The names have been changed, but these are true stories based on real situations for persons interested in starting or scaling a house cleaning company:
Janet owns a house cleaning company with 6 employees. Since she started the company three years ago, she has been talking about implementing a formal training program. In July, the House Cleaning Alliance introduced to all members free training for all professional cleaning employees. Janet knows about the option, but has decided not to implement it because she can’t be certain her employees will stick with her.
Melinda, 25, has for years been dying to drop everything and travel the world. She got a big tax refund last year, enough for the ticket, but instead of quitting her job as a waitress and taking off to Australia , she used the money as a down payment on a new car. But to demonstrate her resolution, she hung a wall map of the world in her kitchen and began pushing thumb tacks into cities she plans to visit. Melinda is thinking about cleaning houses part time to save some extra money for the trip.
John has been cleaning houses with his wife Alice for the past year and a half. He wants to scale his business and hire employees, but hasn’t gotten enough extra customers. He’s spoken with the House Cleaning Alliance about a website, but is worried that the site won’t win him new business; he doesn’t really understand web-based marketing or all the hype about Adwords. Alice and John are going to Florida for a week in December for a break, so are taking on extra work before Christmas to pay for the trip. John has been so busy cleaning lately that he just hasn’t had time to research web-based marketing.
For several years, Martha has cleaned homes with various assistants. Right now she has two. Together they earn between $180 and $400 per day in cash; they work three and a half days per week normally, and Martha splits the cash 50% / 25% / 25%. Last year she first read about scaling her business, and phoned the House Cleaning Alliance to discuss it further. She really needs to make more money than she is presently making, but she is worried that her two co-workers will quit if she tries to withhold taxes and social security. She can’t afford to quit cleaning herself, and her customers might quit if she tries to raise her prices. Martha is still deciding what to do next . . .
If you have a story like this, please drop us a line. Don’t worry, we won’t bother trying to coax you out of your own hamster wheel, but if you ask for our advice, we will explain your options as we see them. And it’s always illuminating to hear about real life situations, even those which are most difficult to solve.