Rising Stars: Meet Veronica Bolton of Kansas City North

Today we’d like to introduce you to Veronica Bolton.

Hi Veronica, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
About the Owner

I am Veronica Bolton from Kansas City, Missouri . My parents moved around Kansas City area for many years so because of that I was able to meet a lot of different people. I love motorcycles, art, shopping, and learning new things. I was first in the music scene and learned a lot about marketing for six or seven years here in Kansas City. I have a huge passion for music and concerts. I then had my two kids, Maverik and Zaiden in my mid twenties. I stayed home for four years, teaching myself all about business from YouTube and taking different courses online. I became a mom blogger, had a virtual assistant agency, & created a subscription box company. All these things were great but it was never anything physical. It was all online only.

Eventually, I got tired of staying at home and decided to work under other people in Kansas City to figure out what my next move was because I knew I wanted something more physical to do than just stay at home… I started cleaning under this company and I grew a lot of passion for that company and what they were doing. I really loved cleaning and to teach myself different things and techniques. I will forever be grateful for crossing that company because of them I was able to find myself and figure out what my passion was.

At the begenning of my business i was solo and just cleaned on my own. I got so busy that I needed more help but I knew this was about to become something big so I really wanted to invest in a partner. I had a couple different business partners in the beginning and they just wanted to change my business model in a way that did not make any sense. I ended up cutting ties with them… the way my business model was, was a lot different than everybody else in KC. At first, I was only expecting my company to get up to like 10 workers and keep it between my close friends and I… and within a year we exploded
To 30/35 contractors. Business seriously just exploded so quick when I blinked my eyes.

Cleaning Maids In &out is different than any other cleaning coming any in Kansas City, and let me tell you why . I help teach my cleaners to be independent contractors. I help teach them how to keep track of their finances and to do their own taxes, to budget.. I teach them about business. teach them how to get loans and to buy a house or a car. They really do not teach you this kind of stuff in high school so being able to help younger people learn this stuff is extremely satisfying. I have built a relationship with these people to help them become successful. A lot of buisnes’s are all about making the boss wealthy, but I believe in making my workers wealthy and succeed. That is more awarding to me.

You know I’ve seen several people already change their lives around and get a second opportunity at life because of Cleaning Maids In And Out. I have watched people get sober and be thankful to have a job. I’ve watched people buy a car and get their own place and start buying their own stuff from their hard earned money.

I try to be understanding when they have to call into work because their kid is sick and instead of making them feel bad. I just let them know that they can come back to work whenever their kid is better. Most bosses will roll their eyes when their workers calling into work, but I do my best to just be understanding and I always try to put myself in someone else’s shoes and to be treated the way I would want to be treated. I want to be suppprtive. I let my contractors know they can make their own schedule and if they can’t work on specific days we will cover their shifts so they can take care of their own business. Life is going to happen, it’s going to happen to all of us. We really need to change the way we react to our business partners when they have life things happen. Show more support instead of criticizing.

I just try to act as a teacher with them and give them the connections. They need to be successful in their life. it’s not about just showing up and cleaning, it’s about making an impact on my community and with my workers. I knew I didn’t want to be as” just another boss to people”. I wanted to be more than that. They are really are not a lot of bosses out there that invest a lot of their time into their workers like I do. Me having my workers be successful and getting what they need out of this business is just as important as my clients needing a clean home.

Generally, when you are working, you are only working at that place for a few years so I understand that I will not get my workers forever but the little bit of time that I do get them for I really just want to make the biggest impact on them and achieve their goals. I have my contractors fill out this form when they start with me and it asks them about their goals, where they are currently at, where they want to be at, how I can help them, what they need from me, anything that will trigger them or hurt them. I want to learn all of these things about my workers so I can create the best work environment for them.

I care a lot about my workers and I always put them before myself. I always go out of my way to educate them and help them learn something new.

Starting this business has created so many more opportunities for myself and for my subcontractors. You know I now work with Pmi Destination Properties in Shawnee Kansas and I manage their STR and we clean for over 500 of their LTR houses. I would have never got this opportunity if I didn’t start my cleaning company. I am also part of the Clay-Platt BNI, networking group and the ACKK group here in Kansas City and again I would have never found those groups if I didn’t start my cleaning business. Those groups have been amazing resources for me and have been able to help us achieve our goals to create a strong business.

