Bartender to Business Owner: How Kyle Built a $1K/Week Cleaning Gig

Before launching a cleaning service business, Kyle Stroud was bouncing between bartending shifts and real estate deals, both unstable and unpredictable. Some months were flush. Others left him scrambling to cover rent.

He didn’t have any cleaning experience. Just a willingness to hustle and a family connection. His sister and brother-in-law had started All Ways Organic, an eco-friendly carpet cleaning business in North Carolina. Kyle saw an opportunity to bring the concept to Phoenix and make it his own.

He started with a $99 stack of flyers and a rotary machine in the back of his pickup. Within months, he had maxed out multiple credit cards on ads that didn’t work, blown several circuit breakers on his first job, and had come close to giving up more than once.

But he didn’t. Slowly, Google reviews started to pile up. Leads began to trickle in. Now Kyle works just two or three days a week, regularly bringing in $1,000 or more — laying the groundwork to scale with a small, high-quality team.

Here’s how he pulled it off, and what he wishes fellow new service business owners know before they get started.

The First Job: $99, a Wheelchair, and a Tripped Breaker

Kyle’s first job came from a $99 flyer he’d left on a stranger’s doorstep. No formal training. No backup plan. Just barely enough gear to scrape by.

The call came from an older man in a wheelchair. Years of rolling across the same carpet had left it deeply matted and stained. Kyle immediately realized this wouldn’t be a simple job.

He spent nearly four hours trying to lift the damage, scrubbing the same areas again and again just to make a dent. Halfway through, his machine blew the circuit. Twice. He had to ask the client to reset it each time.

“I didn’t know what I was doing,” Kyle said. “I was sweating bullets, just trying to make it look passable. I didn’t want to leave the guy with nothing.”

The man paid him the full $99 and never called again. The lesson stuck. Hustle could open a door, but it wasn’t a strategy. Kyle needed a way to find the right customers and do the job well enough to earn their trust, and their return business.

What Didn’t Work — and the One Thing That Did

Finding one client was one thing. Building a pipeline was something else entirely.

Kyle tried everything he could think of. He knocked on doors, left flyers, and picked up a few local jobs. Encouraged, he turned to paid ads, starting with Yelp.

“I spent $3,000 and didn’t get a single job,” he said. “Not one.”

Then came Google Ads. He spent $7,500 over four months. The phone rang this time, but not often enough to break even. Everything went on credit cards — ad spend, gas, gear, even personal bills. The debt was adding up fast.

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Kyle said. “But when I have no choice but to make something work, I find a way.”

Running out of options, he turned to an agency that knew how to run Facebook ads for local small businesses. It cost $2,500 up front, plus $2,000 a month. He maxed out his last credit card to cover the first month and the ad spend.

This time, it worked. The phone started ringing nonstop. For six months, he was in overdrive — cleaning by day, quoting and prepping by night. But there was barely any money left over.

“I was paying myself $20 an hour for on-site time, and the rest went to gas, supplies, and ads,” he said. “But we were getting Google reviews, and that changed everything.”

In those months, his reviews jumped from three to nearly 50. That boost gave him the credibility he needed to rank better in local search and start pulling in organic leads. By the time Phoenix’s brutal summer hit and bookings slowed, Kyle was still in debt, but he kept working, asking for reviews, and chipping away at his SEO.

“If I had to do it over again, I’d spend less on ads and get those 25+ Google reviews as fast as possible. Then I’d let SEO take over. That’s when the business really becomes sustainable.”

It took a year and a half of trial and error. But eventually, the reviews did their job, the SEO began to stick, and the business turned a corner. The ads were off. The debt was paid down. And the calls? They kept coming.

Related: 21 Low-Cost or Free Small Business Marketing Ideas

Working Less — and Smarter

Today, Kyle’s schedule looks completely different. He works two to three days a week in the field, usually booking six to twelve jobs depending on size. Some pay his $125 minimum charge. Others bring in over $1,000.

Instead of spreading jobs across the week, he stacks them into full days. That gives him uninterrupted time to work on the business itself, upgrading gear, improving SEO, and planning for growth.

“I’d rather have a couple full days of work than be out five days a week for one job at a time,” he said. “Right now, I’m still building. Everything I make goes toward gear, saving for a van — whatever gets me ready for the next step.”

It’s not glamorous yet, but it’s intentional. He still pays himself just $20 an hour for time on-site. The rest stays in the business.

