Austin Gray: So do you still are you full-time in this cleaning business?

Logan Robison: No, I'm not actually. So I still am full-time at my W2. Yeah, so this cleaning business is basically one to two hours a day, which is pretty crazy.

Austin Gray: It is crazy. What do you do in your full-time W2?

Logan Robison: Yeah, so I work for a pretty massive retailer here in Arkansas, and I am kind of an in-house entrepreneur for them, actually. So I work in the pets industry for this retailer, and my job is basically to go out and create new businesses for them.

Austin Gray: That's my full-time job; I get to be an entrepreneur for my full-time job, and my side hustle I get to be an entrepreneur, so I kind of have the best of both worlds right now.

Logan Robison: That's awesome. So do you have any desire to ever leave that W2 job?

Austin Gray: Uh, yeah, I think so. I think that my aspiration has always been to be a full-time on my own entrepreneur. So that's always been my goal. I took this job because I saw it more as a stepping stone of a really safe opportunity to be able to test out entrepreneurship and then see how that goes but still get that W2 paycheck. So I think that is the long-term strategy: to eventually go out on my own. But for the moment, I'm super content with my current situation.

Logan Robison: Okay, and so you've started this business; you jumped into the cleaning space. The cleaning space is, I think on Twitter, very overhyped. It's a hard business; it's a really challenging business. But I'll kind of give you the background of it. Back in, gosh, it was probably September—maybe even August—I was with some family, and we were watching the show Undercover Billionaire. If you've ever seen that, I can't remember what TV show it's on, but basically, the premise of the show is we're going to take these billionaires—so Grant Cardone was an example—and we're going to drop them in the middle of nowhere in the United States, change their name, change their look, and see if they can generate a business… create a business that's worth a million dollars in, I think it's like six months or something like that.

Austin Gray: And you're watching this show with your brother-in-law?

Logan Robison: Yeah, and we just got really excited about it. He's also entrepreneurial, and we were just sitting at my in-law's house watching this show. We got super excited about it, and we thought we could do something similar. We were like, "We're going to do something really similar to this, but on an accelerated timeline."

Austin Gray: So what did you do?

Logan Robison: So we got together with a bunch of friends and said, "Hey, let's start a business from scratch. Everybody individually, it's going to be a competition. Everyone's going to start their own business from scratch, and you've got six weeks, and the person that generates the most amount of money in six weeks is going to win this competition—totally from scratch."

Austin Gray: And so that's really the start of it?

Logan Robison: Yeah, it was super exciting. For the first five weeks, I started like three different businesses and made zero money. Not a single thing happened in five weeks.

Austin Gray: But?

Logan Robison: The good thing was none of the other people made any money after five weeks either. And so finally, I was just on Twitter, and one of my friends sent me a tweet about starting a cleaning business, and I was like, "Okay, I got to do this! I've got one week left; I have to win this competition!" I didn't know anything about the cleaning business, so I literally set up the website, set up a phone number, and within like four days, I had my first cleaner. And then literally the day after that, we had our first customer, and so it was a $500 job. So the cleaning business had been in existence for literally three or four days, and we got a job done—$500 of revenue—and then at that point, it was kind of just, "I guess we're doing this; I guess this is real, and we're just going to make it happen," because we just kept getting customers—which was really cool.

Austin Gray: So I won the competition. But really, just kind of had a chance to—being completely honest with you—the other cool thing that came out of this competition is I had another friend that was doing it with us. He started a golf Instagram account where they would just show how to get cheap tee times for these really cool golf courses, and they're up to probably over 120,000 followers now between Instagram and TikTok. So now, he's looking at making that his full-time job as well.

Logan Robison: So from that tiny competition, we both have two potentially full-time businesses coming out of that.

Austin Gray: That is awesome! And before we dive into exactly how you started the cleaning business, take me through that process of the five weeks. What businesses did you start, and why did they not work?

Logan Robison: Oh my gosh, I can't even remember what I did. I tried to sell a course. I tried to start a course. I was, like I said, I really like my full-time job, and so I tried to start a course about how to land a merchandising role at a top retailer. I think I tried to start a course like that. So in retail, the merchants are the ones that run the… the merchants are the people that buy the product. They negotiate with the suppliers, they determine what the price is going to be, and then ultimately, they put it on the shelf. So at this retailer that I work for, you can have a merchant over beans—that's all they buy. That's all they procure is beans: black beans, pinto beans, refried beans, whatever. It's their job to get the best supply and get the best price for those beans.

Austin Gray: Got it.

Logan Robison: That's just one example. It’s extremely specific in retail that I work for, and so that job of being a merchant at one of these retailers is actually a really sought-after job. It's really competitive to get one of these jobs, and so I was going to start a course on how to create a course that helps other people in retail land a merchant job. And so I started that course. I was just going to pre-sale it, but it turns out if you don't have an audience for someone to sell to, you're not going to sell anything.

Austin Gray: Right…

Logan Robison: So I think I even drove some ads to it, but it just made no money at all—nothing. So thankfully, I did not actually build the course; I just tried to pre-sale it. And then I can't remember what the other thing was. I think I tried to flip a couple of things just to make some cash, but even that didn't work. So it just became a kind of a Hail Mary, last-ditch effort to start a cleaning business.

Austin Gray: Okay, so you get this tweet about starting a cleaning business. Who'd you come across? I'm curious.

Logan Robison: Oh, Johnny Robinson, Squeegee God—whatever that is.

Austin Gray: Got it. And from there, you just read his free content, and you're like, "This is an opportunity?"

Logan Robison: Oh yeah, I read his content. I think I just read that one tweet, and in that tweet, it was very specific about, "If I were starting a cleaning business again today, here's exactly how I would do it," and I just followed it step by step. I was like, "Great!" Got a website, got a phone number. I think I was able… I don't think I was able to start Google Local Services ads in that time, in that week. But I got a website out, and I got started interviewing cleaners. I literally followed his tweet step by step, and at the end, what came out of it was a cleaning business for the most part—just obviously the base foundation of it.

Austin Gray: So that's really how it started.

Logan Robison: And then I got my first customer because I had told all my friends that I was starting a cleaning business.

Austin Gray: So I think one stumbling block that a lot of people have when they're starting out in entrepreneurship is they're afraid to tell people. They don't want to tell anybody because they don't want to be embarrassed if it fails.

Logan Robison: I was totally in the same camp as well. I only told my closest friends and my wife, obviously, but my family, like my parents, nobody really knew that I was doing anything like this.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: And so I told my good buddies that, "Hey, I've got a cleaning business." Just randomly, one was at work—sorry, that actually was the friend that sent me the tweet. So I told him, "Hey, I started this cleaning business," and he was actually at work and overheard one of his coworkers saying that he needed his house cleaned, and then he told his coworker, "Hey, my buddy has a cleaning business. You should call him."

