Scale Your Cleaning Business: Save 30+ Hours a Week on Marketing, Scheduling and Hiring

Last Updated on August 21, 2023 by The ZenMaid Team

30 hours is a lot of time. You can drive from Manhattan to Raleigh, North Carolina and back in that time. Twice.

In terms of billable hours, it’s a lot too. Worth 4 figures to your personal bottom line, easy.

Thankfully, saving 30+ hours a week is possible with the help of the best CRM for your cleaning business … WHILE increasing your income. 

And even if you plan to use a different cleaning service crm, this article could change your business and life.

Because at it’s core every cleaning business has three main pillars. 

🏛️ Pillar 1: Marketing 

🏛️ Pillar 2: Scheduling 

🏛️ Pillar 3: Hiring 

Strip your time away from each pillar. With effective systems, processes and software.

Then you can scale. 

You’ll get new clients on command. With a proven system. And each additional client won’t take any more of your time 🚀

This guide will show you how to do that. It’s a complete breakdown 😉

The days of pulling your hair out due to scheduling nightmares, Jenny missing her 3pm and hiring dud employees are over.

You’re now on the fast track to an easy to run, highly profitable cleaning business. 

Like Bryan…

Let’s get started on the first pillar. It’s the ‘moneymaker’.  

Pillar 1: Marketing 

You can’t flog a dead horse. 

I love that idiom. It’s very apt. Because if your Maid Service isn’t up to snuff before you start marketing?

It’ll fall flat. 

No amount of flashy marketing can make up for a mediocre maid service. 

You need to create a premium brand image. 

Cleaning is considered a luxury. People are happy to promote a high tier service to their friends. 

Because it reflects well on them.

So before we begin, download your free 13 point checklist. 

It’s everything you need to make your cleaning brand premium. 

One you’ll be proud to market!

Now you’re ready for the actual marketing tactics…

Cleaning Business Marketing Tactics 

There are hundreds of ways to market your cleaning business. 

But not all are created equal.

Your favoured marketing method should be:

Effective: Other cleaning businesses have used them successfully.

Time efficient: You can get disproportionately large results for little time invested.

Repeatable: You can repeat the process over-and-over again. To get predictable results.

Trackable: You know you’ll get $X out for $Y expenditure in.

A bad example is social media. 

You can make 100 instagram posts. All with clever hashtags and descriptions. It feels like you’re working. But really?

If there are no results, then that was a complete waste of time. 

You can’t scale like that. 

Without a clear plan? You’ll continue running around like a headless chicken.

Luckily, there are two methods that fit ALL 4 criteria. 

Google Adwords and Direct Mail.

The first requires an advertising budget and less time. 

The second requires more time but a tiny advertising budget.  

Both work. 

Pick the one that suits your current situation the best.

Google Adwords For Cleaning Businesses

Here’s a quick primer on Adwords…

In short:

People are searching for a cleaning business in their area. 

All the time. 

I started my first cleaning business in Orange County. So let’s see what pops up when we put that into Google. 

The first FOUR results are ads. 

People who click these ads are hyper relevant. Your perfect customers. They are already looking for a solution to their problem. 

With Google Ads you can set a maximum budget. And you only pay for people who actually click your ads. 

A winning Google Ads campaign gives you the power to generate clients on command. In your local area.

You’ll have predictability and scale. 

It’s super high leverage. 

Because you know spending $X in Google brings in $Y in new cleanings. 

If the number for $Y is higher than X?

Simply tell Google to spend more!

Which will generate even more clients, without investing more of your time. 

It’s the Holy Grail of cleaning business marketing. An easy way to pick up 5 – 10 new cleanings per month. 

Here’s the catch:

You need to be able to write winning ads. 

So let’s dive into that now. 

Writing Winning Google Ads for Cleaning Businesses

Here are 4 example winning cleaning business Google Ads:

Ad #1:

House Cleaning­ $39

Full Residential Cleaning

Insured and Bonded Professionals

Ad #2:

Affordable Maid Service

Reclaim Your Life and Home

Serving East LA

Ad #3:

SF Maid Services

We Leave No Dirt Behind!

Call Now For a Free Quote

Ad #4:

San Diego Maid Brigade

Serving San Diego 10+ years

Find Out Why We’re #1

They work because they follow a proven structure. That works within Google’s maximum character limit.

Line 1 Headline (max 25 characters):

Be clear and concise. 

Let them know what you’re offering. Without any added waffle or baggage. 

