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Hi this is Dan again from CleanGuru.
First, I want to let you know something. Something very important. And it's this - I get the
chance to talk with literally hundreds of cleaning businesses from all across the US.
And while there's no question it's tough out there. Period. You need to know something
else that's true. That there is hope. That there is definitely reason for hope. You see
I also talk with any number of cleaning business every week that are not only very well -
I mean succeeding in spite of the lousy economy, in spite of the use of illegal workers, in
spite of the low balling guys. In spite of everything -
And you want to know how? Well, they have learned how to create value that attracts
rather than chases after customers, bidding methods to make those jobs profitable, marketing
that gets customers to hire them...and then service that keeps them around for years not
months.
And those are the things we're going to talk about in these videos. But, for today, I want
you to know that from California to Florida to Texas to Wisconsin... cleaning businesses
are succeeding. If you're one of them, congratulations, but you already know there's always something
new to learn...if you're struggling, stay tuned, hang in there, because you can turn
things around.
Next, and I know I've got to hurry...but I want to touch make one more quick point. Las
time, I shared the target market that Tony and I picked. If you remember it was professional,
industrial and manufacturuing businesses within 50 mile of our city that required 3-5 night
a week cleaning in the early evening.
But I want to make it clear - your target certainly doesn't need to be the one we selected.
Remember those companies I said are succeeding - many of them have target markets that are
very different than the one we chose - some target medical facilities, some only clean
churches or schools, others go after post-construction cleaning or apartment move in and out jobs,
and some focus on specialty work such as carpet cleaning or tile maintenance.
The point isn't what kind of cleaning they target - it's that they've learned to create
systems specifically for that target so they can not only bring value to those customers,b
but also be able to keep adding more and more of them by keeping them stable. Tony and I
used to refer to it as forcing order onto chaos.
Now, let's tackle this propery managed vs. Owner Occupied question. We don't have much
time, so let's make it simple. Tony and I preferred OO. No question about it.
However, we did PM building as well. And what we found is that many times, in an Owner Occupied
building, we had a better chance of working with someone who understood the relationship
between time and price and the quality. Folks who didn't mind spending a few dollars to
make the place look good, because they saw the building's appearance as a reflection
of themselves.
With PM buildings we found you had to be careful; because a pm can sometimes be more concerned
with keeping the building filled, and other than not getting complaints trying to spend
as little as they can. Well, that can be a little tougher deal to work with.
Now, not all PM are the same. We did cleaning buildings for some Property managers and where
we did, we were able to keep the building profitable, clean and stable. And by stable,
I mean being able to offer a cleaning person enough hours so they can do a good job. If
I can't do that, you'll always be chasing your tail, because the cleaning person will
be unhappy and leave, and the next one the same thing and on and on it goes.
So, let's pull it together like this.... Owner Occupied vs. Propery Managed, either way is
fine as long as you can keep them clean, stable and profitable. Enough hours to keep it clean
and stable. And at a price you can still make the right money at.
whew...that's it....next time, we'll talk about something that can really turn things
around for you.... where you can in some cases make a lot more money without a lot more work...I'll
explain next time.
Until then, remember you can do this, you really can.