Teacher Turns $1K Into a $50K/Month Cleaning Empire ft. Yianni Avgerinos

Summary

Episode Summary: Teacher Turns $1K Into a $50K/Month Cleaning Empire ft. Yianni Avgerinos

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
• Host: Paul Alex Espinoza
• Description: Transitioning from law enforcement to entrepreneurship, Paul Alex Espinoza shares real stories of individuals who have achieved significant success. This episode features Yanni Avgerinos, a former school teacher who turned a modest investment into a thriving cleaning business.

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Introduction to Yanni Avgerinos

In this inspiring episode, Paul Alex welcomes Yanni Avgerinos, a former PE and health teacher from Chicago, who has successfully transitioned into the cleaning industry. Yanni shares his journey from education to entrepreneurship, highlighting the motivations and challenges he faced along the way.

Notable Quote:

“And I'm just here to share beautiful things with like-minded people.”
— Yanni Avgerinos [02:04]

Yanni’s Background and Inspiration

Yanni discusses his decade-long career in education, emphasizing his passion for teaching and how his immigrant family background influenced his work ethic and desire to create something impactful. Observing his father's successful restaurant business instilled in him the values of hard work and customer service.

Notable Quote:

“I always wanted more and to give and provide... I feel like cleaning, specifically cleaning, is a multibillion-dollar industry that’s still growing.”
— Yanni Avgerinos [03:39]

Starting the Cleaning Business

Yanni recounts how he began his cleaning business in 2021, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially hesitant, he started by cleaning houses on weekends and evenings while balancing his teaching job and assisting his father in the restaurant. This hands-on experience taught him valuable lessons in managing employees and scaling operations.

Notable Quote:

“My first aha moment was six to twelve months into the business... I could scale this thing because the cleaning industry is a high-demand industry.”
— Yanni Avgerinos [06:13]

Scaling the Business

Over five years, Yanni expanded his business from a solo operation to a team of 25 cleaners. He established partnerships with other cleaning companies across different states, enabling him to secure larger commercial contracts. This growth was fueled by his ability to identify and exploit various niches within the cleaning sector, such as residential, commercial, and industrial services.

Notable Quote:

“Fast forward five years now, almost five years, we have a team of 25 cleaners and partnerships with other cleaning companies nationwide.”
— Yanni Avgerinos [04:43]

Overcoming Challenges and Learning Lessons

Yanni highlights the difficulties he encountered, including mismanaging initial hires and the steep learning curve of running a business. Seeking guidance from business coaches and a pivotal business consultant in Europe helped him refine his strategies and improve management practices.

Notable Quote:

“I was overpaying people and didn’t know how to manage and hire the right way. It was a great learning curve for me.”
— Yanni Avgerinos [04:43]

Lead Generation and Sales Strategies

Yanni explains his primary methods for generating leads, focusing heavily on cold calling and networking. He experimented with platforms like Facebook and Instagram but found greater success through LinkedIn for B2B connections. Leveraging AI tools for outreach and follow-ups has been integral to his lead generation process.

Notable Quote:

“Heavily more on cold calling and networking... LinkedIn is very powerful because people see your resume, your background, your history, your experience.”
— Yanni Avgerinos [11:52]

Core Values and Mindset

Yanni emphasizes the importance of faith, the right mindset, and surrounding oneself with the right people. His teaching background instilled in him empathy and leadership skills, which have been crucial in building a positive company culture and retaining employees.

Notable Quotes:

“Number one is having faith in God. It all starts from above.”
— Yanni Avgerinos [16:55]

“Don't be afraid of failure. Start today. Start accepting that failures and mistakes will come.”
— Yanni Avgerinos [47:09]

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Yanni offers practical advice for those looking to start their own cleaning business. He recommends starting small with minimal investment—under $1,000—for essentials like cleaning supplies and setting up an LLC for legal protection and tax benefits. He also stresses the importance of focusing on revenue-generating activities (RGAs) and maintaining cash flow.

Notable Quote:

“Start small. For cleaning, less than a thousand dollars to get everything set up and start getting basic supplies.”
— Yanni Avgerinos [38:24]

Encouragement and Final Thoughts

In his closing remarks, Yanni encourages listeners to believe in themselves, take massive action, and continuously level up their skills and networks. He underscores the significance of perseverance and a strong support system in overcoming the inevitable challenges of entrepreneurship.

Notable Quote:

“Have faith in yourself. Surround yourself with the right people. Take extremely massive action. Don’t be afraid of failure.”
— Yanni Avgerinos [47:02]

Conclusion

Paul Alex and Yanni wrap up the episode by reinforcing the key takeaways: the importance of starting with a strong mindset, taking actionable steps, and building a supportive network. Yanni’s journey from a teacher to a successful entrepreneur serves as a testament to what determination and strategic planning can achieve.

Notable Quote:

“If he could do it, you could do it too. Make it happen for yourself.”
— Paul Alex Espinoza [48:12]

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Connect with Yanni Avgerinos:

• Website: opaCleaning.com
• Instagram: @opacleaning
• Facebook: OPA Cleaning
• LinkedIn: OPA Cleaning

Connect with Paul Alex:

• Instagram: @PaulAlex
• Website: OfficialPaulAlex.com

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This episode of The Level Up Podcast offers valuable insights into building a successful cleaning business from the ground up, emphasizing the power of mindset, strategic planning, and unwavering dedication. Whether you're considering entrepreneurship or looking to scale an existing business, Yanni's story provides actionable advice and motivation to help you achieve your goals.

Transcript

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[Paul Alex]

Welcome to the Level up podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together. Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. What's up, guys? And welcome back to the Level up podcast. My name is Paul Alex and today we have another interview with another successful serial entrepreneur. Guys. And you guys are going to love this. You know, I usually interview people that start from humble beginnings, just like myself, guys, you know, I was in law enforcement, I was in corporate America. I did ATMs, I did, what is it, credit card machines, consulting now. And now, you know, I have mentees from Harvard, from, from Penn State, all these Ivy League schools and man, it is awesome, guys. And if you ever wanted to go ahead and build your dreams, this is going to be the interview that you guys are going to want to listen because it's very inspiring. Okay, I want you guys to meet my special guest, Yanni. Yanni is a school teacher that is transitioning now to a serial entrepreneur in the cleaning space. Yeah, you heard it right? In the cleaning space. You're probably like, what is that, bro? Like, what do you mean housekeeping? Guys, you guys are gonna hear it. Okay, so if you guys been looking for any ideas, if you guys been looking for inspiration, this is the story to listen to. Yanni, welcome to the show, brother Paul.

[Yanni]

Thank you so much. Thanks for having me here.

[Paul Alex]

Absolutely. Dude, how you liking Miami?

