Need a new cleaning service/cleaning lady (St. Petersburg: live in, moving to)

[Kasey555]

Originally Posted by JeepGirl118

Right now, all services (handymen, cleaning, etc.) are experiencing some difficulty due to the state of the economy. People are holding onto their money more than they normally would from say, 2-3 years ago, with good reason. Normally, the first things that are cut in a household when a family/individual is experiencing tighter funds is the cleaning service, the alarm company monitoring service and the landscaping service. There is a positive flip-side, of course, to this area (from Tampa to St Pete/Clearwater, not so much inland east of Tampa) - the snowbirds that come and those with second unoccupied homes, especially now that we are heading into Winter soon. That's where you will make more bank than in late Spring/Summer. I believe that most any business that you put your passion and fight into has a fighting chance. In cleaning, you just have to know how to switch it up. Some of the swanky pads downtown Tampa are a great place to hit up for business - get a few of those people as regulars and you can forget about the rest. Word of mouth will be your best form of advertising, as you already know. I think you can do it, you have a great attitude - and that is 1/4 (if not a bit more) of keeping business right there, no problem.

Yeah, I know about people holding onto their money-I'm not swamped with business but I have enough to make me happy at this point considering that my company isn't even a year old yet. One thing I do know for sure is that the economy WILL pick up at some point, whether it's in 10 months or 2 years, if i advertise properly people will see or hear my name so when they DO feel comfortable spending money again theres a good possibility of them at least trying out my company. Thanks for your advice i greatly appreciate it

[Alphaman]

Your gonna have a hard time finding someone who is going to put up with some picky person that is up their kazoo all the time for 100 bucks or so a cleaning.

Cleaning is hard work then to have someone behind you all the time is stressful.

No offense just coming from someone who is in the cleaning business and hearing the complaints from the customers and the employees.

I understand wanting a good job just some people are ridiculous in their expectations.

[BucFan]

Yep, and having a rottweiler sniffing you where you go isn't worth the "christmas bonus" either.

[Alphaman]

Originally Posted by BucFan

Yep, and having a rottweiler sniffing you where you go isn't worth the "christmas bonus" either.

LOL funny one rep for that you made me chuckle!

[JeepGirl118]

Thanks all, found an awesome person from this forum who cleaned for me yesterday and will be helping me weekly with it. And my Rottie and I were not up her kazoo, imagine that!

And no offense, Alphaman, I guess you missed the part that I am picky because I owned said services for years. Half of my pickiness comes from having caught and corrected past employees who've tried to take short-cuts due to time limitations by using rags they used on the floor around the toilet and under the toilet seat - and then on the toilet seat itself...and then over to the sink handles. Too lazy to change-out rags. I won't exploit and bash the service name, but there is one here that only allows each cleaner to have only 5 rags each, for the whole house (not good when they only send one/two cleaners). I won't go into further bacterial horrors, but I've witnessed some pretty disgusting 'shortcut' things that only some people should know that may be done in their home - that will not be done in mine. You would be picky too. It's not all about "getting the corners."

[rtjr]

Originally Posted by JeepGirl118

Thanks all, found an awesome person from this forum who cleaned for me yesterday and will be helping me weekly with it.

Who did you end up finding? I am in South Tampa and am looking for a cleaning service as well

[Alphaman]

Originally Posted by JeepGirl118

Thanks all, found an awesome person from this forum who cleaned for me yesterday and will be helping me weekly with it. And my Rottie and I were not up her kazoo, imagine that!

And no offense, Alphaman, I guess you missed the part that I am picky because I owned said services for years. Half of my pickiness comes from having caught and corrected past employees who've tried to take short-cuts due to time limitations by using rags they used on the floor around the toilet and under the toilet seat - and then on the toilet seat itself...and then over to the sink handles. Too lazy to change-out rags. I won't exploit and bash the service name, but there is one here that only allows each cleaner to have only 5 rags each, for the whole house (not good when they only send one/two cleaners). I won't go into further bacterial horrors, but I've witnessed some pretty disgusting 'shortcut' things that only some people should know that may be done in their home - that will not be done in mine. You would be picky too. It's not all about "getting the corners."

thats nasty, talking about germ city.

[tresjolie3]

Yeah, I hear you with the "surface cleaners." I once had a service where I told the woman before she left that she hadn't cleaned the floor properly. She said, "Look, it's wet." I told her that wet didn't necessarily mean clean. She said, "I'll catch it next week."
Needless to say, there wasn't any next week.

[Davachka]

If you don't mind, PM me with the contact info for your cleaning service. Ever since moving here, every service we've hired has done a subpar job.
Thanks

[funymann]

You never told me you were into the cleaning business. Hmmmm