CBL Episode #135 Alison Redman-The Historic Train Station Challenge

Ever wonder what it takes to transform a solo cleaning gig into a thriving business with prestigious commercial contracts? Allison Redman's story is a masterclass in persistence, vision, and seizing opportunity.

As a single mother who moved to Ellensburg without knowing a soul, Allison built her cleaning business from scratch through community outreach and exceptional service. Her journey took a dramatic turn when she landed a contract cleaning a historic 1910 train station - a 10,500-square-foot architectural gem complete with chandeliers, terrazzo floors, and century-old woodwork that required specialized care.

"I kept planting that seed with them," Allison reveals, explaining how she pursued this dream client for over a year before securing the contract. The victory wasn't without challenges - she nearly lost the opportunity to an underbidder but refused to give up, boldly reaching out to the CEO on a weekend to make her case. Her passion and persistence paid off.

The most fascinating part? Allison's cleaning was so thorough that clients complained about shoes squeaking on the immaculately clean floors! This dedication to quality has earned her "Best of Kittitas County" awards two years running and established her as the go-to cleaner for historic properties throughout her region.

For cleaning business owners struggling with growth hurdles, Allison

Up your cleaning game, join over 6000 Cleaning Business Owners most of whom are located here in the United States.  

Erica Paynter is the brains behind My Virtual Bookkeeper, a bookkeeping firm for cleaning companies, and the creator of Clean Co. Cash Flow Academy and the Clean Co. Collective. She’s on a mission to help cleaning business owners make sense of their numbers without boring them to tears! Erica’s all about turning messy books into profit-packed powerhouses.

 support@myvbk.com 

It can be crowed when trying to figure out who you are going to learn from

Chapters

• 0:00 Tempo: 120.0

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:49

The Thank you. So Thank you to make more money with your cleaning business. I'm launching a brand new subscription-based series showing you exactly how, starting with short-term rental, cleanings, hosting and co-hosting. I've done it myself with my own proof of concept Vellum and Vine Hospitality Company right on Facebook and on the web, and now I'm sharing the playbook for just $7 a month.

Speaker 1: 2:52

First episode lands in a week. Make sure you don't miss it. Welcome back to Cleaning Business Life. In this episode we sit down with Allison Redman of Allison's Cleaning Service. Allison shares her inspiring story from starting as a solo cleaner and a single mom in a brand new town to building a thriving cleaning business. We dive into her growth, the challenges of her hiring her first team and how she landed a prestigious contract cleaning historic 1910 train station complete with chandeliers, terrazzato floors and century-old woodwork definitely a niche style cleaning. And if you've ever wondered how to scale your business, take on commercial clients or push past the fear of hiring, this episode is packed with real life lessons that you don't want to miss. Wow, oh, my goodness. Ladies and gentlemen, today we are joined by allison reed of allison's cleaning company.

Speaker 3: 3:47

It's still allison's cleaning company right, it's allison's cleaning service and it's allison redmond allison redmond, sorry, yeah, I don't know why I have that.

Speaker 1: 3:57

Sorry about that, no worries. And we're going to talk a little bit about her growth that she's seen in the last couple of years. And then we're going to also talk about this historical building, this train station, that we're all intrigued by, how she landed the contract, what's included in the cleaning and all the stuff that comes along with that, with the growth, right, with the growth, yes. So, jamie, why don't you ask the first couple of questions to Ms Hatton? I would love to.

Speaker 2: 4:27

So a lot of our listeners are very new into this and they have them. We're in their ear right now as they're cleaning and they want to know a lot of what I. The feedback that I received from everybody is they want to know how we start growing into where you're you're at right now. So what you started off as probably a solo cleaner. Am I wrong in that?

Speaker 3: 4:58

Yes, yeah, I'm a single mother and I moved here to Ellensburg not knowing a single person here, just knowing that this is kind of the lifestyle and the community that I wanted to surround myself with. But I, you know, I just took a huge leap of faith. I reached out to the something called Ellensburg Connect, which is a local Facebook page, and asked them just ask them, hey, how would my cleaning business fare in your area? Would you guys be looking for a cleaner? And the response was overwhelming, and so I moved over here, I opened up my business and it just, you know, and, as a lot of people will say, you start off with word of mouth, you go in and you, you know, you just introduce yourself to the community, always check it on those Facebook pages, community pages, things like that. And that's exactly what I did and and within a matter of a week I was already, you know, already in and had a couple clients and and then it picked up and you know, from just from that and people giving me reviews, and to getting my first commercial account, which was just a small office building, and that as soon as I got that I knew I was like, hey, that's kind of the direction I personally want to go in.

Speaker 3: 6:16

I really enjoy cleaning offices especially. You know you can. You can make your own. Just you can go in in the evening time, basically anytime after they click. They close their doors on Friday and then you get there before Monday morning. You're good, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:33

Right or or before morning time, that's what I have on my employees. I only put that down on. You know 530 as a suggestion. But if you get it done before they hit the door in the morning time, I really don't care what time. So they've been going in at 11, 12. If that works for them, that's cool. Yeah, so I, yep, I understand.

Speaker 3: 7:01

So how long did it take before you started gaining traction and was like whoa, I think I need some help here, Like when was like so yeah, it was, it was a couple of years, but I still, like I was afraid, I was so afraid to hire, and you know, and I'm just a glutton for punishment, I just seem to you know, just, and I kept going and kept going, my body, just I couldn't move anymore. I'd get out of my car, like I'd be stuck in that position, and just, just yeah, and you know, just just tired and then yeah, like hiring was probably my biggest hump to get over.

Speaker 3: 7:42

But you know, I think it's been. See, it was last fall when I hired eight new employees.

Speaker 1: 7:51

For the first time ever. Right, that was like the first step into the pond, First time ever.

Speaker 2: 7:56

Right, that was like the first step into the pond, so to speak. Correct.

