How to Automate a Cleaning Business | Catalina Cleaning

Trade Secrets: From the Ground Up | Stories of Operators Who've Seen it All · Sep 25, 2026 · 1h

Roy Banwell started Catalina Cleaning with his wife for about $1,000. Today it runs 95% on its own, with automations that he has put into place.

In this episode we cover:

Why Roy audited every task in the business before touching an AI tool

Having Claude write his website, then turn it into a free estimate tool

Paying cleaners 2x what the current market rate is

Why AI is great at taking orders and terrible at making decisions

Opening four Texas cities from a laptop, losing $4,000 a month, and shutting them down

The honeymoon phone call about snakes in a client's house

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Roy Banwell…