Mother in Law chapter II

Okay. These prices are based on 1986 and my memory.

DBA: $10. Pick a name for your business and go to the courthouse and register it by writing the name in the book, filling out a simple form, and paying about $10. You're supposed to research that entire book to make sure that name hasn't been used before. Just pick something with your name in it and you will be good. Shewolf Cleaning.

Bonding: $85. Call an insurance company from the yellow pages and ask for a bond for your business. It's the kind of bond that says that if you steal something, the insurance company will reimburse the customer. It's cheap and it sounded real good. If someone asks if you are insured, just nod and say, yes, I'm bonded, and show them your certificate. If they require liability bond, for damages, just tell them, so far, you haven't found that your customers are requiring that, and ask if you can come back in the future should you decide to go to that level. Back in those days, it wasn't such a big deal. I only had one company that required it in all those years. My guess is that's still the case. But do stay away from businesses that have expensive equipment. And we'll talk about that.

Cards: $20 Business cards. Be sure to put a cell phone number on that, because if you do use a home phone and the phone company finds out you are advertising a home phone for business purposes they can back charge you.

Service Agreement: $?. Based on the information below, come up with a schedule of services with places to make a check mark and places for both of you to sign, and be sure to get an afterhours contact number for someone, and get some carbon paper. Or, you can go to the expenses of getting it printed up at a print shop and get the form in triplicet. Not really necessary for this level. I never bothered with an official contract. These small businesses will either keep you or not. If they fall on hard times, do you really want to honor your end of the contract, and then not get paid? If they aren't happy, do you really want to keep showing up? I found a Service Agreement a lot friendlier and more practical.

Vacuum Cleaner. $187.50. I recommend the Oreck, since it's light weight and manueverable and strong. I did pick one up for this price from a local janitorial supply house. And you'll want something with attachments, too. Through Hesco, if they are still around, I found for $90 a vacuum that you wear on your shoulder. It could be used for light vacuuming--no power brush in the head--but great for sweeping and for reaching upwards for cobwebs and dust on the ceiling.

Real Feather Duster. $10. Get the smaller one. It manuevers better.

Windex.
Dow Bathroom Cleaner.
Comet.
Endust.
Paper towels. Use theirs. But you could have some available, on the off chance they don't have any. It happened to me only once. If you supply your own, they will eventually get wet, and then won't be any good. And never, ever flush a paper towel down their plumbing.

Pumice Stone. You can get it at any janitorial supply house cheap, safe, effective, easy to use. Use it for hard-water lines inside the toilet and up under the rim. Usually needed on initial clean only.

I never carried any bleach or anything with acid. I never had to replace any carpet either.

Scrubber Sponge. You might want one for the stainless steal sinks and the tiniest dab of Comet. Less is more! Rinsing that stuff takes forever. And you won't usually need to do that too often.

A roofer's mop. If you can still find them. I got mine at Austin Vacuum Cleaner. Most of the offices you will clean will only have a tiny amount of floor in the bathrooms, and this tiny mop is perfect for that. If you can't find one, go with a string mop and don't get cotton either. They break down, and are best for wax jobs.

Get a carpet cleaning company you can network with who also does those big floor jobs. My old contact is still around and you can use him if you need to. Onion Creek Carpet and Floors. 512-282-0559. Or it's 280-0559.

Lamb's Wool extensions. $?. Similar to the feather duster, for cleaning blinds, sills, sides of desks, ceiling fans, under chairs. One is okay to start, but if you have multiple projects, you'll need a couple, because you'll have to wash them along your route and then rotate them out when one dries.

Trash liners. $?. Start with 33 gallon and, I think, 8 gallon.

5 gallon bucket. Get a sturdy 5 gallon bucket for your supplies. Mine lasted 13 years. Well worth the price. When I got started this is where I put all my supplies.

If you have any money left, get a brute and dolly and skirt. It's a trash can on wheels, and get those wheels bolted to the can. The skirt is a wraparound bag of pockets where you can put your cleaning supplies, equipment, and liners. Will save you oodles of time.

I think that's it. And next, how to go through a project effectively . . .

Oh, and you'll need ...

