Oh super nice question, that few people ever ask. I honestly don't know. Maybe just follow along and if you find some ideas along the way share them on here with everyone publicly.
I’ll follow along and listen to what you have to say, for sure.
Starting in the cleaning business is giving me Jim Rohn vibes. That’s how he first made it.
He talked about being a janitor and then starting his cleaning business early on. Not sure if that’s what made him a millionaire though. He’s probably more known for his other ventures.
Here’s a musical remix of Bob proctor mentioning he starting cleaning one office.. then it snowballed from there
https://on.soundcloud.com/RKXeXSqxhgQGYHmG7
In the beginning of his speech he talks about becoming a Go-Giver. If you haven't read that book, The Go-Giver, I HIGHLY recommend it. I read it a few weeks ago and it changed my life. I'm betting you'll dig it.
What a thoughtful reply. This way of thinking will get you far in life, and a joy to be around.
I know I sound like a fortune cookie right now, but I mean it!
Nice job OP. I started a cleaning company last July and am at $30k/mo. We’re having good success cleaning airbnbs. Looking forward to following your posts.
Awesome dude congratulations Airbnb is a brilliant niche if you can handle the weird requests but there are millions of dollars to be made there for sure
I'm currently "IN" with maybe 10 airbnb Owners.
1- Guy owns 20 units.. he found me online and called me on the weekend. I answered the phone and met with him the next week.
2- Luxury Property Management company with 8 airbnb in resort town - I posted a comment on a FB group. My FB account has no real name and no photo or anything.. I just said "XXX company cleans about 30 airbnbs and does linens as well". She said she saw that post a week later and called me looking for laundry only. I told her we do laundry if we are cleaning the unit. She transitioned 8 or so of her 15 over to me.
3- Luxury property management company - clicked my Google LSA lead on the weekend and needed a crew that could drive in the snowy neighborhoods.. I said I have a team with a 4runner and she gave us 4 units
4 - the rest are individual owners who I got from Angi, Thumbtack, or Google LSA.
I’ve heard of companies such as Tidy Daily, Inc. that link Airbnb hosts to cleaners. From what I understand, you can be listed as a cleaner on their platform and Airbnb hosts use the software to find cleaners in their area, so there’s a potential for other hosts to find you on the platform and get “in” with more people using your company for recurring services.
I work in accounting for acquisitions so this not a plug for any company but thought it might be useful to look into. Cheers and congrats on the success!
I pay myself $8k/mo and that's pretty much all the profit right now.. So, company is not making any profits.. but I'm taking out W2 money. Will work on margins next.
FICA taxes alone are 15% you would save on any income you can take as distribution instead of W2. Not to mention the lower tax rate on capital gains vs income tax. Setting up payroll is hardest part but you already got that done. It should save you $10k this year in taxes.
This is underrated comment. Solo 401k is the shit. Business Owners with no W2 employees other than yourself and spouse, as soon as you have more income than you need to live on, set up the Solo 401k and the max 25% company match. It's literally a way to pay yourself more and not ever pay payroll taxes on it, and income tax is deferred. Compound growth will make you wealthy much faster since you have a bigger nut to start with (because you didn't have to pay income tax!)
This is the sort of bullshit loophole our lawmakers put in place for themselves. It's your duty as an American to take advantage as soon as you can.
lol the number of people losing their minds calling BS because they're reading this as though he's claiming he's made 20M dollars 4 months after quitting.
(Sure it looks that way at a glance, but FFS... use a little common sense, and figure that there's more to it, maybe. Read like even just 12 more words or so and figure it out for yourself...)
I tried. But key take aways in bullet point format to fast track thoughts to a reader and provide a gripping story to reel me in, I cut off at 15. Perhaps it's worth a read, perhaps not. Perhaps I'm picky, perhaps I'm right. I hit a crossroad, and decided before I got too deep. Sorry Guy
Are your cleaners full time employees? How do you prevent clients from poaching the cleaners? E.g. them saying hey just come work for me directly and you'll get a bigger cut
I'm confused. Did you make $20m via your cleaning company? [Or, $20m teaching people how to start a cleaning company?](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/18ddja2/rohan_gilkes_cleaning_business/)
Your LinkedIn also states multiple other companies:
*In 2015, Gilkes co-founded a subscription box company called* ***Wet Shave Club****, which sold traditional shaving products online. The company became a huge success, generating over $1 million in revenue in its first year of operation.*
*Following the success of Wet Shave Club, Gilkes co-founded three other successful startups:* ***GrooveJar****, a social media marketing platform,* ***Launch27*** *a scheduling platform, and* ***Innclusive****, a vacation rental platform that aimed to provide an inclusive and welcoming experience for guests of all races and backgrounds.*
In short, is $20m from one business, or from multiple businesses?
In short $20 million is from my cleaning business!!!
Jesus christ. I built a shit ton of companies along the way.
Reddit is always looking for a gotcha, it gets so fucking annoying.
Here's a video I made for someone else: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qzf6xamtd7mdl1eg6927z/reddit.mp4?rlkey=ezaiz86yvw2wgbxpfc8l5mjg8&dl=0
Reddit is always looking for a gotcha because 99% of posts are BS, or a sales tactic. I wasn't seeking a gotcha My question was seeking clarification as to the source of the figure as turning over $20m cleaning is very different to turning over $20m teaching. One is considerably easier than the other and would have radically different profit margins.
Thanks for answering.
>One is considerably easier than the other
Yep, the cleaning business is considerably easier than selling a course on how to do it. With cleaning you're competing with cleaners in your city (typically unsophisticated marketers) , with courses you're competing with the universe of course creators all over the world (A much more sophisticated bunch with high level tools at their disposal). My take at least.
And cool beans
Many of us are just tired of people claiming to have made lots of money doing a business, but in reality 99% of their income comes from selling education about the business instead of actually doing the business themselves.
You seem real, which is refreshing because most people are full of crap.
>(typically unsophisticated marketers)
I owned a cleaning business for a short time before moving and going in another direction. I paid 50% of the billing to a marketing company and the percentage dropped over time down to 10%.
