Member Profile: MacJames Flynn
| Name | MacJames Flynn |
| Name of your business: | Ella's House Cleaning |
| When did you open your business? | 2015 |
| What services do you offer? | House cleaning/Residential Light Landscaping (mowing, trimming, weeding, edging, debris removal) |
| Why did you start the business? | I have always had somewhat of an entrepreneurial mindset but the field I am in now as a self-employed service provider to deaf and hard-of-hearing is losing its appeal to me as it was never something I intended to do permanently, and it is not scalable to the extent I would like my business to be. I love the fact that I get to help deaf folks to reach a level playing field when it comes to their education, but I feel it's time for me to move on after almost a decade. |
| How many people are in your company? | One |
| What has been the biggest surprise, good or bad, since you started? | I have not yet started. I have been doing research and setting up a game plan for about three weeks now and am just preparing to roll out my first direct mail campaign this week. Very excited =) |
| What is the toughest part of running your business? | So far... getting it started. =) |
| What is the best part of running your business? | Well I can't say for this business but as someone who is currently self-employed and has been for the past eight years, I can definitely say the best part is easily WORKING FOR MYSELF!!! |
| Is there anything that you would have done differently? | Gotten started sooner! |
| What is the most important thing you will be adding, doing, changing in the next year for your business? | Hopefully doing something in my cleaning business that I never had the opportunity to do as a service provider: hire employees and scale up! |
| Where do you see your business in 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years? | Two years: 5-7 employees Five years: 20-30 employees Ten years: 100+ employees |
| What advice could you give others and please don't hold back! | Again, I can't speak for cleaning business as I've not yet started but in my other profession, I do adhere to a few rules: First and foremost, ALWAYS do your BEST work, take PRIDE in what you do, and strive to be better. Every. Single. Day! Your clients WILL notice and will thank you, and most importantly, keep coming back! Be aware of how you come off to your clients. Be professional, and courteous. I'm not religious but I live by the Golden Rule; treat others how you would like to be treated. You can get far doing this, for sure. Aside from that the only thing I can think of off the top of my head is if you have the feeling in your gut like you need to make a change in your life, just DO it! Don't sit around and wait forever! Learn just enough that you need to know to make informed decisions on how to get started, and then just go for it! Learn as you go, not before hand. The best way to learn anything is from experience, not from a book or website. |
| How do you use MyHouseCleaningBiz.com to help you with your business? | I just signed up tonight! 4/1/15 |
| Is there a specific person or event in your life that made you decide to go into business for yourself? | One day working as a welder almost ten years back I realized that I was getting no respect for the hard work I was doing, and decided that I was going to work for myself and never work for anyone else, making someone else rich off my blood sweat and tears, again! So I got the certs I needed and took a big jump, moved out of state and into a whole new profession literally overnight. It was scary but totally worth it, and I'm glad I did. |
