Member Profile: Kathy Potts
Your Name: Kathy Potts
Name of your business: Cleaning Diva!
When did you open your business? July 21,2000
What services do you offer? Ecofriendly residential cleaning. One-time, weekly, bi-weekly,once per month, and specialty appointments and we supply all the eco-friendly products. Available Monday - Friday.
Why did you start the business? I decided to start a home cleaning business so that I could continue to maintain control of my days and life and enjoy my own clean home and family. All while being able to offer a service that is a treat of sorts to others who wish to come home to a sparkling clean house so that they, too, can sit back and relax and enjoy their spare time. I wanted to be able to spend more quality time with my young daughter and to be available to her to volunteer for school outings etc., and I wanted to be able to be at home at the end of the school day so she could come home rather than go to a babysitter. At the end of the day, I LIKE being my own boss!
How many people are in your company? 3
What has been the biggest surprise, good or bad, since you started? The biggest surprise was how quickly my business grew. My phone and inbox always have messages asking me to take on new clients.
What is the toughest part of running your business? Being a single parent, trying to balance ALL of it. Managing a home, and business, and a family. I find that I spend way to much time working in my business and not enough time working on it. My goal for this year is to turn that around.
What is the best part of running your business? The best part of running my business is that I am my own boss and I am in control of my own destiny. I love that!
Is there anything that you would have done differently? Many things. I made a lot of mistakes at the beginning because I didn't know what I was doing except that I was an awesome cleaner. Breaking those habits and trying to create a great business model now is hard. Its just going to take a little more time to turn it around.
What is the most important thing you will be adding, doing, changing in the next year for your business? I plan on hiring more staff so that I can get out of the field and into the marketing and managing side of my business. I need to be more visible in my community as a business owner/operator and not a "she cleans houses" stereo type. I have some great big ideas to implement, however, working in the field all day everyday stops me from working the back side of the business.
Where do you see your business in 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years? Growing! Growing! Growing! I always say either go big or go home!
What advice could you give others and please don't hold back! Don't give up. Work your business. Don't be afraid to be aggressive and competitive. Everyone is looking for the "cheapest" deal. Do your research. Find your competitors and keep an eye on what they are doing with their business in the community that gives them an edge. Make your edge sharper!
How do you use MyHouseCleaningBiz.com to help you with your business? I haven't used it much yet, but there are some great forums and documents that are a huge asset to running a successful cleaning business. There is a lot of things/documents to go through that I am confident will only help me grow my business.
School - high school, college, technical school: Graduate High School. Graduate with a Business Administration Diploma from Saskatchewan Technical Institute. Professional Designation with Microsoft from the Midwestern School of Technology and Business.
What are some of your prior jobs or businesses: I worked for an independent financial services/accounting firm as an Income Tax Specialist for 13 years and then worked in the IT industry for 10 years.
Is there a specific person or event in your life that made you decide to go into business for yourself? I suddenly lost my job after working for a Provincial Association that was run by a Board of Directors for 10 years. I decided that after putting in all of my sweat and tears for someone else for 23 years, (13 years with a financial firm, and 10 in the IT world) at the end of the day I had to either go out and find another job and start over at the bottom, or dig in and work for myself. I had a young daughter at home that hadn't started school yet, and I just couldn't find it in my heart to a) start over at the bottom again, and b) send her to daycare from 7 - 5 everyday for the next 10 years.
Website: http://www.cleaningdiva.ca
Email: [email protected]
