START YOUR OWN HOUSE AND FLAT CLEANING SERVICE
House and flat cleaning services are gaining in popularity.
These are business services that are growing in demand as a
result of more and more women seeking jobs outside the home.
Their need to supplement the family income creates the
opportunity for you to set up a lucrative business.
Ten years ago, businesses of this kind were serving only the
affluent - homes of wealthy people where women didn't want to be
bothered with the drudgery of household cleaning, and had the
money to pay someone to do it for them. But times have changed,
and today the market includes many middle income families in
every residential area across the entire country. The potential
market among flat dwellers is also great. All in all this is a
business that has grown fast, and has as much real wealth
building potential as any we can think of.
This is a cleaning service generally associated with women;
however, men are finding that they can organise, start, and
operate a very profitable home and flat cleaning business just
as well as a woman. It's an ideal business for any truly
ambitious person wanting a business of his or her own,
especially for those who must begin with limited funds.
Actually, you can start this business right in your own
neighbourhood, using your own equipment, and begin making a
profit from the first day.
Many enterprising homemakers are already doing this kind of work
on a small scale as an extra income producing endeavour.
There's a growing need for this service. Organising your
efforts into a business producing $100,000 to $200,000 a year is
quite possible, and you can get started for $200 or so, always
using your profits to expand and increase your business.
Absolutely no experience is required. Everyone knows how to
dust the furniture, vacuum carpets, make the bed and carry out
the trash. But you must ask yourself if making a house clean
and bright is important and uplifting work. If you look on it
as degrading or as drudgery, don't involve yourself in this
business.
Starting from scratch, you'll need a telephone and an
appointment book. You also need an advertising flyer, such as
the following:
HOME OR FLAT CLEANING We do the work - You relax and take it
easy. You get the best job in town at rates you can afford.
Your satisfaction is always guaranteed! For more details, call
Sue, 123456, ABC Cleaning Services.
You can either type this notice out of write it in longhand with
a pen. Either way, it's going to be your first advertising
endeavour, and bring in that first customer for you. It might
be worth paying $10 or $20 to have it professionally designed and
set out, look in yellow pages under typesetters and printers.
Once you have a circular designed, take it to a printers or copy
shop, and have about 200 printed. You should be able to get two
copies on a standard A4 sheet, and running 100 sheets of paper
through will cost no more than $12. For a little bit more, have
the printer cut them in half with his machine cutter, so you
will have 200 copies of the advertising flyer.
Now take these flyers, along with a box of tin tacks, and put
them up on all the free notice boards you can find - grocery
stores, launderettes, beauty salons, office building lounges,
cafes, post offices, and wherever else such posters are allowed.
When a prospective customer calls, have your appointment book
and pen handy. Be friendly and enthusiastic. Explain what you
do everything from changing the beds to vacuuming, dusting and
polishing the furniture and cleaning the bathroom to the dishes
and the laundry. Or, everything except the dishes and laundry
whatever you have decided on as your policy. When they ask you
how much you charge, simply tell them six to ten dollars an hour,
but for a firm quote, you'll need to see the hïuse and make a
detailed estimate for them. Then without much of a pause ask if
4.30 this afternoon would be convenient for them, or if 5.30
would be better. You must pointedly ask if you can come to make
your cost proposal at a certain time, or the(decision may be put
off, and!you may come up with a No Sale.
Just a soon as you have an agree}ent on the time to make your
cost proposal, and marked in your appointment book, ask for
name, address, and phone number.
Jot this information down on a 3 x 5 index card, along with the
date and the notation: Prospective Customer. Then you file this
card in a permanent card file. Save these cards, because there
are literally loads of ways to turn this prospect file into real
cash, once you've accumulated a sizeable number of names,
addresses, and phone numbers.
When you go to see your prospect in person, always be on time.
A couple of minutes early won't hurt you, but a few minutes late
will definitely be detrimental to your closing the sale. Always
be well groomed. Dress as a successful business owner. Be
confident and sure of yourself; be knowledgeable about what you
can do as well as understanding the prospect's needs and wants.
Do not smoke, even if invited by the prospect, and never accept
a drink - even coffee - until after you have a signed contract
in your briefcase.
Actually, once you've made the sale, the best thing is to shake
hands with your new customer, thank them, and leave. A little
small talk after the sale is appropriate, but becoming too
friendly isn't. You create an impression, and preserve it, by
maintaining a business-like relationship.
When you go to make your cost estimate, take along a ruled
notepad, a calculator, and your appointment book. Some people
find it easier to work with a clipboard and ordinary blank paper
with carbon underneath.
Whatever you use, it's important to appear methodical, thorough
and professional, while leading the prospect through the
specifics he or she wants you to take care of: "Now, you want
the carpet vacuumed and all the furniture dusted and those two
end tables, the coffee table, and the piano polished as well, I
assume?"
Simply identify the specific room at the top of each sheet of
paper, then lead your prospect through the cleaning steps of
each room, covering everything in it. Your implications of
putting everything in "ready for company" shape will cause the
customer to forget about the cost, and hire you to do a complete
job. Always have a carbon paper under each piece of paper
you're writing on, and always look around each room one more
time before leaving it; then ask the prospect if he or she can
think of any special instructions you should note for that room.
Finally, when you've gone through each room in the house with
the prospect, come back to the kitchen and sit down at the
table. Take out your calculator and add up the time you
estimate each job will take to complete. Total the time for
each room. Be liberal, thinking that if you can do the carpet
in 15 minutes, it could take the ordinary person 30 minutes.
