#174: How Cold Calling Built This Commercial Cleaning Business

Ty Severa is a former dispatcher and police officer who walked away from a guaranteed pension to build a 98% commercial cleaning company staffed by first responders and their families. In this episode, Stephanie sits down with Ty, Owner of First Response Building Services in Roanoke, Virginia, who grew from three accounts and $1,600 a month in recurring revenue to 12 accounts by year-end. He shares how cold calling became his highest-leverage marketing channel, and how flat-rate pay lets him maintain a blended rate around $33 an hour while keeping margins healthy.

 

📌 What You'll Learn

— How to leave a stable career and replace the income with recurring commercial revenue

— Why cold calling gets easier the moment you reframe it as solving a problem instead of selling

— How to use the gatekeeper as an information source instead of an obstacle

— Why commercial sales cycles take months, and how to build a follow-up system that survives them

— How flat-rate pay works in practice, including the buffer Ty builds into every bid

— How to build a blind inspection system triggered by staffing changes and suspiciously fast clean times

— Why written scopes of work and infestation clauses protect you on deep cleans and post-construction

— The hardest truths about commercial: low-bid government contracts, after-hours phone calls, and big accounts with no juice to squeeze

 

Resources Mentioned

— BNI (Business Network International): https://www.bni.com/

— First Response Building Services (Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/p/First-Response-Building-Services-61564978374874/

— First Response Building Services (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/firstresponsebuildingservices/

 

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