Cleaning and Cocktails

🎙️✨ In this empowering episode of Cleaning & Cocktails, we sit down with entrepreneur, systems strategist, and community-driven leader Dominique Williams! 🌟

🚀 Dominique is a master at helping business owners scale smarter, systemize operations, and reclaim their time without sacrificing growth. As the President of C&C Cleaning Services, Lexi’s Drink Barn, and Demure Lounge, Dominique leads thriving ventures while mentoring other entrepreneurs on how to step out of daily operations—and into freedom.

🧠 With a no-fluff, all-systems approach, Dominique shares how to:→ Build businesses that run and grow without your constant involvement→ Implement systems that create clarity, consistency, and scalability→ Assemble strong teams with accountability and ownership→ Prepare your company for absentee ownership or acquisition

💡 In this episode, Dominique breaks down how to go from being stuck in the weeds to operating like a true CEO. Whether you're in the cleaning industry, hospitality, or any service-based business, this conversation is packed with real-world strategies to help you regain your time and unlock exponential growth.

🎯 Perfect for founders doing $1M–$10M+ in revenue who feel overworked, trapped in the day-to-day, or ready to scale with purpose—this episode is your blueprint for operational freedom and long-term success.

🌍 Tune in as we explore leadership, leverage, and legacy with one of Indiana’s most intuitive and impactful business builders.
Connect with Dominique:
🔗 LinkedIn – Dominique Williams

🚀 Stay tuned for more stories of innovation and leadership from the frontlines of the commercial cleaning and facility services world.

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C&C powered by:🌐 Route - A platform of business management tools for Sales, Operations, Subcontracting, Community & Education. We are improving the business of cleaning by connecting the entire industry!Join Route Nation! www.getroute.com

#CleaningAndCocktails #FacilitiesManagement #JanitorialIndustry #ProcurementStrategy #LeadershipDevelopment #BuildingServiceContractors #CommercialCleaning #VendorManagement #Entrepreneurship #CleaningProfessionals #BusinessGrowth #OperationalExcellence #FacilityInnovation #BSCNetwork #CleaningIndustry

Creators and Guests

Host
Ricardo Regalado

What is Cleaning and Cocktails?

Welcome to Cleaning & Cocktails! I’m your host, Ricky Regalado CVO of Rozalado Services, Founder & CEO of Route.

In this show, we highlight the cleaning industry by sharing valuable stories, practical tips, and expert insights from cleaning business owners and professionals. Our mission is to elevate the cleaning sector and act as a guiding light for everyone involved.

So go ahead and grab your favorite Cocktail or Mocktail and enjoy the show as we dive into discussions that talk about the challenges and successes we all face. Our goal is to unite the community under a shared mission:
“We are building a **StrongerTogether Community**.”

Ricardo Regalado:

Hey, everybody. It's Ricky Regalado here on-site, on set at another Cleaning and Cocktails episode with a a great guest, a good friend of mine. We've been getting to know each other over the years. You guys know how much I love these on-site episodes where, again, Cleaning Cocktails, we share the stories. We share the peaks, the valleys of people in the cleaning industry.

Ricardo Regalado:

Dom is not just in the cleaning industry, but he's in many industries, you guys, and just a fellow serial entrepreneur. You know? So I got Dom Williams here from Cleaning Wise. He is from CNC Cleaning in Indiana. They also service Michigan.

Ricardo Regalado:

I'm gonna let him talk about himself deeper, but I just wanna give a proper intro, Dom. You know, sometimes I let the guests do the intro.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

In your case, I wanna do the intro for you because, dude, we're not cut from the same cloth, man. I feel like the the where you're going and where you're at and what your passions are Mhmm. Are similar to mine. So I thought the list would be pretty cool to talk about. You know, you own CNC Cleaning out of Indiana.

Ricardo Regalado:

You own a a restaurant bar as well, Lexi's Drink Barn.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

You own you're involved with real estate, which you know I am here. Right? We're at our building here.

Dominique Williams:

We are.

Ricardo Regalado:

You got Hire Who, who is also now known as WhoHire Yep. Which is in the software space. Again, check that box. Yeah. We also have the Entrepreneur Exchange, which you're doing workshops and you're coaching.

Ricardo Regalado:

I don't believe just the cleaning industry, but just business owners in general. Right? Right. So, yes, the list is going to go on and on. We're going to talk about more.

Ricardo Regalado:

But I just thought it it was cool to bring Dom on. To me, he's he's a young younger version of myself growing in this space, and you're gonna hear and see how the passion just oozes out of this guy. So, Dom, without further ado, remember, this is the line. Okay? Watch your hands.

Ricardo Regalado:

Don't cross the line. Okay? I move my hands a He's a hand mover just like me. So, Doc, without further ado, we always start off with how did you get involved in the cleaning industry, especially you at such a young age?

Dominique Williams:

Yeah. So first of all, Ricky, appreciate you having me on. I started the cleaning company in 2011 right after graduating high school. I was always interested in business at 12 years old, selling candy. I actually had other students selling candy at different schools throughout the whole county.

Dominique Williams:

So I had employees at 12

Ricardo Regalado:

So you

Dominique Williams:

already had employees? Yeah. We've doing this employee thing for a long time.

Ricardo Regalado:

The 99 or w two? Neither. Neither. So,

Dominique Williams:

but either or. So I've been doing that for a long time. Ended up starting a clothing line in high school. Hated that, right? And then at 18, I'm like, know, what's the one business that I can start that's going to be reoccurring?

