulations have just boosted and grown business tremendously Congratulations. So your first year, first couple years, you were talking about six figures and now you're halfway through the year and you already have six figures. So congratulations on that, man. And you did mention just now that you were adding additional services on. So, coming from a nine to five job, knowing nothing about the cleaning industry, and now you're at a point where you're doing multiple six figures in a year and you're adding services. How are you adding those services? Are you learning more about those type of things or are you doing them yourselves? Like we talk about stripping floors? I think that takes some type of skills. So are you doing that? Are you going youtube like, talk to me about that?

Speaker 1:

we are we, we are so for and this is why I say I still I'm like 90 out of business because I don't do any of the day-to-day cleaning, but on the commercial side, with the flooring, that's where I still, um, definitely have an imprint in my foot in there. And what we've done is I've been able to teach my son because, like I said, all my kids are part of the business, so I love being able to, these years, share entrepreneurship with them. Even my son, he has a goal this summer because we've been rocking and rolling he wants to buy himself a car. So he has a little bucket but, but.

Speaker 1:

But he wants to buy himself a. He wants a car like he. I mean his ideas. You know, teenagers, he's charger. Or I want you know a coma or I want to yeah.

Speaker 1:

So again we gotta we gotta drive back some, but again he definitely gonna help him out, of course. But he definitely is building his own bank account to be able to have and get a car by time school year starts again. So that has been my focus of teaching him and then also still being out of that. So now that he's 17, he's about to transition to be a senior for this summer probably 90% of the stripping and waxing he's done. So the past year me grinding it out with him and us learning it together with YouTube University, teaching him the method he can do most of the stripping and waxing and so I kind of pass it off to him as well. So still out of business.

Speaker 1:

But sometimes he hates carpet cleaning. Usually I'm doing the carpet cleaning. That's the one area that he does he hates. Like I told you, I had to go to some carpets before I jumped on this call. But yeah, it's been beautiful just even seeing him his growth and development. While I'm still at the nine to five and he's offered a summer, he can go knock out a strip and wax at 12 o'clock in the afternoon. So that's how we kind of expanded. We evolved to really kind of focus on the residential. All the contractors take care of the residential, still have contractors taking care of the commercial, but the flooring on the commercial side we're doing it, or my son, specifically, is the one doing it.

Speaker 2:

So you got teams going out right now, you got your son, you got the nine to five. So how are you managing the? Well, what's your typical day like when it comes to your business or your life in general? What's the typical day like?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, I do fortunately have an operations manager, so that helps a lot in terms of the day to day, I think. For me, when I first first thing waking up, just a quick, quick snapshot I'm at the gym, so working out, trying to get some meditation devotion in on my way to the gym, try to get a mile running after that, and then I'm showering and transition right to my nine to five. So I usually am there maybe a half an hour to 45 minutes before my actual job starts. So I kind of use that time to work on the business. Whatever may be needs to be done.

Speaker 1:

And one thing my mentor told me years ago was focus on everything that's money producing, your money producing activities. So for me what that means is if a quote needs to be completed, if a contract needs to be signed, I focus on everything that's going to generate money. Anything else social media, et cetera, social media, etc. Etc. That all can wait.

Speaker 1:

I focus on the money producing activities and then throughout the day, my job is flexible enough a text here, a phone call here, my operations manager, just to make sure things are good. And even when I have downtime lunch break, a 15 minute break I can jump on and also manage phones or manage things really remotely, because a lot of our business um people necessarily don't want to talk, they're good with texting back and forth. So as long as I have my mac um, it's easy to shoot a text. Even if I just have my phone, it's easy to communicate with the clients, even give them a quick quote. Right there be a text message, and that's how we just keep things moving. And then during the evening again, once I'm off work, I try to reserve that for doing any carpets, or if my son can't get to a wax, I'll do a wax. But it's all after work hours and on the weekend.

Speaker 2:

That's good. Oh, so the weekends as well? So before work, you're working, after work, you're working. So people talk about. Tell me a little bit about when people say I don't have the time to build a business. You got a family, you got a nine-to-five, you got the business, you got the brand. How are you prioritizing the importance of the task for you? So I know you mentioned revenue generating activity, but, as you know, as a father, something's gonna have to fall to the wayside when it's a little less family time or a little less, little less business time. What does that look like for you?

