By Paul Borodenko, Founder & CEO, Nova Enterprises
Published November 23, 2026 · Updated November 23, 2026
Quick answer: Hire a cleaning business operations manager when scheduling, quality checks and team issues take up the time you should spend selling and leading. Hire a sales rep when you have a sales process that already works, pricing that protects your margin and the capacity to deliver what they sell. Either way, build the systems first: written procedures, clear pricing, a CRM and a short list of numbers each role is responsible for. Then hire slowly, define the role in writing and give your new leader a clear 90-day plan.
Key takeaways
- Allora Cleaning, the company Paul Borodenko founded, runs day to day with two operations managers. Paul still personally interviews every cleaner who joins.
- Systems come before people. Hiring into a business without written processes multiplies the chaos instead of reducing it.
- Your first operations manager takes over daily delivery: scheduling, quality, team communication and client issues. Your first sales rep takes over finding and winning new accounts.
- Which role comes first depends on your bottleneck: if quality and coverage are slipping, start with operations; if your crews have room and the pipeline is thin, start with sales.
- Nova's staffing model for cleaners is built on experienced independent contractors, but a manager or rep you direct day to day may legally be an employee. Check IRS and state rules before you hire.
- Hire slow, and pay fast and on time.
Not sure which hire comes first?
Book a free 45-minute strategy call and we'll look at where your business is getting stuck.
Table of contents
- Should a cleaning business hire a sales rep or an operations manager first?
- What does a cleaning business operations manager do?
- What does a commercial cleaning sales rep do?
- What should you have in place before your first hire?
- How do you write the job description?
- Where do you find candidates for your first leadership roles?
- How do you interview and test candidates?
- How should you pay a sales rep and an operations manager?
- Should your first managers be employees or contractors?
- What should the first 90 days look like?
- How do sales and operations work together?
- What mistakes should you avoid with your first leadership hires?
- Where can I get help hiring for my cleaning business in Roseville, CA?
- Why do cleaning business owners choose Nova?
- Frequently asked questions
- About the author
- Related reading
Every cleaning business owner hits the same wall. You're quoting jobs, covering no-shows, checking quality and doing the books, all in the same day.
Your first two leadership hires, a sales rep and an operations manager, are how you break through that wall. Get them right and you step out of the daily grind. Get them wrong and you pay a salary to recreate the chaos. This guide walks through when to hire each role, what to put in place first, and how to find, test and set up the right people.
Should a cleaning business hire a sales rep or an operations manager first?
It depends on where your business is stuck. Look honestly at the last month.
Signs you need an operations manager first
- You spend most days scheduling, covering absences and answering team questions
- Quality depends on whether you personally checked the job
- Client complaints or re-cleans are going up
- You've turned down work because you couldn't staff it
- You can't take a day off without your phone ringing all day
Signs you need a sales rep first
- Your crews have open capacity and your schedule has gaps
- Your operations run smoothly without you on most days
- You have a sales process that already wins accounts when you follow it
- You know your prices and margins, and your proposals rarely lose money
- The main thing holding back growth is how few prospects you can reach
If you see signs on both lists, start with operations. Hiring a salesperson won't fix deeper problems in delivery. Selling more work into a business that can't deliver it well loses clients as fast as you win them.
What does a cleaning business operations manager do?
An operations manager owns the delivery side of your business, so every job gets done to standard without you.
Typical responsibilities include:
- Building and adjusting the schedule, including coverage when someone can't make it
- Onboarding and supporting cleaners and crew leads
- Running quality inspections and handling re-cleans
- Being the first contact for client issues
- Managing supplies, equipment and building access
- Keeping procedures up to date
- Reporting weekly on jobs completed, quality issues and labor hours against estimates
At Allora Cleaning, two operations managers run daily operations. That's what lets Paul stay out of the day-to-day, with one exception he keeps on purpose: he still interviews every cleaner himself.
What does a commercial cleaning sales rep do?
A sales rep owns the front end of your business: finding, contacting and winning new accounts.