[Yanni]

It's phenomenal. The weather is a bit warmer than Chicago, I'll tell you that. Yeah, warmer than Chicago. Fourth time here.

[Emilio]

Yep.

[Yanni]

But I'm just super, super honored to be here today. Yeah, thanks for having me at your place. You know, great, great studio and looking to share beautiful things with like minded people.

[Paul Alex]

No, absolutely do that. And that's what it's about. You know, level podcast we've been able to scale quite, quite fast for the podcast that we've had now here for a little bit over a year and a half. And it's just simply because it's about self help, dude. It's about what's in here, right? The heart, dude. Just like a conversation. Guys, if you guys, you guys didn't know because, you know, it was just us and Emilio back here, but you know, we, we had like an hour and a half conversation. It should have been recorded. It should have been recorded.

[Yanni]

It was fun, right?

[Paul Alex]

It was fire. It was fire, bro. But to go on with that. Now it's your guys turn to listen to Yanni's story. Okay, so Yanni, talk, talk to us. Essentially, why the cleaning business? Why are you going ahead and already painting that vision that it's going to be a hundred million dollar business for you, dude? Like, what do you see for yourself doing the cleaning industry, you know, a.

[Yanni]

Little bit by myself. I actually started the cleaning business back in 2021, which is just after Covid. And you know, my background is actually in education. I've been teaching for almost 10 years. PE and health teacher for third, fourth and fifth grade. So I do have that background, that level of experience when it comes to working with children, working with adults and teachers, collaborating and wearing different types of hats. And I always knew in the bottom of my heart that I wanted and needed more in my life.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

I come from a great family and born and raised here in. Down in Chicago. I should say up in Chicago.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

And you know, my parents were immigrants of our motherland. And just seeing my dad, right. Over the years growing and selling his restaurant business for almost 40 years just really inspired me. And just being in hospitality, just being in customer service, I always knew that I always wanted more and to give and provide. Yeah, right. And make some kind of impact. And I feel like cleaning, specifically cleaning. What's interesting is it's a multibillion dollar industry and it's now still freaking growing.

[Emilio]

Yeah. Right.

[Yanni]

So I got into it because I always had a passion in cleaning. I had a passion in teaching. So kind of mesh those together.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

During COVID those Covid years. And kind of crazy. I, I'm like, how do I start any business? It was my, my, my first real business venture.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

And I started cleaning houses of my own. And I started, I was very hesitant in the beginning, walking in people's homes and I didn't know about commercial cleaning. I, I only had one vision. Fixed minded on housekeeping, on residential cleaning.

[Emilio]

Yeah, right.

[Yanni]

And pretty soon clients started like my service. I I love to clean. It was my passion. But I quickly realized within six months I'm like, I can't be doing this by myself. So I started hiring cleaning techs, house cleaning ladies. Made a lot of mistakes. Overpaid by people I didn't know how to manage and hire and recruit the right way. It was, it was a great learning curve for me. Fast forward five years with, we have a team of 25 cleaners. We have partnerships with other cleaning companies nationwide in different states. We're collaborating on bigger commercial cleaning contracts now. So essentially we have two divisions within our company, residential and commercial cleaning services.

[Paul Alex]

Wow, I love that. So let me ask you a quick question so it gets to a point. And you know, essentially I'm thinking this started this as a side hustle. Right. Because it wasn't your main source of income in the very beginning.

[Emilio]

Right? Exactly.

[Paul Alex]

And it was the same thing for me, man, when I, when I started my very first business. I mean, I've been a serial entrepreneur now for like two decades, but, you know, I stopped in the entrepreneurship game to go ahead and work in corporate America and then law enforcement and then came back in the game.

[Emilio]

Right. Yeah.

[Paul Alex]

So with that being said, it started off as a side hustle. At what point? What was the moment? Dude, paint the picture for us, okay. Because I'm a big storyteller. I love movies, bro. So paint the picture the day that you were just like, I can scale this. You know, like, I think I might have to go ahead and transition into actually being an entrepreneur and I know how to, how I'm going to make it work.

[Yanni]

Very good question. My first aha moment was my, I would say six to 12 months into the business from 2021 to 2022. And I was teaching there in a day and at the time we were teaching remote on zoom. Teaching.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

So we would finish at 1:00'. Clock.

[Paul Alex]

So this is right in the middle.

[Yanni]

Of COVID I guess, just after.

[Paul Alex]

I, just after.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Paul Alex]

Okay.

[Yanni]

But there were still restrictions and masks, of course. People freaking out. Right then.

[Paul Alex]

Right.

[Yanni]

Different, different, different times then.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

But I think because of COVID Yeah. That was almost like a catalyst for me. I'm like, wow, people are now really prioritizing, cleansing this and, and quality control in terms of cleaning services.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

For their facilities. I mean, I, I, we, I've connected over the years with other commercial janitorial cleaning companies and they were doing electrostatic disinfecting and making a killing.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

I was more focused on what I was good at. So I focused on residential first.

[Emilio]

Right, Right.

[Yanni]

So my first aha moment, meet me teaching, you know, making 2 to 4,000amonth extra by myself. I mean, I was hustling. I'll be cleaning during the weekends, I'll be cleaning in the evenings after school.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

So that was my life for the first two, three years while also helping, working and assisting, assisting my dad at the restaurant.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

So I've always worked long.

[Emilio]

Yeah. Right.

[Yanni]

I guess the second aha Moment was year two to year three. At this point I had about 10 cleaners.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Revenues growing.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Did not know how to manage. I was learning along the way. Hired some business coaches along the way.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

You know, and get me wrong, they, they, they, I, I, I guess captured and absorbed a lot of good knowledge and information. Mostly was just fluff, you know, and until I found someone that actually understood the game and where I've hired up my business consultant two years ago. So I do get a lot of love and respect to, to him. He now lives in, in Europe, so I love that. Yeah, we're so connected to this day. Yeah, yeah, he's, yeah, we're doing, I'm doing great right now. But the aha moment was back in 2021. The first six to 12 months, I'm like, I could scale this thing. This is a scalable business. Why? Because the cleaning industry is a high demand industry. It's not the most sexiest business for certain people.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

I'm not selling cars, I'm not selling jewelry cleaning services.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

And I quickly realized there's different niches, there's different avenues within the cleaning industry. There's strip and waxing, there's Airbnb, which I've dabbled a little bit, which I may revisit in 2025. There's, there's floor scrubbing, there's window washing, there's carpet cleaning, there's daily janitorial, there's one offs, there's kitchen cleaning. The list goes on. Right. So fast forward five years now. Almost. Almost five years. The vision here is to grow this thing and focus more on the commercial side because I've reached in the past eight months, almost a year.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

On scaling nationwide. So I had a, to be honest, answer your question, I had a lot of breaking points or aha moments. It's kind of like hard to remember exactly the year and time. But yeah, no worries, dude.

