Scary, I know, but let’s be honest; today isn’t like yesterday.

Yesterday, you might have been able to “pick and choose” which buildings you wanted to clean.

Today, you’re just downright grateful for every customer you have and every office you clean!

Yesterday, you could expect to see at least a few decent applicants apply to work for you.

Today, you may be wondering where all the truly hard workers have gone.

Yesterday, you could go out and land cleaning jobs where you’d have enough hours to clean the way you’d like, that delivers the kind of quality you like to give.

Today, you question whether or not anyone even cares what the cleaning will actually look like – as you watch your prospects skip everything else… and go right to the price page!

Yesterday, you could count on your ‘contacts’ who’ve gotten to be friends of yours over the years, to always be there.

Today, the building and property manager contacts you’ve developed over the years – can disappear in a ‘puff of smoke’ as your friend is suddenly transferred, reassigned, laid off, or has his or her position eliminated altogether, leaving you standing there like the nervous, new kid at school, wondering who to sit next to at lunch.

Ugh!

I could go on, but I won’t, because the point is clear.

Today isn’t yesterday.

Harder? Sure, but not impossible.

In fact, the very fact, that things are harder and more challenging means that if you can find a way, or create a way to meet these challenges, then you will stand out from the crowd!

How?

Well, let’s look at two ways to ‘reinvent’ your company to meet these challenges head on…

Operational and Strategic

First, let’s look at OPERATIONAL.

Here we’re talking about finding better ways to get leads, bid jobs, land jobs, hire, train and motivate people, control expenses and manage quality with systems that work for you all the time – not just some of the time.

Then there’s STRATEGIC.

What’s that?

Well, these are ‘big picture’ decisions designed to respond to, and capitalize on, the new and changing world you’re running your cleaning business in today.

Let me tell you just a couple of the strategic decisions we’ve made over the years…

We decided to expand the geographic area we serviced from 30 miles to 60 miles by boosting on-site supervision, hiring close to the account, and cross-training associates to cover for co-workers, if necessary.

We decided to change the internal reality of our company by stepping up to, and guaranteeing, a set of higher level service standards to – set us apart from our competition!

And then we pro-actively educated our prospects to the differences between us and the competition.

Here’s an example:

Our Customer Service Guarantee:
We will return any service call within 1 hour, and respond to any service request within 24 hrs. of being received.* exception: schedule floor maintenance

We decided to increase our profit margin without raising our general monthly cleaning charge, by concentrating price increases to extra services such as carpet and tile maintenance, as well as, the consumable poly/paper restroom and lunchroom supplies.

And, a fuel surcharge on floor work and product delivery.

We decided to limit our target market to buildings requiring a minimum of (3) three times per week cleaning where we can clean after 5 PM and have key/code access.

We decided to expand our market by targeting additional types of buildings we were interested in, like churches, and then niched our marketing to speak directly to that target.

Take the time to think about what operational and strategic steps you want to make to move your company in new directions, after new markets, in new geographies, with new pricing strategies in a new way.

You don’t need to fear tomorrow.

There are answers to the challenges we face. We can face them together.

Well, maybe – maybe not. Lord knows, some of the building contacts cleaning business owners have to deal with are, well frankly – NOT a ‘walk in the park’. But, is it bad enough to drop the job? Watch this video to hear Dan share a personal story and then some practical advice to help decide whether your ‘difficult’ client is worth hanging on to or not.

Before you’re done watching this fast paced video, Should You DROP a Cleaning Job Because Your Client’s a Royal ‘Pain-in-the-Neck’? you’ll learn some specific things to look for – to see it you’re better off hanging in there with a ‘difficult’ client or dropping them from your business altogether. Plus, you’ll hear why the story of ‘hanging in there’ can often have a happy ending.

Summary:

Thanks for watching our video – Should You DROP a Cleaning Job Because Your Client’s a Royal ‘Pain-in-the-Neck’? but don’t stop there – Be sure to check out our video: One Easy Way to Find Cleaning Jobs to Bid On! , you’ll hear what you and your managers can do to put together a short but promising list of buildings likely to be going out to ‘bid on cleaning’ sooner rather than later!!

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?

It’s true. Last night, my wife gave me a bulldozer. Let me explain…

It was one of those small trophies- the kind you get for playing little-league baseball during the summer.

But instead of a little ballplayer sitting on top, mine had a little yellow bulldozer!

That’s right, a bulldozer, the small, toy ‘hot wheels’ kind. And rather than saying “Summer League Champs!” – mine simply says “Level The Playing Field!” on it.

So I guess it’s official; the whole family is on board! They all want to see Tony and I “kick butt” on our mission to arm cleaning folks with as many sales and profit tools as we can – as fast as we can!

The kind of tools that FINALLY give cleaning contractors a leg up to compete, and win, against the ‘big guys’.

I think you know who I mean.

You’ve probably seen their shenanigans already.

Their slick marketing, overblown promises, and low-balling pricing antics give hard-working cleaning companies ‘fits’ during the day….and the ‘cold sweats’ at night!

