BumbleBeeBoogie: Wow! Those sound great. Times they be a-changin'.
littlek wrote:dupre, you're awesome!
You're not kidding, littlek.
I'm thinking about starting a new business with all this info ......
That tico will start with business as well?
Actually, I think, dupre could earn a fortune when selling this exclusively!
Hey, thanks a lot.
Okay, I thought shewolf got a position at a day care and no longer needed this info. But if y'all want to hear it ...
I'll be back with information on cheap, effective grassroots marketing; bidding; scheduling; and Things That Go Bump in the Night <smile>
Hi. Grassroots Marketing.
The idea is to get your name in front of your prospects from three different sources, each "contact" increasing in closeness, within a two week period, and to use all the "links" you can.
It's important to find your unique self here too, because people will feel uncomfortable if they don't connect with the real you. The best you.
BTW I recommend avoiding hair salons, used car lots, and eye care vision centers.
Go for small offices, like aound 1500 square feet. The smaller the space, the more you make, but I'll go over that in the bidding process. Just find an office complex.
You might first put out your business cards on the doors. Don't do it on the weekend, because your competitors will snatch them up. Do it on Monday night.
Go to the library and copy a page from the Cole's Crisscross with all the phone numbers and addresses of the office complex. Cost about 15 cents. Or maybe you can even get that online for free these days.
Wait a few days. Call everyone of them. Afterhours. You don't want to be put on hold and all that or interrupt their day with an actual call. This is just a blitz, so be quick with your message, but not too quick.
Businesses are not allowed to be on the Do Not Call list, so go for it. Leave a message using two links. Remember to use "my" and "your," not just "the" or "a."
"Hi. This is Shewolf, with Shewolf Cleaning. I left my card on your door about my janitorial services on Monday" (link one--They're thinking, "You know where I am, we're practically cousins" as compared to any other wannabe service out there). "Just want you to know I'm in the area--I work part-time at Such and Such Church day care over on Such and Such Ave" (link two--They're thinking, "Wow, you take care of my neighbors' kids, you must be nice, and you passed a background check of the highest standards, and I know where to find you during the day if all my stuff disappears or the carpet has bleach blobs on it") "and I'm looking for a few janitorial contracts for the weekends. My rates are reasonable, and I have enthusiastic references. If you'd like a quick bid, I can swing by on Such and Such afternoon. Give me a call at 512-123-4567. Thanks and have a great day!"
Next ... hopefully someone will call and you can use another link. In a few days--or after your initial clean with your new client--go ahead and walk through the complex. Do it quickly with a lot of energy, you want to respect their time, and yours. You might walk in and say, "Hi. I'm Shewolf with Shewolf Cleaning. I'm taking care of your neighbor, Austex, over in Unit B. And since I'm in the area, I'm hoping you would be interested in a quick bid. How are y'all getting your office cleaned now?" Ask an open-ended question, not one that they can answer "yes" or "no" to. And then either bid, or thank them and move on.
Frankly, I rarely bothered with the second step. For $15 I got microfisch from the City of Austin Electic. They have to provide it under the open records act. Think about it. Every business prospect for you will have an electric bill, otherwise they'd be in a big building and that's not your target market. And I picked up a used Microfisch reader and got the names and addresses and mailed out a fancy brochure for step number two. But hey, that costs money. The marketing books do say it takes three contacts within a short period for them to remember you. So, phone calls are cheap, and they get to hear your chipper voice, so it's really more effective.
And frankly, for the first step, I used fancy fliers that matched the business cards that they got on the third step, and matched the brochures that they got on the second step, and matched the logo on my shirt--all in Windex blue. Sort of like a brand indentification. But I didn't need all that at first. I just mention it so that you can bear that in mind later.
And it's worth it to really work a complex, because since you don't make that much per stop, the closer the stops, the more you make and the less any one in particular has to pay, so your rates stay low, and you make more and spend less in gas and vehicle maintenance.
I had 5 in one complex, which paid a total of $125 (1990 prices here), and took me 3.5 hours, moving slowly and carefully. I never rushed a job. No insurance. I had to be careful. And it gave me a sense of security that all my income wasn't coming from one source.
And it was easy work. Four were phychiatrists. One was computer software design. Talk about clean offices! It was cake.
Bidding.
Okay. How much do you want to make an hour doing this?
I was happy with $25 per hour, and I still would be even now a decade later, but the market may pay more now.
It took me 1 hour to clean 1500 sq. foot office space, and I'm talking 90% carpet, 10% floors, one kitchen, two restrooms, no windows other than front door.
I would bid $25 per week for a full cleaning, and when I had all the business I needed, I did bid double that for the intial: $50, and people paid it, and it was worth more than $50. You could probably even charge $75 for that.
The Lamb's wool wand pass was really only necessary once every 6 weeks or so, and I never had to redo the ceiling ... so you're just dusting, wiping, taking out the trash, a thorough uncompromising cleaning in kitchen and restrooms, vacuuming and front door.
So, $25 (or whatever you want) divided by 1500 square feet gets you .016 cents per square foot.
If someone has only 1000 square feet, are you really gonna charge only $16? .. No, you'd want at least $20 right? And it'll only take you 2/3rds of the time. You just got a per-hour raise.
If they only have 750 square feet, I'd still charge the $20. No one will expect to you do a full cleaning for less than that, so now you're making $20 for 1/2 hour or $40 per hour for that project.
And the .016 cents per square foot holds true to up to about 2500 square feet. Bid $40. It may not be as much per hour as the smaller projects, but it's more money in your pocket, so it works out.
