We recently connected with Juliet Artman and have shared our conversation below.

Juliet , appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

If you are hoping to succeed at something important, you are going to be tested first. Important things that impact others and change your life are never easy. So to succeed you have to be willing to grow.

When I started my cleaning business, I was already self-motivated. I was willing to put in the work to finish a project. But I won’t say I was very persistent yet. To some degree many of the projects I had tackled so far I had little resistance in completing. Launching a cleaning business was a lot harder. Finding clients wasn’t as inside my control as I would have hoped. Everything took ten times longer than I expected, and through the whole process I had to learn to trust God more.

I reached a point where I realized my self-motivation wasn’t enough. I needed more perseverance. I had to decide to go forward after a week that felt like nothing was happening. I was going to persist under trial.

But growing in perseverance wasn’t enough, either. I had to grow in faithfulness too. The marketing rule of seven meant I had to hang more flyers. Even when it felt like one more flyer wouldn’t make a difference. I had marketing tools at my fingertips, but I had to decide to faithfully use them.

The best part about growing in persistence and faithfulness as I launched and grew my cleaning business was that those character traits have helped me succeed in other areas of life too. This business was the training ground for my personal growth.

If you want to be successful, you need to accept that growth is part of the process.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a young adult, seeking the joy of the Lord through all of life’s ups and downs. For the last four years I have been preparing to launch a career as an author and entrepreneur. I have gotten professional training in writing and business from The Author Conservatory.

While I took a few years to work on honing my writing craft, I also started developing business skills by launching a cleaning business in 2021.

I chose house cleaning because I was outgrowing babysitting. But as I put together a business plan, I realized I could still serve moms of young children. Sometimes what those moms needed was someone to run the vacuum and mop the floors, not just play with the kids.

It took a year and a half to really get my cleaning services off the ground, and it was an uphill battle a lot of the time. But even during that first year, I made money as a house cleaner. Even if it wasn’t super consistent, it was enough to cover my small expenses and contribute to my savings.

Spring of the next year was crazy. I was a homeschool senior, I was preparing to receive a professional edit of my book, and my cleaning business was growing like crazy.

I went from two clients to five clients in a matter of months. I hired two employees to help me with the jobs and I continued to market and ride the momentum.

Today my business serves ten clients on a regular basis. And I have hired four employees who work with me. Our goal is to care for each home as if it was our own. We pay special attention to what blesses each one of our clients and we are committed to serving them to the very best of our ability.

We do the housework while the moms take care of their family. Our goal is to make their home a more restful place to enjoy life.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I launched my cleaning services and got a few clients, but I wasn’t finding as many as I wanted.

I kept reaching out to people, building connections, and sending offer messages. Over the course of the summer, I gained a few clients, but nothing consistent. I was starting to feel like everything I tried wasn’t working.

I got on a coaching call with Brett Harris around that time and we decided I was going to do a massive marketing push that fall.

I hung flyers on every bulletin board I could find. I asked my personal network for referrals. I even reached out to a few businesses to see if they needed cleaning help.

But nothing came through. My savings account was shrinking. I started to seriously consider launching a different business, because this house cleaning thing wasn’t working.

I was so discouraged. I had poured so much into this business and I really wanted it to work. Around Thanksgiving, I realized I was exhausted. I had no energy left to try marketing. I got on another business coaching call, and Brett suggested I take a break from all business things for Christmas.

On one hand, that made me feel even more discouraged that it really wasn’t working, but on the other hand, I was so burnt out. I needed a break.

So for ten days I rested, refilled my creative well, and didn’t touch my business.

After the break, I sat down at my computer and opened up my business folders. I expected the same discouragement and hopelessness as before break, but as I opened documents, ideas began to flow. I began to feel excited about my business again.

In a matter of a few weeks, I sent more offer messages. I still got a lot of nos from that, but mixed in were a few yeses. I found a church that needed regular cleaning help in February and I hired my first employee two weeks later to help me with that job.

After that, things exploded. I marketed in better places and began to fill all my slots with clients. My business was growing, working, and providing for my needs.

Four months earlier, before Christmas, I was ready to give up. But instead of giving up I spent time resting. I took a break. And when I came back is when things started to move forward again, because I wasn’t tired anymore. I could problem solve and generate new ideas that launched my business into taking off only because I spent time resting.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Genuinely caring for people and treating their house as a home, not just another job.

In the initial stages of launching my business, I sent a survey to people in my community asking them what would make a cleaning service perfect for them.

A lot of the responses revolved around paying attention to detail and being willing to work with a family. Often bigger cleaning companies don’t pick up the kids’ toys or pay attention to the smaller messes that kids make like toothpaste on the walls.

This feedback and insight showed me how I could uniquely position myself in the marketplace. I was specifically going to serve families and treat each house as a home, not just a job.

A house is one of the special places you can invite someone. It is the place where families live life together. It isn’t just a house to my clients, it is their home.

I work closely with each client and follow up with them regularly to make sure what they care about is getting done. I customize each cleaning checklist to their home so that my team never misses something that matters to them. And we also pay attention to the little things like loading the dishwasher or picking up the kids’ toys. The small things that make a big difference in making a home a restful place to enjoy life.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julietartmanauthor/
• Other: My email list to support my writing journey and business updates: https://subscribepage.io/Nthko2