Dominique Williams:

It's super, super low cost to entry and it was cleaning. So we started doing residential cleaning and we eventually transitioned to, you know, doing commercial buildings as well, like small offices, and now we do large facilities as well. So now we do residential and commercial throughout the state of Indiana and in Michigan. So

Ricardo Regalado:

So okay. So goosebumps here because I was 30 when I started. Yeah.

Dominique Williams:

Right? I'm 31 today.

Ricardo Regalado:

31 when I freaking started. So before I get into you as a person, because I do have a quick bullet points and some notes that I wanna share with the audience as as I don't think I've ever done that with with some of the guests, but for you, I I wanted to share that just because, again, seeing you and my first impression of you

Dominique Williams:

Mhmm.

Ricardo Regalado:

It was dude, like, I could tell. Like, you're you're trying to do something within a space. You're hungry to learn more. But let's take take a step back, though. Like, at your graduating high school

Dominique Williams:

Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

You decide that cleaning is what was that how did that decision come to be though? Like, did you research at 18 years old, or how

Dominique Williams:

did how

Ricardo Regalado:

did you figure out cleaning was

Dominique Williams:

Now you know we don't research. I mean, let's be honest. Like, at 18 years old, you didn't know that there was a community of other people striving to build a business like in the cleaning space, right? So it literally was, you know, hey, I want to do business. I have a passion.

Dominique Williams:

Like when people say, you know, what are you passionate about? I'm passionate about entrepreneurship. It's the truth. It doesn't matter what business you're in, what industry you're in specifically for me to talk about business with you. So at 18, I'm like, what business am I gonna start that I can afford to start?

Dominique Williams:

And at the time it was cleaning. Now, I would probably need more money to start it the way I'm at now. But at that time it was like literally $500. It was a big, you know, white van unmarked and yeah, we started. So like, that's what gave me the ump to start that at the time.

Ricardo Regalado:

No. I mean and and it's I feel like it's there's two sides to that. Right? One is it's easy to get into. It's very affordable.

Dominique Williams:

Yep.

Ricardo Regalado:

But as we'll talk about throughout the session, is it's difficult to then maintain and then grow. Right? So we're gonna talk about those For sure.

Dominique Williams:

Those about those hurdles.

Ricardo Regalado:

Hurdles. Ups and downs. But I did wanna touch on because I wanna start doing this more on on the episodes is when I think of you and I see your story, you know, again, we've only known each other, I think, since 2022 Yep. Right, in in DC. And well, we've gotten to know each other more and more.

Ricardo Regalado:

I think of passionate love, grit, desire, hunger, and humility. Appreciate that. You know, because you show up every time. Mhmm. And I send you a message, you answer.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah. You're very active. Right? So, again, just not saying that everybody needs to be, but I could see where this passion for entrepreneurship comes from it. So I just wanna give you a kudos.

Dominique Williams:

Appreciate that.

Ricardo Regalado:

So let's talk about question number one, which you are part of, I consider, the younger segment that's coming up in the industry, but you're really not you're not young as far as in the industry, though. You've been in the industry for ten plus years now. Yeah. Started in residential.

Dominique Williams:

Okay.

Ricardo Regalado:

Let's touch on when when was that moment you knew that you wanted to go from residential to commercial? So

Dominique Williams:

it it all started organically. Right? So as as we're out marketing for, you know, residential clients, people are just like, you know, we we got got this office for you to clean for once a week or this office. And while I was starting the cleaning company, I also had two full time jobs. Was working at Sears.

Dominique Williams:

Have you ever heard of Sears?

Ricardo Regalado:

No, I mean, God bless. I don't think they're around much And

Dominique Williams:

then actually they had their tower here, right? In Chicago.

Ricardo Regalado:

No longer Sears.

Dominique Williams:

So Sears and then I was also working at Avis Car Rental. So my first two commercial accounts was Avis Car Rental and it was an eye doctor that was in the mall right next door to Sears. So I was just using my, you know, connections and whatnot. And then it started from there. I was like, you know what?

Dominique Williams:

These commercial accounts, a little bit easier in the sense of complaints when you compare it to the residential and it's consistent revenue. So those two aspects was like, I'm gonna start looking more into this. And then once I started to actually find the community for it and other entrepreneurs doing big things in the commercial space, that's when I realized, okay, wanna get into this.

Ricardo Regalado:

But take us timeline wise, when was that?

Dominique Williams:

Oh, so that would have been probably in 2012, 2013. Mhmm. And then it really wasn't until 2020. 2018, 2020 until I'm like, I wanna really get

Ricardo Regalado:

You're get serious. Mhmm. Okay. Yeah. So CNC cleaning is the original is that the original baby that you had?

Ricardo Regalado:

And now it just evolved and expanded into what it

Dominique Williams:

is now? Yeah. So CNC cleaning, I started there. It's based off my it's named after my great grandparents. And the re the way we got into Michigan is we actually acquired a commercial cleaning company last year in 2024, and we just merged those together.

Ricardo Regalado:

Okay. So Yep. You guys heard that acquisition. We're gonna touch on that later on. So alright.

Ricardo Regalado:

So then people a lot of people may come and go from the industry, but it's funny when you talk to the people that have been in it for a while, they're like, once you're in, there you just don't leave because there's so much opportunity and just this under you know, just this passion that you feel. Yeah. What what is it about the cleaning industry that excites you? Obviously, we talked about reoccurring revenue and the ability to grow, but any other things that excites you?

