That’s right, I’ll say it… You’re Not In The “Cleaning Business”

..at least, that’s not the whole truth by a long shot!

Don’t get me wrong. I was always proud to own and operate a janitorial cleaning company. Always.

But, the idea that you or I are ‘just a cleaner too who happens to be running a cleaning business’ is only a small part a much bigger picture.

And if that’s the idea you have in your head, better get a new idea quick, or you’re going to severely limit how far and how fast you go in this business.

Let me tell you a story….

In the early days, Tony and I spent endless hours trying to learn every technical thing we could about cleaning; everything from the newest finish and stripper to the latest mop wringer and foaming quart bottle tip.

And we spent the bulk of our time cleaning, inspecting and making customer service calls and visits to clients.

And all of those things are great. It was the picture we had of what it meant to be in the cleaning business.

But, it wasn’t until we began to “change the picture” of what business we were really in, that things began to change…and fast!

That’s right, we began to “see” we were really in much more than simply a “cleaning business”.

That’s right, we began to see that we were really……in the people business!

That’s right, finding, training and motivating people.

And, it just so happened that the “thing” we need to hire, train and motivate them to do was – clean.

We began to realize that we were really …in the marketing of cleaning business!

That’s right, realizing we needed a burning, nearly obsessive commitment to growing, was just what the doctor ordered!

These may seem like small things; let me assure you – they’re not!

In fact, how you “see” things, can change what you decide to do– and that of course, changes everything.

When your eyes are staring down on SMALL day-to-day issues…obstacles in your way seem impossible to get over or through..

When your eyes are looking up and out at BIG future goals, obstacles in your way, while still there, seem more like little “hurdles” on your way towards the far off, but BIG, target in your sights!

So what, you may ask?

What difference will changing the way I “see” my business actually make in what I do today, or tomorrow?

Well, everything or nothing – depending on YOU.

But, let’s say, for example, that Cleaning Contractor #1 sees himself as “just another cleaning business” versus

Cleaning Contractor # 2 who sees himself, as “…a building service company committed to predictably reaching sales and profit targets by setting goals, planning strategy, implementing systems, and measuring results in all areas of the business, especially marketing and people development.”

Now, here’s the question:

Do you think if those are the two very different “pictures” in the minds of these two people all day long… they might decide to do very different things during any given day?

Yeah, I think so too.

You hear it all the time – people want an ‘apples to apples’ comparison, at least they THINK they do. But, you sure as heck don’t, at least not when it comes to explaining the differences between you and your competitors.

Before you’re done watching this fast paced video, In the Cleaning Business – You Want to Sell ‘Apples to Oranges!!’ you’ll hear Dan describe how and why you need to create a striking difference between you and the ‘other guys’ when it comes to how you deliver your cleaning services.

Thanks for watching our video – In the Cleaning Business – You Want to Sell ‘Apples to Oranges’!, but don’t stop there – Be sure to check out our video: You Don’t Have To Sugar-Coat Problems in Your Cleaning Business! you’ll learn how to build a janitorial business or residential maid service of people who care about more than just getting a paycheck – and why THAT is so important!

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?

First of all, let’s be clear – there’s a time for ‘shooting the bull’. There is.

I mean, if you don’t take some time each day to touch base with your people, just to ‘visit’, at least for a little while, well you’re really missing the boat and half the fun of owning a cleaning company.

That’s right, if you’re not already, you should start making room for some time for sharing stories, frustrations and laughs at work – even in meetings.

Honestly, some of the best times I can remember, happened in our weekly staff meetings.

One person after another would start telling their own ‘you won’t believe what happened last night’ story about an employee or customer situation; – you know the kind we seem to collect so many of in the cleaning business.

And before you know it, we’re all in tears, crying with laughter.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit a lot of the time, it was nervous laughter, but it was definitely a welcome relief.

Ahh… good times. But, here’s the thing.

We also got a lot of done at those meetings.

Problems were identified.
Solutions were suggested.
Decisions were made.
Plans were prepared.
Responsibilities were assigned.
Progress was checked.

You see, in order to get results from meetings, you need to change what you expect from yourself and your staff at the meeting.

First, of course, you need to be prepared for the meeting. What areas do you want to cover and in what order?

Here are a few to consider:

HR
Sales & Marketing
Operations
Accounting
Customer Service & Quality Control
Safety & Security
Equipment, Chemicals, Vehicles etc.

And as you might’ve guessed, you should have a strategic plan for improving each of them.

Now, here’s the tip:

1. You want to assign someone or some small group to be responsible for making that progress happen.

2. You need to give that individual or group the authority, resources and support needed to be successful.

2. You need a way of measuring progress, or the lack there of.

3. You need to commit to meeting regularly to review how things are progressing (meeting).

Picture your meeting going something like this:

Starting with the person assigned to customer service and asking if all this week’s calls and visits were made.

Then asking the team in charge of safety and security, if they had verified that all accounts had the updated set of MSDS forms and if the new security light had been installed in the parking lot.

And then on to the person in charge of QC, and so on…

Assigning responsibility and creating measures to track are certainly two of the really BIG ways we stopped having meetings that were a waste of time… and they can do the same for YOU.