Keep. It. Simple. 

You can’t go wrong using the words ‘Maid Service’. 

Line 2 Value Prop (max 35 characters): 

This is what differentiates your service from the competition. 

The more unique, the better. 

Be specific.

Relate this to the service you’re offering.

Line 3 Above and Beyond (max 35 characters): 

Give them a reason to contact you now. 

Why should they care about your ad? What makes your business stand out? 

Express that. 

Make it extra powerful by combining it with curiosity and a call to action.

Google Ads works best for established cleaning businesses, with a budget and track record. 

But if you don’t have that, then direct mail is the better option. 

Direct Mail 

Operating in one locale makes direct mail a no brainer. 

Because there WILL be a pocket-of-people actively looking for cleaning services. 

All you need to do is get the right message in front of them. 

You guessed it… at scale!

It’s the ‘manual’ version of Google ads. 

There are five steps to this:

1. Define who you’re talking to 
2. Find your people
3. Craft the right message
4. Deliver that message 
5. Track the results and repeat 

Treat each mailing as a standalone ‘campaign’.

Define your target market 

For this to work, you’ll need to niche down.

It’s the only way to craft a message that resonates. One that will effectively call people to genuine action.  

Here are some specific customer segments you can consider: 

✓ Office buildings 

✓ New homeowners

✓ Households with kids

✓ Households of professionals

✓ Households of retirees

✓ Apartment tenants

✓ Landlords / Leasing agents

✓ People selling their homes

✓ Hoarders

Find Your People 

Some of these segments are straightforward. For example, you can get office addresses in your neighbourhood with a bit of Googling.

County auditor or recorders’ websites have breakdowns for other groups. For example, you can see what homes have been purchased in the last month.

Aside from that, the yellow pages are your best bet.

Searching for ‘apartments’ will give you the names, addresses, phone numbers, even websites of apartment complexes. 

Start creating your initial campaign list. 

That list should contain at least 100 addresses. 

Which is a sensible number. Because it provides statistically significant results. 

You can test and tweak from there. 

Craft your message

Let’s consider a couple of the groups we talked about above. 

1. Office blocks. 

2. New home owners.

3. Apartment complexes 

These groups will have different pain points. 

The secret sauce of direct mail is addressing that UNIQUE pain point. 

Then showing them you have a solution for it. 

Do that?

And they’ll take action. I.e. book a cleaning!

Here are some example pain points:

1. Office blocks: Dirty meeting rooms will give potential clients a bad first impression 

2. New home owners: Your new home will start degrading without regular cleanings 

3. Apartment complexes: Without a clean place you won’t get your deposit back 

Once you’ve identified the pain point you can present your solution using the following, time tested, copywriting formula P A S. 

Problem

Agitate

Solution

Grab their attention by calling out their problem.

Agitate their problem by describing what they’re missing out on. By not getting this handled. 

What does that feel like?

Then, present your solution!

It really is as simple as that. No need to overcomplicate things here. 

Use canva.com to design your flyer. Here’s an example I knocked up in 5 minutes:

Can you identify P.A.S in the flyer above?

That is the kind of effect we are going for. 

Your ad should speak to your ideal prospect. LOUD and clear. 

Mail your message 

Print your postcard or flyer and mail them!

By the end of the campaign you’ll have spent $X on flyers and generated $Y in cleanings. 

To your initial list of 100. 

If that was profitable, you can simply repeat the whole process again. 

Let’s say campaign one generated 5 clients. But you want 10.

Then send campaign two to 200 prospects 😉 Until you reach the desired number of cleanings. 

Using Google Ads or Direct Mail will bring you a flood of new clients. 

The next section shows you how to manage them. 

Pillar 2: Scheduling 

The majority of your time is spent in a scheduling nightmare. 

It has your head in a bind. 

Because there are so many moving pieces. 

If one thing moves, everything else has to move with it. 

Other people’s actions affect you. You feel like you have no life. 

The more clients you get – the worse it gets. 

You can’t sort this out with a pen and paper. 

You can’t sort this out with sub-par software, either. 

The only way to ‘set-and-forget’ this part of your business is to use software. Built specifically for Maid Service owners. 

That is ZenMaid. 

Of course, we’re biased. This is our site after all. So here’s a little proof:

You can get started for nothing. With our new free plan. Here’s how it stacks up:

In the rest of this section I’m going to show you how ZenMaid can take your calendar, invoicing, payroll and bookings off your plate. 

