Podcasts about smart cleaning biz

 On August 4th, 2017, I was running my first optimized solo cleaning business in Upstate New York. I was earning over $50,000 profit on 2 days per week without employees. This is when I dove into the world of online courses and coaching in our industry. I was working on the ISO Model Course while I was in the midst of finalizing the optimization of that first solo biz. I also started a YouTube channel called Smart Cleaning Biz and released weekly video blogs to help cleaning company owners. They didn't get many views and I didn't do much in the way of promoting them. I was learning, just figuring out how to help others in the industry. On August 4th, 2017 I was happy and content to be a solo cleaning forever working a few days per week. Little did I know that only 3 months later, the Lord would open the door for us to sell the cleaning business and move back to our hometown in Montgomery County, PA. I dug deep into the archives to find this gem I will share others from this era of the Smart Cleaning Biz circa 2017- 2019. It's a short message, I was teaching solo cleaners that wanted what I had. They were looking for all of my optimizing tricks. I was still developing the ISO Model and used this lesson to teach solos that they are doing it all wrong. They need to initialize and stabilize before they could optimize. Stabilizing requires people skills and business savvy and cleaning science knowledge. I was encouraging them to follow the I-S-O Model. Many that I encountered were doing it backwards. They would start by initializing. You have to start there. They would try to optimize what they had and then attempt to stabilize it. This doesn't work. They were doing the I-O-S Model, which I called Apple. We're not Apple. Don't follow their operating system. Follow mine to do what I've done. That message has grown over the years, but is fundamentally the same. It is taught in the Solo Elite Membership powered by the ISO Model Course. I encourage you to check it out. 

 This statement will resonate with many of you. Do you have customers right now that you know are sucking the profits right out of your business? If you don't resonate, you will soon! I've been doing this solo cleaning ISO Model journey for 16 years as you already know. I would like to share 4 types or categories of clients to keep a pulse in your business. Group 1 - The low-paying, high drama clients are easy to spot and optimize out of your business.Group 2 - Meanwhile, the high-paying, low-drama clients are easy to spot and clone in your optimizing efforts.Group 3 - But there are two other categories that are harder to spot, but they rub you wrong just the same. One is the high-paying, high-drama client. You make great money and have the ability to speed up easily. However, they cancel often, forget to pay, ask for a lot of extras, communicate frequently. This causes you to expend emotional energy on these clients more than you should. It's hard to give these up, but you must in order to optimize.Group 4 - The other type hard to recognize is the low-paying, low-drama. They are the easiest clients. They pay on time, only communicate when there is an adjustment or a question, easy to satisfy. However, they don't pay much and if you try to keep these clients as an optimizer, you have to significantly increase their price. That's a hard thing to do. Are you resonating now?As I've shared in previous Carfagno Cleaning updates, I just crossed from Stabilizer to Optimizer in my solo cleaning business. This is exciting as I can now go 100% toward my 2021 SMART goal of a $6,000 profit per month business cleaning two days per week! As I've stated of the 4 types of clients, there have been 2 of the 15 clients I have that fit the latter categories. One is a housecleaning client that is low-paying and high-drama. I did not get rid of this client as a Stabilizer as I needed every dollar for my family. However, I'll be doing price increases in mid-to-late 2021 and this client will be one of the ones getting a large increase. I'll make sure to have a house on the waiting list that is high-paying and low-drama ready to replace them. The other client is a commercial client. It's a much tougher one as it's a low-drama, high-impact client. I'm cleaning for autistic kids in a school setting. But it's also low-paying. I've done all I can to optimize and speed up this job to no avail. It was one of the first offices in my Stabilizer growth in 2020 and I underpriced it. Had I priced it correctly, I would not have gotten the job. No matter. I was able to earn $500 per month for over 6 months. I've known that a substantial price increase was coming to this client and it was sad. To compound this matter, I got some great news. I've shared that my company has gotten into the jet stream of the local veterinary hospital tribe. I've been hired by two and submitted a third proposal last week. The doctor replied to my proposal this week with this. "Thank you for the detailed proposal. I'd like to start with Option 2 as soon as possible." Option 2 is for $975 per month and it's biweekly. This great news immediately sparked calendar controversy. Adding this office every other week would overwork me and my two kids legally and physically for our weekly Saturday office cleaning schedule. Something had to give. I was either going to put this client on the waiting list and find a way to fit them, eliminate another office client, or hire someone to help. At this point in time with my goals, I came up with the best solution. I would fire my $500 per month low-paying, low-drama client. Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

Before you listen to this article, please check out my Carfagno Cleaning article, "Home Trends that Intersect with Cleaning". I credit my friend Mary Ann Alig of Fox & Roach Berkshire Hathaway Realtors for the content that drove this article and this podcast episode. Mary Ann shared 8 home trends that realtors are seeing for this new decade. Trends like these tend to change every decade and currently include barn vs pocket doors, white interiors, shiplap, matching furniture, accent walls, rose gold, open concept, and multigenerational homes. In my article, I showed how these trends affect cleaning professionals. I also hint to all business owners how important it is to know your industry trends so you can stay ahead of them.There is one trend that I'd like to dig into on this podcast. It's the rise of the multigenerational home. Fast Company in a 2019 article states, But for complex reasons that still puzzle researchers, multigenerational households are now on the rise once more. As many as 41% of Americans buying a home are considering accommodating an elderly parent or an adult child, according to a survey conducted by John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Living with your parents (or your adult children) has plenty of potential benefits–everyone tends to save money, it can potentially benefit health outcomes, and you get to spend more time together." Did you hear me? 41% of Americans are considering this in the 2020's. That's more than a trend. It's a paradigm shift. I want all cleaners out there, regardless of your business model to hear me. If you don't get in front of this shift and ensure your company is a leader in multigenerational house cleaning, you could be out of business in 10 years! It's crazy! Now, I'd like to talk to the solo cleaners that are actually doing the sales and cleaning. How do you position yourself to acquire clients like this? It's simple really. When you clean for one generation like a millennial couple or retirees, you must earn their trust to stay there long term. When you clean for two generations like a family with kids, you need an even greater trust factor. And if you follow where I'm going here, you need even more trust to clean for 3 generations under the same roof. The answer is trust building. The better you are at trust building, the more completely you can serve 3 generations under the same roof. This leads to more money per client and referrals to others just like them. Imagine this. You have a client like I do. Andy is the dad. His adult children live with him and his father Don lives with him. I have invested time during cleaning visits to get to know all 3 generations. Don has even become a friend and mentor to me locally. I do a great job at their home and have earned a lot of trust. Do you think Andy will refer me? And by the way, he owns a local restaurant and knows a lot of people. Yes, he will. I am positioned nicely to reap a harvest with multigenerational homes because I clean them now with good reputation. I can share that on my website and with new prospective clients. I urge you to do the same.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

I shared in my last business update that I increased the monthly service price of one of my commercial clients by $350 per month. Plus, I was on the verge of adding a new house and veterinary hospital as clients. The estimate with Melissa went well. She never had a house cleaning service before, so I eased her into it. I had her read articles from my website and was able to direct some of her questions to other articles I've written. This really increased my credibility before I even showed up at her home. During the estimate, I also pointed out things I liked in the house that I genuinely liked. I can't go into detail, but one thing was a wedding anniversary gift her husband bought for her. It was in their bedroom and I asked the husband for the website. He was pleased to oblige. I shared what we do for anniversaries and the honeymoon retreat location we go. He was thankful in return. That gesture between me and them build trust, but it was genuine. It wasn't mechanical. Look for opportunities to do that in your business. Make your estimate more than mechanical, but relational. At the end of the estimate I went through my availability and how the proposal process will go with the options I'll put together. She was very impressed. This customer found me through the marketing machine I've built through Facebook, Google My Business, my website, and in-person networking.I also completed the proposal for a new veterinary hospital. It was super difficult to create this proposal as the client wanted many details covered in the hospital that I don't normally do in the recurring service. Therefore, we worked out a list of these details and I balanced them evenly between 4 rotating visits and offered prices for weekly, biweekly, and monthly cleaning. She was very thankful with my detailed proposal and options.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

The original "Pros of Solo Cleaning" was so popular that I ran a 'Best Of' replay recently. I covered 10 pros that are very persuasive if you're evaluating a cleaning business for yourself. Here are the 10 pros listed out. Check out the original podcast for the details of each pro.Money - A new solo cleaner can set up a part business earning $400-$500/week part time. As they progress through my ISO Model Signature Solution, they can increase their part time income to $1,000/week, increase to full time and earn double that, or transition to hiring employees. The part time money potential is amazing if you do it right.Flexibility - You can schedule jobs when it works for you. You're the boss. If you want days, clean houses. Nights or weekends, clean small offices.Low Startup - For under $1,000, you can get your DBA, make your business liability deposit, and invest in your basic equipment & supplies.Tax Advantages - Your cleaning expenses are tax deductible. You can even write off your mileage and home office. If this is a side business to the family or you're only source of income, the tax advantages alone can make it worthLearning - Once you get the hang of cleaning and your system, you can listen while you clean. It's up to you what you put in. I recommend audiobooks on business, finance, and personal growth and podcasts on the same.Service to Others - You get all of these advantages as you serve moms that NEED your help. It feels great to help people.Easy to Learn - You can do something you already do (cleaning your house) for money.Burns Calories -  did you know that a 3-hour house or office cleaning burn 600 calories? Think about it if you clean three houses a day that's 1,800 calories you are burning per day. I used to eat 4000 calories a day, pigged out and never gained weight. As a optimized and had more time in my office I started gaining weight.It's Therapy - Many find the act of cleaning something dirty very calming and therapuetic.You are Needed - There are tons of Alicia & Emily's wanting to hire you! - It's always needed, listen to Moms Helping Moms Helping Moms and listen to Alicia & Emily's story.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

Do you remember "Back to the Future" starring Michael J. Fox? Marty McFly ran in his panic from the Libyans and got Doc Brown's Delorian to 88 miles per hour in the parking lot. He escaped 1985 and entered 1955. The whole movie focused on saving his 1985 family from perishing by helping his mom fall in love with his dorky, bullied dad. Marty also had to figure out how to get back to 1985. It was a fun movie that was super popular in the 80's and still is today. In one scene, Marty visits the 1955 version of Doc Brown at his house. Doc Brown was paranoid and thought Marty was crazy-talking a time machine until he described the Flux Capacitor. Marty yelled through the door that he was in the bathroom, bumped his head, and that's how he got the idea of the Flux Capacitor, the last piece of the invention to take him back in time. Doc Brown came out of the room, showed Marty the drawing he made of the Flux Capacitor, and believed him. The Flux Capacitor is a made up, science fiction device that gave the time machine the ability to travel through time. All the time machine needed was radioactive fuel or Plutonium. Plus, it needed to reach 88 miles per hour and in 1985, Doc Brown found a Delorian and modified it with Plutonium intake and the Flux Capacitor. One of my favorite lines in the movies is when Doc Brown sees the VHS video from 1985 and hears himself describe. "No, no, no, no. this sucker's electrical. But I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 Gigawatts of electrical energy. The Flux Capacitor stores..." The 1955 Doc Brown then freaks out. "1.21 Gigawatts! 1.21 Gigawatts! Great Scott." The scene is amazing as the two must create the power that the Plutonium nuclear reaction created in 1985. They decide to use lightning from the clock tower and the rest is history... or future... I guess.That was a fun movie analogy, but it's so profoundly true for my ISO Model. My ISO Model is the Flux Capacitor in your solo business vehicle. The Flux Capacitor allowed Doc Brown and Marty to go where ever they wanted to go in time. So does the ISO Model. If you hook it up right in your vehicle and power it with 1.21 Gigawatts of internal motivation, goals, and perseverance, your business will go where ever you want it to. But the Flux Capacitor isn't just a black box. We know it works for Doc Brown in the movie and the science is legit (in the movie). The point is that the Flux Capacitor does work and it does take you where you want to go if you hook it up right and feed it 1.21 Gigawatts. The ISO Model is the same. You have to hook it up right in your business, understand it, and utilize it. Here's how the ISO Model works...Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

This episode released 1 year ago and has been one of my most popular and mindset-changing episodes ever. This one really sets solo cleaners free and it is just as relevant as it was last year. I'll be releasing follow-up episodes in the future to help you even more with this overcoming mindset.

