If you're growing your cleaning business but still feel like you're broke, you're not alone.

In this episode of the Five Door Media Podcast, we welcomed Justin Boyd, founder of Cash Flow Co-Pilot, a fractional CFO and bookkeeping firm that specializes in home service businesses. Justin isn't your typical finance guy. He's a translator between spreadsheets and strategy, and he’s on a mission to help business owners move from financial chaos to clarity.

We covered a lot in this conversation, but here are the biggest takeaways every cleaning business owner should hear.

You’ve seen other cleaning companies post about how Facebook ads “blew up their business.” So you give it a try. You set up an ad, pick your audience, write a few lines about your services, hit publish… And then – crickets.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

At Five Door Media, we talk to cleaning business owners every week who are frustrated with Facebook ads that just don’t work. But here’s the truth: Facebook ads can work, if you know how to avoid the common traps that make them flop.

Let’s walk through why so many cleaning businesses struggle to get results and what you can do differently.

In Season 5 of the Five Door Media Podcast, we’re doing something different. We’re getting uncomfortable. We’re talking about numbers. In our latest episode, we kicked things off with a powerhouse guest: Meaghan Likes, founder of Likes Accounting and Bookkeeping Academy Online. Meaghan isn’t just an accountant. She’s a straight-shooting business owner who’s helped thousands of home service companies simplify their finances, increase profitability, and reclaim their time. She also owns multiple businesses herself, including a window cleaning company, so she gets it.

If you’re a cleaning business owner who knows it’s time to get serious about your finances but isn’t sure where to start, this conversation was made for you.

Most cleaning company owners hit this point eventually: your word-of-mouth business is steady, you’ve dabbled in social media, and you’re ready to grow.

Then comes the big question: do you hire someone to handle your marketing full time, or do you bring in an outside team?

Both can work. The trick is knowing what you’re really paying for with each.

If you’ve ever thought, “I didn’t start a cleaning business to become an accountant,” you’re not alone. But as Sharon Cowen says in our latest episode of the Five Door Media Podcast, getting your financials right is non-negotiable if you want to survive (let alone thrive) in this industry.

With decades of experience owning and advising service companies, Sharon brings a sharp, no-nonsense perspective that’s helped hundreds of owners turn their businesses around. This episode is full of gold for any cleaning business owner tired of guessing their way through finances.

Let’s break down the big takeaways.

The way cleaning companies attract customers is changing fast.

Referrals still matter. So do reviews. But if you want consistent, predictable leads in 2026, you need to show up where customers are actively searching, and where the competition is getting louder every day.

The good news? Lead generation doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.

You just need to know what’s actually working now,  and what’s not.

Here are the top strategies cleaning businesses are using to keep their schedules full in 2026.

If you own a residential cleaning business and feel like your books are just... fuzzy, this episode of the Five Door Media Podcast is for you. We brought back, Matt Ricketts, founder of Better Life Maids and an M&A-savvy leader in the residential cleaning industry, to dive into the financial side of building a business that grows and lasts.

Matt doesn't just talk theory. He's built and scaled his own successful company and now advises other owners on how to grow sustainably, structure their businesses to sell, and think like an operator, not just a technician.

Running a cleaning company means juggling a lot — new leads, job schedules, quotes, payments, customer reminders, and reviews. That’s where the right CRM and email marketing tools come in. The goal isn’t to add more software — it’s to simplify your life, save time, and help you follow up faster. Here’s a look at the best of both worlds, along with some pros and cons for each.

Welcome back to the Five Door Media Podcast Blog. In our latest episode, we dove deep into the numbers side of cleaning businesses with financial coach and cleaning industry expert Cristóbal Mondragón.

Cristóbal is the founder of 7 Figure Cleaners and a seasoned cleaning business operator turned financial strategist. His mission? Help owners stop guessing, get clear on their numbers, and start building real, lasting profit.

In this conversation, Cristóbal drops a masterclass on the financial blind spots holding owners back and lays out the simple but powerful habits every cleaning CEO needs to adopt. If you want to stop flying blind and finally feel confident about your margins, this episode is your financial foundation.

If you run a cleaning business, you’ve probably been told you “need to advertise on Google.” But then the next question comes fast: Should I use Google Ads or Google Local Service Ads (LSAs)? Both sound similar, but they work very differently, and choosing the wrong one could mean wasting hundreds (or thousands) of dollars a month.