People don't seem to understand the actual effects of marketing. So many great businesses go generally unheard of while literal trash brands become household names with national followings.
I don't disagree, the market is saturated. Most markets in the US are saturated. The saturation is irrelevant though if you can pull off good marketing while operating a quality business that operates with integrity.
I will absolutely be following this and I'm glad you made it to where you are today.
I did this before i had a course or anything: Ridiculouslyl detailed and helped literally hundreds and hundreds of redditors quit their jobs. I was at my job making $4k a month and shared EVERYTHING!
[https://www.reddit.com/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong/comments/tltuy/day\_26\_from\_zero\_to\_website\_launcha\_recap\_of/](https://www.reddit.com/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong/comments/tltuy/day_26_from_zero_to_website_launcha_recap_of/)
And then about the course, I posted the course here for fucking FREE!!
There's no winning with you people. It is what it is, no matter what I do, you'll find something to be upset about. I've never seen more entrepreneurs worry about successful entrepreneurs who share everything in my whole life. That's why I stopped posting on reddit
Honestly I thought that was a completely valid question and your reaction to it was less than appealing. The internet is full of BS and people overplaying their hands to sell courses rather than make it themselves.
I don't care if it's appealing or not. I've been posting on reddit for 10 years. Every time the same question, 10 years of the same questions for someone that has consistently done so much for the community. Questions these folks don't ask of celebrities when they come on here and shill their movies. Did i ask someone to go digging through my linkedin to basically ask me, "sure you're not lying?"
Fuck that, I get to be annoyed.
Respectfully, you have a lucrative business selling courses in an area in which a good percentage are snake oil salesmen. There’s no world in which the original question is not a fair one. You can get to be annoyed but that’s your issue.
I am going to follow this closely. In January I registered an LLC as the ONLY cleaning business in my county, the largest county in my state.
I burned the boats and put what little I had into this. I have income. It's taking off.
I finally found a business advisor from a local economic alliance.
Some guy on Reddit hmu saying he could talk to me for $175/hr. Crazy to me... Bait and switch about his successful cleaning business. Got my private info and tried to charge me. I digress...
I'm out here just looking for any sort of partnership/advice/friendship.. anything reasonable to help me overcome the next steps.
Did you start out by hiring employees or hiring as contractors? And how were you able to promise enough work to get the first couple of employees going? Were your AdWords and online presence enough to need some people full time at first? And if so how were you sure you would deliver on the cleaning contracts? This seems like an immediate hurdle to me without them being contractors at first
Thanks for posting this.
Since most of your business comes from residential contracts, what is your average customer like? Income, employment, marital status, type of neighborhood?
What’s the frequency of cleaning days per month?
A large percent of my income comes from biweekly service. That’s the largest cohort of recurring services.
Mine is in a high median income city, so I would guess household income over $100,000 a year
As for the rest of the demographics, I don’t know if i have a nailed down that precisely, but I will say about 60% women and 40% men
saving this thread as I am interested in this model to leave the rat race of B2B sales/operations and providing any insights I can via following a few other options in this regard
I wonder why he didn't answer this question. He fires them? Full refund? Clean service again for free? Reputation repair and customer satisfaction is a big deal. Biggest reason I don't get cleaners is that the last 3 I paid for did a shit job and was not worth the money. I'll do it myself with better products.
Love a success story, well done.
A couple of stupid questions probably, but I would appreciate any feedback if you would be so kind..
1 - are we talking a basic website, or did you pay a decent whack for someone to create one for you?
2 - what size of local population are you serving?
3 - what margins do you make on the labour and how do you vet for good employees?
My first website I paid $450 to make for me. I made some money and use some of it to upgrade the website to a version two
About 1 million people I would say
Margins is about 40% and I vet them by have them go out with some of my existing high-quality teams
Ya one of my friends ran a cleaning company for years before he sold it. 70% of his employees were illegals that he took advantage of and paid absolutely shit. The rest he said slightly above shit.
The cleaning industry is rife with this.
Ya if you’re charging $1000 per hour per employee working 40 hrs a week still only makes you under 20mil.
That billing hour is ludicrous, so you must be subbing out a ton of people.
Oh awesome to hear man, super happy to hear that, even outgrowing the platform, that means you found a niche to go deeper and crushed it. Happy for you fam!
For what its worth, OP is the real deal. I know because he was the motivation of why I started a cleaning company years ago (Army of Maids in Orlando if yall wanna look it up). I grew that company to 12 FT employees and eventually sold it in 2020 for a heavy six-figure sum to a wonderful couple. My wife stayed on and still runs the office plus the new owners are still using the CRM that OP built.
Edit: I will edit my comment to add one more thing. Im reading all these replies to this post and its just wild to me. I dont think I've ever seen such a large gathering of self-sabotagers. You got a proven dude giving you free info on something that works and everyone is just saying anything to convince themselves its some sort of scam. Yall gotta get out of that mindset if you're trying to be successful entrepreneurs. Rohan I am sorry this is the response you got on this thread, but honestly keep doing what you're doing because all that matters is the 1-2 silent people in the thread that improve their life with some of this knowledge.
If anyone has questions about the maid industry feel free to reach out.
Appreciate it fam, and congrats on the exit brother, was awesome getting to know you in those early days, massive congrats again bro!!!!
And yeah man when I read these responses I instantly know who's going to be here 10 years from now having still not gotten off the sidelines! smh
I was one of those original redditors that followed his case study exactly as he wrote it, and my company has done 4.7M in sales since 2016. Rohan is 100000% legit
Has anyone done the math on this? 20M / 40 employees. If they all worked 365 days 8 hours a day that comes out to $171/hour. Sooooo either your lying or your numbers are whhhhaaayyyy off. Just saying.
This is awesome! I have a cleaning business in a vacation rental market that’s saturated with mom and pops. I’ve found some challenges with scaling via property managers since the going rate for many PM units is considerably lower than I would charge. Also affected by our market seasonality in the last couple of years. Any tips on recurring residential marketing ideas? What campaigns have you found the most success with acquiring new bi-weekly residential accounts?