And that next step? Hiring. Once his schedule consistently books out five days in advance, Kyle plans to bring on help and begin training. After years of doing everything himself, he’s ready to grow. 

Related: She Earns $2,000 a Month Doing Laundry from Home — Here’s How

The Tools That Save Time — and Set Him Apart

In the early days, Kyle would scrub entire couches by hand. It worked — barely — but upholstery jobs took hours and left him wiped by the end of the day.

Then he found a drill brush attachment used by car detailers.

“That one tool changed everything,” he said. “I cut upholstery time in half overnight. Now I use it on almost every job — carpets, furniture, you name it.”

That kind of scrappy optimization defines how Kyle runs his business. He works out of a pickup truck, no trailer, no storage unit. That means every tool has to earn its spot.

“I don’t have space for fluff,” he said. “Everything I carry earns its spot.”

His core setup includes a rotary floor machine, a smaller rotary for stairs, a hot water extractor, and that drill brush. He also stocks foot covers, microfiber rags, and a rotating lineup of eco-safe solutions.

Instead of steam cleaning, Kyle uses the VLM method — Very Low Moisture — which dries faster and is gentler on delicate carpets. Some cleaners swear by steam, others swear against it. Kyle says it depends on the job.

“They’re both valid tools,” he said. “I’ll probably add steam eventually. Right now, VLM fits how I work and how my clients live.”

One thing that doesn’t change? His primary cleaning solution. It’s made by the North Carolina branch of All Ways Organic using fruit peel extracts — citrus-based, non-toxic, and proprietary to the brand.

“It smells like fresh lemons and oranges when I’m done,” he said. “People notice.”

In a city as big and competitive as Phoenix, that natural, chemical-free touch helps Kyle stand out, especially with families, pet owners, and anyone with sensitivity to harsh cleaners.

“I’ve had clients book specifically because of the product,” he said. “They want clean carpets, not three days of chemical fumes.”

Related: 48 Small Business Ideas for Beginner Entrepreneurs

Kyle’s Playbook: What He Wishes Every New Cleaner Knew

After a year and a half of trial and error, Kyle has a clearer sense of what actually moves the needle. He doesn’t claim to have all the answers, but if he had to start over, here’s exactly what he’d do.

“It’s better to lose $200 than lose a client’s trust.”

What Kyle recommends for new cleaning (or service) business owners:

• Get 25+ Google reviews before anything else. This was the biggest turning point in Kyle’s business. “You won’t rank, convert, or get referrals without them.”
• Reply to every review. It’s good customer service, and signals activity to Google.
• Skip Yelp. Learn SEO instead. “Yelp was a $3,000 black hole. SEO took time, but it paid off forever,” Kyle said.
• Use ads sparingly — and strategically. Kyle says to treat ads as a short-term tool to build reviews, not a long-term growth engine.
• Invest in gear that saves time. His MVP? A $20 drill brush attachment. “It cut my upholstery cleaning time in half.”
• Know when to cut your losses. Kyle has refunded jobs before to avoid bad reviews. “There are some clients you just won’t win over.”
• Lead with people skills. “You can teach anyone to clean a carpet. What matters is how you make people feel.”
• Use every job to improve. Kyle uses down time to refine his SEO, gear setup, and client messaging. “Every detail matters.”

He’s not building an empire. Just a business that runs smoothly, serves people well, and eventually supports a small, well-paid team. Everything he does now moves him one step closer to that vision.

Related: 31 Practical Ways to Make $500 Fast

From Hustle to Vision

For Kyle, the hardest part of running a service business wasn’t the manual labor; it was pushing through when everything seemed to be going wrong.

There were the impossible jobs from Facebook ads. The $10K in credit card debt. The Phoenix summers where calls dried up and the pressure to quit got loud.

But those challenges forced him to improve fast.

“I had no choice but to figure it out,” he said. “You figure out what works, what to avoid, and how to deliver results people actually remember.”

Some of his most rewarding moments come from helping people who can’t just replace a couch or hire the top-dollar pros. He sees his work as a way to serve, and to prove that eco-friendly, detail-driven cleaning can thrive in a city as competitive as Phoenix.

He’s not trying to franchise or scale nationally. His vision is simpler: a few trucks, a few great employees, and a business that runs with pride and precision.

“Big teams lose quality. I’d rather build something small, tight-knit, and excellent.”

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