The downside subcontracting out your work

As mentioned in one of my past newsletters, I have been doing various side hustles since I was very young. I love it. I love the idea of making money and doing it for myself instead of anyone else. That being said, the cleaning business was the first business where I had a large number of customers and subcontracted the work out. As a result, I have had less control over this business than any hustle I previously ran.

While I understand that this is part of the game, at times it gets extremely hard. I have had to tighten up my hiring process numerous times and have had to fire multiple cleaners to due them slacking at work or doing a worse job when they do not have supervision.

Through this, I have had stress I’ve never had before. I used to be excited for a new customer but nowadays I get nervous depending on what cleaners I have available. I’m not saying any of my current cleaners are bad, but from past experience, I am now worried about the future for usually no reason.

The flip side to this situation is I’m not the only one. I’ve been trying to build in public on Twitter and through this I have been able to both follow others on the same journey as well as make real connections with some of these people. I’m able to learn from them, see the problems they have, and most importantly, become continually motivated by them.

This past week I just took my first week off in a year. I didn’t think I needed it going into the weekend, but I came out with the realization that I was burnt out. The process was becoming repetative and I was becoming uninterested in times. Since seeing my college friends and spending a weekend away, I now feel refreshed and ready to go. I’ve been averaging around $9k per month in cleaning and now I’m more motivated than ever to turn that number to $20k and beyond.

To anyone else who has felt this way, take a break. It won’t be the end of the world and the feeling you will have after the break will make a much bigger difference than you’d think.

Cleaning Company Weekly Update

• Number of Cleanings: 10

• Total Revenue: $1,473

• Takeaways:

  • This was an off week. Had a couple of people move their cleanings due to memorial day weekend. On top of that, I had a lot of friends coming into town so I actually turned my ads off and did minimal work for the last week.

• Main Focuses:

  • Recurring Cleanings. Had a couple of great conversations with some other cleaning company owners. The big difference I noticed between my businesses and theirs was their ability to build up a recurring client base. My main focus now is going to be on selling customers on coming back to me.