Austin Gray: So this is literally like three days after the cleaning business was set up and you had your first customer?

Logan Robison: Yeah, and that all came from telling your friends, telling your family that, "Hey, this is what I'm doing." And once you kind of put your stake in the ground, kind of put yourself out there, I think a lot of good things happen after that. But a lot of people are just too afraid to do that because they don't want to be embarrassed if it fails.

Austin Gray: You bring up such a good point there. I've tried to start so many different businesses, especially in my 20s, and I finally got to the point to where, like after a couple of them failed, I was in that same perspective or that same headspace. I just don't even want to tell my family or my friends that I'm starting this because they're just going to think, "Oh, Austin's just doing something else and he's, you know, crazy."

Logan Robison: You felt that too early on.

Austin Gray: Oh, absolutely! Yeah, I think there's a lot of—um, I don't think it's shame, but I think it's just embarrassment or just lack of self-confidence in all entrepreneurs, right? In all people that are trying to be ambitious, that prevents them from talking about it because they don't want the feeling of failure, right? Like they don't want to say, "Oh, Logan tried to do this thing and he failed. Look how stupid he is," or "Look how dumb he is," or "Like, he clearly is not talented."

Logan Robison: Right.

Austin Gray: So I think everybody has that fear. But I think the biggest thing to kind of get over that is nobody cares, right? Nobody is looking at you and thinking, "What an idiot!" Like, that's just not a thing.

Logan Robison: If you think about it from your own perspective, if you hear about a friend who's starting a business and it fails, what would your reaction be? Your reaction would not be, "What an idiot." Your reaction would be like, "Good for him—right?" Like, "He tried something; that's pretty cool."

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: So once you change your perspective and realize that nobody's thinking about you like you're thinking about you, it's totally different.

Austin Gray: I agree with you 100 percent. That’s such a great realization. Whenever you just remind yourself that nobody actually really cares—

Logan Robison: Yeah.

Austin Gray: —we're all selfish human beings.

Logan Robison: Yeah.

Austin Gray: And at the end of the day, if you have this entrepreneurial drive—which I do, which you do—I know other people listening have this. Where I've come to the conclusion is that drive is never going to go away, but nobody actually cares.

Logan Robison: Right.

Austin Gray: My wife doesn't even care! My wife could care less if I start businesses or work a W2 job! This is something that's like inherently driven by my internal ambition, and it's something that I have to just satisfy. And it sounds like you're in the same boat, and I think a lot of other entrepreneurs are the same way as well.

Austin Gray: But I'm curious to dive deeper on, like—whenever you acknowledged that and you made the decision to start telling people that, "Hey, I am doing a cleaning business," what changed there?

Logan Robison: Excuse me. Why do you think that changed the outcome of like starting to get work?

Logan Robison: Yeah, good question. I think it's because there was this great tweet about something like this—I can't remember exactly what it said, but the essence was like we're afraid to go all in because then people will know we gave it our best effort. And like if you're like half in, half out, you can always fall back on, "Oh, but I didn't try very hard," or "I wasn't really serious about it," and that's kind of a cop-out to let you feel better about your failure.

Logan Robison: But the reason people don't go all in is because then they have to admit to themselves and to others, "Yeah, I did give it my best effort, and this was the result." Whereas people can kind of, you know, half in, half out. Anyway, so I think once you go all in and you're able to say, "Look, I am starting a cleaning business," or "I am starting a land services business," or anything like that, you kind of tie yourself to that, and then it really is all on you, right? It really is up to you to see it succeed or not.

Austin Gray: A 100 percent.

Logan Robison: And so that’s kind of what I think the change is. You really commit yourself to, "Okay, no, I have to make this work because I just told everybody my in-laws know about it now, so now I have to make it work."

Austin Gray: Yes, I 100 percent agree! So you tell you start telling people, you get your first job. Where does the business go from there?

Logan Robison: Yeah, so I started telling people. You know, I was still pretty shy about it, so I didn't, like, blast it on my socials. And that's because I also work at W2, right? Like I also have a full-time job, so I do need to be cognizant of that. And what's my boss going to think if, like—hey, I hear you're doing a cleaning business. Are you still working full-time? What's going on? So I was trying to be cognizant of that and make sure I was following the rules of my company, which I tried really hard to do.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: But then I just started getting running ads, right? So I think the first couple of clients were word of mouth, and then I started running ads. And Google Local Services ads are really, really powerful. They take a long time to get set up, but they—so for example, they require five reviews, right?

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: So you have to get insurance for your business. You have to have a website, you have to do a background check, and you have to get five reviews. Well, that's probably the real— that's the hardest part when I talk to new cleaning business or new service business entrepreneurs is how do I get those first five reviews? That’s a really big challenge for a lot of people.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: And I'll tell you exactly how I got my first five reviews because I think it's helpful for people who are in this kind of same boat. So the first cleaning customer we had was a landlord whose tenants were moving in, and those new tenants came into the house and thought, "This place is really dirty, so we need to get this cleaned."

Austin Gray: Got it.

Logan Robison: Okay, so that new landlord called me. Obviously, I did the job. He left me a review; the husband of the tenant left me a review; the wife of the tenant—the female tenant—left me a review as well. So that was three reviews. And then I had a really good buddy that just, like, out of the blue, also left me a review, and then I did one more job and got my fifth review. So I think a lot of people get stuck on that—they start a cleaning business or they start some sort of service business, and they want to run Google Local Services ads, but they can't get those five reviews. And at that point, it really is all word of mouth.

Logan Robison: You have to put yourself out there in order to get, you know, five reviews, get your first couple customers, and then you can start the business. A lot of people think they can just run ads and start a business; that's not necessarily the case because you have no credibility, right? You have no reason that somebody should click on that ad and trust your business.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: So if you're able to put yourself out there, do a little bit of word-of-mouth marketing, get some credibility behind you, you know, get five reviews at least, and then I think people start to trust you, and then you're kind of off to the races.

Austin Gray: Yeah, that's something I was talking about in the last podcast episode was just getting those first reviews are so important.

Logan Robison: Absolutely.

Austin Gray: And it’s just a level of, like, getting out there, getting the work, to your point, telling people you're in the business, and then making sure that you deliver that five-star service. Like, doing whatever it takes possible! So how did you ensure on those first cleans—because you're subbing everything out, right? Like all your cleaners are subcontractors. How do you ensure that they deliver five-star service right out of the gate?

Logan Robison: Oh, I was super hands-on. I was annoyingly hands-on. I mean, I think I was too much—because we got that first customer. Man, I must have texted or called that cleaner probably three or four times to confirm, "Hey, you're going to be here, right? You’re signed up for this."

