Sound Crazy? Well, janitorial businesses may say they don’t want to compete with lots of other cleaning companies when it comes time to bid – but the way they go after new work, unfortunately says – they do.

Before you’re done watching this fast paced video, Why Do So Many Cleaning Businesses WANT to Compete with So Many Cleaning Businesses? you’ll hear why the strategy most cleaning companies use to go after new jobs sends a clear message that they are like every other cleaning business and, as such, end up having to fall back on low price to win jobs. Then, we’ll look at what they could differently to instantly change how the market perceives them – so they can get out of the ‘low price’ game!

Thanks for watching our video – Why Do So Many Cleaning Businesses WANT to Compete with So Many Cleaning Businesses? but don’t stop there – Be sure to check out our video: Cleaning Business Owner: Should You Invest 10% in YOU? where you’ll hear why investing time and money into your on-going personal and professional development may be the key to growing a successful cleaning business and then keeping it that way!

You’ll watch a few, short minutes of video loaded with practical ideas, tips and strategies about what it really takes to flip a cleaning business from painful to profitable. Want to Flip Yours?

Today can be unforgiving.

There isn’t a lot of time to waste time anymore – as if there ever really was.

But, again, certainly not today.

I ran into a friend who runs a car dealership the other day. His dad used to run a dealership, before retiring a few years ago.

So, I asked him how things were now, compared to when his dad ran the business.

He explained the difference this way…

‘There sure as heck isn’t any time to be strolling around the car dealership, smoking a cigar, like his dad used to do.’

(Yeah, “those were the days” when you could lean back in your leather office chair and light up…right there in your paneled office.)

Anyway, he went on to make the point that today you’d better be on the ball all the time – running from the time you get to work!’

Put simply, ‘If you waste time today – you’ll get run over by your competition!

Sound familiar?

Well, here’s one practical way to save valuable time in your janitorial business or residential maid service – starting today.

To explain, let me tell you a story…

Years ago, when I would get a call from a business asking for a quote on their cleaning, I would simply jot down their name, confirm their address, and set up a time and date for a walk through.

Good so far, right?

I thought so too. Until the day of the appointment, when I drove to the account, met my contact and began to ask them a few questions like:

How many times per week would you like to be cleaned? or

When can we come in to do the cleaning? or

What kinds of cleaning services do you need included?

You see, we were targeting accounts where we could provide 3-5 times per week office cleaning in the early evening from, let’s say, 6:00 – 9:30 PM.

So, I can tell you now that I was more than a little shocked when I heard them answer my first few questions by saying something like…

‘Oh no, we don’t need any regular office cleaning, we’re just taking quotes on getting our lunchroom floor stripped later this year.’

Huh? You’ve got to be kidding, I thought to myself. How did I get into this situation?!

But I only had myself to blame.

You see, I assumed because they were on our targeted list of companies that naturally they would be good prospects for our regular office cleaning.

And they generally were – note, I said ‘generally’.

But, I still should have asked a few questions when they first called just to verify they were, in fact, looking for the kind and frequency of service we were offering.

I ‘jumped the gun’ like this several times.

Until one day, when I found myself an hour from our office at an account we had no business bidding on… and all because I didn’t take one minute to make sure we were on the ‘same page’.

I can tell you it was a long ride back on those icy roads heading back to the office – thinking about how I had wasted nearly half a day.

But that was the last time.

And I’ve saved a lot of mornings and afternoons since then – by sticking to a strict practice of asking a few questions first before I start making an appointment and getting the sales wheels turning.

They say a wise person can learn from someone else’s experience - I hope you save a lot of time and money learning from mine.

We’ve heard about saving 10% for investing. But, what about investing 10% in YOU – that’s right, your education, your personal development.

Before you’re done watching this fast paced video, Cleaning Business Owner: Should You Invest 10% in YOU? you’ll hear why investing time and money into your on-going personal and professional development may be the key to growing a successful cleaning business and then keeping it that way!

Thanks for watching our video – Cleaning Business Owner: Should You Invest 10% in YOU? but don’t stop there – Be sure to check out our video: How Do YOU Find New Cleaning Business? Are you a gambler or a farmer when it comes to finding new jobs for your cleaning business or maid service? In this video, Dan describes both ways of growing your janitorial business – and why one way may be MUCH better than the other!

You’ll watch a few, short minutes of video loaded with practical ideas, tips and strategies about what it really takes to flip a cleaning business from painful to profitable. Want to Flip Yours?

That’s right, lawyer doesn’t have to be a dirty word in the cleaning business.