Speaker 1:

for me, I'm blessed to be at a position with and even though I've been in the business going on six years, my kids have grown with me. So for me I use that as opportunity to kind of be with my kids and for us to kind of grow and develop. In that regard, that's been really dope. My wife actually works second shift because she's a sheriff's deputy, so in the evenings and stuff like it really doesn't bother me, like she's off during the weekend, so I try to make sure we carve out that time on the weekends, but as I'm coming home she's already at work. So only ones I've had to worry about over the past you know what since 2016, since we moved to louisiana, is the kids, and for me, again, I've been the dad to take them to the. My job is more flexible. I'm an educator by day, so I have had the flexibility to take them to the. My job is more flexible. I'm an educator by day, so I have had the flexibility to take them to dentist appointments, orthodontist appointments, take them to practice, and I have way more flexibility than my wife. So I just had to make it work and oftentimes people would see me. They would know I have my laptop everywhere. So if my daughter has practice or if he has a basketball game, I'm the parent that's there dropping her off. And while we're there, before the game starts, I'm conducting business on my laptop. The game is starting, I shut it. Have time, open the laptop back up, get some work done, game, then shut it. So those are the kind of things that, for me, is the commitment to the business and wanting to see it be, see it do well.

Speaker 1:

And so when people are saying time, you know, as an educator I teach things about time management skills of students and leadership skills. It's not that you don't have enough time, you just aren't managing your time well. So that usually is always the issue you have enough time, you just aren't managing it well. Like, what are you doing throughout the course of a day? As I said, we have all those different random breaks. If you're even working a nine to five, you have your two 15 minute breaks. You have your hour lunch break. That's time.

Speaker 1:

Right there you can be working on the business. You may not be a morning person. You may have to go to bed early and force yourself to be a morning person. To get up when I'm as busy as I am. I just know you're just giving me excuses. You can find time in a day, not if you're a busy mom, if you're a busy dad, if you got kids. You can find the time. You just have to want to find the time and you got to be disciplined about it. That's the biggest thing being disciplined about your business and wanting it to be successful.

Speaker 2:

I find that to be disrespectful. Sometimes, when people tell me like oh, I'm busy or I forgot or I didn't have the time to get back to you. I am super busy, you're super busy, and I'm like we were going back and forth in chat to figure this out and I told you know, like wait, let me just hop in here because this is taking too long and I know I'm not too busy to respond to him, I think if he would text me you know how quickly I respond Like I don't play so. So when people say like I don't have the time or I'm too busy to me, that just means that there is something else. You are choosing not to do something. If you say that at that point, right, like I am choosing not to respond to you, I am choosing not to do this in my business. So it's a choice we all have to make.

Speaker 2:

So one thing that you said that a little while ago was a little bit about your team structure, and I definitely want to go into that because it's super amazing that you were able to essentially double your revenue in a year. So if you did six figures last year and this year already doubled, you already did six figures at this point in the year, you don't attract to double your revenue for this year. So talk to me a little bit about your team structure. So you mentioned your ops manager. Where did you find your ops manager? What give me? Give me that breakdown.

Speaker 1:

Let's walk through that for a little bit okay, so I don't know if I want to let this out the bag because it's so amazing say what you want to say and don't say we hold it nothing back here, okay yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I I would say a lot of people have VAs and things. I had a VA at one time and I was at a different location. My VA worked wonders and was amazing, rocked with me for almost a full year. But what I found is that sometimes when you're hiring VAs, it's overseas, the burnout happens. They're juggling multiple things and then they can eventually go shoot and then fall to. So when I was looking for an ops manager, I really just looked at my inner circle. As I said, people are like people often saying like don't work with your family, don't work with friends, don't work with. But for me, like I said, I looked at my inner circle of who do I trust, who are the people that are around me, who are the people that want me to be successful, and where do people are OK with growing with me, with me. So, even in my team, like, I found some awesome people that are, you know, cleaners that I've pretty much kind of rewarded to say this is where we're going, this is what we're trying to do.

