Planning to quit my C-Suite Exec Job to start a cleaning company - AM I INSANE?

[mozes]

I've spent the past 15 yrs as a C-suite across various roles, including CEO and COO, mostly in venture-backed companies. I have experience starting and leading companies in the consumer services industry but always by operating stores or digital products, nothing significant in the home.

Like so many people on here, I'm burned out from the incessant travel, working for others, and dealing with boards. I am looking to start a business with fairly low capital needs that I can run in parallel to my current work until I have a revenue base that will support be going full-time on the 'side gig'.

Below is my plan, I am humbly submitting for review and feedback both on the plan itself and whether this is a fools errand. I plan to keep myself accountable and report back on progress regularly.

Hypothesis: There is a niche within the house-cleaning market for non-toxic, chemical-free cleaning that is safe for kids, pets, and anyone with allergies. Think like the 'Honest Brands' type positioning but for home services. Note I am not saying NO-ONE does this or it's a novel idea; I just have yet to see someone do it with a brand-first approach.

I plan to build a brand around their expert testimony of the dangers of even organic cleaning chemicals. I live in an affluent area of California very dog friendly and lots of 'organic' moms. If I can hook into the right customer base on the combined: fear of toxins and upscale premium service positioning I think I can charge 20% or more above market. I can't compete with cash based independents who aren't paying taxes so I'm not going to even try. This thing basically lives or dies on the ability to find my target consumer who is willing to pay a bit more for peace of mind on safety from chemicals and having their house cleaner referenced, background checked, etc.

I have experience with digital marketing and sales funnels so I am planning on initially refining the brand and proving through testing that the market exists.

Here is my initial plan: (I am omitting all the incorporating, insurance etc stuff because it's less material here for feedback)

• Build an attractive website with a clear articulation of the dangers present in the current chemicals being used in your home and our approach. Lean on how it was founded by a mom who is a doctor, and it is positioned with my co-founder (MD/Mom).
• Run digital ads on meta and google directing people to the site and directing them to book or setup a consultation call. I or a very good salesman buddy of mine with then attempt to 'close' this new business.
• Also plan to do targeted door hangers in affluent areas in proximity to my house.
• Depending on the volume and cost of acquisition, I plan to either contract with or hire my current house cleaner, who is an independent contractor, to take on these new jobs. (Yes, I know CA is rough on contractor vs. employee stuff; I am reviewing all that now.).
• These first jobs would form the basis of initial google reviews and if all goes well I scale up to additional crews and continue to refine the pitch / spend more on customer acquisition.

I appreciate any feedback here. The podcast and reddit have been super motivating for getting over the hump and committing to making my own business happen.

 

[georgie905]

@mozes I don’t believe the honest/organic aspect is much of a differentiator that will affect pricing very much.

The only problem I see with cleaning businesses is that you’re very beholden to humans. You’re going be constantly recruiting, training, quality assurance. It’ll be a lot of day to day management.

Just something to consider as your growth will mostly be limited by your ability to attract and retain talent

 

[mozes]

@georgie905 Thank you! If I can't prove it's a meaningful differentiator, I'll probably move off of it into another home service or attempt another point of differentiation.

 

[pastorpontibus]

@mozes Not saying you shouldn't try again but I can tell you as a 15 year veteran of the business, in a large market, this trend came and went years ago. There were many brands marketing green first cleaning. Even the big franchisees (Molly, Merry, etc...) offered it. The reality is though it's just a component of cleaning and not the driving reason why customers pay for service. Additionally, it's not really demonstrable and the customer isn't aware once you've gotten past the initial cleaning. Like others at the time, we marketed Green and Safe. We asked for feedback. We offered the "option". The response rate was maybe 1%. The reality is, we've always use high quality, safe, and neutral products no matter what the customer wants because it's better for our business. It's better for our employees and there is zero risk of someone making a mistake by using the wrong product on the wrong surface that could cause stains or damage. It's just part of our normal process. We mention it but there has been no specific marketing push for years because it never moved the needle.

Good branding helps get you in the door but consistent quality cleaning is what keeps you working. Tidy launched a "high quality" brand a few years back. The marketing was cute and resonated with a specific demographic nation wide. However, they are a double sided marketplace and because they can't control the quality their cute brand is trashed by bad reviews. A good overall product (cleaning) is the driver of a sustainable business.

 

[chandler50]

@pastorpontibus Agree. I also thought this was going to be a big differentiator.. it has not been.

The differentiator has been: answer the phone, do what you say you will, provide a great service, and build a company culture.

 

[iserveonemaster]

@chandler50 This. As someone who has hired an in-home cleaner for 16+ years, what I care about are: 1-quality and consistency of cleaning, 2-ease of scheduling and consistently showing up at the time agreed upon, 3-make it easy for me to reschedule if needed that doesn’t require me talking to a human.