Austin Gray: Right, like you were super involved.

Logan Robison: So that was, you know, that was stressful. And I was really intentional about making sure that I really cared—that they knew that I really cared about this job. So I probably annoyed them. But then I went to the customer's house before the cleaning, and I went to the customer's house after the cleaning. Like, I was very involved in the process, and at that point I still knew nothing about cleaning; right? Like, I didn't know how to quote the job out, I didn't know what the checklist was supposed to be like—I was three days in, so I didn't know anything. So I really relied on those cleaners to make sure that they were good and they knew what they were doing.

Logan Robison: But I called the customers afterward. Like, I made sure everything was good. If they said anything was wrong, I offered to go back and fix it or have the cleaners go back and fix it. So I was really, really intentional. That was my first customer, even my second customer—like, I went over there, I did an on-site quote, and I got to know her, got to know why she fired her last cleaners. I really wanted to understand what she was looking for. Then I had to communicate with those cleaners to make sure they understood.

Austin Gray: You were really hands-on at the beginning.

Logan Robison: Yeah, the first time we cleaned our second customer's house, our cleaner forgot a mop. Didn't have a mop! And, like, that's pretty crazy that the cleaner wouldn't bring a mop. And so I—I think I left work. I think I left work and ran to the store, bought a mop, and dropped it off to work. I was really, really intentional about making sure those first couple of cleans went really, really well—because if you start off your business and you've got one one-star review and five five-star reviews, that's not great! You got to really kill it your first couple of reviews, or just people aren’t going to trust you.

Austin Gray: So how did you find those first subcontractors?

Logan Robison: Yeah, that's a good question too. I think that’s probably, outside of getting your first couple of customers, the biggest challenge with—and I’m going to say service business, but I’m talking specifically about the cleaning business because that’s my experience—is getting your first subcontractors right? Finding good subcontractors is really, really difficult. So what I did was, my church has a Facebook group just for our local area, and so I went onto that Facebook group and said, "Hey, I'm looking for a cleaner."

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: I didn't mention like, "I'm starting a cleaning business." I didn't mention what the purpose of me asking this was. I just said, "Hey, I'm looking for a good cleaner. Does anybody have any recommendations?" And from that, I got probably five or six cleaners that I could contact and then go out and approach them and say, "Hey, this is what I'm trying to do. Are you interested?"

Logan Robison: But that’s another thing: people are just afraid. When they're starting out, they’re afraid to just post on Facebook groups and just say, "Hey, I'm looking for this." Or people don't know what Facebook groups to look in, or people don't know like where to start. If you're looking for good subcontractors, like I really would say every town that you're in, every city that you live in, has a Facebook group that's called, you know, "Residents of XYZ City."

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: So if you live in—I don't know—if you live in Bentonville, Arkansas, which is where I live, there are so many Facebook groups that are just called "Residents of Bentonville" or "Citizens of Bentonville, Arkansas," right? Something stupid like that. Those Facebook groups are gold mines for finding subcontractors, for finding potential customers. Go in there, post about what you're doing, what you're looking for.

Logan Robison: So that's what I did. I posted in my church Facebook group, got five or six names, called all of them, did a test clean—on that first one, literally the day after that test clean, I had my first customer. So it was really pretty fast, but that’s how I found my first subcontractor.

Austin Gray: Oops, I think we had a connection issue there! We lost the last piece of that. Sorry, can you hear me now?

Logan Robison: Yeah, we can hear you now.

Austin Gray: Yeah, so I just—I mean, I was just saying that's how I found my first subcontractor was just going through Facebook groups and just looking, saying, "Hey, I'm looking for a recommendation for a cleaner." You can do the same thing for any type of service business, right? If you're starting a lawn care company or a window washing company, you could just post, "Hey, I'm looking for a good landscaping crew!"

Logan Robison: Right.

Austin Gray: Or window washing. For sure. I'm looking for a good window washing crew. This kind of goes back to my earlier point: when you're trying to start a service business or you're trying to be entrepreneurial, don't overcomplicate it. Don't think there's some magic formula that you have to abide by to get to where you want to go.

Logan Robison: Like, it's really simple! Just don't overcomplicate it. I think that’s kind of the biggest takeaway there!

Austin Gray: Yes! I think you hit a good point right there—just don’t overcomplicate it.

Logan Robison: Yes.

Austin Gray: And there are no rules in this game! Like, that's the coolest part about entrepreneurship is you get to create your own rules, and if you think of a new creative way to go find that subcontractor, go try it! Like, the worst that can come out of it is you don't get any replies on that post, right?

Logan Robison: Right!

Austin Gray: And you're not even putting yourself out there in a sense that you're a business owner—you're just saying, "Hey, I'm looking for a cleaner in a Facebook group."

Logan Robison: So, I'm seeing a recurring trend in people I talk to about utilizing Facebook groups. Some other people I've talked to have utilized Facebook Marketplace, but even more specifically, Craigslist. And I actually tried this last week because I'm getting some leads outside of my normal service area. So I actually tried this in the excavation space just to see if it would work.

Logan Robison: So I went to Craigslist, and I just typed in "excavation" in the services page. What I was looking for was all the people who were posting about those services. You can very quickly find the people who already have a business and who are already doing the marketing because they'll have the pictures, they'll have their truck wrapped. You don't want to call those people, but I did have some luck with just the one-off solo owner/operator guy. It's like, "Hey, we offer digging in X area," and then he signs his name off, "Jeff" or "whatever, George." Those are the types of people, at least that I was calling, and I had some good luck over this last week.

Austin Gray: So I probably have like three different subcontractors on the Front Range now who I want to test out on new jobs. So that's another idea: Facebook groups. I'm hearing from people like you, Craigslist…

Logan Robison: Yeah, just leverage those platforms for anybody who's listening, especially in the early days.

Logan Robison: And what I'm also learning is there are plenty of people out there who do not enjoy the marketing, who do not enjoy doing the sales. And if you like doing this kind of stuff, you can actually add value and help that person. I spoke to this subcontractor yesterday, and he’s slow on work. That just blows my mind because we have so much work right now!

Austin Gray: I know.

Logan Robison: And so you're actually helping that person if you're bringing them leads, and I'm sure you've felt the same way in some of your subcontractor relationships.

Austin Gray: Absolutely! Well, I would even say one of our top cleaners—she is amazing. She actually owned her own cleaning company in Hawaii. So she owns her own company—she's from Tennessee originally. She sells her cleaning company. Like, this is a legit cleaning business. She sells her cleaning company, moves to Arkansas to be closer to family, and she applies to work with us because we're also running— you know, we have job postings on Indeed as well.