[Paul Alex]

It happens. You know, it's entrepreneurship at the end of the day, you know, it's about the journey, dude. And you know, with every new level, there's A new double, just like we were talking about.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Paul Alex]

So. So essentially, as you grow, I'm pretty sure you're going to have other aha Moments.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Paul Alex]

So with that being said, why choose, I guess, going through to the. Would you say the industrial side or.

[Yanni]

Is it the corporate side? Yeah, so there's. So there's, There's, I guess, three divisions. Residential, commercial, and industrial.

[Paul Alex]

Okay.

[Yanni]

Industrial is more like factories, assembly lines, warehouse spaces. More industrial.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Commercials, more office spaces. Like a space like this.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Providing cleaning services for common areas such as the bathrooms of this building, the elevators. Right. There's a niche for that still.

[Paul Alex]

No, no, no, there is.

[Yanni]

And I don't believe AI AI a whole different topic.

[Emilio]

Right. Yeah.

[Yanni]

I am leveraging AI in certain aspects of my business.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

But in terms of cleaning, the actual labor itself, there's still certain things that I believe for the long term, it won't be taken away by AI. Got it.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

But like warehouse spaces where there's less foot traffic. Overnight cleaning for big. Let's say 100,000 square feet, 200,000 square feet. Warehouse spaces.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

We could put a robot in there and clean.

[Emilio]

Right? Yeah.

[Yanni]

But daily janitorial, weekly cleaning services, you need an actual physical person to do that job. And I do see the future in growing this business. There's so much opportunity out there. There's property managers, facility managers that I'm working with nationwide that are subbing out contract work at a national level. And they have corporate clients like the Walmarts, the insurance companies that tap into those networks too, a little bit the past eight months. That's why I've seen such a huge growth spurt, but also acquire the right skill sets.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Fine tuning my sales skills, fine tuning my collaboration skills, and negotiating conflict if there's any conflict. Right. How to. How to empower people within my business. Right. We have a whole onboarding process. We do. We conduct weekly group interview calls for techs.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Let's say five people show up or ten people show up. We have a whole onboarding process once they've reached the first checkpoint.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

And now I'm training my admin assistants to do that. So delegation was another breaking point for me, and I really started delegating a year and a half ago.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

When I met my business consultant.

[Emilio]

Correct. Yeah.

[Paul Alex]

So here's my quick question for you. How are you finding your leads right now?

[Yanni]

Good question. It's a combination of different things. I would say heavily more on cold calling.

[Emilio]

Okay.

[Yanni]

And networking. I've dabbled in Facebook. I've dabbled in Instagram. I didn't see great results. I don't know what I was doing. I'll be honest.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Paul Alex]

Something that I would believe you probably go through like LinkedIn for like B2B.

[Yanni]

I was gonna say B2B. LinkedIn is very powerful. I made some great connections through LinkedIn because there's that level of credibility. People see your resume, your background, your history, your experience and there's that level of not just respect, but credibility and trust.

[Emilio]

Right, right.

[Yanni]

Anyone can make an account on Facebook, of course.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

There's certain, there's a level of again credibility qualifications on LinkedIn and that's where we, we're using an AI. AI, an AI tool bot where it out. We do outreaches every day.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Maybe 20 to 40 or I think it's 10 to 20 connections and then X amount of messages that we send out.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

I'm fine tuning the follow up game. That's, that's the bulk of your business. Right. Following up with the right people and following up the right way and then yeah, networking calls and networking events. I've been so busy in time constraint with the, with the teaching job. By all means. Listen, I'm not doing all this because I hate teaching. I'm doing this because I'm grateful for teaching, of course.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

If it wasn't for teaching, I wouldn't be the, the man I am today.

[Paul Alex]

Of course.

[Yanni]

And probably I, I don't regret one bit of teaching. It was, it is still my passion. I love, I love kids, I love students, I love working with teachers and parents. You know, bridging home and school is very important. And me working at a tier one school or you know, low income areas. Some kids live a very rough upbringing, you know, and you need a certain personality, you need a certain level of empathy for these children.

[Paul Alex]

Yes, you do.

[Yanni]

And I teach 3rd, 4th and 5th grade PE and health for about 10 years right now. So I've learned, I've learned a lot in that, in that career. And I've been pouring in certain skill sets from the teaching job to my businesses.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

And yeah, as you know, I started the ATM business a couple years ago with a team together, which by the way, if you guys are serious and building residual income, you should definitely sign up with a team together from A to Z. How to start, scale and even exit your ATM business. Which, which is I, I just did just recently.

[Paul Alex]

Right.

[Yanni]

I had six ATMs. My vision was originally, you know, 30 ATMs, but I decided to take the route of cleaning yeah. And again, there's. There's not to bash atm. ATM is an awesome atm, an awesome business model.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

But once you find something that really works and you love and have a passion for you, double down on it.

[Paul Alex]

Oh, yeah.

[Yanni]

That's one tip I could say.

[Paul Alex]

I always tell people, you know, Yanni, is I always tell people there's. There's stepping stone businesses. There's stepping stone businesses. So ATMs, like, for me, when I first came back into entrepreneurship, like, and I was serious about it right back in 2018, man, while I was in law enforcement myself, is that I was like, dude, I'm not gonna do ATMs forever, but I'm gonna do ATMs now.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Paul Alex]

And I didn't know ATMs was gonna lead me to the online space.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Paul Alex]

Which. Which was remarkable because now I'm able to meet, connect with good entrepreneurs like you, dude. Like, you know, other people, like, just all the different people that I work with now are associated with opportunities that I've gotten through the online space. And just the connection.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Paul Alex]

Because you meet your tribe, dude, you meet people that you want to be around.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Paul Alex]

And it's very hard to find that in your city sometimes. So with that being said, number one, I love the fact that you talk about your core values and how you being a teacher actually build you up to be an entrepreneur.

[Yanni]

Dude, if it wasn't for teaching, I would not be here today.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Paul Alex]

I mean, it gives you the skills. It give you the skills to have empathy. It give you the skills to actually look at it from a human aspect, especially with children, dude. But I believe, like, you know, yeah, employees are not children. But at the end of the day, employees, you have to have some emotional intelligence to run a business. As leader.

[Yanni]

Yes, as a leader, dude.

[Paul Alex]

Because there is such a thing as being a good leader and just being a boss.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Paul Alex]

And people do not like working for bosses anymore.

[Yanni]

I preach that too. I preach that too with my people. Not be bossy, but be a leader.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

And that's our job as business owners. To start developing leadership within your organization as soon as possible.

[Paul Alex]

No, absolutely. What do you think is the number one, or let's say top three. Let's make it easy. Top three characteristics that someone who is looking to be a CEO, somebody who's looking to be a business owner that they need in order to run a successful company.