Speaker 3: 8:01

Well, you just went from zero to eight. Well, so, okay, no, I did hire a couple. I did hire a couple at first, and then it was eight over the period of just a few months, because I landed the train then and I didn't know exactly what the train station was going to look like for me, and I just knew that it was 10,500 square feet and it's it's three stories and it's, you know, like five-star hotel quality, clean, like it. Just you know like you need to polish the brass and and all that good stuff. So it's like I didn't know what it looked like. So I was like I'm gonna hire six people, hire six people to get the great station done. It was twice a week.

Speaker 2: 8:47

Yeah, you did it and was like it was forced, because I think that a lot of people they just are so scared to hire and the only way that we are ever going to grow unfortunately, but absolutely fortunately down the road is you've got to learn and it is a learning process. It is To hire To hire and fire. It's all a part of that. It is higher, higher and fire. It's all a part of that. It is.

Speaker 3: 9:19

And you can't be afraid once it goes wrong the first time, like, oh, I'm done Right and I think that's one of the biggest things for me is is that one of my old bosses a long time ago told me, you know you can't be afraid of a nosebleed. Told me, you know you can't be afraid of a nosebleed, just get out there and, you know, get your knees dirty, get a nosebleed or two and dust yourself off and get up and, you know, dive in. You know, just know that there's water there and you know you're not gonna die you're gonna be okay.

Speaker 2: 9:53

This is where it separates, I believe, right, it separates from the solo cleaner to going really doing the real big stuff. We're getting more into the higher six figures, almost seven figures. You know, yeah, so how was it that you landed? You know, yeah. So how, how was it that you landed? So you ended up having to hire because, real fast, because you, how did you get this contract? What did they reach out to you?

Speaker 3: 10:30

or yeah, so the train station and I the.

Speaker 3: 10:34

So the business that has the train station reached out to me, not in regards to the train station but to other small projects that they had going on, and so I started cleaning like apartments for them and one of their other businesses that's smaller, and another company had the train station and they I don't know how long they had had it, but I felt like that was just kind of like you know, a dream in the background somewhere, like, hey, you know, I, I just I would love to have the train station. And I put it in their ear, I, I straight up asked them just like hey, who's you know cleaning the train station?

Speaker 3: 11:12

like is there ever gonna have a need for that. And they're like, well, we're in contract and you know, they told me, you know. So it took a while that I was with them and then I just kind of kept planting that seed with them and then it took about a year of talks.

Speaker 2: 11:32

And that's because usually commercials are always under contract and they have to fulfill those contracts. Before. I see it all the time in the groups how do we get more commercial clients? And it's like well, you do exactly that. You keep planting seeds and then wait for that contract to fall off, Right?

Speaker 3: 11:52

Be the squeaky wheel you have to ask.

Speaker 1: 11:56

I think a lot of us forget that you have. If you want it, you need to ask for it, just like with cleaning clients, what you know, what, what's holding you back from making a decision today? And then, how many times have we heard well, I need to discuss this with my husband oh, it's a price thing. Well, what, what other quotes have you gotten that you have to kind of lead in with other questions so that you are prepared to have those, that pushback for any sort of property, whether it's residential or commercial. But, yeah, I agree, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3: 12:27

Yeah, be the squeaky wheel.

Speaker 2: 12:30

Yeah, close mouth, don't get fed, right? Yeah, so you get in there. 're like okay, I got the job now. It's like okay, I gotta get people. I need people now to help me right so you're like here, you take a rag, you take a bucket, you over there you over there well, I mean yeah, what's it like for you?

Speaker 3: 13:02

well, honestly, when, when we first got the train station, I had all hands on deck because we we scheduled an initial deep clean on it and, and that was the, it was our big day. We walk in and, exactly, you know, hand everybody a rag here, here's what we're gonna do. You go in, you make a game plan, a game plan and you just you go with it. You know, and they have a lot of like glass booths inside of it as well, and so it's set up for their office spaces. So there's like we had to do all the fingerprints on all of the booths and yeah, it was it. And you walk in and it's like chandeliers and terrazzo floors and antique wood benches that are Just the age of the train station.

Speaker 3: 13:48

The, the train, the train station was built in 1910. Okay, yeah, and the, the benches inside of the building were made in 1901. And they're these large wooden double-sided benches that are just with intricate woodwork on them and there's just stunning. And then there's just woodwork everywhere and giant chandeliers and just all the. You know the glam of that era. That it's just. You just feel it as soon as you walk in the door. It is, it's stunning, it's a beautiful place.

Speaker 3: 14:21

Yeah, and I did, I definitely did a lot of research, you know, I, I just you know how do I clean terrazzo flooring, like what's the best for terrazzo flooring? What's? You know, how do I clean chandeliers? And you know, just, and I, I ran it through my head a million times you know, just making sure that I'm bringing all the right product. I'm telling all my employees, you know, like this is what we use, this is what we don't use, and you know, and and making sure that I have the caddies stocked with only things that we are going to be using for the transportation and things that you know, like anything that's not a pH neutral could damage the floors.

Speaker 3: 15:03

So we went in with Salsuds and you know, just made sure and just use that on the floors. And you know there's there's other products that we use Zep, ph and stuff like that. But but it was just, you know, getting all of that together and you know how, what am I going to use on this wood and the wood doors and and you know, so, just get you know it. It was, it was a big thing.

Speaker 2: 15:27

Yeah, of course it was Cause you wouldn't want to be the one to see that.

Speaker 3: 15:31

You know, it was it was a really big happy day. Like everybody just kind of fell into place.

Speaker 2: 15:38

I love it whenever it flows like that, and there's times whenever it flows and there's times whenever it doesn't flow like that sometimes, and it's like what do you mean? What do you do? What do you mean? Yeah, you've been here for a while now. What do you mean? You don't know. What do you want me to do now?

Speaker 1: 15:58

Well, no one wants to be the person that ruins a piece of antiquity.

