I get this question a lot, and I want to address it so I don’t have to tell the same story over and over again. The reason I started a cleaning business is to make money. I’m not passionate about cleaning houses. I just wanted to make more money.
The end.
Well... kind of. Let me first explain why I want to make money and why it’s not greedy or a bad thing.
At some point, it would be nice not to be tied down to a regular job. I’m working towards buying my freedom back. Freedom to travel to new places, work on the things I want to work on, spend time with friends and family, go hiking with my dog, or maybe just sleep in whenever I want. I think this is what most people want - control of their time and the ability to spend it doing the things they want whenever they want. Money gives you the ability to do that.
It also gives you the ability to give back to others. I currently sponsor two young children living in Southern Mexico. I am pen pals with their caretakers and it is one of the most fulfilling aspects of my life. I receive letters of gratitude and pictures of school supplies, new clothes, a new bed, and pinatas for birthdays that they can now afford. It fills my heart with joy. I don’t know how many other children are living in poverty in their hometown, but I want to be able to sponsor every single one of them some day.
I want to make money to buy back my freedom and help others. But out of everything I could do, why a cleaning business?
I first got the idea from people I follow on Twitter like Nick Huber, Bryant Suellentrop, and Johnny Robinson. They all preach the idea of the ‘sweaty startup’.
A few years ago, I tried starting my own software business - an online billing service for other small businesses. I gave up after 6 months because it was hard to sell the actual service for a few reasons:
- I was competing against a thousand other companies across the world
- I had chosen a product that my target audience wasn’t that interested in buying
- I’m not a very good salesperson
The idea of the sweaty startup is the opposite of this. Start a company that only serves locally and relies on physical labor - something like a lawn care company, a flooring installation business, or a cleaning service. Instead of trying to compete against the world for an incredibly slim chance of creating a billion dollar company, compete against a handful of others in your city for a moderate chance of creating a half a million dollar company.
Cleaning is the perfect contender for this. The startup cost is low and there’s no licencing required like there would be for electrical or plumbing. There’s always people that are looking for a cleaning service, and over half of the competitors don’t have a website and don’t return phone calls. So the sale is a lot easier to make than a software product that someone doesn’t understand or even want in the first place.
It hasn’t been easy so far, but I’m only a few months in and I feel like there’s a lot of room for improvement. And I have a strong feeling that a year from now I’ll look back and think about what a great decision this was.
I’m not going to change the world by doing this, but I am going to change the lives of at least a few people. Plus, I’ll probably make some money along the way 🙂