Today we are chatting with James J Roman IV, owner of Quality Services Inc. in Jacksonville, Florida.

James has a very inspiring story of overcoming the many hurdles that life has thrown at him and seeking success no matter what. James is confined to a wheelchair with Cerebral Palsy. He knew from a young age that he would have to make opportunities for himself. He ended up finding a book on starting cleaning companies and deciding after reading it to start one for himself.

With his last company, James had an employee that all of her clients loved, and when she wasn’t the employee that was working, his clients would be upset. He called in today wondering what the best way to circumvent that was.

This is something that Mike has touched on in the past. It’s never good to have too many of your eggs in one basket. Whether it be 1 client that makes up a majority of your income or one employee that you rely on heavily, it’s never good to trust one person or thing with your company.

Resource Alert: 
https://growmycleaning.wpengine.com/creating-employee-loyalty/

With all that being said, let’s get into some tips for avoiding things like this before they even have a chance to begin. One great way to avoid events like this is having more part-time employees, rather than full time. For instance, If you’ve got four people at forty hours a week, and someone quits, you’ve now got to spread those forty hours among 3 other people who are already working full time, as opposed to spreading it more evenly among people that would like the extra hours. More people working less hours is proper staff.

Also, having your cleaners clean in groups, rather than alone is a great way to be extra sure that a job can get done, even if someone doesn’t show up. Which actually leads quite well into the next topic. No Call No Show = No Job. Always. Even if someone wants to work if they have done it in past the will in the future as well. It’s good to make that rule clear to the employee in the beginning so it isn’t an issue down the line.

Another great piece of advice to keep in mind, is that if you have a problem that requires money, as well as money, you do not have a problem. Once you have adequate staff, you can do more to prevent issues like this from arising, such as hiring floaters who will only come in when you call them and need them. You can also incentivize picking up other employee’s shifts. For example, having a system set in place where your employee can erase a shift that they called in for off their record if they pick up another employee shift.

Resource Alert: 
https://growmycleaning.wpengine.com/organizing-job-positions-for-employees/

Mikes last tip that you can utilize is competitors. You can offer to let your employees cover shifts that they need done at a premium, and if someone ever calls out, you can call in one of their employees if need be. If you are working with a company that is the same size as you, this can double the amount of employees that you can rely on if something comes up.

And with that, on to the…