Episode #13: From Nursing To A Successful Cleaning Franchise In 5 Months! (with Lyndon de Guzman)

Welcome to the Local Guys Business show, the show that talks about all things small business. For people who would love to learn tips to make your business more successful or would like to own their own business one day. Sit down with your host, Jared Gording. Strap in and let's get the show started. Lyndon. So thanks so much for joining us, mate. Much appreciated for having you here and jumping on the podcast with you with us. We've, I've been super excited to catch up with you and, and see how things have been going as far as business and everything like that. So why don't you start, mate, by just telling us a little bit about yourself and, and what you did as a job before you joined the Local Guys and just give us a bit of background.

All right. Yep. First of all, thank you for having me here. So my name is Linden John De Guzman, one of the franchise partners of the Local Guys here in Bunbury. So pretty much before I joined the Local Guys Local Guys Cleaning, yeah, I was, I am still a registered nurse. I'm doing the. The Local Guys as a part time. So, yeah, before that, around 2019, I arrived in Australia and got my registration in nursing in 2021. After a year or two, I decided to do business and that was when that time I was still in Adelaide and I saw you guys, the Local Guys, running around Adelaide and it got me a bit curious. Fast forward to now starting the cleaning division here in Bunbury. WA was doing pretty much agency nursing and also I got transferred to MPS Hospital out in the Riverlands. And yeah, pretty much I was doing that for a year and two months and I've decided to, yes, go to a different state.

Okay, so tell me, I mean, obviously starting a cleaning business and doing nursing are two very different roles. What was some of the reasonings of why you were looking at getting out of the industry that you were in and making a change? Was there some work life balance stuff? What was the main drivers between behind getting out of the industry you were in?

Yeah, so pretty much trying to get out of, you know, have more freedom, financial freedom. Like if I'm working on my, on the Local Guys, I can get to choose the amount of work I can do as well.

Having a job, it's going to be a bit more of a cap to what you can sort of earn where obviously right now you can grow the business as large as you wanted to grow it and the income is going to continue on in the same path. Is that right?

Oh, yes, that's pretty much right. Pretty much the Business is. It will grow as much as it depends on how you want to scale it. And like, yeah, there is a lot of process involved as well, but it is very exciting because you get to deal with different aspects, which is very keen on. You know, previously with nursing, there is a routine that I do, but with the local guys cleaning, the business itself, there's a different process involved.

Yeah, okay, sure. So. So you decided that obviously you were looking at having some more financial freedom being in the industry. You were so, so thought maybe small business ownership was a pathway for you. Why did you decide on the cleaning industry as opposed to other industries?

Well, to be honest, I think the cleaning industry, anyone can get into it. Pretty much anyone can, you know, get a cleaning service as well. And anyone is a potential customer. Yep, yep. And I think quite a large market.

In the cleaning, isn't it?

Yeah. It also allows you to meet other different peoples kinds of people in interacting with them, getting a deal going and stuff.

Yep, yep. I know. That was one of the things that I loved so much about when I was on the tools is, you know, being able to be at a different location every day and just meeting with different people and, you know, being. Having the freedom of being in your own car and just, you know, being out on the road. Now often joke that, you know, I'm chained to a desk and I do miss those days. I say it all the time that I really miss those days where I was out and had a lot of that sort of freedom and, you know, go to the local bakery for lunch and all that sort of stuff, which, you know, which is something, when you're in an office job, you don't, you know, you don't have those same sort of. Same sort of freedoms.

Anything can happen when you're out in the field, like, you know, random stuff which can, you know, give you a smile at the end of the day.

Yep, yep. Have you had anything happen like that comes to memory?

There are a lot, but I always tend to forget, you know, at the next day. Just.

A lot of diversity. And then that's the thing. It is. Every day is different, which is great. And I mean, although you're doing the same sort of job each day, as you say, it's at a different location all the time, meeting different people and all the rest of it. So I think any job you do tends to be repetitive. But I think if you can mix it up and have some freedom in regards to that, different, different sites and all the rest of it, it really does mix it up. Which yeah, I completely agree with you. Why, why did you decide to do a franchise rather than say just starting up your own cleaning business? Because as you said before, it is quite easy to just pick up a moon, a mop and a broom and be able to start your own cleaning business. Why did you decide on joining a franchise rather than doing it your own yourself?

So pretty much. Sorry, I think I hear my family.

