Filip Boksa was only 19 years old and in high school when the bug to start a business bit him. Born in Krakow, Poland on May 17, 1993, Filip immigrated to the United States with his entrepreneurial parents and settled in Chicago, Illinois.
Away from school at The Oakton Community College in Illinois, he worked with his dad who tinkered with selling stuff on eBay, while his mother was a cleaner. It was while working with his dad that he felt this was not what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He longed for other personal challenges, his own money, and business.
And that’s how one fateful day he approached his best friend in school, Kamil Kowalkowski, with the idea of starting a cleaning business. They met several times over the coming days and each of them agreed to contribute $3,000 towards the venture.
Convinced that everything was in good order, the two worked like a well-oiled machine to bring their idea to fruition. In May 2013, therefore, they founded the cleaning company called King of Maids with no experience in cleaning, no loans and any connections. The only business experience he had was the little he gained watching his dad.
This is the story of a 19-year-old young boy who believed in himself and in his vision to drop out of school to build it. And the universe aligned. At this early stage, he had started and scaled a cleaning business to $5 Million in Revenue by the age of 22.
The Rise of King of Maids
The King of Maids founders did their research. They found out that there are over one million cleaning businesses in the United States. They also learned that there was still a projected market growth in the sector. The cleaning business was expected to grow by 6.1% annually. Evidently an opportunity waiting to be taken.
The budding entrepreneurs first reached out to a developer to help them develop a platform or website where clients could book cleaning services. This was a time when developing websites was still very expensive. Needless to say, no reliable software existed for effective scheduling at the time.
Most of their combined initial capital investment of $6000, therefore, went into the development of the website and online booking form. Only $500 remained for marketing and with that they managed to get enough first clients to generate recurring revenue.
Thankfully, today, courtesy of Filip Boksa and Vivek Prajapati, the man who built the website for him, a cheaper easier-to-use platform exists. Much later when he was 24, after working for him to build his website, Vivek became a friend of Filip and together they built Booking Koala through his experiences at King of Maids. With this software, Booking Koala, you only need less than $1000 now to start a cleaning business.
Once the King of Maids website was up and running, they targeted to use their simple online booking form to have clients order for services.
Attracting the First Customers.
Once their simple online booking system had been tested and up running, they needed to reach their first customers. They went on to the free classified advertisements website, Craigslist. They started incessantly advertising on Craigslist, and it was largely free. They posted ads nonstop.
Once they got one customer and the first cleaning job was done, they pushed the customer for reviews. They would then have the satisfied customers post the reviews on the social products and services review website, Yelp.
This process was repeated for each customer they got on Craigslist. In their race to the top, they believed that if they could rank highly on Yelp, they would attract more clients and generate more revenue.
Fate smiled on them early and to their good fortune, a chunk of their contented customers signed for recurring business. They would say they want weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly services. This was their turning point. They now had a portion of certain monthly income.
Gradually, Yelp picked up and business went on a boom. This was the proof of concept they had been waiting for. They now knew the cleaning market was not saturated and that if they put in extra effort, they were in for a life-changing opportunity.
Dropping out of school to pursue his dream.
Surprisingly, things were moving so fast, exceeding their initial expectations. With Craigslist churning in customers and Yelp ranking them highly, Filip dropped out of school to concentrate on King of Maids. He had only been at the Oakton Community College for one year. And now he was leaving it, what friends called his future, for a future of cleaning people’s homes.
They needed someone to do persistent marketing, to work with providers to clean homes, and to collect cash and checks once cleaning was done. In these formative stages, Filip felt he had to step in to help grow the business.
With his full entry into the arena, the business witnessed exponential growth in the next three years that would leave tongues wagging. Three years later when he turned 22, the business was posting Revenue of over $5 million.
Marketing Strategies used at King of Maids
- Focused on online customers and building services around them.
- Online booking system tailored to convert traffic that came to the website.
- Customer portal to help schedule, reschedule bookings, and cancel, among others.
- Use of the classified advertisements website, Craigslist.
- Yelp – needed to get ranking on Yelp for more businesses. Pushed those they got on Craigslist to review on Yelp.
- After several months, gained reviews and Yelp ranked them on the first page.
Current Performance
Today, King of Maids posts profits of between $400,000 – $500,000 per year after taxes and Filip says the business comfortably finances his lifestyle and everything he needs.
