Meet Sara Hanson

We were lucky to catch up with Sara Hanson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sara, thank you so much for joining us today. There are so many topics we could discuss, but perhaps one of the most relevant is empathy because it’s at the core of great leadership and so we’d love to hear about how you developed your empathy?

We work in people’s homes, and for a long time when we do it right! This has allowed me to form uniquely close relationships with many of our clients that I don’t see in other businesses, even the home services sector. Think about the difference in what you would tell a person working on your roof VS the person who washes and matches your socks!
I have experienced my clients fall in love, mourn the loss of family members, bring home puppies, have babies, and so much more! I truly enjoy the part of my work that is learning their lives and how we can best serve them in this chapter of it.
One of my favorite client stories was a nesting momma who refused to go to the hospital and have her baby until her floors were clean. She couldn’t bear bringing home the baby to filthy floors even though crawling was months away… she fully recognized she was not being logical, but it felt really really important to her, so it was important to me! I was exhausted and it was my first rest day in weeks but I told her I would be there in a flash. They were in fact very dirty floors and it took 2 full hours for her small apartment of flooring to sparkle. She cried, she hugged me, and she grabbed her hospital bag to go have a baby!

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

As the owner of Busy Bees Cleaning LLC I tend to wear a lot of hats. I do all of our marketing, scheduling, billing, payroll, HR, and more! I am a 1:1 client liaison for all +400 of our clients. No AI or automated phone lines, just a few real people chatting about how we can best serve you in your home!
I love getting to know people, and I believe every client is the King/Queen of their castle and they deserve to have things the way they want them in their castle. I don’t believe in cookie-cutter services, which is why we charge hourly. If you don’t want us to step foot in your office, or if you want every slat of the blinds dusted, we hear you and we will get it done!

While serving our current and expanding client base will always be our priority, I am planning to start another branch in a city other than the one I was born and raised in. The goal being to perfect my start-up system so I can eventually help other small cleaning businesses to grow and better serve their communities! I have seen so many cleaners try and fail to turn their weekend side hustle into a success story, and I would love the opportunity to help them get over some of those early hurdles!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1.) Truly care about the people. In such close and intimate work, people can spot the phonies. Maybe not on the first service, but within a month or two they know who cares about them and their home, and who doesn’t! This makes a world of difference in loyalty and the overall service you’re offering. If you haven’t build trust and respect, people won’t feel comfortable asking for the services they need the most help with.

2.) Time management/Prioritizing – this is the skill I have to train the most into our worker bees and have to practice for myself! We love attention to detail, but we could spend 3 hours on just the window tracks in a large Point Loma home! We have to take care of highest priority items first like kitchens and bathrooms (unless you asked for window tracks to be #1!) to have a successful service.
For myself, that means making myself available at the top of every hour for any of our 5 worker bees having a hard time getting to their job site, even if I’m in the middle of running payroll. It means taking a call from a client on todays schedule before calling back a new client for a quote.

3.) Self care! This one is sneaky because it isn’t directly an income-producing-activity (IPA) but rest is crucial to your success. Finding ways to completely unwind or even unplug for the day is hugely beneficial to fighting off burn out and overwhelm. My current routine is 12 hours on and 12 hours off 7 days a week, and my lead cleaner is prepared to step in on client needs when I need the occasional day off.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

Finding high quality worker bees that our clients deserve means paying them well. With sites like Zip Recruiter showing cleaners making below minimum wage on average, we strive to pay our worker bees $20-$25/hr depending on their time with the company and status as a lead cleaner. We also provide benefits and 401k investing options because I believe that all jobs deserve to be compensated enough to live in the city they work in.
We have many other costs in running our business between tools & products, and the invisible costs like insurance and workers compensation. Trying to balance these expensive costs while staying affordable for our clients in the luxury service sector is a tough challenge!
I’ve maintained this careful balance by committing to my current clients that their cost is fixed, even if I have to raise our prices on newer clients. This brings forward a loyalty to each other which is a key to our success! The increase on new clients (anticipated in the summer of 2025) will help us to be able to give consistent raises to the worker bees as the cost of living continues to climb and as they reach milestones worth celebrating!

Contact Info:

• Website: Https://busybeescleaningpros.com/
• Instagram: @ScrubWithSara
• Yelp: https://yelp.to/dOLJApAjYu