That's fine, that's fine. That's not a problem at all. We're a family business at the local guys. I was just talking to my wife and I could hear my screaming kids in the back. One should be at childcare today but negotiated his way out of that.

No, they don't have child kindy for school today. Get parents, teachers. Yeah, sorry.

Yep, no that's totally fine.

What was the question again? Sorry.

So why did you. Yeah, that's all right. Why did you decide for a franchise rather than going alone and starting up your own cleaning business?

So pretty much with going with a franchise with the local guys allowed us to expand as well, get our name out there pretty much faster than you know, getting to start by ourselves. And the support that the local guys provide is pretty much excellent in terms of the training that they've provided as well. Yeah, basically going to do the training face to face is pretty much essential because you know anyone can do the cleaning but stuff like doing the estimates and like day to day tasks when you're on the business and on the job is very much different.

Yeah, yep, yep. Now you work in the, the part in the business with your wife Julia. So there's husband and wife team in the business which is, which is great. You've only been in the business now. What are we looking at now? We around the five month mark that be.

I think on where we. Well we started around first week of November.

Yeah. Yep, yep. And you've, you've managed to grow the business very quickly in such a short period of time. Do you want to talk about that a little bit and why you think that you've had the. Been able to do that? Because we've got great reviews from these guys and we've seen the business grow. Yeah. Very, very quickly and some, some great income for what you've been able to do. How do you feel like you were able to achieve that so quickly?

So pretty much always just saying yes to the job. Like we can do it like having that attitude like yeah, being flexible to the. There's a lot to that as well. Yeah, yeah. Being flexible and also Showing the reliability that you can commit to their needs like having attending their schedule on a regular basis. Yep. And yeah, pretty much those characteristics is I think what attracted our clients as well. And also the standards of the local guys is well, we're pretty much, I consider ourselves a high standard. If they're not happy with the service, we can come back and do it again. Especially with Vacate Clean and the places we do come back and finish the job, the ones that they're not satisfied with.

Yep, yep. And I think there's something really to that. I know we've had conversations with particular incidences and things like that and I think that's a really strong mindset to have and I think that that's probably one of the key things that I see along most of our most successful franchise partners is that medium to long term minded thinking in regards to it's not I've got to go back out and fix this job and I'm not going to get paid for that or this client. This was a problem with this one and they were complaining about this nitty gritty. You just got to kind of block all those out. And I think that if you look at, if you do get too fanatical about every last little bit, it can trip you up mentally. Especially if maybe you've worked as an employee previously and, and you're used to getting paid for every minute that you're working and all the rest of it and then you go into being self employed and it doesn't work that way. But I think it's better to look at what am I earning on a monthly basis and am I earning a really good income from a monthly basis. And yeah, I had to run around and do this, this and this one. But on these other jobs over here I did very, very well out. And you look at it as a big picture scenario as opposed to and providing that high level of customer service first and maybe the more the money side of it as second it's important but as a second then I think you can be seen to be putting out more value to the market and that's very, very attractive to the market and it tends to be rewarded with actually more dollars. It's funny how it works where if you just go out chasing the dollars they kind of tend to elude you a little bit. So I hear in what you're sort of saying in that it's about those values and those brand standards first and I think that's why you've been so successful. Would you agree with that?

I agree with you completely. Pretty much the numbers are just numbers. Basically at the end of the day, if you make a happy customer, you, you know, you win some more.

Especially in the cleaning industry because, you know, if you can get into one real estate agent or you can get into, you know, one. One other type of client and then the referrals that can come on for that are so good. So I think that, yeah, it's. You just don't know who someone's going to refer you onto. And I think that's why you just have to have that coming up front. And we see that from these guys every day. Which is, which is awesome.

Yeah, pretty much there are a lot of different clients pretty much from real estate, domestic clients, individual clients, NDIs as well. Also commercial cleaning. Pretty much every, every person can be your client. It just depends on how you approach and deal with them in order to get that job. Yep.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's why we're talking about that where anyone could be your client. What sort of marketing things do you do? I know that obviously when you get onboarded with the local buyers, we talk about a lot of marketing and sales opportunities and obviously everyone gets business cards and brochures and all that sort of stuff. What's been some of the stuff that you found that's been so successful or any thoughts that you have on that side of things in, in marketing your business?