Key chain. Go to a locksmith and purchase the best key chain loop you can find and get some tabs with labels. Never have your customer's name on the tab. If the keys get stolen you are in big trouble! I used a system like the first letter of their business and then a number, as in customer number, like for Austin Shoe, A1, for Austex, A2, since they signed up after Austin Shoe. Always keep your keys with you wherever you go at all times. Always. Sleep with them. Eat with them. Never let them leave your possession. And never put the security codes on your Service Agreements. I actually had my pitch book--which had my bid sheets and service agreements--stolen from a coffee shop. Try not to talk business late at night, loudly at a coffee shop. Competitors and theives are listening, I assure you. My competition in Austin knew me and I knew them. And once, they called and asked me to come do sales for them. It was an honor.

And get some Mr. Clean or I actually liked the powdered Spic 'N Span for mopping floors. But don't use Pine-Sol, because it leaves a sticky residue. Spic 'N Span is cheap and rinse-free and so very gentle and safe.

And you'll need an apron with pockets, if you don't get the brute and dolly and skirt.

I'll be back with the step to go through an office efficiently and with how to get those contracts.

holy sh**

you are FULL of information!

so, i would then need an accomidating vehicle as well... as i only drive a little corolla right now.

How long did it take you to really get in the door and begin to start bringing in money?
Was this something that took a few months? weeks? hours?

im going to take what you have written and print it out. As i go through and get started if i run into questions, do you mind if i shoot them your way?

This sounds like something I could reasonably do , and get started in .. in about 2 months.
I have to piece together the supplies first and that is most of the 'lag time'
but with the security of a business contract for cleaning, I can actually count on making money vs with home cleaning like I am doing now.
As i said, there isnt the '' job security'' behind me on this.
Thank you a TON for writting this out for me!

We rented our Pflugerville house for a while when we had to live in Lubbock. (Eventually sold it as it became too much hassle.) We checked credit, but never criminal records. Lots of folks don't even check credit.

Wow! I'm glad you are pleased because this is lots of fun for me, too.

I was a careful starter. I cleaned two offices for businesses where I knew the people for free to get feed back and to see how to approach the project. I was raised a spoiled rich kid and so had never cleaned anything before in my life.

I got both those contracts. One for $50 per cleaning once a week, and the other for $25 cleaning twice per week: $400 total.

After that I cold called and could bank on at least one yes for an average of $100 per month for every, say, two hours of cold calling ... but more on that later.

I'm going to give you the intitial clean schedule of services. You won't need to do all of this each time for say, a full cleaning. You will get a feel for each office's needs.

The idea is to get rid of all the dust and grime and to leave surfaces that resist dust and grime. Then your maintenance is easy.

When propects would ask, "How do you clean?" I would look them straight in the eye with a smile and point to the ceiling. "I start at the top. Then the walls and blinds. Then every side of every item. Here, let me show you." And then I would take them through their office and as I showed them the steps, I reveaved to them all their dirt, dirt that most of them didn't "see" anymore because they had tuned it out. Sometimes people would get up out of their chairs and come along for the demo. A real show stopper. But more on that later...

1. Vacuum all the ceilings.

2. Lambs wool wand with Endust--spraying down the lambs wook wand as it becomes necessary--wand all the tops of the doors--you'd be so surprised!--all the blinds, then flip the blinds and to the other side and do again, then the interior windows which will have a layer of dust on them too, then the sills, then the floor boards, then the tops of and sides of tall cabinets, partitions, sides of desks--remember the insides too where they sit, the base of all the chairs, and work the tool into crevices there, like the "neck" of the chairs.

Always try to "sweep" the dirt toward the center of the room, where your vacuum can get to it later.

Take the wand under the desks on the floor especially around the legs where your vacuum can't go and in between tight furniture and swoosh out the debris toward the center of the room.

2. Feather dust the top, underneath, behind, and around the computer and lift the keyboard, and all the desk surface, and swoosh that dirt and eraser debris and staples into center of room. Lift, swoosh, and replace each item on desk.

3. From your bucket, your apron, or your skirt on your brute and dolly, put Windex in one hand, Endust in other, spray Windex on computer screen--unless the rare specialty computer where you should only let them use their special alcohol--spray, angled so as not to get into the systems, the phone ear piece (never use an oil-based product for the phones), spray the keyboard, bottom of chair, the adding maching, the phone pad, take the tape out of dispenser, and if necessary spray that too. Spray Endust on the desk, plastic or wood.

