Anton Berman
Based in New York, NY
[email protected]

I am seeking a role in marketing, growth, and operations.I've started and sold a cleaning business, worked in sales at a small tech startup, and experimented with many business ideas to varying success. These experiences have given me a wide skill set and I'm always excited to learn new things.My portfolio covers my former business, Cheetah Cleaners, across two case studies: growth marketing and operations.

Building a modern home services business from scratch.

Location: Seattle, WA
Industry: Residential Cleaning
Timeline: 4 years, 2 months (October 2020 - December 2024)
Annual Revenue: $294,000 ARR
Team Size: 4 employees - 3 FT and 1 PT
Exit: Sold to larger local competitor

Case Studies

Operations Case Study

Role: Founder, operator, and manager
Focus: Standardizing day to day ops, building scalable systems, quality control

Background

Launched and operated a residential cleaning business in Seattle - a crowded but fragmented market where success depends on execution, not just demand.Goal: build a trustworthy, scalable, and well-run home service company with a strong long-term brand, while hiring myself out of day to day operations through growth

Operational Challenges

Early-stage home service businesses, especially cleaning, often fail due to operational problems rather than lack of demand. If you provide a reliable service, people will hire you. These were the main issues I saw:

  • Inconsistent service quality across cleaners

  • Founder getting bogged down by admin work, managing a team, and follow ups

  • Cleaning industry has a high turnover rate, companies don't build culture

  • Pricing strategy with low margins because they're selling labor, not a service

  • Poor feedback loops, making it hard to identify problems or improve

  • Lack of engaging online presence and marketing

Team Management & Hiring

Objective

Build a reliable cleaning team with less turnover, promote from within, and avoid and founder micromanagement.

Approach

Designed a standardized hiring and onboarding process that set expectations and our high quality standards early. Always

Tools & Systems

  • Gusto for payroll, contractor management, compliance, and employee benefits

  • Notion for centralized onboarding docs, SOPs, and training videos

  • Promoted experienced team member to manage training and some client relations

  • Built team culture with clear promotion path, team events, and internal rewards

Outcome

  • Faster onboarding for new hires with supervised training

  • Fewer operational issues and confusion caused by unclear expectations

  • High job satisfaction leading to much lower attrition rate compared to industry

Finances

Objective

Ensure the business was financially viable from day one, with clear unit economics and full visibility into expenses and margins.

Approach

Designed financial tracking around service-level economics to understand profitability per job, on top of overall margins.

Tools & Systems

  • QuickBooks for bookkeeping and financial reporting

  • Custom Stripe integration to correctly account for processing fees and sales tax

  • Clean monthly P&L statements with detailed expense categorization

  • Job-level cost tracking to understand labor margins, supplies, and overhead

Outcome

  • Profitable on a job-level from day one

  • Clear understanding of margins by service type

  • Ability to make pricing and money decisions with data

Scheduling & Service Delivery

Objective

Deliver transparently priced and reliable service while minimizing manual coordination and scheduling errors.

Approach

Built an end-to-end booking system that allowed customers to customize, schedule, and pay online with a simple sales to operations handoff.

Tools & Systems

  • Custom online booking system hosted on Firebase

  • Twilio and SendGrid for automated confirmations, reminders, and follow-ups

  • Jobber for field management, job details, and service instructions

  • Slack for real-time team communication and issue resolution

Outcome

  • Reduced scheduling conflicts and missed appointments

  • Clear instructions for both clients and employees

  • Less manual coordination required as volume increased

Quality Control & Improvement

Objective

Maintain consistent service quality and quickly address issues to drive retention, referrals, and Google reviews.

Approach

Implemented automated post-service feedback loops and standardized resolution processes.

Tools & Systems

  • Typeform post-clean surveys to capture customer feedback and reviews

  • Random spot checks by supervisor to ensure our high standards are being met

  • Defined resolution playbooks for common issues with clear escalation paths

  • Referral incentives for clients to encourage repeat and word-of-mouth business

Outcome

  • Faster identification and resolution of quality issues

  • Improved customer trust and repeat usage

  • Increased referrals driven by positive experiences

Data-Backed Decisions

Objective

Use relevant data to identify bottlenecks, improve conversion, and refine operations over time.

Approach

Tracked both marketing and operational data to inform iterative improvements across the business.

