I'm Anton Berman, based out of NYC.

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. My portfolio covers my marketing and branding work at my former business, Cheetah Cleaners. Click here for the case study!

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: 5 employees
Exit: Sold to larger local competitor

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I started exploring residential cleaning after a poor customer experience - delayed responses, unclear pricing, and outdated booking flows.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 market 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  • Outdated branding that loses engagement immediately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 real online 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

There were some key realizations that shaped the brand:

  • Great communication and quality services = trust in home services

  • Customers want to book without talking to anyone at all times of day

  • Clean design 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, tech-forward cleaning brand designed to increase trust while removing friction and uncertainty from booking home services.

Differentiation

  • Instant online quotes, booking, and payment

  • Vetted and trained W2 cleaning team, not contractors

  • Predicatable 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 standardized marketing. The logo was inspired by Caribou Coffee, a midwest coffee chain I worked at for years because their marketing was always catchy, fun, and simple.

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 also 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)

Once we built up some funds we diversified into paid mediums like Meta/Google ads and postcards with a positive ROI. The keys were long term and accurate targeting.

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

Results

  • 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 needs to see you on several mediums to trust you

  • Services need to be just as top notch as branding

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

  • Automation can enhance human roles, not fully replace them

  • Get things out quickly and continually improve, don't get stuck

What I'd Improve

Many improvement are basically "I should've started this earlier", but some are just doubling down on strategies I knew worked.

  • Expand lifecycle marketing for repeat bookings

  • Improve referral incentives and build better automation

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

  • Outsource more of my day to day tasks so I can focus on scaling

Contact