Things that I don’t have now that would bring value to me: 4-ability to leave feedback on something that could be better next time. This isn’t about getting anyone in trouble but to help the cleaner know how to meet my needs. In person convos can be awkward, so give me the opportunity to provide feedback in a kind and convenient manner as a means of continual improvement. 5-payment options like Venmo or similar. Writing checks is so 2001.

Items 1-3 above are actually identical to the value my barber brings to me. I can book and manage the booking without making a call. It’s all managed through Square and is super convenient for me.

 

[brendabree]

@mozes Also meta/google ads are a terrible waste of money for most service companies with under 50 employees. Word of mouth and guerilla marketing are far more effective until you have the budget and employee count to support other forms of marketing.

I won't tell you not to do it at all, but more often than not it's a terrible decision that people run red on for awhile. You'd be better off paying me to just go have lunch at a yacht club and talk you up.

 

[stigg]

@brendabree

guerilla marketing

Unrelated, but do my eyes deceive me? Someone spelled it correctly. Thank you, good sir.

 

[brendabree]

@stigg Hah, my man. Yeah it drives me crazy too when people who have clearly only heard of it verbally spell it wrong.

 

[summerbell]

@mozes I disagree with the original comment. If you’re in a semi affluent area I think it would be a huge differentiator. I wouldn’t say I’m not stupid money affluent but live a decent lifestyle with a family. If I ever hire a cleaning company I’m getting someone who uses non-toxic/organic cleaning supplies. I don’t want chemical crap around my kids or myself.

I think going heavy on content marketing and focusing on the negative aspect of the chemical/toxic based cleaners would be good. Posting that crap in local mom Facebook groups would probably get a lot of engagement.

 

[mozes]

@summerbell Whether or not this will work it is exactly my plan.

 

[anh0639]

@mozes It really depends on how involved you want to be in your business at its various stages of growth...but if you're a c-suite denizen, then you understand scalability.

Cleaning businesses are definitely scalable and your magic is all in your systems, your team, your employee's time management, satisfying customer expectations (which includes education and responsiveness, as your customers are going to be coming to you based on their own education and prejudices) and overall customer relationship as you should aim for a lot of word-of-mouth.

Do you have higher aspirations? For example a regional / national / global brand? As a C-Suite-er one would expect you to have relationships in finance, operations and marketing, as well as business development.

You original post suggests small potatoes...local / regional - which isn't bad.

However, your clarity of thought and your positioning suggest a very organized mind. If you're a systems guy who respects KPIs, number and data, if you play your cards right, you can build a sell-able business, or even a strong brand that lets you hand things off and lets you move on to bigger things.

 

[vantai324]

@mozes Take all of these comments with a grain of salt. Sole operators are generally horrendous at marketing. That include probabaly 95% of people in this thread. They are operarors, not marketing experts. Just because many businesses tried this and didn't get an effect doesn't mean consumers don't care about it.

For example, maybe they called out the benefit on a crappy landing page: "we use green products". No one knows what this means or why they should care.

If you position yourself such that your market understands the problem and understands that you're the solution, you may have a shot. This is a marketing play

 

[varzr]

@mozes I am in this exact scenario and tried a home cleaning business last year. I shut it after a few months. Why? Because you realize it quickly becomes and HR business and you are ALWAYS dealing with HR issues. People not showing up for interviews, not showing up for jobs, breaking things, flaking out ... you are always recruiting, training, recruiting, training - it never ends.

The only way this business sort of works is if you are going to personally do all of the cleanings. It's very difficult to scale. Others will come here and say they have successfully scaled home cleaning businesses and good on them if true but I found this next to impossible because of the employee aspect.

In the future when you can buy cleaning robots, that would be a great business but in 2024 you're going to be dealing with people who respond to $15/hr ads to clean toilets and that caliber of worker is going to be an eye opener coming from a white collar job.

 

[mozes]

@varzr This is super helpful. If you could magically sub-contract the actual cleaning to a reputable company but retain the scheduling and customer service do you think that would 'work'?

 

[varzr]

@mozes Acquiring customers / jobs is the easy part. We had no trouble finding customers. It was finding good employees that was the nightmare and is the secret sauce of this industry (home cleaning). I guess that’s a way of saying if someone actually has good people what do they need you for?

 

[crash1]

@varzr So most cleaning companies don’t want or can’t handle more customers?

 

[varzr]

@crash1 For us the issue wasn’t customer acquisition, it was hiring/training.

 

[newmove]

@varzr Like most any business. People need/want shit done. Plenty of people willing to take their money to do it, but bottleneck on people that can/will do the work.

 

[varzr]

@newmove Most businesses don’t involve the liability of low wage strangers going into customers’ homes.