[Yanni]

That's a very good question. I actually wrote these three down. I've kind of revamped three, four or five things over the years. And I take notes of myself and how I've developed in my business. But number one is having faith in God. It all starts from above. Yeah.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Praising the Lord and having faith in God, which ultimately will empower you to have faith in yourself. There's times where you'll be stuck in a rut and nobody will be able to help you.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

And you, and sometimes you got to find that strength, that faith within.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

So God is number one.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Number two is surrounding yourself with the right people environment. And by doing that, you got to have some level of the right mindset.

[Emilio]

Correct.

[Yanni]

So that ties into number three, having the right mindset while having the right mindset. Some people have the right mindset, but they live on a scarcity lifestyle or negative type of thinking or lower level thinking. And they could be great, awesome people, they could be angels.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

But unfortunately some people don't have that right mindset. But most importantly, have the strength to take massive action.

[Emilio]

Correct. Right.

[Yanni]

And yeah, it's baby steps. When you, when you first develop or create something, it's going to be very challenging in the beginning. You have no idea what you're doing.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

And that's what I did for the first three, four or five years now.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

I'm still learning to this day. By no means I'm a mastery and what I'm doing, but I've learned a lot and I'm grateful for it. And I'm looking to not just scale the business and make more money, but really empower people, bring opportunities for them, for their children. That also ties into teaching, like for me, that makes my freaking day. I know I made a difference for this cleaning tech or my supervisor, you know, I have, you know, I have prepaid people in advance, you know, for appreciating their hard work and their dedication.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

So going back to your question, I go on tangents sometimes. God mindset and massive action, those are the two main ingredients.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

If you don't have those three things, I mean, what, 90% of businesses fail in the first five years.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Opa cleaning will be in the trajectory of profitability moving forward.

[Paul Alex]

I love that, I love that, dude. And that's what it's about, dude. And I mean that's why you're doing it full time now. That's why you're going to scale it. And you have your vision, you know, of hitting your numbers eight figures to nine figures. And for a lot of people, they can't, they can't even see running a successful business to start off with, especially when they're starting off as a side.

[Yanni]

Hustle, they can't even conceive it.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah, no, and it's very true, man, but how are you supposed to conceive something that you're not familiar with, right? The majority of humans, right. Especially myself, I'm going to average guy, blue collar guy, came from poverty, came from an immigrant family. My mom, very hard worker, single mother, dude. But at the end of the day, she showed me how to work hard. She showed me good morals, she showed me core values, but she didn't show me how to work smarter.

[Emilio]

All right?

[Paul Alex]

And just like you said, dude, we, there's so many different ways to make a million dollars, but it's just like there's two things that we want to figure out here, guys, especially you guys listening right now on Spotify, Apple or YouTube, especially with Yanni's story is. And we had this conversation for about an hour and a half before the pod we did. It's just like, there's so many ways to make a million dollars, dude. But you know, which way do you want to take and then how long do you want to actually go ahead and invest as far as time to get there.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Sacrifice.

[Paul Alex]

And that's the thing, dude. Like, you know, I'm 37 and for.

[Yanni]

Me you look phenomenal. 37, by the way.

[Paul Alex]

Thank you, thank you.

[Yanni]

Like, like 30, 31, the most.

[Paul Alex]

Thank you, bro. I appreciate you, man. Thank you. But what I tell people is just like with me, I had my mindset of like, hey, dude, you know, I need to go ahead and hit the pavement running in entrepreneurship because I feel like I started late. Right? But people will tell you, dude. Yeah, people, people will tell you. Especially when on social media you have a lot of 20 year olds are glorifying, hey, you got to be a millionaire before you're 21, otherwise you haven't made it in life. Right? So you, you hear that on a daily basis and you're just like, shit, what did I do wrong? Right? And it's just like, you know, it's not real, dude. It's not sustainable.

[Yanni]

The, the average Joe, when they hear the average person, when they hear that, they get discouraged. 100 make up excuses 100 and they don't even try. Or they just dabble.

[Paul Alex]

They just give up.

[Yanni]

They give up. They give up. People like us who are built differently, I know we're built differently.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Okay, we hear that, we feel that for many years, but that just a motivator for us to push us harder.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

And then surround Yourself with people that want to challenge you in a good way, to push you forward in advance so we can all win together. Yeah, I'm all about that model.

[Emilio]

No, that mindset, right?

[Paul Alex]

Yeah, no, absolutely. Same. So what it comes down to it and the reason why we're saying this is because, Yanni, you did something that I think every single entrepreneur needs to do when they're starting any type of business. And what you did correctly when you told me right before the podcast is that I k duded. You know, as I was doing this as a side hustle, figuring out the clean business, I was working the logistics. I was actually doing the work, actually doing what my employees do. Now, it is key to lead by example, guys. Everything that I go ahead and have done from day one, I've done everything, dude. Customer service.

[Yanni]

I've been the email threads.

[Paul Alex]

Email threads. I've done the marketing, I've done the sales. I've been the guy on the camera, the cleaner. The cleaner. I've done it all, dude. And to think, look at this stage of the game, for me to be like, no, I don't do that because I get paid too much money is complete bullshit. I will still go ahead and do that entry level position if I have to. And that's what a true leader does, dude. And that's what I like. That's what I like about you, Yanni, is you actually doing the foundation work. You did the foundation work. Now you're able to skip your 9 to 5 and go ahead and start your dream of starting a cleaning business, which is going to be your first stepping stone into building wealth for you and your family, your future wife, your future kids. And you're going to make it happen, dude.

[Yanni]

I'm gonna make it happen. There's no way of going back right now.

[Paul Alex]

No.

[Yanni]

And all the way of doing things, that's it. And I think that there's different levels of mindsets.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

When you grow spiritually.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Financially, physically, 100%.

[Paul Alex]

100%. So let me ask you this, man. Your dad, I want to talk about your dad real quick. He built a restaurant for the past 40 years. Did you ever like, did you like ever get like mentorship from him? Did he ever say, like, hey, Yanni, you know, this is what it takes to run a sustainable business for 40 years?

[Yanni]

Yeah. Yeah, I've, first of all, I've learned a lot of, a lot of good life learning lessons from my dad. And if you have an immigrant parent, which I know you do too well, coming from their motherland, they have natural wisdom and knowledge. That still applies to this day.

[Paul Alex]

Absolutely.

[Yanni]

And I'm grateful for that. Yeah, a lot of famous quotes and just metaphors. Which has to do with the mindset, which has to do with having, having a good soul and helping other people around you. You know, I've learned about, I've learned not just hospitality, but I've learned how to serve other people. And my purpose in life is service.

