How to properly scale a cleaning business

[martinz1995]

Hi I’m currently doing house cleans for almost a year but would like to expand into end of lease, office cleaning and window cleaning.
I have employees that’s been with me for a while for home cleans and have subcontracted some commercial kitchen, construction cleaning jobs and end of lease jobs every now and then but would really like to keep it not too broad.
I really just want to focus on home cleaning, office cleaning and window cleaning for now.

Been advised to only stick to home cleaning and keep growing in that area. So I wanted to ask is it better to specialise in just one field eg general home cleans only instead of trying to grow by being more generalised and adding more services? Or I guess when is it a good time to add new services?

 

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[Zontora]

Hi I’m currently doing house cleans for almost a year but would like to expand into end of lease, office cleaning and window cleaning.
I have employees that’s been with me for a while for home cleans and have subcontracted some commercial kitchen, construction cleaning jobs and end of lease jobs every now and then but would really like to keep it not too broad.
I really just want to focus on home cleaning, office cleaning and window cleaning for now.

Been advised to only stick to home cleaning and keep growing in that area. So I wanted to ask is it better to specialise in just one field eg general home cleans only instead of trying to grow by being more generalised and adding more services? Or I guess when is it a good time to add new services?

The cleaning market is huge, narrow down on a niche, and when you have capped your potential sales, then you can expand. The goal is to expand, but expand after you’ve reached this current busienss full potential.

Alex Hormonzi talks a lot about this, check him out

 

[jclean]

Hi I’m currently doing house cleans for almost a year but would like to expand into end of lease, office cleaning and window cleaning.
I have employees that’s been with me for a while for home cleans and have subcontracted some commercial kitchen, construction cleaning jobs and end of lease jobs every now and then but would really like to keep it not too broad.
I really just want to focus on home cleaning, office cleaning and window cleaning for now.

Been advised to only stick to home cleaning and keep growing in that area. So I wanted to ask is it better to specialise in just one field eg general home cleans only instead of trying to grow by being more generalised and adding more services? Or I guess when is it a good time to add new services?

It depends on how much revenue you generate.

After 1 year, it will not be very much.

So it is better to focus on 1 stream of income.

Entrepreneurs including me tend to offer extra services far too quickly.

 

[Two Dog]

I really just want to focus on home cleaning, office cleaning and window cleaning for now.

Been advised to only stick to home cleaning and keep growing in that area. So I wanted to ask is it better to specialise in just one field eg general home cleans only instead of trying to grow by being more generalised and adding more services? Or I guess when is it a good time to add new services?

That's one of those timeless "Why did the chicken cross the road?" kind of business questions. It's 100% worth asking but there really isn't an answer. No problem finding examples of people who have been successful by focusing in lots of areas along with focusing on a single niche, but none of them are you. You'll see what I mean by looking up the Japanese word "koan".

Why do you want to change anything about the current business? Bored? Has growth slowed? Not enough profits? Feel like you've tapped out the market? If you'd be happy with Year 2 continuing on the same trajectory as Year 1, that's an excellent sign that you shouldn't change a thing at this time.

So what's prompting the question in the first place.

 

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[Bence Ur]

Hi I’m currently doing house cleans for almost a year but would like to expand into end of lease, office cleaning and window cleaning.
I have employees that’s been with me for a while for home cleans and have subcontracted some commercial kitchen, construction cleaning jobs and end of lease jobs every now and then but would really like to keep it not too broad.
I really just want to focus on home cleaning, office cleaning and window cleaning for now.

Been advised to only stick to home cleaning and keep growing in that area. So I wanted to ask is it better to specialise in just one field eg general home cleans only instead of trying to grow by being more generalised and adding more services? Or I guess when is it a good time to add new services?

How can you find trusted, reliable workforce (cleaners)? I guess this is the hardest part.

 

[Bounce Back]

I owned, ran for ~3-4 years, and sold a commercial cleaning business for low six digits. Could talk for hours on the subject. I daresay house cleaning is many times easier to scale for a quite a number of reasons I can share if you'd like.

If you already got the house cleaning flow figured out I'd push hard to conquer your local area completely before branching out.

 

[Two Dog]

How can you find trusted, reliable workforce (cleaners)? I guess this is the hardest part.

