This Canadian Cleaning Service Earns $2 Million/Year

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

In today's story, a university lab tech cleans up with a local service business that grows to $2 million in revenue and 500 five-star reviews, all without quitting his job. Among other interesting facts, which you'll hear in the story, he paid just $4 for his domain name, which to me seems like a pretty good return on investment, $4 domain name, $2 million in revenue. What can we learn from this story? What can we take away? How can it help you in your quest to create additional income without quitting your job?

By using a skill you already have, that's what it's all about. The story is called, "This Canadian Cleaning Service Earns $2 Million a Year." You're listening to Side Hustle School. My name is Chris Guillebeau, and that story is coming right up. Ahmed Mezl always wanted to start a business, but felt discouraged because society taught him that businesses had to solve a big world problem. He'd also heard you needed to have millions of dollars in investment money to make a go of it.

But like so many of our listeners, Ahmed learned it doesn't have to be so complicated or expensive. One day in 2017, a friend sent him a Reddit article about earning money through local businesses, things like yard care, tree cutting, and taking away unwanted items. This article contained a 30-day plan he could use to get his first customers. Ahmed decided to go with cleaning. He figured it was a big market, and almost anybody could be a customer.

He chose the name HellaMaid for his business because the domain was available for only $4. And it worked. That $4 domain name has helped Ahmed gross over $2 million. But let's not get ahead of things. He started cleaning houses on the side during his lunch breaks while balancing his full-time job as a research lab tech at the local university.

This is in Guelph, Ontario, a small city of 150,000 people about an hour south of Toronto. When he wasn't cleaning, Ahmed would distribute flyers to get more customers. At first, he was only cleaning 3-5 houses a week, but as his business grew, he needed more help. He decided to hire some other cleaners as independent contractors, not as employees, because he didn't want the hassle of all the paperwork. He also didn't have enough customers yet to guarantee anyone full-time hours.

So he began subcontracting to other cleaners that he found by posting ads on Kijiji. Kijiji is a platform similar to Thumbtack in the United States. Ahmed would search for cleaning services, contact them about the job, negotiate a price, and come to a deal. These cleaners were small mom-and-pop shops with their own brands. So someone would book a cleaning with HellaMaid, but someone from Crystal's Cleaning Service or Daisy Fresh Maids would come to do the job.

This arrangement wasn't ideal, but it was Ahmed's only option at first. Within a few months, he began bringing in more contractors through the job site indeed.com. With that switch, he began contracting with cleaners directly, removing the need for a second middleman in the process. Basically, he was using the Uber model, focusing on building a top-down operation that could work with a lot of different contractors and many, many clients. He later added virtual assistance from the Philippines to help with operations and marketing, including social media and blog posts.

All the while, Ahmed was bootstrapping this business using his income from his day job. He also rented out the second bedroom in his apartment to reduce his monthly expenses. What sets HellaMaid apart from typical cleaning companies is the use of technology for online appointment booking. The company also uses a service called Twilio that sends out text message booking reminders and ratings requests. Ahmed pays his cleaners well above average and strives to be the Starbucks of Cleaning Services, where his main focus is on the happiness of the cleaners over everything else, because he believes that will in turn guarantee great service, and dedication to service has really paid off.

HellaMaid now has over 500 five-star reviews on Google and offers cleanings in seven cities. While other services may use some form of technology, Ahmed believes they lack the scalability mindset and don't effectively use SEO or efficient hiring practices. Here's the big surprise. Ahmed has not left his day job yet. Going full-time is on his mind, because he earns more with HellaMaid than he does from his job, but for now, he appreciates the social environment there.

Oh, and about those earnings. Ahmed spent about $600 to get up and running in the beginning, which included his domain registration, WordPress theme, monthly fee for some scheduling software, and a small Google Ads budget. In 2022, annual revenue is expected to be around $2 million. Ahmed is grateful for that Reddit article that got him started. He's also glad he pushed beyond what society had led him to believe about business.

If you want to look at a great looking and high performing website, I encourage you to check out HellaMaid.ca. Even if you're not in Guelph, Ontario looking for a cleaning service, HellaMaid.ca is just a wonderful case study of how you optimize a website for search results and conversion without losing a strong design sense, without losing a storytelling feel that connects with users. It's really hard to do all three of these things, to optimize your site for search results, to focus on conversion, and have good design and storytelling. I guess that's 3.5 things. This site does it really well.

So congrats, Ahmed, good work, listeners, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. To find the show notes for today's episode, including links to everything mentioned, go to sidehustleschool.com/20262026. Thanks for tuning in today. I hope you'll come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.