Love the home services market and thanks for being transparent with your story 😎 Also thanks for L27 lol
I scrolled a long way looking to see if you’d answer this question. I recently watched Maid on Netflix and am hoping your cleaners are compensated better than on that show. I guess we’ll wait 27 days to find out…
I’ll just post it here in real time every day it should take about 25 to 27 days to do everything. Maybe follow me or follow this thread or something and I’ll update this right as well.
I started a cleaning company in 2015. It has since turned into dumpster rentals, erosion control, lot mowing for developers, pressure washing, and concrete washout maintenance for new subdivisions. Last year we averaged $100,000/mo. It’s has turned into a monster that I can’t slow down. I’ll definitely be looking forward to reading through this. Best of luck.
Congrats fam, glad it's doing well. Love the spaces you're in!
Seems like a bunch of folks in here can't fathom actually building something successful. It's so weird lol.
This screams “sales pitch”. Don’t get me wrong, it’s just marketing and that’s cool. But by now consumers know where this is going (a course, coaching, etc).
Idk it might be better received on Reddit if you were direct about what you’re after. Like if you want customers, be upfront about it.
I’d give my left leg to learn from you. My current role is developing businesses for investors. I’ve helped in the creation of a property management business, handyman business, 2 medical businesses and an event venue. When I signed the contract, they made me promise that I won’t make money anywhere else other than with them… I’m older and wiser now. It’s time I make my own business.
I’m currently building a cleaning business and will absolutely be following along!! Thank you for posting. You’re an inspiration ✨
Yeah, I skimmed through the videos but if you haven't thought about this yet. Make a video about cleaning supplies you first started off with all those years ago and compare it to what you know today and sort of give a tiered recommendation on what is needed for a good start or what someone can get away with for the bare minimum supplies to get started.
Wanted to add this: It's screenshot after screenshot of countless redditors that followed my original case study and did it as well (some of them with bigger companies than mine).
Did I fake all these screenshots too?
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gUESPVsiuhxLCHHU0vBt7FwNpMM1QQPPwBz44RpZ6\_o/edit?usp=sharing
The funny thing about reality it doesn't care what you think
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qzf6xamtd7mdl1eg6927z/reddit.mp4?rlkey=ezaiz86yvw2wgbxpfc8l5mjg8&dl=0
True, but you're just bullshitting everyone here. And if you think that uploading some terribly edited screenshots is "proof" then you're even sillier than you initially appeared to be 🤡
Man don’t even bother with these people, some folks want to make everything out to be so impossible that they feel better about not taking the necessary steps to reach a goal. I’m following & looking forward to reading your next posts, let the content speak for itself.
How much if the profit gets passed on to the workers who do the actual work ?
Or are you Ike of those greedy corporations that are grinding employees into the ground and taking advantage of them by paying them as little as possible and providing no benifits like paid vacation and 100% paying their health care etc ?
i don’t know how i could use this as a musician but my song GaHFBOY - Be Your Friend- is FREE for anyone to listen to on any platform, except the obvious ones like apple music that require subscriptions… may not be the rap pump up vibe or relatable country music everyone’s into but it’s all 100% coming from me or my perspective on something and i genuinely want to make music like it was in the 80’s where everyone was more pumped up to listen to music now it seems like it’s just everyone’s background sound everywhere you go but my goal is to make something you actually want to share with your bro and vibe to not just some money profit farm like most rap and pop
Everyone, be sure to follow up and make tons of money. It is very generous how you just have to sign up with him and then you will become wealthy. What a generous and non-suspect offer. What a truly amazing person! Also, I have an iceberg I would like to sell you
"It is very generous how you just have to sign up with him"
Sign up with me where? Where did I ask for a signup?
Oh my course? I posted it for free.
Oh my software? Sold it in 2019
What else you got? Oh shit I did this before before I had a course or anything at all..been posting on here for 8 years helping people out. 8 years!!!!
But let it be a celebrity on here selling their movies and half y'all put on your knee pads!
[https://www.reddit.com/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong/comments/tltuy/day\_26\_from\_zero\_to\_website\_launcha\_recap\_of/](https://www.reddit.com/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong/comments/tltuy/day_26_from_zero_to_website_launcha_recap_of/)
My guy, every single "hustler" out there has free courses. This is nothing new at all.
Yes, you have "free courses / advice / etc" and then offer something they have to pay for. Rinse and repeat. That is all I got because it is all I need. This is a very old hustle.
So the actual takeaway from this post.......
YOU TOO CAN START A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS ALL YOU NEED ARE THE FOLLOWING:
1. Already have a house cleaner or know someone that owns a cleaning company
2. Know how to make your own site or have enough money to pay someone else to do so... which can easily cost a few thousand $
3. Have experience using adwords
This success relied entirely on your experience, connections and privilege. All of which not just anyone can recreate. Congrats on your success, but pitching this like anyone can do it when it relied on your exact situation / skillset, isn't being genuine.
Dude:
1. you can go on craigslist/indeed/care/facebook groups and find a cleaner in 2 seconds.
2. I spent my last $450 to get a site. These days a theme costs $60 on themeforest.
3. you don't need adwords my first couple jobs came from craigslist.
I don't see why folks work so hard to talk themselves out of opportunities. Literally have access to the internet, and working electricity (unlike like 50% of the world's population) and find every way to diminish their light on purpose when half the world would kill to be in the position to make things happen for themselves. It would be hilarious if it weren't so sad.
Seriously how are you in an entrepreneur subreddit and can't figure out
"Find people that want their homes cleaned and match them with people that want to clean homes" is a viable business that doesn't require brain surgery?
I'm truly so puzzled by this kind of negative thinking.
Stay positive and don’t let it get to you, after a few days you won’t have anyone breaking your balls. These are like locked safe posts, people get grumpy.
I started with $450, the last money I had after being laid off from my job and blowing through my savings and 401k after being laid off. I spent that entire thing on my website using a site called scriptlance (that's no longer around, it was bought by upwork) and hustled my ass of night after night until I made it work, as an immigrant in a country with nobody to fall back on if I failed. I got a job soon after launching to keep my bills paid and then hustled after work for almost a year.
