From Hospitality to Business Owner: Building a Cleaning Business From Scratch | TRF Ep 61

Justin So welcome to another episode of The Real Franchise. Today we are doing another episode of meeting some of our team. So today, joined by Neil. Welcome, Neil.

Neil Thank you.

Justin And Neil, I guess before we start off, just would you mind sharing where you, when you started, what sort of business you have with James?

Neil Sure. So I’ve got, interior, cleaning business. So we’ve been operating for just over four years. So we started just before Christmas, about four years ago. Before then, both my partner and I were in hospitality. So we, we’d worked hard for a lot of people, but, and never for ourselves.

And we’d been talking about it for for quite a while of doing something for ourselves and, Yeah. Obviously around that time we had Covid, which we did it fairly tough. But it also gave us plenty of opportunity to think about what we wanted to do. So, we did a lot of research. It took us quite a few months, quite a few meetings, and, yeah, settled on this.

So I think we wanted to focus on something that we could use our skillset. Yeah. And we saw the cleaning part. While we hadn’t cleaned houses before, we saw, I guess the main part of it is the customer service side, which. Yeah, which which we’ve been doing for decades. It’s it’s hard saying that. So.

Yeah. Look, we started four years ago. We. Yeah, we took off fairly quickly. Probably I think the, the first week, was pretty slow, although we’d already booked a few jobs. But, yeah, probably by our third week, we kind of hit our straps for what we could handle at the time. And then we’ve just grown, since then.

So now we have two cars on the road. We’ve got a couple of staff. We’re looking at expanding again this year. So, yeah, it’s. It’s been a hell of a ride. It’s been fantastic.

Justin Now, if my memory serves me correctly, because it’s gone back a few years now, when you started, I think the plan was you were going to start it. And your partner Sarah was working in a restaurant. Managing a restaurant. Was that right?

Neil Yeah. That’s right. So yeah, I, I like I said, we started just before Christmas. So, Sarah was what? Sarah was managing a restaurant, in the city. Yeah. And obviously Christmas, summer being a very good time of year for, tips and everything like that. She was going to stay doing that while I started up the business, but, yeah, about 3 or 4 weeks in, she had to resign, because we,

Yeah, we just started getting business coming through the door. So.

Justin Yeah. So you were too busy, so you had to put your first staff person on, so to speak.

Neil That’s it. So, yeah. So some people might say I was, a little bit soft back then, and probably could have handled a little bit more, but, no, she, she joined across and. Yeah, like I said, we’ve just grown since.

Justin And I don’t think I asked where in the country are you based your business?

Neil So we’re in, north west Sydney. Yeah. So in the Ponds So, an up and coming area, 15, 20 years ago, this would have all been farmland, but now it’s all new developments. Yep.

Justin Yeah. okay. Right. And I know you because I ask you this question all the time, when you’re meeting new people because you’re part of often meeting, people looking at joining James and I’ll talk about why in a second. But you have a story that I love hearing. So you started your business. Things took off.

Sarah had to come join, and then you had a bit of a curveball out of left field. What happened?

Neil Yeah, we, It was a week before Easter, so we’d only been operating three, not over four months. And see you. We had a bit of an issue with the job, so I’d pop round on a Saturday morning, to to go and, check out that job, and, I’d come home and I’d been writing, so I just thought, you know what?

I feel like I’m 18. I might just try and jump over this little muddy puddle. But I slipped on the pavement. And then. Yeah, broke my ankle in three places. So. Yeah, it was. Look, I was laid up for about three months. And obviously after that was a lot longer. I wasn’t back to full capacity for for a long time after that, but three months completely sitting without any, movement.

So, yeah. Look, Sarah had to take over pretty quickly. We had to get staff in. We’d already been looking for staff at that time, so we kind of jumped in, got a couple where they perfect now were. But were they, they they helped us out. So look, I guess during that time, what we figured out was the relationships and everything that we built with the customers helped us.