Austin Gray: And so she applies to work with us, and she tells me, "Look, I don't want to market anymore. I don't want to sell anymore. I don't want to manage cleaners anymore. I just want to be a cleaner. I just want to show up, get the job done, and go home." And I think that—and so she’s been working with us for now for like almost six months now. But I think people like that—they truly just want to do the work, and they don’t want to deal with marketing, they don’t want to deal with sales, they don’t want to have to remit taxes to the state. Like, they don’t want to do those entrepreneurial, administrative business things, and they just want to come in and get the job done. Like, those are really great people that you should be targeting and that you should be working with for sure.

Logan Robison: And so finding them on Craigslist, finding them in Facebook Marketplace—yeah, I think that’s great. But I wanted to ask you, I know that—I'm sorry if you've already covered this in previous episodes, but how did you get your first customers? Like, what was your first customer acquisition strategy? How did you go about it?

Austin Gray: So I'm actually doing some posts on Twitter right now where I'm going back to my album that I've created of all the photos of our jobs, and I'm basically just, like, creating a story from the very beginning. And so it's interesting you ask this because I just got to the part—I kind of got past the whole first equipment purchases and whatnot, and then I was writing the tweet before I jumped on this about how I got the first job. And so after I had already set up my rental equipment, I had purchased a trailer and I bought a work truck. Then I went down the road; there were some neighbors who were breaking ground on a build. I found out who the builder was, got his contact info, called him, and said, "Hey, I've got a skid steer. I'm in the local area; I know these local excavating contractors are all super busy. If you ever have anything on any of your projects that just need cleanup or odd jobs that I can help you out with as a skid steer operator, just give me a call."

Logan Robison: He's like, "Well, actually, we need some dirt at that project." So I was like, "Great! I'll go find you dirt!" So I drove around, went to some other builds in the area, found people who were excavating, and I'm like, "Hey, do you have somewhere for this dirt?" Because a lot of times in excavation, you have export and you have import, right? Whenever you're digging a foundation out, sometimes you don't have a place for that dirt, so you've got to haul it off. So it's actually helping another excavation contractor if you can go find a place or find a home for that dirt.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: So I went—I made a deal on the dirt. I went and found a trucking subcontractor, had him truck the dirt over to this project, and then I just literally charged this guy—I think I charged him $100 an hour on my first job—and that was for my labor and the equipment time as well. So all I did was source product for him, moved the product for him, and then once the product was there, I moved that dirt where it needed to go on the project, and I think it was like $925.

Austin Gray: Wow, you did it quick!

Logan Robison: I literally did it after hours. I remember being out there until like midnight one night because I was building my house at the same time. And I sent him an invoice on Jobber. He was, like, super impressed that he could pay online.

Austin Gray: Right!

Logan Robison: He's like, "Nobody's doing this around here." And he basically told me, "Dude, I think you could build a business just off of doing these small dirt work projects. Like, I get calls all the time for driveways; people who are in the excavation business aren't going to come to a one-off residential driveway project." And I'm like, "Sweet, man, just give me a call anytime you need it!" So that was my first job.

Austin Gray: I think that’s awesome! I think you did something really interesting there when you had that phone call with that contractor. You said, "If you ever have any other jobs, give me a call." I think the challenge that people have with cold calling is they think that they’re supposed to sell their services on that call, like, immediately.

Logan Robison: Exactly.

Austin Gray: Like, "Do you have any jobs I can do for you right now?" That's not the point of cold calling, right? When you cold call a business, your only job out there is to let them know who you are, that you’re available, and that if they ever want to give you a call, then you’re available. So when I do cold calls, my purpose is just to say, "Hey, I want to give you a quote. Just so you know what our prices are," like I’m not trying to win your business right now.

Logan Robison: Right.

Austin Gray: Like, I'm not trying to, like, take over all your cleaning contracts. You probably had the same thought process. I'm just trying to let you know who I am, this is what I do, and if you ever need anything, like, I’m here.

Logan Robison: So I think you had—that’s a really interesting point that you had on that cold call of you weren’t trying to sell immediately; you were just trying to get yourself out there, right?

Austin Gray: Yes! Logan, we agree 100% on that mindset.

Logan Robison: Absolutely.

Austin Gray: I think some people talk themselves out of cold calling because they tie themselves to an outcome. It's like, you hit the nail on the head. Your goal whenever you cold call is not to close that deal right then and there; it’s just simply to implant your name and your business into their mind.

Logan Robison: Yes!

Austin Gray: And something I tell them all the time, “Hey, I know you have your relationships with your local excavation contractors. I’m not trying to steal that relationship from you. What I'm trying to do is let you know that if they can't get to you on a certain project, just give me a call, and I’ll give you a quote on that.” Or if they need supplementation on something, and they can't move your dirt, just give me a call because I’m willing to hustle. I’m early on in my business, so I'm willing to do the dirty work early on.

Logan Robison: And they respect that too!

Austin Gray: They’ll respect that and think, "Oh, this guy’s not just trying to sell me something." Right?

Logan Robison: Exactly!

Austin Gray: And like, they'll just respect, "Oh, this is a fellow business owner! This is great to have this connection. I like this kid!" Right? Like I think if you come off from that approach, you’re going to win so many more contracts!

Logan Robison: Absolutely!

Austin Gray: And the same applies when I did a—I think I did a tweet about this—or maybe I did a blog post about it—but I believe the same applies whenever you’re door knocking or handing out flyers. It’s like doing door-to-door sales; the goal isn’t to tie yourself to the outcome and sell the jobs when you’re starting a small business. I believe whenever you create this brand, your goal is to get that brand in front of as many people as possible, and then it simply just becomes a math equation.

Logan Robison: Yes!

Austin Gray: Just like a website—if you get a thousand visitors to your website and you have an offer at the bottom, there’s going to be a certain percentage of people who convert out of those visitors. The same in small business; if you hand out a thousand flyers and you have an offer, you don’t need to sell them right then and there. If you knock on the door, say, “Hey, my name is Austin. I have a local excavation and tree service business. If you ever need any cleanup on your property, just give me a call in the future,” or, “If you know any neighbors who need these services, feel free to hand out a couple of flyers to your neighbors as well.”

Logan Robison: Yes!

Austin Gray: Right? You’re increasing just exposure at that point, and then that comes back around at a later date, and your conversion rate starts happening.

Logan Robison: Exactly!

Austin Gray: So, the key difference is, like, “Do you have a job that I can do for you right now?” That feels very pushy and catches them off guard, and they probably don’t think very highly of you after that versus, “If you ever have any jobs in the future, let me know.”

Logan Robison: Right!

Austin Gray: Like, that’s a totally different response. And, me as a homeowner, right, if I get somebody that knocks on my door and is trying to sell me, you know, solar panels right now—right this second—like, it’s a total turnoff for me!