Speaker 1: 16:02

We have a couple of clients that have like a lot of renoirs and pieces of fine art that really should be in a museum and there's a whole protocol that has to be followed and if not, I'm like don't come back. Don't come back and tell me you hurt something, because most of the time the insurance it can't, it's not repairable, the insurance will only cover a certain percentage of it and then you'll be, you'll be blamed with a reputation of ruining whatever it was, and nobody wants that Right. It's so scary.

Speaker 3: 16:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 16:42

That's why I was like there's nothing going in this caddy.

Speaker 2: 16:44

That's gonna ruin something and yeah yeah, I just the other day went through my our office and I started taking there's stuff that you just you don't use that you know. I had stars from years ago, you know, and I'm like, why is this still here? This is not even being used, it's on the shelf. I'm like I'm taking everything that none of this gets used and and I put a note do not use. I'm going to donate it to somebody. Actually that is. But yeah, yeah, you're making up their caddies for them, right?

Speaker 3: 17:25

Well, you know, I decided you know, as soon as I hired employees, even before the train station, that it's good to just have the caddy stock. Like I don't use magic erasers and things like that. So there's just certain things that I don't use in my business because I know they can damage things and I know that things can get done without them, and so I would rather just do the training on how we can do it without that and then have it in there and have somebody, you know, just use it on something that's going to get damaged.

Speaker 1: 17:55

I took the finish off this hundred-year-old bench right here. I was just rubbing it off, sorry.

Speaker 2: 18:05

Or yeah, or you know, I just used this on some stainless steel and it made some swirls. You just took this. What are you doing?

Speaker 3: 18:17

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's my policy that we don't use any products outside of what's in the caddy. You know we don't use anything that we find on site. You know only what we have in our caddy. That's what we use On site. Yeah, yeah, I've had people try it. Like oh yeah, I found it under the sink. I'm like no.

Speaker 2: 18:40

So I imagine everybody. One of the big questions a lot of people are going to ask is how did you bid this job? So I heard 10,500 square foot commercial job but a lot of intricate detailing. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 19:01

Yeah Well, so I could tell you that that I asked right away, and that's one of my biggest things is I ask, I, just I. I always ask the, I ask what they're being charged by the cleaning company before me. I always ask and I always get an answer.

Speaker 3: 19:18

It's like people don't and you know, and I usually just honestly, and you know, and, and, and you should probably go to Shannon if you're for advice on how to bid your things, because it's probably not going to work for everybody. But it's what I do I ask and then I go up. I know I'm going to provide a better service.

Speaker 3: 19:42

So I think in my head how is this going to be fair? You know, how is this going to be fair? But but, but work for me at the same time. And so I do the numbers, I, you know, I, I increase it per, you know, just inflation or whatever the year you know has brought. And I'm thinking, you know, they've been there for X amount of years and are they upping the price? And, and so I just, you know, and, and I, and I put it out there and and yeah, they, they, you know, they send off my bid and and but yeah, this, in this case, I did get underbid by somebody else and yeah, and I was pretty sure that I was coming in at the price. In fact, I almost lost the train station. You guys, it was so sad, it was so sad I had worked on it.

Speaker 3: 20:50

Well, they changed over the CEO and a couple new people came in right at the time, but I had been working on this for like a year, like I had had my bid in for over six months, I had had, you know, and they're like, yeah, it's good to go, we just need to change this and we just need to change that. And, you know, I brought my price down a little bit here and a little bit there and tweaked it and we negotiated it and I had it to where I felt really comfortable and and then, all of a sudden, like you know, I was speaking to somebody and I'm like one of the other employees there that I work with and I was telling him you know how excited I am about about getting the train station and he's like, oh you, they didn't tell you yet. I was like, well, tell me what they're like. Yeah, we, they. They went with somebody else.

Speaker 3: 21:36

Oh my gosh, yeah. And I was like, wait, what? No, what do you mean? This was like. This was. I believe this was Friday, right before they closed.

Speaker 3: 21:48

Oh so I was devastated. I was like, are you? What do you mean? Like, yeah, I think that you know I'm not sure you know why they went with somebody else, but they did. And so, you know, I cried myself to sleep that night and I was like you know what? I just I'm not going to give up, I'm not going to give up. And I emailed the CEO on a Saturday, knowing you know he's probably not going to answer, but I'm going to email you anyway. And I told him.

Speaker 3: 22:13

You know exactly how it was like hey, you know, like I'm so passionate about this building. I've been working on this for a year. I've had in works with this contract. We've gone back and forth and you know, this is mine, this is mine, this is mine, this is mine. I will love every single inch, square inch of that place and I will. You know, I will give this place what it needs to help it shine. And like I just I'm what you need. And so, yeah, what's going on that you need to call me please, because I'm not taking no for an answer and I know that's really bold to say, but I I'm not, so please.

Speaker 3: 22:47

And he called me back. He called me oh wow, can you come in? Can you come in Monday morning? And so I did, and I was shaking and I was nervous, I was so scared and and he's like, well, you know, he told me that that they had chose the lower, the lower bid, and asked me if I was willing to come down again, which I was not very pleased with. But sometimes you got to do what you got to do and I tried to negotiate just a little bit and tweak it a little bit more, but unfortunately I didn't catch much ground there. But I got the job. It wasn't too terrible, but you know, it was definitely something that that was different than what I anticipated. You always have somebody out there.

Speaker 1: 23:31

You always have somebody out there that's going to go, you know, under bid, you and and yeah, just In all honesty, though, I don't think they could have gotten the same type of excitement and care as someone who, like, didn't own the building but does own the buildings per se and responsibility of cleaning. I mean the respect that is necessary, and I understand they have to go with a lower price, but in the reality they're picking the preservation of a building Right, just regular hack cleaning. And I'm not saying that they didn't promise the same things as you. I'm saying that you, you, you, you were so excited by the premise behind the whole history of this building that it would just make sense to give it to you, versus someone who is just gonna bang up the wood pieces or not do the polishing or any of the maintenance of the building. So it's always amazing to me and and it's almost it's a commercial cleaning but it's almost like a residential cleaning because there's so much detail that's involved.

