More Than A Side Hustle
More Than A Side Hustle
Student Makes $8K/Month But Has ZERO Online Presence (We Coach Her Live)
We meet Shante, a cleaning business owner from Northwest Florida who's been in business for seven years but feels stuck at around $8,000 monthly revenue. This was a snippet of our live coaching session with her.
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Shante, we got you here. What's up? Hey, how are you?
Speaker 2:guys, how are you Good? How are you doing? I'm doing super well. I've been watching all your YouTubes. I bought the e-book and, like I said, I've had a cleaning business for the last seven years and I'm in the Northwest part of Florida. I had a corporate job for a long time. I ended up getting pregnant with twins, and so I didn't want to give up a regular retail lifestyle. I started this cleaning business with some friends, and I found myself doing a lot of work on my own. I've made it to a point where I can sustain, but I want to grow, and I'm at a point where no one's doing what I'm doing that I know. So I need you guys so I can learn more and grow my business. I need to learn the tools and learn the systems. I'm excited to be able to watch you guys and join your program.
Speaker 3:So when you say no one's doing what you're doing, what do you mean by that?
Speaker 2:No one that I know is elevating their business the way that I would like to. They're just willing to do vacation rental cleans and just be the contractor and get their invoice paid out and go about their business. I see that there's a bigger vision and what I want for my future I want to be able to manage, delegate and build and grow.
Speaker 3:Can I ask you what your revenue is currently or what that looks like month to month?
Speaker 2:Month to month. I'm making about $8,000 a month with my own hands, and so that's also eye-opening because I'm like I could be tripling this if I really put the right systems in place. If I really put the right systems in place Recently, like doing a little bit of y'all's work on the backend before joining, I did make a post in a community on Facebook and I found a cleaner who's been helping me. I've been able to double my jobs. I'm booked out so much.
Speaker 3:For free tips. You're learning and growing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's why I'm like the money's worth it and I want to take myself to the next level. I just need the other part of it.
Speaker 3:So let me. What's your question then? Cause I know you said you've been watching. You're in the Facebook group, you have the ebook, you've been watching our YouTubes, so what question do you have that's holding you back from joining.
Speaker 2:I think it's just been myself. Honestly, I think the point of like fear, but also the people like I'm good at recruiting, I know how to find talent from my corporate lifestyle it's what made me successful. Before I go get all these systems and dive into all this stuff, like who are the players, I think I was scared to jump off the bridge and not have the right players to be successful. Turn on the marketing, turn on the website and then I'm like dang, it's still me out here. You know what I mean. So I've been vetting people and I've even vetted a VA and told her hey, these are some of my ideas. I have a nice group of people who are willing to rock with me. So I just need to jump on board, take the teachings and the lessons and implement them and I'll be fine.
Speaker 1:But it's just scary. It sounds yeah, so this is why we're able to Thank, you for being honest.
Speaker 1:No, I appreciate the transparency and you've been. It seems like you're still jumping around a little bit too, because we wouldn't hire a VA if you aren't overwhelmed with the amount of work and you need to outsource some of the tasks, because right now, if you don't have any team members in place and you're doing all the work, there's not enough room to hire a VA, because they're doing most of the back end stuff. So if you've been doing about 8K, is it 8K a month for the last year? Has it been highs or lowers, or is that the average right now?
Speaker 2:Right now it's the average I would say for and the downtime, like $4,000 a month, and then during, like spring and summer, like I'm basically $7,000, $8,000 a month. This is probably my third month just $8,000. And that's why I did hire someone to help me out and that's also why I was like I am overwhelmed Because I've built such a rapport with the clients. Like I do a lot of work with realtors, I do have some personal Like I do a lot of work with realtors, I do have some personal residentials I do, but a lot of my revenue comes from move in, move outs with the realtor.
Speaker 3:It doesn't matter who's there, it doesn't matter who's in the home, you can definitely have somebody else do it. But how long have you been tapped in with us?
Speaker 2:In 2020, I started seeing you guys, but I wasn't tapped in fully. I was still growing. I started my business in 2019.
Speaker 1:I feel very green the thing about it like this you've been tapped in since 2022. We started our cleaning business pretty much around the same 2017. Yeah, so you've been stuck at about $8,000 a month because you probably don't have the right systems in place, you don't have the right people around you, you don't have the right coaching and support. It seems like you're still hesitant, but you don't have you're missing a lot in order to get to that next level. You have the ability to. I tell people all the time.