For good. 

Managing Your Calendar With ZenMaid

As a cleaning business owner, you’ll spend 90% of your time in the calendar. 

It needs to be easy to use. 

Simple. 

Visual.

Digital.

Run on autopilot.

And, it is with ZenMaid. It’s what we’re known for…

Once your customers are in ZenMaid the next step is to start adding appointments. 

Schedule Recurring And One Time Appointments

Simply hit the little ‘calendar‘ button in the sidebar. Then click the ‘actions‘ drop down. Followed by ‘create appointment‘.

Choose your first customer. 

Then create your first appointment…

Get all your recurring appointments in there, first. Then, one time cleanings.

By the end, your calendar should look something like this:

Now it’s time to take it up a level. 

Give your office manager and cleaners access to the software

This is where the magic happens.

Having your cleaners in the software means they get their work orders via text, email or login. 

They know what they’re doing – and when.

There is no excuse for missed appointments.  

Because ZenMaid will fire off SMS appointment reminders with their cleaning briefs…

Bottom line:

Your cleaners know what they are doing. Without additional back and forth. 

No need to continue phoning cleaners, chasing them up, or giving out manual reminders anymore. 

Automate Customer Correspondence

You can keep your customers in the loop too.

FURTHER minimizing client back-and-forth.

ZenMaid can send automatic text and email reminders for you. 

You have a choice of 11 automated customer messages: 

1. Estimate
2. Estimate Confirmation
3. Booking Confirmation
4. Appointment Confirmation
5. Appointment Reminder 
6. Work Order
7. On The Way
8. Customer Cancellation Notice
9. Employee Cancellation Notice
10. Appointment Follow-up
11. Come Back 

How much time do you currently spend writing and sending these manually?

A conservative estimate is 10 hours per week. 

Add the 20 or so hours you’ll spend dealing with your calendar and employees. 

That’s 30 hours. 

Why not give ZenMaid’s Free Plan a shot? 

If you value your time at $50 per hour. Then you’ll be saving yourself $1,500 per week. 

Right off the bat. 

The time it takes to set up is a worthwhile investment in our opinion. But you can be the judge of that 😉

Oh, and the calendar is just the beginning. ZenMaid will also take care of payroll, invoicing and booking.

Payroll

You select which pay type to assign to your cleaners. 

Choose from: per hour, revenue share or fixed flat rate. 

Do that for each cleaner. Then at the end of the month you can run a payroll report!

Go to Payroll from your ZenMaid dashboard.

Set the dates using the From and To fields then hit the ‘Run Payroll’ button.

You can now see how much you need to pay each employee. You can view and edit each cleaners’ pay to account for deductions or bonuses. 

If you want to see an additional breakdown simply hit the ‘view and edit’ button. 

This will display a complete breakdown of the exact jobs they’ve completed. As well as the hours worked.  

Invoicing

You can invoice your customers right in the app. 

Click on any appointment in your calendar. Hit ‘actions‘ and then ‘invoice customer‘. 

You’ll be greeted by a pop up, with an invoice preview.

Edit to your liking and send to your customers. 

All your invoices are stored in one place for easy access. 

Instant Booking Form

This is where things get really streamlined. 

Every cleaning business website should have an instant booking form.

Especially if you’re running Google Ads from Pillar #1.

An instant booking form means any website visitor can book a cleaning right there are then. 

The best part?

That booking goes right into your ZenMaid calendar!

Straight from the ad. 

Smooth. 

All the correspondence happens on autopilot too:

• Appointment reminder 
• Appointment follow-up
• Estimate
• Work Order
• Estimate Confirmation
• Booking Confirmation

Now imagine the following scenario:

It’s late on a Monday night. 

You pour yourself a glass of wine and write a few Google Ads. Using the formula we gave you in Pillar #1.

You set those up in the console. And tell Google to spend a maximum of $100.

On Tuesday morning, you wake up to 10 new clients. 

All pre-booked and paid. 

With appointment reminders on the way. 

Time spent = 1 hour. 

THAT is the power of getting Pillar #1 and #2 handled. 

Think of ZenMaid as your new ‘Headquarters’.

ZenMaid takes 90% of the work out of managing your bookings, clients and employees. 

The one thing it can’t do however is…

Hire good employees for you!

That’s the subject of Pillar #3.

Pillar 3: Hiring

The final, and arguably, most important piece of the puzzle are your cleaners. 

