Big Jobs Big Money Same Work

Last time we looked at regular jobs versus one-time jobs.

Today, let’s talk about big jobs vs. small jobs.

Let me tell you a story…

For a long time, we were afraid to take on bigger customers. We got use to cleaning places for $250 to $500/month.

1. The profit margin on the jobs was good
2. We knew how to take care of them, and
3. We were happy just trying to get as many of them as we could.

We thought by getting a lot of these smaller accounts, at least all of our eggs weren’t in one basket. And there was some truth in that.

Frankly, there were lots of jobs in that price range, and we were glad to simply get as many of them as we could!

But, after a while, we began to realize that starting a bigger job, say large $1,500- 4,500/ mo. job was not much more trouble than starting a smaller $250/mo.- $500 job.

By the way, does this sound familiar?

It should, because it’s similar to last time, when we talked about how it takes about the same amount of effort to start up a one-time – as it does a 5 night per week regular account.

Anyway, back to our big job vs. small job story, where Tony and I discovered that managing a bigger job, is not much more trouble than managing a smaller one.

Eventually, we began to understand that while the profit percentage (%) on the smaller job was usually much higher than the bigger one, the total profit dollars ($) coming in from the bigger account was usually greater, and, well worth any additional work.

In fact, to our surprise, sometimes it was easier to manage the larger account.

Why? Well, really several reasons:

1. Bigger jobs allowed us to offer “better”, more stable jobs.

For example, we might be able to give two people 3½ hours of cleaning three nights per week, at a big job, vs.just one person, a couple hours, once or twice a week, at the smaller job.

And for us, jobs with too few hours or too few days were hard to keep filled. Maybe, you’ve noticed the same thing.

So, with better jobs to offer our staff, our turnover was generally lower at the bigger accounts.

Plus, of course, keeping turnover down helps keep quality UP!

Nothing can wreak havoc on how a building looks more, than to have new people coming and going all the time. And while the quality goes down, the training costs and employee problems go up, up, up!

So, look at ‘casting your marketing net’ a little deeper to where the bigger ‘fish’ swim.

The bigger “‘fish’ may be just about as easy to catch, while giving you a whole lot more to eat.