Speaker 1:

A title is a lot for some people, like are you okay with having this title of an ops manager? Because, as we're doing business, conducting business, I want to be able to let people know they have to go through you before they can get to me. So that was the conversation with some of those cleaners. So they're still 1099. Again, didn't change them to any employees or anything, but again they're paid for them, kind of doing a little bit above and beyond. And that may not be the perfect ideal structure but again, sometimes in this business, since it's so unregulated, we're trying to make it happen until we can do what some of the larger corporations are doing and putting people on full salaries and whatnot. And so they were open and willing to rock with me to say like, yes, I'm okay with having that title, knowing that I have a little bit more responsibility with kind of connecting with some of these, these, these, uh contracts and kind of being the buffer for you.

Speaker 1:

I've always been a buffer and I tell people all the time you always have an assistant, it's yourself.

Speaker 1:

Never be the person in front of your business, because to me I think that will burn you and that's something I learned from a mentor two years ago you never be the fore-facing person. So when people connect with me they don't even know they're dealing with the owner. I use my middle name and that's what they're connecting with the assistant for real men get it done cleaning services. So that is a buffer that I created before I even had a staff and have grown to where I'm at. And then, now that I have the operations managers and I kind of have like one and a half one person I'm really trying to push even more. So, uh, with another big contract we're looking to secure, but kind of like one and a half operations managers hopefully two here soon I'm pushing them to be that buffer and they are the ones really working with the contractors directly because they're cleaners in the field as well and they're being the buffer for me with all the contracts that we have out in the area.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so you had one of your top cleaners and you're like listen, this person is already responsive. They're not dropping the ball. I can take them seriously. They understand the business and use us. We just had a casual conversation like this is where I want to go, this is what we're going to do you rocking with me or not?

Speaker 1:

Yep, and it's a beautiful thing seeing them grow too, because I think the one of the things that I got into business for was to create opportunities. So for me, I think another reason why we've been blessed I'm very adamant about no matter what faith background that you're in, because even people who don't believe in nothing, they believe in giving or pouring out. I'm a true believer of that. That. You have to pour out, believe in people and pour out on people like treat people right, do right by them. So I'm always trying to do that for my contractors, like I will take less money to make sure they're happy and they're complete, happy and they're complete. And so it's been a beautiful thing with the contractors and even with the operations managers, just being able to level them up, to be like I want you to succeed, because if we do well, if you do well, I do, we all do well.

Speaker 1:

And I know for sure, even with the business model that you guys have created, I don't think nowhere people are making as much money as they can. Whatever split you do 50-50, 60-40, 70-30. When I looked at we were just having a quick conversation with my operations manager yesterday because I often like to look at the competition and see what they're doing. A very big company that's been here since the 60s has a janitorial business. I looked at their pay. The highest of their pay was $12. An hour $12. I was making that back in 2011.

Speaker 1:

Exactly. And then even talking to solo cleaners who may have a little teams, the highest I've seen in my area was $15. Our cleaners are easily. Even when I have to go to the commercial side and give them only hourly and say 20, 25 an hour, we're still crushing all the competition in terms of even paying and just doing right by our people. So I think that's also just a piece of our success that you know we get good people and people that are interested, because when it really comes down to the crunching the numbers, nowhere else are you going to be able to work here and make as much money. Even with my son, he got a job real quick at KFC, worked there maybe two months and I made him get a job at KFC because he wasn't appreciating working for dad and I was telling him you go, you go do a floor and you're there for three hours and you made a hundred dollars.

Speaker 1:

What job is you going to grow where you're making over $25 an hour? So I made him go get a job at KFC and he came and turned back around like, yeah, I don't want to do this.

Speaker 2:

He didn't want to smell like chicken anymore. I don't want to do this anymore. He don't want to smell like chicken anymore.

Speaker 1:

Huh I don't want to work for somebody else. And now he's I mean he's crushing it this summer. So yeah, he definitely got a little bit of humble pie here, for sure.

Speaker 2:

That's why I say this business model is a win-win-win situation.