This message is short and sweet. I teach often and have created my own solo cleaning business niche of presentation cleaning and first impressions. That's what I do. Yes, I clean. But what I do is create peace of mind through presentation cleaning. What does that mean and why is it worth so much? I'm glad you asked. We are all emotional creatures and make our decisions as such. I've shared on previous podcasts that the busy mom doesn't have time to clean, yet dirt and clutter cause her stress and anxiety. My cleaning niche goes beyond basic cleaning and science. Check out the podcast, "Art Trumps Science". I add the art of first impressions to remove the stress and anxiety. This provides my clients with peace of mind. Similarly, I clean the first impression areas in offices to impress their clients, prospects, and staff every time they come into the office. This also has a value. What if a financial company loses a several million dollar client because their office "image" didn't match the website? My presentation cleaning investment can earn that client and easily pay for cleaning for the entire year! That's the point.Now that you understand that your cleaning itself can go beyond science, I want you to see that you have a part to play before you ever clean at all. You need to be congruent and have integrity. If you're a presentation cleaner, everything about your cleaning business MUST be presentation level. Just about every Saturday morning, my kids and I are cleaning out our totes and I'm constantly cleaning and disinfecting my vacuum cleaning and gear. At this point, my kids could answer WHY in a second. "Dad, you've told us that presentation starts with you and all the stuff we bring in here." I couldn't have said it better. I went on to explain to them and now to you. When you enter a home of office, you have to leave your equipment somewhere. What happens when you're vacuuming and the client sees your cleaning tote? Or, what if you're cleaning a bathroom and they see your rags or vacuum equipment. Would they be grossed out and wonder how you can clean anything if you can't keep your own gear clean? This is a wake-up call for many of you!That goes beyond your gear. What about your personal appearance? Do you look professional? Do you smell or have bad breath? Is your hair neat and clean. What about your vehicle? Is it clean and presentable. Is trash falling out when you open it? Would you be embarrassed if your clients saw the inside of your car?  Do you arrive with glaring music and flicking cigarette butts out the window? Do you ask where the client would like you to park? Is your social media presentable? People DO look at everything these days and every detail builds trust. You can't just presentation clean. You must be a person of presentation as presentation starts with you. If you take this advice to heart, you too can earn $100 per hour cleaning like I have in presentation cleaning.Go to the Solo Cleaning School  tab of website, access the free resources such as the "Solo Cleaning Quickstart Guide" and "How to Earn $100 Per Hour Cleaning Houses" Masterclass, and sign up for a free coaching call with Ken to ask your questions. Plus, you can access the ISO Model Course and more for $50 per month in the Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership.

I have been a huge fan of the Tim Ferriss Show lately because I love the long-from interviews with world-class performers as Tim dissects how they accomplished what they've accomplished. I LOVED a recent interview with Kelly Slater. If you've never heard of Kelly Slater, he's an 11-time world surfing champion and highly regarded as the GOAT in the sport. I listened to Kelly's interview and was mesmerized by his mindset, attention to detail in his craft and his health, and most importantly, the simplicity of life he lives. I have two life lessons to share from Kelly that really impacted mine.Tim was asking about Kelly's goals. Kelly response was awesome. He shared how nice it is to be in a position where he can mentor the young guys in the sport as he loves the sport and wants to be an ambassador. He stressed how vital it is for him to "always stay humble because when you're humble, you're teachable. When you're teachable, you can continue growing." He said the best way to learn is by teaching. Kelly went on to say. "If you think you know something, go teach it. That's when you will really know it." There is SO much wisdom in Kelly's words that I want to repeat it. Are you humble? Are you teachable? Are you learning and growing? Are you taking what you know and teaching it to others? This is the process of becoming the best in the world. I am not the best at this, but I am doing my best to teach you all what I know through this learning vehicle called a podcast. I find it amazing that I am constantly learning more by teaching it to you!In a latter question, Tim Ferriss asked Kelly about money and houses. Kelly stated that he is the middle child, but was forced to become the family leader because other members of his family had emotional and other issues. Kelly has made gobs of money over the years. Wikipedia reports his career surfing earnings over $4M! He shared his love for traveling and the many homes he's purchased in multiple countries over the years. Tim asked Kelly what his happy ending looks like. I love Kelly's answer as it reminds me of the "Mexican Fisherman". I'll paraphrase. The happy ending comes when all the lessons are learned. Kelly has done it all, spent a lot of money, but it never lead to happiness. He joked that what he'd love to do is simply buy a simple van and travel around to his surfing events in it, keeping a simple life of competitive surfing and helping others in his sport. He has learned so much in his 49 years and wants to stay humble, stay teachable, stay learning, and stay teaching. Over a lifetime, he'll collect a book of lessons and that's how he defined a "happy ending". This is beautiful.This episode is a self-check. Are you humble, teachable, learning, and teaching others? If you are not, these podcasts are a waste of your time. If you are not, you'll never grow your cleaning business beyond where it is now. Sure, it may grow short-term, but it will crumble in the long-term. I urge you to ask those that know you best if they think you're humble and teachable. This is the 2nd window from "The Four Windows". Once you know and get honest with yourself, make the decision to get better. Go and learn the lessons you need to learn to lead toward your happy ending. Then teach it to others and be a difference maker.Would you like to figure out what makes you tick and how to create an action plan for 2021 that will enable you to WIN?! Check out the "2021 Smart Goals Workshop" and access your free goals worksheet.

The business week started out great. I recently upgraded one of my commercial cleaning clients by $350 per month. When I got the call at the Airsoft field about another veterinary hospital, I was thrilled. Yes, that's right. The Airsoft field. Here's a short bonus funny papers. My oldest son, Kenny, just 16 recently and we decided to do a birthday party for him. It involved 7 of his teenage friends, Airsoft guns, gear, a 3-hour battle at the Airsoft field, games at home, food (lots of it), cake, and presents. Due to shutdowns in December, we had to move his party to late January. It was well worth the wait. I decided to sacrifice my Honda Pilot over Teresa's family van. I took 4 of Kenny's friends directly from church to the Airsoft field. We met the other 3 there. I helped them get set up and left in the hands of the field referrees to play for 3 hours. I then went to the car to chill out, stay warm, watch from the parking lot, and get some work done on my laptop. While I was waiting, I got a call from a local veterinarian looking for cleaning. She told me that she used to work with Ruth at another hospital I clean. Ruth saw her post on the veterinary private group and proudly referred me. The first takeaway is that I am worthy of being referred. My work and customer service are excellent, which is why I was referred. Are you doing likewise at every house and office you clean? The call lasted for 20 minutes as we learned about each other's background. I learned that she had recently opened a new hospital after working for others for years and she invested heavily into cleaning using her staff (but they needed a break). She learned that I also cleaned for another vet. We worked out a few scenarios of how I could help. I even gave examples of how much I currently charge for other vets and how much it may cost her. She invited me for an estimate a few days later. That estimate went outstanding. We're working on a rotational cleaning schedule that I'll quote her several options for next week. Back to the teenagers... After the call, I realized something vital. My Pilot was equipped to seat 8, but not 8 with Airsoft guns and gear and certainly not 7 teenagers and me! I underestimated the choice of using my Pilot. I called Teresa for an audible. She drove over the field to drop off some gear that Kenny forgot and took most of the gear off my hands. The boys were so stoked after playing for 3 hours and ready for mass quantities of chili, candy, and cake. They were also filthy and muddy. This is where the sacrifice came in. My car still has mud marks all over the back seats, carpet, and vinyl trim. It's everywhere! The ride to our house was hilarious as myself and 7 high school boys cramped into my Pilot. We all joked it was like one of those clown cars in the circus. The rest of the day was great. I knew teenagers could eat, but even I was surprised when they ate an entire pot of homemade chili and like 3 bags of corn chips. My wife had designed "Minute-to-Win-it" games with ping-pong balls, dice, straws, candy, and other dollar store items for the boys to challenge each other. I was MC and scorekeeper. They needed one more player, so one kind teen allowed my 9-year-old son Kolby to be his teammate. Guess what?! Bryce and Kolby won! The night ended with cake, presents, man-hunt outside, and stupid YouTube videos The last boy was picked up at 8:30! Teresa and I were exhausted, but my son was happy and I got a new potential big client! The combination of this client and the increased one ends my commercial cleaning goal before I start optimizing.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

Teresa and I went on a honeymoon retreat in the Amish Country, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was so quaint and beautiful. The rolling country hills with farms, horse and buggy, small antique shops, and farmer's markets were such a breath of fresh air to our normal busy and chaotic life. We planned multiple day trips from our wonderful bed and breakfast called the Barn at Strasburg. Sight & Sound's Esther was on the list for sure. We've been eager to see one of these captivating representations of the biblical account. We booked that. We found many covered bridges that we arranged on a map to visit. We even found a working Amish farm to visit. We checked out the pictures and reviews on Google and decided to make a few hours of it! We were excited to see the Amish make butter, see the schoolroom, the farm. The pictures and stories online really painted a story of what the place would be like. We were excited to see it! But, oh man... the TRUE story did NOT match the pictures. The pictures showed the house and the farm and the covered bridge out front. You go into the house for a 45-minute tour and then walk around the farm or get a tour of the countryside with a bus. We went to visit and followed the GPS. "Teresa, why is the GPS taking us to Target?" Teresa was perplexed as we drove into the Target parking lot. She spotted a few of the buses. "There. I see some Amish Farm buses parked. It must be close." We drove closer to Target and then it hit us like a ton of bricks. This Amish Paradise (shout out to Weird Al) was right in front of us. It looked exactly like the pictures on Google and the website. It was quaint, beautiful, and very Amish, except for one small detail. IT WAS IN THE TARGET PARKING LOT, 40 FEET FROM TARGET! That's right. You heard me. The Amish Farm was as advertised, but apparently, Target moved in right next door. The covered bridge was off to the side of the Target parking lot. We stopped the car and looked at the Amish Farm. We looked at the Target. We looked at the farm. We looked at Target. "Teresa, we can't go here. This is ridiculous!" As we left, we noticed one more irony. Here's this Amish Farm with home-cooked country food that is next to a Target. And across the street was a Cracker Barrel. You can't make this stuff up. On the whole, we were both very disappointed with the Amish Farm and didn't do the tour. They lost our business because they were dishonest. There was NO hint of Target in their pictures. Somehow, they got the right angles to miss the gigantic Target building 40 feet away! I learned a lesson from this experience. The story did not match the pictures. How does your story, your true story of what you offer in your solo cleaning business match the pictures you are putting online? Do they line up? This is called integrity and excellence. Are your customers getting discouraged when they hire you because the story doesn't match the pictures? If so, you better fix that quick.Would you like to schedule a free call with me? I leave 1 30-min slot open per week to connect with listeners! Go to the bottom of the Elite Membership registration page to schedule a time!

Let's journey together into an update of my own solo cleaning business. 2020 was a great year. I started at $29,000 in total cleaning revenue, which was the beginning of the Stabilizer Phase of my ISO Model. After hitting multiple 60-day SMART goals, I ended the year at $80,000! That's a $51,000 increase in 1 year! Our profit tripled to just under $5,000 per month on 2 cleaning days per week. As you follow my podcast this year, I'll be showing you how I take this $80,000 Stabilizer business, cross the Optimizer threshold, and convert it to a $90,000 revenue, $6,000 per month profit on 2 days per week solo cleaning business. This is my SMART goal for 2021. This Optimizer business will be worth over $100,000, which means I could sell it again like I did in 2018! Please do not take that as a brag. I'm excited and grateful. This has been a journey. If you're new to my podcast, make sure you check out my 2020 catalog of podcast episodes as they take you on the $51,000 increase journey. I have a few business updates and wins to share with you. My goal is that you gain understanding and belief that you can do it too. 1-time leads started coming in early this real estate season. I did a handful of 1-time jobs for realtors in 2020 and really impressed them. I've built my reputation and now my name is on multiple realtor's preferred vendor list. My friend Jim Hardy of the Carpet Guys called me on Thursday. He was doing upholstery work for a post-construction project in a house. The homeowner needed a cleaner too and Jim thought of me. I arranged to meet the owner on Monday, gave a quote the same day, and booked it for $350 next week. Lon called me on Friday to have me do an estimate for an empty office condo. He dropped off the key and I did the estimate on Saturday. I sent the quote out on Monday and Lon checked with the office owner. Unfortunately, they said no to the $475 price tag. Dianne called me on Tuesday and I did a phone ballpark estimate for her. She is selling to retire in Florida. I asked questions on the house layout and her goals then worked out a $350 - $700 ballpark price. She booked me for two weeks. This job will likely go for $550. I just added $900 in 1-time cleaning in 5 days. The cool part about 1-time cleaning is that I don't need it! It's all bonus cash that goes directly to savings. I am earning over $7,000 per month in recurring revenue that pays all of my business and family expenses. Many cleaning companies have some recurring and mostly 1-time. I don't like my business like that. It's stressful and you're always looking for work. I like it being automatic. And quite frankly, that's why cleaning is such an awesome business!Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

I still remember the car ride to Gatlinburg, TN with my wife when she told me this story. I had no idea that one story about shopping at the discount racks would turn into a podcast episode that has helped solo cleaners understand their value in the marketplace.

