This story also told is based on a conversation with Amber Starling, the founder and owner of Good witch cleaning. The part has been modified for length and clarity.
Image credit: Gariousness of Good Witch Cleaning. Amber Starling.
When I arrived in the “little apple” or Manhattan, Kansas, I had five years of management experienceIncluding as a front -line firefighter in the volunteer department. I had seven years of experience in the office and a secondary school diploma. So when I moved here, I had no big social network to draw, and I had trouble finding a job. No one wanted to get involved because I had too little education or too much experience. I’m fed up after seven months of that and it was like, I can to hire myself. It was in 2017.
I decided to start a cleaning company Because it is a service that is always in demand, and there was a Gap in our market For professional businesses. In our industry, it is rare to reach the point where you hire employees. At the other end of the spectrum, large companies often use a large -scale approach that lacks empathy and does not work for many families.
I started my business with just the void of my house. I saved about $ 100 of my grocery budget and bought cleaning products in a reduction store. I appointed the company Good Witch Cleaning because, for a while, I lived only four minutes from Wizard of Oz museum. It is very fun of a brand And the marketing perspective: we put a pink witch hat on a black car, and it appears.
I was not insured at the beginning, so I should say to my customers,, “”Hey, that’s something I want to do, but I have to earn enough money to get there, and if you are ready to take a risk on me, then I will offer you a good rate and good service. “I found my first customers by publishing on Facebook, advertising with managers of $ 99.
I hired my first employee in the first year after the company’s opening. Our employees are not subcontractors. We provide all the equipment and supplies, and I also invest in my team in -depth training. Many members of my team and I hold the certification of the cleaning technicians of the IICRC house. It goes to chemistry, safety and how to avoid harmful surfaces. Sometimes people ask me: “What if these employees go with all this knowledge?” But I say: “What if they stay without that?” We have a breakfast of the staff with training every Friday.
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THE Jobber subsidies The program helped me create my business. When I initially asked for the grant, my goal was to open a branch in Wichita. However, at the time, I was also in the SBA Emerging Leaders programWho is a kind of mini-mBa, and I learned that expansion too quickly was the main cause of death for medium-sized companies. In addition, we lost 60% of our customers during the night during the pandemic. Fortunately, I was able to return to Jobber and reassign funds from disinfection and sanitation certifications.
The tumult in the middle of pandemicDuring which we saw companies close to the left and right, also solidified that our company could not be everything for everyone. If we went down, I wanted it to be like myself. We have become an openly progressive company, a feminist openly to the fourth wave, Lgbtqia and adapted to immigrants. There was so much hatred in the world, and we were going to embody love, even if he killed the business.
You don’t need to be a diabolical business to have a prosperous business. It starts with the way I treat my staff. They have access to a decent salaryhealth care and mental health care. When I treat their work as a career by offering them training and treating them as human beings, ensuring that they can pay their bills and have free time to spend with their family, they want to stay with us. It is not a difficult concept to grasp.
In 2017, we were at $ 11,000 in income – it was before having hired someone. In 2018, we reached $ 57,000; $ 119,000 in 2019; $ 216,000 in 2020; and $ 467,000 in 2021. Since then, we have stabilized in this income range, and it is by choice. We could have continued to develop aggressively, in particular in the commercial concierge, but we wanted to stay focused on the residential and work with workers and middle -class families.
Our poverty rate is almost double the national average, so we had to work hard and listen to the needs of the members and customers of our team. Instead of going after richer and richer customers, our strategy has been diversify Our offers so that we can always help them with things such as refrigerator cleaning or dishes.
Give back For our community, we have always been extremely important to us. We donated advisory services to the Housing Authority and the emergency refuge here during the pandemic. We have made a donation to sports teams. We have made a donation to the Boy Scouts; Last year, we donated $ 5,000 in match funds to True Colors, which is a local LGBTQ youth program. Last November, we also opened a free store in our office, where people can donate and receive items in good condition.
I grew up 50% below the poverty line in the deep south, and it really shaped the way I approach business. I had a fairly swirling increase in our industry. I networked and looked for a lot of certifications, and I met people who were successful who were amazed by the way I came from Humble Beginnings. They find me unique, and this kind makes me uncomfortable. I knew and I still know a lot of very brilliant, talented and work hard People to grow. It is not uncommon to find individuals in the working class who are incredible. It is rare that they go so far.
This article is part of our series of women entrepreneur® in progress highlighting the stories, challenges and triumphs in the management of a company as a woman.