Logan Robison: Right!

Austin Gray: Like, I’m sitting down for dinner, or I’m watching a show; the last thing I want to be thinking about right now is solar panels or, like, landscaping or something!

Logan Robison: Exactly!

Austin Gray: But if they say, “Hey, I just want to let you know who I am. If you ever want to get solar panels, or if you’re ever thinking about this, give me a call,” then I leave that conversation and actually do start to think about it.

Logan Robison: Right.

Austin Gray: As opposed to being totally turned off by the hard sales pitch right there.

Logan Robison: Exactly!

Austin Gray: So, yeah, I think that’s awesome. I think that’s a really great takeaway. Yes, and I guess just one more point to kind of wrap that topic up. It’s the difference in like, “Hey, I’m here to make a quick buck off of you as a homeowner,” and, “Hey, I'm here, local in the area. My business is here to stay; we're building a great team, and if you ever need help, let us know in the future.”

Logan Robison: Yeah!

Austin Gray: It feels more like a partnership than a transactional thing, right?

Logan Robison: Yes!

Austin Gray: So yeah, that’s awesome for sure. So, something I want to dive back into, Logan, and where we left off on the story is...you said you got to get your first five-star reviews to do local search ads.

Logan Robison: Yeah.

Austin Gray: Talk me through local search ads on Google. I've never used them. Can you teach them to me—like give me the 101 course on it here?

Logan Robison: Yeah, sure! So Google LSA, or Local Services Ads, are for businesses who, you know, obviously offer a service business. So when you search any type of company—so if you're on Google right now and you search, let's take cleaning company—if you search cleaning companies near me, you're going to see some listings in your Google Maps that have green check marks.

Austin Gray: Got it.

Logan Robison: And so what those green check marks represent is those are Google guaranteed businesses. So those business owners have gone through the work, have jumped through all of Google's hoops to prove that they are a worthy or worthwhile business and a trustworthy business.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: Okay? So if you want that green check mark, those represent that you're a Google guaranteed business. So you have to do a background check, you have to prove that your business has insurance, you have to get five at least five reviews.

Austin Gray: Uh-huh.

Logan Robison: Gosh, there might be something else—I think those are the big things, though: do a background check, have insurance and at least have five reviews. If you get—if you pass and jump through all those hoops, Google will say that you're a guaranteed business.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: And so I think the premise is if you're a customer and you call a Google guaranteed business and you have a bad experience, I think Google will refund you the money or something like that. But for a business owner, it’s really, really key to get that because a customer will see that, and if you're the first listing, right, you've got that Google guaranteed badge.

Austin Gray: Right!

Logan Robison: And so these are all service companies—cleaning companies can do it, landscaping companies can do it, painting businesses can do it—like, any type of service business could do this.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: You're the first selection. It's pretty expensive. So a customer will see that number. Google will generate a fake number, so it's not your actual number that they're calling; they'll generate a fake number so they can track all of these calls. That customer will call this number—it will patch through to your phone.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: If you answer it, then you're getting charged. Google will charge you a lead fee for that, and it, at the very beginning, was like $25 a lead.

Austin Gray: Wow!

Logan Robison: So I was paying $25 for all these cleaning leads, but like, that was like 3-4x return on that, so that was great! But Google has since upped it quite a bit, and now it’s like $65 a lead, which is a lot—not great!

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: So Google… will track all these leads. You're able to specify what ZIP codes you want to advertise in. You're able to really curate exactly what services you offer.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: And so it’s great! I actually don't use them anymore. I haven't run Local Service Ads for probably two or three months now because my business model has changed quite a bit, and we can talk through that as well. But starting out, that was my number one source of leads—gosh, probably a high percentage—80-90% of my leads were from Local Services Ads because I was the first one in Bentonville.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: There were probably only two or three other companies running Local Services Ads that had that guaranteed badge. So I was getting, depending on my budget, I was getting probably two or three calls a day for quotes.

Austin Gray: Wow, that's great!

Logan Robison: So that was really awesome!

Austin Gray: So, not all good things last, unfortunately.

Logan Robison: Yes, I've heard—I haven't done a ton of research on this—but I have seen some people tweeting like "Local search is dead" or, you know, certain things like that for right now. But I'm curious, what year or how long ago was that whenever you were doing Local Search Ads?

Logan Robison: Well, I want to make a distinction. So there—you’re—so there’s Google Search Ads, and then there’s Google Services Ads.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: So those are two different things. So Search Ads are—you’re incentivizing people to click on your website. So the Search Ad is, when I type in, you know, “tree removal service near me,” and I see an ad at the top of the page and I click on that, and that takes me to their website, that’s a Search Ad. A Services Ad is specifically to call them, so your only option is to give them a call.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: And so you can't go to their website; you can’t find out any other information. You just see the reviews and you call them. So that’s Local Services Ads—that's got that green guaranteed badge. Unless they’ve changed it recently—

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: So I totally missed your question. What was your question?

Austin Gray: I was actually going to Google right now just to see if there was any, like, see if we could get some examples of real-time.

Logan Robison: Yeah.

Austin Gray: My question was how long ago was that when you were using Local Search Ads?

Logan Robison: Excuse me, Local Service Ads, right?

Austin Gray: Yes—Local Service Ads—sorry!

Logan Robison: Yeah, sorry! So I think I confused you there by saying Search. LSA means Local Services Ads—this is specifically what we’re talking about.

Austin Gray: Completely different than Google Ads or AdWords.

Logan Robison: Yes! So I was doing this when I started the business in September of last year—so 2022—and I was running Local Services Ads all the way up until probably September of this year—of 2023. So I ran those for a year. I paid Google a lot of money, but I got a lot of really good leads, and that was 90% of my business at the very beginning was just Local Services Ads.

Austin Gray: Right!

Logan Robison: Now it’s zero. Now I don’t spend any money on marketing right now—which is probably a bad thing—but I don’t spend any money on marketing. All of my leads now come from Word of Mouth because we’ve got a really good reputation in the area where I live.

Austin Gray: So can you talk us through the conversion and the economics of the Local Services Ads? So you said $25 per lead used to be…

Logan Robison: Yeah, yeah!

Austin Gray: Okay. And at that point, like, what was your average job size that you were getting from that?

Logan Robison: Yeah, so if we talk through that, so the average lead was $25, and then you were probably closing hopefully 50% of those, so you had to pay $50 to get a job, right?

Austin Gray: Right!