Money is emotional. And for many residential cleaning business owners, it’s also confusing, overwhelming, and let’s be honest - a little embarrassing. But in Season 5 of the Five Door Media Podcast, we’re pulling back the curtain and talking real numbers, real fears, and the financial habits that separate successful companies from those stuck in survival mode.

This week, we sat down with Liz Trotter, a straight-talking financial strategist, industry veteran, and founder of Core Profit Builders. Liz is known for helping cleaning business owners get clear on their numbers and rebuild their confidence in the financial side of the business. And she didn’t hold back.

If you’re like most cleaning business owners, you’ve probably spent good money on your website, maybe even had it “redone” a few times. You check all the boxes: it looks nice, it says what you do, and it has a contact form. 

So why isn’t it actually bringing in new leads?

You’re not alone. Many cleaning company owners struggle with this same problem. Their website might get visitors, but few - if any - turn into paying customers. Let’s break down why that happens and what you can do to fix it.

If you run a cleaning company, you’re not “just a cleaner.” You’re a builder.

That’s the heartbeat of our recent Five Door Media podcast episode with Ricky Regalado, founder of Rozalado Services, co-founder of Route, host of the Cleaning Cocktails podcast, and one of the loudest voices in the home-service world.

What started as a small janitorial operation has grown into a multi-million-dollar ecosystem: a cleaning company, a tech platform built for cleaners by cleaners, a media brand, and a movement around pride in blue-collar work.

In this blog, we’re pulling out the biggest leadership and entrepreneurship lessons from Ricky’s story so you can apply them directly to your own cleaning business.

Let’s be honest. SEO pricing can feel all over the place. One company says $300 a month. Another says $2,000. What gives?

If you own a cleaning business and you’ve ever wondered why SEO costs vary so much, you’re asking the right question. Because like most things in marketing (and cleaning), you get what you pay for.

Welcome back to the Five Door Media Podcast Blog, your go-to resource for the cleaning and home service industries to connect, learn, and grow. This season, we’re diving into the future of cleaning through the lens of technology, software, and AI and our latest guest knows exactly how data and people intersect.

We sat down with Martha Woodward, co-founder of Quality Driven Software (QDS), to talk about how cleaning business owners can build stronger, more accountable teams, improve retention, and use technology not just to run operations, but to lead better.

If you’ve ever wondered how to turn software from a “nice-to-have” into the backbone of your company’s culture, this episode is for you.

If you run a cleaning company, you've probably asked yourself:

“How much do Facebook Ads actually cost, and do they really bring in new clients?”

The short answer is: it depends. Facebook Ads are flexible. You can technically spend as little as $5 a day, but if your goal is lead generation, not just brand awareness, you’ll need a more realistic budget.

This article will help you understand what Facebook Ads cost, what affects those costs, and how much you should plan to invest to get actual results.

Running a cleaning company already demands your time, managing schedules, hiring staff, and keeping customers happy. On top of that, you have to figure out marketing.

So what’s the best approach?

• Do it yourself?

• Hire a freelancer?

• Or partner with a marketing agency?

Each option has clear pros and cons. The right choice depends on your budget, your goals, and how quickly you want to grow. Let’s break it down.

In this episode, we sat down with Tom Stewart, CEO and Co-Founder of Maid Central, one of the most powerful software platforms built by cleaning professionals for cleaning professionals.

Tom’s story is unique: before building software, he built one of the most respected residential cleaning companies in the country, Castle Keepers. He knows firsthand the day-to-day realities of running crews, managing customers, and trying to squeeze profit from an unpredictable schedule.

Now, he’s leading the charge on how technology, data, and AI can simplify operations - and make cleaning companies not just bigger, but smarter.

Here’s what stood out from our conversation.

Every cleaning business wants to grow faster — more leads, more clients, more revenue. It’s the most common conversation we have at Five Door Media: “How do I grow my cleaning company fast?”

You can’t grow fast without a sales process that’s ready to grow just as fast.

Even the best marketing in the world won’t move the needle if your team isn’t ready to capture, close, and serve the leads coming in. In this article, we’ll cover the most effective marketing investments for cleaning companies that want to grow fast, and the one thing that matters more than your ad strategy: your sales readiness.