[Paul Alex]

Yes.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

So, yeah, I get paid last, but I want to make sure people get happy. I want to make sure they're happy. Because if they're happy, that really makes me happy. I don't rely on their happiness, though. I'll make that clear. I don't rely on their happiness. I have, you know, I'm grateful to be, you know, to be Greek. And being Greek is a big part of our blueprint as a part of our identity as Greeks. I'm sure you've met some Greeks before. And I've learned to persevere. I learned what hard working actually means. I've learned what it means to work your 9 to 5 from teaching and then go straight to the restaurant and help cook food. You know, quick, quick side note, if you guys haven't visited Mr. T Zeros, there you go. In Schiller park, Illinois, just 10 minutes away from O' Hare Airport. We're known for our gyro.

[Emilio]

Yes.

[Yanni]

Our gyro sandwiches. We're known for our Greek chicken.

[Paul Alex]

I love that.

[Yanni]

If you guys want some Greek food, think of it as a taco taco stand. But for Greeks. Yeah, it's not a sit down, but it's more fast food.

[Emilio]

Yep.

[Yanni]

Greek, American fast food.

[Emilio]

Yep.

[Yanni]

We're there for almost 40 years. And yeah, I've helped my dad develop his website. Connected, integrated, UberEats, RUB Hub, all that good stuff online ordering. And I'm grateful for my dad, I'm grateful for my mother, I'm grateful for my family. You know, I've learned a lot from them, but if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here. There are certain things, though, that our immigrants still hold to this day.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Which sometimes does not always align with how we operate here.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Because there they had, there was more risk, there was more fear. You know, coming from the country, did not know the language. My dad went to school.

[Emilio]

School.

[Yanni]

He got a degree in a bachelor in engineering or computer science. He ended up being a restaurant owner.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

He was working multiple jobs. He, my mom got married at 17. He's eight years younger, eight years older. Excuse me. He was at 25 years old, you know, sleeping three four hour days for multiple years building his business. That was like a was. That was always inspiring to me. And it's kind of funny ever since we're little, my dad goes. Going into the restaurant business.

[Emilio]

Yeah, yeah.

[Paul Alex]

I mean, dude, that's, you know, parents are always going to warn you.

[Yanni]

They want to protect their kids, they.

[Paul Alex]

Want to protect you, dude.

[Yanni]

But, but listen, would I want to operate a business? No, because I know how it is. I would prefer to operate a cleaning business.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

What I'm good at. I would love to be an investor maybe or an owner or co founder of a restaurant and help build it. But to operate it, not my thing. Because I've been there. Yeah, I've been there.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

But I've learned certain ways of communicating with certain people. I learned Spanish along the way, my man. You know, I'm at, I'm at. What's it called? 100% fluent in Spanish.

[Emilio]

But.

[Yanni]

Yeah, you know, the basic words. And just to communicate with, you know, student workers, my dad had in the past and then hiring the right people, but also not just paying them the right way, but treating them the right way.

[Paul Alex]

Culture is everything, dude.

[Yanni]

Culture is, that's how you keep people.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

And that's how my, my I, I didn't learn about the culture aspect from my father. That, that came from teaching, that came from my personality. My dad has zero tolerance and he has zero patients. Kind of funny, he's more old school. But I love and respect. If it wasn't for my dad, you know, he paid for our colleges. I wanted for one of four kids. I'm the second kid in the family. You know, if it wasn't for my dad and my mom, I wouldn't be here today.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

So it all stems from that. Yeah, it all stands for that.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

And I think that having your own, having your identity and your roots is so important.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

So important. But I also believe having your own personality or flair is also amazing.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

It's also impactful.

[Emilio]

Right, right.

[Yanni]

So yeah, I've learned a lot about hard work from my father. I learned a lot about perseverance, a lot about learn about customer service and the customer is always right kind of mentality. Absolutely right.

[Paul Alex]

Gotta serve.

[Yanni]

And that's what kind of drove me into the service based business, which is cleaning services.

[Paul Alex]

I love that, dude. I love that humble beginnings, you know, you're sharing your story, your family values, core values that your dad brought up to you and you helping your businesses, that, that probably inspired you to go ahead and start businesses and guided you to go ahead and actually have that entrepreneurship spirit and mindset.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Paul Alex]

So let's talk about mindset real quick, dude. And then, and then what we want to do is a little mini master class on the initial steps that someone can take one of our viewers or listeners on Spotify or Apple or YouTube. Guys, make sure to share this with a friend. It's a very valuable, valuable interview I have here with Yanni where you could do a. Basically just your first initial three to five steps on how to set up everything that you need to do a cleaning business.

[Yanni]

Dude.

[Paul Alex]

You know it, dude. Like, you're the man. You're the man with the plan, Right? So let's go ahead and talk about mindset real quick now. How old are you right now, Gianni?

[Yanni]

I just turned 30 on February 20th, dude.

[Paul Alex]

Prince Prime, 30 years old, dude. I love that, man. I can still remember I was 30, like last year. 37 years later, guys. So. All right, dude, let's talk about mindset now. When did you initially think of becoming an entrepreneur? What year? What age were you?

[Yanni]

20, 18. First job after college as a teacher assistant for a PE department at a different school. And that job got me this job. I was always researching, reading.

[Emilio]

Yep.

[Yanni]

Big fan of Tony Robbins, by the way.

[Paul Alex]

Oh, yeah. Tony Robbins is awesome.

[Yanni]

Carnegie.

[Emilio]

Yep.

[Yanni]

And that was like, I guess the. The way. Beginning building, I guess the foundation of my mindset. And I always knew that I could do more because my older brother had different business in the past. Now he's into like food. Food. Food plants.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Food prepping.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

With his wife there and seeing my dad being an entrepreneur as a restaurant business owner and then seeing other people online Right. After reading and researching, I'm like, pretty soon I could be doing the same thing. Pretty soon I could be my own boss.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

At the time, I didn't think of maybe empowering or leading others. I just thought of having a side hustle.

[Emilio]

Yep.

[Yanni]

So I did start as a side hustle first. But I did have some level of. Of men of a mindset where I want any. I won't. I won't let anything or anyone stop me in persevering in something. You know, what if it doesn't work, it doesn't work out. You know, there's. There's a list of a million things you could do. Start crossing them out, the ones you don't want to do. And that's what I did.

[Paul Alex]

So around age 21 to 22.

[Emilio]

Okay.

[Paul Alex]

Around age 21 to 22 is when you first started doing entrepreneurship. You started doing your due diligence, you started researching, you know, reading Tony Robbins, Dale Carnegie. Great books, man.

[Yanni]

Like I love rich dad, poor dad. Yeah, Robert Kiyosaki. Yeah, you got it. Real estate.

