Expert Episode: Housekeeping with Heart: Darlene's Journey from Job Loss to Business Success

Have you ever faced a life-changing moment head-on with courage and turned it into an opportunity? Darlene of Front Door Housekeeping did just that when she transformed the day she lost her job into the first day of her own thriving business. Join us as Darlene takes us through the deeply personal journey of building a cleaning service that goes beyond scrubbing floors, sharing stories that reveal the profound impact her work has on the lives of others. In this heart-to-heart, we explore the power of a clean home, the emotional support offered to families battling cancer through Cleaning for a Reason, and why letting experts handle the mess can lead to more than just a shiny countertop.

With a warm 'thank you' to Darlene, we wrap up this enlightening conversation that sweeps through the importance of sparkling entryways and the magic touch her team brings to preparing homes for sale. You'll walk away with a refreshed outlook on housekeeping and maybe even a chuckle as we challenge you to outsource the hunt for those elusive dust bunnies. Ready to take the plunge into a cleaner, more serene home life? Darlene's contact details await at the end of our discussion. Your journey to a meticulously maintained dwelling starts with a simple listen.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lisa Swiftney.

Speaker 2: 0:12

Hi everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I am so excited to share with us, with you see, I can't talk either. I am so excited to share with you our Expert Contributor Series. Today, I have with us Darlene with Front Door Housekeeping. How are you doing today, darlene? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Tell us. Let's first start off by having you tell us a little bit about your business. What is Front Door Housekeeping?

Speaker 3: 0:49

Front Door Housekeeping is a commercial and residential cleaning company. We started in 2015 and we have been chasing a lot of dust bunnies out people's front door in this community sterling heights, utica, warren, rochester we have just done a lot of homes. Sometimes one time, uh only people need their. They're going to be, you know, moving, so they need to. You know, get that, uh, that security deposit back. We come in and and clean it up. Real nice to get the full deposit back. Sometimes people are trying to sell their home and so we come in, shine it up, make it smell good for the prospective buyers. So and we have always had great success that is your best return on investment when you hire us to help clean up your house before you sell it.

Speaker 2: 1:48

That is amazing. Thank you for sharing with us. Tell our listeners about your journey. Why did you get started in this business?

Speaker 3: 2:01

Well, I was the sales manager at a company and it was a heating and cooling company and they had a division. They had a housekeeping division. They were using it as a way to get into people's homes, things, divisions that they had started and I don't know if they took on too much, but they ended up closing the division. And you know, I went in on Friday and they said we're closing the division. And I said wait, I just told all these people I was going to clean their house. They're counting on me. I gave my word that we were going to show up.

Speaker 3: 2:48

You know, one lady had cancer, another lady had MS and they were closing the division. So my first thought was, oh my gosh, I just told everyone we were going to be cleaning their house. So I'm pretty passionate about you know about that. I went into people's homes and really saw the need that they really need help cleaning. So that's, they gave me the few clients and then I. So that was on a Friday I lost my job and in the morning and started this company in the afternoon Wow, you brought up something very unique that I saw on your website.

Speaker 2: 3:29

You talked about one of the customers. One of the clients was a cancer patient. There's something on your website that is really unique to you. Do you want to talk to it?

Speaker 3: 3:41

about it a little bit, yeah, and you know, since beginning before we partnered with before we even partnered with Cleaning for a Reason. Since beginning before we partnered with, before we even partnered with um cleaning for a reason um, we just felt a need to help people. You know that. You know we're on a on a budget, not that we are, you know, the cheapest or the most expensive. We're just trying to help everyone, um, as best we can, um, but we did a few years ago we partnered with cleaning for a reason. So we provide, uh, two free cleans for families that are dealing with cancer. It's, it's important for sometimes just to to have a breath for them that someone's just going to come in and they don't have to the caregivers, whoever, they don't have to worry about it and they can just, you know, spend time with with each other and not worry about who's going to clean the house. It's a really nice program. It's a nationwide program throughout the US and a lot of cleaning companies are a part of cleaning for a reason. It's a great non-profit.

Speaker 2: 4:44

It is a really good non-profit and I commend you for reaching out and being part of that because it is needed. It is. So tell us a little bit about any myths or misconceptions that you hear about in your industry.

Speaker 3: 5:08

Myths or misconceptions. I know for a company. One of the great things about having a company is that we don't cancel. We always show up. We have to keep the team working, so we have to keep the team working, and so we'll always show up. And sometimes a team member might be off that day, and so we try to assign a regular cleaner, as much as we can, to each home. It's just easier for everyone, for the schedule, it's easier for the cleaner, it's easier for the customer, but sometimes they have to be off and so we might have to send someone else. But we do our training the same. We use the same products, um, and so the cleaning process will be should be consistent, uh, from cleaner to cleaner. So people will say, well, you know, the cleaning process will be should be consistent, from cleaner to cleaner. So people will say, well, you know the cleaning companies, they send other cleaners, but we have, we use the same same products and train everyone the same way. That's good.

Speaker 2: 6:22

And it's important to have a clean house.

Speaker 3: 6:24

I think as well it is, and it helps us, it helps me, you know, because when, as the homeowner, you are focused on so many other things, right, you're, you, you'll start doing a room and then you're like, oh, I have to do this and I, and then I have to do that, and you're not able to get through the whole house. But when you hire a cleaning company, we're able to get through your whole house and in, you know, in in three to four hours. Maybe you know, and if we send two girls, maybe they're that time would be cut in half. Then it's only we're in the home for an hour and a half, but it's still three hours. It's combined, combined time, but yeah, so it's easier for a company to come through and clean the entire home.