Speaker 2:

So it's a win for the business owner, because you're now able to build a team around what you either knew how to do and didn't want to do anymore, or something that you weren't passionate about you could outsource. It's a win for the client because they wouldn't have gotten in contact with an amazing cleaner or cleaning team where that now they can actually find someone to actually do the work, be responsive, be on time and do what they say they're going to do. And then, lastly, it's a win for the cleaning team, the cleaning partner, because now, like you just said, they're getting paid more than what they would have done at a local cleaning company. They probably got more freedom and flexibility and the upward mobility is absolutely amazing because it's a small, literally a small mom and pop shop, which is you, and they have the ability to see every facet of the business. They can decide to grow with you or they can learn the business structure and do their own thing down the line. So that's why I say it's a win, win, win for everyone all around.

Speaker 1:

Totally so. That's why I say it's a win, win, win for everyone all around. Totally agree. Yeah, totally agree.

Speaker 2:

So let's talk about a little bit. About your last we spoke, you were talking about some of the fears you had when you were launching a business, so some of the fears you had when you were transitioning to out of the actual cleaning. How have you gotten over those fears when now you seem like you said you got how many team members? 18?. So what does that look like today and how has that fear changed the business model for you?

Speaker 1:

Again, I'm a risk taker so I don't mind taking the risk, and I think we've spoken about this before. So for me the biggest challenge, honestly, was only thinking about W-2 employees, the the model of even just having 1099 and contractors was so mind blowing, because that's what I feared. It's like I don't want to be trying to match a payroll and paying people on the clock and we have no work. So how can I do that and try to grow and level up the business? And so I think when I even seen you guys and listen to what you were saying again, I guess it may be even click and even seen you guys and listen to what you were saying again, I guess it maybe didn't click.

Speaker 2:

And then, of course that was the time probably you know around, covid everybody named mama was doing courses.

Speaker 1:

I spent a waste of so much money during covid. It was like not, it was like one more thing I wasn't ready to put no more money into hold on, hold on.

Speaker 2:

Let me pause for a second. We just celebrated five years of of cleaning business university. If you go back, how many people are still sharing the information of the something that they started then right. So I want to give us a shout out. Number one, but number two, yes, I totally agree with you. So it was, um, it was a market where everyone had more time, everyone had more money than time, and they're like, listen, I'd rather just spend my money to learn and grow something, so continue your story. My bad, my bad, but I had to shout this out right quick.

Speaker 1:

No, seriously, no, like for real. That part was dope. And so I think, since so many people were selling things and I know I got and a lot of things I'll say this because I know some people still have some reservations about the course in the community, as I've been a part of a lot of communities and whatnot you can find value in anything you pay money for. But again, as we said earlier, you have to be willing to do the work. So it doesn't matter if you're a part of a community, if you buy a course on leadership or marketing or how to run social media.

Speaker 1:

As I told you, I also had a YouTube channel which helped me actually create the cleaning business. Even then I got a coach. I only did YouTube for so long and it was like levels to this, so I had to get a coach to understand the platform to be as successful as I can. So if you're thinking about doing anything and putting any money behind anything like oftentimes when people are saying something isn't working, it's not really the program, it's them. So that is kind of just where I was at. All the things I had put money into, some things went very well, but then you just learn like OK, that may have not been for me, so that's why I was kind of not side eyeing Clean Digital University. It just was the moment of like not wanting to spend any more money on any more products. No-transcript.

Speaker 2:

So you mentioned you mentioned a little bit about systems, right? You mentioned the operations manager. How have your systems evolved since 2023 to where it is now? Because I know around that time you were just starting, so you got any SOPs, anything or systematized that you could walk us through in your business where you're like this is something that you need to have in your business um, for me it's.

Speaker 1:

It's almost the the, not the tangible piece of it, because you can have all systems in the world, yeah and that's maybe not. That's not. That's going to help you. The biggest thing that has been the game changer and I tell people all the time when they're ready to listen is your customer service. For me that has been huge, like that's a big part of my sop. Of the contractors, even though they aren't employees, like I still give them a contractor agreement. Like they have a contract that they signed but they have another contract which is their, their subcontractor agreement, which just gives a snapshot of, like, what you're actually doing as a subcontractor and letting them still understand that you are under my umbrella. So it's not to to bind them by any means, but it's to just kind of let them know which you go out as a subcontractor. This is what the client is expecting. They're just expecting it to be done the right way because they see the reviews, they see people talking about it. So I think I carry that on with the contractors.