Ever heard the expression, ‘If you want to be successful, watch what everyone else is doing – and then do the opposite!’?

I don’t think that’s always true, but it certainly is true a lot of the time… and here’s an important example – attorneys.

That’s right. LAWYERS.

To listen to the average person talk about lawyers you’d think they were single-handedly the cause of the fall of western civilization!

Be honest. Haven’t you heard that?

In fact, can you even think of a time or two, when you may have said something like that yourself?

Probably. We all have. Why?

Well, think about this. What words do you hear people use to describe lawyers?

Scoundrels, vultures… and worse, right?!

Well, it would be easy to jump on the band wagon… and simply join in and agree that they’re a bunch of crooks.

Unfortunately, I can’t -because I know better.

Don’t get me wrong, some of them certainly act like a bunch of overpaid vultures. (Maybe even a larger percentage than in other professions – who knows.)

But not all of them… not by a long shot.

And frankly, contrary to popular opinion, many of them are honest, smart and hardworking.

On top of that, they may be one of the best kept secrets to keeping your commercial cleaning business or residential maid service on the fast track.

Shocking, I know, but let me tell you a quick story.

For years, every now and then, we would come across a “touchy” personnel situation.

Now, don’t get me wrong, we already had an HR manager, and a number of policies and practices in place.

But, sometimes, things just don’t fit neatly into the rules. Know what I mean?

Anyway, sometimes we would get stuck, not knowing whether or not we could legally terminate an employee we had been having trouble with.

We had lots of questions swirling in our heads, but with no confidence that we had any good answers for any of them..

…we were virtually immobilized, stuck!

Questions like….
Did we have all of our legal “ducks in a row”?

Were we on a firm legal footing if we let the person go?

How should we handle the corrective interview?

And for a long time, we would simply do nothing when we were faced with these “sticky” situations.

That’s right, we would stumble around at work like ‘zombies’ because we were so upset about the situation but didn’t have a clue of what to do about it.

Ever been there?

Anyway, long story short, we got in touch with an attorney who specializes in employment law. T

This lawyer became a great legal adviser to our cleaning business.

Anytime we were stuck, our lawyer, yes lawyer, quickly got us un-stuck by giving us the to-the-point legal advice we needed to get over it, or through it, and back on track.

I know. I know, but isn’t it expensive getting advice from an attorney.

Yes – it isn’t cheap.

But it can be more expensive if you can’t get past those inevitable personnel problems everyone is bound to face at one time or another.

The sales we landed and the money we made by getting unstuck and back on track far outweighed the couple of hundred bucks we had to pay for good legal advice now and then.

By the way, this same idea holds for other kinds of advice as well, such as accounting. (Can you say CPA?) Yep.

If everyone says all lawyers are a bunch of crooks, and they wouldn’t talk to one if they were the last person on earth – think about the source of the information.

My guess, with all due respect, is that these people may have never built a thriving and successful company themselves.

God bless them if they have, but nearly every growing janitorial business I know that has – have found a good legal ‘adviser’ to rely on through the years.

Ok, that’s it, I won’t say anything else nice about lawyers. I don’t want it to go to their already ‘big heads’

Are you a gambler or a farmer when it comes to finding new jobs for your cleaning business or maid service? The answer may surprise you!! In this video, Dan describes both ways of growing your janitorial business – and why one way may be MUCH better than the other!

Before you’re done watching this fast paced video, How Do YOU Find New Cleaning Business? you’ll hear how ‘gambler’ cleaning business owners rely on ‘chance’ while ‘farmer’ ones rely on ‘working their field’ (target market) so they can count on it to consistently provide for their business and their family year after year!

Thanks for watching our video – How Do YOU Find New Cleaning Business? but don’t stop there – Be sure to check out our video: Daisy Revisited: 1 Year AND 2 Stories – That’s right, Dan’s wife, Jennifer, made him promise to ‘shoot another video’ to show everyone how BIG Daisy – their dog, has gotten in just a year!!

You’ll watch a few, short minutes of video loaded with practical ideas, tips and strategies about what it really takes to flip a cleaning business from painful to profitable. Want to Flip Yours?

Should you guarantee your work?

Yes!

That’s right, I’m tempted to answer the question with a flat out ‘Yes!’ and call it a day, but it is probably worth talking about for a few minutes.

We had to wrestle with this – Guarantee or Not Guarantee question in the beginning too, when we first bought and started running a very small cleaning business called Jim’s Cleaning years ago.

You see, when we took over the business, there was no ‘Satisfaction Guarantee’ in place.

Heck, there were barely any rules at all.