Dominique Williams:

So the one thing that excites me the best, especially like when I'm going to networking events or conferences and whatnot, is everyone has a story on like how they entered into the business. Some people have, like you with your dad and whatnot, that story is great, right? So everyone has a story in the sense of like how they enter the business. I love that. I mean, the other thing I love about, you know, just the the commercial space besides the reoccurring revenue is the professionalism that you can bring to it.

Dominique Williams:

Right? When I first started cleaning, it's just like, oh, mopping floors and cleaning toilets. But when you get into the commercial space, sometimes you gotta put on a suit jacket. Sometimes you gotta go in and that stuff's challenging. And for me, for entrepreneurship, I love that.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah. So

Ricardo Regalado:

So it's easy. Okay. Not maybe the word easy, but it is in your benefit as an entrepreneur who really looks at yourself as a professional. Correct. Because that's the thing.

Ricardo Regalado:

There's there's a lot of people in our space. One guy in particular, if you ever met him, Frank Trevassani from Spartan Chemical always says, it's time to professionalize this business. Mhmm. Like, you can really differentiate yourself if you show up. You know, I got it.

Ricardo Regalado:

It doesn't have to always be in a suit. Right? But, like, how don't show up. Brandy guy. Come on.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah. I wear a sports coat. I

Dominique Williams:

almost wore a

Ricardo Regalado:

suit today. You know? But, like but treat it as a profession, and you you will stick out. Yep. You will stand out even in the commercial side.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yep. I mean, that's that's the crazy part. It allows for the ability to to again, it's fragmented, man. You know some of the stats that I've thrown out there. You know, 90% of the industry not being able to hit a million in revenue when there's over a million cleaning companies.

Ricardo Regalado:

Like, that really shows you, like, holy cow. Like, just show up, be professional, represent yourself, and doors will open. Yep. So now let's let's talk about because there's a couple things I wanna get into. So sticking with CNC, even though as young as you are, there's still an not an end in sight, but like there's goals and aspirations for yourself.

Ricardo Regalado:

Mhmm. Like, what is, you know, like they always call it that big hairy audacious goal that you have for yourself with CNC? Yeah.

Dominique Williams:

So I would say, you know, my big goal with with the cleaning company specifically, that's a hard one.

Ricardo Regalado:

As a visionary or an entrepreneur, you probably like, is there an end and near?

Dominique Williams:

No, I don't think there's an end in near and I'll be honest, sometimes it changes, right? Like sometimes we're in love with what we're doing. Sometimes we're like, let's just sell this whole thing. Let's be honest. For me, the reason why I can't answer that question as far as like, what's the end goal is because cleaning and my cleaning company specifically has created so many other opportunities for me.

Dominique Williams:

So my other businesses that we can talk about, all of those were created and stemmed from how blessed I've been in the cleaning industry. Yep. But if I was to put a number to it, you know, we wanna do, you know, a 100,000,000, we wanna, you know, sell it to someone, but that's exciting sometimes, but sometimes it's just exciting to just keep building and

Ricardo Regalado:

No. So that that's a that's a great segue to a question I was gonna talk about later on. But and I'm sure you've had this conversation, but like, I'll talk to a lot of people and I'll say owning the cleaning company, like, don't get rich owning the cleaning company.

Dominique Williams:

Right.

Ricardo Regalado:

In in my opinion. Right? Yeah. I'm sure you share the same sentiment, but it opens the doors for everything else.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

So to your point, when people say what's the big hairy, audacious goal? I mean, you're spot on. Like, at some point, maybe exit. Yeah. But, like Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

For now, it's a great foundation.

Dominique Williams:

It's the

Ricardo Regalado:

core of everything. So as that grows and gets bigger, everything else gets gets bigger too. So I what what do you say to people when when they say, oh, you know, I I only have the cleaning company. It has to be my everything. Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

Like, is there is there is there a moment that you knew it was, you know, what it's gonna open up the doors for anything? Or did you already know that going into it that, hey, this is gonna be my door opener to everything So

Dominique Williams:

I wouldn't say I knew that originally. I knew for a fact that I wanted to be in business. I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I knew that. I wanted to be an entrepreneur.

Dominique Williams:

I was saying that word before it was sexy. Now it's sexy. Yeah. What I'll say is, I think when the cleaning industry or commercial cleaning for sure, it opens up the opportunity to say, you know what, I've got cash flow. I can now, you know, now that this is stabilized, I can go and start that new business on the side, I can go acquire this other business as well.

Dominique Williams:

So for me, I've done that time and time again.

Ricardo Regalado:

So you would, I mean, you gotta be a believer too. And like, it's leverage. You start to gain leverage from the banking potential or just business potential. People now trust. Hey, Dom started CNC and it's crude it's crude to this, invested in here.

Ricardo Regalado:

Like, it really does give you seats at the table that you don't

Dominique Williams:

even And stability too. Right? Like, cause there is a stigma per se where it's like, hey, entrepreneurs are doing all these different things. So like, you're not great at anything. But when you create something, cleaning company, and you're like, hey, I've been doing this since 2011, it's still stable.

Dominique Williams:

We've got a couple 100 employees, right? And then when you go off and start those companies, they know like, Hey, it's still started here at the cleaning company. So I think that's the difference because you don't wanna just go as an entrepreneur and just keep starting a whole bunch of different things, but you do wanna diversify. COVID showed us that.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah. And it makes it makes sense if you stick in within the same realm or just, again, whatever opportunity knocks, like, does it make sense to open that door and and go through? And some doors you've probably opened and

Dominique Williams:

Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

Got it slammed right in your face.

Dominique Williams:

That's right. Like, that's

Ricardo Regalado:

that's the name of the game.

