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Introduction
Hello everyone and welcome to the Filthy Rich Cleaners podcast! I’m your host Stephanie Pipkin, and this first episode is going to cover my story, my company Serene Clean, and what I hope this podcast can do for you, my fellow cleaning business owner.
I’m excited to share how I built my business from zero at age 22 to what it is now at 28 – a company doing over $1.4 million in revenue. I live in Savannah, Georgia, but my business runs in Wisconsin. I actually just got back late last night from flying up for Christmas to see my employees and family. We had a fantastic Christmas party last Friday for the team – lots of fun, some games, and maybe a little drinking. I truly love my team, and you’ll hear more about them as we get into the story.
Before we dive in, I want to say that owning a cleaning business has changed my life, and I know it can change yours too. There will be challenges – and that’s something I really want to share in this podcast. I’ll talk about my challenges and bring in other industry leaders to share theirs, so hopefully you won’t feel so alone. Business ownership can be a lonely road, and sometimes only other business owners truly understand what you’re going through.
Table of contents
My Background
I grew up in rural Western Wisconsin and went to a tiny high school called Melrose-Mindoro. My graduating class had just 44 students, including foreign exchange students. I didn’t even live in town – I was out in the woods at my parents’ place. After high school, I went straight to Western Technical College in La Crosse, Wisconsin for an associate’s degree in marketing. I chose marketing because it seemed general enough – I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I knew I didn’t want to go into a lot of student debt.
Early Work Experience
At around 14 or 15, I started waitressing, which I continued until I was 22. I loved waitressing and was good at it – it taught me incredible customer service skills and how to manage multiple tasks at once. Anyone who’s worked in restaurant service knows how it teaches you to work fast and problem-solve. I paid my way through technical school by waitressing, and also did a brief stint as a credit union teller (which I hated and only lasted six months).
After graduating from Western TC, I went to work at my parents’ manufacturing facility as their office manager. For the next three years, I both waitressed and managed their office. This is where I learned the backend of business operations – the “boring stuff” like bookkeeping, administrative tasks, emails, and bill paying. Looking back, the combination of waitressing skills and office management experience created a perfect foundation for what Serene Clean would become.
The Birth of the Business
I stopped waitressing after moving to Black River Falls, about half an hour from my hometown. I wanted to make more money, but there weren’t any good restaurants to work at. I’d always enjoyed cleaning, so I thought, “Why not clean houses on nights and weekends?” I made a flyer, put it up at the local community center, and… nothing happened. Not a single call.
Then something changed everything. I stumbled across a YouTube video from Melissa Maker of Clean My Space. She owns a large cleaning company in Toronto and was promoting her business course called The Decision Makers. The course was $2,000 – a huge amount of money for me at the time, but I took the leap. I started the course in February 2019, and by April 1st, 2019, Black River Falls Cleaning Services (now Serene Clean) was born.
First Employees and Early Challenges
I had to start hiring almost immediately because cleaning nights and weekends wasn’t working for residential clients – they wanted daytime cleaning, not someone cleaning while they’re trying to make dinner. My first hire was in June 2019. I posted jobs on Facebook and Indeed, did interviews at the local coffee shop (since I was running everything from my two-bedroom apartment), and my very first hire ghosted me before training even started. I remember crying that night, feeling so discouraged.
Side note: when I told my parents about starting the business, they heavily encouraged me not to do it. Thank goodness I didn’t listen – none of this would exist if I had. There will always be well-meaning people trying to protect you from what they see as inevitable failure. Don’t listen to them. If this is your dream and purpose in life, go for it. What’s the worst that could happen? You fail and get another job. But the potential reward is worth it.
Growing Through COVID-19
When COVID hit in March 2020, we were just shy of our first anniversary. We had to shut down residential cleaning for about a month, which was incredibly stressful. I had one employee tell everyone in our group chat how great it would be to go on unemployment – that was my first experience firing someone for insubordination.
But COVID actually turned out to be lucrative for us. Commercial accounts needed us more than ever as essential businesses. Several accounts needed cleaning twice a day, five days a week. We faced challenges with exposed cleaners and quarantine periods, and even had some employees try to commit COVID pay fraud. But we also saw the best in people. We received the PPP grant and used it to offer free deep cleanings to local shut-down businesses and churches. That decision helped build our reputation in the community tremendously.
The Fort McCoy Project
In August 2021, we got a call that would change everything. Fort McCoy, a local military base, needed help with a massive project: cleaning facilities for 15,000 Afghan refugees. We were asked to be one of the local subcontractors managing the janitorial side – 318 buildings, twice daily cleaning, with 212 being barracks housing 50 people each.
This six-month project required seven-day workweeks and over 100 janitorial staff per day. I worked 10-12 hour days, and at first, I was running between barracks cleaning myself because we were so short-staffed. We dealt with everything from tuberculosis to chickenpox exposure. The project ended in February 2022 and generated just over a million dollars in revenue. It was exhausting but transformative for the business.
Growth and Current Operations
Today, we’ve expanded beyond Black River Falls to Sparta and La Crosse. We maintain incredibly high standards – with 170-180 appointments weekly, we have less than a 1% complaint rate. We’ve built an amazing management team, including Crystal (HR Manager), April (Payroll and Inventory), Katie (Customer Relations), and Hannah (Field Development and Quality Assurance).
The Future and This Podcast
That brings us to why I started this podcast. Earlier this year, I reached out to Amar, the CEO of ZenMaid, about creating educational content. I love connecting with other owners, especially newcomers to the industry. There’s nothing more rewarding than helping people avoid the mistakes I made over these past five and a half years.
The name “Filthy Rich Cleaners” isn’t just about money – it’s about being rich in wisdom, experience, and the ability to make an impact. Money is a tool to obtain your dreams, get time freedom, and give generously to your staff and community. That’s what I want for all of you listening.
We’re going to cover everything in this podcast – from handling difficult employees to dealing with crazy situations (trust me, I’ve got stories). We’ll talk about building resilience, maintaining a positive attitude despite disappointments, and creating systems that work. I want to give you actionable advice, not just motivation that fades away.
Resources Mentioned in This Episode
- Clean My Space YouTube Channel (Melissa Maker)
- The Decision Makers Course (no longer available)
- Profit First (Book)
- ZenMaid Software
- QuickBooks
Note: This transcript has been edited for clarity and readability.
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