In my first full year as a solo cleaner, I worked a lot but we had no money. You've heard my story on this podcast a dozen times! We just lost our car to repossession. We had $170,000 in debt and no house! We earned under $2000/mo, lived in a ghetto, had bill collectors calling every day. We lived 5 hours from our closest family and we were new parents. In December 2006, we had no idea how we'd pay for our rent, let alone get a Christmas gift for our 2-year-old Kenny! That's why I'd like to introduce my dear friend Sean Rogers. We were in the Amway business together. After a Nite Owl (business mastermind session after hours at TGIF), Sean gave me a hug and followed it up with the Italian handshake. He had slipped me a $100 bill and said, "Get your son a Christmas present." I was in tears. How did he know we had nothing and couldn't even afford the air we were breathing? My guess is that Sean is a Christian and he was being obedient to what God told him. Teresa was in tears as well when I showed her in the car. It was a miracle. We'd be able to get Kenny the Imaginarium Train Set he wanted, thanks to a friend that was a giver and was well-off financially. The impact of that $100 bill was huge. $1,000 wouldn't do it today. That simple gesture of $100 gave us so much hope in our future and resolve to pay it forward.If I met you on the street and gave you $100, would you cry? Would it change your month, year, or decade? For some, no. But for many others out there, big time. I want to challenge you to grow your business to the point where you can give outrageously. I want you to earn so much that you can give hundreds away and not impact you one bit. But to the ones you gave the cash, their lives were filled with hope. Why else would you be building your business? We are put on this earth to help and love our fellow man. Let's all learn from Sean Rogers and do likewise. Grow your business and pay it forward!My step-dad's awning company is All Seasons Awnings & Fabric Structures (Marmora, NJ).Are you new to cleaning or considering your own solo cleaning business? Make sure to check out my free Solo Cleaning Quickstart Guide on the homepage!

In this episode, I have an important lesson to share from a new friend of mine in the digital marketing space on the power of Facebook and Google. Eric Laylon is a consultant with ReachLocal. He understands the online landscape more than almost anyone that I know. He's a new member of the MCBA networking group and had a chance to share a presentation on his work. I asked many questions as I wanted to understand a little more of the trends he's seeing in 2021. Google drives 85% of all online traffic and still dominates the online search landscape. Bing is #2 because Comcast uses them as a default, but they use Google ad platforms. Google will continue to dominate. If you're not visible on Google, you're not visible.Google My Business is a free way to create SEO for your business through images, reviews, articles, and deals. Ads are an excellent paid option to generate leads.Eric says you should be investing 3-5% of revenue into marketing for average returns. 8% is aggressive and 3% is slow growth. Invest 60-70% of this marketing budget on digital. This is what the large companies are doing in 2021!Facebook is similar to google. They have 223 million users in the United States alone out of 331 million people. That's 67% of the US is on Facebook. A business page is free and allows you to create interest for your product or service for free. Ads (like Google) are an excellent paid option as well.Thank you Eric for teaching and sharing the trends and stats for 2021! My takeaway is simple. If you ever want to be found in your cleaning business, you have to be on Facebook and Google as they represent 67% of the country and 85% of all online searches. And you can access both for free through a Facebook business page, personal page, Google my business profile.That was quick and to the point! Let's dive more into my own solo cleaning business. I have used digital marketing to grow my solo cleaning company in 2020. I tried everything, but focused on Facebook and Google My Business digitally while attending local networking to round out my marketing strategy. I didn't use any paid advertising and grew my company by $60,000 in revenue in 2020. Going forward, I plan to continue. I did get an idea this past week that I had originally planned in 2019 and never did it. I am the only cleaner in a 300 - 400 member chamber of commerce. Many members know who I am now since I've been helpful in leading webinars for the chamber, but I figured that the majority do not know me. I could cold call them and try to fleece them for business. I don't operate like that. Here's what I'm going to do. I'll make a list of the members that have an office that is a good fit for my office cleaning company. These are buildings under 5,000 - 6,000 square feet that need cleaning weekly or less. Once I have the list completed, I'll send emails with personal videos to the owners or contacts through the chamber to say hi and introduce myself. From there, I'll see who has any interest in connecting more with me. I'll schedule Zoom calls or breakfast meetings with the ones who want to know me. Then I'll add these new friends to my twice-monthly newsletter. I am guessing that 150 of the members fit into my demographic out of 400. Out of the 150, I wouldn't be surprised if I can connect and add 30 to my newsletter. Who knows from there. Those 30 could be 10 clients at $500 - $800/month in the future, which is over $60,000 of annual revenue! Either way, I make new friends. Win-win.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

Today is a very sad day for me. My Nana passed away 1 year ago on February 22nd, 2020 and my Pop-Pop passed away 3 months ago on November 22nd, 2020. They were married for 63 years and raised me to be the man that I am today. I miss them tremendously. If you are interested, check out the podcast episodes where I read the eulogies for each of my grandparents. My Nana - It Was All a Blur, My Pop-Pop - Tribute to My Father. I don't want to make this episode about me and the grieving I'm still doing. I wanted to share an important mindset shift that I hope you hear loud and clear. Have you ever been on a vacation to a gorgeous, picturesque location? Of course you have. Do you take pictures? Let me give you some examples and see if you relate. Teresa and I took our kids to the Philadelphia Zoo a number of times. When we browse the pictures a few weeks later, there are countless pictures of elephants, eagles, and giraffes, yet only a few with my kids in it. Worse yet. There's barely any of Teresa or I as we're the picture takers. We've gone to the beach, the mountains, the amusement parks, and the museums. We were in the moment with our family and excited to be at this location. So I took tons of pictures of the scenery and the rides and shells. Sure, I took a bunch with the kids too. But there weren't many of Teresa or I. As I think back, we had other important people with us on many of these trips. My mom and dad, Teresa's mom, my sisters, my grandparents, dear friends to name a few. But where are the pictures with THEM in it? Oh, there's one out of 50. I took my Nana and Pop-Pop to an Independent Living Facility for a tour in December 2018. In fact, it was my Nana's dream to live in this particular one, so I took her. I have videos of every possible room combination as my goal was to get footage to show Nana and Pop after. I focused on the rooms, not the people in the rooms. We had Christmas with many family members a few weeks later. I have pictures and videos of the kids tearing up the presents, but hardly anything of the most special people sitting on the couches and chairs watching it. Among those people were my dad, my Nana & Pop, my uncle, Teresa's mom, and us. I could go on and on. You get the point. After my Nana died a year ago, I was searching for recent pictures and videos of her to hold on to her memory. I had little. Really, I just had the videos from the tour and Christmas. I'm so thankful that I did a pan of the room in each case because I got footage of my cherished and missed grandparents. But the video was from 14 months prior! I had nothing at all for 2019! Why?! Here's why! We live in the moment with the people we love the most. When we capture images, we have an incorrect mindset to capture the moment by capturing what we've looked at. Another way to put it is this. We're capturing the main object of the moment, like the opening of Christmas gifts. We're not capturing the moment with the people. I want to impress upon you how fragile life is. It can vanish in a vapor. Those that you love are not always going to be here. Yes, take pictures and videos of amazing views. But focus instead on the amazing people with you. Capture them. You won't regret it. What if you lose one of your family members or dear friends like I have and you don't have the images to go back to? Live in the moment with the people you love and focus your camera on the people. It's always the people! I promise you that!Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

This is an article I wrote for my solo cleaning company, Carfagno Cleaning. I encourage you to check out my cleaning website for ideas on how you could build An Optimizer's Website. Would you like to schedule a free call with me? I leave 1 30-min slot open per week to connect with listeners! Go to the bottom of the Elite Membership registration page to schedule a time!

I'm not sharing as many of my own solo cleaning business updates as my own personal goals are beginning to shift. I am following my own ISO Model System. I am almost through the Stabilizer Phase of the plan, which focuses on growth and earning enough profit and experience to remove ALL financial stress from your family. In 2021, I'll be optimizing my company to $6,000 per month profit on 2 cleaning days per week without employees. Here are a few updates from the past week. One of my new 2020 clients hired me to replace an amateur cleaner during the pandemic for peace of mind and optics with their staff and clients. They hired me at $800 per month with the intention of dropping to my 3rd proposal price option of $650 per month. Well, they just dropped it for January as they still don't have their full staff back in the office. Plus, I spent the second half of 2020 deep cleaning, disinfecting, and maintaining this office. They are very happy and I am glad to drop the price to serve the company and owner! It builds trust and I'm more concerned with the long-term. In "How to Do a COVID Clean", I shared my strategy for cleaning a house or office after a positive test. Well, that was put to the test recently. One of my clients (a vet hospital) had a positive test of a vet tech. I changed my cleaning for that week and focused on deep cleaning & disinfecting the high-touch points around the hospital. They were very thankful that I offer this service. I only charged them $100 extra as well.Before I get to the meat of this episode, here are a few more updates. I met with my good friend and client, Dennis Gehman for breakfast this week. Dennis is the founder and owner of Gehman Design Remodeling in Harleysville, PA. Dennis is a Master Builder (like a real one, not the Lego Movie) and his company is a home design & remodeling leader in Montgomery & Bucks Counties of Pennsylvania. It's always great to connect with Dennis. He is like a dad to me and always has wise counsel on being a better dad, leader, and business owner. I so appreciate our time together. I also checked in with Matt & Laura this week. They were the perfect new house cleaning client from "An Optimizer's Website". However, I found out sad news from Matt this week and pray that things will get better with their family. In the meantime, they cannot add cleaning to their to-do list. I added Matt to my newsletter so he could stay informed on cleaning tips I send out twice per month.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

I love listener questions! Here's one I got a few weeks ago that was a perfect excuse to teach on the topic of affiliations."Hi Ken, I listen to your podcast religiously! I got "legit" (DBA, EIN, sales tax ID, etc) at the end of last year, and fully launched at the beginning of January. I previously was a manager for Pizza Hut in my area for 15 years. I started working there when I was 17. When covid started the franchise in my area completely folded. I began working for a janitorial company and was getting a lot of positive feedback. I have a one-year-old son and needed something flexible to work opposite of my husband. I had toyed with the idea of starting a business for a long time (I have a business degree). I just got my solo cleaning business up and running. Your tips have been instrumental! What are your thoughts about joining the BBB? Someone from my local chapter just cold-called me asking me to join."Kelly DeYoung, True Integrity Cleaning, Akron, NY (Buffalo Area)There are countless affiliations you can join for business credibility and trust. I am not putting down anyone. I'm merely sharing from my own experiences. I am listing several into 2 categories: Industry and LocalIndustryAssociation of Residential Cleaning Services International (ARCSI), a division of ISSA (International Sanitary Supply Association) - I was privileged to host the chair of ARCSI as an expert in the SMART Cleaning Tribe. Alonzo Adams (Busy Bee Cleaning Services, West Chester, PA) has an incredible business owner & millionaire mindset. He attributes so much of his industry success to the association with our industry's professional organization for house cleaners. ARCSI has certification courses for cleaning, disinfecting, and many others. They also provide amazing networking opportunities with other cleaning service owners so you can find your community and grow together. ARCSI is a recognized and highly respected organization that adds a ton of credibility to any house cleaner. If you're primarily in office or janitorial cleaning, ISSA is the organization to join. ARCSI is a division of ISSA. I was so green starting my business and also prideful and ignorant. I didn't need help, nor did I know about ARCSI. After having Alonzo on the Tribe, I will be joining in 2021. Solo Cleaning School Elite - I created this affiliation and offer advanced training and community for new cleaning startups and solo operators. Solo cleaners tend to go-it-alone. This school pulls together like-minded solos that would like to optimize their profits on fewer workdays through the ISO Model that I created and demonstrated in 2 of my own solo cleaning companies.SMART Cleaning Tribe - As I mentioned with ARCSI, cleaning owners need to find their Tribe. I built this cleaning family for the owners desiring community, masterminding, and accountability around their personal and business goals. There are many other training and mastermind communities available to cleaning service owners. The SMART Cleaning Tribe is the ONLY one focusing on the SMART goal. We grow together, celebrating our goals every month.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

Do you struggle with selling and not charging enough? Do you believe you offer something special to the world? Listen to this "Best Of" episode called "Blueberry Pie". This is one of my favorite episodes of this podcast. I've used this mindset to teach multiple solo cleaners the value they can offer.

