# Mike's Strategic Context — March 23, 2026
Source: Direct conversation in Discord #strategy

## Personal Financials
- Takes ~$1,000/week net from NMC (wages) + profit distributions
- Monthly nut: ~$16K (continuously optimizing)
- No management fees since 2022 per QuickBooks — now categorized as wages ($15K/Q1)

## The Decline (2022 Peak → Now)
Mike's honest assessment — multiple compounding factors:
1. **COVID recovery boost wore off** — 2020-2021 had cheap money, loans, grants. 2022 peak was partly artificial
2. **Mental health crisis in 2024** — took significant time off, foot off gas pedal
3. **Marketing neglect** — stopped investing in SEO/Google Ads, competitors got aggressive
4. **Competition increased** — HellaMaid explosive SEO growth, competitors became more sophisticated
5. **Took foot off gas pedal for years** — not just 2024, a longer pattern
6. **Strategic decisions** — exited Airbnb, reduced commercial, chose to focus on recurring
7. **Solo founder bandwidth** — trying to do everything himself, tight margins
8. **Better at starting than maintaining** — self-identified as entrepreneur not CEO

## Key Self-Insight
"I'm probably a better starter and a better entrepreneur than I am a CEO and somebody that can maintain and grow a more mature business."

This is critical. Mike recognizes he's in startup-mode energy right now because of AI, but the business needs CEO-mode execution.

## Question 15 — The Most Revealing Answer
When asked "what one thing would you fix in 30 days?":
- Reframed it: "Why does it have to be ME that fixes it?"
- "Maybe the one fix is taking me out of the picture"
- "It's a question of WHO, not HOW"
- Prioritizes business survivability and future over personal selfish reasons

This signals Mike is open to delegation, automation, or bringing in execution help — not just doing more himself.

## Airbnb Exit
- Peak: 2019 — $90K revenue, 648 bookings
- Dropped to near zero by 2021
- Reason: difficult to handle, scale, and automate
- Strategic decision, not market-driven

## Commercial Exit
- Gradual decline: $45.8K (2018) → $5.9K (2025)
- Got out of office cleaning specifically
- Still does some commercial sporadically

## Abigael Deep Dive Needed
- Congo-based (corrected from South Africa), $2,600 CAD/month
- Works 8am-5pm EST
- Mike doesn't have enough visibility into what she does
- Suspects he's not leveraging her to her abilities
- "Getting the best value for my money" — worth revisiting her role

## Contractor Issues
- Cleaning quality is a variable problem
- Lots of issues documented in Slack history, internal feedback, reviews
- This is a known pain point, not a surprise

## Marketing History
- Last real Google Ads spend: probably mid-2024 to early 2025
- Spring Fresh campaign: need to check GHL analytics for actual results
- Yelp: was great, platform got expensive, ROI dropped, stopped investing
- Email list: only GHL contacts

## Seasonal Business
- Revenue follows seasonal patterns — spring/summer up, winter down
- Website traffic crash may partly be seasonal (but decline is steeper than seasonal would explain)

## Data Sources Still Untapped
- Years of customer call transcripts (sales + CS)
- Years of Slack conversations (contractors, employees, internal)
- Years of customer emails (archived)
- Internal customer feedback (never posted online)
- BusinessOS folder (Claude Code marketing analysis, growth calculator)
- Rating comments in bookings CSV (4,059 ratings, 1,840 comments)

## Feedback for Harvey
- Don't promise delivery and then go silent. If something fails, message Mike immediately.
- Set appropriate timeouts for sub-agents (15-20 min for complex tasks, not 5-10)
- Don't make Mike babysit. If you say "I'll drop it when it's ready," drop it when it's ready.

## Key Mindset
- "This business has always been a great vehicle for me to indulge in my interests"
- Excited again because AI makes it feel like startup mode
- Wants comprehensive analysis with 100% confidence
- Open to the answer being "someone else does the execution"
- Recovery first, then growth