4. Wipe screens and other Windexed items first. Then you can use the same paper to wipe the desk down. Endust smells great and leaves a nice shiny, expensive-looking coating, that will sheer away dust as their day goes by and make coke and coffee rings, and other smudges easy to get off later.

5. Kitchen. A lot of these places won't have hot water, so I discovered that Bathroom Cleaner is awesome at getting coffee out of the pots and cups and any really dirty dishes that may have caked-up grime. And it's a disinfectent. Just be sure to rinse thoroughly as you would with any soap anyway. Spray Bathroom cleaner on dishes, windex inside microwave, under microwave, again with coffee maker, all sides and under, inside of fridge. Pull liner in trash can and soak interior and exterior of can, Spray wall near can, spray front of all cabinets, and even the inside of cabinet door, if the trash can is stored under the cabinet. Wipe everything down as before, glass and Windex items first. Move items in fridge, wipe, and replace. Endust the tops of cabinets. They'll look great and resist smudges and cleaning can be harsh to surfaces, so you'll want to pretty it up. Then place a paper towel lining on cabinet and wash and thoroughly rinse dishes and coffee pot and turn upside to drain on paper towel, Stack coffee cups if necessary.

Then use a dab of comet for the sink. Sometimes a Dow Bathroom cleaner soak will get out most of the stains, so I just used the comet occassionally. I hated carrying it with me because it would topple and leave a mess or eventually it would get wet with humidity and be difficult to use. Comet is cheap. You might want to go ahead and leave some on site. Or even better, use theirs if they have some. Endust is great on stainless steal too. Leaves a great shine and resists grime. It'll make a difference. Your offices will stay clean all week while you are gone. Your competitors' won't. Your customer will never go back.

6. Bathrooms. When you came through with your Lamb's wool, you swooshed foward any dust and debris between the commode and the narrow walls. If you didn't, then do it know with your feather duster. Spray everything down. Mirror, all sides and under and behind commode. Remember the back and side walls, and the side of the cabinet near the commode. Men spray. Spray Dow Bathroom cleaner thoroughly on fixtures. Some will have gunk accumulated around the edges. I used the have a toothbrush handy for that. You should only need to do that once. Once you are using Dow there weekly, you'll never have any more build-up.

I forgot the mention the toilet swab. Get it from the janitorial supply house. Get the white puffy one that's not cotton, and that doesn't have any metal wiring on it, which leaves a gray streak sometimes.

If you have gunk from the water accumulated under the rim, or at the water line, use the pumice stone. It has a scary scrapping sound and you will be sure that you are causing damage. Don't worry, and don't use it anywhere else.

At only two places, I had customers who had something seriously wrong with their water and it left a nasty murky gunky dark film under the rim. I flushed the commode and sprayed down the inside of the tank itself and even brought in the bleach, and it stopped some of it, but it always came back. Sometimes you can't win. But they each knew they had a problem, and they were thrilled with the weekly results anyway.

Wipe everything as before. And don't forget under and behind the commode, every time.

You can empty the toilet of its water by taking your white puffy toilet cleaner and briskly "pushing" the water through the hole at the bottom. Water will leave and you can then spray down the entire bowl with Dow Bathroom cleaner.

Remember the door knob. Everyone touches it and every one doesn't always wash their hands, and around the door knob there will be smudges any way. I always washed down all the doors, both sides, on an initial cleaning and then just the most important bathroom knobs, both sides, every week, keeping an eye out for the occassional sprayed coke or whatever later. Don't forget the light switch. I made a big deal of this in the sales pitch. People don't want to spread germs. I helped keep everyone healthy.

7. I always take the feather duster and swoosh all the debris out and mop bathroom floor right then and there, otherwise you have to come back after you vacuum, and that's extra steps. And I took the trash out there too. Pulling the liners and leaving that in the kitchen and replacing new liners. Because you are almost through and the floors will still be wet when you take out the trash. And clean those cans if they need it.

8. Put a splash of Mr. Clean or Spick 'N Span in sink and put roofer's mop in that and mop. Then wipe sink, and last foot steps out the door. Don't get lazy here. Mop behind that door when you have it open because that's where the vent blows a lot of dust under the door. It accumulates.