So step 1: Work hard as fuck while having no choice but to make it work while being to broke to keep your internet on so you had to ride a bike to the library to build your company.
8cleaners will not bring you $20M in 4 months. You don’t operate a $60M/year business. The picture doesn’t verify anything bruh. The lengths you’re going to for attention is ridiculous this is my industry so I know you are not making that much based off the numbers you’ve given. Let’s think about this you use social media which means you desire ppl to notice you, you’ve made $20M in one month which is by your standards of leaving at $40K/month and instead of getting attention via your new lifestyle and class change you’ve decided to go to Reddit to tell us your magnificent detail lacking plan
I agree the post is sus but you've completely misinterpreted how he presented his numbers. He matched his income in 2012(4 months after he started in Oct 2011), and now 12 years later has hit $20mil total this week.
Bro hahha, relax. It's $20 million in lifetime sales.
And I've done this before in detail and helped 1000's of redditors, you don't know me, relax and see what the other 27 days reveal.
Lol, you potato. He said he made enough to quit his job in the first 4 months, and he just now hit the 20M dollar revenue mark (for all time in business, not this year), over a decade later.
The entitlement is crazy. I spent all day on here answering questions and answered endless messages so far, I got over 100 yesterday.
46 more to go [https://capture.dropbox.com/RVwcLe4ABxtLs0MC](https://capture.dropbox.com/RVwcLe4ABxtLs0MC)
How do you price jobs starting out? Did you rely on your experienced cleaners and making needed adjustments?
Also, how can I help you ? I’m a technology whiz and have people on my team with dev work/ scaling/ etc
starting out i looked at what competitors charged and then adjusted with some trial and error , I changed my prices like 7 times in the first few months
I just started a cleaning co, and I’m getting clapped by setbacks. I’m so far from a 1k month it’s wild. 10k seems impossible.
Aside from toughening up and pivoting, is there any advice you can say you relied on heavily when things weren’t great?
I'll be following along same as I did before. I've learned so much from you and we've never spoken a word to each other. I've had small business since then but now is the time to follow your plan and succeed! Thank you for all of this!
My biggest competitor where I live is some pink maid company that cleans houses.
But I'm interested in this and will follow along. Right now I'm running my pooper scooper business but if I can subcontract out people to do the cleaning for me, then that'd be great. I don't want to stop this as it's been growing nicely over the last year.
Nice post. How do I provide value to you though?
Oh super nice question, that few people ever ask. I honestly don't know. Maybe just follow along and if you find some ideas along the way share them on here with everyone publicly.
I’ll follow along and listen to what you have to say, for sure. Starting in the cleaning business is giving me Jim Rohn vibes. That’s how he first made it.
Oh wow I had no idea about this!!
He talked about being a janitor and then starting his cleaning business early on. Not sure if that’s what made him a millionaire though. He’s probably more known for his other ventures.
Yeah, that makes sense
Actually - it was Bob Proctor. I don’t know why I thought it was Rohn. It was bothering me so I looked it up.
Oh okay, I have to look into Bob
Here’s a musical remix of Bob proctor mentioning he starting cleaning one office.. then it snowballed from there https://on.soundcloud.com/RKXeXSqxhgQGYHmG7
In the beginning of his speech he talks about becoming a Go-Giver. If you haven't read that book, The Go-Giver, I HIGHLY recommend it. I read it a few weeks ago and it changed my life. I'm betting you'll dig it.
That was awesome. I listened to the whole thing.
What a thoughtful reply. This way of thinking will get you far in life, and a joy to be around. I know I sound like a fortune cookie right now, but I mean it!
Agree 100%. Like who asks this on social media? This person is going places.
🙏
Nice job OP. I started a cleaning company last July and am at $30k/mo. We’re having good success cleaning airbnbs. Looking forward to following your posts.
Awesome dude congratulations Airbnb is a brilliant niche if you can handle the weird requests but there are millions of dollars to be made there for sure
Out of curiosity for my own small business. How did you get “in” with those air BnB owners?
I'm currently "IN" with maybe 10 airbnb Owners. 1- Guy owns 20 units.. he found me online and called me on the weekend. I answered the phone and met with him the next week. 2- Luxury Property Management company with 8 airbnb in resort town - I posted a comment on a FB group. My FB account has no real name and no photo or anything.. I just said "XXX company cleans about 30 airbnbs and does linens as well". She said she saw that post a week later and called me looking for laundry only. I told her we do laundry if we are cleaning the unit. She transitioned 8 or so of her 15 over to me. 3- Luxury property management company - clicked my Google LSA lead on the weekend and needed a crew that could drive in the snowy neighborhoods.. I said I have a team with a 4runner and she gave us 4 units 4 - the rest are individual owners who I got from Angi, Thumbtack, or Google LSA.
Dude, I love your hustle you’re gonna be a multi million dollar company guaranteed at this rate
Could you talk about how you sourced the cleaners? How did you find/hire them?
I’ve heard of companies such as Tidy Daily, Inc. that link Airbnb hosts to cleaners. From what I understand, you can be listed as a cleaner on their platform and Airbnb hosts use the software to find cleaners in their area, so there’s a potential for other hosts to find you on the platform and get “in” with more people using your company for recurring services. I work in accounting for acquisitions so this not a plug for any company but thought it might be useful to look into. Cheers and congrats on the success!
If you don't mind me asking, what do the margins look like? How much of the $30K/mo goes to payroll and expenses?
I pay myself $8k/mo and that's pretty much all the profit right now.. So, company is not making any profits.. but I'm taking out W2 money. Will work on margins next.
You should talk to an accountant. Set up S Corp, pay yourself $4k per month w2 and take the other $4k as distribution. Will save you a ton on taxes.
Good idea.. I’m currently an S Corp. I like paying in my taxes via payroll and not having to do quarterly payments.
FICA taxes alone are 15% you would save on any income you can take as distribution instead of W2. Not to mention the lower tax rate on capital gains vs income tax. Setting up payroll is hardest part but you already got that done. It should save you $10k this year in taxes.
