Giving Employees the Tools to Excel Helps This Company Clean Up
RON HOLT GOT INTO residential cleaning in the early 2000s, when he saw a surge in demand that the mom-and-pop shops dominating the industry couldn’t meet. The result was Two Maids & a Mop, his Birmingham, Alabama, startup. By making some decisions that were expensive at first—but which bore long-term fruit—this three-time Inc. 5000 honoree brought in $4.7 million in revenue in 2014. Holt explains how his company has thrived.
DOING THE RIGHT THING IS SMART BUSINESS
When Holt created Two Maids & a Mop, he was inexperienced in business building. He visited five noncompeting cleaning businesses to learn their secrets. He found that the majority of home-cleaning companies employed independent contractors. It would have been cheaper for him to hire cleaners this way too. But since owners can’t