9. If you have a brute and dolly and skirt you won't have to make a second trip. And sometimes, I would just drag a big liner with me. I would tuck some large ones in back of my pants, and smaller ones in front and empty that trash as I went along. If you have a brute and dolly, it will be lined with a 33 gallon trash bag. Pop an air hole in the top there, otherwise when you put trash in it, the air beneath it will get trapped and you'll have a trash "balloon" effect.

10. Replace liners. When you pop in a new liner, after you pop it open and with your hand on the bottom push the bottom of the liner deep into the bottom of the trash can, then pull at the top edge and twist the edge of the liner to the right till you have a tight fit around the top of can. Then tuck that "twisted tip" in the direction of the twist, and the top of liner will not cave in and will stay put, but will still be easy as pie for you to pull out next week.

11. Clean both sides of front door and lock.

12. Take trash to dumpster. Sometimes I would drive it over on top of my car.

Wow Dupre I'm going to print this out and starting doing some of your suggestions at home. The one thing I would mention, as a person with hard water, I have had success using those lime removal cleaners instead of the pumice stone. The stone works, but seems to damage the porcelain over time. Thanks again for all the tips.

I forgot the vacuuming!

<sigh>

Green Witch, thanks.

I used those lime removal chemicals, too, and really liked them, but since I ran this thing with no liability insurance for so long, till I got really big and had employees helping me, I never wanted to take anything like that into a customer's office.

I heard a horror story about a company who had an employee who had bleach in brute and dolly and it leaked all throughout the building and the company had to replace all the carpet. Of course, they had insurance.

That product has a bit of acid in it, and could eat through carpet, so I just stayed away from it for business purposes.

One of my customers had a bad experience with another company. The cleaner had mistaken his glass cleaner spray bottle, with his toilet cleaning acid and sprayed the front door. And it ate away the glass. Expensive mistake.

I paid more, but I always used the safest, most-idiot proof products. I had customers who were surprised by that, and I told them I found that people prefered the "smells" of the familiar products. So, I used it as a sales pitch.

Wow, these are the most amazing ideas.

The things you learn on A2K.

What can I say but
WOW.

the tips you gave I can use in th cleaning I do now.
This is incredibally valuable to me.
Thank you so much.


> off to print this <

It's also just cool to see a professional mind at work. I love the part about how you kept people healthy. Yeah!

Yeah! Thanks for the positive feed back.

Billing. You can actually get a book of receipts from an office supply store and just fill them out manually. Or you can get fancy and use Quicken. I used to just leave them on my contact's desk.

This is a sales tax item, so you'll need to get a free sales tax number. There used to be substations everywhere. Call the city and tell them what you need. It's a simple thing to do, will only take minutes. If they ask, you want to be set up on the Cash system, not the Accounting system. All that means is that when you get paid, you will pay the tax. With the accounting system, you pay your sales tax based on what you billed. If someone pays you late, you still have to cough up the tax. If someone doesn't pay, you have to make an ajustment, so I never bothered with it.

Add the sales tax to the bill.

I always billed on the 20th of the month AHEAD of services rendered. And I always billed Nov and Dec together on Oct 20th. Because people would leave and then accounting has a lot to do in Jan. and I would have to wait till Feb to get my money. I just included a little note as to why I was doing that and each and every customer paid. No big deal. Also, the company will need your social security number since you are a subcontractor for them. So be courteous and give it to the accounting department before they have to meed their January tax crunch.

And let your mail carrier know that you will be receiving mail in the name of your business, too.

I usually got my money around the 15th for the month I was servicing. How's that? You get your money ahead of time!

Keep track of your mileage from your first stop to your last. It's all tax deductable. Your tax person can help you with that, but the deductions are HUGE. Keep your phone bill, and all your start-up costs, and all your supplies. And all repair bills for car and insurance, etc. Even your bill to have your taxes done for you is deductible.

Always pay your sales tax. If you pay "early" you get an extra deduction. If you pay late, you will pay dearly. Don't do it. Always pay. Run your business right and you can sleep at night.