Speaker 3: 24:35

Oh, yeah, for sure, I mean it's a detail, yeah, you know, with the chandeliers and all of the intricate woodwork, I mean you got to get in there and dust it and and and it's. You know like you can't just like run a feather duster, because it'll actually get caught in the wood, like the wood will like splinter, it'll get like stuck in there. So you, you gotta be really careful, you gotta wipe slow, you gotta wipe with the grain, you gotta you know you just it's, you've got to baby it.

Speaker 3: 25:15

You got to love it and you got to. You know, go slow and understand that it's. You know. This is so how long?

Speaker 2: 25:18

did you get them to use? Okay, so you got the contract. Yes, he shook my hand right there and I was like. I was like did you make them? Yes, yes, and now you what? Go clean. How often are you there?

Speaker 3: 25:26

We, so we clean them every. We clean them every weekend and then we do Wednesday spruce ups. So midweek spruce ups is something that my business has been offering. Clients that do once a week will come in on Wednesdays and we'll do the bathrooms and take out the bathroom garbages and clean the kitchenettes, so that just kind of keeps their bathroom and kitchen in order instead of doing the full building.

Speaker 2: 25:51

Basically they're three times a week, basically.

Speaker 3: 25:55

Twice a week. Twice a week, and so that's kind of like a sell-up for me too is because, you know, it's just a little bit more, we can add this. It's not like adding another full clean, but for just a little bit more we could add this. It's not like adding another full clean, but for just a little bit more, you know you can have this, you know this extra add-on and it takes us, you know, an hour or two to go in and do the bathrooms and you know it's, it works for me.

Speaker 1: 26:18

Yes, I like it how many crew members are going twice a week?

Speaker 3: 26:23

So okay. So it's funny because you know I hired the six people. I said I hired one to two people, two people, so it takes one person eight hours to clean the building. So we usually go in a crew of two and we spent four hours there, four and a half hours and that's eight hours total for the week, or eight.

Speaker 1: 26:46

That's just one shift, that's one shift. Yeah, okay. So 16 hours of labor times, 52 weeks you guys can figure out the math on that. That's fantastic. So do you only have a solo person or you really are doing it as a team of two?

Speaker 3: 27:00

So I have had done it as a solo person. I've had I had one gal that was doing it that I really trusted and she, she really it worked for her. Unfortunately, she's no longer on my team, so I have it split into two at the moment and I'm I'm on board because I just I feel like I just, you know, it's like it's hard to just trust anybody with the building with the building and well, or your business, your name and right, because nobody will ever do it and love it as much as you will.

Speaker 1: 27:33

That's what I found so far. I'd be too. When you landed this contract, were you required to get extra insurance because of the historical value of the building? No, no, okay, no, and the city's running it or the county's running it.

Speaker 3: 27:50

It's, it's neither. It's it's, yeah, it's. It's. Actually it's a historical building, so it does have, but it is a private business that has the building.

Speaker 1: 28:00

That's incredible.

Speaker 3: 28:01

Yeah, it, it, it all and it's not functioning as like in the. In the 1900s it was part of the Pacific Northwest Railway to Yellowstone and so it was. It was an act of the train stopped there and it was a passenger train. But now the train, the train goes by every hour. Still, it just doesn't stop there. And so it's wonderful when you're, when we're in there cleaning. It's like all of a sudden it's so cool, everything, just you just feel it it's, it's it's just on top of it being so beautiful. It's like all of a sudden, here goes the train and the chandeliers.

Speaker 2: 28:41

I think that, as a cleaning business owner, whether it's commercial or residential, I think that we have to have some sort of weird love. Not even weird, but a love for structures, for a passion for oh my gosh, look at this house, look at this floor. Like we have a passion about stuff like that.

Speaker 3: 29:09

Exactly, and you know we have a lot of historical buildings here in Ellensburg and I you know I have. I'm so grateful to have so many of them. We have several historic buildings that we clean and, yeah, we'll have to do another sex and shannon on how they're haunted, maybe for halloween oh, coming up next month, so if you want to, yeah, just the creepy, the creepy things that happen in these old buildings.

Speaker 3: 29:36

And it may be that you know the the whole feeling of being in this old building, but I've had some really strange. Oh, it was like that.

Speaker 1: 29:45

So well, so this this train station is not currently being used by the trains itself. It is not a train that stops at all there?

Speaker 3: 29:55

nope, nope, it does not, it just it's. It's. It's funny because you, you go out the back and it's set up, it's just got, it's got a, an old timey fence just up right outside where people would normally stand and dock, you know, and and board the, the train. But yeah, no, the train, the train just passes right by it. Yeah, it's, I believe it's. They stopped taking passengers there in the 80s oh wow, yeah, we have a long run yeah how.

Speaker 1: 30:25

So what's it now? Is it just offices or a conference center? What is?

Speaker 3: 30:29

it. Yeah, it's offices, yep, it's offices yeah that's a good idea.

Speaker 2: 30:35

Well, good for that private private owner, huh yeah, absolutely wow, and so they're all different offices, which also can lead you to other people right. More, more, more clients.

Speaker 3: 30:50

Yeah Well, yeah, definitely when you're, when you're in scenarios like that, you, you know, you, I find I, I I always target like real estate offices and stuff like that, Cause I find that I get a lot of clients out of you know, like, if you get one building, like you know, of realtors, they see what a good job you're doing in their office, you know, I mean, you get a lot more clients there.

Speaker 2: 31:18

Yeah, it does yeah.