This is a story that will cost a cleaning supplier a lot of money. First of all, I hope you all know me by now. I am not vindictive. I did not have a bad experience with the company I'm going to mention. However, I chose to do my 3-stars out of 5 review to the world because it will illustrate a vital lesson on the lifetime value of a client. I purchased my Mosquito Carbon Lite vacuum cleaner from my friend Joshua Burnstein, owner of Sawgrass Cleaning Solutions, Boynton Beach, FL. Joshua is a authorized distributor for Mosquito, which he does as a side hustle. I now use him exclusively to take care of my vacuum needs. But I almost didn't and here's what happened.My Mosquito has a uniquely designed tapered hose to maximize power and flow for my 160 cfm motor! That's nerd talk, but it means my vacuum really sucks! All of my hoses start to wear down after 2 years. They tear between the ribs and I have to cut a piece off to keep it working. This particular hose has been cut a dozen times to the point where it's barely long enough to vacuum with. I put off ordering a new part from Josh as he told me the replacement part is $100 with shipping! When I could wait no longer, I did a Google search to see if I could get the part cheaper anywhere else. There were a few at $100 and one at $45, which ranked high on Google SEO. It seemed like a reputable supplier, Salamone Supplies out of Menomonee Falls, WI. I researched the company and found the part I needed on the website for a great price. I told Josh and he was highly suspicious as he knew the part wholesaled for $80 on the low side. He wished me good luck. I apologized for jumping ship as I had to try. I ordered the part. To the credit of the company, they contacted me via email and was kind and cordial in their replies. They received the order, but soon realized that they had the two parts mixed up on their website. The part I ordered for $45 had the part number and picture correct for the part I needed, but they had the wrong price listed. They emailed me to let me know of the mistake and asked if I'd like to receive the $45 incorrect part or the part I needed for their price of $90 + shipping. Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

There are so many questions that clients and prospects have asked me over the years. As a consultant in the cleaning industry, I get asked even more. My cleaning company website has an in-depth Learning Library that I'm very proud of. Several of these articles are FAQs that I've pulled to the home page of my website. From time to time, I'll bring you one of these articles. Today is such a time as I wanted to mentally equip you, the solo cleaner, with how to answer the naysayers that believe solo cleaning is not possible, not worth it, or not professional. Here's a link to my article, "How Can You Possibly Clean Alone, Ken?". For the purposes of this podcast, I'm going to read it! There are 6 misconceptions that I highlight in this article and I encourage you to remember them as you connect with potential clients. As a side note, I added a 7th misconception for this podcast for solo cleaners directly.Solo Cleaners are not real businesses!Solo Cleaners take too long! I don't want to pay them extra for the same work!Solo Cleaners aren't as efficient as teams!Solo Cleaners have to limit their clients and I might lose them!Solo Cleaners can get sick or injured and I'll lose them!Solo Cleaners don't have systems and are unreliable!Solo Cleaners don't make much money! Since this one is not on my article. Let me clarify. This is true for the solo cleaner who doesn't realize their value. If you are charging $20 per hour or inherited clients from a friend at $50 per cleaning, you are not making much money and it's hard to imagine earning what I earn. If this is you, I encourage you to listen to every single episode of this podcast! To everyone else, I want you to realize that most of the 7-figure cleaning company owners started out as solo cleaners. I have a friend Hannah who earned over a $100,000 per year cleaning solo in her 20's and a college student. Then she hired and grew a team, so she could achieve bigger goals. Go back and listen to a recent episode I did, "Mission 20/20 Complete [Kenny add link]" to hear the results of my own solo cleaning business and how much income I earn. I am totally transparent and share my numbers in hopes of helping you. If you would like optimize your solo cleaning company like I've done twice, I encourage you to check out my Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership where I provide independent course work to train you in my ISO Model. You also get access to me through twice monthly Q&A's and access to like-minded, growing solo cleaners in our community.I referenced a listener of this podcast in the Funny Papers. Tonsha Hokanson is the owner of the brand new company, In a Jiffy Cleaning, LLC serving the Twin Cities, MN. They are doing outstanding work for their clients and in my estimation (having connected personally with the owners), they do it right. I highly recommend reaching out via email: inajiffyclean@gmail.com

Right off the bat, let me make this statement. There is not one way to properly do a COVID-19 clean and disinfect, but there is science that governs us to follow protocols and procedures to ensure best results. There are so many companies out there doing COVID disinfection. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell which are tried and true with years of disinfection and training from the ones that saw an opportunity in 2020 and short-cutted the system to make money. I would first like to give a shout out to a good friend who has become an expert in disinfection in the Washington D.C. area. Mark Lineberry of Universal Janitorial Services has an incredible article on COVID & Reopening Your Facilities (Guide)and another on properly doing Electostatic Disinfection Services. It will show you just how much training it takes to do this right and I HIGHLY recommend that you begin learning this science so you can help more families and businesses in your community. As you know, I've become a local expert in Philly on the same topic as I've been called to share to various audiences my "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". I don't use a delivery system like fogging or UV or electrostatic spraying. These require a lot of training and expertise that I don't have. They also require a large equipment investment. I have companies that I refer when clients request this. My clients understand that I do "High Touch Point Disinfecting". The philosophy is simple. 80% of the pathogens lie on 20% of the surfaces. I don't need to kill 100% of the pathogens with a complicated delivery system. I kill 80% by hyper-focusing on the surfaces where pathogens are most likely to settle. A few weeks ago, I got an email from a weekly office client that one of their employees tested positive for COVID-19. They suspected it on Monday and everyone left the office to work from home. The positive test came in on Wednesday to confirm. The office remained closed until the following Monday. The office manager wanted my company to substitute a regular cleaning with a COVID clean. This was not the first time, so they knew I would do a good job. Here's the steps I took:I found out which employee desk it was and where that employee spent time on her day in the office. I determined that her office, the owner's office, copy machines, and restrooms were all compromised.I added the other high touch points like light switches, door knobs, common counter tops, break areas, and file cabinet handles. This gave me a map of WHERE to disinfect. I already knew WHAT to disinfect. It's corona virus and the EPA has a list of registered disinfectants (COVID-19 EPA list). I already have one of these chemicals in my cleaning tote.Assess WHEN to disinfect. My friend Mark in his above-referenced article recommends a 7-day period to allow the pathogens to die-off from surfaces. Reports differ as I've seen 5 days. Nevertheless, this office was vacated on Monday afternoon and I was there on Saturday night. That's 5.5 days, which I deemed safe to go in.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

I have two related funny stories to the theme of this podcast. Have you ever seen the "Polar Express" movie during Christmas? Most of you have. Toward the end, when the main characters are lost in North Pole, they stumble in the elf operations room. There are a number of videos playing of kids and a red buzzer goes off. One kid is shown on the Naughty List as he repeats the phrase, "I didn't do it. I didn't do it. I didn't do it." After the movie, my own kids were repeating that phrase including my 3-year-old and if you have kids, so are they. This innocence is cute as a kid, but not as an adult leading a business. My Uncle Bob told me a story about a friend. This guy is a jack of all trades. He does lawns, gutter cleaning, moving, tree service, power washing, whatever. He just goes wherever the money is. But this Jack is uninsured and thus, unprofessional! He takes on a lot of risk. If he is guilty of any damage, the homeowner better hope he doesn't pull the Polar Express line. My uncle told me that a neighbor of his called Jack over to remove an oak tree. When he asked him if he had insurance, Jack lied and said he did. He successfully removed the oak tree, but he didn't put the tree where it was supposed to go. A professional would survey the yard and take vital measurements first. Jack did not and the cry of TIMBER lead to the sound of an oak tree smashing into the roof of the house! It was a miscalculation for Jack. Thankfully, no one was injured. But the house was severely damaged. My uncle told me me how this will play out. When the homeowner hires someone knowingly that doesn't have insurance they take the risk and hope that their own insurance will cover damages if something happens. Sometimes it will, sometimes it won't. Sometimes it covers partial, but never the whole thing. In this case, if it turns out the contractor lied about having insurance. The homeowner can file a lawsuit, but the guy has no money and he won't get anything anyway. The homeowner is screwed either way. What's the lesson here? It's pretty obvious. Don't be Jack. Don't hire Jack. Let him keep rolling down the hill with Jill.For the main part of this episode, I want to share a short story that happened on the way to work with my kids. As I drove to work, a headache was pounding and I said out loud without realizing it. "I meant to bring the Advil with me, but I forgot." As soon as I said it, my brain kicked this thought. "A lot of good meaning to do it brought me. My head still hurts!" I realized how true that statement is for so many. So many people are meaning to do things, but never do them. in other words, "I meant to do it" is a way to justify their intent but never having to do the action. It's a form of making an excuse. I won't accept that type of life. I got home from work that day and immediately put the Advil in my work bag. I removed the excuse for the future. Unless people start changing their 'meants' into 'dos', they'll be feeling a lot of pain at some point too. And by that time, Advil won't cure it!

In this episode, I'd like to share a few updates from my solo cleaning business. It is true that I stopped striving for my goals in late 2020. But I didn't stop marketing. My "Optimizer's Website", strong "Google My Business" profile, and participation in local networking and chamber events. Recently, I had a couple find me on Google that lead to my website and a phone call. They had their questions answered on my website and the rest over the phone, so they scheduled an in-person estimate. After the estimate, I sent out a proposal my typical menu of customized house cleaning options. Matt and Laura had a few days to digest the menu, so Matt called me to negotiate as any good sales guy would. I explained what my options were so he understood them. One of my monthly cleaning options was of interest but it was about $20 too high above their budget. Ultimately, he asked if I was willing to negotiate, which means could I lower my price to get him as a client? My answer was simple and it never changes. This is not hard for me and it should not be for you either. "I don't lower my prices or my quality, but I can definitely lower the scope or the frequency of my options and provide another option which hits your budget." This would be a win for him as it hits their price. It would be a win to me because I still will earn my same hourly rate because I don't compromise on my prices. Matt's feedback to me was awesome. "We loved your menu of options and how you customized a plan just for us. We also like that you don't do contracts and we can switch between options as we decide what works best." This is a young family with growing and changing needs . They don't want to be locked into something, they want to grow with a cleaning service. This is a great example of why I advocate and coach to always create a menu to give options. if you only give one price, it can only be yes or no. Many in the industry fight me and say this is not scalable. I disagree. If you have good enough systems and can train your employees, you can definitely scale. The biggest benefits for me is that it allows me to win a higher percentage of clients and spend less on marketing. Plus, it allows me to service the customer better as I optimize my business. They feel listened to, respected, and it allows you to build trust ultra quick. Add on to this, my initial cleaning strategy of staggering over three visits. That's another way to customize and new clients love it because it allows them to get the product without the upfront fee. We shall see if Matt becomes one of my final clients before starting my waiting list.

It's a new calendar year. 2020 was so difficult for many families and so many are exploring other options for income. In this new "Best Of" series, I bring you an older episode that truly connected with my audience. "How to Start Your Solo Cleaning Business" is still one of my most downloaded episodes to date. Everything that I taught in this episode is valid in 2021 and beyond. The only addition would be for you to take cleaning science seriously. I did a wildly popular talk in my area called the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". It turned into webinars, YouTube videos, and a podcast. I encourage you to become an expert in cleaning science so you can disinfect like a pro and increase your stock as a cleaner in your area. It will set you apart big time.