You're right. That is the most difficult part. Probably surprising to most people unfamiliar with home services.

Short answer: You ATTRACT trusted, reliable workers by POSITIONING your business as the only one that make cleaning houses the best goddamn service job available in the area. Then put in the work to make that true. It's exactly the same mindset as attracting the right kind of customers. Learn what applicants care about, how to write job posts, interview, screen, train, manage, motivate and reward workers.

Cleaning isn't any different than lawn care in that respect. Since it's viewed as a disposable, bottom feeder job with low pay that can be filled by pretty much any warm body, employers typically hire the quickest/fastest/most readily available candidate with a pulse. That is the recipe for high turnover, customer complaints and a miserable life.

I heard the same complaints endlessly when attending lawncare / landscape events and in online forums. The owners were constantly bitching about their shitty employees and all I could think was: "You get shitty employees because you run a shitty company to work at with shitty benefits." No training, no benefits, no respect, no gratitude - it's a LONG list. What self-respecting person wants to work somewhere where even the owner doesn't give a crap?

Think about the difference between someone working at Starbucks vs. Dunkin' Donuts, Costco vs. Walmart, Whole Foods vs. Safeway, Dominick's, Food Lion (whatever your local crappy grocery chain is). The work is basically identical, but the workforce is entirely different. Employees at the former *love* their employers. Not so much at the others.

Why is that?

Those companies have put considerable time and effort into becoming a workplace that attracts high quality workers. They offer training programs, decent pay, benefits, great working environment. They establish a culture of excellence, have high expectations, reward people who perform well and quickly dump those that don't. They (God forbid!!!) actually reject applicants. In return, they get applicants that aren't scraping the bottom of the barrel.

There's a million ways of doing those things that cost very little. Training programs, branded shirts, gift cards, performance based pay, flex hours, flex schedule, recognition are all good places start. Make it a place where YOU would enjoy working and you'll have no trouble attracting similar people.

If you're completely blank on what potential employees would find attractive, start by asking them. Troll through job boards and read complaints from people working at other cleaning companies. Address those complaints, talk about how your company is different in job posts, screen candidates, reject losers. Get fifty candidates to apply for every position and build the workforce you need in the same way you're building the business.

Check out a restaurant chain called Mission BBQ on the job sites. Compare how they look to applicants vs. the typical service job listing for cleaning, lawn care, whatever. Mission BBQ doesn't pay any more than a typical restaurant gig yet the customer experience is exceptional because they have built a killer hiring process. It's all about expectations.

 

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[martinz1995]

You're right. That is the most difficult part. Probably surprising to most people unfamiliar with home services.

Short answer: You ATTRACT trusted, reliable workers by POSITIONING your business as the only one that make cleaning houses the best goddamn service job available in the area. Then put in the work to make that true. It's exactly the same mindset as attracting the right kind of customers. Learn what applicants care about, how to write job posts, interview, screen, train, manage, motivate and reward workers.

Cleaning isn't any different than lawn care in that respect. Since it's viewed as a disposable, bottom feeder job with low pay that can be filled by pretty much any warm body, employers typically hire the quickest/fastest/most readily available candidate with a pulse. That is the recipe for high turnover, customer complaints and a miserable life.

I heard the same complaints endlessly when attending lawncare / landscape events and in online forums. The owners were constantly bitching about their shitty employees and all I could think was: "You get shitty employees because you run a shitty company to work at with shitty benefits." No training, no benefits, no respect, no gratitude - it's a LONG list. What self-respecting person wants to work somewhere where even the owner doesn't give a crap?

Think about the difference between someone working at Starbucks vs. Dunkin' Donuts, Costco vs. Walmart, Whole Foods vs. Safeway, Dominick's, Food Lion (whatever your local crappy grocery chain is). The work is basically identical, but the workforce is entirely different. Employees at the former *love* their employers. Not so much at the others.

Why is that?

Those companies have put considerable time and effort into becoming a workplace that attracts high quality workers. They offer training programs, decent pay, benefits, great working environment. They establish a culture of excellence, have high expectations, reward people who perform well and quickly dump those that don't. They (God forbid!!!) actually reject applicants. In return, they get applicants that aren't scraping the bottom of the barrel.