Dominique Williams:

That's the name of the game.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah. So let let's talk about some of the other businesses, and we'll circle back. This one in particular, I think, is relevant within the cleaning space because you're a fellow techpreneur. Yeah. You've you've you founded and started a software company.

Ricardo Regalado:

Talk to me a little bit about when did that what when did the idea come up? Was did you have a passion for technology before you started it? Or take us through that.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah, so Hire Who

Ricardo Regalado:

Who Hire?

Dominique Williams:

It's Who Hire Now, it's Who Hire Now, but basically it was an applicant tracking system. And what I used to call it was an advanced applicant tracking system because advanced sounded a little bit better. But it sped up the hiring process and it automated a ton of the process for people. So this was before ChatGPT came out and AI was a huge conversation, but I was just struggling getting staff. I was struggling getting staff for my cleaning business.

Dominique Williams:

We were just constantly having turnover, we're constantly having turnover. So we created a platform to where we could organize that process. We could organize people applying on Indeed and automating all the way to the interview. So now when, you know, someone applies or when we get a new account, let's say we have an account and we need twenty, thirty people, we would hire those people within seven days easily. Wow.

Dominique Williams:

Right? Because it's all automated. So I took an exit from that company, I think two, three years ago, I think two years ago, either or took an exit and it's now called WhoHire. And I still have a small ownership in it And they have implemented a ton of AI into it, a ton of predictive hiring. So now they can actually predict for the employer whether or not that person's going to be a flight risk or not.

Dominique Williams:

Wow. And how long they're gonna stick with your company. So those are some different things that they've done and they've done really well with the product.

Ricardo Regalado:

So how does that make you feel? Like that was Great,

Dominique Williams:

it makes me feel great. Like I got, you know, I'll get videos or photos from some of my friends. They'll be like, Hey man, this looks just like your company. I'm like, oh, it is. You know, they're like, oh, they changed them.

Dominique Williams:

Like, yeah, they changed the name. So that happened a couple months ago at like a roofing conference and that was Nice.

Ricardo Regalado:

It's and there's there's something to be said. I think we'll I'll take a second here and talk a little deeper on this topic is you're sometimes so close to a brand or something that you've built that you don't let go or exit at a time. So, like, how important was it for you at that moment when you did exit? Again, you could you could have had quarrels within, you know, should I have done it? Should I not?

Ricardo Regalado:

Like, how did you come about that decision and how happy are you with it now? Yeah. Being able to continue to build more stuff that you're doing.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah. So, I mean, I'll say this. I know you feel this way probably too. Software is tough. Tech is really, really

Ricardo Regalado:

tough. You don't say it.

Dominique Williams:

Yes, it's very, very tough. And it will really hurt your ego. I swear I got like six

Ricardo Regalado:

gray hairs, I never had gray hair.

Dominique Williams:

It will really hurt your ego. But basically, when you're doing service businesses and things like that, and you got it dialed in, and then you start this tech company that's completely left and you're like, okay, I got an amazing product. The hardest part ever is actually explaining to people what it is that you do. You So I struggled a lot with that, but I was always excited about building and coming up with features and, you know, talking to my team and stuff like that. So I would say when I took the exit, it was a great moment for me because I'm like, look, I'm gonna give it to someone that is able to take it to the next level that I trust.

Dominique Williams:

And that's exactly what they've done. So I'm very happy with it. Nice. Very happy with decision. Too.

Ricardo Regalado:

And that's that's all you can be. Right? Yeah. It's like be happy with the decision you make. And then I'll tell you what, that segues to another conversation that I wanna have, and you kinda touched on it earlier.

Ricardo Regalado:

The word entrepreneur is a very trendy word and it's out there, you know, serial entrepreneur. I know I introduced you as that, but I will what I wanted to do is touch touch on I actually see you more as a builder. I don't if you ever heard me say, but I had heard it once and it just stuck with me is I feel an entrepreneur is somebody who has built a single business. Mhmm. Throw the word cereal, okay, it could be multiple.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah. But what if we change that, you know, we shift the paradigm on just, you're a builder though.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

You're building brands, you're building teams, you're building culture, you're building companies, you're building stories. Right? I just I like the word builder in my sense and maybe in your sense too because, dude, mean, we're already we're on the second company. We're gonna talk about the third that you're doing, but you're building. So do you look at yourself as you're building you're

Dominique Williams:

So building right I definitely feel like I'm a builder. Now I will tell you this. I have a room where I don't think I'll start any more companies from scratch. Now I said that, but then I just started a business like two months ago with my brother. Is a of my brothers.

Dominique Williams:

Because like typically I wanna acquire companies and then grow them. But I would definitely say like they're projects, they're projects, they're babies. We get attached to them. And I would probably say for the cleaning companies, I'm mostly attached to. Yeah.

Dominique Williams:

But I would say, yeah, would say I'm a builder. Yeah. I would say that. You're definitely

Ricardo Regalado:

a Touche, touche. Yeah. So let's talk about, so the the most recent one that you talked about, the the exchange or what what is it? Entrepreneurial exchange. Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

It's a workshop or what or is it more of a coaching brand?

Dominique Williams:

Yeah. So so I'm a business coach. I I coach home service companies and other entrepreneurs as well. The entrepreneur exchange workshop was a small workshop that I did at a steakhouse in my city. And shout out to Marble Steakhouse.

Dominique Williams:

And what we I basically got like 15 entrepreneurs together, all local to Kokomo. And we had a, you know, a planned workbook that we were gonna go through and we talked about goals, hurdles. We all kind of got vulnerable about our businesses at that time. And I just kind of coached everybody through it for about two hours. That's what that was.