Building the online booking platform BookingKoala.
As Filip Boksa worked in his company King of Maids, he developed a relationship with the man who developed his website, Vivek Prajapati. The two saw firsthand how difficult it was to have a scheduling platform that could be easy to use for both service providers and customers. They decided to perfect the website that King of Maids was using and build something anybody offering services could use.
The first hurdle was behind him. He had started and scaled a cleaning business to $5Million revenue by age of 22. the next challenge was beckoning. In 2017, at the age of 24, he and Vivek began building an online software to actualize this reality. For the next year, they would burn the midnight oil and release the final usable product to the public in 2018. That is how BookingKoala was born.
BookingKoala is an online scheduling software that now helps businesses manage appointments, bookings, and schedules efficiently. The software is now used by thousands of entrepreneurs across the globe and has significantly cut down the cost of starting a service business.
Lessons in Business and Entrepreneurship and Memorable Quotes from Filip Boksa.
- I don’t believe in saturation. The market always gives room for quality. If you offer a good product or service, the market will create room for you.
- There are two important things if you want to start a business. One, start right away. And two, set yourself up with the right mindset for scalability from the outset. Make sure everything is scalable from software to procedure manuals, managers, etc. For example, if you are the funder and are doing the actual cleaning, you are not setting yourself up for scalability. As the founder, free yourself to do marketing and grow the business.
- Switch to online payments only, If you still have to run around collecting cash and check payments, you are not setting yourself up for scalability.
- Starting and building a business is a marathon, not a sprint. Work hard, work smart, and above all, execute.
- Do not stress profits, focus on your online image. Sell at break-even if that means more reviews, more testimonials, and more publicity.
- If you need to hire service providers, go to Craigslist, Glassdoor, indeed, or Monster. Once you get people, do a background check then have them sign an agreement.
- Don’t pay for ads or leads until you make money organically. Use a platform such as Yelp that can bring in organic traffic.
Other Words of Wisdom
- Once you have reached around $5000 a month in Revenue, start experimenting with paid ads. It is at this point you can advertise. You can also begin SEO to help you bring in more customers or look for something else that can bring in more customers.
- Once you get three quality market channels, you can expand your business or services, for example adding office cleaning, mobile car cleaning, etc. You can also decide to go into a new area.
- Only began dating at 26. Filip says you can’t build a relationship and build a business at the same time. When you are serious about your goals, you don’t want anything to stand in your way. Starting a relationship requires a lot of work that should be saved for its time.
- Become financially free early to save money to fund your future ideas and a comfortable lifestyle.
- ‘When I started my first business at 19, I still lived with my parents. Leverage this because I had time, and didn’t pay for living expenses. If you still have such luxury, don’t waste it.
- No risk, no reward. That’s the only way I scaled a cleaning business to $5 Million revenue by age of 22.
- Don’t prioritize your business over your health. There is always time to go for a walk or get that workout in.
- If you have unhappy employees, your business won’t go anywhere.
Conclusion on Starting and Scaling a Cleaning Business to $5 Million in Revenue by the age of 22.
Filip bought off his co-founder’s shares of King of Maids in 2016 and now fully owns the cleaning company. While his partner pursued other interests, they remain the best of friends.
Today, Filip’s wife Greta runs King of Maids fully as the owner and manager while Filip dedicates his time to BookingKoala.
This is a story of youthful grit and grind like no other. It teaches young and old people alike the power of vision and the determination to execute. It reminds budding entrepreneurs that each should have a fierce agency to build wealth as soon as they can. A burning desire to be different plucked Filip out of college and catapulted him into the world of entrepreneurship. So early in his life.
Without this discipline and hard work, he wouldn’t have started and scaled a cleaning business to $5 Million revenue by age of 22. The result is two hugely successful companies, King of Maids and BookingKoala. Two entities that have not only changed his life but continue to impact that of others.
Related articles: He built a Home Cleaning Business from $0-$30000 in 30 days.
A school dropout, battling cancer, and building a $30 Million startup.
How two Teen Brothers Turned Junk into Gold.
She built a 7-Figure Digital Empire with a $1200 Stimulus check.
She turned her last $5 into a $ 10 Million Baking Empire.
Crystal Clear Success: The inspiring story of two Buddies’ Window Cleaning Startup.
