Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Powell.
Amber, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
On April 15, 2023, I was on a walk through a local neighborhood, thinking about my life and how I was going to get out of working late-night bar shifts while also juggling a 9–5. I wanted more, but I didn’t know what that looked like yet. As I walked past a house with piles of junk in front of it, my first thought was to start a junk removal business. Almost immediately, that idea shifted into starting a cleaning business.
The very next day, I was online researching how to start a cleaning business in Utah, step by step. That same night, while serving at the bar, I waited on a man, who I didn’t know at the time and when I closed out his check, I noticed he owned a cleaning business. I walked up to him and his wife, explained to them that I was starting my own cleaning business, and asked him about his experience. I remember telling them I planned to charge $20 per house because I had never “professionally cleaned” before, lol. His wife looked at me, put her hand on my shoulder, and said, “Oh honey, you don’t charge anything less than $100.” My stomach dropped. At the time, $100 felt like an unimaginable amount of money for someone to pay ME for cleaning.
The next day, he called me and offered to take me under his wing and put me on payroll so I could “earn while I learn.” That conversation changed my life. For the next 9 months, I worked with him during the day doing post-construction cleaning and learning all the ins and outs that he could teach. At night, I worked at the bar, often not getting off until 1230 or 2:00 a.m. My days were exhausting, and during that time, building my own business wasn’t at the forefront because I was only trying to survive the schedule.
Fast forward 9 months to December 2023. My boyfriend encouraged me to make a post in a few Facebook groups about my cleaning business and offer a new-client promotion. I did, and the only person who saw it and liked it was him, which we still laugh about. Three weeks later, he encouraged me to post again. I was super hesitant because of the lack of response the first time, but I made the post anyway. That same day, I had a difficult conversation with my boss at the bar, and we decided to part ways. I was so sad. But in the middle of that sadness, my phone started blowing up. Over 150 people reached out about cleaning services. I was completely overwhelmed. I realized I couldn’t do everything anymore, and I had to quit working with Erik because I was now “running my own business”.
In order to manage my stress , I was responding to 5–10 people a day, trying to figure out what questions to ask, how to price jobs, and how to structure my services. Within a short period of time, my schedule was booked out for three months. I was working seven days a week, cleaning 2-4 homes a day. During this time, I was building my process in real time and learning what worked, what didn’t, and how to be both efficient and thorough in clients’ homes. It was really important to me that I offered quality each and every time. I woke up every morning sore and exhausted, but too busy to stop and think about it.
In the beginning, when it was just me, I ran everything out of a single caddy. I would load up literally every single cleaning product I owned and bring it into each home as I cleaned, figuring out what my process was going to be in real time. After super long days cleaning, I would come home and wash one to two loads of towels every night and then fold each of them so I was ready to start fresh the next morning. About 7 or 8 months later, I hired my first subcontractor. She was awesome, and having even a small amount of help made a huge difference. That was year one, 2024.
As I moved into 2025 and began hiring more people, my systems had to change. At that point, I was restocking supplies every night and driving around in the evenings to drop caddies and products off at my team’s homes so they were fully prepared for their jobs the next day. It was a lot of work, but now that I had a team, I was even more committed to building something that felt reliable, organized, and truly professional from the very beginning. As we grew, that system evolved. We now operate out of a dedicated warehouse space where the team meets to restock their own caddies. We also have a washer and dryer in-house so we can clean and rotate our towels and mops through a consistent system. GAME CHANGER.
In 2025, everything shifted. This was the year I truly learned what it meant to hire, train, and lead a team. This was when the real work began because consistency in our clients’ homes is incredibly important to me. I wanted the results my team delivered to be the exact same results I would deliver myself. It was also the hardest year, because it was no longer just about getting jobs for myself, it was about helping other women support their families. That responsibility means everything to me, and I don’t take it lightly. My team is the reason we’ve grown to where we are today and why we continue to grow. When I first thought about starting a cleaning business, I never imagined having a team. My only thought was “What needs to happen at I can stop working two jobs?”
