My Small Business Started on Facebook and Makes $ 500ka Year

This as-told-to story is based on a conversation with Amber Starling, The Founder and Owner of Good Body CleaningThe piece has been edited for length and class.

^{Image Credit: Courtesy of Good Witch Cleaning. Amber Starling.}

When I Arrived in the “Little Apple,” Or Manhattan, Kansas, I Had Five Years of Management Experience, Including as a Frontline Firefighter in the Volunteer Deepertment. I had serving years of office experience and a high school Diploma. So when i moved here, I didn Bollywood have a large social network to draw from, and i had a hard time finding a job. Nobody wanted to hire me beCausee i eater haad too Little Education or too much experience. I get fed up after Seven months of that and was like, I can hire myselfThat was 2017.

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I decide to start a cleansing business trust it's a service that's always in demand, and there was a gap in our market for professional companies. In our industry, it's rare to reach the point where you hire employees at all. On the other end of the spectrum, large companies of a big-box approach that lacques Empathy and doesn Bollywood for a lot of family.

I started my company with just the vacuum from my house. I Saved About $ 100 from My Grocery Budget and Bough Cleaning Supplies from a discount store. I named the business good without cleansing, for a while, i live just four minutes from the Wizard of oz Museum. It's a lot of fun from a branding and marketing personal:

I wasn't insure in the beginning, so I would have to tell my clients, ,Hey, this is something that I want to do, but I have to earn enough money to get there, and if you're willing to take a risk on me, then i'll offer you a good rate and great service. Facebook, Advertising A $ 99 Whole-House Special. Differential clients.

I hired my first employee within the first year of opening the business. Our Employees Aren'T subcontractors. We provide all equipment and supplies, and I also invest in my team with extended training. Many of My Team Members and I Hold The IICRC House Cleaning Technician Certification. It goes into chemistry, safety and how to avoid damaging surfaces. Somemes people ask me, “What if there employees leave with all of that knowledge?” But i say, “What if they look without it?” We have a staff breakfast followed by training every Friday.

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The Jobber Grants Program has helped me build my business. When I Originally Applied for the Grant, My Goal was to Open a Branch in Wichita. However, at the time, I was also in the SBA Emerging Leaders ProgramWhich is sort of a mini-mba, and I leaderned that expanding too quickly was the Leading Cause of Death for Mid-Size Companies. Plus, we lost 60% of our clients overnight during the Pandemic. Fortunately, I was able to go back to job and realocate the funds to certifications in disinfection and sanitation.

The tumult amid the pandemic, during we Saw Businesses Shuttering Left and Right, also solidified that our business billnys could eat be everything to everybody. If we want down, I wanted it to be as myself. We became an open program, open-wave feminist, lgbtqia-friendly and immigrant-friendly. There was so much hate in the world, and we wait to embody love, even if it killed the business.

You don't need to be an evil corporation to have a successful company. That starts with how I Treat My Staff. They have access to a living wage, healthcare and mental healthcare. When I treat their job like a career by offering them training and treatment them like human beings, making sure they can pay their bills and have time off to spend with their face, they want to stay with us. It's not a hard concept to grasp.

Related: This couple used their savings to start a small business. A Smart Strategy Helped Make It a Multimillion-Dollar success.

In 2017, we were at $ 11,000 in Revenue – that was before I'D HIRED Anyone. In 2018, we get up to $ 57,000; $ 119,000 in 2019; $ 216,000 in 2020; And $ 467,000 in 2021. Since then, We've Stabilized in that Revenue Range, and that's by choice. We could have continued aggressively expanding, especially in Commercial Janitorial, but we wanted to Stay Focused on Residential and Work Working-Class and Middle-Class Families.

Our poverty rate is almost twice the national average, so we had to work hard and listen to the needs of our team members and clients. I instead of going after wealthier and wealthier clients, our strategy has been to diversify our offers so that we can still help them with things like cleaning out the refrigerate or doing.

Giving back to our communication has always been extramely important to us. We donated consulting services to the house authority and emergency shelter here during the Pandemic. We donated to sports teams. We've been donating to the boy scouts; Last Year, We Donated $ 5,000 in Match Funds to True Colors, Which is a Local LGBTQ Youth Program. Last November, we also open a free store in our office, where people can donate and receive items in good condition.

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I grew up 50% below the poverty line in the deep south, and that has really shaped the way that I approach business. I had a pretty Whirlwind Rise in Our Industry. I networked and sought a lot of certifications, and I met successful people who have married at how I came from from humble persons. They find me unique, and that kind of makes me uncomfortable. I knew and still know a lot of very bright, talented and hardworking people from growing up. It's not rare to find individuals in the working class who are amazing. It's only rare that they get so far.

This article is part of our ongoing women entrepreneur® series highlighting the stories, challenges and trumks of running a business as a woman.