Dominique Williams:

And right now I'm actually working on another program where it's more specific to business owners that are starting, where they're working in their business and how do they transform to working on their business. So that's what I'm passionate about.

Ricardo Regalado:

And we're gonna keep that at that because we have a whiteboard quick tips on working in versus working on or working on versus working in. Alright. So I enjoy this conversation because I'm like, in in the in the heart of it all, you would say you are a cleaning business owner

Dominique Williams:

Mhmm.

Ricardo Regalado:

That has now ventured out into doing multiple different things. And I think there's this stigma of being a cleaning business owner where it's like, you you are hardworking. It's blue collar. It's grit. Embrace that stigma.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

But then I think you can break through it, which you have and which many are doing right now. But I think they're doing it because they're taking risks now. Yeah. I think we we're we are more open to taking risk. We are working together more.

Ricardo Regalado:

Right? Something that you I know you loved about doing some of the networking events is, like, we're all sharing more.

Dominique Williams:

Yep.

Ricardo Regalado:

There there is no secret sauce. Right?

Dominique Williams:

Like, the

Ricardo Regalado:

playbook is pretty much everybody's playbook. It just how how deep do you wanna go? How hard do you wanna work? And how big do you wanna get? Yep.

Ricardo Regalado:

Right? So is that something else that you see as has evolved within you being in this industry? Like, three, four years ago, did you go to events and share as much or try to learn for because I feel like you're also learning. Yeah. Right?

Dominique Williams:

So I would say three, four years ago, was definitely learning, but we probably weren't doing we weren't doing a lot of sharing. Like you're right, that that shifted a ton. Like four or five years ago, everyone thought they were doing something special. No. They're not.

Dominique Williams:

And honestly, I'll give you guys kudos. You know, the first time I came to your office and we're in your conference room and you guys are just saying like, look, this is what we're doing. Boom, boom, And I'm like, tell this guy's angle. And why is he teaching us all this? Like, I'm dead serious.

Dominique Williams:

Like we all walked there, walked away from there. I was like, what is the angle of these guys? Like, that was the first time we met. And we were with Gosha,

Ricardo Regalado:

we And were mostly then we went to Elmhurst. Yeah. We had dinner.

Dominique Williams:

And was like, what's the angle? And there was no angle. I still haven't ever bought anything from Like, you know what I'm saying? Like there's been no angle on like why we're sharing that. And that was a huge pivotal moment, I would say, because after that, I started looking at a lot of things that way when it came to this industry.

Dominique Williams:

Any networking events we'd go to, Hey, let's share. Let's constantly keep pouring into other people, constantly keep sharing what we're doing versus other people are doing. And I would say even on the residential side, it's more like that now as well.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah. So Especially residential. Right?

Dominique Williams:

You. You've you've started that trend.

Ricardo Regalado:

Let's go. Come on. Let's go. Share is care. Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

We say stronger together.

Dominique Williams:

I know this. I know. That's a good that's a good one. So

Ricardo Regalado:

Alright. So let's talk about actually, before we get into that, because I realized I didn't have a question about the bar. So is it a is it a restaurant? Okay.

Dominique Williams:

So there's two things.

Ricardo Regalado:

There's

Dominique Williams:

two So you're you're talking about Lexi's Drink Barn. Yes. So Lexi's Drink Barn is a business that I acquired in 2021, I believe. And what it is is actually a small convenience store. We have two locations, but they're just drive through

Ricardo Regalado:

Oh, so like okay. So a luxury liquor store? No. It's soda. It's soda.

Dominique Williams:

There's no liquor sold there.

Ricardo Regalado:

There's no liquor sold.

Dominique Williams:

But basically we sell like mixed sodas. Like you can get like a vanilla Coke. Like that's our number one selling item, vanilla Coke or marshmallow Coke. Okay. But you get like Sprite with blueberries, like all those different flavors in it.

Dominique Williams:

Then we sell like concession stand foods. Like it's nachos, tacos in the bag, breadsticks, along with snack foods. So I acquired that business in 2021, I think. And it's been doing well.

Ricardo Regalado:

So I teed that up for you though. Yeah. Like, didn't wanna explain the business because I wanted that was that was a great pitch on what the business is. Because if you look at the name What? It's a drink?

Ricardo Regalado:

It you know? Yeah. I drink. You're right.

Dominique Williams:

Now I will say this because the reason why I said kind of sort of both is because on Valentine's Day, I opened up a lounge called Demir Lounge.

Ricardo Regalado:

Okay.

Dominique Williams:

So that is a place where we sell wine, cocktails and beer.

Ricardo Regalado:

Where is that?

Dominique Williams:

It's in Cocoa.

Ricardo Regalado:

Cocoa.

Dominique Williams:

It's a really nice dope dope lounge and dope vibe.

Ricardo Regalado:

So Nice. Yeah. Alright. See, again, like, just the similarity So

Dominique Williams:

that's the one that was said. I was supposed to start.

Ricardo Regalado:

Then you did. Yeah. So we are just, again, cut from the same cloth, man. I love it. I love it.

Ricardo Regalado:

Alright. So all the businesses aside, let's is there let me rephrase the question. So is there a formula or a strategy that you you would say it's irrelevant of the industry, whether it's cleaning business, whether it's drink barn, whether it's the lounge, the coaching business, anything that you have going on, is there a strategy or a formula that you feel is relevant across all different industries or sectors?

Dominique Williams:

No matter what business you're in No matter what business for

Ricardo Regalado:

me. For yourself.

Dominique Williams:

That's not

Ricardo Regalado:

about you.