Cleaning maids in and out is so much more than just cleaning a house. It’s about creating a safe work environment and helping everyone achieve their goals to learn something new. We love Kansas City and we want to be the best cleaning company here in the city.

In our first year we made $300k, in our 2nd year we made $800k, for our 3rd year in business, we will see what will happen. But to be able to say I was able to put that much money in my community pockets feels amazing. I want to be able to help my subcontractors buy a house, buy a car, go on vacation, and create all of these possibilities that they might have never thought of before. That’s what this business is for me.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Struggles:
Each day is completely different in the cleaning business. Some struggles that we have came across is making sure we are always having quality control. We have to make sure we always offer more training and to have someone always check on the cleaning to make sure everybody is doing their jobs to standards. we have to make sure our clients understand our process and understand what happens. You know if cleaning is not done properly and being able to ask them to give us another chance. It’s always really hard to make sure you find a solid worker. A lot of people will treat cleaning companies as just another job or you are just surface cleaning but at Cleaning Maids In And Out we are very detailed and thorough so that’s what we expect every day. This is not just “another job” for us, this is our passion and our career.

Another struggle is, we have a lot of people that will reach out to us that need our service, but can’t afford our service and they will tell us their story and it just breaks our heart not being able to help every single person that needs our help when we know, we are fully capable of helping them. However, cleaning does cost money and we have to buy the cleaning products to be able to help more people. Yes we do offer free hoarders situation cleanings but that does cost money when we actually buy the products and it’s not like we can all just work for free every day so naturally we have to turn some people down and that just really unfortunate because we feel like we are letting some of our community members down.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Now let’s talk about the cleaning side of my business.

We do all types of cleans like post-construction, move in move-out, commercial properties, Airbnb, residential and Carpet Cleaning.

What I do is I help teach my contractors what all the different cleanings are and then they choose which cleaning is there favorites and then I will assign those specific type of jobs to their schedule.
A lot of companies will niche down to only specific type of cleans, but I like to do everything and just have my subcontractors work on the jobs that they are best at.

I like have subcontractors instead of employees because there is more freedom in the daily activities. Like I can’t tell them exactly what time to be at the job but they do have a time frame they have to show up during, and they do have to communicate with the clients & let them know what time they will be there. Having a grace period in the morning helps slow life down instead of making everyone rush around in the morning.

Giving your workers that little bit more “freedom” helps teach them to be independent and helps motivate them more.

We work with a lot of property management companies, construction companies, apartment companies, House flippers, insurance agencies, etc to help get as many jobs as we do each week.
Our cleaning style is very detailed and we clean literally everything during each visit. We like to do dishes, clean under couches/beds, garages, vents, the top of cabinets, and inside your sofa, we like to clean all the little details.

if we do end up missing something we always come back and fix it for free within 48 hours. we truly believe in satisfying our clients and making sure they feel like they have their money’s worth.

We have volunteered cleaning Hoarder situations and donating our time to help create a cleaner environment for some people here in the Kansas City metro. we understand mental illness is a serious situation and we want to be able to get back and help those people who need help but can’t afford it. We are totally free of judgment.

I also like to partner up with other businesses here in the Kansas City metro and see what else we can do to help our clients achieve a more fulfilled lifestyle.
We all work really hard to be where we are and to have the clients we have. We are very honored to have our clients trust us with their properties. We run background checks and make sure our contractors are fully safe to be in a client’s home. It’s very fulfilling to be able to create a clean environment for our Kansas City area.

What do you like and dislike about the city?
What I love best about Kansas City is that it has truly grown so much and has really grown into a beautiful city with a lot of beautiful people. There’s a lot of different cultures here and I feel like it’s totally judgment free. I feel like for the most part everybody respects each other and there’s a lot of love in this city for each other. Kansas City being as it is, I feel like it’s a successful vibrant city with very successful young people, old money, and new money. I love Kansas City and I honestly don’t see myself ever leaving. This is my home and I have so much love for this place and the people in it.

Pricing:

• We generally charge $60 an hour per person. If we have an established relationship and you give us multiple jobs we will do $50 an hour per person. Carpet cleaning ranges from $90-$120 a room. Bio hazard cleans are around $100 an hour per person.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cleaningmaidsinandout.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/cleaningmaids
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/cleaningmaidsinandout
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cleaning-maids-in-and-out-kansas-city