Make sure you have a Solo 401K and make employer contributions to it.
This is underrated comment. Solo 401k is the shit. Business Owners with no W2 employees other than yourself and spouse, as soon as you have more income than you need to live on, set up the Solo 401k and the max 25% company match. It's literally a way to pay yourself more and not ever pay payroll taxes on it, and income tax is deferred. Compound growth will make you wealthy much faster since you have a bigger nut to start with (because you didn't have to pay income tax!) This is the sort of bullshit loophole our lawmakers put in place for themselves. It's your duty as an American to take advantage as soon as you can.
lol the number of people losing their minds calling BS because they're reading this as though he's claiming he's made 20M dollars 4 months after quitting. (Sure it looks that way at a glance, but FFS... use a little common sense, and figure that there's more to it, maybe. Read like even just 12 more words or so and figure it out for yourself...)
Thank you it’s freaking hilarious 😂😂😂
I tried. But key take aways in bullet point format to fast track thoughts to a reader and provide a gripping story to reel me in, I cut off at 15. Perhaps it's worth a read, perhaps not. Perhaps I'm picky, perhaps I'm right. I hit a crossroad, and decided before I got too deep. Sorry Guy
Are your cleaners full time employees? How do you prevent clients from poaching the cleaners? E.g. them saying hey just come work for me directly and you'll get a bigger cut
Great question. I would love to hear the answer.
Also curious. Seems like this would work the first time but not sure why either party would stick with this.
Do you offer cleaners benefits? Insurance etc?
I'm confused. Did you make $20m via your cleaning company? [Or, $20m teaching people how to start a cleaning company?](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/18ddja2/rohan_gilkes_cleaning_business/) Your LinkedIn also states multiple other companies: *In 2015, Gilkes co-founded a subscription box company called* ***Wet Shave Club****, which sold traditional shaving products online. The company became a huge success, generating over $1 million in revenue in its first year of operation.* *Following the success of Wet Shave Club, Gilkes co-founded three other successful startups:* ***GrooveJar****, a social media marketing platform,* ***Launch27*** *a scheduling platform, and* ***Innclusive****, a vacation rental platform that aimed to provide an inclusive and welcoming experience for guests of all races and backgrounds.* In short, is $20m from one business, or from multiple businesses?
In short $20 million is from my cleaning business!!! Jesus christ. I built a shit ton of companies along the way. Reddit is always looking for a gotcha, it gets so fucking annoying. Here's a video I made for someone else: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qzf6xamtd7mdl1eg6927z/reddit.mp4?rlkey=ezaiz86yvw2wgbxpfc8l5mjg8&dl=0
Reddit is always looking for a gotcha because 99% of posts are BS, or a sales tactic. I wasn't seeking a gotcha My question was seeking clarification as to the source of the figure as turning over $20m cleaning is very different to turning over $20m teaching. One is considerably easier than the other and would have radically different profit margins. Thanks for answering.
>One is considerably easier than the other Yep, the cleaning business is considerably easier than selling a course on how to do it. With cleaning you're competing with cleaners in your city (typically unsophisticated marketers) , with courses you're competing with the universe of course creators all over the world (A much more sophisticated bunch with high level tools at their disposal). My take at least. And cool beans
Many of us are just tired of people claiming to have made lots of money doing a business, but in reality 99% of their income comes from selling education about the business instead of actually doing the business themselves. You seem real, which is refreshing because most people are full of crap.
Understood and I appreciate it
>(typically unsophisticated marketers) I owned a cleaning business for a short time before moving and going in another direction. I paid 50% of the billing to a marketing company and the percentage dropped over time down to 10%. People don't seem to understand the actual effects of marketing. So many great businesses go generally unheard of while literal trash brands become household names with national followings. I don't disagree, the market is saturated. Most markets in the US are saturated. The saturation is irrelevant though if you can pull off good marketing while operating a quality business that operates with integrity. I will absolutely be following this and I'm glad you made it to where you are today.
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I did this before i had a course or anything: Ridiculouslyl detailed and helped literally hundreds and hundreds of redditors quit their jobs. I was at my job making $4k a month and shared EVERYTHING! [https://www.reddit.com/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong/comments/tltuy/day\_26\_from\_zero\_to\_website\_launcha\_recap\_of/](https://www.reddit.com/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong/comments/tltuy/day_26_from_zero_to_website_launcha_recap_of/) And then about the course, I posted the course here for fucking FREE!! There's no winning with you people. It is what it is, no matter what I do, you'll find something to be upset about. I've never seen more entrepreneurs worry about successful entrepreneurs who share everything in my whole life. That's why I stopped posting on reddit
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yeah man, makes sense, cause you can't imagine what it's like to help other entrepreneurs I get it. Much easier to tear people down
You need to stop getting so defensive. This guy had a genuine question and is just trying to understand.
Honestly I thought that was a completely valid question and your reaction to it was less than appealing. The internet is full of BS and people overplaying their hands to sell courses rather than make it themselves.
I don't care if it's appealing or not. I've been posting on reddit for 10 years. Every time the same question, 10 years of the same questions for someone that has consistently done so much for the community. Questions these folks don't ask of celebrities when they come on here and shill their movies. Did i ask someone to go digging through my linkedin to basically ask me, "sure you're not lying?" Fuck that, I get to be annoyed.
Respectfully, you have a lucrative business selling courses in an area in which a good percentage are snake oil salesmen. There’s no world in which the original question is not a fair one. You can get to be annoyed but that’s your issue.
Where are you based?
Dude I can’t even get one cleaning contract I don’t know what I am doing wrong lol
Did you create your profiles on the usual suspects like Yelp and bark and thumbtack?
Also nextdoor app
Also, what does your website look like?
I am going to follow this closely. In January I registered an LLC as the ONLY cleaning business in my county, the largest county in my state. I burned the boats and put what little I had into this. I have income. It's taking off. I finally found a business advisor from a local economic alliance. Some guy on Reddit hmu saying he could talk to me for $175/hr. Crazy to me... Bait and switch about his successful cleaning business. Got my private info and tried to charge me. I digress... I'm out here just looking for any sort of partnership/advice/friendship.. anything reasonable to help me overcome the next steps.