Dominique Williams:

So I would say when looking for an opportunity or I'm looking for something where it's like, I wanna get involved in this. The number one thing I'm looking for is cash flow. That's the number one. So I'm not looking for some And it doesn't have to be, you know, some crazy huge Like every business doesn't have to be a 50,000,000, a $100,000,000 opportunity. Right?

Dominique Williams:

But is the business gonna pay for itself, pay for the staff and whatnot and then provide consistent cash flow? That's what I'm looking for in all my opportunities. Does that answer

Ricardo Regalado:

your question? That answer my question. Yeah. Because a lot of times, especially for those that say, well, hey, I have a cleaning business. Like, we're not saying, you know, go out and look for another business.

Ricardo Regalado:

Again, things have to present themselves. You have to be doing good in the position that you're at. But is would you say that it's complementary in our industry? So for example, we we acquired or took over a concrete coating business.

Dominique Williams:

Yes.

Ricardo Regalado:

It made sense.

Dominique Williams:

Yes.

Ricardo Regalado:

Right? Like, it was a service we could do. So for those that are in the cleaning industry, would you say first look internally as far as like, maybe there's a window washing company. Yeah. Maybe there's a pressure washing company.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah. Like, do though the opportunities that you had presented themselves, but like, is that a tactic do you think that those that own a cleaning company should think about?

Dominique Williams:

So I would a 100% say yes. And it really depends on what stage you are at or phase you're at in your entrepreneurship journey. If you have only been running your cleaning company, that's the only business you've ever owned, then yes, one would say the next business should be something that complements But if you've mastered growing companies without you physically being there and being in the business, I say all business is universal. I say like the stuff that we've learned in the cleaning is universal to contracting, it's universal to floor work, it's universal. So that's how I feel.

Dominique Williams:

But I would recommend that for anyone that has not started an additional business because you could just got really, really lucky on that first That is true.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yes. Some luck involved. Some luck. Put yourself in the right place at Some the right luck involved. So now to complement that question, let's talk about those may have somebody that they're, you know what, man?

Ricardo Regalado:

We have I'm listening to this podcast right now, and there there is a business that I would love to acquire. Mhmm. It makes sense. It's in my hometown. It would add this much revenue.

Ricardo Regalado:

Boom. Boom. Everything starts stacking.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

What is it as far as the owner of that other business? Is there a trait that you would say we should look for? Or a just the situation of that purchase, is it as important from the person you're buying it from as opposed to just the cash flow or the business itself?

Dominique Williams:

Yeah. That is very that's a great question. So it's a 100% important. One, what is their motive for selling? And usually the reason that they post on the listing is not the real reason, right?

Dominique Williams:

Everyone says they're

Ricardo Regalado:

Like tiredness buying and all that stuff, okay.

Dominique Williams:

They're or they're just, they're exhausted. Figure out the real reason, like what's going on. Someone's sick, you know, are they really retiring and moving, wanting to travel, like figure out the real reason because there's always motive behind that. The other thing that I would say that would really help is you should interview every single person that's going to come with that company. And you need to interview them as if you're giving them a job or you're not when the acquisition happens.

Dominique Williams:

And if you're not, the person that's selling the business needs to terminate them before that happens. Not you. Yes. Because it's not only you. You're creating a whole new company if you're buying it as an asset.

Dominique Williams:

Should have

Ricardo Regalado:

took that note before, but we'll talk about that also. Well,

Dominique Williams:

I'm only saying this because of things that I've done. No, no,

Ricardo Regalado:

It makes sense though.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah, ultimately like, even like the company I was telling you about that we acquired in Michigan, it was about a 100 employees. And the only thing that I would have done differently is I would have interviewed every single employee. I don't care. We would have interviewed every single person, introduced ourselves, interviewed them, and been extremely transparent.

Ricardo Regalado:

Well, the thing about it too, it saves the time.

Dominique Williams:

Saves it.

Ricardo Regalado:

It creates, like, what inclusivity. Right? Everybody's involved in this transaction. It's not like somebody's coming in and buying. Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

Because I

Dominique Williams:

mean, beside like, when you're buying a cleaning company, what else what else are you buying? You're buying the contracts and the people. Yeah. But you're buying relationships. You're buying relationships.

Dominique Williams:

That's what you're buying.

Ricardo Regalado:

Well, because there's the people behind the contracts too. Yeah. So how about that? Let's stick to just on the notion of the cleaning to cleaning. Talking to the customer of the cleaning company though, is that like, how do you they how do you do that though?

Ricardo Regalado:

Like, do you they shouldn't are they involved with that by any means?

Dominique Williams:

Talking to the the customers that we acquired?

Ricardo Regalado:

The customer that you acquired, like, beforehand. That may be tough though. No? Like to talk to one of their customers or how maybe it's a sample interview, I guess. I don't know.

Dominique Williams:

So I would say and and again, it depends on the type of sale, depends on the type of contracts, but I would say the the the first important thing is the employees. Without the people, you don't got no business, we know that. But there are ways to, like once, because again, they're not gonna want you to talk to their clients prior to the sale actually going through, but you do wanna make sure like, hey, these contracts are in good standing.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah, talk about that.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah, okay. Yeah, and you wanna have things put in place on the back end of your contract to where it's like, hey, if 50% of these contracts drop, we're gonna need some of that money back. So there's provisions and and warrants and all that. You can you can add in there. And that's what we did.

Dominique Williams:

Okay. So that's what we do for every business.