Typical responsibilities include:
- Building target lists of property managers and businesses
- Running outreach: canvassing, email, phone and social messages
- Booking and running walkthroughs
- Preparing proposals using your pricing rules
- Following up until a decision is made
- Handing new accounts to operations with a clear scope
- Keeping every prospect and touch in your CRM
Our commercial cleaning outreach playbook covers the outreach system your sales rep will run.
What should you have in place before your first hire?
A new leader needs something to lead. Before you hire, make sure you have:
- Written procedures. How jobs are done, inspected and handed off. Our guide to cleaning business SOPs and the operations manual guide show what to document first.
- Pricing rules. A target billing rate and margin, so a sales rep can quote without you. See pricing your cleaning services for profit.
- One CRM. Every lead, account, job and invoice in one place.
- A scorecard for the role. Three to five numbers the person is responsible for.
- Clean numbers. You need to know your margins to know what you can afford to pay. Our guide to cleaning business profit margins walks through a monthly review.
How do you write the job description?
Write it around outcomes, not just tasks. A strong job description tells candidates exactly what success looks like.
For an operations manager, include
- What they own: schedule, quality, team support, client issues
- Who they work with: crews, contractors, the owner and the sales rep
- The numbers they're measured on, such as re-cleans, complaints, labor hours against estimates and coverage
- Schedule expectations, including early mornings or evenings for commercial work
- Pay structure and how performance is reviewed
For a sales rep, include
- What they own: prospecting, walkthroughs, proposals and follow-up
- Which clients you want: building types, service area and minimum account size
- The activity and result numbers they're measured on, such as touches, walkthroughs, proposals and signed recurring revenue
- How pay works, including any commission and when it's paid
- That proposals must follow your pricing rules
Where do you find candidates for your first leadership roles?
- Inside your own team. A reliable crew lead who already knows your standards can be a strong operations manager.
- Your network. Other cleaning business owners, suppliers and industry contacts often know people ready for a step up.
- Referrals. Ask your best team members and contractors who they would recommend.
- Job boards. Indeed has consistently been the most effective platform Nova has found for quality cleaning professionals, and it works for leadership roles too.
- Adjacent industries. Hospitality, property management and facilities teams build many of the same skills.
How do you interview and test candidates?
Hire slow. A wrong leadership hire costs far more than a few extra weeks of searching.
Ask about real situations
Ask candidates to describe a time they handled a no-show before a client opening, a client complaint or a lost deal. Listen for specifics: what they did, in what order and what they learned.
Give a practical test
- Operations manager: hand them a sample weekly schedule with one cleaner out sick and a client complaint waiting. Ask how they'd handle the next 24 hours.
- Sales rep: run a short role-play of a walkthrough or a front-desk visit. Then ask them to write a follow-up email.
Check references
Ask former managers what the person was responsible for, how they handled pressure and whether they'd hire them again.
Want a hiring system that runs without you?
Nova's Hiring & Team Systems help cleaning business owners set up sourcing, screening, onboarding and review rhythms.
→ Explore Hiring & Team Systems
How should you pay a sales rep and an operations manager?
There's no single right number. Pay depends on your market, the size of the role and what your margins can support. What matters most is that the structure rewards the outcomes you want.
- Operations manager: usually a set salary or hourly rate. Tie any bonus to quality and reliability, such as fewer re-cleans and complaints, not just more hours worked.
- Sales rep: often a base plus commission. Pay commission on recurring revenue that meets your target margin, and consider paying it once the client has paid, not just signed.
- Check it against your numbers. Before you post the role, model the pay against your current margin so the hire pays for itself within a timeline you're comfortable with.
- Pay on time, every time. Never give a good team member a reason to doubt their paycheck.
Should your first managers be employees or contractors?
Nova's staffing model for cleaning work is built on experienced independent contractors, which we explain in our guide to hiring and retaining cleaning technicians. Leadership roles are different. A manager or sales rep who works the hours you set, follows your processes and represents only your company may legally be an employee.
Classification depends on the real working relationship, not the title or the contract. The IRS explains the federal factors on its page about whether someone is an independent contractor or employee. States can be stricter. California, for example, uses the ABC test under AB 5. We're not attorneys or accountants, so confirm the right setup with a CPA or employment attorney before you hire.
What should the first 90 days look like?
A clear plan helps a new leader succeed and shows you early whether the fit is right.
