Ana Andres tells us why TidyChoice is the best cleaning company in London. It has the best cleaners.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded TidyChoice.
Ana Andres: I grew up in Barcelona and I am an engineer at heart. When I was young, I was always passionate about figuring out how things work and often pulled my toys apart to understand how all the different parts fit together.
After obtaining an engineering degree, I pursued a Ph.D. in Computer Science. I lived in France and the US while doing tech research and product development before moving to London 10 years ago to work in technology consulting. Then, I founded my tech start-up, TidyChoice.
Do you have small habits that made a meaningful impact on your life and business?
Ana Andres: I have many competing interests for my time, my career, my start-up and my family. I am not as obsessive as Bill Gates by scheduling out every minute of the day but I do fill out my calendar daily so that I juggle my time effectively and get the balance right between family, business, and personal time.
How does TidyChoice market its product/services online?
Ana Andres: We spread awareness about our business by using search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) and social media marketing strategies. SEO helps us get our site ranked higher in search engines so that it appears at or near the top of the results when someone searches for something related to our business. With PPC ads, we can target our ideal customers and direct them straight to our website. Social media is a great way to build relationships with customers and engage them with relevant content.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to manage your online marketing?
Ana Andres: We use Semrush and Ahrefs for managing SEO. We use audits and tools to optimise our technical and on-page SEO and use backlink tools to track our off-page performance. We are big users of Google Analytics to manage and track website performance, user behaviour and conversions. We also find Google Search Console to be a useful tool to manage organic traffic.
What is your hiring policy/process and how do you retain your employees?
Ana Andres: I always make sure that I provide my team with the tools and resources they need to be successful. This includes giving them the autonomy to make their own decisions, as well as the opportunity to grow professionally and personally.
When an employee feels empowered, they’re more likely to show up at work happy and ready to go. They also have a greater sense of ownership over their work, which can lead to higher productivity and better performance.
How are you funding your growth?
Ana Andres: We bootstrapped the business with some small investments from our co-founders and sweat equity. The business is now self-financing.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Ana Andres: There are hundreds of cleaning companies in and around London. We use our technology to differentiate ourselves. We allow customers to choose their cleaner and book them in real time in minutes.
We offer great value for money and customers’ ability to choose vetted cleaner profiles and see their reviews online before booking their cleaner. This is pretty unique. Our operations are hyper-efficient which allows us to scale fast. We have a strong technology focus and continuous innovation keeps us ahead of the competition.
Tell us a customer success story of yours.
Ana Andres: We are proud of the strong relationships between customers and professionals. During the Covid lockdowns many customers supported their cleaner financially when they could not work and the vast majority of bookings were resumed after lockdown. This shows that our business model works.
Your final thoughts?
Ana Andres: My final thoughts go to all people who want to set up their own business. It’s a difficult thing to do and it is important to remember that running a business is a marathon, not a sprint. There are steep hills and lonely stretches along the way. You need to accept you are going to make many mistakes so be kind to yourself. Success depends on a strong work ethic and an ability to listen and learn from customers and a flexibility to iterate. Maintain a positive mindset for the long haul, regardless of the challenges you encounter.
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