Oh, and I learned the hard way, when you do quit you have to let them know. Otherwise they will try to charge you an average for several quarters, and they won't try to find you and let you know, and then they will add fines, etc. and you will have to appeal. I appealed 6 years after going out of business, and because I had each and every invoice, bank statement, and copies of all sales tax, etc, I was able to prove when I stopped my business and get the $5,000 down to $600. So, just remember to let them know when you go out of business and spare yourself the drama.

Same thing if you end up hiring someone. Play by the rules, Always pay your employee tax. That one, I hear, can add up even faster than the sales tax, if you don't, in fines and fees. And then you do have to let them know when you no longer use employees.

So, let's say you have a customer whom you service once a week. And let's say this particular month you have four Saturdays and five Sundays... I can see you wondering, um, which account did I clean on which day ...

So, I always just assumed the cleaning occured on Sundays, and so months with five Sundays got charged for five cleanings.

And if someone was on a schedule of two stops per week, at a certain rate for a certain level of service, say a full cleaning on Sunday and a "light" cleaning on Wednesday for 32.50 per week--I billed them for the week, Sunday - Saturday 32.50. That way you'll never have to worry about the five week month and which dates of the month which service occured. I had customers ask about it rarely. I always offered to take the $25 per week, or the $32.50 per week, multiply it by 52 weeks and then divide it by 12 to come up with an average monthly, same, rate for them. But no one ever wanted to do that.

So you know some more rates... My sister pays her cleaning guy 75 bucks a cleaning and he comes every 2 weeks. She's had 2 different cleaners at that price. They usually work with another person and take about 1 hour to clean a 2-floor house.

And next we'll talk about getting those contracts.

"Kid, you gotta get a gimmick, if you want to get a hand."

<this is really too much fun!>

dupre, you're awesome!

Hi, littlek. No, I don't know today's rates. But residential is a lot more work, and then they always seem to want something extra, like changing sheets. I tried residential and make readys (the worst!), and I just found that the office cleaning worked best for me. It's the easiest with the least time-consuming interaction with people.

And it's a niche market. Most of the cleaning companies in the yellow pages are there for one year, the small companies couldn't hack it and failed. A very few, I'd say, about 5, are listed every year. Those 5 cater to large offices, one of them has 250 employees. Most of them wouldn't even return a call to the smaller offices, so when the small office would call for a price they got ignored or laughed at.

I had people so glad to see me, they couldn't get the keys to me fast enough.

I drummed up so much interest in my business that I had to turn away about 5 times the business I was actually able to say yes to and take on.

Things may be different now. I noticed during the late eighties, when the economics turned sour, more people were doing this, because they had to, not because they wanted to, and some companies were using relatives and friends who had fallen on difficult times. But there was always plenty of dirt in Austin to go around, even then.

Now, in Austin, there are franchises like ... um ... better not name them ... They sell all the information I just shared and package the company for their franchise owners and then they go get the contracts for them. They started in Austin by undercutting the large companies and getting large contracts, when they couldn't deliver and lost those contracts, they started crashing my market. But they couldn't undercut my already low prices, and they just couldn't deliver.

The poor franchise owners only get about a fourth of the money, and they get discouraged and quit.

Anyway ... that's a huge digression ...

Thanks for the high praise, littlek!

<blush>

shewolf
shewolf, there are some new products for cleaning and dusting that are wonderful and nothing is required but water. I order mine from QVC but you can probably find them locally.

This is one example:
Item Number V22408
SuperCloth 6 Piece Multi-Purpose Cleaning Cloth Set
QVC Price $18.00
Shipping and Handling $3.97
Save! Buy two or more and save on S & H. Click here for details.

With just tap water, this SuperCloth set removes all kinds of dust and dirt from any type of surface. Bigger, stronger, longer-lasting, and more absorbent than ordinary wipes, the SuperWipes and SuperCloth have the power to clean liquid spills, eliminating the need for sponges, rags, and disposable wipes. You can even lay them atop messy carpet spills for quick, easy absorption. Reusable and machine washable. Includes five SuperWipes and one SuperCloth.

Measurements: SuperWipes 19-1/2" x 15-1/2". SuperCloth 18" x 14".
Made in Italy.

See the entire selection of products available:

cleaning cloths

The microfiber cloths are so good and so durable they survived removing grout residue from newly laid floor tiles, the toughest possible test. Using them allows you to avoid chemical use in homes and offices. They can be used on almost every surface I can imagine.

BBB