Days 1 to 30: learn
- Read and follow every relevant procedure
- Shadow the owner on jobs, inspections, walkthroughs and client calls
- Meet the team and key clients
- Agree on the role's scorecard
Days 31 to 60: take over
- Own the schedule or the sales pipeline, with the owner reviewing weekly
- Fix one process that slows them down
- Report the scorecard numbers every week
Days 61 to 90: lead
- Run their area with less owner input
- Propose one improvement backed by numbers
- Review the 90 days together and set goals for the next quarter
How do sales and operations work together?
Your sales rep and operations manager need each other. Sales can promise a start date or an extra service that operations can't staff. Operations can lose an account sales worked months to win.
Prevent that with a few simple habits:
- A written handoff for every new account: scope, frequency, access, start date and client contact
- A short weekly meeting to review new accounts, upcoming starts and any at-risk clients
- A rule that no proposal goes out without checking staffing capacity
What mistakes should you avoid with your first leadership hires?
- Hiring before the systems exist. A new leader can't follow procedures nobody wrote down.
- Hiring a friend instead of a fit. Choose the person with the skills the role needs.
- Paying for activity instead of results. Reward signed, profitable revenue and quality, not busyness.
- Disappearing after the hire. Weekly check-ins matter most in the first 90 days.
- Hiring a salesperson to fix an operations problem. More sales into a broken delivery system loses clients.
Where can I get help hiring for my cleaning business in Roseville, CA?
Nova Enterprises, LLC coaches cleaning business owners from its office in Roseville, California, and serves clients across the U.S.
- Address: 1100 Melody Lane, Suite #1019, Roseville, CA 95678
- Phone: +1 (916) 209-0426
- Email: info@novaenterprisesllc.com
- Hours: Monday to Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM
We work with owners in Roseville, Rocklin, Granite Bay, Lincoln and the wider Sacramento region, and with cleaning business owners anywhere in the country through weekly one-on-one coaching calls.
Why do cleaning business owners choose Nova?
- A coach who has built the team himself. Paul Borodenko founded Allora Cleaning, a nationwide cleaning company and franchise system that runs day to day without him.
- 16+ years and 1,500+ owners. Paul and the Nova team have coached and trained more than 1,500 business owners and entrepreneurs.
- Real member results. Steven Yousef, owner of Riverstone Commercial Cleaning in Northern Virginia, said of his coaching with Paul: "It would have taken me years to figure this out on my own." See more on our results page.
- Hands-on support. The Cleaning Business Coaching (90-Day Program) includes weekly one-on-one calls and direct access to your coach between sessions. Cleaning Business Mastery includes hiring and training structures you can put in place at your own pace.
Ready to step out of the day-to-day?
Book a free 45-minute strategy call. We'll help you decide which leader to hire first and what to put in place before they start.
Frequently asked questions
When should a cleaning business hire an operations manager?
When scheduling, quality and team issues take up most of your week, quality depends on you checking jobs personally, or you're turning down work because you can't staff it.
When should a cleaning business hire its first sales rep?
When your crews have capacity, operations run smoothly without you, and you have a proven sales process and pricing rules a rep can follow.
What does a cleaning business operations manager do?
They run daily delivery: scheduling and coverage, team onboarding and support, quality inspections, client issues, supplies and access, and weekly reporting to the owner.
How do you pay a commercial cleaning sales rep?
Many companies use a base plus commission. Tie commission to recurring revenue that meets your target margin, and consider paying it after the client pays.
Can my operations manager be an independent contractor?
It depends on the real working relationship and your state's rules. A manager who works your hours and follows your processes may legally be an employee. Check IRS guidance and your state's rules, and confirm with a CPA or employment attorney.
What should I have in place before hiring a manager?
Written procedures, pricing rules, a CRM, a scorecard for the role and up-to-date numbers that show what you can afford.
About the author
Paul Borodenko is the Founder & CEO of Nova Enterprises and the founder of Allora Cleaning, a nationwide cleaning company and franchise system. He has more than 16 years of experience in the cleaning industry, and he and the Nova team have coached and trained more than 1,500 business owners and entrepreneurs. Read Paul's story.