I was listening to the Tim Ferriss Podcast recently as he interviewed the one and only Seth Godin. Between comments, Tim uttered the metaphor of the duck does all of its work under the surface. I literally had to pause the episode and write out this one! In my last episode, Mission 20/20 Accomplished [Kenny add link], I painted a picture of team cleaning companies growing through insurmountable odds and I shared my success in 2020. I don't want anyone to think that we had it easy or growing our cleaning businesses come easy to us. Let's learn from the duck and then come back with the goal of encouraging you and giving you truth!The duck appears to always be in control as it glides across the water. It is cool, calm, and collect without a care in the world. Yet, it gets to where it's trying to go. It does change direction and sometimes glides in circles, but it always gets to where it's trying to go. It's easy to see the duck from the side of the lake and say. "Why can't my life be as easy as the duck? They just find the pond or lake that suits them and simply glide across the surface, stick their head under water for a bite to eat, and chill!" Or what if you're thinking this. "I'm watching and listening to Ken build his second solo cleaning business and it seems like he's a duck. He just magically with total calm gets to his destination. He tripled his profits in 2020 during a pandemic. I guess Ken is just a duck!"You were sitting on the side of the pond looking across the water at the duck. It does look easy from that perspective. My son recently bought the GoPro camera and he can stick it under water and capture incredible video. If your lens is looking at the duck, you see what you see. But if you take a GoPro and point it under the water at the same duck, you will see a different image. You won't recognize the duck. It is far from cool, calm, and collect. You see a duck's bottom and a flurry of webbed feet. That creature looks like he is fighting for his life. His legs are kicking and paddling like crazy. Sometimes the leg paddles forward, sometimes backward, and sometimes stops. But most the time it's swirling and kicking and paddling like crazy. If your perspective of the duck was from the GoPro lens, you would think that life is so hard for the duck. How can ducks even survive at all!? How will he ever get to where he's going?The lens from the side of the pond is the lens that others see you from, while the lens underwater is the one that you see you through. It goes back to the episode I did on "The Four Windows". The lens from the side of the pond is the first window and the underwater lens is the second window. Let's bring this back to my business growth success in 2020. You've been listening to my podcast and watching me from the side of the pond. I've tried to be vulnerable and transparent so you could get a look from underwater, but it's hard. I am living it and I know just how hard I've been kicking this year. Nothing has come easy. My little webbed feet have been fluttering away for 10 months, many times having no idea which way my legs were taking me. I relied on my faith and worked like it was up to me and prayed like it was up to God. I've been in mastermind and coaching environments where I've been beaten and bruised. My webbed feet have hurt all along the way, yet you've seen me glide from $30,000 to $80,000 in revenue in 10 months of a pandemic, riots, wild fires, political unrest, family issues, illness, and deaths in the family. Are you starting to see yet?Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

2020 started with such promise to many. Unfortunately, it ended much differently. This episode is not a co-miserating-let-you-off-the-hook-if-you-did-nothing-about-it episode! This is an episode to fire up the winners. With all the doom and gloom in the media of pandemics, failing economy, and people's livelihoods being destroyed, do you know that there are scores of absolute winners that crushed it in business in 2020 despite the doom and gloom? It's true. In fact, billionaire Mark Cuban predicted it early in the pandemic when he said that many new corporations will be birthed during this time. He also said that the entrepreneur who can pivot toward the future will always thrive. I've paraphrased Mark, but it's so true. I challenge you to search for entrepreneurs who have crushed it in 2020 and learn why and how they did it. Many had their backs pressed against the wall and had no direction but ahead. That's a winner. I facilitate and lead the SMART Cleaning Tribe. This is a group of cleaning business owners growing with employees toward 7-figures and I keep them focused and accountable to their WHY, BHAG, SMART goals. On a mastermind & accountability call recently, we were discussing 2020. They all had SMART goals to double their revenues in 2020. One of the members did. Carrie Cottrell from Cleaning by Carrie out of Galion, OH more than doubled her company well past the quarter million mark. Carrie is crushing it. I've watched her all year. She provides a high quality service at an affordable price. Her product is solid. Plus, Carrie is in a rural, small-town area and she has networked like crazy. She has put herself out there on local news interviews, the chamber, local networking groups, and posting on Facebook every single day something of value to others! It seems that everybody knows Carrie in Galion, OH. She may as well be the only cleaning company there because it certainly seems like it. I'm so proud of Carrie! Jenn Jubrey (Maid Spotless Cleaning, Albany, NY) had to shut down completely by order of the state for nearly 3 months. Yet, she still managed to grow enough just to hit the same revenue as 2019 and position herself to pass $500k in 2021! Her accountability buddy is doing the same thing. Michelle Allegrezza (Sparkling Homes Cleaning, Albertville, MN) lost a large percentage of her clients and staff in 2020 due to the pandemic and she personally dealt with severe illness and family crisis. Like Carrie and Jenn, Michelle is a winner. She dug in big time and went back into the field to personally clean solo again until she had her new hires trained to replace her. Check this out. She finished the year 11% down in revenue from 2019, but was extremely wise with the money that did come in to become a 100% debt-free company! How many business owners can say this in 2020? Michelle and Jenn are racing to $500k and I love stoking the fire of competition! Hannah Brees (Shine & Sparkle Cleaning, Dallas, OR) had wild fires and a pandemic nearly take out her business. Heck, the Oregon wildfires were within miles of her house. She grew her revenue in 2020 while losing more than half of her team and also having to clean solo again for a short time! Way to go Hannah!Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

I started this podcast with no expectations. It's a highly niched show for people wanting to optimize a solo cleaning business. When my show got to 1,000 downloads, I was shocked! It kept growing. Recently, the Solo Cleaning School Podcast crossed 20,000 downloads in 13 months! That's incredible to me. I am a member of the podcasting community and the "Downloads" metric is so important to people. I've seen some tote their download number around as if they are really big stuff, yet I've seen others with millions of downloads with such humility, you'd think no one listened. I was somewhere in the middle. I couldn't figure out what this number meant until recently. The man I'm talking about with 3 million downloads and total humility is John Stange. He's a local pastor to me and runs the Desire Jesus Website. John is a total stud. He is a master content creator and has a book coming out this May with a major book publisher. I'm so proud to call John a friend.When I crossed 20,000 downloads, I got a text from John. He said this. "Congratulations on crossing 20k!" Without thinking, I replied. "Thank you John! That's 20,000 opportunities to impact another for Christ." Obviously, this is a conversation between two Christians, one being a pastor. I don't want you to dismiss it as I kept thinking on this. It dawned on me how amazing this comment truly was. I don't have 20,000 listeners. I have a couple hundred listeners that have collectively downloaded one of my episodes 20,000 times. The number astounded me. What is 20,000 downloads? I've had 20,000 opportunities to impact another life with a message of hope. I've had 20,000 opportunites to coach a struggling cleaning business owner to win. I've had 20,000 opportunities to speak to a struggling single mom looking for a way to earn income for her family. I've had 20,000 opportunities to share why solo cleaning is one of the best businesses on the planet. This gave me incredible energy as I now have a podcast metric that truly matters. Many will call them downloads, but not me. They are opportunities to impact another human life for good!Do you know that I have a companion free Solo Cleaning School YouTube Channel ? Make sure to check it out as I give bonus content not on this podcast. And these YouTube views and subscribers are opportunities as well. Thank you for helping to spread the opportunities to others who need to hear them.

"Hi, I'm Ken and I'm an overthinker." I constantly make simple things complex. That's what an overthinker does. We complicate the most simple task to the point that we cannot take any action to complete it. Another term for this failure disease is procrastination as Dr. Schwartz talks about in "The Magic of Thinking Big". The rare person that can take the complex, make is simple, and take massive action are the most successful in life. Our president, like him or not, is a great example of this. Unfortunately, I'm an overthinker and so are most of you!Recently, I did new member to the Solo Cleaning School Elite On-Boarding Call a few weeks ago with Carrie Miyazono. She is a super bright and coachable young lady. Carrie just earned her black belt in Tae Kwon Doe, instructs at my friend Ken Hoop's Martial Arts School, and works nights to pay the bills. She is a warriorette. Ken recommended her to my podcast and she is literally the first that I know about that listened to every episode from the beginning to now and she's going through a second time. She has an advantage over other solo cleaners starting out. She has a niche, which is cleaning martial arts schools. And she has a school owner, Ken Hoops, that will refer her to other schools. Carrie had a few questions as she got started. She is a classic overthinker and was building her business in her mind verses taking action. She was already cleaning for Ken, but stifled on how to grow her business. That's where I come in as her new coach. I layed out a super simple strategy to break through the overthinking. In other words, I stopped her from making the simple complex and helped her see how the complex can be simple. Here was my advice. It is viable for many of you listening.Do an amazing job for Ken and make him so thankful he selected you to clean his martial arts school.Ask Ken for permission to take before & aftre pictures of the work you do. Put these on your free Facebook business page and Google My Business listing.Continue impressing Ken, show him the pictures, get feedback. Then ask him for a recommendation letter and introductions to a few other school owners in the area. Get the recommendation letter text in a Google and Facebook review for your online profiles with Ken's help.Connect with these school owners. They will NOT be cold calls as they all know and think highly of Ken Hoops. Trust me. If you knew Ken Hoops, you would too. And if you're in the Chanhassen, MN area or have interest in confidence training for your kids, check out his school! Let these school owners know you clean currently clean for Ken, link them to your recommendation letter and online profiles. Start a mailing list newsletter and place these school owners on the list, so they get updates from you and your business with practical gym cleaning tips every 2-4 weeks. This keeps you top of mind. I assured Carrie that she WILL get business from this process. This gave her so much energy as she realized how complicated she had made things. Then I asked her how much money she needed to quit her overnight job. I took that number and showed her how just 2 new martial arts schools would replace that income so she could be a part-time solo cleaner and martial arts instructor. Carrie was so pumped up. If you relate to this advice, there are a few options. You can certainly reach out to me. I have a link on my website for listeners to ask me coaching questions. The other option is to take the plunge like Carrie did and join the Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership for $50 per month, so you can access my coaching and full ISO Model Training Course for solo cleaners! I hope to see you there!

Make this a play on the year 2020. No one could have ever guessed 2020 would go as it did. There was a major pandemic that shut down the country for months. Riots broke out across the country. A presidential election turned into a 2 month battle in court. On a personal note, I lost both grandparents and nearly lost my mom. No matter what goals you set for 2020, few of us were able to hit them. In fact, I've been connecting with cleaning owners from all over the country all year and most were just trying to get back to where they were as 2020 started! At the end of 2019, I shared an important strategy planning episode called "Think Week". I followed that up with a 5-part goal-setting series prior to the pandemic. (Goal Setting I: What is Your Why? / Goal Setting II: Why Set Goals? / Goal Setting III: Make Your Goals SMART / Goal Setting IV: The Accountability Roadmap / Goal Setting V: Kill Parkinson) I highly recommend that you re-listen to each of these 6 episodes as you close 2020 and prepare for 2021.This episode is a little different. It's hard to look ahead. As you may know, I wrap up each year with a Think Week. This year is different... obviously! I have been achieving my #1 goal all year. Therefore, I already have my "thinking" done for 2021 planning. Instead of teaching you how to think and set goals for next year, let's talk about something related. I was having a conversation with a newlywed couple at breakfast during our honeymoon retreat. I shared when you are starting out in life, every decision seems like a major one. You feel like each decision you're making will last your entire lifetime. But the truth is that our lives change often. Looking ahead, our steps don't seem to make any sense. That's what faith is. God numbers and plans our steps. We must trust in Him (if you're a person of faith). But then I told the newlyweds that looking back, everything is crystal clear. It all makes sense looking back. I've been married close to 20 years and I can see major decisions I've made and which have majorly impacted my life. I shared how a contractor picks up different tools along the way and when he gets to the job site, he has all the tools he needs to complete the job. I related this analogy to this young couple as the "job" is God's purpose in our life. The "contractors" are us and the "tools" are the decisions we make along the way. I added that my engineering training has allowed me to flourish in my solo cleaning business and I could have NEVER planned that one. It just happened. "Life sometimes happens and maybe that's another way that God remains anonymous." This analogy made a ton of sense to the newlyweds and even more sense to me. I said. "Hark, I need to make this a podcast episode." They gave a strange expression and my wife smiled.As you approach 2021, I want you to obviously do your best to plan your goals as I've taught in the above-listed Solo Cleaning School episodes. But I also want you to consider yourself a contractor collecting valuable tools along the way. 2020 was hard. I guarantee you picked up valuable tools that make no sense now, but they will!

