How to grow my cleaning business

[abender06]

@seanmonty The first hire is the toughest because your cash flow is cut in 1/2.

Your 10th hire is easy, because your cash flow is cut by only 10%

Follow?

it's not exact, but you get the idea.

Before you do, upgrade your _business_. Get some testimonials. Get some before-after photos. Prepare your biz to move upmarket, you are probably not quite ready to make the first hire (but biz-upgrade can be done in like 30 days).

That said, you need to fire some clients and raise prices, then start to move toward being a business owner. Kudos for being good at the craft!

I can help upgrade the biz - SwiftMarketing = us. Goal: move toward luxury homes who will afford a higher rate. Add upsells (laundry, etc). Earn $ referring handyman (repairs). PM if interested

 

[ron4shua]

@seanmonty You can start to build a fan page, a website, a local map services, then start growing it, when you have a real business with a logo,you can charge them high that ok then find people who work for you but ensure quality services you provide good as they need.

All steps or info you can go YouTube search then set from logo to build a landing page, and create a local map, but If you need to help add my discord ezdarkseid , I can build and set for you and guide you through the growth of local business at an affordable price

 

[pastorpontibus]

@ron4shua Don't troll for work.

 

[ron4shua]

@pastorpontibus

Don't troll for work.

only kid can think this is troll, this is how small business work, they setup logo, fanpage, website and local map to get lead and client

 

[pastorpontibus]

@ron4shua Let me make it more clear. Fuck off with your “offer” to help and get on your discord.

 

[ron4shua]

@pastorpontibus f u, I suggest watch youtube, but of course growth business bring a lot of money so you need to invest to buy domain hosting, set up a website so you expect can buy domain and hosting free

 

[ecign8]

@seanmonty You're in a tough spot. Do you have savings to invest into the business?

 

[seanmonty]

@ecign8 I sure don’t. We live week to week as it is. There’s a lot of moving parts to any business which I understand, it’s just so scary to make any moves at all when the risk is not having rent money or gas/food money if the timing is bad. I’ve thought about trying to get a loan but that’s also risky. I’ve been low income for so many years (all my life) that the idea of failing with no backup plan feels irresponsible. I have kids to raise and don’t want to do anything that would make our situation worse.

 

[ecign8]

@seanmonty Could you take on any more clients if you tried or is your schedule already full?

You shouldn't feel trapped by your current customers.

If you are full at 30 per hour with no capacity, and you want to grow I would try to find another customer at 35 per hour (for example). And then raise the price on an existing customer. And if they drop you over 5 bucks, well, you already replaced them. Slowly, carefully try to find more customers, slowly raising your prices as you do it, and raising prices on existing customers. You might get strong pushback on raising prices, others might just accept things have gone up. If you use your own supplies you can use that as a basic justification. As my drug dealer on TV guys tell me "price of the brick went up". It is what it is.

Another safer way to increase revenue on existing service is coming up with good promos like deep oven clean for $XX.XX or whatever. Try to have a limited time one off menu priced special you blast to your customer list. Track it for the week, see how many bite. Was the offer good? Was it great? Did they bite? How many? Did it make you money? More then your hourly?

Try to upsell every customer and present options. Especially with new ones. Ask them lots of questions about their needs and design custom packages going forward. Weekly do this, biweekly do that, Quarterly do this, give them a report or something (maybe not) but they should know what they're paying for, and you should have upsells at the checkout.

Try to get away from straight hourly pricing as that pits you against every other cleaner on Facebook and that's a race to the bottom.

Move away from hourly pricing, upsell your customer base hard, try to take new customers in 2024 and replace the customer that you lose the most money on.

Get ahead a bit financially. Maybe put out some feelers for part time helpers to help you especially if you start getting more work then you can take on.

 

[seanmonty]

@ecign8 These are GREAT ideas!! Thank you! And you said it - I feel super trapped by my customers. I am so worried about $ all the time it has never occurred to me to just try replacing someone at a higher price and see if it sticks. I said in another comment I wish I had a better business mind! I love your ideas here. I'm taking notes! I have so much to learn.

 

[gavinswalker]

@seanmonty I'm curious how you gained your first clients and what type of advertising you do?

 

[seanmonty]

@gavinswalker I don’t do any advertising. In the beginning I used care dot com and also offered some $100 cleanings in a couple Facebook groups and got myself a full schedule that way really quick. Other clients have come along the way as referrals. Right now I have 2 spots I want to fill and will probably get those from Facebook groups.

 

[gavinswalker]

@seanmonty Interesting. Thanks! How big of a job did you do for $100? Like small house, or...

 

[seanmonty]

@gavinswalker So for that promo I offered 4 hours of whatever they wanted. It helped me get experience but also made it to where I didn’t have to commit to an entire house if I couldn’t fit it in the timeframe. I was brand new and had no stamina physically so it was a good way for me to get started and not over do it. One lady had me clean just her kitchen. It took the whole 4 hours and I could have spent longer! Another lady had a cottage like school house attached to her home and she only wanted everything dusted. I thought it was going to be easy but I was so very wrong. But with that kind of thing it appeals to people because $100 is easy to pay, no commitment, and they could have me do general cleaning or something specific. It was up to them.

 

[catholicgirl201]

@seanmonty Do you have a Google business page and things like that? If you have excellent reviews, and people contacting you regarding more work, then you could always raise your prices for them and hire someone to fill in on the more busier days.

 

[tonyquart]

@seanmonty How about you slowly expand with higher prices for new clients? Also, I've been wanting to get into cleaning oddly enough. Sick of tech. Need a hand?

 

[prudhvi]

@seanmonty Spend some time finding out exactly what your competitors are getting. For all you know they could be charging double. Do a small bump for existing clients, but a much larger bump for new clients. Obtaining great Google reviews and mentions on places like Nextdoor and FB is key!

 

[logankahana]

@seanmonty Where are you located? Have you done research on what the companies around you charge?

 

[eastwoodrmc]

@seanmonty I’m in the same exact boat as you but I tried last year to bring my (ex) best friend in as 50/50 partners. Don’t make my mistake.

 

[madikana]

@seanmonty Are you “religious”?