Ricardo Regalado:

Let's talk about well, we kinda talked about it, but having the different brands. What do you say? I think this like, let's dig dig deep into this one because this comes up, man. Because then now you have, well, okay. So, Dom, you're growing your business.

Ricardo Regalado:

You have different brands. Awesome. How do you maintain stability with your focus? Like, there's gotta be the one that you own that you're spending the most time in, or is there a strategy behind you have multiple different brands? Yep.

Ricardo Regalado:

And you can manage your focus and your time. Yeah.

Dominique Williams:

So there is a strategy behind it. And my strategy is I, first of all, I only have in total of all those businesses, it's a maximum of four people that I talk to on a weekly basis. So I talk to the managers of those companies and then obviously, you know, the top leaders. And I'd say we have a one on one every single week. So I don't have more than one one on one a day per week.

Dominique Williams:

And we touch base, we go over KPIs, they ask where they need help at. The way I look at it is those, I am my responsibility, my job is to be their coach. That's it. If I hired a competent leader, whether it's a cleaning company, whether it's a Lexi's Drink Barn, as long as I'm a good coach, I should be able to coach them up to do the job really, really well. As long as they're competent,

Ricardo Regalado:

right? Yeah, they have to be the one to make the decisions exactly. Exactly, exactly. You're not making a fool.

Dominique Williams:

That's my role. My role is to be their coach and then just coach them through it. So what we do, we have the one on ones, which I like to call our coaching sessions. That's what it is. So that's one way we do it.

Dominique Williams:

I think the team is the main thing. And your team also has to be under the understanding that you're not available on every beck and call. You can't deal with lower level issues. And if you do bring those lower level issues to me, then we got a bigger problem.

Ricardo Regalado:

Dude, so I that reminds me of something I learned in strategic coach. Have you ever heard strategic coach? Yep. So they were saying, you should coach and teach your leadership not to you know, you don't have to give them the answer, but talk them through the answer. Yep.

Ricardo Regalado:

Like, do they get to the answer themselves? Yep. So if you're on the phone, they're running into some situations. It's a late at night phone call. They're calling you for the answer.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yep. You talk them through on, so what would you do, though? Like, ask them. And they may not have the answer, but you're gonna you continue to dig deeper. But it was interesting because it's like you're talking them through, coaching them through to they have the answer.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah. They just haven't decided to make that call yet.

Dominique Williams:

They're like And whatever it is.

Ricardo Regalado:

They like a clutch.

Dominique Williams:

They need that. They they it might be a little confidence booster and you have like, you know what? You got it, man. It sounds like you got it. I'm a go ahead and get up on off of this call.

Dominique Williams:

You know what I mean? Like and I've done that before and like, alright. I didn't even need to call you. Nope. You didn't.

Dominique Williams:

So

Ricardo Regalado:

that and that's the point, Dom. It's actually that was actually the point of that that exercise is they're like, they should get to the point at the end of the call that they're like, you know what? I'm sorry for bothering you. Yeah. I shouldn't even have called you because I I know what to do.

Ricardo Regalado:

And it's like, my job here is done.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah. And I would say those weekly touch based calls, those are for them to understand that you still have a grip on your business. You know, you are making those Well,

Ricardo Regalado:

that's respect. Yeah. That is respect You're that

Dominique Williams:

still making those calls, but I don't want you to go wrap it. Yeah. You know? So so those are like touch bases. Like, okay.

Dominique Williams:

So you did what? You know? But yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah. So alright. So let let's talk about circle back to the cleaning company itself. You've been in it since 02/2011, 02/2012. To actually use a two part two part question that we'll end with is what is it what what have you learned since then?

Ricardo Regalado:

I mean, you were 18, 19. You're young, man. Yeah. When you first I mean, you're a grown ass man now. You know?

Ricardo Regalado:

Mean, you're almost elderly. I mean, four 50 years old. That's crazy. So what have you learned now that you were like, wow. I never would have thought that I learned that I would have learned this starting a cleaning company.

Ricardo Regalado:

Because be real, when you started the cleaning company, did you think you'd get to this point and it would open up this amount of opportunities for you?

Dominique Williams:

No, not I didn't think that the cleaning company would open up the opportunities. Okay. No. I, you know, like I think, have you ever heard the phrase, might have the total right mindset, but you might just be in the wrong vehicle. No one would have thought like the cleaning company was the right vehicle to get me into these other opportunities.

Dominique Williams:

But based on the trajectory, it was, right? I would say the number one thing that was an eye opener, truthfully it was for commercial cleaning is that some people were able to really grow their companies to be very, very large corporations. That was something that I learned. And that opened up my mindset to start thinking of other avenues where it was like, Oh man, we can really grow this really big. So I would just say tapping into like that thinking bigger mindset.

Ricardo Regalado:

Dude, can we cheers? Yeah. Because like get out of my head.

Dominique Williams:

That's what I was saying.

Ricardo Regalado:

Hold on. Because that is literally like, you asked me the question, that was me 02/1617. Went to the was starting to go to conferences.

Dominique Williams:

Yep.

Ricardo Regalado:

And that was it. Because you remember, I don't know if I've told you many times or I've told it to people many times is, like, the first three, four years, I didn't tell anybody. I owned a cleaning company. I was like, yeah. Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

You know, I it's a side hustle.

Dominique Williams:

You cleaning toilets, man.

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah. It it was I was I was embarrassed, man. I really was. And then I started to see, damn. That's a $5,000,000 company?

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah. That's 10? Yeah. That's 50? That's a 100?

Ricardo Regalado:

This guy's got a billion dollar? Yeah. And the ones, dude, and the stories, that's why I love doing this, is like, I've heard people share. They've gotten to a billion dollars, and they started at zero. Yep.