Speaker 1:

More like expectations, yeah exactly and even with the clients. Our reviews speak for themselves. We've been five-star rated from day one. May have a small blemish here or there, but I've always done my best to make it right. If we've messed up Sometimes you'll get those clients that don't care, they just want you to you couldn't please them, no matter what you did.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly, but I always go out of my way to be able to make sure that customer service piece is there and making sure we ask them for the reviews, because oftentimes you think it's just a no brainer People do reviews but people forget they aren't paying attention to it, or this is a whole bunch of reasons. But even from day one, before I even joined the cleaning business university and only had a Facebook page, I always followed up with the client to say please give me a review. This is going to help me grow my business if we did a good job and I've stuck to that. You know these almost six years later and that's why we stay five star rated and people kind of see that like, oh OK, they are who they say they are. When people look for us in our area for Google, we are always usually in the top three. We rotate, but we're usually in that top three and to me that says a lot.

Speaker 2:

So I want to transition a little bit and talk about some of those big wins you had recently, because that's what queued this up for this conversation that we're having now, and I felt like it was time to get you back on. So you have just secured two of the largest contracts that you had in your business. So walk me through the numbers and then we'll talk about how you found them or how they found you, but then also walk me through some of those transitional changes you had to make in your business.

Speaker 1:

So let's start with the contracts and some of those numbers. Yes, so the first one, um is a, is a local um steel manufacturer. That steel manufacturer, uh, is one of the top leading ones in the nation. Uh, they, anytime you see metal roofing on Home Depot or a casino or Lowe's, they're the ones that pretty much probably created because they're just that big Employee owned. They have one of their largest centers, hubs here in the Shreveport area, which is dope. So we secured that contract.

Speaker 1:

And when you start getting into contracts of that magnitude, obviously your insurances have to change. So that shifted some things of buying some more industrial type equipment, flooring equipment and whatnot, and upping some of those insurances. And that one was signed on a dotted line $55,000 plus floor care, which, as I told you, is another piece of our business. So we couldn't add that automatically for the year, but we've done strip and waxing for the whole area. We still are going to transition to some carpeting and that's just the first time this year. So then the goal is trying to push them to do it quarterly, so once every three months or so, or at least twice out the year year. So that already boosts that contract up. You know a little bit more than that 55, but that's what we signed on. The dotted line uh, for our, our cleaning um contractors to take care of that monday through friday. And then the second one, which we ain't gonna just skim past that like oh okay, okay, just skim past that.

Speaker 2:

So you just got number one congratulations, cory, because we got to remember. Where I say this all the time is that when I, when I talk to students and I and I get a lot of I get a lot of people who are starting now, because that, to me, that's, that's a fun. I am a starter, I'm a person that's going to get something done, get it launched Right, and I talked a lot of beginning entrepreneurs and I think that's that's my passion and that's where I spend a lot of time at, and now we can talk about scale and growth and all that We've done multiple seven figures, but a lot of times we kind of skim over those details because we don't remember where we were. And I got the proof, I got the evidence. I got the last interview we did back in 2023.

Speaker 2:

So I want to just commend you for securing a $55,000 plus contract right and securing one of the largest metal distributors in the nation. That is huge, man. So I definitely want to commend you and I want to congratulate you on that and I want to give you your flowers, because this is something you said you wanted to do. You sorted it out and you got it done. Now, how did you get the contract? Give us the details on that, walk us through that, because that's going to be a question. Well, that's great, you did that, but how can I do that?

