A friend asked me a few weeks ago why we don't just hire more cleaners. "You're booked solid, right? Just hire two more people." Yeah. About that. Hiring in a service business is the single hardest thing about running one. Anybody who tells you otherwise is either not actually doing it, or they're hiring under-the-table workers and hoping they don't get caught. Here's the honest version of what it actually takes. The 1099 vs. W-2 question Every service-business owner faces th

A customer texted me a few weeks back: "My friend's cleaner quoted her $200 over text in five minutes. Why do I have to do a walkthrough for a quote?" Fair question. Here's the honest answer. The five-minute text quote is great for the cleaning company. It costs them nothing, and if the job turns out to be bigger than they thought, they just bill more at the end. The customer finds out at the door: "Yeah, this is going to be more than we said." That's the moment when the indu

When we started Streaker's in early 2025, we said yes to everything. Someone needed a power washing? Sure. Gutters? Sure. Mold removal? "We can probably figure it out." Junk haul-away after a cleaning? We had a truck, why not. That was a mistake. Not a fatal one, but a real one. Here's what saying yes to everything actually cost us, and what we do — and don't do — now. The cost of an undefined business The first problem with doing everything is that you do nothing especially

The most common question we get isn't "are you available next Tuesday." It's "what does a cleaning cost?" Most cleaning companies dodge that question. They want you on the phone, on their schedule, in their funnel. I get the marketing logic, but I think it's a bad way to start a relationship with a customer. So here's the honest answer. A typical Streaker's recurring cleaning in Calvert or St. Mary's County is $150 to $250. A move-in or move-out cleaning is $300 to $550. A po