From Her Kitchen Table
Three years ago, Missy Schwinn was broke, exhausted, and barely keeping her head above water. A single mom with two kids under five, she was working part-time for a local cleaning company. The pay was steady, but small. And every time she saw the check the client wrote—then looked at what landed in her own account—she couldn’t ignore the truth:
Her boss was getting rich. She was getting gas money.
Missy wasn’t afraid of hard work. She was already doing it—scrubbing floors, wiping baseboards, lifting heavy vacuums in and out of a minivan that spent more time on empty than full. But she didn’t have time for a second job. She couldn’t afford daycare, and she was leaning on family just to cover the few hours she did work.
What she needed wasn’t more jobs. She needed to stop giving away her time and start keeping the full check.
So, she took a leap.
Starting Small, Working Smart
Missy didn’t wait until everything was perfect. She started with what she had:
- A secondhand vacuum she found on Facebook Marketplace
- Cleaning supplies from the dollar store
- Her kids’ double stroller and a stack of printed flyers
- A minivan she reorganized to hold all her gear
She made a basic flyer on Canva, printed a few dozen copies, and started walking neighborhoods. She’d hand them to moms at the park. She dropped them in mailboxes and stuck them on bulletin boards. And within two weeks, she had her first five clients.
She cleaned for four hours a day, Monday through Friday, while her sister watched the kids. It was tiring, but she was finally keeping every dollar she earned.
Hiring Her First Cleaner
Within a few months, Missy was booked solid—about 20 hours a week at $40/hour. That’s $3,200/month. More than she ever made working for someone else.
But cleaning is hard, physical work, and it limits your income. So she made the next big move: she hired someone.
She was nervous. What if they messed up? What if the clients didn’t like them? What if she couldn’t afford to pay them?
But once she did the math, it clicked. If she priced jobs right, she could pay a cleaner fairly and make money without lifting a mop herself. So that’s what she did.
She gave half her clients to the new hire and filled her own schedule with new ones. Then she repeated the process. Another cleaner. More clients. Rinse and repeat.
Growing With Groupon
Missy didn’t have a website. She didn’t run Facebook ads or hand out business cards in coffee shops. She just ran a single Groupon deal for first-time cleanings.
It exploded.
She booked over 35 new clients in a few months. Some were one-time jobs—but many became regulars. And with more work coming in than she could handle, she kept hiring.
Soon, she wasn’t cleaning at all anymore.
Running the Business From Home
By her second year, Missy had:
- Three full-time cleaners
- A growing list of weekly and bi-weekly clients
- No need to clean houses herself
- A real business she ran from her kitchen table
She still met with new clients and checked in on jobs when needed, but most of her work was done during nap time. She took calls while breastfeeding. She answered emails between storybooks and diaper changes.
At first, she worried the kids in the background would scare people off. Turns out, they didn’t care. In fact, a lot of her clients chose her because she was a mom. They trusted her because she was real—and because she cared.
Today: Over $100K a Year and Still Home for Bedtime
Missy’s business now brings in six figures a year. Her team handles the cleaning. She handles the clients. And the best part?
She still works from her kitchen table.
- She never misses a preschool pickup
- She doesn’t clean toilets unless she wants to
- And she finally has real financial security—without giving up her kids to get it
All of it started with a used vacuum and a flyer.
Want to Build Your Own $100K Cleaning Business?
Missy didn’t have a business degree, a website, or a marketing plan. She had determination, a minivan, and the courage to stop settling.
And you can do the same thing.
If you’re ready to stop giving your paycheck away to someone else and start building something that’s actually yours, check out my course:
Learn how to build your own $100K cleaning business.
No fluff. No fluff. No fluff. Just the steps. The tools. The plan.
Let’s get to work! Get started here.
Clean4Profit 
Leave a comment