[Paul Alex]

So with that, okay, and then now finally going into your 30s, dude, now you're living the dream. You're transitioning now full time into entrepreneurship, building this 7 to 9 fig cleaning business. With that being said, what do you think was the delayed gratification between the age of 22 to 30 that you're finally now going full time into entrepreneurship? And I always tell people this, like take, take my life for example, dude, I was 18 years old. I was doing nightclubs from 18 to 24. But then around the age of 21, I was working in corporate America. So I was double duty. And the reason why is because my mother, my parents, my siblings, my ex girlfriends at the time, they were just like, hey, get a real job, get a real job. So, so to me it was always that voice in the back of my head that was just like, dude, like do I, should I get a real job? Like what should I do?

[Emilio]

Right?

[Paul Alex]

So at the end of the day, what it comes down to it, did you have a similar experience or did you tried multiple ventures and just failed? What was your journey?

[Yanni]

Yeah, yeah, so this was my first year after, after college, getting my teacher assistant job, a TA position for a different school. And like I said, that job got me this job.

[Emilio]

Right. Wow.

[Yanni]

Just, just different milestones. Now looking back, it's like, wow, all these things happen, right?

[Paul Alex]

What was the delayed gratification? Basically, like from the age of like 21, 22, where you first started going into entrepreneurship and then by the age of 30 now you're going full time into building a seven to nine figure cleaning business. Like why essentially, why did it take so long? Because a lot of people, they think that once they start researching or studying to do entrepreneurship or invest into like a first program.

[Yanni]

Analysis paralysis.

[Paul Alex]

Analysis paralysis. Okay, so that, that's what it was for you. Analysis paral.

[Yanni]

A combination of that, but also time constraints with my corporate job.

[Paul Alex]

Got it.

[Yanni]

I knew, I even told my parents, you know, and they're like, and they're, you know, they're very hesitant leaving last year even too. Like, are you sure, you know, you shouldn't do it? There's benefits. Yeah, but there's way more benefits on the flip side if you actually grow and scale a successful business.

[Paul Alex]

Absolutely.

[Emilio]

Right. Yeah.

[Yanni]

So I was always been a Risk taker. And I just, I guess a couple other business ventures in the past where I actually wanted to start my wholesaling real estate business.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

My ex business partner, we part our ways, whatever, was a great learning experience, I have to say. Then I got into like trading forex and crypto and stocks. Made some money, lost a ton of money. Right now that was a great learning experience for me too. And then I got. And then Covid hit. Then Covid hit. Right along the way, I was building certain, certain skill sets.

[Emilio]

Right?

[Yanni]

Communication, confidence, right? Oh, my God. Confidence. And once you start winning, you get more confidence, right?

[Paul Alex]

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely.

[Yanni]

And then I got into the cleaning business.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Just after Covid. I'm like, what else can I do? I love cleaning. I've always been a clean freak. I've always been a clean freak in the family. One of four kids, I was the one in charge, assigning different cleaning tasks. Hilarious. And I won't tell them what to do. And then I'll kind of assign it to my siblings, my sister, my brother, you know, you sleep, I vacuum, you wash the dishes.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Take out the trash and. Yeah. And then fast forward five years. I got 25 cleaners on staff right now, collaborating with six companies, other cleaning companies, and facility maintenance companies nationwide. And I always, always thought small. Now I'm thinking big. Like, the market is huge.

[Paul Alex]

Huge, Huge, huge.

[Yanni]

I mean, just Chicago alone, the market in Chicago, which complemented me branching and growing in Indiana as well.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

And landing those grocery stores, by the way.

[Paul Alex]

I love that. Yeah, I love that, dude. So, okay, our. Our listeners, they focus primarily on mindset, self help, self education. That's why people listen to this podcast, dude. We grew to the top two business podcast now up to year in 2025, guys. And congrats on that. Such a blessing. Yeah, I mean, I got, I gotta give it up to Emilio, the, the guy behind the camera, guys. Emilio is the. So with that being said, a lot of our listeners, when, when, whenever they do DM us or send us a message or email, they always say like, hey, dude, like, we really love the fact that you bring on these different guests and they actually go ahead and give us advice. So if right now somebody was to ask you, dude, how could I go ahead and get started? Okay. And you. And here's. Here's the test.

[Emilio]

Okay.

[Yanni]

Because I like tests.

[Paul Alex]

Clarity. Clarity is everything in business. Clarity.

[Emilio]

Okay?

[Paul Alex]

So a confused buyer will never buy. Okay, so this is why I bring on the experts in specific niches and industries, guys. Because, dude, you're the go to. You're the go to in the cleaning industry. You're going to blow up, dude. I know you are. You have a heart of gold and you're going to inspire a lot of.

[Yanni]

People, you know, thanks for that.

[Paul Alex]

So with that being said, give us a short masterclass, let's say five minutes or less, dude. Just let the audience know or the listener know how they could go ahead and jumpstart a cleaning business and land their first job.

[Yanni]

Amazing. Well, this would be relating to me when I first got started, which, by the way, I had a different mindset, but I always knew I wanted more. So I think that the number one ingredient to success is God.

[Emilio]

Okay.

[Yanni]

Having faith in God.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Submitting to God is. Could be challenging for some people, but that alone is the umbrella. Having the right mindset and taking massive action. So I was always the risk taker. I always wanted to learn more, learn more, absorb more, absorb more, and then start taking actions. And I knew from the beginning, I know I will make mistakes.

[Emilio]

Right, Right.

[Yanni]

So I started clean houses by myself. I want to test it out. The test went well. It was, I think three to six months. I got incorporated in January of 2021.

[Paul Alex]

And do you think it's. It's important in the very beginning stages of building like let's say one man or one woman cleaning business? Right. Because it started off a side hustle. Now you have 25 employees.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Paul Alex]

But do you think it's important to take out like an llc?

[Yanni]

Absolutely.

[Paul Alex]

Okay.

[Yanni]

Absolutely. And operating any operation or business, you have to have a certain entity for different reasons.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

For protection, security, but also tax advantages.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

And just structuring yourself for success, for the future.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Which also ultimately help you. And other things you may also venture in like real estate.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

And, and, and protecting and preserving your wealth against inflation.

[Paul Alex]

Which.

[Yanni]

Inflation right now is crazy.

[Emilio]

Yeah, right? It is.

[Yanni]

It's always changing. But yeah. From starting yellow to see, it's very easy. You could go, you could go to your attorney, you could do it yourself. You go straight to the. Go to your state.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

You can make an LLC in Wyoming. I know there's benefits Wyoming and Delaware, but if you live in Pennsylvania, if you live in Texas, if you live in Illinois, go through the state.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

If you want to make it even easier for yourself, which. I created the Illinois ATM Solution Company.

[Emilio]

Right. Right.

[Yanni]

I went to what's. They changed the name. It was in ink file and now it's called Busy.

[Paul Alex]

Yep, Busy, Busy.