Logan Robison: So if you’re paying—if you’re closing 50%, and you’re paying $25 a lead, one customer is going to cost you $50—roughly.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: And then if that job is let’s say the job’s only $100, okay? Well, then you now have to pay that cleaner—my perspective, I pay 50/50 split, so I get 50% of the job; the cleaners get the other 50%. So let’s say the job is $100; if I paid $50 for a lead and then I charge a customer $100, and then I have to pay that cleaner $50, well, I just broke even, right?

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: So I paid $50 for the lead, and I only profited $50 on that job. I just broke even, right? That’s not a winning formula, especially when your Local Services Ads increased the way that they have been.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: And so that is the downfall of Local Services Ads, in my opinion, is those leads got so expensive that if you weren't closing a really high percentage of those leads, you were kind of losing money on those. Unless they turned into recurring customers, but if it was a one-time job, and like it wasn’t very big, you were basically just going to break even on those.

Austin Gray: Did you take those jobs early on just to get reviews?

Logan Robison: So the challenge is, if you Google, Google's really smart, obviously, and I hate them for this. If you answer the phone, or you make any contact with that customer at all, they will charge you. Google charges you.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: So because they generate a fake phone number, they're recording every phone call. They'll listen to that phone call—if the customer calls you, you answer the phone—you got charged immediately, doesn't matter. The only way that you cannot get charged for that is if the customer calls you, does not leave a voicemail, does not text you— you do not call them back, you made zero contact with that customer, then you're not going to get charged.

Logan Robison: But as soon as you contact or reach out to that customer or anything like that, Google will charge you.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: The only other way you can get out of being charged by Local Services Ads is if they call you and they’re like, "Hey, I'm looking for window washing," and you only offer carpet cleaning—like then Google’s not going to charge you because that's not your business.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: But other than that, you’re getting charged. So if I had a customer that called me through Local Services Ads, and even if they wanted to do a small job, I would still take that job because I knew I was already out $25 or $35 for that lead.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: So I knew that I was already out; so I might as well try to break even as opposed to just throwing $35 bucks out the window.

Austin Gray: Okay, that makes sense!

Logan Robison: What is your average job size right now?

Austin Gray: So I can speak to my business has changed quite a bit over the past just three, four months. Maybe I'll kind of talk through that, but right now my average job size right now is $180, I think.

Logan Robison: Are you servicing residential customers only right now?

Austin Gray: That’s the change. Yeah, so I am only doing Airbnb cleans now. So I went through a period of transition in my business where I really wanted to focus on just Airbnb.

Logan Robison: And that’s a whole long story there, but right now it’s just Airbnb customers.

Austin Gray: And I'm assuming the change is because you get recurring clients?

Logan Robison: There's quite a few factors. So at a certain point in my business, we were doing all types of cleans. We were doing—we had residential customers; we had Airbnb customers; we were cleaning a mini hotel; we were cleaning a clubhouse, so it was almost kind of a commercial clean; we had quotes for office spaces; we were doing all types of cleans.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: And this is something that I've become really passionate about now: I think that’s fine at the very beginning to start out and to accept every job, right? Because you’re just trying to make a buck; you’re just trying to get the business to survive. It’s fine to accept every type of clean, and then—but there comes a certain point where you’re too stretched thin.

Logan Robison: You’re stretched too thin. Things are starting to fall through the cracks because you have so many different types of services that you offer that your staff isn’t really trained on all these. But you have to be like, "Hey, here’s this checklist for this clubhouse that we clean. Oh, and here’s a different checklist for this hotel that we clean. Oh, and then here’s a different checklist for Airbnb and residential."

Logan Robison: And it just becomes kind of a nightmare. So it was really stressful for me as the business owner to kind of keep all that organized, but our cleaners were also like, "Hey, what? Why do I have ten different checklists here? What am I supposed to do with all this information?" It became really stressful.

Logan Robison: And so there came a certain point, I think it was August or September of this year where I said, "I am only going to accept Airbnb jobs going forward. I'm just going to do Airbnb."

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: And there are a couple reasons why. Number one, it’s the most challenging—it is 100 percent, hands down, the most challenging type of clean that you can do. There are logistics involved; you’ve got strict deadlines of customers checking in that same day; you’ve got to do laundry; you’ve got to replenish supplies.

Logan Robison: Like what happens if something is stained? Well, you have to do the stain removal and then replace the linens. Logistically it is really, really challenging. With a residential clean, you just come in and clean, and if the linens are stained, it's not your problem, right? Like that's residential.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: Airbnb—you've got to get all this done by 4 PM because that’s when the guest is coming. So number one, it's really, really challenging, and so I knew I’d have less competition and I could completely dominate this space because I could create a business that was fully suited for Airbnb.

Logan Robison: The second thing is I looked at my customers, and I thought, “Who’s the customer that has paid me the most money since I started my business?" And it was an Airbnb customer.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: And so I thought, "Okay, that’s great! My biggest customer is an Airbnb customer.” And then I also looked at my cleaners, and I thought, "Who are my best cleaners?" My best cleaners were also Airbnb cleaners.

Logan Robison: Like that's the job—those are the jobs that they wanted to do were Airbnb cleans. So I said okay, it’s the hardest business, so I’m going to have less competition. My biggest customer is an Airbnb owner, so he pays me for Airbnb jobs, and my best cleaners are Airbnb cleaners. That’s what I’m going to go tackle. I’m going to go do that and create a name for myself in the space.

Logan Robison: And I totally stopped accepting every other type of job. So I still have four or five residential customers that we service, but I don't accept any other jobs unless it's Airbnb.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: Which is—I turned off Local Services Ads. But the interesting thing that happened about that when I made that switch, when I made that transition, was customers then started to recognize us for something, right? So as opposed to, "This is just a typical cleaning company, and I don’t really know what they do," now it’s, "This is an Airbnb cleaning company.”

Logan Robison: And in fact, it’s the only one in the area, and it happens to be really, really good. So I completely switched the narrative to make it so that our business had a brand and was known for something, and since then I've been able to stop marketing, and everything is word of mouth right now because we've developed a reputation for just being the best Airbnb cleaning company in our area.

Austin Gray: It’s such a great point that you make there, and it’s a big topic, a question whenever you’re starting a business—do you generalize or do you specialize?

Logan Robison: Exactly.

Austin Gray: And it sounds—this was like a very thoughtful decision to specialize. Like, what impact do you think that this decision is going to have on your business based on what’s happened so far?

Logan Robison: Oh, I think it’s gonna be huge. I really do—I’m pretty optimistic about it.

Austin Gray: So your business, you know, took a dip in revenue for sure when I made this change. So I took a hit because we were still getting residential leads that were coming in, right?

Logan Robison: Yeah.

Austin Gray: But I was really firm. It was almost like I read—this is kind of a silly reference, but I read "Greenlights" by Matthew McConaughey, his autobiography, and it was really fascinating. He talks about how he was really known for romcoms, right? Like everybody knows who Matthew McConaughey is—that's just the romcom guy! That’s like he just only did romcoms: "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." Like that kind of movie.