Speaker 2: 7:12

And for busy people. You know, with today's technology and today's how we are in society, especially a mom who's got a couple of kids. She's running here, she's running there If she's working and then she comes home and she's got to make dinner, she's got to take, you know, their soccer or baseball or football. In the fall, you are a good resource for that busy mom.

Speaker 3: 7:38

Yes, you know, I had I raised four kids.

Speaker 3: 7:41

Wow, so and I you know what, I had someone come in and clean and if I loved cleaning day, you know it was the best, and I hear it from my customers all the time. This one woman said she said, oh, it's like Christmas when I get my reminder text 10 o'clock in the morning, you know, because she's like, oh, they're coming to help me clean, you know. So she just said it felt like Christmas every time she got that text. And just so many stories like that that we're helping people, we are, you know, we're avoiding the. We're helping the counselors out there by, you know, having couples, instead of fighting about who's going to clean the house, somebody else is going do it.

Speaker 3: 8:26

So then all you have to do is just maintain it, you know, throughout. But once that those baseboards are done and the cobwebs are are gone, um, those kind of things, yeah, it's, it's easier to maintain and I believe we're also. I say we're also organizing coaches because because you know, at 10 o'clock the day before you, everyone gets a reminder text from us that says we're on our way, and so that's the time to say, hey, the cleaners are coming, we need to pick up and put things where, where they belong, and so then you're getting your home organized every two weeks Because, like you said, everyone gets busy and stuff gets laid, kept out and then things get, you know, too much on the counter, and now every two weeks you're forced, kind of in a good way, to put it away.

Speaker 2: 9:16

Right and get organized. That's a great analogy there. Thanks. So, Darlene, on a personal level, tell us when you're not working in your business, what do you like to do for fun?

Speaker 3: 9:31

Oh boy, you know I like to line dance. You'll find me many, many establishments around with my group of line dancers. If there's music on establishments around with my group of line dancers, if there's music on, we're dancing. So if you're out, if you see us and I'm dancing, I probably won't stop to talk much, because I just love to be on the dance floor.

Speaker 2: 9:55

Oh, that is fun.

Speaker 3: 9:56

I like to work out and you know I hang out with my kids. I said I have four kids, but now I have four grandsons and one brand new grandbaby girl. Aww, Grandkids, yeah, so they're keeping running too.

Speaker 2: 10:13

Yes, and those grandkids. It's a whole different level of love. It is, I love it, it's great. So what is one thing you wish all of our listeners knew about your business?

Speaker 3: 10:32

I wish they knew how much our cleaners cared about being in their home and how much they pay attention, because they my cleaners. They'll say, hey, I just cleaned that customer last week. How come I'm cleaning for them today? And I'll say, well, this is why. And they're like, oh, that's right, I forgot, they said they were having a party or something. So they are really engaged in in our customers. And yeah, I think that's that's probably the biggest thing we do behind the scenes.

Speaker 3: 11:06

We have a lot of technology. We have a welcome season. When somebody joins our cleaning family, we call it. We want to make sure that the pricing is right, so we've created this welcome season, welcome season. So it's about six.

Speaker 3: 11:29

We go about six cleanings a couple months in and we kind of analyze the cleans every couple hours, like we'll watch every clean to see how long it takes because one and we'll call to make sure that you're getting the quality that you need for your home.

Speaker 3: 11:42

So then if we're getting a five-star review each time, then we let the girls know, hey, you guys are doing a great job. Because it's a new customer, the girls want to know how they're doing. So we say, hey, you're doing a great job there and we let the customer know that we're, you know, coming in a little less time so we could lower the price, or maybe for the detail that it needs it might be a little bit more. So we want to make sure that everything matches, you know that, the and the cost. The customers are getting what they need and you know so we can only guess in the beginning how long we think it's going to take. You know know we do it by square footage. So I think the welcome season has been really, really a good part of our company, especially when you're new on board, because then we can really pinpoint the correct price to claim Right.

Speaker 2: 12:41

And you truly care. That's what's really nice is you're involved and you care. You don't sign up a client and then that's it. No, so that is good. So our listeners now are intrigued. They got to know you a little bit more about your company. So how can they contact you to schedule a house cleaning?

Speaker 3: 13:09

Well, all you have to do is give us a call 586-329-5587, extension one and oh sorry, extension two for sales, new sales and Janine will get your information and we'll send you out a quote. We'll send you a one of our big proposals and in the proposal it has, um, a lot of great information. It has our certificate of insurance. It has our kind of guidelines on what you need to do for cleaning. It's got the proposal in there talks about our welcome season. So there's a plethora of information that we send out to the customers right in the beginning. Great. Or you can go right onto our website at wwwfrontdoorhousekeepingcom and request a quote and you can fill in all the information that we ask about your home and yourself. It goes right into our system and then we'll give you a call at your convenience.

Speaker 2: 14:17

Perfect. Well, Darlene, I want to thank you for being part of our Expert Contributor Series and I look forward to our next podcast that will come up and we can talk a little bit more about front door housekeeping. So thank you for today.

Speaker 3: 14:35

All right. Well, thank you, and it was a pleasure to talk to you and give us a calling. Let us chase those dust bunnies right out your front door.

Speaker 1: 15:01

Thanks for listening to the good neighbor podcast. Let us chase those dust bunnies right out your front door or call 248-988-9640.