Speaker 3: 31:23

But yeah, I have landed a couple jobs, you know, outside. You know I find that a lot in my buildings. People will reach out to me from from the building that worked there, you know, and say, hey, you know, we noticed you're cleaning and you know, do you do stuff outside? Do you do? You know, do you do move out cleans or do you, you know, do real estate cleans or things like that? And so you do stuff outside. Oh yeah, I'm not just a commercial cleaner, I do, I do everything. I do. No, not outside of Washington, no no, outside I had a commercial is what I was.

Speaker 3: 31:56

Power washing, oh no, I don't do exterior cleaning. Sometimes I do I. You know. There is a house that I did exterior cleaning. Sometimes I do I. You know there is a house that I did it was I like to do? I like to transform places like you get a lot of the um. One of the areas where I shine is is in in transformation and like, uh, you know, taking a old, stinky, dirty house and renewing it and restoring it. So restoration type cleaning, yes, I do a lot of that.

Speaker 2: 32:29

You have to be certified there. I'm in northern California I mean way northern. I'm in Humboldt County, california.

Speaker 3: 32:38

It's different everywhere. Yeah, it's different everywhere. So, depending on if it's hazmat or the different types of cleanings, you do have to have certification. I know in Arizona there's different. I believe you have to have. It's just different. It's different everywhere.

Speaker 2: 33:29

It's different everywhere.

Speaker 3: 33:30

You always have to check with your city and state and see what the laws are regarding that Both.

Speaker 2: 33:39

Both city and Definitely.

Speaker 1: 33:40

In a lot of states if you're doing restoration and especially mold remediation and that type of stuff Mold yeah. You touch it, you own it and you can be sued. So make sure that you Absolutely, if you're considering it at all, make sure you check your local laws Right and make sure that you have the proper licensing and insurance, absolutely. I've seen a lot of things go down. I'm like oh there's nothing I can say that's going to make you feel better, except for here's some scotch.

Speaker 3: 34:10

No, absolutely. You got to be very careful. You got to, you have to. You know, you have to have not only the right tools and expertise to do these types of things, but you have to know your laws.

Speaker 2: 34:21

Right.

Speaker 3: 34:21

And yeah, and know, you know your liability and you know, especially with employees, you know you don't want to bring employees into a job, or oh hi, by the way, we're going to go clean some mold today.

Speaker 2: 34:34

They have to be on board for that, you know. Yeah, they have to be on board too.

Speaker 3: 34:43

And there's there's. There's places where I, you know, I'll tell them. You know, no, I'm sorry, I can't do it. You know, like you know, there's just yeah for sure, I did yeah.

Speaker 1: 34:54

Yeah, know your laws, no Well. Sometimes, yeah, know your laws, no well. Sometimes. Yeah, sometimes, the homeowner or the owner of the building knows the laws. They're just looking to get out of it cheaper than having. They want to do it cheaper than a yeah, and then they just, you know, take us, because we're unknowing. What is that? It's not little, miss sunshine.

Speaker 1: 35:12

What was the other made movie that came out in the last couple years where they did dead body cleanup and they were dumping everything in the dumpster and it was like, this whole time it was two people and they got into cleaning. I don't remember the name. So if you're the audience and you remember the name of that movie, you can go ahead and leave a comment. I can't think of it off the top of my head, but they, they were supposed to be licensed and they weren't, so they were just dumping all this biohazard into the dump. Oh no, and they were doing it for, like you know, instead of $10,000, they were doing it for a thousand dollars, right Cause they didn't know no gloves, nothing.

Speaker 1: 35:43

I'm like, oh my God, that's terrible. But yeah, you definitely need to the expertise and the licensing and all the requirements so that you're not harming or putting your W-2s in harm's way. Nobody wants to be forced to do crazy stuff, especially if it grosses them out. Not everyone can handle those types of cleanings. No, absolutely not, it's just wild. So you said you had other historical buildings. What other historical buildings you have?

Speaker 3: 36:11

so about ellensburg. Downtown ellensburg is is full of historic buildings, but I have one in particular that was amazing. It was and I say was because the building, the business that was in it, they downsized and they had two buildings side by side and they all downsized into one. So I lost the one on the corner where they. I was so sad because it was an old bank I believe it was a bank back in the early 1900s and it has a huge vault downstairs like a bomb shelter. Oh, wow, yeah, yeah. And it was just this big walk-in vault kind of oh, my goodness, it was a creepy, creepy basement down there.

Speaker 1: 36:55

You go down. No, you go down, no, you go down first.

Speaker 3: 36:58

Yeah, but Did you hear there's a noise no, I really want to say that historic stuff down there and you know stuff that you would want to keep in a vault, I guess, and and so are you cleaning the, the bank vault, the, the.

Speaker 2: 37:14

What are those, those lockers for? I mean, are you getting like that detailed?

Speaker 3: 37:21

so? So you mean in the vault bank? Yeah, in the bank vault.

Speaker 2: 37:25

Are you like shining the, the stainless steel?

Speaker 3: 37:32

you know no, no, so the, the basement, we really didn't. Thankfully we didn't have to go down there a lot. It was just kind of a storage and you know that type of thing. But yeah, just a historic building and you know, just it's again, it was just the intricate woodwork and the you know chandeliers and the really high ceilings and just, yeah, the all of the buildings. A lot of the buildings in town have these tin roofs like, or tin you know what I'm talking about that old, like tin that they like they have like crown molding, like what's the word I'm looking for?

Speaker 1: 38:06

like there's a design pressed into the metal and they're stuck on the roof, oh yeah, what is it? They're tin roof yeah in ceilings. Is that not roofs on the outside?

Speaker 3: 38:16

sorry, yeah, yeah oh, there's a name for it yeah, I want me to google it on my phone or something like that, or I think so but yeah, a lot of the old buildings here have those and you know just a lot of. There's just a lot of old old school charm in this place and so it's just really cool. I always, I always try to go for like those buildings and like, hey, I love this place so much, Let me take care of it for you and you know you're emailing them or you're going out and introducing yourself.