So, we had to think about whether we should offer a guarantee, and if so – what kind.

You know, when you’re first starting off and money’s tight, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking, “Hey, if some customer simply decides, on a whim, that they’re not happy, I don’t want them to get away with not paying their bill!”

That’s understandable.

But here’s the thing – think about some of these questions:

What kind of company do you want to be?

What message do you want to send to your staff?

What message do you want to send to your customers?

What message do you want to send to your prospects?

You know the answers.

You want to be proud of yourself.

You want your staff to be proud of themselves and the company they work for.

You want your customers, and prospects, to get the clear message that you stand behind your work – guaranteed!

So, if we assume we do want to offer a guarantee, the next question is, that’s right, what kind?

Well, we suggest you offer as strong of a guarantee as possible, something on the order of a “100% Satisfaction Guarantee!”.

Why so strong?

Because anything less can send the wrong message.

What do I mean?

Well, if you start to add conditions, limitations or restrictions to your guarantee, you can quickly weaken it to the point – it may begin to work against you!

That’s right, if you offer a guarantee that is:
- only good for a short time,
- or for particular reasons,
- or under certain conditions
- or only if specific procedures are followed….

Well, then, you may actually be sending the message that:

1. You don’t trust your company to deliver on its promises

2. You don’t trust your customers to not abuse your guarantee.

And then you may have been better off if you hadn’t offered any guarantee at all!

So, we suggest you offer a strong 100% Satisfaction Guarantee.

No weasel clauses! No burdensome time limitations! No unnecessary restriction on reasons why! No lengthy procedures that have to be followed!

No, just a simple straightforward guarantee – you stand behind your work 100%!

Today, we want to talk about something just as important – systems.

That’s right, systems. What they are? How to create them? And what they can do for you!

First let me tell you a story….

In the first few years running our janitorial business – when we got ready to start up a brand new account, we would simply grab all the people we needed, along with the equipment and cleaning supplies.. jump in the van and go!

Sounds simple. And it was.

It just wasn’t effective. You see we’d have problems:

1. Some cleaning people we took to the account would end up simply wandering around – doing little to nothing.

Why?

Well, any number of reasons.

Either they weren’t trained properly in the first place, weren’t prepared to handle the first day at a new cleaning account, or simply weren’t being given enough direction by a supervisor.

2. We would always find ourselves missing some important piece of cleaning… so we’d end up having to send somebody back to the shop to get it.

And the reason? Well, we simply didn’t have any pre-set list of supplies and equipment to check off and be sure to bring with us.

3. And finally, we would often forget to lock a door, get a trash or turn off a set of lights…. again, because we didn’t have a set of rules and procedures to follow.

Our cleaning business didn’t have a SYSTEM.

So, we worked on it – and created a series of systems such as:

– Developing a multiple-step training program for every cleaning associate to go through.

- Creating a checklist for supplies and equipment necessary to bring to a new account.

- Maintaining a log of all important information we earned about each account.

- Designing a detailed plan to follow for the start up of any new account.

That’s what systems basically are … pre-set procedures and practices to follow to handle any number of situations.

And you know as well as I do, there are lots of situations to deal with in cleaning.

But SYSTEMS can go a long way in handling these situations. Whether it’s a system to handle a start up of a new account or start up of a new employee.

Whether it’s a system to handle a customer complaint or a client testimonial.

Whether it’s a system for checking the quality of a building or system to check the appearance of your own office.

Whether it’s the maintenance of your company vehicles or of the maintenance of your company records and files.

The key to all of them is having a SYSTEM. But, what kind?

Well, one that is well thought out, addresses the situation the way you want, gets the desired results you want… and can be understood by anyone and everyone… every time!

Will there be exceptions?

Sure, you’ll never be able to completely eliminate times when a situation calls for you to be flexible and vary from your system.

But, if you can stick to your well planned out system 95% of the time, you, my friend, are way ahead of the game.

Way ahead.

Don’t believe me? Just look at the number of so-called service companies, including cleaning companies that never seem to get it right.

They’re always forgetting to bring something.

They’re always missing a trash, light or lock.

They’re always neglecting to make a call.

They’re always losing the paperwork?

I’m not criticizing them because these problems happen. Not at all – it can happen to all of us.

What I AM criticizing them for is never finding a way to fix them, and then keep them fixed!!

It’s not easy. I know it isn’t.

I takes time to look at a problem and come up with an effective series of steps that address the problem that everyone can understand… and then follow.

But, it’s the only way.

And if you do tackle all the challenges of your business one by one, by implementing systems to handle them, you will be handsomely rewarded.