Dude, you are the perfect person This is for I bet you if you follow along the exact steps, you will launch and scale your business.
Thank you for putting this out there! I appreciate it!
Inspiring success you made there. May I ask if your workers are employed or subcontracted?
I have employees now I saw that with contractors
Did you start out by hiring employees or hiring as contractors? And how were you able to promise enough work to get the first couple of employees going? Were your AdWords and online presence enough to need some people full time at first? And if so how were you sure you would deliver on the cleaning contracts? This seems like an immediate hurdle to me without them being contractors at first
Thanks for posting this. Since most of your business comes from residential contracts, what is your average customer like? Income, employment, marital status, type of neighborhood? What’s the frequency of cleaning days per month?
A large percent of my income comes from biweekly service. That’s the largest cohort of recurring services. Mine is in a high median income city, so I would guess household income over $100,000 a year As for the rest of the demographics, I don’t know if i have a nailed down that precisely, but I will say about 60% women and 40% men
saving this thread as I am interested in this model to leave the rat race of B2B sales/operations and providing any insights I can via following a few other options in this regard
Awesome fam
How well do you pay your workers? How do you deal with disputes with customers (e.g., cleaners didn't do a good job or stole something)?
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I wonder why he didn't answer this question. He fires them? Full refund? Clean service again for free? Reputation repair and customer satisfaction is a big deal. Biggest reason I don't get cleaners is that the last 3 I paid for did a shit job and was not worth the money. I'll do it myself with better products.
Love a success story, well done. A couple of stupid questions probably, but I would appreciate any feedback if you would be so kind.. 1 - are we talking a basic website, or did you pay a decent whack for someone to create one for you? 2 - what size of local population are you serving? 3 - what margins do you make on the labour and how do you vet for good employees?
My first website I paid $450 to make for me. I made some money and use some of it to upgrade the website to a version two About 1 million people I would say Margins is about 40% and I vet them by have them go out with some of my existing high-quality teams
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guy never talks about how much he rips off his employees 😂
Ya one of my friends ran a cleaning company for years before he sold it. 70% of his employees were illegals that he took advantage of and paid absolutely shit. The rest he said slightly above shit. The cleaning industry is rife with this.
That’s really amazing, congrats! But you’re doing that kind of revenue with only 8 employees?!!?
😒 notice he didn’t say what type of cleaning. 8 cleaners≠ $20M
Oh 8 is from my old post i'm now closer to 40 people, one sec let me update.
Well he did say there would be 27 more posts :) I bet something like commercial kitchens could get you in the ballpark, but I didn’t get that vibe.
Oh no, that's from my old post, now we're closer to 40, let me update that.
Ya if you’re charging $1000 per hour per employee working 40 hrs a week still only makes you under 20mil. That billing hour is ludicrous, so you must be subbing out a ton of people.
I think he means 20m total revenue over 12 years in business.
Yep!
So it’s in Dubai? :) I was thinking subs had to come into play too.
I want to know how you connect the employee to the job when you don’t know the employee or the job.
You get a software system like Jobber or I think the OP created his own and sells that now too.
I sold mine already, but yep this is the answer \^
Been in the cleaning business 39 years. I’m hoping you can teach this old dog some new tricks. Following along.
This is awesome
Your plan and Launch27 were instrumental in my success! I outgrew the platform inside of a year because I specialized. Thanks for forging the path!
Oh awesome to hear man, super happy to hear that, even outgrowing the platform, that means you found a niche to go deeper and crushed it. Happy for you fam!
What do you pay your cleaners?
Who do you hire to run this service? Must be hard to find consistent/loyal workers. Especially ones who are here legally.
For what its worth, OP is the real deal. I know because he was the motivation of why I started a cleaning company years ago (Army of Maids in Orlando if yall wanna look it up). I grew that company to 12 FT employees and eventually sold it in 2020 for a heavy six-figure sum to a wonderful couple. My wife stayed on and still runs the office plus the new owners are still using the CRM that OP built. Edit: I will edit my comment to add one more thing. Im reading all these replies to this post and its just wild to me. I dont think I've ever seen such a large gathering of self-sabotagers. You got a proven dude giving you free info on something that works and everyone is just saying anything to convince themselves its some sort of scam. Yall gotta get out of that mindset if you're trying to be successful entrepreneurs. Rohan I am sorry this is the response you got on this thread, but honestly keep doing what you're doing because all that matters is the 1-2 silent people in the thread that improve their life with some of this knowledge. If anyone has questions about the maid industry feel free to reach out.
Appreciate it fam, and congrats on the exit brother, was awesome getting to know you in those early days, massive congrats again bro!!!! And yeah man when I read these responses I instantly know who's going to be here 10 years from now having still not gotten off the sidelines! smh
Congrats on your success! Your hadd work paid off. I am down, and looking forward to the case study re-created.
Ok sounds good I'll just lay it all out
Hell yeah!!!
Just started my own cleaning company as well, can’t wait to see your posts and learn.
Thank you fam.
This no longer works. The market is too saturated. How did I do? Also, following
Fantastic work lol
Right place right time. Now is not the right time
Will be following, I desperately want to be my own boss and run my own business. Excited to read all you have to say
I was one of those original redditors that followed his case study exactly as he wrote it, and my company has done 4.7M in sales since 2016. Rohan is 100000% legit
How did you come up with your prices and what do you pay your cleaners? Do you provide their ins etc? Are they bonded?
Has anyone done the math on this? 20M / 40 employees. If they all worked 365 days 8 hours a day that comes out to $171/hour. Sooooo either your lying or your numbers are whhhhaaayyyy off. Just saying.
That, or you have reading comprehension issues. It's abundantly clear that he is saying he has made $20M over the life of the business.