In my last Carfagno Cleaning update, I shared about my honeymoon getaway with my wife, my grandfather in the ICU, and some wins in my solo cleaning business. I've already shared a "Tribute to My Father" in a previous episode as well, so you know how that ended. I have a few other updates from this week in business.As I've shared previously, Matt and Laura are a young family with a small child and both working full time. They have kept up the cleaning of the home, but it's getting overwhelming. They've never hired a cleaning service, so they turned to Dr. Google for the answer. Google lead them to my company, Carfagno Cleaning, only because I focused on it this year. Check out "Google My Business Rocks". Matt was highly impressed with my Google profile and called me on the spot. I answered this call while on my honeymoon. Normally, I'd let it go to voicemail, but I was answering everything due to my grandfather. Matt had some basic questions, so I referred him to my website. He pulled up the site on the spot and said. "Wow, you're legit! This is a great website." These are great responses and as you can imagine, increased my value to Matt. He wanted to know about the basic models of cleaning, maid versus cleaning services, costs of each. I referred him to the article I wrote on the question. This impressed him even more. Then I covered some of the basic FAQs from my website over the phone. He booked me for an estimate on the spot and was already talking about hiring me. I did the estimate this week with Matt and Laura. It was fun as they were so engaged. They loved how I customize a home into options to make my higher-end service affordable to everyone. As I left, I promised an email proposal with cleaning options by the end of the week and I met that promise. They are most interested in monthly cleaning. They are a perfect fit and would be the final house I need to complete my 2020 goal for houses. I did want to share this direct feedback to you, my podcast listeners, from Matt and Laura. Remember, they are a young 30's ish couple with two incomes, a dog, and a baby. "We love how you customize our house. When I heard that over the phone, I felt confident we'd get an excellent cleaning at a price we could afford. We knew you were legit and have passion for what you do."A few weeks ago, I received an inquiry from Erin. She is a local realtor referred to me by my BIB friend and realtor, Mary Ann Alig. She was the selling agent for her niece and nephew and wanted to gift a move-in cleaning to them. There wasn't a way to see the house as it was under contract until the house closed. Therefore, I pulled the real estate listing online and looked at the 50+ pictures to give Erin a ballpark price estimate. We went back and forth until we agreed on a price of $350 and booked it for Thanksgiving week. When I showed up at the house, I conducted my formal walk-through estimate to negotiate a final price and cleaning list with Erin. I never compromise on bathrooms and kitchen deep cleaning, so this portion came to $250. Then I figured out how much I could do in the 10 rooms with only $100 to work with on our pre-agreed-to price. It worked out to about 10 minutes per room based on my formulas. Thus, I proposed a detailed deep cleaning on the bathrooms and kitchen surfaces (outsides only) and a quick dust, vac, and mop of the rooms for $350 to hit the goal. Erin still wanted the inside of the refrigerator and cabinets done. Here's how this went down.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

This was my 4th episode of the Solo Cleaning School Podcast. My goal was to share the top tangibles and intangibles that made solo cleaning so awesome. I also wanted to balance this with the Cons of Solo Cleaning. This has been one of my most popular episodes, so I wanted to bring it back. Enjoy!

I've shared about my mastermind community many times. Total Life Freedom has members all over the US and for some cool reason, there are a few in my area. We formed up TLF Philly and held our first local lunch get together recently at Chili's in King of Prussia, PA. We had a wonderful time and discussed big ideas, what's working and what's not in our businesses. We laughed. We shared. At the end, the bill dropped and John Stange took it and as quickly as he could be paying with his credit card. A few of the others objected until I stepped in. I shared my lifelong struggle with this and told them to allow John the honor to give to us. They understood and John was so happy. We allowed a giver to give. This is powerful. Now let me explain the mindset.In the classic book, "The Go-Giver" by Bob Burg, he lays out the "5 Laws of Stratospheric Success". The final law ties it all together. "The Law of Receptivity states that the key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving". This is vital. You cannot give if no one receives. If you refuse to receive, you literally stop a giver from giving. There is a natural and beautiful symmetry between the two and each are vitally important. It's unhealthy to only receive and never give as this stops the blessing from flowing from you and to you. It's equally unhealthy to only give and never receive. Bob is very clear that we must learn to acquire the skill of each, giving and receiving. When we do, we can function in the stratospheric success.I have personally struggled with this my whole life. I never wanted to ask for anything, for any help. I would do it all by myself. My wife would have to force me to ask for help when we had to move. I would not ask for money, for help, for even advice. Why? Well, my men's accountability partner Billy Altman answered that for me a few years ago. He said. "Ken, you're a firstborn. You're independent and that's a good thing. But you're not asking anyone for help. Do you know what that's called?" I replied. "No, Billy." He uttered one word that changed everything. "Pride!"That stung badly because he was right. I was literally holding back givers from their deep desire to give. This is a big problem as givers need receivers. I changed course right away and have been a much better receiver over the past few years. And guess what?! I've been a much better giver too and my success has catapulted. I wonder if this is a coincidence. By the way, the TLF Philly group of John Stange, Emily Brunner, John Schuchman, and Brad Imming will meet up at least quarterly and we'll each get the opportunity to give!Would you allow this giver to give? I am offering up 30 minutes of my time each week to answer questions for any listener to this show. Just go to my website to request your time slot.

2020 has been a year none of us will ever forget. Is that not the understatement of the year!? We had a global pandemic, government shutdowns, trillions in stimulus, panic, fear, riots, election chaos, and it's still not over. None of this even scratches the surface of how I'll remember 2020. For me, it's the permanent end of my childhood and the time for me to prove out the legacy left to me. What does that even mean... "the end of my childhood"? In 2020, both of my grandparents on my father's side passed away. On the surface, this may seem extraordinary that I still have grandparents living... and it is. It's so much deeper. Ken Sr and Gabriella Carfagno were my Nana & Pop-Pop for 43 years. In reality, they are the true mother and father in my life. I spent every weekend with them growing up. They are the ones I sought approval and affirmation, especially my Pop. Their loss ends my extended childhood, where I still had a father to go to for counsel. Pop was the patriarch of the Carfagno Family and now he's gone. I'm now left to stand on my own and become the new patriarch, but I don't stand from the ground. I stand upon his shoulders. This episode is a short departure from cleaning as I want you all to pause and reflect on what you have already. What are you grateful for? Your family? Your health? Your business, where ever it is? Here's the text of the eulogy I gave at my Pop-Pop's funeral:I would like to thank my dad, Ken Jr, my uncles Bob and David, and my brother Dominic for allowing me the honor to remember our father and Pop-Pop today. Ken Carfagno, Sr was always larger than life to us. We have always felt that Pop was the greatest man that ever walked this earth except for Jesus himself. I am so grateful that I got to spend every weekend with Nana and Pop-Pop growing up. They made me who I am.Ken was the youngest of five children from Jerry and Concetta Carfagno. Nana Concetta ran out of Italian names, so she named her 5th after the 1930's singer & actor Kenny Baker who she thought was very handsome. Who knew that name would carry on 4+ generations? Ken married his high school sweetheart, Gabriella Corbett on October 20th, 1956 after going steady for over 4 years. They raised 3 boys and half the neighborhood on both Anchor Street and Harvard Road! Nana and Pop were inseparable for over 63 years of marriage. None of us could ever say one's name without mentioning the other. They were Mom and Dad, Nana and Pop. That's how interconnected their souls were. When Nana passed away this February, a huge piece of Pop died with her. Although we're grieving, we know they're together again.Pop was only 40 when I was born. He was young, full of energy, joy, and life. Nana and Pop raised me as their 4th son (even though I was a grandson). Pop taught me humility, gratitude, how to be a man, how to live a righteous life, how to keep God at the center of your life and make church-going & prayer a discipline. He taught me how to be faithful to one woman your whole life, how to love, how to honor, how to live, how to share wisdom with those you love, how to provide for your family, and how to invest in your future. He was the only man to truly recognize my potential and creativity and he fanned that flame throughout my life. When I met Teresa in 1998, he did the same for her and over time built a very special relationship. Nana and Pop never treated her as an "in-law". She was truly their daughter.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

Let's get back into the driver's seat of my own solo cleaning business, Carfagno Cleaning. I have kept my promise from the introduction to this podcast. I will continue updating you every week with progress from my own solo company. 2020 has been a great year as I've hit several growth goals. Carfagno Cleaning is cranking as a solo cleaning company. My brand and reputation is established. I'm known my many in my community as the cleaning and disinfecting expert. I'm known as a presentation cleaning expert and that my prices reflect that. My marketing machine is fully operational with Google My Business, local networking, an interactive optimizer's website, and a proven sales strategy. I'm finalizing my 2020 desired cleaning schedule of all-day Saturday offices and 3 houses per day, every other Thursday and Friday. I'm getting close to this goal, which will give me a great schedule and over $90,000 in revenue.This update is different. I am combining multiple weeks that all seem to mesh together. I got back from the TLF Mastermind Retreat in Pittsburgh on October 9th with big ideas to close out 2020 and beyond. But my life took another track. In late October, my Pop-Pop went into the ER for a life-saving procedure. He's been in the ICU ever since. I'm the family point of contact and have been fielding doctor calls daily and updating the family. I've been making difficult decisions on his potential end-of-life care. I've had my phone on loud ringer 24/7, never knowing when I'd get a call and got many in the middle of the night. I've coordinated his care and taken the lead in the family. I'm exhausted. I'm so thankful that I put in the work this year for my cleaning company to be where it is. I can simply show up to all scheduled cleanings and collect money. We are profiting over $5,000 per month from cleaning alone on a few days per week. New leads come in each week that are filtered out or in by my "Optimizer's Website". I'm attending all local networking that I can attend. I'm setting up new estimates and taking on new 1-time jobs as they are available. This has given me the freedom to take care of my family and Pop-Pop, while in the hospital. Does this motivate you? Would you like a solo cleaning business that's fully operational, optimized, and automated? Make sure to check out this podcast form the beginning to see how I did iI'd like to share a few updates from the past few weeks in business and in life. The first update is a win from my website. Becky was a lead from my wife. She purchased a table off my wife, Teresa from Facebook Marketplace. When she discovered we owned a cleaning business, she mentioned that she was interested in cleaning. Teresa asked me what to say to her. I told her to link to my article on how much my cleaning services cost and why. Becky loved the article and how in-depth my website was. She filtered herself in and we set up an estimate. They were a lovely family. Becky invited me to sit on the back porch to discuss the cleaning in an interview format. Be prepared for that as some families will expect it. To date, I've done it around 10 times in 15 years. After our conversation, we walked around the house for me to ask questions and take notes. I promised cleaning options and prices in a proposal by the beginning of the following week and met that promise. Unfortunately, Becky and her husband had to say no because of price. She indicated that she really, really wanted to hire me, but the cost was too high. This has happened dozens of times and in some situations, they call back months later. I asked Becky if I could add her to my mailing list. She was excited to get bimonthly cleaning tips! Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

Have you ever played an instrument? I've been playing the guitar for a few years as a hobby. I'm no Santana, Van Halen, or Hendrix, but I can play the basic chords to play the majority of songs. I don't know about your instrument, but mine falls out of tune as the weather changes. I have picked up the guitar on many occasions to play a favorite song and it was off. Personally, I can tell by the G chord. If that chord is off at all, the whole song is off. Let me take this further. I enjoy singing with the songs as I'm the rhythm guitarist for the family worship band. I know pretty much NOTHING about musical theory, but I do know this. My voice is perfect for the key of G. How do I know this? My son and other musical scholars told me. When my guitar is out of tune, I have so much trouble matching my voice key to the music. Have you ever experienced this?Let me relate this to your solo cleaning business now. I shared an important mindset episode called "Excellence Vs. Perfection". In this episode, I helped many cleaners break their perfectionist habits. Perfectionism is doing the best job you can to make you happy. Excellence is doing the best job to make your client happy. At first, you may think they are the same. That's not the case. Perfectionism is a disorder and falls under the OCD category. I would know. Check out my episode, "My Lifelong Struggle with Tourette Syndrome" so you know I understand. A perfectionist is cleaning to satisfy the itch they have to make the house look perfect. You can never accomplish it and many solo cleaners spend 5 - 8 hours cleaning a 3-hour house. This does not make the client happy. No one wants you in their house that long. If they pay by the hour, they are mad. And if they pay by the job, they feel guilty you're still there. The pursuit of perfection is never achieved. It's selfish in nature to scratch the itch. Excellence is another story. You have the client in their proper place. Your goal is to provide the best service tailored to their specific needs. Do you remember the guitar story? It's difficult to sing and play a song when the guitar is out of tune. Once you figure out what key to play and the guitar is tuned, your song sounds great. Likewise, once you figure out the song that client likes, you can tune your cleaning system to that client. The outcome is called excellence. They are so happy with you because you "get them". When they make requests, you do them, and continue doing them, they trust you more! They feel heard! This is exactly how I optimize my solo business. I have to figure out which type of music each client likes and then tune my instrument to play it better and better every time. Over 15 years, I have created a cleaning system that plays great for most clients. However, I am always ready to fine-tune my cleaning system to play a slightly different key for a slightly different type of client. This process is constant as I strive to get faster while playing an awesome song! Come join me in 2021 as I optimize my second solo cleaning business with this strategy!

