The Brutal Truth About Scaling to 80 Employees (Don't Do This)

Everything Changed When We Put Pricing Online

Episode Summary In this episode of The Cleaning Journey Podcast, Victoria Westcott explains why she believes the traditional cleaning company sales process is outdated and how modern cleaning businesses can grow faster through online booking, transparent pricing, automation, and customer-focused systems. Victoria shares her approach to running a residential cleaning business that prioritizes customer convenience, recurring clients, and operational efficiency. She discusses how online booking can improve conversions, why today's customers expect instant pricing, and how cleaning business owners can build systems that scale without adding unnecessary complexity. Whether you own a house cleaning company, maid service, residential cleaning business, or home service company, this episode offers practical insights on attracting better clients, improving the customer experience, and creating a more efficient business. What You'll Learn * Why customers expect transparent pricing * The benefits of online booking for cleaning businesses * How automation improves customer experience * Building scalable systems for a cleaning company * How to attract and retain ideal clients * Why simplifying the buying process increases conversions Guest Victoria Westcott Key Topics * Cleaning business growth * Online booking systems * Transparent pricing * Customer experience * Residential cleaning companies * Cleaning company systems * Client acquisition * Business automation * Recurring cleaning clients * Service business operations Notable Quotes "Customers want their problem solved." "Online booking changes everything." "Focus on your ideal customer." Victoria's Cleaning Company - https://www.instagram.com/oakbayclean/ If you're serious about building systems that remove you as the bottleneck, you need the right tools. We recommend Jobber to manage scheduling, quoting, invoicing, and client communication all in one place. Start your 2-week free trial and get 20% off for 6 months here: https://go.getjobber.com/misael For YouTube and Spotify: 🎥Subscribe: @misaavalos For more cleaning tips videos! 📲 Instagram: @cleaningjourney 📲 Instagram: @misa.avalos Jobber: https://go.getjobber.com/misael 🎙️Spotify: The Cleaning Journey Podcast On Spotify 📞1-on-1 Call (45-FREE Minutes to talk about your business, CRAZYY, I know): 👇 https://scheduler.zoom.us/misael-avalos/free-discovery-call Want to be in the podcast? Please fill out this form, and we will contact you. Your journey matters! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10RsS2J2CzQjW8ttbljx2LfebK9sMtmSz9AG0ipMAlx8/edit

The Brutal Truth About Scaling to 80 Employees (Don't Do This)

Burnout, Systems & Scaling a Cleaning Business Too Fast Misael Avalos sits down with Shania Gladwell, founder of Beskar Cleaning, to discuss the early years of building a cleaning company during COVID and the reality of scaling too quickly. Shania shares how she went from working in government recruitment to managing more than 80 employees while raising a newborn and trying to keep her business afloat during one of the most chaotic periods in recent history. This episode covers: ✅ Early growth in the cleaning industry ✅ Wearing every hat in the business ✅ Cleaning while hiring and training staff ✅ The mental toll of scaling too fast ✅ Burnout and becoming the operational bottleneck ✅ Virtual assistants and delegation ✅ Instant quoting systems and automation ✅ Why systems create freedom ✅ Leadership lessons from staying on the tools If you're currently overwhelmed in your cleaning business or struggling to remove yourself from operations, this episode will give you practical systems and mindset shifts to scale more sustainably. 🎧 Part 2 dives deeper into recurring revenue, luxury clients, hiring systems, retention, and building a premium scalable brand. 🔗 CONNECT WITH SHANIA GLADWELL 📺 YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@ShaniaGladwell [https://www.youtube.com/@ShaniaGladwell] 📱 TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@venturementors?lang=en [https://www.tiktok.com/@venturementors?lang=en] 📘 Free eBook — Uncompromising Success https://www.venturementors.com.au/resources/uncompromising-success [https://www.venturementors.com.au/resources/uncompromising-success] Facebook 🧼 Beskar Cleaning https://www.facebook.com/beskarcleaning [https://www.facebook.com/beskarcleaning] 🤖 Cornerstone AI https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572908942078 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572908942078] 📈 Venture Mentors https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567442694090 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567442694090] 🛠️ Beskar Tiling https://www.facebook.com/BeskarTiling [https://www.facebook.com/BeskarTiling] 👤 Shania Gladwell https://www.facebook.com/shania.gladwell/ [https://www.facebook.com/shania.gladwell/] 💼 JOBBER — FREE TRIAL + 20% OFF Start your 2-week free trial and get 20% off for 6 months here: https://go.getjobber.com/misael [https://go.getjobber.com/misael] 🎙️ THE CLEANING JOURNEY For YouTube and Spotify: 🎥Subscribe: ‪@misaavalos‬ For more cleaning tips videos! 📲 Instagram: @cleaningjourney 📲 Instagram: @misa.avalos Jobber: https://go.getjobber.com/misael [https://go.getjobber.com/misael] 🎙️Spotify: The Cleaning Journey Podcast On Spotify 📞1-on-1 Call (45-FREE Minutes to talk about your business, CRAZYY, I know): 👇 https://scheduler.zoom.us/misael-avalos/free-discovery-call [https://scheduler.zoom.us/misael-avalos/free-discovery-call] Want to be in the podcast? Please fill out this form, and we will contact you. Your journey matters! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10RsS2J2CzQjW8ttbljx2LfebK9sMtmSz9AG0ipMAlx8/edit [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10RsS2J2CzQjW8ttbljx2LfebK9sMtmSz9AG0ipMAlx8/edit] 🧠 ABOUT SHANIA GLADWELL Shania Gladwell is the founder of Beskar Investments Group which includes Beskar Cleaning across 19 locations in Australia, Beskar Tiling, Cornerstone AI, and Venture Mentors. She helps service-based business owners scale through automation systems, leadership, hiring infrastructure, smart websites, CRM systems, and strategic growth consulting. Starting in the cleaning industry before expanding Australia-wide, Shania built and scaled her company into an award-winning business before transitioning into helping entrepreneurs globally create businesses that run without constant owner involvement.

