Episode 755 – Advice from Veteran Owners of a Booming Cleaning Business
Welcome to the podcast Cleaning Nation! Today, we have Michelle and Chris of A-Bright Commercial cleaning. They are in our next-level program and have steadily grown their business since 2013. As of now, they clean for about half of the commercial businesses in their city and are here to tell us about the things they have done well through the years and things they would have done differently had they known better. It’s always so helpful to listen to veteran business owners and learn from their experiences. That will definitely be the case in today’s podcast!
Buying a Business vs Starting as a Cleaner
For Michelle and Chris, they started a little differently than most. Instead of starting as a cleaner and growing from there, they had already learned the power of being the business owner instead of those cleaning. They bought the business from a friend and immediately started to grow it as a business, not just becoming another cleaner with a cleaning job.
Systems Make the Difference
Even though they weren’t physically cleaning, they were still doing a lot of little tasks that added up to them feeling worn out and not able to grow the business as they could. During this time, Chris was still working full time at another job, so they realized in order to be successful, they needed to start implementing systems into the process so they could do things more effectively. That was when they joined The Clean Profit Method and began to learn the power of systems and processes.
The Power of Delegation
As time went on, they began to realize the power of delegation. When they bought the business, the original owner was taking handwritten hours from each individual cleaner, then writing them checks and driving them to their houses. They realized there was a much more effective way to do payroll and switched over to direct deposit and Quickbooks eventually hiring an accounting firm to do payroll and bookkeeping. They have even hired a virtual assistant to comb through their email and respond to people so they can stay up to date. The more you delegate, the more you are able to free up your time to work on the most important aspect of your business- growth!
Own Your Mistakes and Make Them Right
One of Chris’s biggest pieces of advice for business owners is to own that you are your employees are going to make mistakes, but it’s how you deal with those mistakes that makes all the difference. They are straight up with their prospective clients by telling them that they will make mistakes, they aren’t perfect but that they will take responsibility for a mistake if it happens and make it right. That has made a world of difference for them in their business.
Final Takeaway: Be open to the fact that there is always a better way to do things, and you will grow in ways you never expected.
Want to know more about these tools and what you can do to get out of your own way and improve your mindset? Go to growmycleaningcompany.com to listen to our FREE webinar or growmycleaningcompany.com/talk and book a call with one of our coaches. They will get you set up with all the tools, systems, and more to build the business you’ve always wanted.