Beyond that square footage, you might get into the types of account that want you every night. I put in a bid for a 7500 square-foot facility, 4 bathrooms, about 60%-40% on carpet to floor (floors will need a mop bucket and two passes, sweep, then mop, yuck, a lot of work!), two kitchens. And he was getting bids of 450 for every night service. Wow! That's 7500 sq feet times 5 nights per week: 37,500 sq. ft x 52 weeks per year, divided by 12 months per year or 162,500 sq feet per month! so that's only .0027 per square foot! And you could fly, very quickly through that cleaning in about maybe two hours per night. So per hour that's 2 X 5 (nights) X 52 (weeks) divided by 12 (months) = 43 hours per month for $450 or $10 per hour. Is it worth it?
I was able to get that account for 325--he was looking for the lowest bidder--and I talked him in to one full cleaning per week (but for him, I only did the dusting and polishing once a month), and then on the four other nights, bathrooms, kitchen, and trash only ... a light cleaning. And that took me two hours on Sunday and only 1/2 hour on Tue - Thu, for a total weekly time of 4 hours. About 17 hours per month, or $19 per hour. Not my best deal, but, hey, it was money. He didn't pay fast. And that was a high percentage of my total take at the time. I always tried not to get any contract that was more than 20% of the total, because, well, he took 90 days to pay, and that was a lot of time to wait for reimbursement of all those liners and time.
I considered my target market to be 2500 sq foot and less. And I listed it that way in the Yellow Pages. Small offices 500-2500 square feet. That way when they look in the book, they'll know right away which service to call when the big shops wouldn't even consider taking on their business.
So, point being, less is more, much more. Go for the smallest weekly contracts you can find.
Schedule of services. I also had two very profitable mid-week levels. A light cleaning. And a very light cleaning. For the very light cleaning, I would take out the trash, clean the restrooms, the kitchen, and the front door. This is the fast part of the cleaning. Should take less than 15 minutes. And I would add about $7.50 to the weekly rate. $7.50 per 15 minutes, is $30 per hour. You just got a raise. For the light cleaning, I would add a touch-up vacuuming; some offices need it and some don't. And I would charge about $15 for that.
So, point being the less space you clean and the smaller level of service you can sell, the more you will make per hour. And the broader will be your spread of isources for income.
If that doesn't have any appeal, and sounds like a lot of work, there's nothing wrong with getting that nightly contracts. Day cares are actually good accounts. Last I heard, here is Austin, the City requires you to do something like haul out all the furniture and toys and soak them for 10 minutes with disinfectant and hose them down. And they'll want a carpet cleaning once a month. And they'll want you every night. I heard a bid once of $600 for that for about, gosh, I can't remember the square footage.
But, I will admit a couple of contracts like that and you don't have to work so hard at the sales, and keep so many records, and answer to so many people.
I like sales a lot, and I wanted the most money for my time, and I wanted the security of a broad source of income.
Industries go through changes. I had a friend who specialized in banks. For years. Thought his contracts were gold. When the bottom dropped out and all the banks merged, he was left with a warehouse full of brutes and dollys, and IOU's.
I had three Real estate appraisal companies. One was an independent. Another was a firm that had been around a while. They had old furniture and a junky office, with an extra "room" down around the corner, it was sort of pieced together. Very strange. And then this new company, had modern furniture and the best of everything in a new facility. When the requirments for appraisers changed, the independent got a job, the new company folded oweing me 248.48 (ya just don't forget those sorts of things, even 10 years later!) and the company with the old furniture and strange office survivied it.
So, I always just like a variety of businesses as security.
yeah, it does sound like a lot of work
But with the way you break it down, it makes perfect sense .
30 an hour? ****, i didnt even make that nursing .
My highest paying job was 17.60 an hour.
That would be double with no 60hr work week.
I have printed this out, ( need to print out this last post) and i am going to start shopping around town and getting supplies cheap.
I would say in 3 weeks I should have everything I need.
I am going to take 75% of what i make on house cleaning jobs now and use that twords supplies.
Then 5% to advertising.
After I get my supplies, I am going to start picking out places to advertise TO.
Go visit buildings, research companies ( see who has been in business longer..)
That is my first 6 week plan.
You make it sound so simple I just wanna throw myself into this face first . But if I do that I will surely fail. since i am going to try to count on this for a living , slow and steady wins the race.
Thank you for sharing all of this with me. You have really spelled out a great opportunity for me.I dont think I can thank you for that. :-)
You are very welcome.
How I envy you the good times you will have with this!
Thanks for letting me share it.
Check out CostCo for equipment and supplies. They'll let you in for a looksee, so you don't have to buy a membership prior to seeing the merchandise and pricing.
I have a membership to Sams..
same stuff right? costco=sams
check out
www.hescoinc.com
cheaper than all the rest.
Well, you'd never believe it with all my typos and errors in the quickly produced "how to start your business" blah..
But I had started the company to finish my degree. I majored in English and now am I'm a proofreader.
I've proofread over 44,000 pages of text, some for bestselling authors.
I make a small fraction of what I made with my business.
Actually, that's one thing I noticed, dupre, is that your guide is remarkably clear and well-written.
(I'm currently extremely annoyed with editing/ proofreading, but I'll get over it. The more interesting the material, the quicker it goes, and the stuff I'm doing now is bor-ing.
Cosco doesn't have exactly the same stuff as Sam's. You should check it out.
ohh yes Dupre
you write bery vell dahhhhhling.. ;-)
I go away for a couple of days and all this exciting planning happens - good luck with it all, new home and new business.
Wow, dupre, that is GREAT info, and so clearly spelled out!
I think Shewolf's gonna do great with it.
Heck, I'M Excited, and I'd rather eat all my hair than start a cleaning business....
