Senior marketing major Hannah Teschler is changing the way people clean in the area of Waco, Texas. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Teschler moved to Waco, Texas, to attend the Marketing school at Baylor University. The Mop Mob LLC is a blend of old and new and runs on the statement “a new school cleaning experience with an old school work ethic.” The Mop Mob LLC is a limited liability corporation, and Hannah Teschler is the sole owner.
History in the Making
The Mop Mob LLC started earlier this summer when Teschler was on LinkedIn and scrolled across a post by a lawyer in Fort Lauderdale named Jonathan Pollard. Teschler says, “He basically goes viral all the time on LinkedIn for saying things that no one else wants to say. He’ll post something crazy and then it will go viral because everyone is thinking it, but no one really says it.” Teschler explained that Pollard’s post read “People ask me all the time if I had a $1,000 to start a company, what company would I start and why.” Pollard explained that he would like to start a cleaning company. Teschler continues, “He said, ‘you know what, I’m so sure that this would work and I believe in what I am saying, so if anyone has a solid idea I would be open to granting that person the money to start the business.’”
As soon as Teschler saw the post—with her entrepreneurial mindset—she instantly thought it was a great idea. She explains, “Once you hear an idea, you start thinking about it, you start researching and you find out there’s a market for that and I happen to be in college.”
Teschler continued, “Personally, there have been so many times where my roommates and I have wanted to get our house cleaned and we didn’t know the right person to call, it’s hard to get quotes, it’s hard to know when and where to book.”
After Teschler submitted her pitch explaining how the money would be used and where it would go, Pollard ended up choosing her idea. Teschler explains, “he messaged me back and apparently he had a couple hundred people pitch ideas to him, but he liked the college aspect of mine.” Four days after Teschler saw Pollard’s post, the paperwork was sent and ready to go for The Mop Mob LLC. Teschler explains, “It’s pretty wild, I’ve only owned this business since early August.”
When it came to choosing a name for her company, Teschler explains, “Mop Mob was just catchy and fun.” She explains she was thinking in terms of “Best Buy’s Geek Squad.” Teschler says, “I thought how awesome would it be if I could send a Mop Boss to each house and they would have their own crew.” She continues, “So I did a play-off of the whole mob thing, I thought it was cute, especially since we are trying to gear towards college students, I thought it was a good opportunity to be different.” When it comes to cleaning, Teschler says, “It’s so typical and we’re trying to put a new school spin on cleaning because cleaning is viewed as an archaic thing. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we wanted to modernize it and make it more applicable to our generation, specifically.”
The Day-to-Day Operations
The Mop Mob LLC has a staff of six people, or “mob bosses,” who are either in college or recently out of college. Teschler explains, “The culture of our business attracted younger people to apply for positions because it’s a younger spin on cleaning and it has flexible schedules. When you have a cleaning company, it’s not a 9-5 job, some people hire you for a job where it will be 9-11, so it’s great for college schedules.” As a full-time student, she explains, “It’s not easy for me to get everywhere all the time. Luckily I have awesome employees, and we trained them really well, so I trust them to do the job I would do.” Teschler tries to be “on-site as much as possible to make sure that they are doing a good job,” and she explains that she usually shows up towards the end and does a walk through. When it comes to owning a business, Teschler explains, “You have to figure out when to step in and when to step back. If you are always there, your employees are never going to get it down perfectly.”
The Mop Mob LLC is only about a month old, so right now they are only available at Baylor University and surrounding areas in Waco. Teschler hopes to expand to other college campuses and surrounding areas as well. She explains, “I have people in Florida who want it there, I have a couple people in New York who are asking about it, a couple people in Austin.” For now, she’s just trying to take it slow and build the business into “a solid company.”
When it comes to choosing a level of service, The Mop Mob LLC recommends that you start with Deep Clean. Teschler explains, “Most of the houses we walk into haven’t been cleaned regularly and they should start out with a deep clean. First time customers usually start with the deep clean and then do bi-monthly or monthly standard cleans.” In simpler terms, the deep clean is the most popular for first time customers, and the standard clean is the most popular for experienced customers. The Mop Mob LLC also offers move in/move out cleanings, and Teschler explains that she has a crew that specializes in that area. She says, “We work with a lot of realty offices in Waco, and we go in before clients move in and get the place back to zero, and then when they move out we’re there to clean it up.”
What the Future Holds
Although she hopes to expand, Teschler explains “I wouldn’t look into expanding before I graduate, which is in May.” Before she expands her business, Teschler wants to perfect their formula, which is “a comprehensive list of everything that needs to be done and everything that we include in our packages, and we also need a strategy of where in the house to start, what to start with so we can increase cleaning time and efficiency. I want to have it set up so that we can ensure that the quality is the same in Waco as in Orlando or Manhattan or wherever we decide to expand.” You can’t predict the future but Teschler explains, “I am a big believer in whatever is supposed to happen will happen, and I am just there for the ride. But, hopefully this goes behind what it is and even if it stays the same I would still be very satisfied.”
Aside from running her company, on September 22, Teschler will be spreading awareness about the company through a program called “1 Million Cups,” which Teschler explains is similar to a TedTalk. Teschler also recently partnered with Cypress Fairbanks ISD to help out Houston after Hurricane Harvey. Teschler was able to get the word out and received donations and gathered cleaning supplies. She says, “It happened so quickly and we didn’t have a lot of time to advertise it, but it was cool how many people stepped up in such a short amount of time to donate and send supplies.”
She continues by saying, “One of the biggest things with Houston is they had a lot of people coming to help, but it was too crowded and too dangerous to do so. One of my friends is a school teacher down there and she was telling me about how we would actually be hurting them more if we all came at once and tried to be inside the cleanup process than if we just sent supplies down.” Weeks have passed since the hurricane hit and Teschler explains, “Now is the great time to get down there, get your hands dirty and help people muck out houses and clean.” In the next few weeks, Teschler hopes to go down to Houston with a few of her team members and help clean.
Owning your own company is hard work, especially if you are a college student, but Teschler explains her favorite thing about owning a cleaning company is “telling people how easy it is to be in control of your own life.” She says, “It’s really hard work a lot of the time, but people are always so amazed, they’re like ‘wow you have your own business’ and I always tell people if you believe in something, if you want to do something, it’s really not that hard to jump out there and do it. The hardest part is making the decision to go for it. It’s all about getting out there and doing your own thing. There are so many people in their late 50s/late 60s and are still dreaming and thinking about starting their own business, so my favorite part is being able to tell them ‘just do it!’”
If you are interested in hiring The Mop Mob LLC to tackle your cleaning needs, check out their website and social media accounts.
