I'm new to this business and currently operating from my home office. For now, I schedule in-person interviews at a neutral, public location—the shared parking lot of the local police department and public library, and then conduct the interviews in the library hall. Before scheduling, I always ask candidates to let me know in advance if they can’t make it, so I don’t make the trip unnecessarily. Today, I scheduled three in-person interviews after initial phone screenings. One candidate texted me early in the morning to cancel, which was great. However, the second didn’t show up and, when I reached out, he said he changed his mind because meeting in a parking lot/library seemed odd without a formal office. The third candidate also didn’t show and didn’t respond to my messages. I’m considering switching to a local coffee shop or renting an office space by the hour to make the process more professional. My frustration isn’t about candidates changing their minds—I understand that happens—but it’s about the lack of basic courtesy to send a simple text if they decide not to show up, especially when I specifically ask for that heads-up. Any thoughts or advice on handling this would be appreciated! In particular, I am interested how did you handle this when you did not have an office and was interviewing candidates!!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share something that I hope encourages you. In addition to building my cleaning business, I also hold a real estate license and work another part-time job in the evenings. Recently, I made the decision to put my real estate license into a holding company. While it was a bit of a letdown—because I do enjoy that field—both businesses require a tremendous amount of time and financial commitment, which became a strain. When I called my association to start the process, a woman I know there reminded me of their affiliate program. She checked their database and noticed they didn’t have any cleaning companies as affiliate partners. We decided to sign up as a partner, and she mentioned that an email will be sent to all association members on Monday, introducing us as a new affiliate partner and providing our contact information. This came about from simply answering a question she asked me: “So, Tracey, what are you going to be doing now that you’re pausing your real estate business?” I replied, “I’m growing my cleaning company.” Even though I know this is the right decision, I still felt a little down about stepping away from real estate. But I made sure to approach the phone call with a positive attitude, and I believe she picked up on that energy. What initially felt like a step backward has, I believe, turned into two steps forward.

I teased it earlier in the week that I’d like to do a challenge (I love challenges). I wanted something fair, which equally engages whether you’re small (me) or you have a large business. Between November 1 and December 15, the winner of this challenge will win $100 for the holidays. How to win: 👉 3 points for every recurring proposal delivered. Doesn’t matter if it’s commercial or residential. 👉 1 point for every one time -or- temporary service proposal delivered. Temporary includes services that last for a month or less (eg a deep clean, PCC, etc). Doesn’t matter if commercial or residential. On December 16, add up your points. Post your score. It’ll be an honor system. I want you to post your own identifier of that prospect, how you met them, and the outcome after delivering that proposal. It doesn’t matter if they agreed to your proposal or not. Why proposals only? There were times I had zero growth goals. I wanted to solidify what I had. So if this is your goal, this makes it easy to participate. I also don’t want to put you in a cash flow crunch (been there, done that). The winner will be paid out around the 17th or 18th, after points are tallied, preferably through Venmo. Good luck!!!!

Hey gang (and @Avi Arturovi ), I was going to give these out once I hired an employee but that hasn't happened yet. So I wanted to give these out now if you needed help or inspiration on a future ad. Example 1 Example 2 (based on Michalowicz's Clockwork framework) Happy hiring!

Today I am working on an SOP for cleaning commercial office buildings. I can't afford to sign up for process street at the moment, anybody have any good resources or tools?