Steve Hanson

All business owners face road blocks throughout the life of their business. It's how they deal with and overcome these road blocks that will determine their level of success. The following are 8 common road blocks that cleaning businesses face.

1. Not Having a Business Plan
   Take time to write a business plan. This forces you to take a serious look at all areas of your business and plan for what lies ahead. Some of the things you should be addressing in your plan are:

   -= location (home-based, lease an office, and timeline on any transition plan);

   -= who are your customers and how will you find them;

   -= who is your competition and how will you deal with them;

   -= how many employees will you have and how will you handle hiring and training;

   -= management team and advisory team;

   -= exit plan;

   -= financial plan (cover 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years forecast of sales, expenses, cash flow, and balance statement);

   Your business plan is a living document that should be looked at and updated on a yearly basis. 
    

2. Not Having a Marketing Plan
   Your marketing plan will actually be developed in your business plan, however a separate, more detailed marketing plan should include a timeline on all marketing activities. Some things to consider when developing your plan is:

   -= who is your target market? (office buildings, schools, retail, industrial, medical)

   -= what services will you provide? (general cleaning, window washing, carpet cleaning, hard floor care, construction clean-up)

   -= what is your market area?

   -= what is your marketing budget?

   -= what methods of marketing and advertising will you implement?

   -= what is the timeline for each activity?
   
   

3. Under Capitalized
   Most cleaning companies start on a shoe-string budget, but if you're serious about growing your business, you'll need to have money to invest in your business. Start by researching start-up costs for a cleaning business. Some things that need to be considered are equipment, vehicle expenses, insurance, office supplies, bookkeeping costs, advertising costs, business cards and marketing materials. If you're going to hire employees, there are many additional costs associated with this. This list is not all inclusive - there are many more expenses that must be considered.
   
   You'll need to have additional funds in your checking account to make sure all the day-to-day expenses are being paid in a timely manner, and that you have funds to cover emergencies.
   
   
4. Growing Too Fast
   Most cleaning companies are ready to take on any job available just to have money coming into the business. If you're having a lot of success adding accounts, it becomes exciting watching the income grow each month. Proceed with caution however, as the result oftentimes is neglect of existing accounts. Before you know it, you'll start losing accounts because of a loss of quality service.
   
   It's much easier to keep existing customers than it is to find new customers, so be sure to take care of these existing customers, and think of ways to sell additional services to them. Control your growth at a slow and steady pace; you're much more likely to become successful this way. At the same time you'll build a solid reputation for offering quality service that will result in a large referral business.
   
   
5. Inadequate Hiring Practices
   In the cleaning industry it's all too common for small business owners to quickly hire "warm bodies" just to fill an opening. And then the new employee is thrown into the job without the proper training and left to fend for themselves. No wonder employee turnover rates are so high!
   
   It's never a good practice to hire someone just to fill an opening. Implement a structured interviewing process, and ask targeted questions designed to get the employee talking about how they would handle different situations. Find out more about the employees work history, find out why they left previous jobs and how they interacted with co-workers and supervisors. If possible, have another person conduct a second interview if the applicant appears to be a good fit for the position. Check references, and conduct a criminal history check if applicable.
   
   Once the decision has been made to hire a new employee, conduct a detailed orientation, discussing the company policies and procedures. From there the employee should be fully trained on their job responsibilities. They should be taken on a tour of the building(s) they are to clean, and should never be left to do the job without adequate supervision and training during the first week. 
   
   
6. Lack of Employee Training
   The best thing an employer can do in any industry is to invest in training programs for their employees. Consistent training of each employee is extremely important; otherwise you're likely to wonder why one employee does a great job, and another is seriously lacking in the ability to clean properly. The answer usually comes back to inconsistent training.
   
   Invest in a standardized training program. Make sure each supervisor is thoroughly trained in the program and is taught how to train each employee. The training program should be broken down into sections: trashing, dusting, restroom cleaning, vacuuming, mopping, etc. After each employee is trained on a section, have them sign off, demonstrating that they have been trained and understand the procedures. By following each step consistently, it's less likely that an employee will come back and say, "I was never told to do that!"
   
   Follow-up and review is equally important. Go back after 30, 60, and 90 days and review each section with the employee. Repetition will help them to retain what they've been trained to do.
   
   Your training should not stop there - have ongoing training for all employees throughout the year on various trouble areas and also on safety issues. Also consider offering an employee newsletter that addresses training. 
   
   
7. Lack of Industry Knowledge
   Many new business owners started their business because they have worked in the industry previously. This is usually true of owners of cleaning companies. Some were supervisors for another company, and some might even have worked for a time as a part-time custodian and decided that owning this type of business would be easy enough to do.
   
   Now that you are a cleaning business owner, it's time to dig deeper into the industry and learn as much as possible in order to be one step ahead of the competition, and to stay on top of industry trends. Some of the things you can do to learn more about the industry is to subscribe to trade magazines and read them religiously, join membership groups (www.TheJanitorialStore.com would be a great start), do research on the Internet, and get to know other people in the industry. There is no need to reinvent the wheel when you can learn from others who are willing to share their success stories with you.
   
   
8. Not Knowing the Competition
   Many business owners start their business without giving a second thought to who their competition is and what they're up to. Some of the things you should be aware of are:
   
   -= who are they and how long have they been in business?
   -= are they independent or a franchise?
   -= what is their target market and are they in direct competition with you?
   -= what are their strengths and weaknesses?
   
   Knowing some of these things can give you an edge when going up against them in a bid situation. Also keep in mind that you don't always have to look at other cleaning companies as competition. Consider becoming referral partners with companies who do not directly compete with you on bidding contracts. For example, if you specialize in cleaning office buildings and another cleaning company specializes in medical facilities, you're each likely to get leads on other jobs that could be referred to each other's specialy. Remember, being independent doesn't mean going it alone.

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Steve Hanson helps owners of small cleaning companies build a more profitable and successful cleaning business through his online community at TheJanitorialStore.com. Read inspirational cleaning success stories at http://www.cleaning-success.com, and sign up for weekly cleaning tips at http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com.

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Business Plan (pdf) 

Marketing Plan Template (pdf) 

Sample Marketing Plan (pdf) 

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