Time to automate your maid service? Try these proven systems

Last Updated on August 24, 2023 by The ZenMaid Team

Learn from Sheri-Anne’s six-figure award-winning company

Do you ever feel overwhelmed, overworked, undervalued, or invisible? If you feel stuck in a glorified J-O-B and can’t figure out how to create a predictable, sustainable, and scalable business without sacrificing your family, health, freedom, or money — then we’ve got you covered (and we understand.)

In this article, we’re diving into all things automation, because ultimately, setting up the right systems is what it will take to scale your maid service and give you time and money freedom.

Like most entrepreneurs, you probably love the challenge and freedom that comes with owning a business! And whether you make 50K a year or 300k a year, it’s always a great idea to learn how others achieve their success in the industry.

Sheri-Anne teaches the tips, tricks, and proven systems to her success that we’re sharing in this article! To give you a glimpse of her success — she’s maintained a 4.7 rating on Google, gathered over 200 customer reviews, and received a 97% rating on Homestars and HomeAdvisors. What’s exciting is that this can be you too!

Table Of Contents

Learn from Sheri-Anne’s six-figure award-winning company
Key Takeaways
Next steps

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But first, a little pep talk

Before we dive into Sheri-Anne’s five steps to automating your maid service, let’s start with asking a few important questions. Ask yourself these questions and answer them honestly. (Don’t skip this part!)

Am I willing to tolerate boredom for success?
Am I willing to release my addiction to blame and guilt to focus my energy on what needs to be done?
Am I willing to show up and act like an owner?
Am I willing to believe that success can be easy?
Am I willing to put the systems in place that will support consistency in my business, marketing, fulfillment, client intake, sales, follow-up, and customer service?
Am I willing to release the need to reinvent the wheel as a way to express my creativity?

So, are you willing? If you are, let’s dive on in.

#1 – Think like an owner, not an employee

If you’re still thinking like an employee then you’re going to bog yourself down putting out the fire in front of you instead of focusing on how to take your business to the next level. Your fire brigade (your trusted employees) should have the knowledge and experience to deal with any crises that arise. They put out the fire without you.

Believe it or not, people who run six or seven-figure companies don’t work 100x harder than you. And they certainly don’t work 100 hours per week — they create systems that allow the business to run itself.

To run the successful business you’ve always wanted, you need to let go of your mindset and head to the next level. Stop telling yourself “nobody can do it as well as me,” because that kind of thinking is what’s holding you back.

Now, let’s focus on your clients.

#2 – A client-centered service sells itself

Many start-ups fail because the owners and managers focus on the wrong things at the wrong time: they focus on themselves instead of their customers.

Think about some of the most successful businesses out there like Amazon, Target, and FedEx. They put the customer first —they talk about what matters to us: fast delivery, great products, and guaranteed satisfaction.

The world’s most profitable businesses put the CLIENT front and center, not the process, product, or anything else.

Want to be like one of these top businesses? Start with some clarity:

What outcomes do you want to deliver to your clients?
Do you believe that you charge too much? (You probably don’t just, FYI.)
Do you treat your customers how you want to be treated?

This clarity is crucial before we move on to the next pillar of the framework.

#3 – Monitor your money to grow it like magic

Let’s be honest. You and I both know why you hate tracking numbers so much. Because it’s depressing, right? But that’s because you don’t know HOW to read them.

Get those numbers out of your head and start tracking them! The path to growth is right under your nose. If you can’t see it, it’s either because you’re deliberately looking away, you’re scared of what the numbers tell you, or you don’t know how to correctly interpret the data. Tracking the numbers is the key to looking at them differently.

Tracking is the intel that tells you what’s happening in your business: how you can make changes, shift, edit, improve, and save yourself from going over the edge.

When you track all of your transactions (tangible, not-monetary, or not) then you will naturally increase your cash flow. You can easily pay yourself, your employees and maybe even save $2,500 bucks a month.