Logan Robison: Right.

Austin Gray: And then at a certain point in his career, he said, "No, I only want to do serious acting roles." And so he was getting offers for, you know, $1 million to do this romcom movie. He said no. $2 million to do this romcom movie. He said no. I think he had an offer for $10 million to do a romcom movie, but he was so dedicated to just becoming a serious actor and just doing serious drama films that he was turning down these romcom offers because he really wanted to be known for one thing going forward, and that was not romcoms.

Logan Robison: Right.

Austin Gray: And so I like—I read that book; it’s a really good book. But I also kind of like—that's kind of how I felt. I was turning down residential jobs for $200, $300 bucks, $400 bucks because I said, "No! I’m only going to do Airbnb cleans." And so our business did take a hit for sure. So if you look at our revenue numbers, we definitely dipped—end of summer, early fall. But I think that is going to absolutely pay dividends because we are now known for something, we have a really strong brand, and I think that that’s just going to continue to snowball, right?

Logan Robison: Yes.

Austin Gray: If we had kept doing all types of cleans, people wouldn’t be able to distinguish us from any other cleaning company out there, right? But you need to kind of put your flag in the ground and say, "This is what we're going to do. This is what we're going to be known for," and I think it’s going to be really, really big for us.

Logan Robison: Logan, I respect that decision. I really do! Because I'm right in the middle of that thought process right now. Our company is called Bearclaw Land Services. I specifically chose Land Services in the beginning because I didn't know where the demand was—similar to you; you didn’t know that Airbnb—you may have had a gut instinct that it could be that, but in the beginning, the goal was to get reviews, to get jobs, to get revenue rolling so that you could start building the relationships with the subs.

Austin Gray: But I’m right in the middle of that decision, Logan. We've got several different services that are significant portions of our revenue, and what I'm trying to make a decision on is, do we just plant that flag like you said and go all in on that and specialize?

Logan Robison: Right.

Austin Gray: And so it’s really encouraging to hear that you said, "Hey, you know what? I'm making a long-term decision here. In the short term, we're going to see a revenue dip, but you know it’s going to pay dividends long term."

Logan Robison: Yes.

Austin Gray: And so I’ll be very interested to continue this conversation. You know, it’s December 30th right now, 2023. I’ll be interested to see where you end up December 30th, 2024, and what that curve looks like—was this a good decision? We'll find out.

Logan Robison: Yeah!

Austin Gray: My question for you on that subject is, did you do anything specific to your brand or your website or your marketing material that reflected that change?

Logan Robison: I changed everything!

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: I changed everything but the name, right? I really said, like, "This is what I'm going to do." Like I was pretty stubborn about it—I felt really strongly that this was the right decision.

Austin Gray: Sure.

Logan Robison: And so I changed everything. I changed under the business name; you have kind of like your slogan—I don’t know what you want to call it—like what you guys do. So it used to be, you know, company name like, "Residential cleaning company" or something like that, and now it’s company name "Vacation rental cleaning company." Like, it is very specific.

Logan Robison: In my logo, you’ll see it in the slogan there. I completely redid my website to only drive to Airbnb customers. Even my Google My Business page and my Google My Business profile, I updated that to say only vacation rental cleans. So yeah, I did everything; I changed all of my copy on my website. All of the—I don’t know how to get—I don’t know all the technical terms for it, but all the descriptions under my website landing page when you Google it—I changed everything.

Logan Robison: I was really pretty stubborn about like, "No, this is what we're going to do," and I'm going to pretend like tomorrow that's all we've ever done is just vacation rental cleaning. So yeah, it was a pretty full facelift.

Austin Gray: That’s amazing! What is your website?

Logan Robison: So my website is bonnieandbroom.com. So that's kind of a funny story, but yeah, it's called bonnieandbroom.com. And so, Bonnie is the name of my grandma, and I’m actually in her house right now for the holidays, and growing up, she—she was really focused on—she loved cleaning! She told me one time, "Logan, I don’t care who you marry as long as she knows how to clean!" Like that was her—

Austin Gray: (laughs)

Logan Robison: —that was her famous quote. So it's kind of a nod to her that my company's named after her.

Austin Gray: I love the personal touch there! But yeah, so I just went to your website, and Logan does have everything updated on his website—vacation rental cleaning in his logo. You know, the hero image and text says, "Want more five-star reviews for your Airbnb?" So it's calling out the direct customer.

Austin Gray: He’s also got the text inside the browser—what do you call that? A header tag?

Logan Robison: Yes!

Austin Gray: Airbnb cleaning pros in Northwest Arkansas. So yeah, he has made the change here!

Logan Robison: Yes!

Austin Gray: And I think what we should do, Logan, is we should have you back on six months to a year from now, and you should share how that impacts your revenue numbers for the record. If people are listening to this and they go to my website, I am not proud of my website—I did this all myself through Booking Koala. I’m not a graphic designer or a UX designer or anything like that.

Logan Robison: (laughs)

Austin Gray: So don’t come onto my website and think it’s the gold standard because it is definitely not.

Logan Robison: Well, you’re not a company, though, right?

Austin Gray: No! Definitely not a tech company!

Logan Robison: So that’s the cool thing about a service business—it’s like you need a website that converts and that has some local SEO behind it. You know, you have service pages with information that say what you do, but it doesn’t have to be pretty.

Austin Gray: No! And it is definitely not! I think what they’d like it to be, but you know, customers aren’t coming on my website to find like the next Facebook, right? They’re coming on my website to find a cleaning company, so it’s a little bit different.

Logan Robison: Yes!

Austin Gray: And I also think, like, I mean, it’s just such a good example of—you did a six-week business challenge, in week five, or at the end of week five, you started this cleaning company, and you did it in a week! It’s impressive, man! Like, the fact that you just moved fast and got over those obstacles early on—I feel like so many people get hung up on like, "Oh, well, I need a website, and I don’t know how to build it, and I don’t have money to pay someone to do it." It’s like “Oh, shoot!” and that’s where they stop. Or to your point, like they get caught up in, "I don't want to tell anybody that I'm starting this business," so they don’t end up telling anybody, and then they don’t end up getting any customers.

Logan Robison: I think you're such a good example of what starting a business can look like. You literally did this in a week. You got your first customer in a week— that’s awesome!

Logan Robison: Yeah, that’s the—that's—I talk to a lot of people—I mean, similar to you. I don’t know how people—I don’t have a huge Twitter following. I think I have like 3,000 something. I don’t have a huge Twitter following at all. But I get DMs constantly from people saying, "I want to start a cleaning business; how do I do this? What should I do?"