[Yanni]

Right. Two E's, three E's Right. And then from there you have to. What I've learned is focus on your RGAs. What are your RGAs, your revenue generating activities. What are you doing every hour of the day, what are you doing every day of the week to attract the right people to get business in the door.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Every day is a launch in the beginning.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

And this is why most businesses fail in the first five years. I think 80 or 90% of all startups fail. I mean, one of them is because of cash flow mindset and not focusing on your RGAs. I'm really, I've learned that a year and a half ago from my business consultant.

[Paul Alex]

Cash Flow, Cash Flow, Cash Flow, Cash Flow Sales.

[Emilio]

Does.

[Paul Alex]

It does, does, does work for everything, guys. It fixes everything in business. So, okay, so you set up your LLC and then I'm pretty sure you have to allocate a certain amount of money to cleaning supplies. So for, for a beginner, let's say they're doing one man, one woman show, they want to land their first client, they don't want to overspend. What would you say is, is about the average you would spend on like a set of clean supplies?

[Yanni]

Literally under a thousand dollars.

[Paul Alex]

Really?

[Yanni]

It's not a big investment, man.

[Paul Alex]

That's, that, that's remarkable, dude. Because a lot of people that, they're like, I need tens of thousands of dollars, I need hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[Yanni]

You're not buying a business, right? Fifty, a hundred thousand or a million dollars to buy a business. Right. If you want to start from the ground up and be the entrepreneur and be your, the CEO of your own company, you have to start from somewhere. So for, specifically for cleaning, less than a thousand dollars to get everything all set up, all your documentation, right. Your articles, all that good stuff and start getting basic supplies, start cleaning small houses, start cleaning barber shops on a weekly basis and things just start adding up from there, right? Yeah. Your vacuum cleaner, Shark. I get Shark, which is like one tier below of Dyson. I think Dyson's a bit overpriced, but they're a great model, right? Shark is one of our, I guess, repeating kind of equipment that we use. We have our Tornado backpacks or 10 or vacuum backpacks for more commercial spaces that we use. You need your mop bucket, your mop, your, some gloves, Windex paper towel, your toilet bowl cleaner. I mean that's under $1,000, let's be real, right?

[Paul Alex]

Absolutely.

[Yanni]

And then you buy in bulk every so often, right? And you find a good vendor to supply as you Scale. You're going to eventually find a vendor that can help you maintain your materials.

[Paul Alex]

Any good vendors you would recommend for the audience that's listening?

[Yanni]

Yes, I do. I do. They actually, they changed the name from Seaway Supply store in Illinois. From Bellwood, Illinois or Maywood, I should say. And now they're called Brady Ifs. They're a national cleaning supply store.

[Paul Alex]

Okay.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Brady Ifs.

[Paul Alex]

Just, just let them know that you heard it from Yanni.

[Emilio]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Yanni]

A quick side note, a part of my vision to be a full in house facility maintenance company. So not. We won't be just doing cleaning here.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Long term we'll be doing maintenance.

[Paul Alex]

Love that.

[Yanni]

For the entire building. We'll be building and starting our own supply janitorial store. We could supply chemicals, vacuums, and distribute nationwide.

[Paul Alex]

Nice.

[Yanni]

That's part of my vision. That's how I'm gonna hit 100 million.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah, no, that's, that's, that's, that's huge, dude. So, okay, so from that you got your established, you got your foundation, you have your, your supplies, so your logistics. Now let's talk about one of the most important aspects.

[Emilio]

Here we go.

[Paul Alex]

Business. Sales. Sales. So how do we generate leads? How did you generate leads in the very beginning? Just to clarify for our listeners and viewers that are now just tuning in right now, and what would you recommend that they do, especially from a beginner aspect? There might be some people that are listening to this dude that have no sales experience. They might be like, you know, scared to talk to people, dude. What's the path of least resistance? Just from you, man.

[Yanni]

Leveraging platforms and building your skill sets and skills and being comfortable and confident and talking to people. I start off with basic platforms. One is called nextdoor.com nextdoor.com. another one's called care.com I think they're based from somewhere in Europe. But you make a little profile of yourself. Hey, I'm Teresa. I'm a housekeeper. I'm a, I'm a nanny. I'm a dog sitter, I'm a dog walker. You make a little profile. You put your credentials, you put how much you charge and you start. I started getting to testimonials or I should say reviews in the beginning before I got incorporated. I was getting clients loved me. You know, being. At first I was very hesitant, right. Walking in people's homes and cleaning. Me being a male right in the beginning. But people, people eventually love me. I started cleaning. So leveraging Care.com and Nextdoor like in the way beginning cleaning houses and selling cleaning services for houses is so much easier.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Then commercial spaces. I will tell you that from experience.

[Emilio]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Yanni]

So, and then, and then leveraging Facebook.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Making a Facebook profile for your business Instagram page and just start, start small.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Post once a week, then seven times a week and seven times a day. That's my goal.

[Paul Alex]

No, absolutely, man. And that, that could become easier with processes and automations, man. Maybe, maybe after the podcast we could go ahead and like just give you a few tips and strategies on how to do that.

[Yanni]

I appreciate that.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah. But yeah, brother. So, so what would you say is a good starting point for a beginner to start charging for the services?

[Yanni]

A good starting. That's a very, very good question. It's a very. Not difficult.

[Paul Alex]

I know it's gonna vary based on like square footage and all that jazz.

[Yanni]

Yeah.

[Paul Alex]

Let's say like a 1200 square foot, 1500 square foot house.

[Emilio]

Sure.

[Paul Alex]

How much would you charge for that?

[Yanni]

Yeah, I mean there's a couple variables. Scope of work, how many bedrooms, how many baths.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Is this an apartment or a single family house? Yeah, I mean rage. I mean raging standard cleaning wise, 100, $200 in that range per visit. Now if it's a reoccurring client, which we do have weekly, bi weekly, monthly, we do have those incentives.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

If we could lock in and provide consistent cleaning for a house, a homeowner.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

If it's weekly, there's a discount obviously.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

But that's the range, 100 to 200 on the deep cleaning sides.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

During spring cleaning season, which right now we're freaking busy.

[Emilio]

Yeah. Right.

[Yanni]

Ranging between 300 to $600 per deep cleaning. We do a lot of move and move outs as well. We have a great relationship with Keller Williams based in Lincoln Park, Chicago. So we do a bunch of move outs for them for their real estate firm there as well.

[Paul Alex]

So then let me ask you, since you started off as a one man team, now expanded over to 25 employees, what is a reasonable size portfolio for one person to handle?

[Yanni]

You mean what you're asking for one cleaner, how many houses they can or.

[Emilio]

Yeah, yeah.

[Paul Alex]

Basically one cleaner.

[Emilio]

Dude.

[Yanni]

It's gonna come down to their availability and commitment levels.

