Yesterday we got an inbound request. 3 cleaners needed for 2 days (16 hours each). That’s +$2,600 for one single job. But we couldn’t do it.
We couldn’t do it when the customer wanted it done because we didn’t have the right staffing in place. When you don’t have enough cleaners you stifle your growth as a company and are effectively betting against yourself.
You’re staying small with a small team because you don’t believe you can market your business well enough to justify additional cleaners.
This is something that I struggle with all the time. What comes first, the cleaner or the job? In my experience, the most successful service companies say yes to new jobs and figure it out afterward.
They get the money while they can and they figure out the operations by deploying the money they just secured.
Nowhere is this more true than in the Airbnb space.
With Airbnb cleaning, you never know when a clean will pop up or when you’ll get called in last-minute because your host forgot to tell you about a guest. This alone is why you need to have a deep bench of good cleaners who can step in and get the job done.
Even if you have Breezeway to automatically sync your cleaning calendar with your hosts’ Airbnb or VRBO, guests can still sneak through and cause panic for everyone.
(P.S., check out the new feature Breezeway just dropped to make your life even easier).
Setting simple goals for yourself around hiring is the easiest way to make sure you are always able to accept last-minute jobs that pop up. Set a personal goal to interview at least 1-2 cleaners per week. That’s seems small but when it’s “slow season” and you don’t have enough jobs for your current cleaners, the last thing you’ll want to do is hire more cleaners.
But that’s exactly when you need to be in the routine of interviewing and vetting new cleaners. Use this simple guide when you interview cleaners and ensure you’re collecting all the right information to make an informed decision when you go to hire.
Don’t put yourself in a position where you can’t accept cleans and force your business to stay small. Keep interviewing, keep vetting, and keep growing your team!
Until next time!
Logan
