Is this actually going to work for me?

That question shows up for everyone. Here's what to do with it.

# "Is this actually going to work for me?"

That question shows up for everyone. Here's what to do with it.

Jen and I talk about this a lot, the fact that building a cleaning business doesn't move in a straight line.

There are weeks where everything clicks. Clients book, cleaners show up, money lands. And then something stops working. Google verification stalls. Hiring dries up. A platform that used to bring leads goes quiet. And right when that happens, a question creeps in that sounds like this:

Is this actually going to work for me?

It doesn't matter if you're in week two or year two. That question shows up at every bump in the road. It's just what the road feels like when you're actually on it.

Yesterday someone in our community posted that hiring had become a wall. People would message asking about jobs, then disappear halfway through the application process. He was draining money on hiring sites with nothing to show for it, and starting to wonder if the whole thing was worth it.

I wrote back: simplify the process. Stop expecting people to fill out an application form. Just get them on the phone.

One change got him moving again.

The reason that kind of thing is so hard to see when you're in it, and so obvious from the outside, is that when you're staring at the wall, it's hard to tell if the wall is the end or just a detour. Jen and I hit that in our first year with Oak Bay Clean more times than I can count. Every time, we'd come back to the same question: do we need to change everything, or just this one thing? The answer was almost always the same. Don't change your entire model for one problem client or one problem cleaner. Adjust the small detail. Keep going.

Most of the time, that's all it takes to get moving again.

Destiny put it simply: "Follow the formula. Try not to think too much about it." She's a nurse midwife in Cleveland. She kept going. $10K months, nine months in. She's building her business so that she can retire her husband, who also works a demanding healthcare job.

The road is going to have ups and downs. That's just what building something real looks like.

— Vic

P.S. What's the thing that's felt hardest lately, or that almost made you stop? Hit reply and tell me. I read every one, and your answers shape what I write next.