Luxury Clients Changed Everything in Her Cleaning Business

In Part 2 of this conversation, Misael Avalos sits down again with Shania Gladwell, founder of Beskar Cleaning, to dive deeper into the systems and strategies that helped her build a premium recurring cleaning company operating across multiple locations in Australia. This episode focuses on recurring revenue, premium clients, hiring systems, automation, retention, and building a business that runs without the owner being involved in every task. Shania shares how she transitioned from everyday residential cleaning into luxury recurring services while building stronger systems, better client retention, and long-term operational freedom. In this episode, we discuss: ✅ Turning one-time customers into recurring clients ✅ Builder partnerships and referral systems ✅ Email automations and follow-up campaigns ✅ Selling recurring cleaning the right way ✅ Why wealthy customers buy differently ✅ How to attract premium luxury clients ✅ Networking and referral strategies ✅ Maintaining quality while scaling ✅ Leadership development and employee education ✅ Staff retention systems that actually work ✅ Building a sellable business asset ✅ Long-term entrepreneurial mindset If you want to build a recurring cleaning business with stronger systems, better clients, and long-term scalability, this episode is packed with practical insights you can apply immediately. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 CONNECT WITH SHANIA GLADWELL ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📺 YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@ShaniaGladwell [https://www.youtube.com/@ShaniaGladwell] 📱 TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@venturementors?lang=en [https://www.tiktok.com/@venturementors?lang=en] 📘 Free eBook — Uncompromising Success https://www.venturementors.com.au/resources/uncompromising-success [https://www.venturementors.com.au/resources/uncompromising-success] 🧼 Beskar Cleaning https://www.facebook.com/beskarcleaning [https://www.facebook.com/beskarcleaning] 🤖 Cornerstone AI https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572908942078 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572908942078] 📈 Venture Mentors https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567442694090 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61567442694090] 🛠️ Beskar Tiling https://www.facebook.com/BeskarTiling [https://www.facebook.com/BeskarTiling] 👤 Shania Gladwell https://www.facebook.com/shania.gladwell/ [https://www.facebook.com/shania.gladwell/] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💼 JOBBER — FREE TRIAL + 20% OFF ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ If you're serious about building systems that remove you as the bottleneck, you need the right tools. We recommend Jobber to manage scheduling, quoting, invoicing, and client communication all in one place. Start your 2-week free trial and get 20% off for 6 months here: https://go.getjobber.com/misael [https://go.getjobber.com/misael] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎙️ THE CLEANING JOURNEY ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎥 Subscribe: ‪@misaavalos‬ for more cleaning business content 📲 Instagram: @cleaningjourney 📲 Instagram: @misa.avalos 🎙️ Spotify: The Cleaning Journey Podcast 📞 1-on-1 Call (45 FREE Minutes to talk about your business 👇) https://scheduler.zoom.us/misael-avalos/free-discovery-call [https://scheduler.zoom.us/misael-avalos/free-discovery-call] Want to be on the podcast? Your journey matters. Apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10RsS2J2CzQjW8ttbljx2LfebK9sMtmSz9AG0ipMAlx8/edit [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10RsS2J2CzQjW8ttbljx2LfebK9sMtmSz9AG0ipMAlx8/edit] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🧠 ABOUT SHANIA GLADWELL ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Shania Gladwell is the founder of Beskar Investments Group, which includes Beskar Cleaning across 19 locations in Australia, Beskar Tiling, Cornerstone AI, and Venture Mentors. She helps service-based business owners scale through automation systems, leadership, hiring infrastructure, smart websites, CRM systems, and strategic growth consulting. Starting in the cleaning industry before expanding Australia-wide, Shania built and scaled her company into an award-winning business before transitioning into helping entrepreneurs globally create businesses that run without constant owner involvement. #cleaningbusiness #recurringrevenue #luxuryclients #entrepreneurship #businesssystems #automation #leadership #premiumclients #servicebusiness #cleaningjourney