A date saved us. So, many of those customers are still our customers now? Yep. But look, they understood what we were going through. Well, we kind of consolidated. We didn’t worry about new business. We just made sure that we looked after what we had right there and then, you know, and then as soon as we were ready, we could take off again.

And like I said, many of those customers are still ours. So. Yep.

Justin Yep. Correct. So I mean, that’s a a daunting prospect for any sole trader, to be taken out almost any, any first couple of months. Is there anything that you look back on that really helped you get through that period? Because that would have sunk a lot of, you know, people in a normal business, you know, if you’re an electrician.

And that happened to, well, what was it that was there any things in particular that helped you get through?

Neil Look, I think it was the communication with the customers. Yeah. Like I said. So they they understood what happened. So they knew that I wasn’t there. Yeah. They could see new faces coming through with new stuff and things like that. So, we worked really hard to, just make sure that they were looked after. We might not have done the best job every single time because, obviously a bit of change, but they understood.

They talked to. Okay, well, you know what? You. Yes, you did this this, this wrong. No problem. We’ll fix it up next time. We always did. So, yeah, it was about just, you know, keeping that relationship, and the communication. Yep.

Justin Yep. Okay. Right now, when people start with us and a lot of people looking at this or that, watch this video. Probably considering joining us and we provide we tell people we provide all the training and as you know, the first week this three days in the classroom, I’m doing eight steps training. And then once people have finished that, they then go and work with one of our national trainers and in their business on the tools, doing jobs, that sort of thing.

You’re one of our national trainers now. You’re actually the trainer for our cleaning business owners. And so anyone who’s looking at this at starting a New South Wales name would be your trainer. I think probably all of our cleaning businesses in Sydney or in New South Wales at the moment, probably you’ve trained your existing team. Yeah.

So I guess what happens in those four days, what do you do with people? What are you trying to get people to have achieve when they have finished with you?

Neil I guess, obviously you just touched on it. They, they basically do three days of kind of the theory training. Yes. So, how to run your business, working with the back of our systems or all that sort of stuff, marketing, etc.. I guess we just put all of that into practice, what it looks like in the real world.

So obviously we we teach you how to clean a house. So from, 8 am Monday morning, we visit house after house, rolling through, concentrating on, I guess, what your bread and butter will be your regular clients. Yeah. So really, by the end of the four days, you’re going to know how to approach a customer for a quote, give them the quotes enter the job.

Complete the job and do all the invoicing. So we go through every single step of the process. We also go over marketing and things like that. How what does that look like in the real world? You know, using social media, getting your face out there in the public. So how to kind of structure your day?

We’ve only got you for four days, so it is jam packed. Yeah. Are we going to be sore a little bit sore afterwards because you’ve used muscles that you’ve never realized you’ve had before. But look, it’s it’s about, I guess, exposing you to as much of the business as possible so that you walk off on your actual day one, being as confident as possible.

Justin Yeah, yeah. Excellent. Correct. And then I guess once they start their businesses, do you ever hear from people again? No.

Neil Look, I, I always touch base. I, they look, it depends on the person. There are people that started their business probably six months ago, and I still talk to them once a week. But definitely in that initial period, I’ll touch base. I get them to contact me every single moment that they either have to go to a quote or I’m going to talk you through this.

So, yeah, look, I keep up the contact communication easily for that first month. Yeah. Because, for a lot of that month, they’re going to see things that they’ve never seen before, even with the training that we’re able to give them. Because a customer will ask you a million questions that probably doesn’t even have anything to do with interior cleaning.

Yes. But, yeah, look, I still talk to some, but look, some, some people like to figure it out for themselves as well, so. Yeah, but yeah.

Justin So, so that support’s sort of there if they want it and. Yeah.

Neil Yeah 100%.

Justin Yep. Awesome. Now obviously what we’re talking about is people starting in their own business. And I think well, I know when I first got my, looked at getting my first business, I had in my mind, you know, some of the benefits, you know, like having more time with my kids. For me, I’d never drop my kids to school, and this was going to give me the opportunity to drop my kids to school each day, which is what happened.