Speaker 1:It's not about the information, it's about the implementation. So I can sit here on this call and literally give you every single thing you need to do. This is why we we do the free calls. At the end of the day, it's not about the information that we give you. It's about you going and implement it. That's the biggest thing that you're missing. It's not. I can tell you exactly what you need to do in your business, but what are you going to do after we leave this call? Where's the accountability and where are you going to go and ask questions when you do need the support and you do need the help? So if you've been in business for eight years, you definitely have a lot of room to grow. How are you currently marketing your business? Because if you're currently where you are, what's the next step for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I guess that is my block. Really, I've been marketing just through connections, through Facebook groups. I have a cool community of realtors. They're women and they're all entrepreneurs and I got a call today from someone whose your name was all over this group and so I called you and I picked up the business. I haven't really spent money on marketing except for networking with people, going to events, realtor events, sponsoring events and earning a couple of minutes to highlight my business, and that really changed a lot for me when I did that, and then creating my own Facebook and Instagram pages and networking to connect with people.
Speaker 1:If you've ever seen us in here as talk. You're doing the traditional cleaning business thing, right? We work off a word of mouth, we work on referrals and it's like how far can that take you? If no one knows you, how can they support you? So they don't see your business, they don't know your brand outside of you just speaking to them, then you're missing out on a lot of money. People probably would love to see you, but they just can't find you. So what does your digital presence look like outside of Facebook and what else are you doing? What does your Google business profile look like? Do you have any?
Speaker 2:reviews? Yeah, I don't have one and that's why I was like I really need to join your program so that I can learn some of these tips and tricks to elevate myself, because outside of you guys I don't have anyone else to talk to in this business to give me ideas. I have to put myself in a different mindset to pay for a tool to learn something, to grow myself.
Speaker 1:Because one of the first things I would tell you right now if you've already been in a business eight years, where are you keeping your data? I mean your clients, the emails, phone numbers, things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I basically save everything on my laptop and then I use QuickBooks for invoices and stuff like that. It's worked for me in this realm but if I'm wanting to grow, I need to elevate and knowing other tools to use and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:So I would say one of the first things you should do is set your Google business profile up. So that's googlebusinesscom, and what that does is it legitimizes you on Google. So people type in the name of your cleaning business, they'll now find you. If they type in cleaning businesses in Florida now they're able to find you because you've been established for eight years. That would probably be the first thing I would tell you, and then also I would tell you to get reviews from you, which is why I asked you do you have the contact information from your previous customers? Because now you can send them directly to your Google business profile so you can start getting reviews there. So if you've been in business eight years, how many people can you reach out to right now to leave you a review?
Speaker 2:A lot 10?, 20?
Speaker 3:Possibly yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I could probably reach out to at least 20 people. That would give me a review.
Speaker 1:That would be something that I would tell you to do as well. It's going to take you maybe about three to five days to get your Google business profile certified, depending on the criteria you have. Then, once you get that, reach out to previous customers. Ask them to leave your review. Are your previous customers residential in your area? Are your previous?
Speaker 2:customers residential in your area. Yeah, so I have a mixed profile of vacation rentals, some residential clients and a handful of realtors I deal with in my area.
Speaker 1:What's your current outreach strategy to them, month after month?
Speaker 2:I don't have one.
Speaker 1:All right, perfect. At least we have the name, phone number and emails of those people. Let's get the reviews first, but while we're waiting for those reviews and Google profile, we can email all of those people. You can keep it in Google Gmail. If you want, you can BCC them. You can use a platform like ConvertKit or ActiveCampaign.
Speaker 1:We have our own platform called TinyTrack. They see around for cleaning business owners. You can import all those contacts. You can send out one blast email, one blast text message and then asking them to either leave your review or to rebook your services. So that's another easy way you could get revenue. And if they're just sitting on your list and you're not doing anything with it, that's probably the most easiest way you could drive more revenue for your business. So somebody asked in the chat about getting clients. This is one way you could do it as well, because people think that you always got to spend new money to get new clients. This is one way you could do it as well, because people think that you always got to spend new money to get new clients, but if you spend new money, you already have old leads sitting there. Use those leads that are already in your system so that you can rebook more business.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Thank you for the tip.
Speaker 3:No problem.