People don’t work just for money; at least they don’t in cleaning businesses that makes them feel a part of something bigger – like a team! Watch this video to hear Dan share several personal stories that clearly illustrate this important management principle and how you can get started engaging your cleaning associates in a whole new way.

Before you’re done watching this fast paced video, You Don’t Have To Sugar Coat Problems in Your Cleaning Business! you’ll learn how building a janitorial business or residential maid service of people who care about more than just getting a paycheck – and how that allows you to share the truth about your cleaning business’ challenges – knowing they’ll be ready to the challenge with you, that’s right – as a team.

Thanks for watching our video – You Don’t Have To Sugar Coat Problems in Your Janitorial Business! but don’t stop there – Be sure to check out our video: Should YOUR Cleaning Business Use a Butter Knife?, you’ll learn why some tools work better in certain situations than others and some basic rules about how you can decide ‘which to use when’.

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?

As usual, let’s get right to it.

What are these windows of vulnerability, and why do I need to know how to survive them?

Ok, let’s say the cleaning person you have assigned to one of your best accounts for a long time has just left to retire.

Or, let’s say, at another one of your buildings, your customer has assigned the office manager to work with you, because the contact you normally deal with has been eliminated.

Or, let’s say, you’ve promoted the site manager who has been supervising one of your accounts for years to another bigger account.

Or, let’s say, your customer calls to let you know some ‘things’ have been coming up missing around the office. They’re not saying it’s your people.. but they just wanted to let you know.

Or, let’s say, while trying to get your customer ready for some VIP’s coming in for a meeting, your floor crew accidentally knocked an ornamental keepsake off of one of the big bosses’ desks. And, yes, it broke.

Ok, I’ll stop.

These are ‘windows of vulnerability’ I’m talking about.

You can say, in nearly every one of the cases, it’s either no one’s fault, for example when people are
moved, promoted or retired or, at least you could say, no one did it intentionally.

You might like to just think of it that way, and get back to business as usual.

Better think again.

When a ‘window of vulnerability’ appears in your cleaning business, it’s best to treat things as, anything but, business as usual!

You see, it doesn’t matter if it was your fault or not. And, it doesn’t matter if the reason for it happening had anything to do with you at all.

The reason why these things happen doesn’t matter.

The reality is, they did happen, and you’d better realize what your customer may start thinking and feeling.

And what is that?

Well, let’s take a quick look, shall we….

The cleaning lady they’ve known and trusted for years is leaving to retire – that’s CHANGE. And that change, may make them feel nervous about who you’re planning to put at their building to replace that person with.

The new person, of course, will be a “stranger’ to them at first, as any new person is. And it doesn’t matter if it makes any sense or not, the fact is, it’s CHANGE… and it makes them feel uneasy!

And, here’s a hint, you don’t want your customers feeling uneasy, at least not about you and not for long!

Again, it’s not necessarily logical.

It doesn’t matter.

It’s change. And sometimes, many times, any change at all, can send up “red flags” for your customers, along with their radar to watch the cleaning!

Let’s look some more…

When the office manager takes over the job of your former contact, it may have absolutely nothing to do with cleaning. But, the old saying a ‘new broom sweeps clean’ can have some truth to it – as you hear that the ‘new guy’ in charge is looking to ‘shake things up’ and make some CHANGES.

You promote a site supervisor, and you begin to hear your contact say little things like.. “I don’t know, we sure hated to lose Rose, things just don’t look the same around here since you moved her!”

And you may start to hear this after only a couple days of you making the personnel move…as your customer begins to miss the way it was and complain about how it is now.

It isn’t blame that we’re worried about here. It’s mind set.

And you want to keep your customers mind set POSITIVE about you and your cleaning company.

How?

Well, here’s a few tips to survive your ‘windows of vulnerability’:

First, always keep in touch with your customers, but stay in even closer contact when you face a “window of vulnerability”.

Second, listen to your customer. Be sure to listen for what they’re feeling… when these changes happen.

Third, reassure you customer not only that you understand their concerns, but that you have a plan to make sure things work out smoothly for them.

Fourth, continue to stay closely “on top” of the situation and in touch with your customer, until you, and your customer, are convinced things are ‘well in hand’ again.

Sure, you want to have systems in place to avoid as many of the common mistakes cleaning companies can make as possible. That’s a given.

But as much as you prepare and plan, you’ll still at times be faced with these ‘windows of vulnerability’.

If you recognize them when you see them, and act proactively to deal with them, you’ll not only survive these ‘windows’, but may actually have the chance to show a level of personal commitment to your customer they won’t soon forget.

Well, maybe – maybe not. Deciding on what ‘tool’ to use for maximum results is what this video is all about. Watch it now and you’ll hear Dan share a personal story and then give 3 practical examples for janitorial cleaning businesses about on how to decide which ‘tool’ to use and WHY it can make all the difference.

Before you’re done watching this fast paced video, Should YOUR Cleaning Business Use a Butter Knife? you’ll learn why some tools work better in certain situations than others and some basic rules about how you can decide ‘which to use -when’.

Thanks for watching our video – Should YOUR Cleaning Business Use a Butter Knife? But don’t stop there – Be sure to check out our 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

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?

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?