There's a million ways of doing those things that cost very little. Training programs, branded shirts, gift cards, performance based pay, flex hours, flex schedule, recognition are all good places start. Make it a place where YOU would enjoy working and you'll have no trouble attracting similar people.

If you're completely blank on what potential employees would find attractive, start by asking them. Troll through job boards and read complaints from people working at other cleaning companies. Address those complaints, talk about how your company is different in job posts, screen candidates, reject losers. Get fifty candidates to apply for every position and build the workforce you need in the same way you're building the business.

Check out a restaurant chain called Mission BBQ on the job sites. Compare how they look to applicants vs. the typical service job listing for cleaning, lawn care, whatever. Mission BBQ doesn't pay any more than a typical restaurant gig yet the customer experience is exceptional because they have built a killer hiring process. It's all about expectations.

Very excellent point! Most cleaning businesses I know as well as staff suck. In order to attract strong staff, I ensure I pay them well (higher than award rate), with training included and give them the hours they require. I also have given my team gift cards for Christmas and regularly boost any achievements they have.

With that being said, many people that apply are not serious - I've had staff tell me they were leaving while they had shifts scheduled with no notice at all beforehand and staff steal from me, lie about hours worked, just completely disregard agreements. Regardless of how well you treat some people, some will aim to take as much as they can from you. Overall most people that apply for cleaning jobs are people that have migrated, who are usually studying and using cleaning a stepping stone job or mothers looking for extra income and often have limited time and flexibility (due to having to care for their children). So this makes hiring as well as retaining very difficult.

 

[Two Dog]

Very excellent point! Most cleaning businesses I know as well as staff suck. In order to attract strong staff, I ensure I pay them well (higher than award rate), with training included and give them the hours they require. I also have given my team gift cards for Christmas and regularly boost any achievements they have.

With that being said, many people that apply are not serious - I've had staff tell me they were leaving while they had shifts scheduled with no notice at all beforehand and staff steal from me, lie about hours worked, just completely disregard agreements. Regardless of how well you treat some people, some will aim to take as much as they can from you. Overall most people that apply for cleaning jobs are people that have migrated, who are usually studying and using cleaning a stepping stone job or mothers looking for extra income and often have limited time and flexibility (due to having to care for their children). So this makes hiring as well as retaining very difficult.

Yep, all true. That's why hiring starts with recruiting the right candidates.

You have a *huge* advantage in knowing the kinds of problems that potential workers bring to the job. Either work around those problems or use those as a filter and don't hire them in the first place. When I was putting together an operations plan for a lawn care company, I decided that older workers (50+) including retirees would make excellent candidates precisely because it avoids every problem you listed. Those people might have difficulty in working six days each week, operating heavy equipment, stuff like that. So we came up with flex schedules, four hour shifts, lightweight equipment and so on.

Then it just became a marketing problem.

 

[David Fitz]

As someone who used to own a cleaning business I would say a lot of it depends on your location and population size.

I was in a small city under 100k population so I decided to diversify my services.

Some guys near me specialised in a service like carpet cleaning and they had to add on extra 2 hours a day of travel as the clientele just wasn't in the city all the time.

If you have a large enough population then you can just focus on the one thing. If not then you'll need to work outside your main area which will have extra travel costs and time.

 

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[Two Dog]

With that being said, many people that apply are not serious - I've had staff tell me they were leaving while they had shifts scheduled with no notice at all beforehand and staff steal from me, lie about hours worked, just completely disregard agreements. Regardless of how well you treat some people, some will aim to take as much as they can from you.

Are you using an evaluation period? It's the perfect time to set expectations and get feedback from existing workers.

Again for the same reasons you point out, it's an excellent idea to run candidates through a more rigorous screening process followed by an evaluation period. Applicants that aren't serious simply will not pass the screening. It's kind of like preventing break-ins. Any competent thief can get into anything, but the casual ones will move onto the next opportunity because it's easier. That's exactly what you want. Let them f**k off and waste someone else's time interviewing at other places.

The best companies recruit 24/7/365 regardless of whether they need help or not and always have a backlog of good candidates available. Probably the best I've seen recently is a garage installation company based in Arizona that's doing something like $200M and growing rapidly. Buy any program from Tommy Mello @ A1 Garage Door Services that you can find.

Elevate ~ Tommy Mello ($20 for the book)

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