To be honest, we really did go into the real estate property, you know, offices and we've handed out our business. Our cards, business cards and they've. There's some positive feedback from that and we've also, you know, trying to build relationship with them and also trying to go out there speaking with some of the schools that's, you know, wants us to have a cleaning service to be done. Stuff like. I also just recently considered. I know one time I asked the office about a journal we've done. We've considered taking them on as well because I think it would also be good because they are charity organization. I think it also helps them out, but also at the same time it gets the word out that we're the local guys. We're here not only to do, you know, get some money, but we are also to help out the charities and businesses that's in need of support, the local ones.

Cool. Can you give us maybe a bit of a quick rundown on what a typical day in the life looks like? Linden and Julia.

So pretty much I'm waking up early in the morning around 6 o' clock if, If I don't have the job, you know, if I don't, I'm not on a night shift. I, I wake up early, get the chemicals ready, pretty much head out there in the road, get some. Yeah, of course. Get some breakfast first. But yeah, get out there in the road and we do. We start our cleaning early so we can finish early as well.

Yep, that's so. That's so you set that schedule yourself, obviously, don't you, that you prefer to be out early and getting things happening early and, and finish up early and what, pick up the kids from school or daycare. That seems to work best for your lifestyle.

Oh, yes. And especially I find it that if we do things early, we can, you know, do some other stuff like family. Family matters. We can go to the park and. Yeah. Have some fun with the family.

Yeah. And I'm guessing through your previous career that just wouldn't have been on the cards.

Pretty much, yeah. I would be pretty much busy in the hospital all day, staying there as much as I can.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure.

So.

So what would you say some of, like talking about that. What would you say some of the biggest differences, you know, upsides and downsides from what you're doing now compared to what you were doing back then? If someone, you know, working in a job right now and you could give them the advice of you coming now through this sort of journey, how has life changed for the better and for the worst?

Well, firstly, pretty much the stress is a lot different from, you know, when you're just working for another company or another business. Pretty much it's different when you're doing the business itself. Yeah, lots of different factors pretty much. But at just the end of the day, you just try to, you know, try to disconnect from it as well. So you don't bring it into your house or your. You're. Yeah, it doesn't really affect you that much. I'd say also getting some more training going into this business has made me look into getting more training in regards to, you know, what chemicals to use, which cleaner to use for this type of job. What can we use, like machines we can use to make the job easier for us as well and faster, which does save us a lot with. Instead of staying there for like two hours, we can cut the job into a half an hour or an hour, like. Yeah, getting good quality equipment, stuff like that, those kind of knowledge.

So you've gotten the business now to the point where it's ticking over, it's doing well and now it's starting to have the conversation around how can I be more efficient and how can I get more value out of the time that we're spending? Because you've just. You're just in the process of onboarding a couple of new staff members, aren't you?

Yeah, we do have. We're trying to onboard them some, you know, don't make it to the trial. Like. Like we. Because we do try to keep a high standard as well. That's why we're. Yeah, we're still a small team at the moment. Some of my. There's only like two at the moment. Two also left a while ago because of some other issues.

But yeah, you're entering into that new phase of business ownership which is hiring a team which comes with a whole nother level of headaches and problems and issues. And, you know, then you have to relinquish a bit of control as well, which is always a hard thing to do. And then maintaining brand standards and all that sort of stuff. So it's second level of business ownership.

I think that's correct. Pretty much. Because sometimes you look at the job and you're not yet satisfied. Because cleaning can be subjective to one, you know, per person. Like, it can be different to another person. They can say it's clean, but when you have a look at it closely, yeah, it's very different. So pretty much getting the right qualities from an employee is what we need. And I think the. Some of the onboarding staff members that we have is. Has pretty good qualities. We're just trying to follow up with some of their documents, but. Yeah.

Yep, yep. So how does your role. How do you see your role changing once we get the right people on and things like that? Do you move more into a sort of team leader role and be more on the quoting and the invoicing and quality management side of things? Is that where you see yourself sitting long term once you get all those, those assets right?

I think that's spot on. Pretty much, you know, getting materials and organizing the estimation of houses, properties and dealing with clients. Because if you're. You can't, you know, pretty much do business if you're at a job site doing cleaning while there's some other people that's, you know, wanting to get a quotation from you? I think. Yeah, pretty much Julia and I will have to like, tag team. That will have to. She does need to develop that as well. And I'm also still starting to just develop that.