Great employees are the heart and soul of any successful business. 

They represent you. 

As well as your brand and values.

Here’s why A-Player cleaners are valuable:

• Their warm presence and reliable service will keep existing clients on your roster. 
• They’ll help you source other cleaners via referral 
• Their commitment to your company will foster good morale
• They are engaged and receptive to your company culture

B-Player and C-player cleaners are a dime a dozen. Lazy, unmotivated and uncommitted. 

You’ll waste countless hours dealing with them. 

Hopefully you followed our advice in the previous two sections. And you’ve got a spate of new bookings.

Too many to handle!

Now, hiring A-player cleaners is the only way to further expand your business.

The Three Components Of Hiring

1. Marketing your job post. To attract the right candidates. 
2. Identifying A-Player candidates (fast) when they do apply. So you don’t miss the opportunity. 
3. Onboard new hires with minimal fuss.

Marketing your job post follows most of the principles in Pillar 1 of this guide. 

You’ll still need to: 

• Communicate the benefits of your job
• Give people a compelling reason to apply

Go back to Pillar 1 and review Google Ads. 

Follow the principles there. And then use our Perfect Hiring ad:

Free mediums like Facebook groups can work too.

That is exactly what Juan Chaparro (CEO of Gmaids and Pipehire) did. To grow to $1M in revenue. 

But to get there he had to overcome one major obstacle.

Applications were flooding in. However, Identifying A-player cleaners and onboarding both took time. 

He was unable to scale up. The hiring process made his day-to-day life chaotic. 

Because he was the bottleneck.

• Manually entering candidates into a spreadsheet
• Manually screening applications / resumes
• Was the only one allowed to hire
• Taking to long to reply with decisions
• Wasting his time in too many processes

That’s why he created Pipehire. 

It’s software that simplifies everything after the application. 

You are about to discover how Pipehire will strip your time away from hiring.

Identifying A-Player Candidates (Fast) When They Do Apply

Pipehire allows you to track every important hiring stage. In a funnel…

Everytime someone fills out an application, they get dropped into Pipehire for you. 

As they progress through your hiring process, drag their card into the relevant column.

Qualified. 

To be interviewed. 

Training. 

Cure overwhelm and keep everything clean and organized. 

You can select a time and date when you want to interview your applicants. Which sends them a text message with an email reminder. 

Now for the best part! 

Every applicant has a recruitment score. Based on the answers they provided in their application. 

Look at the screenshot below

Lady Puppington has a recruitment score of 21.

Lord Puppsalot has a recruitment score of 18. 

You build every application form. For every job. Within Pipehire. 

Which allows you to choose which questions to ask. 

You can assign scores to your questions. 

For example, applicants get 1pt if they are authorized to work in the US. And 1pt if they have a driver’s licence. 

Lady Puppington has 21 points. i.e. everything I am asking for.

This is also known as “lead scoring”. Lead scoring makes identifying A-player cleaners visual.

So you identify and interview the best prospects. As soon as possible. Before another company snaps them up. 

You don’t have time to go through every single applicant. 

Lead scoring takes a lot of the legwork out of filtering. Saving your hours. 

I could receive Amelia’s application on Monday. Get her in for an interview on Tuesday. And onboard her on Wednesday. 

Onboard New Hires With Minimal Fuss

You can do the following within Pipehire: 

✅ Run background checks

✅ See if employee documents are in order (e.g. driving licence)

✅ Track what trainings they have received / still need to receive 

✅ Track the benefits you provide

✅ Create onboarding checklists. To make sure you dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t’

With Pipehire you can filter and onboard prospects in a time efficient way. 

Hiring is now taken care of as well. 

Which nicely wraps up our three pillars. 

🏛️ Pillar 1: Marketing 

🏛️ Pillar 2: Scheduling 

🏛️ Pillar 3: Hiring 

You have removed your time from each one. As much as possible. While still retaining a personal touch, strong brand, and A-player cleaners. 

The only way is up from here 🚀

You’ll easily save 30 hours a week following this guide. All while making more. 

Your Next Step

To get the most out of this guide you’ll need the supporting resources. 

1. Checklist: How To Create A Premium Cleaning Brand
2. 47 Keywords
3. The Come Back Message That Makes Clients Return
4. The Perfect Hiring Ad
5. Complete Onboarding Checklist 

And.

The supporting software. 

You can try the ZenMaid Free Plan here.

You can try Pipehire here.

Let me know how you get on. 

Good luck!