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: And I’m sure you do too. I think my biggest frustration is the fact that people are even asking that question. Like, I think it is so frustrating to me because there's so much free material! If you want to start a service business, pick a lane—go find somebody on Twitter who’s tweeting about it, I guarantee they have tweeted about, "Here’s how I would do this in five steps," and go do those five steps!

Austin Gray: Right!

Logan Robison: Like, don't overcomplicate it! You don’t need a website off the bat; you really just need a phone number. You need a couple posts on Facebook.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: Like talk to your friends and family and get the business up and running. Like your situation is a little bit different, obviously, because you have equipment, right? And that’s pretty expensive, and that’s a much bigger lift.

Logan Robison: But for me, like, it's a cleaning business, right? I guess if you want to know how much money I’ve invested in this business, I personally, my personal funds, I have spent $500 on this cleaning business, and that’s it! That’s all I’m out. I spent $500 to set up the website, the LLC, all that stuff—everything else has just come from cash flow.

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: So you don’t need to go through this huge process! Like, get a phone number; you don’t even need a phone number at the beginning! Just start telling people. Just post on Facebook, find some subcontractors, and just get going.

Logan Robison: But if you’re sitting there on Twitter and you're tweeting at me or Austin, and saying, “Hey, how do I do this?” Like, I think that’s a pretty bad sign because there’s so much material out there, and if you just go do it, you’re just going to learn so much more than I could ever teach you.

Austin Gray: Well, and the better question could be for that DM, if you’re asking Logan how to start the cleaning business, is like, "What information is already out there that I could follow that you followed to start that cleaning business?"

Logan Robison: Yeah, and you could send them Johnny Robinson’s tweet.

Austin Gray: I did! I have a guy!

Logan Robison: Yeah! And so like it’s a valid question if people haven’t come across that, right? But if they read that and they’re still asking you how to start the business, it’s like, "Man, all that information is right there! You proved it within a week! You went and got your first customer!"

Logan Robison: I would even argue on my end, you know, you said the equipment’s not hard. I made a couple quick calls, figured out the equipment, found an equipment rental place. Like you don’t need anything to start the business. Your goal as a business owner is to go sell the work first, get the contract lined up, and then you can put the inner workings of the business together.

Logan Robison: Yeah. I will tell you this right now, and I’m sure you would agree with me—there is no greater fire than when you sell something and you don’t have a way to fulfill it; you figure it out.

Austin Gray: So fast! Dude, yesterday I had that!

Logan Robison: Really? Tell me about that!

Austin Gray: Yesterday was a—how do I put this lightly—it was really crazy! Yesterday was—a—I mean, I just—I’ll share it really quickly because I know I’ve talked a lot. But, um—Airbnbs, like I said, you have deadlines, right? You got customers checking in at 4 o'clock. So we had—I went to bed thinking we’ve got a great day tomorrow. We’ve got four cleans, which I know is not much—like I think my business is probably smaller than a lot of people think it is—but we had four cleans tomorrow. I was feeling really good about it.

Logan Robison: And they were all same day turnovers. So a same day turnover means you’ve got a guest checking out at 11 or 10, and you have another guest checking in at 4. Okay? So you have six hours. If you start at 10 to change over everything—clean the house, change the linens, set the supplies out—all that stuff, six hours—that's not a lot of time if you're trying to turn over a full house, especially our houses are like 2,000+ square feet. So these are big places!

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: I went to bed last night, or two nights ago, thinking, "Okay, I feel pretty good about the next day; I think it’s going to go well." First and side note: as a business owner, you are constantly stressing about the next day and the jobs of the next day and what's going to happen. It’s constantly on your mind. So I went to bed thinking, "Feeling pretty good about it." Woke up the next day. I'm in Michigan for Christmas, and we’re doing family pictures. And so I’m driving to family pictures, and I get a notification on my phone that another cleaning has turned into a same day turn.

Logan Robison: So, I have everything lined up; a customer is now checking in in six hours at a place that I was previously not planning on cleaning! So I went from having four same day turns to five same day turns, and I only have three cleaners working that day, so how am I going to get six or five properties done with three cleaners?

Austin Gray: Oh wow…

Logan Robison: And it just became a total… the whole day I was on my phone texting cleaners: "Can we get this done? Can we get this done?" By like, I don't know… the grace of God—a miracle—we pulled it all off! I had one cleaner that did three cleans yesterday, and she made a lot of money yesterday. I texted her the numbers yesterday about how much money she made, but she crushed it! And so I was so stressed about I had sold this job, and I did not have a cleaner to fulfill it, and thankfully, like a miracle happened and we were able to get it done.

Logan Robison: But it’s those kinds of things that—like that’s a huge fire that you got to put out, is you sold that job, that customer’s expecting to have it walk into a clean house or to get that job done, and you gotta fulfill! So it was crazy yesterday, but there’s nothing like it. Running a business is something of it. You are not—I don’t think, um—it takes a special kind of person to run a cleaning business or to run a business in general because it is—you’re just putting out fires. It's just fire after fire. That's really all it is—you either thrive under the gun or you don’t.

Austin Gray: And you know from that story, I can already tell you, you thrive under the gun.

Logan Robison: Thank you!

Austin Gray: And so, hats off to you! I wish you the best of luck in this business! Is there anything else that you would share with somebody who wants to start a cleaning business?

Logan Robison: My biggest piece of advice—and you’d probably say the same thing for your land services business—is just start! Just start! Just get out there and do it. Um, just go tell your friends and family, “Hey, I'm starting a cleaning business.”

Austin Gray: Exactly.

Logan Robison: Like, just go do it, and then, like, things are going to work out. Um, that's always my biggest piece of advice is, if you're thinking about it, just go do it! Like just commit! Go do it! It doesn’t have to be cleaning business; it can be a window washing business; it can be a carpet cleaning business; it can be whatever type of business you want to do!

Austin Gray: Right.

Logan Robison: But just go start! Like don’t overthink it, just start cold calling if you have to, and it’ll eventually work out. You don’t need the perfect script. You don’t need the pricing to be perfect. You don’t need a website to be perfect! Just go out and do it! That’s my parting advice for sure!

Austin Gray: Cool! Well, thank you for being on the OWNR OPS podcast, Logan.

Logan Robison: Yeah, thanks, Austin! Thanks for having me; I appreciate it! Where can people find you online?

Logan Robison: Uh, Twitter? I tweet a lot, or I guess X now. Yeah, it’s Logan A. Robinson on Twitter, so yeah, you can find me there. I share a lot about my cleaning business on there.

Austin Gray: Cool! Well, there you have it, folks! Logan Robinson, cleaning business owner out of Northwest Arkansas. Thank you guys for listening! We will see you in the next episode!