Running a Cleaning Business
Today Mike coaches Peggy Cook from Shiny Day Cleaning www.shinydaycleaning.com on how she can avoid having to go in a clean accounts in emergency situation.

We have all been there when Running a Cleaning Business, an hour before a pre-planned clean us scheduled, your cleaner calls in with a family emergency, broken down car, sick or just plain no call no shows. And you, the owner, is left holding the bag with no choice but to show up yourself or deal with an angry soon to be x customer.

What can you do in these situations? How can you eliminate the need for you to go in yourself so you can focus 100% on building your business and your family?

First and foremost you have to get into the mindset of you own the business and it exists to serve you and not the other way around.

It’s so easy to get caught in the trap of serving your customers to the extent of your time, focus and life.

If your goal is to service accounts every day until the day you die then that’s the path to take, but if you’re Running a Cleaning Business and you want that business to serve you so you can benefit from owning a real cleaning business and make more money and spend time with your family, then you have to be able to say NO to the business.

Let’s go over a common situation – someone calls and something needs to be done right away. Your default is to jump into action and either find someone to do the work or do it yourself. Because a job is a job right? WRONG!

BONUS TIP: You need to choose your mental well-being and your family over the business.

So if that means saying “I’m sorry but I can’t do that” then so be it.

The caveat is If you gave your word and you can’t do it. Be a stickler when it comes to giving your word. Walk through fire to keep it, but you can always ask for permission to get out of it if necessary.

BONUS EXAMPLE: “Hey [customer name], I gave my word but I have xyz commitment, can I give you a gift certificate and clean tomorrow or pay another company to come out for me?”

More often than not, you will find people to be pretty reasonable when it comes to honest mistakes and asking for help to resolve a situation. Usually the outcome is better than when you try to bandaid the situation last minute.

Now that you have the mindset, you let’s move on to the tactical portion of Running a Cleaning Business.

You have to have a plan b, c and d. It’s rare that an emergency situation comes up that hasn’t come up in the past, but for whatever reason we just assume it will never happen again, until it does…every month or so.

If it’s a last minute emergency that a customer is initially contacting you for, then you have to have a bigger budget. So if someone calls with a last minute emergency, you have to charge more so you have the resources to pay someone to come out and clean last minute.

But if it’s a last minute emergency caused on your end,you need to have a premade and predetermined plan to put out fires before they happen.

Get friendly with other maid services in your area, try to have an agreement that you can reach out to them last minute for help and visa versa. Chances are there are other businesses in the area that would love to have that backup too.

You can also pay another employee more to come out and clean for that employee. You may have to pay them more or use another incentive, but there usually is some kind of monetary incentive that another employee would be happy to have.

THE 3 DEFENSES: – Defense #1 Always have 2 person teams. If someone steals, there’s no accountability, if someone doesn’t show up, the other can fill in.

BONUS TIP: Create systems, charge accordingly.

Defense #2 Hire a floater – the new guy is always the floater. It gives them time to learn the ropes and earn their way into your company.

Plan on having your new guy as a floater, if everyone shows up that guy gets the night off or he can hang flyers or something else that’s useful. Get the most out of every employee.

Defense #3 Don’t give your employees too many hours, they get burnt out too quickly. It puts you in a position of constantly begging people to work. If all your employees would love more hours, If someone doesn’t show, you have a pool of eager workers to call from.

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