I've been working on my brand new www.carfagnocleaning.com website as I have time for two weeks. I finished it this week! I'm so happy with it. Let me take you back first. I ran Carfagno Cleaning for 14 years without a website. I've always kept a company profile, but on other company sites like HomeAdvisor, Facebook, and LinkedIn. After getting back from the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Gatlinburg, TN in October 2019, I launched my first website for my personal solo cleaning business. The first version was okay. I just wanted a place to hold my blog articles, share some basic profile information, and provide ways to connect with me. Honestly, I invested way more time into growing my Google My Business profile, acquiring reviews, and then linking viewers back to my website. It's been a solid one-two punch as I've stabilized my new solo cleaning company. During the pandemic, I've been writing many teaching-style articles and going on local webinars. I have also spent hours on phone calls with cleaning prospects collectively, answering the same questions over and over. I have known for some time that my website needed to modeled after the book, "They Ask, You Answer". I highly recommend this book as you start to switch from stabilizer to optimizer. Here's the basic concept. Most companies hide or protect their information so competitors can't steal or undercut them. Some hide it to use in their sales process. This book shared a giving philosophy. People are research-oriented and like to learn as much as they can on their own. Provide them that! I also learned from my good friend, Courtney Wisely of Rescue My Maid Service, that Google ranks websites higher with site retention over 2 minutes. She figured out that the most engaging way to keep someone on your website is to have a video. If you look at her website, she has a 2-minute explainer video that is engaging. As a result, viewers stay on her site. I wanted to do the same thing. My main goal was to create the ultimate optimizer's website. I want prospects that hear about me to find my website and then feel like they've entered a school environment and had an experience. My new website does that now. It does all the work for me and filters out the wrong and filters in the right! I'm not going to walk you through every page and piece of my website as I did that on a Facebook Live for members of my Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership recently. However, I did take a 15-minute clip from this paid training and put it on my Solo Cleaning School YouTube channel. Make sure to check out this BONUS CONTENT! This was a huge accomplishment for me this week in my cleaning business!I set to work right away from there by reconnecting with prospects that I'd previously sent proposals for cleaning. I checked in with them and shared my new website, asking if they had any questions. I also reached out to my chamber president to see if I could be of any assistance. Last time I did that, I was invited to help facilitate Zoom webinars for the chamber during the pandemic. This lead directly to 3 new clients! Steve Hunsberger wasted no time! He immediately found a use for me by inviting me to share my chamber experience on a few separate calls as our chamber merges in another local one. I will be sharing my tips on how to get the most from your chamber. It will be fun.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

I had a conversation with my daughter yesterday that really gave me the push I needed to share this episode. I won't go into any details, but I'll just say that my daughter is 12 and she has dealt with a form of OCD that has caused her some pain. This pain has created a very special bond between father & daughter that I would never remove. We sense each other in a extra sensory sort of way. She knows when I am hurting and likewise and we each have a supernatural ability to calm each other. It's a benefit of the lifelong struggle I never thought possible when it started at 10 years old for me. She came to me with a recent struggle and instead of commiserating and allowing her to pull the victim card, I got bold with her and said "You need to get tough!" She was surprised. I went on to tell her that there are no perfect people and that God has a beautiful way of turning our greatest struggles into our greatest victories IF we allow Him to. There are tons of wonderful people with disabilities that have to work harder than we do just to get dressed and start the day, yet they recognize that they will literally have to outwork others in every area to win. They choose not to be the victim. I told her that I've struggled for 33 years, but it has made me stronger. I've had my pity parties, but for the most part, I've used my disability as fuel to win. I challenged her to change the way she thinks. "Stop coming to me with the struggle and asking how to get rid of it. Instead, embrace it and use it as fuel to turn your 'I cant's' into 'How can I's'"! She was energized after this conversation and I truly believe my 33 years of struggle lead me to that one piece of advice that will alter the trajectory of her future. I know for a fact that there are others listening to this episode struggling with the same thing. My prayer is that it gives you hope and a new resolve to embrace your disability, use it as fuel to win, and fight harder every day to achieve the God-given dreams you were put on this planet to achieve. With that, let me share my lifelong struggle with Tourette Syndrome.I remember playing Nintendo after school with Mike in the 5th grade with this sudden insatiable desire to stretch my arms completely out. When I did it, I felt better. It was like an itch that got worse and worse that needed to be scratched. The movement of my arm scratched the itch. I was full of big ideas and creativity. I was an only child, always playing alone so creativity was my best companion. My mom was finishing her psychology degree and newly married. Many changes were happening in my life. I can remember playing ping-pong with my dad in the basement and the itches expanded to my legs. Now, I had to stretch my arms and legs constantly. These nervous tics only grew from there to nose snorting, squeezing eye blinks, licking my lips, biting the inside of my mouth, neck and head twitches, hand stretching and knuckle cracking. It happened so fast that my 10-year-old brain overloaded and my psycho-analyzing mom could not keep up!Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

I thoroughly enjoy giving these business updates. On the last update, $10,000 Watches and The Four Windows, I shared how important it is for me to have mentors and people showing me my blind spots. I attended the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Pittsburgh, PA last week. I've been cleaning non-stop and I'm exhausted, but the sacrifice is totally worth it! I've been cleaning offices with my kids every Saturday, but this past weekend my son was on a Royal Rangers Canoeing Action Camp. I had to clean 7 offices on Saturday and Sunday after a crazy week. I've been tracking the cleaning times of every office since July and this weekend opened up my eyes. My son has been doing bathrooms, some kitchens, and mopping. My daughter does dusting and glass cleaning. I do kitchens and vacuuming. I ended up doing the work of me and my son and identified a few areas to speed up. Each time one of my kids cannot help, I notice things that can be done better or faster. I train this into my kids and ultimately we got faster at the same level of quality.I'll be talking about this on an upcoming episode, but this week I started a major overhaul and redesign of my Carfagno Cleaning website. It's a ton of work and every change was inspired in some way by my trip to Pittsburgh.Okay, let's wrap this episode up with an audio recording that I did on my phone during an incredible discussion at my MCBA networking group this week. I've mentioned this before, but I'm the co-education chair with Shelby Miller of Keller Williams to generate excellent discussion and ideas between growing local business owners. I enjoy it. This week's topic was a TED talk by Mike Michaelowicz and his book "Profit First". I opened up the meeting by playing a 3-minute clip of my podcast episode "Kill Parkinson" to introduce the topic of plate sizes and our human psychology to finish the plate regardless of the size. We do this with time and money. Review that episode for more background. Then we opened up the discussion to members of the group and I only wish that I started the recorder sooner! Here's what I did get!Each person gave me permission to use the recording to help others, so I wanted to personally recommend each of their businesses!Tom McKee, Edward JonesGary Volpe, Volpe EnterprisesMarsha Poust, Signs by TomorrowJames Hardy, The Carpet Guys Lisa Reiss, Optivia HealthMelissa Brindley, Quakertown National Bank

The past 12 months have been a whirlwind of emotion from COVID-19, shutdowns, almost losing my mom, losing my Nana (who was my 2nd mom), getting out of debt, helping my autistic uncle through multiple ICU and mental hospital visits, growing my cleaning business, and so on. Recently, I re-listened to my episode from a year ago called "Free Donuts". I had just returned from the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Gatlinburg, TN and I was convicted big-time to put my pride aside and really crank up my new solo cleaning business. It was also the genesis for what this podcast has become. Make sure to listen to this "Best Of" rewind along with my final comments updating you with 1-year later after returning from the TLF Retreat in Pittsburgh.One year later, we increased our solo cleaning business from 3 offices, 0 houses, and $35,000 in revenue to 8 offices, 7 houses, and $85,000 in revenues!

Many ask me how and when to raise prices. In this episode, you'll learn how NOT to. The story I am going to tell in this episode is real and happened recently. I am protecting the identity of the solo cleaner by calling them "Jen". Thankfully, this story ends well. Take heart and do NOT copy Jen's mistake!What did Jen do and why? I teach a proven strategy for how to raise prices in my ISO Model. I've been using this strategy since 2006. It's smart. It's battle-tested. It's strategic. And it's for optimizers ONLY! Jen is not an optimizer yet. Jen has a solid stabilizer business with around 20 clients. She loves her business and has amazing, loyal clients that will stay with her long-term. All she has to do is continue to serve them. These clients will absolutely pay more per visit over time as every business raises prices as the cost of doing business increases year-to-year. Jen got a call from a commercial property manager. She heard about Jen and wanted her do electrostatic disinfecting in multiple buildings. It was a huge opportunity for Jen and the promises sounded like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. At the same time, Jen was in an emotional state as a close family member was in an accident and required a lot of Jen's TLC. Jen really needed to make more money and have more time. In Jen's excitement at the prospect of the commercial disinfecting, she hastily sent price increase letters by email to half of her reliable, recurring house cleaning clients. Jen thought that some would not say yes and others would not. It would earn her more money per house that stayed and clear up enough time to do the disinfecting work. It was a perfect plan in Jen's mind. But was it?Here's what happened next. One client fired her. One grilled her for 3 hours during the next cleaning and found out that increases were only sent to half of her clients. One prepared to fire her. She had not heard back from the others yet and decided it was a good idea to reach out to me. As she explained her actions, I panicked with her as I heard so many missteps. Jen could literally lose half of her business in 1 week!Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

I'm so thankful for a conversation I had with Patty in 2006. Let me set the scene. She was an executive for an apartment property management company with 13 complexes. I was cleaning for two of them and wanted to grow my solo business to as many as I could. During early to mid-2006, I drove all over the Capital District of NY to knock on the doors of small offices, apartment complexes, and builders to drum up more business. I had information packs with testimonials that I'd hand out at each. All in all, I visited over 300 businesses and dropped off over 50 info packs. This lead to 1 more apartment complex, 1 builder, and 1 new office. It seems like a waste unless you tally up the lifetime value of just that one office. I cleaned for this law firm from 2006 to 2018 and earned over $80,000 in revenue from that client. Yes, it was worth it. I wanted you to see the mode of growth I was in. We were struggling big-time with money and I was willing to do whatever it took.When I walked into one of my complexes that spring, Patty was there. I knew who she was and that she was the decision maker to hiring me for more complexes. I never got a chance to ask her a question. She approached me and shocked me with this advice that has forever changed my business!"I know you want more complexes. I've been hearing from our property managers that you've been visiting. But I'm not giving you any more right now because I don't want to lose you!" Patty had my attention and continued. "Do you know why good cleaners like you go out of business? They can't say no and take on more than they can do. They get further and further behind. They don't know how to properly hire employees to take off some workload. They start dropping in quality, missing commitments, lose trust, lose reputation, lose money, and we have to let them go. These good businesses eventually go out of business if they don't change. And we have to constantly replace contractors like you. It's time-consuming. Ken, you're doing a great job for our 2 complexes. Keep it up and truly decide if you want and can handle more."Her message hit me right between the eyes. It was a turning point for me. I was only pursuing apartment complexes because we needed money. But really, I hated apartment complexes. They paid terrible. The hours were awful. I would often batch 3-4 apartments overnight after cleaning all day and sleep on the floor! They were unpredictable. They were feast or famine. They were dirty. They required a lot of thinking, planning, and mental time. I never did add the 3rd complex. I veered down another path instead. I started growing and stabilizing my company with recurring weekly, biweekly, and monthly houses fueled by working with realtors. The real estate work was tough, but it opened the doors to simple, clockwork houses. I also learned my niche of presentation cleaning and applied it to house and office cleaning to build my reputation. Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

Do you know why books, mentors, and being curious are so vital to your future? I loved the "Rule of Thumb" that my friend Jon Appino uses. It's a joke, but exposes a truth. People do not like reading books because they were forced to in school. I was EXACTLY the same leaving college and working at GE as an engineer. But then I started my first side hustle as an Amway IBO and was encouraged to start reading personal growth books. I learned this right away, understood it, and decided to embrace it. "You will be in 5 years based on the books you read and the people you associate with." Then it all connected when I learned about the Four Windows from Amway legend John Crowe. This knowledge has served me well for over a decade and I hope it hits the nail on the head for you. Here's a word of warning. This episode will cut you open and expose some truths about you that you do not like.Think of a window with cross lattices and therefore 4 individual panes of glass in the same window. These are the four windows. Each has a different viewpoint on YOU!The top left window represents the THINGS THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT EVERYONE ELSE ALSO KNOWS. Typically, this window contains your physical appearance and outward habits. For example, I have brown eyes, brown hair, and record this podcast. We do not learn much in this window, but we tend to operate here in our life too often. Nothing ever changes and no growth occurs. This window represents the status quo.The top right window represents the THINGS THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT NO ONE ELSE KNOWS. This can be your dreams and aspirations and it can be your internal struggles, addictions, double talk, hypocrisy. Since no one else knows what is going on in your head, they can't help you. Therefore, if you remain in this window and keep doing the same thing over and over again, you'll get the same results. This is what Einstein calls insanity. Others choose to grow and pursue change based on what they know about them. This was me when I learned how important books were. I made the decision to read personal growth books in the areas I was strong and weak to improve both! This was my first step to becoming a lifetime learner.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