Tools & Systems

  • Google Analytics to monitor website traffic and booking behavior

  • Amplitude to understand user flows and drop-off points

  • Regular review of booking, feedback, and operational data

  • Financial reporting to understand leads sources' ROI and money drains

Outcome

  • Improved booking flow and reduced friction for customers

  • Clear visibility into what was working and what wasn’t

  • Continuous, data-informed improvements across entire business

Growth Marketing Case Study

Background

I started exploring residential cleaning after a poor customer experience - delayed responses, unclear pricing, and outdated booking flows. Overall, there seemed to be a lack of thoughtful brand and experience design in the market. Cheetah Cleaners was created to solve that gap.

The Problem

Cleaning services from a customer’s perspective:

  • Slow or no responses to quote requests

  • Pricing is not transparent and hard to find info about services

  • No instant booking or scheduling options

  • Outdated branding that loses engagement immediately

  • Anxiety around letting strangers into your home

  • Lack of credible Google reviews

From a business perspective:

  • Heavy manual admin with little tech

  • No follow up strategy resulting in poor lead conversion

  • No brand differentiation and uniform marketing

  • Inconsistent customer experience

Insights

These key realizations helped shape the brand:

  • Great communication and quality services = customers trust us

  • Often, customers want to book without talking to anyone (but still be easily reachable)

  • Clean design and branding signals quality before service is delivered

  • Transparency (especially pricing) reduces friction and objections

  • Brand isn't just visuals - it’s also how the team presents itself

Brand Strategy

Positioning

A premium, reputable, tech-forward cleaning brand to increase trust while removing friction and uncertainty from booking.

Differentiation

  • Instant online quotes/booking plus convenient payment

  • Vetted and trained W2 cleaning team, not contractors

  • Predictable and timely communication

  • A polished brand experience in a fragmented industry

Brand Attributes

  • Trusted

  • Reliable

  • Efficient

  • Professional

  • Modern

Naming Rationale

Cheetahs are sleek, efficient, and confident. It's a unique name that includes cleaners, allows for fun and colorful branding, and the domain/socials we're all available.

Experience Mindset

Every touchpoint (website, booking flow, confirmation messages, follow-ups) was treated as part of the brand - including the cleaning services.

Execution

First, I worked to standardize our brand with simple guides and assets designed in Canva.

Brand Guidelines

With the help of a contracted designer, we created Figma mock-ups. Then I worked with an engineer to code the site and optimize for conversions.

Website

We built instant online booking, which became a huge growth driver and helped us scale as we expanded to new marketing channels.

Online Booking

Marketing Channels

Initial marketing was low-cost but highly effective - we utilized neighborhood FB groups, flyers, referrals, and reviews. This helped us reach over $100,00 ARR within the first year.

Flyer

Facebook Page Post (informational)

Facebook Page Post (promo)

Next we diversified into paid mediums like Meta/Google ads and postcards with a positive ROI. Through A/B testing and analytics we tweaked the ads and improved results.

Meta Ads

Seasonal Postcards

As our contact list grew, email marketing became more and more effective. We utilized tactics like newsletters, drip campaigns, abandoned cart emails, and more.

Email Banner

Measurement & Iteration

Improving lead flow, conversions, and customer experience was ongoing. I analyzed:

  • Website traffic and conversion data

  • Lead channels performance and ROI

  • Customer feedback and reviews

  • Drop-off points in the booking flow

These signals informed decisions like:

  • Investing more in best lead channels while improving lower performing

  • Simplifying and updating website copy to match our target audiences

  • Removing unnecessary steps in and adjusting drop off points in booking flow

  • Refining FAQ and service info based on common customer questions

Results

  • Built solid foundation of recurring business with a long LTV and low CAC

  • Consistent inbound demand driven by strong positioning and diversifying channels

  • High trust signals through Google reviews and customer feedback

  • Reduced and enhanced admin role with automation and systems

  • Branding stood out as luxury in a saturated market

Learnings

  • Brand is how your entire organization operates

  • Your audience should see you everywhere to build higher trust

  • Services must be just as top notch as branding, otherwise it won't last

  • Follow ups are extremely effective, yet most people don't do it

  • Automation and gen AI will enhance human roles, not fully replace

  • Get an MVP out quickly but cautiously and continually improve, don't overthink

What I'd Improve

Many improvement are basically "I should've started this earlier", but some are just doubling down on strategies I saw were working:

  • Expand lifecycle marketing for repeat bookings

  • Improve referral incentives and build smoother automation

  • Hire more part time or contract employees for better scheduling flexibility

  • Continue outsourcing day to day tasks to focus on scaling

Contact