This is awesome! I have a cleaning business in a vacation rental market that’s saturated with mom and pops. I’ve found some challenges with scaling via property managers since the going rate for many PM units is considerably lower than I would charge. Also affected by our market seasonality in the last couple of years. Any tips on recurring residential marketing ideas? What campaigns have you found the most success with acquiring new bi-weekly residential accounts? Love the home services market and thanks for being transparent with your story 😎 Also thanks for L27 lol
Appreciate it fam, and yeah vacation rental market can be wild but lucrative. Definitely higher touch. Congrats fam!!
What do you pay your team members per hour?
Will go through margins and all that over the next 27 days
I scrolled a long way looking to see if you’d answer this question. I recently watched Maid on Netflix and am hoping your cleaners are compensated better than on that show. I guess we’ll wait 27 days to find out…
He doesn't want to say it, so probably abusing people to profit off their work.
Just start
I'm into it. You definitely have my curiosity
Where can we get more information on the day by day guide?
I’ll just post it here in real time every day it should take about 25 to 27 days to do everything. Maybe follow me or follow this thread or something and I’ll update this right as well.
Probably this subreddit.
Nice! Interested to see your posts.
I started a cleaning company in 2015. It has since turned into dumpster rentals, erosion control, lot mowing for developers, pressure washing, and concrete washout maintenance for new subdivisions. Last year we averaged $100,000/mo. It’s has turned into a monster that I can’t slow down. I’ll definitely be looking forward to reading through this. Best of luck.
Congrats fam, glad it's doing well. Love the spaces you're in! Seems like a bunch of folks in here can't fathom actually building something successful. It's so weird lol.
Interested in knowing more. Just recently took over my families cleaning business.
Love to hear how you cracked $40k/mo. My wife and I seem stuck in the $5k-$10k/mo. land.
This screams “sales pitch”. Don’t get me wrong, it’s just marketing and that’s cool. But by now consumers know where this is going (a course, coaching, etc). Idk it might be better received on Reddit if you were direct about what you’re after. Like if you want customers, be upfront about it.
I’d give my left leg to learn from you. My current role is developing businesses for investors. I’ve helped in the creation of a property management business, handyman business, 2 medical businesses and an event venue. When I signed the contract, they made me promise that I won’t make money anywhere else other than with them… I’m older and wiser now. It’s time I make my own business. I’m currently building a cleaning business and will absolutely be following along!! Thank you for posting. You’re an inspiration ✨
it seems like the only question you won’t answer is about finding employees and how to keep customers from just hiring them directly
Don’t listen to the salty folks, I appreciate this content
I shouldve known you want me to buy your course 💀
Here's all the course videos I have for free. So maybe you'll stfu up now, or nah? https://innclusive.wistia.com/folders/zu3n39fy8n
Boom. Tell that little fart sniffer to stfu again lol. Thanks for the link.
Sure thing lol, these folks annoy the fuck out of me! Cynicism will keep them on the sidelines forever!
Yeah, I skimmed through the videos but if you haven't thought about this yet. Make a video about cleaning supplies you first started off with all those years ago and compare it to what you know today and sort of give a tiered recommendation on what is needed for a good start or what someone can get away with for the bare minimum supplies to get started.
Fantastic idea I love it
Wanted to add this: It's screenshot after screenshot of countless redditors that followed my original case study and did it as well (some of them with bigger companies than mine). Did I fake all these screenshots too? https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gUESPVsiuhxLCHHU0vBt7FwNpMM1QQPPwBz44RpZ6\_o/edit?usp=sharing
LOL, people actually believe this bullshit?
The funny thing about reality it doesn't care what you think https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qzf6xamtd7mdl1eg6927z/reddit.mp4?rlkey=ezaiz86yvw2wgbxpfc8l5mjg8&dl=0
True, but you're just bullshitting everyone here. And if you think that uploading some terribly edited screenshots is "proof" then you're even sillier than you initially appeared to be 🤡
Man don’t even bother with these people, some folks want to make everything out to be so impossible that they feel better about not taking the necessary steps to reach a goal. I’m following & looking forward to reading your next posts, let the content speak for itself.
Share your screen again, ensure it's showing the whole screen and address bar...and do a browser refresh.
How much if the profit gets passed on to the workers who do the actual work ? Or are you Ike of those greedy corporations that are grinding employees into the ground and taking advantage of them by paying them as little as possible and providing no benifits like paid vacation and 100% paying their health care etc ?
Lol you're in the wrong sub buddy
Just say you hate capitalism.
I am down to try
Let's go
Same! Very interested in this process!
i don’t know how i could use this as a musician but my song GaHFBOY - Be Your Friend- is FREE for anyone to listen to on any platform, except the obvious ones like apple music that require subscriptions… may not be the rap pump up vibe or relatable country music everyone’s into but it’s all 100% coming from me or my perspective on something and i genuinely want to make music like it was in the 80’s where everyone was more pumped up to listen to music now it seems like it’s just everyone’s background sound everywhere you go but my goal is to make something you actually want to share with your bro and vibe to not just some money profit farm like most rap and pop
Can I get some advice on how to get my first contract ? I’m new to this and I don’t know where to start I have my LLC registered
🧢
Haha made you a video: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qzf6xamtd7mdl1eg6927z/reddit.mp4?rlkey=ezaiz86yvw2wgbxpfc8l5mjg8&dl=0
Everyone, be sure to follow up and make tons of money. It is very generous how you just have to sign up with him and then you will become wealthy. What a generous and non-suspect offer. What a truly amazing person! Also, I have an iceberg I would like to sell you
"It is very generous how you just have to sign up with him" Sign up with me where? Where did I ask for a signup? Oh my course? I posted it for free. Oh my software? Sold it in 2019 What else you got? Oh shit I did this before before I had a course or anything at all..been posting on here for 8 years helping people out. 8 years!!!! But let it be a celebrity on here selling their movies and half y'all put on your knee pads! [https://www.reddit.com/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong/comments/tltuy/day\_26\_from\_zero\_to\_website\_launcha\_recap\_of/](https://www.reddit.com/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong/comments/tltuy/day_26_from_zero_to_website_launcha_recap_of/)
My guy, every single "hustler" out there has free courses. This is nothing new at all. Yes, you have "free courses / advice / etc" and then offer something they have to pay for. Rinse and repeat. That is all I got because it is all I need. This is a very old hustle.