Ricardo Regalado:

And I'm like Yep. Sign me up, man.

Dominique Williams:

And what what is the stat you just said? 90% don't even make a million?

Ricardo Regalado:

Don't even make a million. Yeah.

Dominique Williams:

So so here's some Very fragmented. It it is. And it's even smaller when you take like the residential aspect. Right?

Ricardo Regalado:

Mhmm.

Dominique Williams:

So so think about this. I was going to conferences well before I ever went to any commercial conference. So so my eyesight for

Ricardo Regalado:

residential You were just in the resident, like and and and Debbie Debbie Debbie Sertold Yep. Friend of mine, she actually said, Rick, when you guys say large at, like, 50 or 100,000,000 Yeah. Like, large to us is, like, 3,000,000. Yeah. Like, 2,000,000.

Ricardo Regalado:

Like, you Well, before it

Dominique Williams:

wasn't people even making a million. That's why she had, like, the mop mill. Yeah. So I didn't realize that. That's crazy.

Dominique Williams:

So those were the people I was around. So sometimes you just need to change your environment in the room. So then if literally, if ten years ago I would have walked out of the room of ARC C and walked into the Commercial Room, I would have thought like this

Ricardo Regalado:

Earlier.

Dominique Williams:

Way earlier. Because that the next door, the room next door

Ricardo Regalado:

is the commercial. Well, I mean, you could say that's what we're doing now. Right? Residential or commercial. It is.

Dominique Williams:

Like, you know, sometimes you just need to walk out the room you're in and walk next door. Damn. Boom.

Ricardo Regalado:

Mic drop.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah. That's all you need

Ricardo Regalado:

to do.

Dominique Williams:

If I would did that, man, it would've

Ricardo Regalado:

But maybe not the right time.

Dominique Williams:

It may be not the right time.

Ricardo Regalado:

Not the right time.

Dominique Williams:

So But we're here now.

Ricardo Regalado:

But you're in the right room.

Dominique Williams:

We're the right room.

Ricardo Regalado:

This is a good room to be in.

Dominique Williams:

This is a beautiful office too. Beautiful office. A lot of money in here.

Ricardo Regalado:

Alright. Alright. Alright. So, I mean, shit, you can't end on a better note than that. But let's end let's end with this though.

Ricardo Regalado:

So you've kinda touched on some tactics and strategy that you're gonna have for scaling. Mhmm. What I know we talked about BHAG, but, like, what what is what is vision of growth look like over the next few years for you with CNC cleaning?

Dominique Williams:

Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

Like, what what is attainable? You know, mean, we could have our big hairy audacious goal. Right? 100,000,000. But talk to me about, like, a tactical like, where if we got back on the podcast in three years

Dominique Williams:

Mhmm.

Ricardo Regalado:

Two years. What what is it something that's on your mind that you really want? Whether it's another state, another acquisition, what do you So

Dominique Williams:

my main focus for the cleaning company is for the commercial is to really go deeper in acquisitions, but do them differently. And when I say do them differently is find partners when we're acquiring a company. So not necessarily the entrepreneur that wants to retire just yet, but they might have the cleaning and the systems for the operation side really, really down packed, right? So the boots on the ground, but then they need a lot of assistance with the backend. Their billing sucks, their AR sucks, their recruiting sucks, all that stuff.

Dominique Williams:

Because we do that really, really, really well, right? So if we can find other relationships where the merger or the acquisition could be a little bit different, that's what we're looking for. So that's one way. Obviously, we talked about this a little bit earlier, subcontractors and whatnot model. Those are really those are really good opportunities.

Ricardo Regalado:

We're gonna help you

Dominique Williams:

with that. You you guys are gonna help us with that. So so so that's another way to to really grow. But that that would be the main focus Okay. For the commercial.

Ricardo Regalado:

Well, let me tell you on both of those two parts is the first one works, man. That's how we did our first two. Mhmm. The both of the owners stayed in the business.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

They were great at what they were great at. They needed help with the back office and shared resources. Mhmm. Two for two. Dude, it works, man.

Ricardo Regalado:

If you if that's what you wanna look for, there's many out there. There's actually a company in Michigan right now. Just can't. It's a different it's out of my spectrum.

Dominique Williams:

It's education.

Ricardo Regalado:

I think I think you would like it. Is it education? You already know?

Dominique Williams:

No. Probably is.

Ricardo Regalado:

I'm just saying it's education. Well God. I don't subcontract. Man, I can't tell you enough how that is such an opportunity for for scale as far as, again, it's a risk. Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

It's trust. You gotta learn the system. But if you if you embrace it, you will get into other markets that you would just wouldn't have gotten into. Yeah. Now you determine, is it a market you wanna grow?

Ricardo Regalado:

Yeah. But that's where I got into your systems, your your ops will help you Yeah. Determine that.

Dominique Williams:

Yep.

Ricardo Regalado:

Alright. Well, you guys, did I do good? I mean, this is a great great person to have on. I I appreciate your time, Dom. Thank you so much for joining us.

Ricardo Regalado:

You guys are also gonna see some of the whiteboard quick tips that we've been doing now too. He's got a great great session on just the difference between working in the business, right, self employed, working on the business as an entrepreneur, or as we say builder.

Dominique Williams:

Yeah.

Ricardo Regalado:

But on that note, my man, cheers, salute, And to the next episode of Cleaning and Cocktails, thank you so much for joining us. This is Dom Williams from CNC Cleaning out of Indiana. Until the next one.