Ep. 33 Part 2 - The Scheduling System Behind a Million-Dollar Cleaning Company

How do you schedule 150+ homes per day without chaos? In Part 2 of this episode, Holly Moore breaks down the systems, scheduling strategies, hiring mindset, and company culture that helped her scale Maids & More into a massive residential cleaning operation. In This Episode We Cover: • Why most cleaning companies schedule the wrong way • How map-based scheduling changed everything • The software Holly built to run 150+ cleanings per day • Why sales should drive hiring — NOT the other way around • Handling call-outs and last-minute schedule changes at scale • Employee retention systems that actually work • Building culture inside a growing company • Review strategies that increase retention and motivate employees Guest: Holly Moore Founder of Maids & More Founder of The Cleaning Software Founder of MyCleanCon Follow Holly & The Cleaning Software: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553738314858 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553738314858] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecleaningsoftware/ [https://www.instagram.com/thecleaningsoftware/] Recommended Software: If you're serious about building systems that remove you as the bottleneck, we recommend Jobber to manage scheduling, quoting, invoicing, and client communication all in one place. Start your 2-week free trial + get 20% off for 6 months: https://go.getjobber.com/misael [https://go.getjobber.com/misael] Follow The Cleaning Journey: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cleaningjourney/ [https://www.instagram.com/cleaningjourney/] Misael Avalos: https://www.instagram.com/misa.avalos/ [https://www.instagram.com/misa.avalos/] Free 45-Minute Business Call: https://scheduler.zoom.us/misael-avalos/free-discovery-call [https://scheduler.zoom.us/misael-avalos/free-discovery-call] Want To Be Featured On The Podcast? https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10RsS2J2CzQjW8ttbljx2LfebK9sMtmSz9AG0ipMAlx8/edit [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10RsS2J2CzQjW8ttbljx2LfebK9sMtmSz9AG0ipMAlx8/edit]

Ep. 33 - STOP TAKING EVERY CLIENT | From $1,200 to $1,000,000 (Part 1)

What if saying no to clients is actually the thing that helps you scale? In this episode of The Cleaning Journey, Holly Moore breaks down the mindset and systems that took her from a chaotic $300K operation to building a multi-million dollar residential cleaning company with 150+ employees and 150+ homes serviced per day. Starting with just $1,200 from a school teacher's bonus, Holly built Maids and More into a powerhouse — and eventually stepped away as CEO after creating the systems, culture, and infrastructure needed to scale without her. This is Part 1 of her story, and it starts with a lesson most cleaning business owners ignore: stop taking every client. In this episode, we discuss: • Why taking every client is killing your growth • The early chaos of running a $300K cleaning business • How Holly scaled to 150+ employees and 150+ daily cleanings • The systems and scheduling structure that made growth possible • The mindset shift from operator to CEO • What it really takes to build a business that can run without you Holly Moore is the founder of Maids and More, as well as Taggle Cleaning Software and MyClecon. Her journey is a masterclass in building systems, creating culture, and scaling a cleaning business the right way. If you're stuck in the day-to-day, overwhelmed with growth, or trying to build something bigger than yourself — this episode will change how you think about scaling. Recommended Software for Cleaning Businesses If you're serious about building systems that remove you as the bottleneck, you need the right tools. We recommend Jobber to manage scheduling, quoting, invoicing, and client communication all in one place. Start your 2-week free trial and get 20% off for 6 months here: https://go.getjobber.com/misael [https://go.getjobber.com/misael] Subscribe & Connect Subscribe to The Cleaning Journey Podcast for weekly conversations with cleaning business owners building profitable, systemized companies. Instagram: @cleaningjourney Instagram: @misa.avalos Book a free 45-minute discovery call: https://scheduler.zoom.us/misael-avalos/free-discovery-call [https://scheduler.zoom.us/misael-avalos/free-discovery-call] Interested in being featured on the podcast? Apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10RsS2J2CzQjW8ttbljx2LfebK9sMtmSz9AG0ipMAlx8/edit [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10RsS2J2CzQjW8ttbljx2LfebK9sMtmSz9AG0ipMAlx8/edit]