Hiring for Success: How to Build a Winning Team as a Remote Boss

When it comes to hiring, I’m a firm believer that if I hire well, I give myself the best chance to succeed.

When starting my cleaning company, I knew how important hiring would be, yet I had never hired anyone but friends before. I was new to the game and had to figure out everything on the go. This included learning how to find cleaners, run interviews, reach out to referrals, background check employees, and test my employees to see if they had what I needed to be done as a cleaner.

To start my hiring process, I tried a lot of different hiring websites like Monster, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter. Through trial and error, I found out pretty quickly that Indeed was the best website to find employees. It is free to post jobs, I can post more than once if needed, and they even provided me with free ad credit to get started and promote my new job postings.

When it comes to hiring, I like to be super upfront about what's required. I list out all the details in a clear and concise way so potential employees know exactly what they're getting into.

When deciding which cleaners to move forward with I look for a couple of things:

• Relevant Experience: My company services residential homes only so I am looking for cleaners with that exact type of experience. This means that I don’t hire people who have only commercial experience and I don’t hire people who have only worked in hotels. This guarantees that the people I hire get the job I need to be done, done right.

• A clear and organized resume: This may be picky, but if I am looking for good cleaners, I want them to be organized. If they apply with a all over the place resume, it says something about their work. I stay away from that.

• A High Response Rate: Since I am running my job remotely, I need my cleaners to communicate well with me. Due to this, I love people who reach out to me first after they apply and I am happy with anyone who responds with in a timely manner and shows up to the interview if asked to do one.

Once I've identified potential employees, I schedule a phone call with them and ask for three references. While I like to have the references before the call, I wait until after to reach out to them (If everything goes well). During the call, I ask a series of questions I came up with to decide if I want to move forward with these cleaners or not (listed below).

If all goes well in the interview, I then schedule my cleaners for a test clean. I let them know that this cleaning is for their first customer in their new job, but really it's at my house. I do this for a couple of reasons. First, I like to see how the cleaners fair on their new job. Are they on time, can they handle parking at an apartment building and bringing their stuff up, do they ask a lot of questions? I also get to see firsthand how the cleaning is. To test this, I try to leave some stuff out and put at least one object on the floor in an obscure place. An added benefit to test cleaning at my house is that I take before and after pictures, which provide me with great content to advertise with.

If all goes well with the test cleaning, I finish the onboarding process with a background check and start getting my new cleaners jobs.

By following this process, I believe I give myself the best chance of having a high-quality cleaning team. It's important to be upfront about what's required and to hire people who have the necessary experience and take the job seriously. It's also important to test potential employees before hiring them to ensure that they have the skills and attention to detail required for the job.

The power of cold calling

Cold calling can be extremely intimidating. Whether it’s the fear of rejection or the fear of disturbing someone else, it’s scary.

Despite this, it’s also one of the most effective ways to get extra sales.

In my 9-5, I work in software sales. Every day, I call 60 people in the hopes that one person picks up. When I started this job, I didn’t want to call anyone. The idea that I could upset someone or get hung up was so intimidating that some days I questioned why I took this job. Luckily, I learned quickly that every no I get brings me one step closer to a yes.

Because of this, even though I get much more no’s than yes’s, cold calling works. It’s a numbers game and if I call enough people, I am bound to succeed.

Thanks to this mindset, I manage to do well in my 9-5 job where I have to meet a quota AND I have managed to connect with multiple real estate agents in order to get extra referrals for my cleaning company.

Here’s what works for me when I cold call:

• Have a plan: Create a script and a list of possible objection handles. By doing this, you come in with a plan, sound smooth when you speak, and give yourself the best chance to get a positive outcome.

• Most no’s are blind objections: Most people’s first response is no. It’s natural. You’re cold-calling them and they don’t want to hear it. Understand this, but prepare for it. Express to them the value that you are bringing and explain why it is worth their time to hear you out.

• Smile: My boss taught me this. You may not realize by your tone plays a role in how your call goes. I used to just dial through numbers hoping someone picked up. Now, write when I hit the call button I smile and it changes my tone drastically. My positivity rubs off and I’m confident it has helped me become way more successful on my calls.

• Don’t be afraid: A no isn’t the end:

Cleaning Company Weekly Update

• Number of Cleanings: 9

• Total Revenue: $1,739.02

• Takeaways:

  • Old customers are coming back: Since using GoHighLevel as my CRM, I have added all of my past customers into a monthly email marketing drip. As a result, I have had a ton of customers reach out asking for cleaning despite them only booking a one-time cleaning originally.

• Main Focuses:

  • Started my real estate and property manager outreach this week. I created two separate automation workflows where I am going to be sending potential partners emails, texts, and even a voicemail in order to try to build referral partners.

  • Need to find a clean way to get my BK calendar to transfer to my Google Calendar