So, we’re seriously working on it every day – trying as fast as we can to bring you ‘stuff’ you need – and that really works in dealing with these outfits!

You see, they don’t want you to think you can do it.

They want you to believe you need some ‘secret’ info that only they have, and that the only way you could get it is to work yourself half-to-death for 20 years or more.

Yep, they want you to think it’s all a big ‘mystery’.

They want you to believe it can’t happen for just anyone, or at least, not you!

And they want you to believe you wouldn’t understand it, or even if you did, you certainly couldn’t do it.

Why?

So you just give up and walk away – giving them one less competitor to have to deal with.

But don’t.

That’s right, don’t!

You can do it!

And we’re working on tools so you don’t have to.

Don’t worry, I won’t forget what Tony and I are supposed to do. I have a BULLDOZER sitting in the middle of my desk to remind me every day – all day!

Now, we didn’t say necessarily BEST – we said EASY, but you know what, Easy ain’t all bad!’ So, watch this video episode to hear Dan describe one of the easiest ways spot places who are probably looking for cleaning businesses like yours to bid on their janitorial work soon!!

Before you’re done watching this fast paced video, One Easy Way to Find Cleaning Jobs to Bid On, you’ll hear what you and your managers can do to put together a short but promising list of buildings likely to be going out to ‘bid on cleaning ‘ sooner rather than later!! You’ll hear about the costly prospecting mistake Dan made – and how it never has to happen to you!!

Thanks for watching our video – One Easy Way to Find Cleaning Jobs to Bid On but don’t stop there – Be sure to check out our video: Why Do So Many Cleaning Businesses WANT to Compete with So Many Cleaning Businesses? you’ll hear why janitorial businesses say they don’t want to compete with lots of other cleaning companies – but the way they go after new work, unfortunately says – they do. Then, you’ll hear what they could do to instantly change how the market perceives them – so they can get out of the ‘low price’ game!

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?

The folks in the ‘SALES’ camp would say, you can’t spend what you don’t have – and you don’t have anything until you make a sale.

And, that sounds about right. Right?

Now, on the other hand, the people in the ‘PROFIT’ camp would argue just as strongly that you can’t spend sales, only profits!

Yeah, that makes sense too. So, which is it?

Ok, well, the answer is …, drum roll please – neither, as in neither is more important than the other and both, as in they are both very important.

Sorry.

Yes, like most of the answers to questions in the real world you and I live in, the answer isn’t always, in fact, hardly ever is – black or white.

The truth lies somewhere in the murky middle.

But, if you look hard to find your answers in that murky middle, you’ll discover answers that are powerful.

And, those answers are the road map to solid growth in both sales and profits.

Let’s take a look at SALES first.

You know I preach to never stop marketing.

And I stand by that.

Having an on-going marketing plan in place is like the farmer, who always has a new field being planted to give him a regular harvest.

But, you may ask what’s so bad about an on again – off again marketing approach?

Well, at best, you’ll have accounts coming in now and then – basically ‘feast or famine’.

But, in the worst case, you could get caught ‘with your pants’ down, if you were to lose several accounts or one big one – leaving you scrambling with no more in the ‘pipeline’ to replace it.

Now what about PROFITS?

Well, making a profit is one of the things that literally makes you a business. Anything else may be a hobby, charity, or promising idea – but not a business!

At least, not one you’ll be running very long.

So, yes, we’re serious about making profits, and suggest you be serious about it as well.

And my biggest suggestion to getting and staying profitable is simply this – pay attention!

That’s right, there’s a lot of things you can do to run a profitable commercial or residential cleaning business, but it all starts with paying attention.

So, let’s get right down to it.

You pick up a new account and the budgeted hours you assign to it are – let’s say, 6 hrs. per night.

Well, if you start seeing 6 1/2 or 7 hours being spent each night in the building – there’s something wrong somewhere!

I don’t know what it is, but ‘there’s a fungus among us!’ and you better PAY ATTENTION and find out what it is, and correct it -because if you don’t well, you know, no one else will.

And, by the way, this ‘paying attention’ thing goes for more expenses than just payroll.

One last example, and I’ll get off my soap box.

There’s a dumpster in the parking lot of a medical building near our office.

And for months, it may be over a year by now, I have driven by and seen that thing filled to the brim, in fact often, overflowing with people’s garbage that I know did not come from that building.

Everyone in the world has been throwing there, pardon me, ‘crap’ into that dumpster, including nearby lawn care companies that fill it with their grass cuttings.

Why do I tell you this?

Because that building has been throwing hundreds, if not, thousands of dollars down the drain having to get that big dumpster emptied – simply because they did not pay attention to what was going on.

Well, finally, the other day, I saw they switched to a dumpster with a lockable lid.

All I could think was …. about time!

The secret wasn’t a secret at all – it just needed someone to pay attention.

So, which is more important – sales and profits?

Neither, you’re gonna need ‘em both!

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?