Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in cleaning services but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Ahmed Mezil, CEO of Hellamaid, located in Canada.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

We are a house cleaning business that puts people first. In other words, we aspire to be the Starbucks of cleaning services, where our model is based on happy cleaners producing happy clients. We offer online booking, flexible scheduling, and 200% customer satisfaction. That means, if someone is not satisfied with the cleaning, we come back to fix it the next day!

Tell us about yourself

I started Hellamaid in 2017 when a friend of mine sent me an article from Reddit that described the exact process of building a local business in 30 days. I never thought about local business, but it turns out there was such a HUGE potential in it that I did not know about it.

After doing some more research into cleaning services, I quickly realized that many of them had very poor ratings due to poor customer service and unhappy cleaners.

I quickly saw an opportunity of building a business model that offers so much value to the homeowner (e.g., online booking, flexible scheduling, customer service) WHILE paying cleaners exceptionally well.

With this model, we were able to find clients that could pay a good price, all while empowering our cleaners to do an excellent job through great pay and benefits. The model worked perfectly.

What motivates me now to keep working on the business is to continuously make both sides of our market happy (clients and cleaners). Happiness means a lot to me, as I've always been an altruistic guy. Cleaning is also embedded within my DNA as an immigrant. Our mom used to make me and my siblings clean a lot before guests would come over, so you can say I developed a great sense of OCD which made the cleaning business an easy choice for me.

We still have a long way at Hellamaid, but I'm so grateful I was able to start and grow a business that resonates with who I am as a person.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Being able to employ over 50+ people and supply income for them and their families. I love knowing that we started a positive-culture company that puts cleaners first.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Hiring the right people to join your team. It's a continuous process that requires patience, determination, and trial & error.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

There are SO many distractions, and it's easy to get lost figuring out what business to start and how. A such, my top 3 tips would be:

  1. Pick one idea and go at it for AT LEAST 3 months, with ZERO distractions. If it didn't work, try something else.
  2. Start something that you would enjoy, if not completely, at least partially. Then as you grow, delegate the tasks you dislike to other people.
  3. Better to be "something for someone" than "everything for everyone." In other words, the more specialized your business is, the easier you will find the right people to pay you top dollar to solve their problem. On the other side, if you have TOO MANY services, it will be hard to be an expert in any area, and hence people will not see you as credible.

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Find the right business partner that can complement your skills sets and has a different perspective on things. Partnering up with someone different from you but sharing the same vision can take your business to greater heights.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://hellamaid.ca/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hellamaid/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellamaid/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hellamaid/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

Feel inspired to start, run or grow your own subscription business? Check out subkit.com and learn how you can turn "one day" into day one.