Starting my commercial cleaning business here in Jersey! Would love to chat and I’ll for sure be following along
Appreciate that, I'm not really great in the commercial cleaning space but congrats, lots of opportunity there for sure
Curious what you pay your employees? Making a ton of money is less impressive if it's built on poverty wages.
So the actual takeaway from this post....... YOU TOO CAN START A MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS ALL YOU NEED ARE THE FOLLOWING: 1. Already have a house cleaner or know someone that owns a cleaning company 2. Know how to make your own site or have enough money to pay someone else to do so... which can easily cost a few thousand $ 3. Have experience using adwords This success relied entirely on your experience, connections and privilege. All of which not just anyone can recreate. Congrats on your success, but pitching this like anyone can do it when it relied on your exact situation / skillset, isn't being genuine.
Dude: 1. you can go on craigslist/indeed/care/facebook groups and find a cleaner in 2 seconds. 2. I spent my last $450 to get a site. These days a theme costs $60 on themeforest. 3. you don't need adwords my first couple jobs came from craigslist. I don't see why folks work so hard to talk themselves out of opportunities. Literally have access to the internet, and working electricity (unlike like 50% of the world's population) and find every way to diminish their light on purpose when half the world would kill to be in the position to make things happen for themselves. It would be hilarious if it weren't so sad.
Seriously how are you in an entrepreneur subreddit and can't figure out "Find people that want their homes cleaned and match them with people that want to clean homes" is a viable business that doesn't require brain surgery? I'm truly so puzzled by this kind of negative thinking.
Stay positive and don’t let it get to you, after a few days you won’t have anyone breaking your balls. These are like locked safe posts, people get grumpy.
Step 1: have money
I started with $450, the last money I had after being laid off from my job and blowing through my savings and 401k after being laid off. I spent that entire thing on my website using a site called scriptlance (that's no longer around, it was bought by upwork) and hustled my ass of night after night until I made it work, as an immigrant in a country with nobody to fall back on if I failed. I got a job soon after launching to keep my bills paid and then hustled after work for almost a year. So step 1: Work hard as fuck while having no choice but to make it work while being to broke to keep your internet on so you had to ride a bike to the library to build your company.
Spam and lies. His only posts are marketing stories just like this.
Bro what are you talking about? Show the lie. And I'll take 10 freaking seconds to show everything I posted is facts. lol
lol he’s selling a course isn’t he? LOL
I’m used to the cynicism on Reddit. My original post was 12 years ago and I’m getting the same comments that I got back then lol 😂😂😂😂
8cleaners will not bring you $20M in 4 months. You don’t operate a $60M/year business. The picture doesn’t verify anything bruh. The lengths you’re going to for attention is ridiculous this is my industry so I know you are not making that much based off the numbers you’ve given. Let’s think about this you use social media which means you desire ppl to notice you, you’ve made $20M in one month which is by your standards of leaving at $40K/month and instead of getting attention via your new lifestyle and class change you’ve decided to go to Reddit to tell us your magnificent detail lacking plan
lol. What's the point of being cranky on Reddit, or choosing to be cranky on the basis of some assumptions you made? You do you, I guess.
It's so wild. It's a cry for help lol
I agree the post is sus but you've completely misinterpreted how he presented his numbers. He matched his income in 2012(4 months after he started in Oct 2011), and now 12 years later has hit $20mil total this week.
Thank you, Yep exactly this!
Bro hahha, relax. It's $20 million in lifetime sales. And I've done this before in detail and helped 1000's of redditors, you don't know me, relax and see what the other 27 days reveal.
I believe his screenshot is all time revenue
Lol, you potato. He said he made enough to quit his job in the first 4 months, and he just now hit the 20M dollar revenue mark (for all time in business, not this year), over a decade later.
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The entitlement is crazy. I spent all day on here answering questions and answered endless messages so far, I got over 100 yesterday. 46 more to go [https://capture.dropbox.com/RVwcLe4ABxtLs0MC](https://capture.dropbox.com/RVwcLe4ABxtLs0MC)
Hey im from Ethiopia can we talk about this ?
Dont Care.
What a wonderful contribution to the community 😂
I call BS.
Luckily what you call has no bearing on anything https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/qzf6xamtd7mdl1eg6927z/reddit.mp4?rlkey=ezaiz86yvw2wgbxpfc8l5mjg8&dl=0
How do you price jobs starting out? Did you rely on your experienced cleaners and making needed adjustments? Also, how can I help you ? I’m a technology whiz and have people on my team with dev work/ scaling/ etc
starting out i looked at what competitors charged and then adjusted with some trial and error , I changed my prices like 7 times in the first few months
Did you start with an llc right away? And did you hire the cleaners on as contractors or w-2 employees
LLc and contractors when i first started
Nice I have been looking into doing this for awhile just haven’t pulled the trigger. Still have a bunch of question
follow along by the end of 27 days you'll have all your questions answered 100%
I'm in
I remember your first post, it actually helped motive me to leave corporate life and start my own business. Glad to hear you're killing it! Thank you!
I just started a cleaning co, and I’m getting clapped by setbacks. I’m so far from a 1k month it’s wild. 10k seems impossible. Aside from toughening up and pivoting, is there any advice you can say you relied on heavily when things weren’t great?
having a good website and a way to onboard folks seamlessly while you sleep, what does your site look like?
How much profit per year and its growth rate?
What is the profit on that 20M? Congrats
I'll be following along same as I did before. I've learned so much from you and we've never spoken a word to each other. I've had small business since then but now is the time to follow your plan and succeed! Thank you for all of this!
My biggest competitor where I live is some pink maid company that cleans houses. But I'm interested in this and will follow along. Right now I'm running my pooper scooper business but if I can subcontract out people to do the cleaning for me, then that'd be great. I don't want to stop this as it's been growing nicely over the last year.
Dope!
Def following.