Your customers will get better, more reliable cleaning.

Your cleaning associates will be more competent, and feel more confident.

And you, well, I don’t have to tell you how you’ll feel!

Ok, let’s pick up right where we left off last time.

We were looking at how, if we’re not careful, our marketing, selling and customer service habits can have the opposite effect of the one we want.

For example, we discovered:

Many times, the harder we nervously chase something - the less likely we are to get it!!

We may, in fact, actually drive it even further away. Let’s take a look at an example.

Have you ever had a building where your janitorial business was bidding on the cleaning – and, it was an account you desperately wanted to land?

So, what do you do?

Well, have you ever caught yourself anxiously, nervously, desperately calling them back every day ( or MORE) just to ‘check in’ to see if they had made a decision.

Only problem is – you find the more you call the less interested they seemed.

That’s right – they seem to ‘dodge your calls’, ‘be unavailable’, ‘put you off’ or give you the ‘run around’ – until you want to throw your hands up and scream in frustration…

“Why won’t they just make up their minds?!”

Well, some times, too many times – THIS problem isn’t just about them – it’s about US too!

Yep, part of it – may be of our own-making.

That’s right, when we are too needy, when we desperately want the job – we may go too far, we may call too much, and end up ‘chasing them away rather than attracting” new cleaning business.

So, now what?

What can we do to turn this situation around; to begin sending the right message?

Well, first, keeping in mind the old saying a ‘watched pot never boils’,so, rather than nervously stewing over every bid you deliver and then hounding them with endless follow up phone calls…

- you can start to make up and live by a different set of rules – rules that put you and your cleaning business in a different position so they see you and your cleaning company in a different light!

For example, you may want to make it a rule to always discuss with your prospect, in advance, when you deliver the cleaning proposal – how long they need to get the proposal seen by those who need to give final approval.

Then you can decide on a date to call or stop out – just after that. So, you can then let them know exactly when you’ll be following up.

You can certainly assure them that between now and then – they can call you anytime, with any questions – but, short of that, you’ll be contacting them on such and such a date.

From that point on, if other issues come up, again, you may want to only follow up at times you have agreed to, in advance, when the cleaning prospect says they should have a decision finalized.

Stick with some rule like this and you can be professional, BUT also send the message that you’re a busy professional too!

We want to confidently attract business, not nervously chase after it. Make sense? Yep, makes cents!

No big cleaning business lesson in this week’s video Daisy Revisited: 1 Year AND 2 Stories other than ‘Boy, do things change!’ Yep, meet Dan’s dog AGAIN! That’s right, ‘old’ Daisy is now 1 and has really grown. You’ll see…

Dan’s wife made him promise to ‘shoot another video’ to show everyone how BIG Daisy has gotten in just a year!! So, here she is again, starring in another video!! Plus you’ll hear 2 stories about her antics that you might find VERY amusing! So, sit back, relax and spend a few minutes with man’s (and Dan’s?) best friend!

Thanks for watching our video – Daisy Revisited: 1 Year AND 2 Stories, but don’t stop there – Be sure to check out our video: Do YOU Measure Success in Your Cleaning Business in INCHES or MILES?where you’ll hear what successful business people and motivational coaches have to say about the all important question of – ‘What does it REALLY take to succeed in all parts of our lives including business!’

You’ll watch a few, short minutes of video loaded with practical ideas, tips and strategies about what it really takes to flip a cleaning business from painful to profitable. Want to Flip Yours?

No disrespect.

Well, because among other reasons, from a very early age we are taught to be helpful, generous, and available to others in need – and those are all good qualities!

But, and this is a big BUT, you have to careful in an effort to be helpful, available and generous, you don’t ‘come across’, you know, ‘position yourself’ as – too needy and too desperate!

What do I mean? Let’s take a closer look…

What if, for example, you called your doctor, and after it rang just once they personally answered the phone.

Same thing for an attorney.

What if you needed expert legal advice, called the legal office, and the attorney actually answered the phone greeting you with ‘Hi,what can I do for ya’ today?’ .

Now, it might be that in both cases, the doctor and the attorney, are actually excellent, highly qualified professionals.

Maybe.

But the point is; what marketing message does it send to current and prospective clients, when a busy, professional cleaning expert- appears to be too helpful, too generous and too available?

It can be unsettling – and it’s something to think about.

Let me start by saying, I am not suggesting you provide less than quality follow up to prospects or less than good customer service to current clients.

What I am suggesting is to consider changes to your cleaning company’s selling approach, marketing systems and customer service practices to project a professional, but not too needy image.