You’ll notice a few changes: Your…

Messaging improves
Return on marketing expenditures increases
Clients increase in number

It may be a slow and steady journey for the first few months, but you’ll notice that it’s so easy, it feels suspicious! But rest assured, it’s not voodoo; it’s numbers!

In order to track your numbers, you need to consistently find clients, which brings us to the next step: marketing.

#4 – Get the mood out of your marketing

What does this mean?

Many entrepreneurs market inconsistently. In fact, they do a lot of things inconsistently. When they feel motivated they do ALL the things.

Guilty as charged! We’re all guilty of this from time to time.

When things start to fall apart, this leads to guilt and drama, which zaps your energy. Burnout follows and you may notice that your health takes a dive, your personal relationships become rocky, and you make poor decisions with your hiring and firing processes.

Business owners who experience burnout tend to withdraw in life and disappear from time to time. This creates large gaps in their marketing and will inevitably lead to bigger disasters down the road.

Consistent marketing systems are the best way to remedy this type of situation or avoid it in the first place.

When you put systems first and you automate everything you possibly can, then it gets kinda boring… and it should be! For you, at least.

Marketing is an exciting space to have a little fun because you get to practice creativity. But you also need to have the systems in place that make it a little boring sometimes. You’ll save time and money with automation — just what cleaning service business owners need!

To be clear, you have plenty of room to be creative in your marketing and client service. In fact, that’s what’s going to help you grow. But you need to be consistent in your business so that you are free to create the things that demand creativity.

The uber-successful people don’t have more discipline than you or me, they have better systems that support the habits that lead to success.

Want to read more about marketing systems for your maid service? Check out one of our most popular articles: 21 Ways to Market Your Maid Service.

#5 – Don’t ask how, ask who

You may be asking yourself: How do I make the changes to build these successful systems?

This is a difficult question to answer because the HOW is CUSTOM to you. And not just to your business, but to your personality, belief system, team, and clients.

You can’t build a sustainable business by applying generic information to your unique circumstance.

Owners like yourself learn the skills that will take them to the next level. They look at where they want to be, and then, are willing to examine their responsibility in getting there? And when they don’t know “HOW” they flip those letters and they ask “WHO.”

Who has already done this and made a system around it?
Who deeply understands not just the business side of things, but the psychology of it?
Who isn’t just guessing how to do things but has a proven way to build a business?
Who experienced holes in their business like mine but has come out on top?

Without customization, you’re going to feel like a square peg in a round hole — and that feeling will kill your momentum.

Key Takeaways

Position yourself to attract the right clients and turn them into raving fans who will give you great reviews and build your credibility.
Understand how to read your numbers in order to boost your income and keep the cash flowing.
Stop guessing what works. Instead, build systems that make marketing easy, predictable, and automated.
Don’t just build systems but build them in the right order to save yourself some stress and drama.
Seek out other successful business owners and learn from them.

You’ve got what it takes to thrive — now make it happen! Interested in a step-by-step automation guide? Head to this article next!

Next steps

About the presenter

As a self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur, Sheri-Anne Woolley has multiple businesses and systematic practices to teach. One of these businesses is her green maid service, Mona Eco-Friendly Cleaning, which delivers homes high-quality cleaning services that are safe and toxin-free.

To hear Sheri-Anne Woolley’s full talk from the Maid Summit, click here.

This talk first aired at the 2019 Maid Service Success Summit.

The Maid Summit is an annual online event that brings together the most successful leaders in the cleaning industry, like Debbie Sardone, Angela Brown, Courtney Wisely, Amy Caris, Chris Schwab and more. Get free access to masterclasses and workshops that will help you to grow, scale and automate your cleaning business so you can get more leads and create more profit. Make sure you’re on our email list to find out how to get free tickets to the next event.

You and your maid service deserve a little peace and quiet. Try ZenMaid for free today!