☐ Price card written, one page: base rates through five bedrooms, add-ons, volume terms.
☐ Cleaner profile drafted: service area, unit types, photo-proof promise, availability window. No logo needed.
Checkpoint, day seven: insurance certificate in hand, background check in process, price card written, marketplace profile live. If any item is missing, that item is your only task this weekend. Date reached:
Week two: bid and walk
Bid targets for the week: 20 marketplace listings read for size and rates; 10 bids out (bid above cost, chase the gap, expect to lose most); 3 helpful posts answered in host and cleaner Facebook groups, no pitching.
☐ Local niche identified (big homes nobody wants, weekend crunch coverage, one neighborhood).
☐ Every unit walked before commitment: walkthrough ends with a fixed quote or a polite pass.
Checkpoint, day fourteen: at least one accepted clean scheduled, or ten bids out with responses. Zero responses: fix is specificity (narrower area, sharper profile promise, bids on unit sizes competitors ignore). Date reached:
Week three: clean and prove
☐ First turnovers run exactly by the system: same order of operations, same photo angles, same completion message.
☐ Three touchpoints on every clean, even unasked: arrival note, photos, same-day report.
☐ Every completed host asked for a review the same day.
Checkpoint, day twenty-one: first turnovers completed, photo archive started, at least one host review requested. A bad clean means a skipped system step: fix the system, not the blame. Date reached:
Week four: convert and choose your season
☐ One-page recurring terms sent to every host whose unit you cleaned well.
☐ Off-season services pitched where they fit: deep clean before the season, linen program, locked calendar.
☐ One post in your host groups offering weekend coverage in your specific neighborhoods.
☐ Every satisfied host asked the referral question.
☐ Season decision made on purpose and written down with a revisit date. Peak launch: stack peak contracts, set the skim. Shoulder or dead season: choose the fork (year-round hosts, off-season deep cleans, or infrastructure season).
Day 30: the launch gate
☐ Two or more hosts on recurring terms, or one property manager vendor relationship active.
☐ Photo proof and same-day reporting running on every clean without thinking about it.
☐ Business account with a peak-revenue skim configured, fixed costs listed for the dead months.
☐ A written season plan and a bench note: which cleaner you would call if a turn opens tomorrow.
☐ Client concentration checked: no single host or manager is more than half your calendar.
Gate green: month two is a scaling motion, not a new launch. Gate not green: rerun the week whose checkpoint failed. Slow starts are normal; only unexamined ones are fatal.