[Paul Alex]

Let's say you have a full timer. Let's say you have somebody for like 40 hours a week.

[Yanni]

Sure.

[Paul Alex]

What would be like reasonable, like to start delegating? Because remember like my mind right now. Guys. Operator.

[Emilio]

Right, yeah.

[Paul Alex]

You're telling me this, this high level overview of your business, I'm just like thinking like, okay, so if I was to get like five cleaners and they work 40 hours for me me, how many houses can I delegate?

[Yanni]

We'll do the math. I mean, it comes down to the hours too. Right. So we typically, we typically pay for labor cost, 16 to 22 an hour, depending on your, you know, level experience.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Reliability. First three months we get on them onboarded. We have all like a preliminary phase. If they pass the evaluation and no bad reviews from customers. Yeah, we get, we give them a dollar raise.

[Emilio]

Nice.

[Yanni]

Right. So we typically charge depending on the house and also the city, you know, 40 to 50 an hour. That's the range.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Paul Alex]

So let's say what's the average cleaning time that it would take?

[Yanni]

Yeah, four hours.

[Paul Alex]

Four hours.

[Yanni]

Four hours a cleaning job probably. So 10 houses a week.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Paul Alex]

So I'm gonna say like two houses a day.

[Emilio]

Yeah, yeah.

[Yanni]

That's actually a dream, a cleaner's dream to do houses a day.

[Paul Alex]

Two houses a day. So 10 houses, man, that's pretty good.

[Yanni]

But the thing is, not all cleaners do work full time. They have other jobs part time. It's a part time thing. And that's, that's where you could start. That's where you could leverage as, as the business owner and accommodate their schedule as well. And then I had the experience where cleaners have quit their jobs to work full time with opa.

[Emilio]

Oh, wow.

[Yanni]

Yeah.

[Emilio]

Wow.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah, that's awesome.

[Yanni]

And I still have, I have three or four cleaners for, since the beginning, for four years right now.

[Paul Alex]

That's amazing.

[Emilio]

Yeah.

[Yanni]

Jose and Theresa, shout out to them.

[Paul Alex]

I mean, I'm just saying, dude, it's hard to find good people to work for, man. And you know, I always say like that means you're, you're leading by example. You probably showed them like, hey, I did this and they're probably respect you for a dude, you know. And I know that's huge in sales. Right? It's huge in sales.

[Yanni]

You're sell the vision not just to the client, but also to your providers and your cleaners.

[Paul Alex]

Absolutely. Everybody.

[Emilio]

Dude.

[Paul Alex]

The sales process never ends. Customer service is part of sales. So with that being said, dude, we're coming up to the end of our interview. So right now let's say you have 100,000 people listening into this, which it's very possible, right, Emilio?

[Yanni]

Hey, that'll be obviously Paul.

[Paul Alex]

Obviously. So, all right. You're gonna have a hundred thousand people listening to this when it goes out within a 30 days range. And it's gonna be inspiring. They're gonna be like, dude, that's badass. He was a school teacher based out of Chicago. Now full time entrepreneur doing his own clean business. And they're gonna be like, bro, how can I connect with this guy? How can I go ahead and talk to him? How can I go ahead and network with this guy? Right? Cause your network is your net worth, guys. So Yanni, give us a few words of encouragement to the person who wants to actually start this business that right now is unsure of themselves. Dude, this is the level up. It's about helping other people, dude.

[Yanni]

That's right.

[Paul Alex]

So what do you have to tell to that viewer right now that's listening to you? Dude, that's on YouTube, that's watching your interview and it's just like, yo, like give us a word of encouragement, bro.

[Yanni]

Yeah. Number one, like I said before, have faith in yourself. Have faith in God.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

Number two, having the right mindset. Number three, surrounding yourself with the right people. And I would say number four, take extremely massive action. Don't be afraid of failure. Start today. Don't keep pushing the deadline to next week, to next week. Start today. Start accepting that failures and mistakes will come. And you have to accept that and that will also build some character in you as well. And I learned in business this, that in business you have to fly like a butterfly and sting like a bee sometimes.

[Paul Alex]

Dude, that's it.

[Emilio]

Right?

[Paul Alex]

Muhammad Ali.

[Yanni]

Muhammad Ali.

[Paul Alex]

That's right, brother.

[Yanni]

Right. So take a leap of faith in yourself.

[Emilio]

Right?

[Yanni]

And try it out.

[Paul Alex]

Absolutely.

[Yanni]

And try it out.

[Paul Alex]

Absolutely.

[Yanni]

And never quit.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

And keep surrounding yourself with the right people. And that's part of the model here, right? Like keep leveling up. And that's, this is why I came in today. That's it to you.

[Paul Alex]

You have to, man, you, you have to keep leveling up, guys. And as you level up, there's always going to be obstacles, there's always going to be roadblocks. But with good people, good culture and good surroundings, dude, you could go over anything. Dude, you can expand, you know, life is short.

[Emilio]

Go for it.

[Paul Alex]

Make it happen.

[Yanni]

Go for it.

[Emilio]

Right?

[Yanni]

Go for it. Go for it.

[Paul Alex]

So with that being said, where can they find you, my man?

[Yanni]

Yeah, you could find [e-mail] which by the way, if the camera's right here, that's our logo. Oppa Cleaning. We named OPA because it is a catchy name. It's also Greek. Yep, right. And we get, we have a lot of European customers as well in Chicago. And just a really catchy name. I think OPA is a very universal phrase to use.

[Paul Alex]

Absolutely.

[Yanni]

Even with the Hispanics too.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

So we love opa. Our customers. Customers love that coming in. Where are your OPA cleaners?

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

But yeah, ww opa cleaning.com you can find us on Instagram. Same thing, OPA cleaning. And then Facebook. OPA cleaning, opaa2a's cleaning.

[Emilio]

Right.

[Yanni]

You can also find us on LinkedIn as well.

[Paul Alex]

Yeah, love that, love that.

[Emilio]

Guys.

[Paul Alex]

There you guys got it. Yanni, the owner of Opaque Cleaning out of Chicago, Illinois. Guys, guys. That wraps up this episode. This is the level of podcast with Paul Alex. Guys. Make sure if you're listening on Spotify, Apple or YouTube, guys, you leave us a five star review. Guys, we have been top two in the past few months in the business category. Not just because of who we are, but because of what you guys are making us out to be. And right now we're here to help people, guys. So at the end of the day, your network is your net worth. Just like Yanni said, hey, if he could do it, you could do it too. Make it happen for yourself. I'll catch you on the next one. Thanks for listening up to the Level up podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family friend and everyone you know who's ready to level up. Leave a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you tune in. It really helps spreading the word. And don't forget to check out officialpaulalex.com for more episodes and resources to kickstart your journey. Let's level up together.

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