Yeah, sure. And I think what will naturally happen, what I would see happen is you find your roles and you find, you know, where your strength and your weaknesses are. And she'll find her position, that's her strength. And you'll find your position, that's your strength. And, and generally you have your own little roles and that's what you do. But it'll take a little bit of time, I think, and it's good to do that tag team at the begin just so both of you get to sort of experience each element of it and you go, you know what, you're actually better than this, than I am. But, but over here I'm pretty good at this sort of stuff. And then you, that's where you tend to see it. And then you can kind of, one of you might be better at, you know, managing the team and the, and the quality management side and the other person might be better at, you know, quoting and stuff like that. And then, then you got pays and all the HR side of things and then on it goes, and on it goes. So.

Yeah, that's right. I completely agree with you, Jared. Even, you know, like stuff like trying to pay ourselves, we're having a difficulty with the payrolls, but thanks to your support and local guys. Team support, we're pretty much. Yes. Trying to. Yeah. Pretty much onto it.

Yeah, not a problem. And if you need some, some more help with that side of things, feel free to book in some time with Stacy and she would happily run through that with you so that you can help get that set up properly, I think. You guys run Xero, do you?

We run Xero, yes. Pretty much, yeah. Zero is the software we use.

Yeah. So if you're still getting your heads around that, please reach out to Stacy or myself and we can organize to book in a session and get that set up properly. I think that that'll be. Because it can be daunting. You know, you're setting up new staff members and tax file numbers and all that sort of stuff so she can assist you in getting that set up properly. So please, please feel free to do that. How has business ownership changed home life?

So pretty much business ownership pretty much changed my life. I'd say at 180 degrees from, you know, like when I was just an employee. I think what's going on and what I need to do at the job, but being a business owner, you have to think a whole lot bigger. You know, what's the plan for the next one and how can we do stuff more efficiently? Scheduling as well, which is. Yeah, we try to. Yeah. To get that on. On top of scheduling. That's the hardest part.

It is, it is, isn't it? It's, you know, the man hours. Being out there and having them be efficient and all the rest of it and then firefighting, away they go. That's, that's the fun of it, I think. And it never ends. What do you think's been your biggest achievement in the big business so far in the last five months that you've been most proud of yourselves for?

I think our biggest achievements would be having our clients happy, satisfied and pretty much wanting us to come back and do the job again and getting more referrals from them, which leads into a domino effect, pretty much into better things.

Yep. And I think you've hit the nail on the head and I think that people tend to overthink. I get that question quite a lot with the local guys as a whole. And my response is always very similar to your response that if we've got happy, successful franchise partners, happy clients, then everything else looks after itself from there. All of the other metrics that are selfish metrics to me, they will take care of themselves. It's making sure that we've got those other metrics right and providing that value and we. And once you get that right, then I think Zig Ziglar has a famous saying that says if you help enough other people get what they want, you'll get everything you want in life. And I think there's really something to that.

Oh, that's right. I agree with you pretty much. Yeah. Keeping a positive attitude at the end of the day just makes you happy but also, you know, keeps the job going as well, I think.

Yeah, yep, absolutely. All right, mate, well, final question I've got for you before I let you go. And I know you've got. Is it parents teacher interviews coming up? So I appreciate you jumping on board with us, but where do you see, where do you see the business, let's say 10 years time? What's the vision in your guys head where you'd love to see it at?

To be honest, we're wanting to see it having more employees because I think by having that we not only help, you know, clean more properties, help more people, but also the employees, we help them as well. Pretty much. Pretty much a cycle of, you know, a positive attitude, helping people. I think that. And pretty much we're looking to grow our business into. Yeah. Into other areas as well. Maybe in a few years time we'll be having a different branch somewhere else in wa.

Beautiful. Beautiful. That's exciting. All right. Well, yeah, no, I think just congratulations to you guys for everything you've achieved in such a short period of time. And yeah, we're really excited to continue to watch the growth of Lyndon and Julia and everything you're doing over. And you're in a small market, right. You're in Bunbury in Western Australia, so it's not a huge month market. So to be doing so successfully and there, as you say, taking over Western Australia is the next step.

Oh, Yep. That's the 10 years from now what we're looking. It's also thanks to the local guys team, the admin Jared and, you know, the whole team. And also the guys at Queensland, Shane, Damien and Kelly. They've done a great job in training us as well. And the support from the admin team. Yeah, it's very exceptional.

Yep, amazing. All right, mate, well, I'm going to let you get on with the rest of your day because I know you're a busy man, but thank you so much for carving out a bit of time for us today. Much appreciated.

No, thank you for your time, Jared.