Speaker 3: 38:53

So typically, yeah, just just introducing myself, going out and introducing myself and, you know, being in the right moment in the right time, and I really try to insert myself into the community. You know just, chamber of commerce, you know just, yeah, that's. That's, that's where I, that's where I, I feel like I, I just networking, that's where I feel like I pick up a lot is that, yeah, just networking that's where I feel like.

Speaker 3: 39:18

I pick up a lot, is that just networking, putting myself out there in the community, you know, just, and yeah, you meet people and you find places and you know, you clean one building and then the other buildings recommend you and you know, and same with residential, you know, you, you, you clean one people, one person's house, and they're going to recommend you to their friends and it's just going to go like wildfire, you know. So, uh, oh, what did I just do? Did you guys lose me?

Speaker 2: 39:48

I lost you. Oh, did you.

Speaker 1: 39:53

I pressed a button. Don't touch the keyboard.

Speaker 2: 39:58

I've seen that I did some research. I've seen that, um, I did some research. I've seen that you have some. What are those?

Speaker 1: 40:11

I have no idea, oh awards. Yes, there you are, gosh you held that last year, didn't you allison?

Speaker 3: 40:16

Yeah, yeah, so both. So we won best of Kittitas County 2024 and 2025. Now oh congratulations, I'm so excited.

Speaker 2: 40:28

Did you ever think this little side hustle would turn into something, something so awesome?

Speaker 3: 40:38

No, well, I, I, yes and no, I. I always dream big, I always dream big and I and I envision what I want and I envision things bigger and and you know whether I, whether you know I, my doubts in the back of the head tell me I'm going to get there or not. You know, I, I try to, but yeah, I, I, it was, it's been, it's been surreal.

Speaker 2: 40:58

So you know, this year winning again two years in a row.

Speaker 3: 41:05

I just um, I cried you know the local newspaper called me and told me that they had it, that you know that I had, I had won, and and they, they asked me that they're like, oh, you made it to the top three. We wondered you know if you wanted to, you know, write a thank you. Or you know, if you wanted to, you know, write a thank you. Or you know, to the community. And I was like, well, you know, I don't know, and you know they offer me three different packages. I could buy, like a full back page. Or you know, I'm like, well, you know, I really don't want to get a back page if I didn't win. You know what I mean. Like, oh, you won, but uh, here's my back page and I'm in the runner up.

Speaker 3: 41:42

Yeah, look at me. I was like I feel like I could be stepping on somebody's toes and they're like, okay, you didn't lose, I won't tell anybody until it's time. So, no, yeah, it's business now. For what's that? How long have you been in business?

Speaker 2: 41:59

now for what's that? How long have you been?

Speaker 3: 42:02

in business now, for so I've been. I've had my business since 2016,. But I started here, I started over, I started from scratch, not knowing a single person, five years ago to August 1st, so Wow. So so I basically rebuilt my business here.

Speaker 2: 42:20

No, a big expansion, though in five years. So I basically rebuilt my business here. Yeah, wow, a big expansion, though in five years. So, no, that's great. You did you. You have made it over the hump the first year, hump, the third year, hump. Here you are at the five year and I know winning awards coming onto podcasts talking about your successes just lights that fire and I like seeing that. I love seeing that and I think a lot of our listeners. It just will get them all hyped up.

Speaker 3: 42:56

Yeah, well, it's all about what you envision for yourself and your business. Maybe you just need your cleaning business as a crutch for now, maybe you just need, you know, clean for the side. But maybe you do have that vision of you. Know, I want to have significance in this town. I want the. You know, I want to be the cleaning company here, like I want you know, like I want big, I want to go big, I want to. You know, like I want big, I want to I want to go big, I want to.

Speaker 2: 43:23

You know, reach for this guy. I, you know, I was the same way, I was the same, I'm the same way, thinking as you are. The second that I started this, I was like, oh yeah, oh, wait a minute. I instantly I knew I wanted employees, I knew I wanted to go big and exactly what you're saying, yeah, Well, you know, I, I feel like you never stopped learning.

Speaker 3: 43:46

I, I, you know, like there's there's been so many times like this just this past, you know month even. I'm like I've got to call Shannon. I've got to call Shannon, I got to do a lot of Shannon's classes, like I just, you know, I just wing it and I go out there and I do it and I do that whole nosebleed thing that I was talking about a little bit too much. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm again, I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to that kind of stuff. I just I roll with the punches and I just maybe take too many that I don't have to. But so I, I definitely recommend it. You know, if you can invest, invest into some of Shannon's courses and things like that, I highly recommend it.

Speaker 3: 44:24

Shannon has been in this business for a long time and she's like the only one I've taken. Your blueprint masterclass and you know this, I think that's the one I took was the, the blue, whatever the blueprint. But yeah, I really, you know, just looking up to somebody, and you know I've had to go out and figure out the numbers and figure out things and you know where I just I feel like I could have just reached out, but it's hard. You know, you're a single, like for me. I'm a single mom and you know the bills are so expensive and I don't get child support either, so it's just one of those things where I have.

Speaker 2: 45:00

You know it's like I don't have any money. I yeah, it's scary to walk through that threshold of trusting in that person to walk you through like I will help you make you better. But you've got to do exactly what I said. She literally walked me through buying a home. You know these are dreams that I could only. You know, hiring, firing and growing. You know it's just yeah, yeah, there's there. You just got to walk through that threshold and trust people that have been through it and where proof is in the pudding, you know.

Speaker 3: 45:47

Yeah, shannon, do you, do you offer anything for hiring people, for just for like a hiring?

Speaker 1: 45:52

masterclass? Yeah, it's the. There's a little mini course, it's the onboarding like a superstar. So when you want to hire somebody, it doesn't talk about like training. There is a whole jewel and a half inside the structure skill and profit academy that talks all about hiring training. It comes with a training schedule, all of the bells and whistles that you need, but I don't have anything separate. I've contemplated for a while of making it into a separate masterclass but then coming up with the right price point. It's such a big piece of the 12 weeks but, yeah, no, I don't have anything specific.