Convert the total minutes for each room into hours and tenths of
hours per room. Add the totals for each room to arrive at your
total hours to clean the entire house.
Talk with your customer briefly, wondering how she can ever find
the time to get everything done at home, especially when holding
down a job. A little bit of small talk, a quick mental value of
the customer's ability to pay, plus your knowledge that you can
get everything done in four hours, instead of the six hours it
would take most people, and you summarise by saying:
"Well, Mrs. Johnson, you've certainly got enough routine
cleaning work to keep you busy all day every day of the week! I
certainly don't know how you do it, but anyway, we'll take this
whole problem off your shoulders, save you time, and actually
give you time to relax. We can do it on a regular basis, every
other week, for $240 per month, or the one single time for $150.
I can well imagine how tired you are, when you get home from
work. We'll take care of everything for you, and we guarantee
that our work will more than satisfy you. So, would you like to
try our cleaning one time for $150, or do you want to save $30 a
call, and let us take over these chores for you on a regular
basis?"
Here you begin finding a place in your appointment book, and
tell them, "Actually, I have an opening at 8.30 on Tuesday
morning. We could come in every other Tuesday at 8.30, clean
the whole house, and have it done before you get (ome from work".
The customer agrees that 8.30 on Tuesdays will be fine. Then
you ask her if she prefers to be billed with the completion of
each house cleaning session, or on a regular monthly basis.
Point out to her than by engaging you on a monthly basis, she
picks up a free house cleaning every three months. Now that you
have your first customer, you want to fill in every day of the
week, each week of every month, with regular jobs. Once you
have one week of each month filled with regular jobs, it will be
time for you to expand.
Expansion means growth, involving people working for you, more
jobs to sell, and greater profits. Don't let it frighten you,
for you have gained experience by starting gradually. After all
your aim in starting a business of your own was to make money,
wasn't it? And expanding means more helpers, so you don't have
to work yourself to death!
You can operate this business successfully from the comfort of
your home, permanently, if you chose to. All you'll ever need
is a telephone, a desk, and a file cabinet.
So, just as soon as you possibly can, recruit and hire other
people to do the work for you. The first people you hire should
be people to handle the cleaning work. The best plan is to hire
people to work in teams of two or three - two for jobs not
including dish washing and laundry - three for those that do.
You can start these people at minimum wage or a bit above, and
train them to complete every job assignment in two hours or
less. Just as soon as you've hired and trained a couple of
people as a cleaning team, you should outfit them in a kind of
uniform with your company name on the back of their blouses or
shirts. A good idea also would be to have magnetic signs made
for your company and services. Place these signs on the sides
of the cars your people use for transportation to each job, and
later on, the sides of your company van or pick up trucks.
Each team should have an appointed team leader responsible for
the quality and overall completeness of each job assigned to
them. The team might operate ôhus: One person cleans the
bathroom, makes the beds, and carries out the laundry, while the
other person dusts and polishes the furniture and does the
vacuuming. On jobs where you do the laundry and the dishes, the
third person can pick up the laundry and get that started, and
then do the dishes and clean the kitchen. By operating in this
manner, your work will be more efficient and the complete job
will take a lot less time. However, it is important that each
person you hire understands that the success of the business
depends on the "crew" doing as many complete jobs as they can
handle each day - not on how much they get paid an hour working
for you.
Your team leaders will check with you each afternoon for the
next day's work assignments, and gather the team together,
complete with cleaning equipment and material, on the next day.
Your team leader should be supplies with a stack of "handout"
advertising flyers to pass around the neighbourhood or within
the apartment building before leaving each job site. A good
supply of business cards wouldn't be a bad idea for them either,
in order to advertise your services to others they come in
contact with. The only other form of advertising you should go
with would be a display ad in the yellow pages of your telephone
directory.
Design on paper a system of clean-up operations that can
generally be applied to any situation, then drill your teams on
speeding up their activities to make the system work even
better. Just as firemen practice and practice, you should drill
your people as a team in their cleaning activities.
Probably the biggest timewaster in this business will be in the
travel from job to job. For this reason, it's important to
spread advertising circulars to the neighbouring homes when
you're doing a job, or to the apartments on the same floor when
you're in an apartment building. As the organiser, and person
assigning teams to jobs, it will behove you to line up, and
assign jobs as close together as possible. Keep up efforts to
cut the time it takes for your crews to travel from one job to
the next. Work at lining up jobs all in one area.
Your equipment needs will really be minimal: Cleaning and
polishing rags, mops, a couple of plastic buckets, and furniture
polish. Most people will have the necessary cleaning materials,
including vacuum cleaners, soaps, and cleansers. But it
wouldn't hurt to have these items available just in case you get
a job in a home or a flat without these tools. As your business
grows, you'll be able to purchase all your needs at huge
discounts, and these are the sources of supply to cultivate as
you grow.
One of the most important aspects of this business is asking
for, and allowing your customers to refer other prospects to
you. All of this happens, of course, as a result of your giving
fast, dependable service. You might even set up a promotional
notice on the back of your business card (to be left at each job
when it is completed), offering five dollars off their next clean
when they refer you to a new prospect.
This is definitely a high profit business, requiring only an
investment of time and organisation on your part to get started.
With a low investment, little or no overhead requirement, and
no experience needed, this is an ideal business opportunity with
a growth curve that accelerates at an unprecedented rate. Think
about it. If it appeals to you, set up your own plan of
operations and go for it! The profit potential for an owner of
this type of business is outstanding! nd
later on, the sides of your company van or pick up trucks.
