Today, we’re chatting with Dexter Haywood!

There is a really weird thing I hear all the time from cleaning businesses and entrepreneurs of small business in general. They will tell me in a strangely proud way that they’ve spent ZERO money on advertising, that they grew their business completely 100% through referrals.

Yet, when I ask them if they are making their goals, they typically respond with a “No”.

Look, I’m not saying word of mouth isn’t good. I think referrals are one of the best ways to acquire customers as it costs you nothing typically. However, referrals are not a scalable model at all. You can’t go out this month and go get 20 new referrals. You can try, there are methods that helps increase the likelihood of getting referrals, but it is far more of an art than science.

Whereas paid advertising is a science. Even free advertising is to a degree.

I want to say upfront, while I strongly believe in you choosing advertising over relying on referrals, that you shouldn’t rely completely on any one advertising system.

Resource Alert: How to Get More Commercial Cleaning Accounts the Right Way

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If you get facebook ads running good for you that is giving you a solid ROI, don’t allow that to be your ONLY method of getting quality leads. If facebook change their pricing structure, bans you or whatever, you’re putting your entire business at risk by having that be your only channel.

Start off with one channel and once you get it working, move onto another.

The good thing about paid advertising is that once you get it to work, you can scale it up and down by whatever you need. Need a three extra clients this month? With a well polished facebook ad campaign you can turn that ad spend up, and get those clients spending about the same amount you spent last time to get them. It tends to work like clockwork.

So which medium of advertising do you go after first? Well, facebook is a great start and it is almost certainly where some of your customers are hanging out.

Research Alert: Commercial Cleaning Websites Should Do More than Simply Exist https://oldsite.growmycleaningcompany.comcommercial-cleaning-websites/

However, you can go direct to the source if you already have a few clients. Ask your top 3 favorite clients where they found you, and if they had to replace you where they would go to find another cleaning company. Those answers can be nuggets of gold for growing your business. Some might say Google, in which case you know Adwords and SEO might be the best route to go. Others might say some weird choices you never even thought of, places like Instagram or Yelp.

Find out where they’re hanging out to find the solution to the problem, then advertise your services there.

Remember, effective advertising comes down to TWO main things:

• Know Your Niche: Speak their language, solve their pains, position your services as the ultimate solution.
• Know Their Media: Know where they hang out, why they hang out there, where they go to solve their problems and be there when they do go there.

Alright, let’s dive into the Lightning Round!