But I guess for you, having now having your own business for years, have there been any other benefits that you didn’t expect, things that you didn’t realize that you have to like really appreciate? Now?

Neil Yeah. Look, I guess we stepped into it. I mean, you just touched on up there. We worked hard for people beforehand. We wanted, autonomy. We wanted to run our own business. We wanted, to be there for kids and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, we have definitely gotten all of that. We have set our own hours.

It’s fantastic. Yeah. Like, I, I guess probably one of the the really surprising things is, how well I work with Sarah, my partner.

Justin Right? Yes. Yep.

Neil Yep. You know, some people might think that. You know what? Yeah. You work together? Yeah. Yeah. You spend 24 hours a day together. So there might be a chink in the armor or something like that. Yeah. But now we we’ve found that we really do work well as a team. Yeah. And that’s not just obviously with the business, because we’re running our own business.

Well, we we’ve basically got our own shop. We’ve got to run the household. We’ve got to run the kids. We’ve got to do all of this. Yes. It’s. Yeah, we we’ve sorted it out, which is fantastic.

Justin Yep, yep. Yeah. I think I’ve been the same because my wife, as you know, works in the business as well. We. Yeah, it was interesting in the beginning. We learned a few things quickly that there’s certain things Sonia looks after and certain things I look after. And you know, that works for us. I think one of the things that surprised me thinking of this was not a benefit.

But when I got into my first cleaning franchise with James, I didn’t consider the rags. That sort of surprised me. Like every the amount of rags that particularly one says, you know, once you’ve got teams and stuff, it’s like every night. Yeah, every afternoon putting the washing on and the drawers going to.

Neil Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So sometimes we’re doing two loads a day.

Justin Yeah. It’s just things like that. I didn’t even think of it. So I had to go buy a new dryer because it was, we had some 20 year old little thing that yeah, it just wasn’t going to do the, the trick.

Neil Yeah.

Justin So yeah. Well might be just a final thing then. As we wrap up, this episode, you’ve now been in the business for four years. You’ve seen lots of people come, you’ve seen some go. So for people that are listening to this, that are considering a business, whether it’s James or not, do you have any tips of things that they really should be thinking of for, or keep a look out for this or yeah, any tips from you?

Neil So I guess don’t look at it if you think it’s going to be easy. Yeah. But people don’t become successful, taking the easy road. Okay. Yeah. It’s not like working for somebody, because in most jobs you could work for somebody, and then you can kind of shut down at the end of the day, whereas you’re running your own business.

Okay. You’ve, you’ve got to handle everything, from complaints to phone calls, doing the invoicing, the accounting, all of that sort of stuff. You should get plenty of help with stuff, but, it it really does come down to you. So I guess thinking about that, why do you really want to do this business? Yes. That’s because when times get tough and I’ve had plenty of those little periods where, you know what, not a lot of business has come through this month.

So, yeah, we went through the injury just before. You will have tough times. Business is business. It’s at those moments you’ve got to think about why am I doing this? And will it be enough to get you off your bum and go on, attack it again. Or are you going to feel sorry for yourself? So, really put down some points on why am I doing this and will those get you through those tough times?

Justin Yep. That’s excellent. Yeah, I literally call that the why. You’ve got to have that. Why clear and that why I will evolve. Obviously yours is probably changed a bit from four years ago when you first started, but it’s such a key. You’ve got to know why you’re doing it.

Neil Yeah that’s it. And look you can think about look, we touched on it just before in that, Yep. I, I want to pick up kids from school and things like, like there’s, there’s these little bits. But would that be enough when you’re not getting any business, so you’re going to get out there and trudge through the streets, looking for business.

Is that enough? It might be. It might not be, but, Yeah, you’re it’s you’ve got to set it in stone because you gotta have motivation.

Justin Yeah, yeah, yeah. No. That’s excellent. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Neil.

And, yeah. Tune in for the next episode of when we meet someone else around the country. Have a good day.