Speaker 1:

I already know the question. Yeah, the first thing, even taking it back, because we had one big one last year as well which is still ongoing. We got that one for two years, the housing authority of Bossier City. So we cleaned all of the portable housing section for the city of Bossier and even getting to the commercial side. If you're doing residential commercial will come again, but it's levels to it because you may get like we got. For example, it was a couple of years ago on the 4th of July a contractor was doing a Walmart remodel and they needed the bathrooms clean. They just call us out of the blue, would you do it? I threw out any kind of number. I throw out like $2,000, $1,000 for each bathroom. They're like got it? Yes, because we were the only ones willing to come on the 4th of July. We came the first thing in the morning Was that just Google, it was Google.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was Google, it was Google. So you'll get things like that on the residential side, which will just be commercial and which will be dope. But what I want to do, as we were coming and seeing how the economy was starting to be where it was, I really wanted to grow my commercial pro portfolio because I knew residential just it's just knowing how the ebbs and flows of life If I'm struggling to pay my bills, I'm going to cut cleaning services. So I didn't want to be putting all of my A's in one basket with the residential side. So that's what pushed me to grow commercial. So I started looking into it again. I was on a look and listen to the podcast. I was on Instagram and found somebody somebody else that's really big on Instagram coach. I think it was John Austin coach. He's out of Houston or whatnot.

Speaker 1:

We're talking about contracts and commercial contracts saying this is what you need to do Find an Apex Accelerator, find your SBA. So I just started Googling. I Googled from the SBA and I found what's called an Apex Accelerator A-P-E-X Accelerator and everyone has one in their neck of the woods. It is free. It's usually paid for, kind of maybe through the SBA or your local chamber of commerce, but they are tasked with helping business owners get ready for contracting and that's the hard work that I did to do things like a capability statement that's your resume when you're a commercial cleaner to learn the ins and outs. I got certified to be a contractor for the government. Everyone wants to be a contractor for the federal government, so I did all the work to learn about contracting, the capability statement, the ins and outs reading For the government. When they send out contracts they're like hundreds of pages, taking the time to understand the process and to apply for government contracts. Now I'll be honest, I applied probably for like 10 government contracts. Didn't win any of them, but you learn through the process and learning how to do contracts, the ebb and flow of it, how to set them up, do them the right way.

Speaker 1:

Working with my Apex Accelerator, again completely free, allowed me to be comfortable with now submitting contracts locally. So that's how we were able to win the government contract, which is through the city, through the housing authority that we have here Shreveport Bozer Housing Authority and then it just made me comfortable when these bigger corporations connected with us about doing services. I was already in the classroom of learning about contracts to be able to do it. So that was the groundwork laid, probably like a year before all this happened. Again, I've been in business six years. About two years ago I was like I want to switch to commercial and I did the work Working with the Apex Accelerator. Learning about contracts and spending all the time to read that stuff was a part of just me being in the hard knock life in the classroom. So that was initially got me in a place to be comfortable. So when these things present themselves, I was okay with doing it.

Speaker 1:

Make it a refinalist? I believe he wouldn't say so. The, the, the metal company. Like I said they a lot of times with some of these folks like they'll say that they got information, someone told them about you, but they won't name drop. So I think it was a combination of someone mentioning us and then also, obviously, they Googled us. I could feel they Googled us because that's how they left the message and found us. So it was a mixture of that and it just was a conversation of let's do a walkthrough and let's see if this can be a good fit. And one of the biggest things he asked us after we did. The walkthrough was do you think you can handle this? He was really adamant and me and my operation manager was like yeah, like we can, if you have an opportunity, we can and we know we'll do better than the people you had before.

Speaker 2:

So that was the first one that was a few gems few gems on that one but the biggest gem that I got was stay ready so that you don't have to get ready. You said you did the work a year before you got the opportunity. Now, a lot of times we jump into these things and we're like why is it not paying off today? When is it going to pay off? How is it going to pay off? And we never know when the actual result will come. So we have to put ourselves in position so that when that result comes, we are prepared for it. It's never just going to be there when you are ready for it, but when you make yourself ready, you don't have to get ready. So congratulations, congratulations on that. Now, when they said when the gentleman looked you in the face and said, can you handle this, did you take offense to that? Or you were like he trying to sum me or something, or what?

Speaker 1:

No, I didn't, Because, just being realistic, there are tons of cleaners because the industry is so unregulated, so there's tons of cleaners, and that's what happens usually. Cleaners will take on something that they cannot handle and then be way well over their heads. And I learned that excuse me, with the government contracting, because that's when I learned how cheap the government is. They could care less about the quality of work, they just want the person who's going to bid the lowest on a bid. And so, with the government contracting, we have a government base in our backyard. I went to several government contracting walkthroughs that were on site here in my area.