I truly believe God has had His hand in each part of my journey, placing things and people exactly when and where they needed to happen, because there’s no way I could have done this alone.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been consistent, but it has never been a smooth road. There has always been something new to figure out, fix, or improve as the business has grown, and everything I’ve learned has come through trial and error. In the beginning, I was just stepping into the role of a cleaner and choosing to leave behind a steady paycheck to go make my own, so I said yes to everything and worked nonstop. I was cleaning multiple homes a day, seven days a week, and my body was constantly exhausted. I didn’t have time to step back and build systems, so behind the scenes was chaotic. Another challenge was learning how to properly price jobs and manage the business side while still doing all the physical work myself. I had to figure out scheduling, supplies, client communication, and finances all at the same time without prior business experience. On top of that, I was wearing every hat in the company. I was the owner, cleaner, scheduler, trainer, communicator, marketing and booking , HR, and problem solver all in one. Everything depended on me, and balancing all of those roles while trying to grow the business was super overwhelming. Learning how to slowly step out of doing everything myself and start trusting and building a team has been one of my biggest learning curves.
As the business grew, the challenge shifted into hiring and training employees. Consistency in our clients’ homes became extremely important to me as I began trusting my team to represent our business. I wanted every clean my team completed to reflect the same quality and care I would personally provide. Creating systems, training processes, and making sure every home received the same level of service has been one of the hardest but most important parts of growth.
The emotional side has also been challenging. In the beginning, I was only responsible for supporting myself, but now I have employees who rely on this work to support their families. That responsibility means everything to me, and I don’t take it lightly.
Balancing work and personal life has also been difficult. Building a business can easily take over your entire life, and learning how to take care of myself while still growing the company continues to be an ongoing lesson.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We specialize in residential cleaning services, including recurring cleans, deep cleans, move-in and move-out cleans, and pre-listing cleans.
What I am most proud of is the culture we’re building within our company. Cleaning isn’t “just a job” to us, it’s the feeling we’re able to give our clients. Knowing you’re coming home to a sense of peace, not just a clean house, is huge. That feeling takes intention and time to create, and that’s what we strive to deliver in every home. I’m also incredibly proud of my team. We’ve built a group of people who genuinely care about their work and the clients they serve, and that’s what truly sets us apart.
Creating jobs where women can support themselves and their families while being part of a positive, supportive work environment means everything to me. Watching this business grow from just me cleaning homes to now having a team that cares about our clients as much as I do has been incredibly rewarding.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Growing up, we lived out in the mountains in Washington, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and some of my favorite memories come from how simply we grew up and how my parents raised us. We spent our days climbing trees, shaking them back and forth like they were rides, riding bikes, and coming home with skinned knees.
In the summers, we also had the fun job of cleaning up after the bears. Since we lived in the mountains, we used a trash trailer that we’d haul to the dump, and bears would regularly drag trash bags into the woods. We hated having to go pick it all up at the time, but looking back now, it’s one of those memories that makes me laugh.
More than anything, I’m grateful for the work ethic and family values my parents showed us. My mom is truly superwoman, she homeschooled all five of us kids until high school, making sure we were never behind in school and consistently showed up in every area of our lives. My dad worked incredibly hard as a law enforcement agent to make sure our family never went without. They both played their parenting roles the absolute best, and I feel beyond lucky that God chose them to be my parents.
One thing they always taught us was that no matter what we choose to do in life, they love and support us. And as my dad would always say, “Don’t do anything half-ass.”
One of my favorite traditions, and something we still do to this day, was our family meetings. We would all get together in my parents’ bedroom and talk about what was going on in our lives or at home. No matter what, those meetings always ended with a big group hug. Looking back, those moments of connection and support are some of my most meaningful childhood memories.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cascadecleaningut.com
- Instagram: Cascade.cleans
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61586808758663&mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Other: https://g.co/kgs/uLX3uMH