Speaker 1: 46:30

If you wanted something like one-on-one attention, I do offer the 30-day sprint, which is where you would have direct contact with me for 30 days over Messenger, and it's actually really nice because I see people who do that get a lot of results really quickly, so we would just be in contact. That's priceless, really having somebody there like that. That's genius. Like I've hired this and now what do I do here? Or I've done this, what do I? This? This happened, what do I? How do I fix this Right? Like, how do I get this? This person did this thing and I don't know what to do or say how do I get rid of them? Or what do I do, or what, what do I say to them? Those, all of those things from, from all of the crazy experience that I have, right.

Speaker 3: 47:13

So, and everybody's going to need it. Like seriously, everybody needs that.

Speaker 2: 47:17

Whether you reach out and get it or not, right you know like seriously, no, that's, that's priceless, yeah, it's not just the crazy experience that she's went through, but it's like also, you know, I can imagine as some of her students. I remember whenever I first got work comp insurance, and not even like a month into it, thank god, one of my oh my god, before anybody, before 9-1-1. She's on the, the homeowner's on the the phone to 9-1-1 as my you know employee is sitting there holding her leg. She just broke her leg, falling down it was a 90 degree pitch.

Speaker 2: 48:01

She fell down, oh no down, and I think she had workman's comp insurance like five days I was like no wow, jenna was the first person I called, not the insurance company, not my husband, not her husband, not I caught you. I was like you know they didn't even drug test her? Yeah, they didn't. Yeah, they did not even run a drug test or anything. Wow, I mean, we're in Humboldt County, so I don't, I don't know. That's just kind of weird to me.

Speaker 1: 48:40

But yeah, I was thankful that she had insurance, because then it was able to, you know, take over and then that house was jinxed anyway she what was it? A shower door something else got broken.

Speaker 2: 48:52

I'm like, yeah, it was, somebody went, oh no, clean the shower door and it cracked it like it floated all over the place.

Speaker 1: 49:00

I was like no, this house is jinxed.

Speaker 2: 49:03

Oh my goodness you're gonna pay half of that. I wouldn't have known that. Neither had Shannon, not for me. That's all. That's so crazy that the just the things you learn as you go along. But yeah, that sprint course is awesome to be able to have somebody you're back in call for stuff like that, cause I mean you've walked me through everything. Accountants, that's a whole, that's going to be a whole nother, that's right.

Speaker 1: 49:33

That's going to be a series of three. When Jamie finally gets that all situated, we'll come out publicly and she'll share her experience with the accountant we're telling in the future. But oh my, it's been a doozy. I'm like, oh my God.

Speaker 2: 49:49

To Shannon is this going to be a great? I mean, it's really hard on me, like I'm boohooing, I'm scared, I'm panicked and everything, but I kept going hey, shannon, this is going to be a good podcast. When this is all said and done, Right, it's been pretty wild.

Speaker 1: 50:05

So, as far as working with me, all you have to do and people roll their eyes you just have to follow everything I say. If you do all of it, I can't do the work for you. You guys do the work, so you have. And if you don't do the work, then nothing's going to happen. You're going to be in the same position 365 days later. You won't. You won't have moved the needle. But if you follow all of the advice, you will take big steps to get you where you want.

Speaker 1: 50:29

And I agree with you, alison, about how everyone has different goals. Not everybody wants to be recognized with a big trophy. You know I hit the eight figure mark. Yes, we all want to have that at some point, but not everyone's goals are the same. So some people just want to buy a new car, other people want to buy houses, other people want to invest in property, some people want to be absentee owners, some people want to work. I mean, there's a couple of girls in some of the groups. I'm sure you've seen them. They've been cleaning for 35, 40 years. I'm like, oh, my goodness. But they love it and there's no crime in that whatsoever. As long as you're happy. Life is too short to not be happy Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 51:10

Absolutely, that's true. And you know whether you want to have the full blown business or, just you know, have a couple of side clients, and you know it's, it's wherever you, wherever you want to go, you, just you're the driver. You're the driver of your own destiny, definitely yeah, yeah, wild, wild, wild, wild.

Speaker 1: 51:31

Well, thank you for coming on. It's nice to finally have you here, and I was going to chat about the infamous train station. I know there was one point where the train state you had to work on what was. It was an unusual request. You had cleaned the train station so well that the, the floor, the, the shoes sorry, not the floors, the shoes squeaked across the floor and I remember you reaching out, going what do I do about this clean?

Speaker 3: 52:00

I was like what I was like I've never had a complaint about my work being too squeaky clean.

Speaker 1: 52:07

It was just. What did you end up doing with that? Oh my goodness.

Speaker 3: 52:12

So we went through and just kind of watered everything down, cause I was like you know what it's gotta be just too much product on it, too much buildup. So maybe we were just using too much Salsuds or too much soap or whatever it was. And then so we just kind of went through with just wet pads and wiped everything down and then went through again and just used a smaller amount. I don't know if that's when we like, when we is that, if that's when we switched to Sal Suds or or what it was, but it ended up just being, you know, just Sal Suds and water and on the terrazzo flooring and and it works just. It just shines it and it's like it's not, there's no squeak.

Speaker 3: 52:54

And it's funny because I was in there just about a week ago and one of the one of the employees there I just checked in with her like hey, how's everything looking in here? And and she was like she's. She told me that she loved everything there and everything looks amazing. She's like I'll never forget the squeak. I'll never forget. And I said I will not either. I've never had a complaint and my floor is being too squeaky clean. I do get, I do get compliments on my floors all the time. That's one of my big things is. Floors are so important, right, right, that's what. Yeah, that was the first. Yes, yeah.

Speaker 2: 53:33

That's where it's like bam yeah, Restoration.

Speaker 3: 53:37

Yeah, yes, yes, you want your floors to go bam, and that's that's where you get a lot of smiles.

