I got asked this week: "How many cleaners do I need to hit $10 to $15k a month?"
Everybody wants the number. Three? Five? Eight?
Here's the honest answer: there isn't one. It depends entirely on availability. One cleaner who picks up every shift you throw at them is worth more than five who each say yes once a month. So chasing a headcount misses the point.
The real answer is simpler, and most people hate it: always be interviewing.
I never stop hiring. Not when I'm slow, not when I'm slammed, not when I feel "fully staffed." Because only a small slice of the people you invite to interview actually show up. A smaller slice of those pass your vetting. And a smaller slice of those turn into someone reliable you'd hand a key.
Run the funnel out and you realize that to keep three great cleaners on your roster, you might need to be talking to new people every single week. The pipeline is the business.
The mistake I see over and over is treating hiring like a project with a finish line. You scramble, you fill the spots, you exhale, you stop. Then someone moves, someone flakes, someone takes a full-time job, and suddenly you're scrambling again, this time with a same day turn tomorrow and nobody to send.
The owners who never sweat a last-minute cancellation are the ones who always have two or three vetted people waiting in the wings. They built that bench on purpose, by never turning the hiring off.
So stop asking how many cleaners you need. Start asking how many conversations you had this week.
The number takes care of itself.
P.S. huge news coming from my cleaning business this week. Check it out
Until next time!
Logan