One year ago, I had just returned from the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Gatlinburg, TN in mid-October 2019. My arrogance and pride were exposed to 20 other entrepreneurs from around the country and I was faced with a difficult choice. Do I go all-in to building a new solo cleaning company in the Philly Area and am I courageous enough to share my weekly progress to you, my podcast audience? If you've been a listener to this show for any amount of time, you already know my answer. "YES!"My update this week takes you behind the curtains as I met with these same entrepreneurs a year later in Pittsburgh, PA. Before I could leave, I had some calendar shuffling to do as the retreat was Wednesday to Friday and I had houses scheduled. Here's what I did. A month before the trip, I connected with each client affected and shuffled them around to keep as many as possible. I was able to move my Tuesday client to Monday, my Thursday and Friday to Tuesday, and another Friday to next Tuesday. I had to cancel one of 5 houses and was able to clean every office over the weekend. It was an insane schedule where I cleaned offices Saturday & Sunday, houses Monday & Tuesday, drove to Pittsburgh Wednesday through Friday, offices Saturday & Sunday! I survived. Here's the point. A solo cleaning business is flexible and the trip was totally worth it!While I was in Pittsburgh, my pre-scheduled newsletter went out to 100 local subscribers and a few interesting things happened. I was contacted by a Christian publication and radio station about advertising. These outlets found me online and subscribed to my newsletter. At this point, I do not do paid advertising as I don't need it. I'm just amazed that I've been able to build something in a short time that is locally recognized. I'd have to say that my newsletter and attending local networking groups may be the most valuable things I've done in 2020 for my new solo cleaning business. One other piece of marketing occurred while I was in Pittsburgh. My wife was selling some baby stuff on Facebook marketplace. She made a friend, Rebecca, through a sale. Rebecca saw on my wife's profile that we owned a cleaning business and said to her, "I'm in the market for a cleaner!" Teresa asked me what to do. I told her to send Rebecca to my cleaning website, specifically to an article I wrote about how much I charge for cleaning. Rebecca did and loved my website. She filtered herself into my sales funnel and wants me to do an estimate next week. She already knows how much I charge and is okay with it. That's the essence of how my ISO Model Marketing System works!The Pittsburgh retreat was totally different this year. I was edified in front of the team for my progress in 1 year as I took a solo cleaning business from $25,000 to $80,000 in annual revenue during a pandemic. I was able to develop a comprehensive strategy for the Solo Cleaning School and the Elite Membership offered to accelerate solo cleaners through my system. Plus, I set some new cleaning goals and made some great friends!Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

We all have that one child that we seem to teaching the same lessons to over and over. That's my middle son Kolby. He's my main man, 9-years-old and we share the same birthday. I say that the best birthday gift I ever received was him! He loves that. Kolby has a way of asserting his belief that he is always right. He also tends to talk and hear, more than listen. He will interrupt others when they are talking and not realize he's doing it (as he's in his own head). If his mom says it's warm out, he says it's hot. If she says it's hot, he'll say it's cold. You get the picture. I was teaching Kolby the difference between hearing and listening recently. Kenny overhead the lesson and thought it was a podcast episode. So here you go! I hope Kenny was right!Your ears are designed to receive sound vibrations and transmit them for interpretation inside your brain. If you're truly listening, your brain then processes the sounds and acts. If you are merely hearing, the sounds are received but are drowned out by your thoughts or your words. In other words, hearing is passive and listening is active. To listen, you must fully engage your senses, which includes your ears, eyes with eye contact to the one talking, and your mouth by not opening it. Active listening also includes your body language like nodding along or leaning forward. These signs show the talker that you are truly listening, truly care about what they have to say, and therefore, truly care about them. Hearing and talking over someone is selfish and taking. It harms relationships. Listening is giving and builds relationships.I told Kolby that I've had to work on this a ton. I've read books on it. In fact, I read on last year that was over 300 pages just on how to listen! He was shocked. I told Kolby that we must all work on this vital skill to be a better human and in our family's case, a better disciple. This skill requires humility and an attitude of curiosity. An active listener has some answers, mostly questions as they realize there is way more they don't know. This takes them from a place of arrogance and pride in their knowledge to a place of receiving and wisdom. Our bodies were designed with 2 ears and 1 mouth as insight into the proportion God wants us to use those organs. Kolby had heard enough. Just kidding. He got the lesson and truly listened to his dad.Why do I teach this to solo cleaners? It's a vital skill to acquire. We can learn from anyone if we truly believe others around us have value. True listening will instruct you how to serve your community and clients better. You will act on what you learn and serve better, build more trust, and become indispensable. This one skill can literally pull you out of a low paying, low appreciation position to one of honor, gratitude, and high profit. Start truly listening and act on what you hear.What do you think? Was my son Kenny right?

This personal business update will be a little different. I do have some updates and it looks like a new client is coming on board as well. I'm combining a few weeks and sharing the highlights. One of the benefits of building a profitable solo cleaning business like I have and being debt-free now is that we can take more getaways as a family. It did NOT used to be like this. We have struggled just as much if not more than many of you listening right now. At the end of last summer, our family rented a house in Ocean City, NJ right after Labor Day with the Pugliese Family. They have 3 boys, which are the same age as our oldest 3 and our families get along so well. We went to the Great Wolf Lodge with them a few winters ago as well. Last year's beach trip was so successful that we did it again last week. We rented a much larger house with 3 balconies with ocean view and a block form the sand. It was awesome. We were on vacation, but we were not idle. Again, this update has multiple weeks of highlights. I mentioned previously that my cousin Seth and his wife Abby invited us to do an estimate for a historic wedding venue. I worked on that proposal at the beach and was able to email it the day we left. Abby was very thankful. The prices I optioned were much higher than what Abby is currently paying, but it really helped her to see the going rate of an experienced, professional company. My friend Shelby Miller from MCBA referred me to Pastor Bruce. He is the president of the board for a local non-profit community center and wanted a professional company to check out the building and give recurring cleaning prices for various frequencies. The estimate went well. During the estimate, I explained many elements on how to disinfect properly. Pastor Bruce was really connecting as he used to sell commercial cleaning products. He was thankful for my advice. I sent the proposal two days later, really impressing him. I also checked in with a church I sent a proposal last month. Jennifer was thankful for my detailed and honest cleaning proposal and recommendations. Like Abby & Pastor Bruce, Jennifer will let me know once the board meets. As a side note, I want to know if you're paying attention. How did I get these 3 referrals? Abby - She's family, but she has seen some of my training videos and my webinar on disinfectingPastor Bruce - Shelby referred me from my weekly MCBA networking group. She my co-education chair and we have become friends.Jennifer - Her boss, the pastor, saw my cleaning profile in an email that went out to all Indian Valley Chamber members. I got that profile because of my service to the Chamber during COVID.The takeaway is that I am creating a word-of-mouth machine in my new area and solo cleaning business. How did I do it? Well, you're going to have to start with podcast episode 1 and follow the bread crumbs as my new business has built to almost $100,000.Later in the second week of this update, Pastor Bruce called me hoping to get some time and ask some questions. I called him and answered detailed questions right out of my "How to Disinfect Properly" mini-course. He was thankful for the help and gave me verbal confirmation that he's working to get me into clean monthly once he gets the board to agree. Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

Toward the end of the summer, I met for breakfast with my Chamber of Commerce friend Ken Byler. He owns Higher Ground Consulting, helping leaders and their teams to thrive. It was fun to reconnect with Ken. He's super smart and knows how to ask great questions. In fact, he hit me with 3 questions that really got me thinking. What did you learn about yourself through the Corona pandemic?What did you learn about your business?What will you change about your business going forward?This episode is not about me. It's for you! I want you to write down these 3 questions and answer them. Then I want to encourage you to send me your answers to ken@solocleaningschool.com and I will respond to each one sent. This one exercise could propel you further in 2021 than any other. Are you going to do it? I dare you. Oh... I double-dog dare you. Wait... I triple-dog dare you!I won't end this podcast without sharing my answers. Here you go Solo Cleaning School!What did you learn about yourself through the Corona pandemic? I learned that I wasn't strong enough in the science of disinfecting to truly serve my community. I thought I knew, but I didn't. This caused me to go deep during my time in lockdown and research how to disinfect properly. It turned into a mini-course and my local claim-to-fame now, the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". I've shared this on webinars, blogs, interviews, my podcast, Facebook groups. My local pharmacy made me their disinfection expert. I was willing to change and get better, then get out there and share my knowledge. It felt great. I helped many people and it separated me as a specialist in my area. I gained at least 5 clients as a result. What did you learn about your business? I learned that my business wasn't pandemic proof. I lost 4 out of my 6 house cleaning clients and 1 of my 3 offices. I also learned that my business wasn't big enough. When I lost that much business, it affected our income a lot. Fortunately for me, we were diversified with other income sources like online memberships and the monthly payments on the sale of my former solo cleaning business. On a positive note, I experienced the stability of certain sectors of commercial cleaning during the pandemic. I did lose 1 of my 3, but only for a month. I witnessed across the country that the cleaning companies with at least 25% commercial in their portfolio did better. Many of their commercial clients asked for MORE service during the pandemic to protect their offices and employees when they returned.What will you change about your business going forward? My immediate answer to Ken on this question was that I already changed it. Over the summer, my new specialist role secured me new clients. I bolstered up my commercial side and now run at 67% small commercial and 33% residential. My ultimate goal for my solo cleaning business is to add 4 more houses and 2 more offices in 2020, which would give me a near 50-50 split of commercial to residential. That's where I'd like to be for many reasons and one of them is stability from what I learned during Corona.

I was having a pre-driving talk with my 15-year-old son and shared my example when I was 16. I wanted to drive a car, but my mom couldn't put me on her policy. I bought my car for $1,300. Then my monthly expenses of car insurance, maintenance, and gas cost a ton. I needed this car to get to my job at the mall, but really I wanted the car to look cool driving to high school. I felt like I was treading water and not going anywhere. Why? I was going to school all day and then working at night. My weekly paycheck after taxes was just enough to pay my car expenses. I was in an ironic situation where I was working just to drive and driving just to go to work. I could have quit the job and hitched a ride to school from my neighbor and spent my time doing something I wanted to do. It took me a few years until I learned how to earn more income with the jobs I took. I was no longer working to drive as I had extra. Thank goodness or I would not have been able to afford taking my girlfriend Teresa anywhere. I could and won her over. I told Kenny. "And now she's your mom."I then told Kenny another example of this irony, relating to moms. The stay-at-home mom wants to earn more income for the family. She goes out and finds a job. Let's say the job pays her $3,000 per month after tax. That sounds great, except one thing. She needs to hire a daycare service to watch her kids. She needs more maintenance and gas for her car. She needs more money for lunches and coffees and clothes for work. There are so many moms that accept the job before calculating the cost to have the job. Many times they are in the same place as the 16-year-old driver. They are literally working for daycare and putting the kids in daycare so she can work. It's ironic and very sad. Moms have so much on their plates and this puts them into a downward spiral and hurts many families. Aside from the zero profit, the mom is also taking her kids out of the home and getting them around other kids in daycare. Kids in daycare are always sick, so now this mom's kids are sick and it affects the whole family. Maybe the dad gets sick and has to call out of his work or business. This is detrimental.Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

Are you afraid if you raise your cleaning prices that you will scare away customers? What if I told you that could be a good thing?   Cleaning industry expert Ken Carfagno discusses how he was able to earn $100 an hour while working only 2 days a week.   He did it all with systems and they changed his life and his cleaning business!   In his presentation, Ken explains: - How you can get better cleaning clients that are hassle-free and high paying - How these clients can lead you to other great, high-paying cleaning clients - How to use scarcity to set your home cleaning businesses apart from others - How to use systems to rocket your hourly rate   Don't hesitate, watch this now so that you too can increase your profits and decrease the time you spend sweating for your home cleaning company.   Ken Carfagno is the founder of Smart Cleaning Biz, a company dedicated to helping Maid Service owners achieve freedom from there business without sacrificing annual income.   Read the blog post at: www.zenmaid.com/magazine/branding-to-grow-your-maid-service/   This talk was just one of 44 expert talks shown in the Maid Summit - the first & online virtual conference for Maid Services. Watch the other talks here: https://maidsummit.com