Speaker 2: 53:44

Yeah, are you. Are you a flat mopper or?

Speaker 3: 53:47

I am. I'm a flat mopper. I've been get the. It seems like the buildings that I've been getting are just getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and so I'm like my flat mop dreams are kind of I know I feel like I'm overworking myself.

Speaker 3: 54:02

I did get like a bucket for flat mops where you can put a bunch of pads in there. I don't know if that's what it's for, but I like I've been switching them out like I don't know, like okay, now it's too wet, but you can like kind of squeeze them off, and then I'm like, ah, you know, maybe, you know, maybe I go into, you know more of a spin mop thing and so rag mop is probably going to be your next step, because it covers more area.

Speaker 1: 54:28

Which one, a traditional commercial rag mop? They have microfiber, they have cotton.

Speaker 2: 54:34

I know, I know.

Speaker 1: 54:37

As long as you change the water enough. The whole point with that is that when you get your crew in there, they'll only do one bucket for the whole building. I'm like what are you doing?

Speaker 3: 54:47

Yeah, you've got to change that water. Yeah, that's. You know, I've never. I don't know what it is about those rag mops and the big yellow.

Speaker 1: 54:56

I'm not a fan either, but when you have large properties you have to.

Speaker 3: 54:59

Exactly, and so I actually used one for the first time recently, very recently, and I was like, oh, that wasn't bad, like I. You know, look at it, I got done so much faster and it looks just as good. It looks good. So I was worried that it was going to streak, because, you know, if it's too wet it's going to streak and I still have a difficult time bringing it out enough, and so I feel like I go back and, like you know, once, my mop is like dried enough like I'll do it all enough of an area to where it's like it's, to that perfect dryness.

Speaker 3: 55:32

You know where you, just you get that you start painting and then I'll go back to the areas that I did first. I'm like, just stop, just stop going back, just let it dry and see what it looks like.

Speaker 2: 55:43

So you're very much a hands on owner.

Speaker 3: 55:47

Oh for sure, oh for sure you know I.

Speaker 2: 55:50

are you going in checking behind everybody's work?

Speaker 3: 55:53

And oh my goodness, yeah, you know, there there have. I can't express enough how important that is, and I've learned my lesson on that recently. You know, having so many buildings in town now and I had one of my employees that was just not, you know, started off really good, you know, really pulling her weight, and then just she just kind of stopped and so I checked in on one of my buildings and was just mortified at what I saw and you know like, ah, you got to be in there and I'm like you know, maybe I hire somebody at this point. Maybe this isn't you know cause. There's cause. I swear I work 48 hours a day. Sometimes, you guys, I just like go, go, go, go, go and and, and. So I I feel like maybe it's that quality control manager or somebody like I'm trying to piece together what that hire looks like, but somebody to be that to go in and do quality control, and somebody like it's time to finally hire somebody for the office that's not actually working out and cleaning. But try to. You know, I don't.

Speaker 2: 56:59

I don't know what that looks like I think it's that time to you know, I don't, I don't know what that looks like. I think it's that time. Yeah, you're, yeah, I will tell you this. They wouldn't be paid. I was told they would not be paid Once you got somebody in the office. Only they're. They're not making you any money, you're literally just paying them money. So maybe a hybrid.

Speaker 1: 57:24

They're not providing income to the business, they're an expense, and as long as they understand that they because there's there always is a hierarchy between the office managers and the cleaning techs and or the office people, and I'm like you're you're actually below, because the cleaning techs are golden unicorns. They're the ones who generate the income for you. Office staff is an expense. They're a line item on your P and L to help you run that. Typically, you don't need quality control unless you have a lot of short-term rentals.

Speaker 3: 57:53

That's the key indicator for short-term rental cleaning Right, and I did just land a big, a big contract with, with a huge one for short, for short-term rentals. That's my new.

Speaker 1: 58:04

That's my newest one, that's why I've been working like 48 hours a day again, do you need to have quality control, like right before, right after they clean and before the guest arrives? That's the the sweet spot, um, and I can tell you that I'm not trying to give out more information than necessary, but it's something that I'm almost done working on and it's going to like I did a proof of concept. I started a website. I'm actually going to build a business here and then I'm going to sell it in like three years. It's all short-term rental, hosting and co-hosting. That with the quality control for the commercial buildings, you need to make sure that you're paying them enough so that they take ownership of what they're doing. It doesn't sound like the people that you're hiring are taking ownership of anything, hence the reason why you're still there helping them.

Speaker 3: 58:51

Right.

Speaker 1: 58:51

Just sit there and re-strategize and figure out how you're going to make that happen. And I don't want to make this about a coaching session here on the podcast, but maybe I can talk privately later and figure out what you need to do real quick over the phone or something.

Speaker 3: 59:11

Cool. Yeah, I would love that. Yeah, for sure, I you know again. It's one of those things where I said earlier you know you never stop learning and you, you know there's always going to be something new. So it's that's how. That's why somebody like you is so valuable, to have you know around.

Speaker 2: 59:23

I would love that. I would love that too. I would love to be on that call Right.

Speaker 1: 59:29

Because I'm there. I'm there and there's going to be actual. If you're starting a premium podcast, that's going to be all about short-term rental cleaning and it's not short-term rental cleaning for the person who owns the building. This is geared for us to add an extra source of revenue onto what we're already offering.

Speaker 2: 59:53

And I believe I'll be the only one doing it. So I'm pretty excited to have this in the next week or so, so get a girl.

Speaker 1: 59:59

Well, the cat's out of the bag on that one. So when you're, when you're ready, miss allison, let's maybe get together. We can spend a half hour and strategizing for you. I mean, see them get you over the hump. And thanks so much for coming on. I really appreciate you having me, and jamie, it was good to see you. I haven't seen you forever. We've had cover off for one reason or the other, I know, I know.

Speaker 2: 1:00:23

Thank you so much. It's a pleasure you guys take care bye, all right, bye.