5 things to do 1st when starting a new cleaning business.
Author: Taf Baig has been in the industry for 31 years. He is a Master Textile Cleaner, and a Certified Instructor with the IICRC. Taf has helped start over 7000 businesses for surface cleaning, carpet cleaning, pressure washing tile and grout cleaning, window washing, etc.
5 things to do when starting
Five things you should do when you start your business. Some of these things you may have already done, other things you probably still have to do.
#1
Make a Google, Yelp, and Facebook page.
Why is this important? Well, you know people will call you for advertising and everyone has some ideas but if you have a local page, you get jobs locally. You’ll get good reviews and referrals and you’ll be able to grow your business. This will give you a solid foundation and you might as well start from the beginning. Make these pages and have these pages online collecting data.
#2
Number two is how do you send them to those pages?
If you just tell people “hey write me a review”, chances are you’re gonna get maybe one out of 50 people. The rest just forget to do it.
So what you need to do is have a system to encourage them to go to your page. You have to have a strategy.
So,f the first thing is when you’re done with the job, the customer’s happy, they’re jumping up and down with excitement. You can ask them, how did you hear about us? And if they did hear about you from the page, you can say “hey since you heard about us from the google review page, do you mind writing me a review? Reviews help us and they also help other people looking for services like this.”
But the thing is, you have to continue following up because most the time they’re not going to do it. In another 24 hours, you can send a message with a link again, reminding them.
Regardless of what their review is, it makes the algorithm for google and search more active because you’ll notice that you have active page and you’re getting reviews.
Basically, #2 really is about making a system to get them to write a review. Customers who’ve been doing this really well, get six out of 10 people to leave reviews. It only happens if you follow up, if you just throw it out there, it’s not going to happen.
#3
Number 3 is spending money.
When you first start your business, it’s important for you to have the money in the business. You don’t want to be taking it out of the business and use it for personal things. Because, you need to grow the business. That money in the business is to make the business grow. So make sure when you’re spending money you spend it for the business. For something useful. Not just advertising to the advertising guy who called you up. Do some research instead and spend it correctly.
Just remember that any money you take out of your business is really going to hurt your business and the business is the one that’s supposed to provide that income for you to be able to buy personal items. A lot of guys, even starting out, talk about buying a house before starting a business. That is a big no no. It’s never a good idea to take on debt when starting out. This will happen naturally as you continue growing your business.
So if you’re starting a business it’s important to have money in the business not taking it out when you’re growing the business. Yes, of course, you can take out as much as you want when the business is established and stable.
#4
Number four is machines. You have to realize machines are there to make you money.
If the machine is not efficient, and productive for you, it’s going to cost you money. Some examples are; if you have a machine that has an auto-fill/auto-dump, a machine that has great heat, and a machine that you can work from your truck. A machine like this will make you $150 an hour. The not-so-automated machine will only produce about a 1/3rd, or $50 an hour.
As you can see from this above example, one costs you money initially and then makes you up to 3 times the hourly income from Day 1. The other option may save you money because the machine may be cheaper. But, it will always cost you money when using it.
#5
Number five is don’t copy.
New guys say, “hey I want to see what the other guys doing”. Well, how do you know the other guy’s is doing it correctly? You don’t really know. Therefore, copying someone else doesn’t make you special. You have to have something special or something unique. So, make sure you don’t copy. Instead, come up with something else that’s original. Create a niche that you’re going after. Have; a certain aroma, certain type of uniform, a good looking van, or something different that others don’t have. Also you can read this in the book called Zero to One. It was written by Peter Thiel, the guy who started LinkedIn. Basically, he’s saying instead of copying, you want to be able to take something and be original and take it as far as you possibly can.
And that’s really where the money is made. So there you go, there are your 1st 5 tips on things to do when you start your business.