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House Cleaning Business - The Dirty Little Secret |
By:
Gail Metcalf |
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Aren't you weary of all the books being sold that tell you how
easy it is to start your own house cleaning business? I'm not
inferring that all their information is bad, but let's be honest
about how "easy" it really is.
There's a dirty little secret hanging over the cleaning trade
that nobody talks about, but every professional cleaner runs
into. And unfortunately, if you buy one of the books on how to
start your own cleaning business, they won't tell you about this
issue and probably don't even know it exists. Why don't they
know it exists? Because the book, more than likely, was written
by a business professional and not a cleaning professional.
To share the responsibility, I'll be honest and reveal that even
the professional cleaners don't talk about this issue. And I
can't figure out why; are they in denial, do they decide to just
ignore it or are they resolved to just selling more hype?
What's the dirty little secret that nobody talks about? The
issue is that most of the customers that pay people to clean
their house think you are cleaning because you can't do anything
else and automatically think you will work for pennies.
OK - I said it. Now it's out there because I think this is an
important issue that people should know before they start a
house cleaning business. And it's also important for the people
that are currently cleaning to acknowledge that it exists and
know there is a way around the issue.
And once you know about it, you shouldn't let it deter you from
building your house cleaning business; just know how to handle
the issue for success.
I know a lot about this issue because I started my own house
cleaning business and grew it into a company with teams of
employees. And I didn't just start the business and immediately
hire the employees to do the cleaning. I started the business
and did the cleaning myself.
I had been self employed in the computer industry doing software
design and development consulting for large corporations. This
is a stress-filled career because you're on-call 24/7, must fix
software problems immediately, and you have project deadlines to
meet. After doing this for 18 years, I was burned out and needed
a change.
I started the house cleaning business because I always had my
house cleaned by professionals. And I wasn't happy with the
quality of the work. I definitely knew what customers wanted and
knew I could build my business based on that.
With my business and technical background, I had no problem
preparing the advertising and bidding on jobs. In fact, I landed
98% of the job I estimated. When I showed up to do the cleaning,
I got a whole different reaction from my new client than when we
met for the estimate.
Suddenly, they thought I needed supervision while cleaning. They
also thought they could ask and get more work done for the
original quote I gave them. And imagine my surprise when they
started telling me what I was going to clean on their next
appointment!
I had always treated the people cleaning for me with
professional respect. So it took me a while and a few customers
to figure out what was going on and why. Obviously, other
cleaners working alone would fall into this trap and the
customer got their way.
I snapped out of my obvious surprised stupor, dug in my heels
and ran my business as I had planned it. I learned that when I
estimated a job, the customer had to decide if they wanted what
my business offered and I also had to decide if I wanted to
clean for this prospect.
I used professional, custom business forms that I designed and
always required new customers to sign a Service Agreement. It
was up to me to decide if I wanted to bend my rule, not up to
the customer to demand that I bend it.
And you know what happened? My business kept growing, the
referrals kept coming in and this dirty little secret no longer
affected me.
I truly believe that every house cleaner can earn a full-time
income and enjoy their house cleaning business by knowing what
to expect before they get into a business they may not be fully
prepared for.
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Article Source: http://www.PopularArticles.com/article5196.html |
Article: House Cleaning Business - The Dirty Little Secret
Author: Gail Metcalf
Total Views: 100
Word Count: 672
Category:
Home /
Home and Garden / Cleaning
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