We were lucky to catch up with Michelle Allegrezza recently and have shared our conversation below.

Michelle, appreciate you joining us today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

Prior to Covid we were all flying by the seat of our pants. Our payroll bounced on Black Friday 2019 so my employees didn’t get paid, I was putting fires out every day, I felt like I was being held hostage in all areas of my life when all I was trying to do was make everyone happy. I couldn’t sleep at night and consistently felt like I was either having panic attacks or a heart attack.

I had refinanced my home, maxed out all my credit cards, took out more credit cards that I maxed, borrowed money from my parents and still never knew if I would have enough money for Sparkling Homes to survive another day. I worked various other jobs and even went to clean for a friend of mine so I could make extra money without taking homes away from my employees. And then Covid hit and shut my business down for two and a half months.

Originally I didn’t qualify for any assistance because I was a small business owner. Then when the funds became available for business owners, I didn’t qualify because I was a W-2 employee at the other part time jobs I had. I wasn’t entirely sure I would survive through the pandemic, I was positive this was going to take me down.

Instead, I took all of my new found free time and built systems in my business. I took a course called Digital Systems Bootcamp that helped me set up my Prospect Pipeline, Hiring Pipeline, Discipline Tracker, Internal Survey Systems and more. I was now able to track my key performance indicators and didn’t even know what those were before! I also studied Profit First by Michael Michalowicz and implemented weekly pay instead of biweekly pay. I was super nervous because how was I going to come up with the money every week when I had trouble every other week? But these 2 changes completely revamped my financial situation for the better. We are now taking in profit, we always have money for payroll, an emergency fund and have even recently started putting away 10% of our profits for philanthropy.

I no longer feel like I am in a hostage situation in my own business and I am loving what I do. We have an amazing team of cleaning techs, a virtual assistant that kicks butt and an in person assistant who is able to anticipate the needs of others before we even know we need them! We have grown like crazy in the last year with continued growth into the future and beyond!

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

When I was in college at the University of Minnesota, a friend reached out asking if I would help her with a post construction clean over the weekend. Being a broke college student, I jumped all over the opportunity! It was hard grueling work that took the whole weekend, my fingers were raw from using a razor blade on the windows, my knees ached from washing the floors over and over on my hands and knees and I was sneezing drywall dust for a week. When my friend dropped me off she asked what I thought. I said, “That sucked! Can I come back next weekend?”

I worked for her all through college and came back a couple different times as other jobs didn’t work out (jobs out of college did not pay as well as cleaning did). I would be in marathon vacuuming sessions daydreaming about how I could have my own business one day. I love the feeling of a job well done and knowing that I helped someone have more time to do what’s important to them like spending time with their families, building empires and relieving stress.

In 2017 I finally made my dream a reality and started Sparkling Homes Cleaning Service in Albertville, Minnesota. I wanted everyone to feel relief when they came home and not have to worry about the day to day tasks. In our hiring process we have developed the Core Values of FIRE – Family – Impact – Renegade – Excellence. We look for people with a giving heart and implemented the Renegade Maid program where our cleaning techs are empowered to make differences in the lives of their clients. Recently we had a team leave flowers for a young mom with many children to let her know that we are thinking of her and we enjoy helping her make her house a home. They not only went the extra mile in making her home clean but they connected with her and let her know how special she is. This is what Sparkling Homes is all about. Our cleaning techs made the client feel like family and made an impact on her by being a renegade maid through excellence.

Sparkling Homes isn’t just about cleaning homes, we strive to impact the community and the people we come into contact with. Our employees love the no drama work environment and even make a difference in my life.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

It sounds super cheesy but having a business named Sparkling Homes, we have embraced the sparkles! For real though, sparkles stink to clean up so I don’t recommend throwing sparkles in your home! I am the Chief Sparkler or Sparkler in Chief for Sparkling Homes and our cleaning techs are sometimes referred to as the Sparklers. Most of our marketing and things I do for the business have sparkles, or we say we are throwing sparkles, we have messages saying our team is finished throwing sparkles everywhere, etc. It has given us a reputation and people associate us with sparkles. I recently even received a pair of socks from my aunt in California just because they say, “Sparkle Wherever You Can” It’s kitschy, fun and recognizable!

So we use sparkles in our print marketing, Facebook posts, Google Ads, text message marketing, email marketing and even in our email signatures. When we do community events or parades we run a bubble machine and it attracts all the kids! Who doesn’t love bubbles?? The more over the top it is, the more recognizable it is.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I’ve always had a crush on Tony Robbins. I would listen to his podcasts while I was cleaning and then learned of John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneurs on Fire. I always had the best ideas when I was listening to JLD on Apple Podcasts and cleaning. Each show is a different entrepreneur telling their story and it was always so inspirational! I then developed a professional crush on Mike Michalowicz, author of Profit First, Get Different, The Pumpkin Plan, Clockwork and Fix This Next.

I have been in various mentorship groups for cleaning business owners and am continuing to learn every day. First was Cleaning Business Fundamentals where I met so many other cleaning business owners just like myself. In the program I learned how to get out of the field and into the office where I was able to make more sales. Then I found Rescue My Maid Service, they offered the Digital Systems Bootcamp that I took over Covid and taught me how to get systems in place so I wasn’t running around with my hair on fire everyday. Ken Carfagno of Smart Cleaning School podcast started the SMART Tribe where we made SMART goals and tracked them and my most recent group is Cleaning Profit Builders with Liz Trotter.

With all the groups that I have been a part of I am now on the Rescue My Maid Service team to help other business owners get out of chaos. I am also on the ZenMaid team, they are the scheduling software I use in my business – a scheduling software for maid services by maid service owners. With that position I am able to help maid service owners all over the world build better businesses for themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.SparklingHomesCleaning.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sparklinghomescleaningservice/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sparklinghomescleaningservice
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleallegrezza/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SparklinghomesM