Podcasts about start cleaning business

I've been cleaning homes since 2006 and have noticed a dramatic increase in home security as technology improves. Alarms have gone from wired to wireless. Cameras surveil various angles and locations of the home. Garages have keypads. Families are more secure than ever and they can do so at an expense less than it used to cost. This happens so predictively that economists give it a name.The early adopters pay the most like cell phones in the '90s or tvs in the '50s. Once the technology reaches critical mass (around 10% market penetration), the technology floods the market until it cheapens with market saturation around 90%. This is called 'S-Curve' economics. As a side note, this is a fascinating phenomenon to study. Home security has undergone the same S-curve. Check out this statement from a recent article on the state of home security."Around 20% of homes in America have security systems, but this percentage is expected to increase over the next five years. In fact, experts predict that the number of homes with security systems will increase by 64% in that time period."The early adopters of home security were in the '70's, '80's, and '90's. It took 40 years for home security systems to reach 10% market penetration or critical mass. It has taken roughly 10 more years to go from 10% to 20% of all homes secure in the US. This article predicts a jump to over 80% in the next 5 years! That's an 'S-curve' for sure! But I ask you. Is this normalizing effect causing homeowners to feel over-confident?Unfortunately, I've noticed another trend. Homeowners are forgetting to lock their windows at an increasing rate. I'm a detailed house cleaner and clean complete kitchens and bathrooms, baseboards, wood trim, light switches, window ledges & sills over the course of time. I treat every client as if I was cleaning for my own family. Therefore, I'm a noticer! One of my clients was away for 5 days vacation and scheduled cleaning on the day of their arrival home. While I was there, I noticed that all 4 windows on the first floor were unlocked! These 4 windows happened to be the ones to the left and right of the front door on the porch. This discovery made me uneasy, so I locked them and notified the family. They were so thankful.I notice unlocked windows more often in upstairs bedrooms. However, you'd be surprised how many windows I've locked in my 15 years cleaning houses on the first floor! I'm not a psychologist, but I will hypothesize. We are placing too much trust in our technology. Many homeowners in suburbia believe that their neighborhoods are safe. Therefore, they can leave their car doors, front doors, and windows open. If there was an intruder, the alarm system would pick it up. I learned recently from a bank professional that criminals are getting smarter too. They are not the Water Bandits from "Home Alone" that can be thwarted by a 7-year-old boy with lots of toys, tacks, and tar. These criminals are timing their crimes to steal from moms while they drop off kids at daycare. They target shopping parking lots. And they target the most "trusting" homeowners. I'm sure this is not new to anyone reading this.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

I host an accountability & mastermind call every Monday for the SMART Cleaning Tribe. We are a family of cleaning service owners with teams (that used to be solo). I'm the architect of this group of amazing people, always looking for the 1% that desires to set monthly SMART goals and be held accountable to their achievement. Check out the episode "The Accountability Roadmap" to learn more about the 1% clubWe had an interesting discussion this past week on the topic of client scope creep. This is when your original housecleaning scope of work increases with the changing dynamics of the family or home. We went around the group sharing how we each deal with this. Toward the end of this discussion, one of our members hit a home run. Kate Sloan is the owner of Chicka Chicka Broom, which services Montgtomery, MN. She said. "I train my clients." Obviously, I could not let that slip through the cracks and asked her to explain. Kate contrasted the typical house cleaner to the perceived in-home experts such as electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and HVAC technicians. "Why are they viewed as experts and get expert-level prices and many devalue cleaners wanting to pay the minimum?"The answer is simple. Most clients are moms with cleaning experience. They can clean, therefore they don't see our craft as a specialty. Plumbers and electricians do work that the mom cannot do, therefore they are experts and can charge expert prices. One of the best ways to level-up as a cleaner to an expert or specialist is to acquire specialized knowledge. One example is taught in my "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". If 90% of our clients are disinfecting incorrectly and we know how to do it right to protect their families, our value increases. This is the process to becoming the expert and separating from the typical cleaner.One further point on mastery comes from Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers" book. He claims that it takes 10,000 hours to acquire expert status at any task. If you clean 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year, you can achieve mastery in 5 years! Many of us have achieved this. Not many moms have, no matter how long they've been cleaning. What if they clean 2 hours per day and 6 days per week? It would take over 16 years to reach mastery. Some moms have achieved this and most have not.Make sure to study this episode as it holds a vital key in pricing to start earning you top income as a solo cleaner. 

In 15 years of solo cleaning, over 75 families have hired me to clean for them. However, I sold my business with 17. What happened to the others? It's simple. This is a seasonal service for some and a lifetime for others. I never tried to figure that out. I just served. I have lots of experience getting "let go", "moved on", "fired", etc. Some let me know face-to-face with a month's notice. Some stopped immediately through email, phone, or text. Others just disappeared (literally a UFO got 'em)! There was only one time that I fired myself. For the sake of privacy, we'll call this customer "Bob".Bob worked from home as a consultant and his family lived in a beautiful 4,000+ square foot home in a new development. They had a son 1-year older than my son, Kenny. Bob and I had awesome conversations and many were from opposing viewpoints. Some were political and some were religious. We had a mutual respect for each other and our beliefs. The cleaning itself was tough. The master shower had two glass doors, the kitchen island was 15 feet long, and the oven was HUGE! The knobs on the range top would turn to the 'On' position on a hairpin trigger, so I always had to check to the level of OCD to make sure the gas was off. On November 2, 2016, I cleaned and didn't do a good job inspecting!When I got home, there was a text from Bob's wife. She is stressed out as the gas was left on for at least 6 hours after I left and she had to call to get help to make sure it was safe. Thankfully, everything was okay. But the family was in shock and I was feeling a level of guilt I've never felt in all my years in this business. **Cleaners** I urge you to check the oven knobs every time you leave!You'll have to listen to the episode, but here's what happened. I fired myself. When Bob and his wife talked over what they should do, he came to me and just wanted to have another civil conversation. I had prayed and thought about it for a whole day and literally told Bob. "I am SO sorry. This is literally a irreconcilable offense. I put myself in your place with your wife and son as my own. If a cleaner had done that in my home, I would lose all trust and fire them immediately. I think you should do the same. I don't want to lose your business, but I want to do the right thing." Bob was amazed. "Ken, I respect you for your response and care of my family." Ultimately, they did let me go and they should have. I talk about building trust. In this case, I lost all of my trust in the turning of one oven gas knob. I knew it would be harder to go from a 1 Trust Factor to the 10 I had before THAN getting a new client at 6 and getting to 10. After the smoke cleared, I remained friends with Bob. We still connect to this day and he left a glowing review of my cleaning service on Google.

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 Smart Cleaning School podcast

In "Keys to Solo Longevity I", I established a few foundational principles. First of all, there is a clear difference in a Ford and a Honda. I prefer my cleaning machine to operate more like a Honda. They last longer and require less maintenance... and I shared this from my experience having owned 4 Fords and 8 Hondas in 30 years. Secondly, we deconstructed the domination and longevity of all-time sports greats Tom Brady, Cal Ripken, Jr., Serena Williams, and Roger Federer. Each of these greats believed very deeply that we will get out of our machines what we put into them. I shared the sleeping, dietary, and exercise training routines of each. Serena valued strength training through HIIT, while her male counterpart in tennis Roger Federer valued 12 hours of sleep per day. Cal valued exercise and strength training more after each birthday, which helped him to become MLB's Iron Man. Tom does everything. He's a cyborg. Can we emulate what these peak performers have done? We can try! In this episode, I will share my own health journey and winning routines. It's my hope that you can make a small change and stay consistent over time so you can reap the rewards of a long solo cleaning career.Step aside Tom Brady and Serena Williams. Here comes Ken Carfagno. My professional solo cleaning career started at 28. At this point, my solo cleaning stats are ranked #1 in the industry. I guess that makes me the G.O.A.T., which means I'll be inducted into the Solo Cleaning Hall of Fame. Oh, you didn't know about that... did you?! Maybe I'll start it. Anyway, I'm still in the field cleaning every week, but no where near what I used to do solo. I'm 45-years-old and have dealt with my share of ups and downs. I've torn both meniscus in my knees, a tendon in my right elbow, and sprained my left wrist. Injury has been difficult. I've dealt with major fatigue, nausea, vertigo, and brain fog in my 8 year battle against Chronic Lyme Disease. I know what chronic symptoms are like and have fought through them. I have woken up at 6am to clean all day after no sleep as we raised 5 babies over the years. They tend to keep you from sleep. I share this to relate to you. I have been there, yet I have been consistent for 17 years. What has set me apart? I believe it's several daily habits.Sleep - I agree with Roger Federer that sleep is vital. Outside of my late cleaning nights or sleepless baby nights, I have disciplined myself to follow the advice in Shawn Stevenson's book "Sleep Smarter". I firmly believe that sleep is the foundation of a great day. I believe it is a keystone or cornerstone habit. It's the one ring that controls the others. I don't always hit this goal. I aim to wind down from the day, cut the screens off, take my nighttime vitamins, and get to sleep by 10:30pm and wake up by 6:30am. That's 8 hours on an ideal night.Water & Vitamins - I drink 2 pints of purified water or around 30 ounces first-thing! This gives my internals a morning bath and gets things moving (if you know what I mean). I also take my morning vitamins including a multivitamin, Omega 3, Vitamin D, NAC, and possibly other supplements that were part of a healing protocol of the time.Bible - I love starting my day with my Creator by listening to the bible while I exercise, get ready, shower. I also enjoy reading the bible or a devotional and praying. This sets my day toward others with gratitude.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

This 2-part podcast was inspired by a Solo Cleaning School Elite member, Dave Reeks. Dave started implementing the ISO Model in early 2022, operating The Finest Clean in South Wales, Australia. I am so proud of his diligence and commitment. Dave has grown from an Initializer to the Stabilizer phase of the ISO Model in 6 months. I recently did an Optimizer's Workshop with him to help him hit his next goal. He is a male solo cleaner like I was and growing quickly with almost 20 house cleaning customers in a short time. Dave recognized the need to keep his body operating at peak performance and wondered if I had any tips for other solo cleaners. Thank you Dave for this question! Yes! I do. I was a solo cleaner from age 28 to 44. There have been seasons of physical domination when I could stay up all night and clean and clean and clean. I have also struggled with fatigue, injury, and chronic disease. Regardless of the season, I had no choice but to keep going... and I did. In this initial episode, we will deconstruct the habits of multiple peak performers from professional sports to learn from them. Then in the second episode, I also will share several keys to solo longevity that I have learned along the way from my triumphs and struggles.  I believe this will help all cleaning companies as we all have people cleaning, whether it is us or a team we've hired.Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor. I am sharing what I've personally done for cleaning longevity. See your doctor before making any major changes to your routine. Baseline your level of health now and set goals on where you'd like to go. Use this podcast as a guide.Let's start with an analogy that takes me down vehicle memory lane. The joke in high school was that Ford stood for "fix or repair daily" and "fails on race day". My friends with Hondas boasted on their longevity and reliability. Hondas were the gold standard. My cars from age 16 to now have been in this order: Honda, Ford, Ford, Mitsubishi, Honda, Honda, Honda, Honda, Ford, Honda, Ford. Isn't that funny. I've owned 6 Hondas and 4 Fords. I won't go over every detail on our cars as that is probably boring. I will just say this. All of my cars have been great. I have so many memories from each. But I do generally agree after owning 4 Fords and 8 Hondas (my wife owned 2 Honda Odysseys) that the Hondas are way more reliable and spend less time in the shop. Sure there were some duds. We had an Odyssey that lasted 2 years and needed a new engine at 150,000 miles. We own a Ford Fiesta with 100,000 miles and a Honda Pilot with 140,000 miles and both are running great. But there is not doubt that our Hondas have been cheaper to operate and lasted a lot longer as 5 of the 8 were over 200,000 miles when we got rid of them.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

Last week I kicked off a 11-part Retention Series for the Smart Cleaning School Here's the basic question. What good is it to only teach you GET great customers if you can't KEEP them?!It makes no sense at all. You're right! That's why I'm compiling these episodes for you over the next few months. I highly encourage you to study these and implement them.​Do you know that retention is one of the major factors that investors look at when evaluating your business for sale? This is one of the reasons I sold my first solo business for so much money. Here's the point. This is important!Do you enjoy this teaching? Would you like to join the Solo Elite Membership to get access to the full lessons every week plus have access to our community of like-minded optimizing solo cleaners? I hope to see you inside the membership. Are you more interested in coaching, taking action, and personal accountability? Check out our coaching options as well. 

I have discovered through losing dozens of clients over the years that they cancel service for 3 reasons. Would you like to know what they are? Here's the summary.Quality - Whether you fail to meet your expectations or theirs, they will perceive you are not a good cleaner and fire you.Character - This prevents the customer from building trust with you, the solo cleaner, and the brand of your company. If they lose trust, they lose you.Circumstances - People move. They start families. They lose jobs and have babies. Things change. The cleaner is downstream from all of these life changes and you will get the axe.Do you enjoy this teaching? Would you like to join the Solo Elite Membership to get access to the full lessons every week plus have access to our community of like-minded optimizing solo cleaners? I hope to see you inside the membership. Are you more interested in coaching, taking action, and personal accountability? Check out our coaching options as well. 

Do you want prospects to find you and ask you for help or would you rather hunt for them and try to sell them? The first option is called a relational approach and the second is a transactional one. I created the original ISO Model Course in 2017 when I was in the hunt of optimizing my first solo cleaning company in Upstate New York.At this time, I was wrapping up a strategic process of earning more and working less so I could be with my family more. I never realized it would become a course for other solo cleaners out there. Some of my foundational lessons revolved around this concept of relational marketing with course modules such as “Real Marketing”, “Profile to Win”, “Price to Win”, and so on. Last month, I decided it was a good time to revamp the course to make it more relevant to 2025 by teaching weekly lessons in the Solo Elite Membership. In this episode, I am giving you a glimpse of my most recent lesson called “Profile to Win II”. The mindset in this clip is very important. Listen and then explore my business profiles and others in the industry. Study. Implement. Improve. 

This month's Freedom Report starts with a clip from a call with Coach Josh. I had accomplished a lot in December as you heard in the last report, adding 5 new buildings and 1 new team member. The 5 buildings added $3,800 per month of new revenue and brought us to 13 buildings and 5 houses to delegate. The new team member would take 3 of the buildings, leaving a lot more still to delegate. I felt confident at the end of December that I could shift focus from marketing & sales to hiring. The #1 priority had to be working my way out of a job!In this clip, there are a few great quotes from Josh."We'll always be leaving money on the table. If we're so focused on getting all the money on the table, we'll never be the greatest at any one thing.""I have to choose the sanity of my team over the expansion of my business.""Just because you could pick up these clients doesn't mean you should.""You're eliminating margin when I don't think you have to."This conversation has been the hardest one for me in coaching. I'm amazed. The calls where we needed revenue and team members challenged me, but they were all answers that ended in 'yes'. This answer has to end in 'no'. I did focus on the team-building, training, and systems in January. That was how we'd get to Florida. Before I go there, let me share more about margin as that was such a vital lesson from this coaching call. I have made promises to my current 5 houses, 13 buildings, and 5 team members. My number one priority is to honor all those promises. I could do this with the time window, but we'd have little margin. Therefore, I made some key decisions in January. Decision 1 - I don't know what I'm going to do with house cleaning, but I decided to create some margin as I'm away in Florida by canceling my house cleaning while I'm gone. I will lose $800 in profit. I talked to each of my customers and 4 of the 5 are okay with it. The 5th house wanted a referral to another company that could fill in while I'm gone. I fully accept that I may lose this customer as a result. I am okay with it as I am going away from house cleaning and it's my least profitable house of 5. Removing 5 houses from my calendar for a month adds a lot of margin. In other words, it's less for me to think about while I'm gone.Decision 2 - I have three buildings that are monthly. I will not delegate those yet. I completed them at month-end and will clean them again with my kids after I get back. I just had to shift them back one week. This adds more margin as my 13 buildings and 5 houses is down to just 10 buildings. I actually gain about $300 profit as I don't have to delegate this work.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

I ended the November Freedom Report with peace. We had brought our plan to go to Florida to God and asked Him to show us the way. We had over 20 job applications come in with no new hires. I personally connected and made initial connection to 240 local office cleaning prospects and followed up with close to 100 phone calls to find out if they had a cleaner in house or outsourced and if they were happy. This lead to 7 interested prospects and 4 proposals sent. But the net result of all of this effort was 0 new team members and $0 in new revenue with 65 days left before Florida. Josh gave me a challenge. "1 & 1 and we're having fun." Can I add 1 new office and 1 new team member by the end of November. I recorded the November Freedom Report just prior to month end. Let me just say this. God answered our prayers and broke the dam loose! A lot has changed in 30 days!2 exciting things happened on November 30th. Around lunchtime, I got a call from the HR manager from one of the 4 proposals I sent to an insurance agency. They accepted my proposal, signed the contract, and wanted to start service on January 1st! And get this! It was one customer and two buildings for a total of $950 per month. I interviewed a promising candidate named Joanne the day before. I talked it over with my wife and Coach Josh. We decided to send Joanne a job offer on Tuesday afternoon. She accepted. For the first time in months, things were looking up. That's 1 new customer and 1 new employee. We met Josh's challenge of "1 & 1 and we're having fun" with hours to go in the month.We were ready for December... we thought. Let's do the bad first. I did a poor job with selecting Joanne. She worked with us one weekend. Her work was good, but something about the job wasn't a culture fit with Joanne. I can only speculate that she wanted complete autonomy sooner and that she didn't like the family business aspect. I had two of my kids working and helping me teach Joanne our cleaning system. Ultimately, I made a bad hire and this will happen a lot. I just need to keep working my hiring process to attract and repel for culture. Josh helped me work through so much of my hiring system in December.  He helped me turn a bad into a good! The clip for this month's Freedom Report is an epic step-by-step on what Josh is looking for and how he attracts them. Here's a recap of the elements of my hiring system we added in December. Josh also issued a new challenge. "2 & 2... it's only a few."​We added a 2nd job on Facebook and Indeed. The first was for "Weekend Side-Gig Office Cleaning". The second one we added was "Weeknight Side-Gig Office Cleaning". Josh predicted I'd get more applicants looking to do side work after their full-time job during the week. He was right. Our Indeed ads alone captured over 30 leads in December.I set up multi-step process to get to an interview. I had 5 no-shows in a row in November, then 1 that showed up after setting up a few hoops. I offered her a job in late November but she ghosted me. I had 7 more interviews in December with only 1 no-show or 8 total booked. Each of these candidates completed a 15 minute questionnaire, 15 minute DISC assessment, and 30 minute podcast sharing my company's culture (mission, vision, and values). I wanted to hire each one of them.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

I recorded "A New Freedom Vision" in May, just 6 months ago. It was a bold proclamation. I could not go to Florida for a month, while scheduled to clean 2 days per week. I had to grow a team. I interviewed Josh Melton for my podcast in June ("The Cleaning Road to Nineveh with Josh Melton") and immediately asked him to coach me. I was ready for the challenge and I was ready to show you all that I could do it. Let me cut right to it. It's 6 months later and we have 0 new clients and 0 new employees. In fact, we have at least $1,000 per month less in cash flow because our expenses went up as we've been building to scale. There are 3 topics to discuss on this episode and unfortunately, I don't have a clip from Coach Josh. His best stuff was on the final coaching call before Thanksgiving and it wasn't recorded. His call-out was tough and I'll share that first.Josh's Call Out!I have set out from the beginning of this journey in 2021 to grow my commercial cleaning company in the niche and model I choose. I want weekly, small office clients that I can stack up and complete on weekends. I don't want office cleaning to think about during the week. This preference has held me back from going after bigger revenue accounts or recommending to offices a multi-day pricing option of two. This fully surfaced when Josh was helping me with a quote for a 10,000 square foot showroom with offices. They have a cleaner twice per week that they want to replace. It has 6 restrooms and I'm positioning the price options to sell the weekly option to fit into the perfect schedule I want. Josh hit me hard with this. "Ken, what do you want? Your dream of Florida or your preferred business model? Make it work. Get the revenue. Clean however it comes. Weekly, twice weekly, 5x per week. More people want to work weeknights over weekends. Get up the job ads. Get to work and be scrappy. Make it happen. Just because you choose this now, it doesn't mean you need to keep it this way.  Don't choose your preferred business model over your dream. You need revenue. Your preferred business model is weekly offices on weekends. You don't want to work or operate your business on weeknights. I get that. I was like that too. I realized that more nights per week equals more revenue. I'd rather have less clients and more revenue. You're playing too small all in the name of keeping your preferred business model." This is so true that it stung big time. It's me trying to optimize my business when I'm still an initializer. Why do I keep doing this. I just need to get revenue and team members in the door. This conversation convinced me to offer one of my recent proposals 2 out of 3 options as twice weekly.  By the way, I never answered the question. I choose my dream! I told my wife and she agreed.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

In my last Freedom Report, I humbled myself with the reality of my situation. I'm striving for this New Freedom Vision, but two glaring blind spots were holding me back. Another month has gone by. How is it going? Short answer. Not good! I am going to share my update exactly as it happened and end with a clip from Coach Josh at the end of October with an encouraging word that helps me and will hopefully encourage you. We all need encouragement. I'm not above that because I happen to have a podcast and talk about cleaning. This scaling and building a team thing is new for me. I am bringing you my monthly results exactly as they've occurred to build you up and hopefully teach you something. Here's an outline of my month. I finally completed my Project 100 by my October 11th coaching call. The final tally looked like this. 239 total offices on my prospect list. 49 dental (21%), 69 medical (29%), 111 professional (46%), 10 industrial (4%). 99 are members of the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce where I'm the only cleaner. Josh wanted me to commit to a deadline for introducing myself and my business to every one of these businesses. I chose November 15th,  2021. The strategy was simple from Josh. "Ken, I'm going to guess that 4% of the businesses on this list and any list is currently not happy with their cleaner or actively looking for a new one. These are low-hanging fruit. If you'll just reach out and introduce yourself with a heart of generosity while at the same time promoting your cleaning company, those 4% will request quotes. That's 9 - 10 quotes. You can close 5 and hit your goal for Florida." I have seen this first-hand over the years. I have acquired a few offices because I was at the right place at the right time. I need to strategically put myself there again. This fired me up!I honestly assessed my goals with my coaches and my wife. I need 5 new offices and 5 more part-time team members to delegate my full cleaning business and equal the cash flow we currently earn. This is the minimum we need for a month in Florida. I'm simplifying this goal as the 5/5 plan. The 10/10 plan is double and makes Florida a lot more comfortable with about $2,000 in monthly cash flow over and above all of our bills. This makes Josh's challenge to contact all 239 to find the low-hanging fruit vital and a top priority for November 15th.As of my last coaching call with Josh in October, I had 100 initial introductions made to my chamber list. 2 requested quotes now. 2 requested quotes in January. 15 are satisfied with their cleaners and will keep me in mind. This is a great start. Josh challenged me to close the month of October, which only had a few days left to send out another 100 and add more to my list. The strategy would include a mixture of emails, direct phone calls, and personal visits to introduce myself in areas where I already have clients. I also collected 2 more customer testimonials to assist in this local marketing approach. The goal is simple. Keep introducing myself. Keep adding new offices as there are at least 50 offices that were missed through my Google and chamber search methods. I fully expect to do initial introductions to 300 businesses by November 15th. This should lead to 12 quote requests and 5-6 new clients in November and December. But there are no guarantees and I have Coach Josh to direct me through each step without me overthinking everything. I need one thing working and that's ACTION!Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

September is in the books. It's time for another business update. Afterward, I'll share a clip from our final coaching call from September to close out the summer. Now that October is here, it's time to crank it down! I have 4 months left to build and delegate my cleaning company before my self-imposed deadline of February 1, 2022. I'm going to come right out and admit. I did NOT hit my goal for September and I know why. I got lazy. If you've followed this podcast since the beginning, I've been building my marketing machine using Google My Business, Facebook, and local networking. It's worked very well to the tune of $60,000 in increased revenues solo in 2020. I was working my marketing hard. My pipeline grew and I reaped the benefit in 2021. I hit my optimizer goal as a solo cleaner by January 2021 earning $70,000 profit on 2 days cleaning per week. I stopped marketing and simply helped anyone that found me through my marketing machine. This generated more house and office leads that I really didn't care if I got or not. Then June happened and I got A New Freedom Vision. I hired Coach Josh and it was time to scale my business with a team. I have shared with you that I built out a few systems over the summer including a hiring and payroll system, a financial system using Quickbooks Online, and a simple office cleaning training system. I also built my foundation with mission, vision, and values (see "Introducing the C3 Experience"). My cleaning business was now ready to grow with a solid foundation and the beginning of the systems that I'll need to support a $300,000 revenue business.I had offices and house inquiries coming in, so I'd answer them and select which I wanted to bid on. I mentioned to friends personally and in network meetings that I was hiring and was referred a few people. I hired one of them. I was growing today off of yesterday's work. But I wasn't doing today's work by building my pipeline for tomorrow. We as entrepreneurs allow this to happen and don't realize it until your leads dry up.  This happened to me in September. I realized it on my own and shared it with Coach Josh. By the way, I was supposed to complete his coaching homework to create a Project 100 in a week back in July. It took me 6 weeks to make this list of 100 offices I'd like to clean. Why did it take so long? I was arrogant thinking that I had a pipeline that I didn't see was drying up. This was my first major blind spot in September.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

There is so much to dig into for this month's update of my personal cleaning company. If you're new to this show, here's the quick version. I've been a solo house and office cleaner for most of my 16 years in business. I have a system that initializes, stabilizes, and optimizes solo cleaning companies to create over $50k profit per year on a few days per week. In fact, I've done it twice. My first solo cleaning business was in Upstate New York from 2005 - 2018. I optimized this company to create $55k profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week without employees. The company was 90% residential and 10% commercial. I sold this company in 2018 for $80k and moved back home to Montgomery County, PA. We have since built a second solo cleaning business to $70k profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week. This new company is 75% commercial and 25% residential. As amazing as this sounds and it has been, our family wanted more. Our coaches and mentors challenged us to follow our dream as a homeschooling family. We had a New Freedom Vision and booked a house on the Gulf Coast of Florida for a month next winter! We wanted to go from $70k profit on 2 days per week to 0 days! This requires a team and systems. As an engineer, I love systems. But I've resisted them as a solo as I viewed them as tedious. Thankfully, I've hired Coach Josh to walk me into our dream. Josh is a co-owner at Athens Cleaning in Athens, GA. He is a fast-growing commercial cleaning company serving small, professional offices with professional workers. This podcast feature is a monthly peak into my own company, Carfagno Commercial Cleaning, as we build our business with systems and team members in order to start living our dream. August Update:The first week of August was my trip to Nashville for Podcast Movement 2021. This was a great trip for me personally and professionally. I had lots of down time to think, plus numerous opportunities to meet new people and build better relationships with podcasters I already knew. The biggest takeaway had nothing to do with my podcast. On Thursday night, my buddy Vincent and I figured out a way to map out our businesses on a simple 3 x 3 grid. We started with the basic 2 x 2 grid of drama vs profit from Why I Fired My First Client. All we did was add a middle scaling option. The analysis revealed so much to me as it confirmed what I was already feeling. My goal is to simplify every area of my life, so that I can create more memories with my family and art for my community and disciple my family. I needed simple. Of the various income-producing efforts I am involved in, a few emerged as most profitable with least time and drama. All house cleaning is OUT and all small, professional office cleaning is IN! This was a vitally reflective process that will allow me to hyper niche with my coach and go crush it in small, professional, essential offices in my area. If you'd like to learn how to do this with your business, reach out to me on my website and request a free call.Now that I had my niche, I could go to work on completing my Project 100. This is a specific list of companies that I'd like to clean for. Coach Josh has already taught me that I can earn my freedom with only 20% of this list! Think about it. 20 new offices averaging $800/month equals $192,000 in additional revenue. This would increase my total revenue in office cleaning to $280,000. At 35-40% profitability, my family would earn between $100k - $115k per year and I wouldn't have to clean anymore! I had a lot going on in our family in August with summer kids activities and trai

​July was a crazy month. As a family, we had a ton going on. We had Kid's Camp and Youth Camp at retreat camp centers for 4 of our 5 kids for 5 days each. During one of those camps, Teresa and I slipped away for 4 days to the beach.  I had a 5-day father / son camping trip with my son to the Adirondacks that I do with each son. This was with my 8-year-old Kye.  It was glorious being off the grid for 5 days with no phone or social media! We just connected, camped, swam, boated, ate, heard campfire stories, songs, and devotions, and did shooting sports and hiking! Awesomeness! Coach Josh was also away in Florida for 2 weeks, so we had to move our coaching to Marco Polo and email. Even with all of this going on, I had BIG goals!The first step in this process was putting our money where our mouth was. On July 7th, we booked it! Booked what? We booked a rental house on the Gulf Coast for a whole month next winter! The house is awesome with 7 beds, a porch, and a short 8 minute ride to the beach.  There's a pool table too. Our kids are so excited and so are we! We've never done anything like this before.  July had to be a big month to get this "Freedom Vision "cranking.Before I go into the details of our month and share tidbits from coaching, let me give you the end results. We started the month with no employees, no payroll, no systems, a new accounting firm client for $3,000 per month that we had to staff, and no clue! The month ended with no new clients, which is the sad news. But we fully outsourced and completed our Quickbooks migration from desktop to online and have an accountant walking us through whatever we need for a year. Our financial system is now automated! I can't believe it! We hired a payroll service and a background check company. I built out a basic onboarding  system, job description, and training system. Teresa and I were trained how to use the online payroll dashboard to submit employee hours. I found out that I wasn't submitting payroll correctly for the state and local taxes. Thankfully, my new payroll company fixed it for me and I'm paying a penalty for the remainder of the year. That's a relief. I hired my first employee. Leah works full time at a daycare and is a college grad. She wanted a part-time job to make $500 per month and found me through a referral. It works out perfectly. She started training on July 29th! It's crazy! I also was privy to systems used by my coach. I am so grateful for this. At the end of the month, Josh introduced me to his HR & Finance Manager. We talked for over an hour. I helped him by teaching him the ISO Model to increase revenues in their company. He taught me their onboarding process and is sending the documents, videos, and other forms & ads I need to start a strategic hiring process. I also completed a branding change from Carfagno Cleaning to Carfagno Commercial Cleaning and my C3 Experience. My friend Billy designed a new logo and I upgraded my proposal to new offices prospects with my new branding. As I even share this, I'm dumbfounded at how much I got done this month when at times it felt like nothing was happening! Last but not least, I added a key member to my team. For the first time in 16 years, my wife Teresa is stepping up to help the family company. She is a busy homeschooling mom of 5, so I NEVER asked her involvement. I am grateful that she is helping with admin and is taking over the QBO and payroll components from me! I am working hard to delegate as much as possible to focus on growth of new clients and new team members!Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

I shared in my last Carfagno Cleaning update, "Stay, Scale or Sell " that the seasons are shifting from Spring to Summer. As promised, I'm departing from my weekly business updates to allow space for other impactful episodes like my interview, "The Cleaning Journey to Nineveh with Josh Melton". I will continue bringing you updates, but during this Summer season of me earning my freedom, I'll be starting this new monthly podcast segment.Purposely, I mentioned the prior podcasts. In "Stay, Scale or Sell", I laid out my case for Why I need to scale my cleaning company. In the interview with Josh Melton, I saw a man with the same story as me and the same business if I were to scale. After the interview, I reached out to Josh and asked him if I could hire him to coach me to his level. Thankfully, Josh accepted. For the remainder of 2021, I am launching this new segment, which will be a monthly freedom report with my friend and coach Josh Melton. The format may change from month-to-month, but the objective is the same. How is Ken doing toward his goal to enjoy freedom in Florida with his family for a month in the winter? This segment will keep you updated. Plus, I will add actual clips of our coaching calls between Josh and myself. I'm so thankful to Josh. He has built a professional commercial cleaning company with over 60 employees, mostly part-time professionals needing extra money. He calls it his "Chick-Fil-A Model", but more importantly, Josh has an ongoing 6-figure income in the same types of offices I clean and he doesn't have to clean or manage. I wanted this and Josh was willing to help me! Here's the coolest part for Josh. He has wanted to help others do what he has done in a coaching program down the road called the "6-Figure Commercial Cleaner". Josh is also the co-host with his business partner Chad Brown that you should definitely check out! It's called the Entrepreneur Adventure Podcast. In the clip of my first coaching call with Josh, I share some recent wins and my need to start hiring. I also share his take on the pros and cons of the business model I'd like to scale.There are some updates from June that I would like to share. I will do so in bullet form to make it easier to follow!My marketing machine is still working well. I still have house cleaning referrals coming in and unfortunately, I need to reply to all of them with this. "I am taking a waiting list on all new houses. Would you like to be on the waiting list or would you like me to refer you to a cleaning friend as I cannot take any more houses?"  I have done this at least 5 times in June. Honestly, it's inconceivable to think I would turn down work. But I need to because my goal is financial and time freedom through my commercial cleaning business. Where does that leave me with houses? I don't know. I will likely hire someone or train a solo cleaner to take them over.I did take one house though. One of the doctors at a vet that I clean wanted her house on a bi-weekly schedule. She trusted me because of my 3-year performance and trust from cleaning her hospital. I put her on my waiting list and at the same time one of my regular clients needed to stop service due to declining health of a family member. I totally understood and wished the family well. This was a good reminder to me how important the waiting list is. I just slid the new client in the place of the one that canceled. Here's the cool part. The new client is $20 more per visit.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

I am excited to introduce my friend and YouTube superstar, Cassandra Aarssen to Solo Cleaning School. I invited her to be an expert guest in the SMART Cleaning Tribe that I lead for team cleaning companies needing accountability around goals. Cassandra was a busy mom of two small kids when she started her home organizing business. At the time, she was also running a daycare with 9 children for extra money. She saw home organizing as a way to make extra money and possibly get out of the daycare business. It did WAY more than that! Her husband recommended that she record a video with her phone and upload to YouTube. Cassandra has continued this discipline for over 7 years and 750 videos! In this interview, she shares the Clutterbug story. You may be thinking... 'Ken, she isn't a solo cleaner. Why should I care?' For one, she was a solo operator of her home service business like you and I. Secondly, she turned her local brand into a global one that now earns her hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Cassandra had some real power quotes in the interview that I wanted to make sure I took note of!"I realized you can make something one time and sell it over and over and over again with a book or a concept or a video or a cleaning checklist or an e-book. That's when my eyes really opened up to the magic of the internet and the magic of working smarter, not harder!""My advice is to start with one platform and when you can master it, when it seems easy, then add another one.""It's not about having something perfect. It's about just being consistent.""You're not going to learn from reading and researching and planning. You're going to learn from doing." 

In this episode, I spotlight my first solo cleaner. Andrea McCoy runs Peachy Clean in St. George, UT. She is a mom of 6! She explains why she started her solo cleaning business and the various mind shifts she has made over her 3 years in business with my help to increase her hourly rate from $25 to $65! We also talk about the power of keeping your hand on the marketing water pump and setting a goal for peace.

This episode is a clip from an Expert Call I facilitated in the Smart Cleaning Tribe last December with my friend Alonzo Adams of Busy Bee Cleaning Company in West Chester, PA. Alonzo is a serial entrepreneur with one of the best business & financial mindsets I've ever had the opportunity to learn from. His cleaning company is top rated in Southeastern PA. Alonzo has also grown multiple revenue streams outside of his cleaning company, which is creating generational wealth for his family. He also just completed his term as the chairman for the Association of Residential Cleaning Services (ARCSI). I invited Alonzo onto a Tribe call to share about ARCSI and it's many benefits. But my true intention was to give Tribe members a dose of millionaire mindset around business, finance, and networking. Alonzo is a master networker. In this clip, I extract the networking portion so you can get a flavor of how the rich become rich. Here are my notes from the call with Alonzo."Your Network is your Net Worth”“It's not about the How. It's about the Who”- Dan Sullivan. The Who changed my whole life. I had to change my entire WHO in my life to take me the places that I needed to go. How do I get around the A players in my industry? Alonzo had to invest in his future by buying plane tickets, conference tickets, and connect with people in person. This builds trust.In Vegas, Alonzo has connected with a guy in 5 minutes in the hallway that created a 6-figure cleaning contract with Will Smith's people.In Vegas, he asked Derrick Christian, “Who is this room that I don't know that I should know?” Alonzo met the two people and they are doing financial business together now. Networking is purposeful.People miss on networking - It's not about you. Look to be a resource to others. Show the value of others knowing YOU. Ask this. "Why is it important to know me?" What is you sales pitch that makes you valuable to others. Networking has become more selfish in this decade. Networking takes time and you need to practice. Don't go to people with agendas. Be interested and be interesting.It takes time to craft your elevator pitch. What do you have that's unique that can help others that makes you stand out. Are you referable?You can't touch and go in networking.  You have to water the relationship to grow it.  Alonzo told the story of the $100k per 1-hour keynote. Always plant seeds.At conferences, the power is in the hallways and dinners verses the chairs. Masterminds and businesses have been created from the hallways.We need to look at opportunities for networking events when things open up.Two groups in 2020. One tried to maintain and others did more than they ever did. Alonzo got around the ones that were doubling and got around them. Put together a plan and don't deviate! If you're not planning to succeed in 2021, you're planning to stay the same. Control your own narrative and your own destiny! The Wannapreneurs were the ones speaking loudly and didn't make it. They were shallow.“Tough times make tough people!” - Alonzo AdamsFind 3 people that you want to meet that you've never met before. Make a commitment to link up with these people. Connect with these people. Who are they and make a commitment to do it. Alonzo does this every year! Look for people who are Approachable, are Purpose Driven, and have a good Mindset. Habits exposes people. Someone who is financially savvy.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

This conversation with Crystal Hamm was wide-ranging in topics, but mainly focused on her past. In the present, Crystal runs a $3 million dollar residential cleaning company. Her team loves her and she loves them. She has build a company in the Raleigh Area that serves people greatly called the Go 2 Girls. I can't endorse this company enough if you live in Wake County, North Carolina. Check out this interview with Crystal and listen to her story. She comes from rural America, climbing trees, and sliding into 3rd base for softball. She has come so far from her beginnings as the daughter of a coal miner to an employer of over 60 team members. She has a truly remarkable story. Here are a few quotes that I especially loved..."That's my mentality. We never stop learning."​"My self worth was tied to that growth. So I felt that once I hit a million dollars then this small town girl was going to be good enough." 

Vincent is first and foremost, a husband, father, and homeschooler.  Vincent and Elizabeth live in Bradenton, Florida with their 3 sons Andrew, Nolan, and Dylan. They are active in their community and church. Vincent is a friend to many and certainly to me! We go way back. You'll hear that story in this interview. Professionally, Vincent spent 22 years as a nationally-acclaimed & recognized photojournalist and sports photographer. But this career started to bore Vincent. Today, you'll see Vincent speaking on stages, leading masterminds & retreats, and hear him on hundreds of podcasts. He is the founder of Total Life Freedom and author of "Freelance to Freedom" and "The Wealth of Connection". Vincent and I have been close friends for nearly 8 years. I have personally watched him apply EVERY one of the 5 C's from the book he released today. This book is the life that Vincent has lived for decades. This process is different from the churn and burn funnels out there for creating business. Vincent has created a human approach to making business personal. It's called The Wealth of Connection. There are so many wide-ranging topics that Vincent covered in this interview. Clearly, we talked about our friendship and the influence we've had on each other. We discuss his career arc and how he made the leap into the online business world. The majority of the interview discusses topics from his new book and we end with a bold proclamation of what he wants this book to do for the world. I had a blast doing this interview and I highly encourage you to get this book!Here's some of my notes from the interview.Selfish versus generous goals - driven selfish goal-oriented people will absolutely hit their selfish goals. But, they will be empty. Frank Sinatra and audience of one - one person with one generous act can make all the difference.Charisma versus character - They both attract people, but only character lasts for a lifetime. Charisma with no character is like a pig with lipstick.Purpose to ask a question and sit in the front row of every event. This is an act of generosity as it validates the speakers platform and fuels the rooms energy. They will be appreciative and it's good for you.Curiosity - Tom Brady asking for the phone numbers of the entire team in Tampa and calling each one to connect and learn about them. Freddie Mercury learning about the culture of each concert area that he was performing at to connect with the audiences. Being curious is generous. Hour of giving - Develop the habit of generosity.  Read the Room - This was a huge blind spot for me personallyMy Takeaway - "I finally understood that I needed to change my character from one focused on selfish goals to one focused on generous goals. Now, I would have said that I was generous then, but looking back, I wasn't. I simply paid lip service to it. I did what I needed to do to get what I needed to get. Going from selfish goals to generous goals was the cornerstone to turning everything around." - Vincent Pugliese 

 Liz Trotter has been a leader in the cleaning industry for decades. She is the owner of American Maid in Olympia, WA, a business coach with Mastermind Accountability, where she helps every level of cleaning service grow to reach their dreams! This interview is full of so many nuggets and you will gain so much insight into the power of self-development. Liz is the poster child of the leadership quote by Harry Truman, "Readers are Leaders". This interview was so enjoyable because Liz shares her Why all throughout and you can see how her life & career experiences have shaped her into the person and business leader she is today. 

I have been an avid reader for over 20 years. That was not always the case. I used to hate reading. What changed? Did the books change? No. I changed. Every book that I read moved the needle a little bit closer to a winner's mindset, a success mindset. I used to mock things like that until I understood. In this episode, I speak from the heart about books and what they've done for me and what they can do for you. I share some of my favorite books and even promote the Recommended Book List that I'm releasing any day for my customers in the Solo Elite Membership.If you'd like to connect with me or get access to my book list, simply go to my website and connect. I have options to email me or schedule a free coaching session. 

Coach Josh and I use Marco Polo to communicate during the week. He allows me to send questions as I have them. He listens and responds when he gets the chance. I'm very grateful to have Josh Melton in my corner as we grow C3 to the next level in 2023, which is to add the second building block and earn over $100,000 income from the cleaning business.  Josh and I had an exchange on November 8th and 9th of 2022 that was so interesting to me. I've never heard it talked about before in the cleaning groups or other podcasts. I had to cover it here.Cleaning is a business, but a business is not merely a ledger with a list of transactions. It's easy to pull up a profit and loss report and see all of the income and expense transactions. It's easy to see the text and numbers printed on the screen or page and assume you're looking at the cleaning business. I don't believe a business merely consists of transactions. A business is relationships. A cleaning business is a group of humans cleaning for other humans, all of which have personalities, beliefs, families, interests. It's easy to measure a business in transactions. That's what our accountants do. It's not easy to measure the relational strength of our business.Josh poses an interesting point in his Marco Polo to me. "I believe that you can trust someone that you don't respect. But I don't believe you can respect someone you don't trust." I agree with him. I can think of people right now that I could allow into my house around my family, but I don't respect them. Therefore, respect is greater than trust. How do you earn trust? I've talked about this a ton. On the "Optimizer's Workshop with Dave Reeks", I defined the 3 C's to build trust as a cleaner. You've got to have excellent character and be the type of person that others can trust.  You've got to provide an amazing cleaning service. In other words, you've got to handle the transactions of cleaning with excellence. This includes the cleaning itself and surely the transaction of invoices and payments. You've got to be consistent in your cleaning service and everything you do in dealing with your customers. If you show up with great cleaning and character over a long time, you will develop trust. Another way to build trust is to give it. Others won't trust you if you don't trust them. Trust is mutual. I'm going to add a fourth C. You've got to have compassion for other people and not be selfish. This is so foundational. Show love for your fellow human. When you put this all together. Start with compassion and character. Become a great cleaner and cleaning service. Handle your transactions with excellence and trust. Give trust. Do this over time. This will earn your trust from your customers. Keep doing it consistently over time and that trust will turn into something greater. It's respect. When your customers respect you, they will want to do business with you for a long time. Most clients will grow with you as you grow mutual respect. However, some clients will only ever think of you as "just the cleaner". Become a person of trust and respect and you'll attract the right ones I absolutely love this mindset and it thrills me to build this type of cleaning business in my community. Everything hinges on relationships, not transactions. I hope you enjoy this interaction between Josh an I on Marco Polo. 

I was in a 4-person mastermind breakout group that I mentioned in "Confidence Creates Success", where we each helped the others grow the next level. One of the members was Matt Peet. Matt has become a good friend and is a conference videographer extraordinaire! He does all the video work for one of my favorite conferences, Podcast Movement. You've got to check out his website, Re-Peet Productions, to get a flavor or how talented he really is.  I'd even recommend you check out his portfolio section and scroll down. The actual wrap-up video from our Total Life Freedom Retreat is on there. It's so good! As we were unpacking his goals to attract other conference venues as clients, I sensed a little apprehension. We challenge each other in these Freedom Zones! I could tell that Matt wanted to grow and gain more clients. I could tell Matt wanted to hit some personal goals. But that's what I heard. He WANTED them. I said this. "Matt, I sense that you really want your goals to happen. That's awesome. Over my lifetime, I've only ever accomplished the goals that I needed to happen. Do you need these yet?" It was a question that got each of us to reflect, including me. Let me share what I mean.I spent years wanting to succeed in my own business on the side and never accomplished it. I spent years wanting to earn freedom and to travel around the country and never accomplished it. I spent years wanting to get out of debt and never accomplished it. I have wanted a lot of things. That is the problem. I have WANTED to accomplish these things. I didn't succeed in my own business until I NEEDED that business to succeed. That was the cleaning business after I got fired from GE in 2005. I had no choice. I needed cleaning to work otherwise my family was homeless. Air is a need. I need air or I'll die. I need water and food. I need to grow my relationships with my wife and kids. There was a point where I NEEDED to be out of debt so that we could have more money for things we wanted to do. That's when we turned up the heat on this need and accomplished it in July 2020. In 2021, I turned my want to take a month in Florida to a need to take my family for a life-changing month in Florida. We took immediate action on this NEED by renting the house and putting out $6,000 when our business was no where near ready for the trip. We got into alignment with the Lord and the work required to make this NEED happen. We did not rest until the goal was met. Need will always trumps want. How are you looking at your business whether it's a side hustle or full-time gig? Is it a want to succeed or a need to succeed?Matt Peet is doing great work and has the potential to be the videographer for dozens of conferences across the country. I believe that he'll get there. I really do! But this isn't about Matt or Ken. This podcast is for you. What do you NEED to happen this year? If you'd like to talk this through with me, I'd be glad to help you find your why and needs. Just go to my website and book a free call.  

Let's start this Carfagno Cleaning solo business with a WIN! Last week, I got 5 referrals through my local network (listen to Play Powerball with your Business). The lead from my friend and carpet cleaner, James Hardy, converted to a new office cleaning client! Since this new client is a school, I had to jump through a few more hoops. First of all, I needed to go beyond adding them as a 'Certificate Holder' on my general liability policy. I needed to increase my insurance for this additional customer. This is called 'Additionally Insured'. My current policy provides $2 million of coverage per year at $500 in annual premium. This new client cost me an additional $50, which I count as an expense. I also had to coordinate a cleaning time with the school and their weekend janitor to let me into the building. The school is not in the habit of handing out keys to outside contractors. Spoiler alert: I prayed over this situation as I desire to have offices with the flexibility to clean anytime over the weekend. A few days later, the school made an exception for me and gave me a set of keys! Lastly, this new client is a school for autistic children. I know autism and realize that these students will be on the floor a lot, touching things, and likely touching their faces. Thus, disinfecting of the classrooms and floors was vital. They already had a food & skin safe disinfectant and asked me my opinion for the floors. I researched it and immediately determined it was a bad choice. Why? The title of this episode is "Art Trumps Science". Let's talk science first. The pH was slightly alkaline at 9. The floors are VCT (vinyl composition tile). VCT is commonly used in schools and supermarkets. They are also waxed & buffed on a regular basis to keep a beautiful finish and to protect the tile. My friend James Hardy did the job, so we conferred with him and he agreed. This ph 9 disinfectant had just enough alkalinity to eat away at the wax finish, which would dull it and cause James to come back sooner. Therefore, their disinfectant was a wonderful choice for the refrigerators, microwaves, table tops, door knobs, and light switches, but NOT the floors. I connected with my good friend Mark Lineberry at Universal Janitorial and he recommended the perfect solution. It's called MatPro. The school purchased it and now uses my recommendations for disinfecting and protecting their students and staff. This raised my expertise and trust with the school big time. See! Understanding science is vital. It sets you apart from the basic cleaning service! Another lead from last week was Mike Thompson of Envoy Mortgage from my MCBA group. Mike is a mortgage advisor. What is that? It means he focuses on what's best for his clients. He coaches and consults them, looking at their lending scenario from a holistic approach. Of course he sells mortgage products too. He's a Go-Giver and his clients ask  him to sell to them as a result of his giving approach. Anyway, Mike got back to my estimate and accepted a biweekly option. There's new client #2 for the week!Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

In part 1 of this 2-hour interview, "Conspiracies in the Cleaning Industry with Ed Selkow", Ed shared an incredible 50-year career in our industry. He shares so many great stories and lessons that will help you in your business. Ed also shared some incredible criminal stories that I called "conspiracies" that are a must listen! In this episode, we dive into the second half our interview. Ed shares the past, present, and future of the cleaning industry. Do you want to grow with the industry? There are predictions and recommendations that Ed suggests. Here's a few notes from the interview."You've got to be honing your skills, expanding on what you know how to do.""Where there are a whole bunch of companies that are missing, that's an opportunity for me."Why are so many new cleaning companies starting out post pandemic. "Desperation drives a lot of people to start cleaning businesses because it costs so little to start. It's possible to grow a cleaning company with no money, but it's also possible to walk from NYC to LA!""Commercial real estate is the mother's milk of the industry." Ed explains that if no developmental growth is happening, cleaners are just trading accounts around as there is a finite amount of buildings to clean.Find the country economic people for networking to learn when and where new buildings are coming. Ed believes this is a huge opportunity and better than the Chamber of Commerce.The disinfection revenue explosion will normalize like previous fads.Ed gets into the intersection of "Big Data" and "The Internet of Things" (sensors),  for computer models of building traffic to determine how much cleaning has to happen. This could become cleaning-on-demand.The increase in technology will drive cleaning prices down over time. This is what happens with every industry that technology improves. Robotics are one of these advances. For example, there are robots that can empty deskside trash cans. Couple this with cleaning-on-demand technology, and cleaning revenues will likely go down. Ed is predicting this so we can get ahead of it.Winning cleaning companies will be the ones that combine of technology and open systems for cleaning.Ed highly recommends that we all understand Seth Godin's book, "Tribes". Those that understand this mindset will survive the future.Ed highly recommends that we, as building contractors, link up with the BSCAI (Building Services Contractors Association International) as our professional trade association. They are dedicated to the services versus the manufacturers (ISSA). They were also influential to getting the cleaning industry labeled as "essential" to get us back to work during the pandemic.You can find Ed Selkow at Janitorial Growth Solutions and on multiple social media outlets.Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you. 

I sat down with cleaning industry legend Ed Selkow for a 2-hour interview. We covered so much ground that I had to break it into 2 parts. In this first part, you'll learn about Ed's 50 years in the cleaning industry which includes owning 4 janitorial companies and working as an employee for a few of the largest janitorial firms in the country. He weaves in great stories and lessons that make this episode well worth the listen.Oh, and then you have the other stories... Ed also shares what I called "Conspiracies in the Cleaning Industry" ranging from subcontracting for NY street guy "Joey Floors" to stolen equipment and being on the payroll of a Russian dog in Chicago to how cleaners were partially responsible for Watergate and causing a U.S. President to resign! Do not miss these stories as we build up for part 2 of this interview on the cleaning industry, past, present, and future.Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page. 

 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 Smart Cleaning School website 

I was in Dallas with my son for a podcasting conference in August. It was a blast, especially hanging out with my son. We stayed at the downtown Sheraton, which afforded us the ability to walk the city a bit. I also had the opportunity to connect in person with two former guests of the Smart Cleaning School. I went to lunch with Greg Shepard from "Sail Around the World". We had a blast walking around the city and enjoying a quality Mexican meal. Greg is a friend and definitely a mentor. He stretches me big time. The day after lunch with Greg, I had a personal tour and breakfast with Debbie Sardone from "A Buffalo Charges the Storm". Debbie is highly regarded coach in the residential cleaning industry as well as a friend and mentor. Back to my son and walking Dallas. I really, really wanted to visit Dealey Plaza. As a kid, I was enamored with the movie "JFK" starring Kevin Costner. The movie makes a compelling case for a second gunman on the grassy knoll. I have seen the Zapruder film so many times, that I already felt like I've been there. I was wrong. Being there was different. Kenny and I walked into Dealey Plaza. I was in awe. He knew more about the Lincoln assassination than Kennedy, so I described it as best I could. That's when I noticed a guy with a bike helmet and bike showing the Zapruder film and explaining the details of the assassination. Kenny and I walked over to listen. We stood on Elm Street in front of the old Texas State Book Depository as he pointed to the 6th floor corner window. The window is half open with boxes arranged exactly as they were in crime scene photographs. He paused the video on his phone and pointed to the first large "X" on Elm Street. This is where JFK was struck the first time in the neck. He played the Zapruder film. We could see Kennedy grab his neck. It was too surreal. He kept the film running as JFK was struck with the kill shot. He pointed to the second "X" on Elm Street. "On November 22nd, 1963, that's where an American President was assassinated." Chilling. We thanked him for his history lesson and walked the plaza. We stood on the "X" and took a picture. We stood on the grassy knoll and took a picture. We stood where Abraham Zapruder took the movie and yep, we took a picture. It was much, much different in real life. Dealey Plaza is virtually unchanged in 59 years. History is powerful, especially when we can be there in person.There's a reason I shared this story. In the early 1960's, John F. Kennedy was beloved and respected. He was a member of the Democrat Party and generally regarded to have political views left of center. He considered himself a Liberal, yet he opposed Communism, supported the 2nd Amendment, and voted for tax cuts. Those were positions held by the Democrat Party then. Today, these same policy beliefs would be called Republican. Here's what I find interesting. If JFK were running for office right now, he would likely be a moderate Republican. This is not my opinion. You can search it online and read for yourself. That's not the point of this podcast. Here's the point. JFK didn't change. How could he. He's been dead for 59 years. What did change? Now we're asking the right question. It's called the Overton Window and I find it fascinating.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

I discussed the Presidential Election in the last episode and how important it is for us as cleaning service providers to focus on building trust with our clients right now. There is turmoil. There is fear. There is change happening. Let's not add to it by changing our service, our schedule, or our prices.This podcast just celebrated its 5th anniversary! It's hard to believe that I've been a podcaster for that long. I hope this weekly information bite has been nourishing for you to grow your mind and business. As the 4th quarter begins and you are all evaluating end-of-year goals and 2025 plans, I felt this was a great time to introduce a 7-part series on the Cleaning Industry. This series has one goal; to get you thinking about the future.Last week's episode was the first of the series. This one focuses on the opportunity we all have in this industry. Then I'll explain the Overton Window, the importance of keeping up with trends, and a lesson on supply and demand for solo cleaners. Plus, I'll re-release a double podcast interview with industry legend Ed Selkow with his stories from the past, present, and outlook for the future. This will be a fun ride!​Here's part two, “The Cleaning Industry is Exploding”.

This podcast episode was released just 4 weeks prior to the 2024 Presidential Election. You might be asking. “Why does that matter Ken?” I hope you do. I have been around this industry for nearly 20 years and have talked to many industry leaders. We need to be wise and discerning of the mindsets and emotional meters of our clientele. We need to recognize trends and historical data. Here is a simple truth. Each election cycle is getting more and more volatile. Each election cycle is more divisive, more fear-based, with more unknowns. This causes Americans to hold on to what they've got. This causes home owners and businesses to postpone making the that cleaning service hire. People are scared. People are less trusting.This is not isolated to cleaning. I have a friend in construction equipment rentals and sales. He told me the same thing. “I've been doing this for over 2 decades and we always see a slow down right before a major election.” I find this fascinating and I shared it on a recent Solo Elite Membership Call. This short clip is my advice during election season. It is short and sweet.Did this sway your strategy a little as we wrap up 2024? Are you going to invest into your customer base by building trust or will you make moves and changes anyway? I can't urge you enough to choose the prior.

I had an opportunity to coach a young man last week. He is operating as a solo commercial cleaner and doing quite well. He's got a great attitude. He's growing. However, he is getting close to a full schedule. That is scary for most solo cleaners. Do you know why?Once their schedule is full, they can't clean anymore. This is the point of panic for most. They think that they have to scale with a team to make any more income past a full schedule. The first thing I did was to ask him why he was growing his business and what his picture was. This is a reference to a metaphor I used in “What Hole Do You Need”. I use this to coach people toward a successful strategy. ​Here's the metaphor. You have a goal to hang a picture on your wall. You go to Lowe's to ask one of their experts how to hang it. They ask you several questions including the type of wall, the weight and dimensions of the picture frame, etc. Based on your answers, they will give you the correct hardware and strategy to hang the picture. I then ask this young man this question. What is your big picture? What do you want to hang? What is your big goal? I am the guy at Lowe's. After he told me what his picture was, I shared various strategies that could get him there. I know the different cleaning business models and what they look like and how much you can make. He was most intrigued with the personal model that I teach called the Optimized Solo Cleaner. This is where he could remain solo without employees, increase his income, decrease his schedule, and have a ton more freedom in his life.This is what I said to him next. "Here's what I need you to do. You need to decide and then stop undeciding." That really hit the mark. He's like, "Man, I've done that too many times." I said. "Who hasn't? Once you decide, set your face like a flint and go after it. Go hang that picture! Then re-evaluate and see if you want to change the picture from there."The message here is simple, but unfortunately, many will miss it. I'll say it again in 3 steps.Make a Decision – Many are trapped in indecision. This is one of the major failure diseases. It's called Procrastination. I can speak to this one as I joined this Club too early and stayed for too long. Stop Undeciding – You made the decision. Now make the decision work. In other words, stop doubting yourself. You made a decision. Great job! Decide to stop undeciding. Do the Work – FOCUS… Follow One Path Until Success. Take action and get it done.Will you do these 3 steps?Are you struggling with earning enough as a solo cleaner and you don't want to hire any time soon? There is a solution. You can become an Optimized Solo Cleaner?! This is a business owner that knows their numbers, runs their business ultra efficiently, and is constantly earning more while working less as a solo. They have peace and freedom in their life. I have achieved this in 2 solo cleaning companies in 2 different states. It's how I help our industry. The Solo Elite Membership is the only system for you to become the Optimized Solo Cleaning Specialist and not deal with the drama of employees! Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com. 

It's imperative to know your numbers and coordinates, so you always know where your business is on the map of your dreams. In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, I explained a few vital signs that solo business owners need to track to ensure their business remains healthy and vibrant. Afterward, I dive into a topic which is infrequently discussed in our industry. What is your cancellation rate? How do you limit damage and lost income throughout your clientele?Are you struggling with earning enough as a solo cleaner and you don't want to hire any time soon? There is a solution. You can become an Optimized Solo Cleaner?! This is a business owner that knows their numbers, runs their business ultra efficiently, and is constantly earning more while working less as a solo. They have peace and freedom in their life. I have achieved this in 2 solo cleaning companies in 2 different states. It's how I help our industry. The Solo Elite Membership is the only system for you to become the Optimized Solo Cleaning Specialist and not deal with the drama of employees! Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com. 

There is a prevailing mindset in the cleaning industry that the only way to be successful is to scale with a team. This is simply not true. Have you ever heard of the Optimized Solo Cleaner? I am the voice in the industry shouting out that scaling is amazing, but there is another way. In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, I encouraged the members that they are on the right path. They don't have to listen to those other voices. They can set a goal to earn a solid full-time income while working part-time as a solo. Others can work all the time and earn well over six-figures.​Are you struggling with earning enough as a solo cleaner and you don't want to hire any time soon? There is a solution. You can become an Optimized Solo Cleaner?! This is a business owner that knows their numbers, runs their business ultra efficiently, and is constantly earning more while working less as a solo. They have peace and freedom in their life. I have achieved this in 2 solo cleaning companies in 2 different states. It's how I help our industry. The Solo Elite Membership is the only system for you to become the Optimized Solo Cleaning Specialist and not deal with the drama of employees! Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com. 

I have noticed a lot of interest recently by residential cleaning companies to seek more commercial opportunities. I have been in the industry for nearly 2 decades and have cleaned both the entire time. I know residential and I know commercial. I also stay connected with the top influencers in both residential and commercial cleaning. This gives me a unique voice to speak about what I see as the best opportunity that house cleaners have in commercial cleaning. In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, I dove into this topic in a way that is easy for the residential cleaner to receive. Plus, I believe that every house cleaner will get excited when they hear that there is a small niche in commercial cleaning that they can uniquely dominate!​Are you struggling with earning enough as a solo cleaner and you don't want to hire any time soon? There is a solution. You can become an Optimized Solo Cleaner?! This is a business owner that knows their numbers, runs their business ultra efficiently, and is constantly earning more while working less as a solo. They have peace and freedom in their life. I have achieved this in 2 solo cleaning companies in 2 different states. It's how I help our industry. The Solo Elite Membership is the only system for you to become the Optimized Solo Cleaning Specialist and not deal with the drama of employees! Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com. 

Colette is my personal accountant and she closes out a 3-part interview series we did on the Smart Cleaning Tribe. Colette gets into the nitty gritty of what a valuable accountant can do for you.  First of all, she dives into business budgeting and how the business owner and accountant partner to help the business grow and plan for the unexpected. I took Colette's advice from the last episode "Hire Professionals on Day One" I hired an accountant in my second year when we had no money. I purchased insurance on day one. I found an attorney to work with in year two. However, I never had an accountant that does as much as Colette does for us. Beyond business budgeting, Colette explained what tax planning looks like. This is a huge value add your accountant can add for you. She shared some 2022 tax updates and how they may impact each of us at a high level to demonstrate how vital it is for us to have the right tax professional. Make sure to listen to Colette's checklist of what questions we should be asking our accountant when tax planning. Lastly, Colette gives us a checklist to us, the cleaners, on what we need to do on our end to help our accountant help us. 

In part two of this 3-part interview with my accountant Colette on the Smart Cleaning Tribe, she dives deeper into the role of the accountant. In one question, she explains the benefits of hiring an all-in-one bookkeeper and accountant to help the business with tax planning and prep way before tax day. In another question, Colette surprised us all. "When should we hire an accountant?" Colette said that she is a big believer in hiring insurance, tax, and legal professionals in your business on Day One. Yes, it will cost you in the beginning. But the cost of fixing bad books or hiring a legal team after the fact or not having insurance coverage and an event happens is WAY more expensive. She is an advocate therefore of hiring these 3 professionals on Day One. Colette answers an interesting question about state versus federal tax laws. Plus, I share how Colette personally bills me for services. I think it's brilliant as I can budget accounting all year at the same price. It's a win for the cleaning business owner. From her side, she has reliable recurring income. That's a big win for her. I highly recommend an accountant that bills on a monthly retainer. As mentioned in episode 1, feel free to reach out to Colette with questions or to hire her for accounting services. You can find her at CMBA Solutions. 

I asked my personal accountant Colette Melott (CMA, EA) to join the Smart Cleaning Tribe for an Expert Call to help cleaning company owners understand their numbers and who to hire in their specific case. Colette starts this interview with the accounting basics. Bookkeepers helps you track transactions with your money coming in and your money coming out. In most cases, a bookkeeper does not help you apply what those numbers mean to anything. They are putting your puzzle together, but they're not telling you what the picture on the puzzle is. There are not too many certifications for bookkeepers. However a Quickbooks Pro Advisor is a great designation to find especially if your business utilizes Quickbooks. These certified bookkeepers are proficient enough to adapt your business numbers appropriately and legally to Quickbooks.Accountants puts it all together for you. Bookkeeping is a task of accounting, but they don't stop there. They take those numbers and apply meaning to them to help you make business and tax decisions. There are several designations of accounting professionals.General Accounting - This is an accountant with a Bachelor's Degree in accounting that operates UNDER a CPA or CMA licence. For example, Colette used to work in two corporate positions where the company held the certified accounting license and Colette worked under it. This is exactly how I operated as an engineer. GE held the Professional Engineer's license and I was a general engineer under this certification.Certified Public Accountant (CPA) - This designation is granted at the state level. The accountant must pass a high-level exam to obtain their CPA license. Plus, they must maintain this high-level each year. There is a high standard. At the corporate level, they are qualified to take the numbers a publicly traded company provides and certify them to the public. They are on the company's external team. However, most CPAs operate out of smaller offices and work with small private companies. Certified Management Accountant (CMA) - This is an international accounting designation. Therefore, their training must keep them familiar with domestic and international accounting standards. At the corporate level, they are qualified to be the comptroller or CFO to help the company compile the numbers to present to the public. They are on the company's internal team. The CMA must also pass a high-level initial and annual exam process to obtain and keep their license. There is a high standard.Enrolled Agent (EA) - The IRS has 3-part tax proficiency exam and certification process to enroll accountants in the IRS code. This allows them to prepare tax returns The Enrolled Agent is one of 3 designations that can legally represent you on an IRS audit. The other two designations that can do this for you are the CPA and the tax attorney.Tax Attorneys are the only ones who can practice law. They help if you need representation in tax court. This is a high level professional that you need when you're in trouble! Therefore, study this episode and hire the right professional so you never NEED this pro!That's part one of my interview with my accountant Colette. These are accounting designations I wised I knew 20 years ago. I hope that Colette helped you understand the landscape of accounting professionals. Would you like to connect with my accountant? You can find her at CMBA Solutions. 

I thought the previous episode “Audit to Optimize” was the final installment in the Numbers Matter Series until I wrapped up a Solo Elite Membership Call on July 2nd, 2024. On this call, I had the opportunity to teach Sunny how to apply everything in the Numbers Matter Series to complete her ISO Model Scorecard. I took a clip from this call and decided to share it with you, so I hope you enjoy it. Keep this in mind. I was sharing my screen, so Sunny and the other Solo Elite members were watching me in real time change Sunny's business on paper to the business that Sunny defined as freedom for her family. It was so much fun. There may be points on this audio where you get confused. Hang in there and listen for the takeaways and signs of peace from Sunny as we optimize.This is the end of the Numbers Matter Series. My hope is that you reach this point and are excited about the possibilities for you and your future. I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com. 

I hope you've been paying attention and taking lots of notes during this series on “Why Numbers Matter”. In my experience, I have observed that most people do not know their numbers. These same people spend too much money to run their business. This means they are not profitable. In this episode, I walk you through doing an audit of your profit & loss statement so you understand how important this accounting form is to your business. Then I explain the 3 areas of Optimizing and how to AUDIT your solo business in each area. Here's the 3 areas.Lower your Expenses: We use the Profit & Loss to audit this area of optimizing.Increase your Prices: We use marketing and sales tracking and metrics to audit this area of optimizing.Decrease your Cleaning Time: We use time tracking to audit this area of your optimizing. The solo cleaner effective in zero of these areas is a frustrated solo that wants to quit. The solo effective in 1 area is frustrated and wants to quit. The solo effective in 2 areas is a happy solo. The solo effective in all 3 is the Optimized Solo that loves their business!I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com. 

I have a few stories to tell you and I won't take much of your time because your time is worth a lot! The first one is about a little boy who desperately wanted time with his Daddy. The second is about a Daddy who desperately wanted time with his little boy. This second story lead to the creation of a metric I've used in my business for a decade. It's called the Work Day Value (WDV). What are you earning for a day away from your family? Or what are you earning per hour working away from your family nights and weekends as a side hustle. It's okay to make $25 - $30 per hour as a beginner with a plan to grow. But if your still there after a year, you're losing time that you'll never get back. What is your work day value? What is your time worth because you are trading it for time with your little boy. Some of you will feel that question more than others.The third story happened when I was pumping gas at Wawa. There was a problem at the pump and one of the workers came out to help a customer. At the end of the exchange, the employee said to the customer. "Sorry it took too long to get to you. The customer. It's okay. Hey I'm getting paid." The customer was on company time and had an hourly mindset. It doesn't matter how long it takes to wait at the gas station because he's getting paid by the hour. This man was in his sixties and had a lifetime of job mentality. There's nothing wrong with this at all. But it's limiting and scarce. Here's what I mean. As he stands around doing nothing at the pump for his $30, $40, or $100 per hour, he's fully satisfied. What if he thought differently? What if he valued his hour at $500 or $5,000? There are plenty of people that make that kind of money. He would no longer be satisfied at the level of income he's earning in one hour now. If he was getting paid by the job he'd be very unsettled because he realized he be wasting time. He'd want the Wawa employee to get him filled up and out of there faster. If he was getting $250 to get a job done, he'd rather have it done in 1 hour versus 10. Standing at that gas pump would drive him crazy. The mindset is totally different.How much do you value your time? How much is your day worth? I don't want to ever leave my family and exchange it for something that is not satisfactory for me. Some food for thought. This works for your compensation for your team and how you charge your customers. It applies to what you might do outside of cleaning. There's so many things you can offer others for other income. Don't ever settle and say you're getting paid as you're standing around doing nothing! Go make a difference and go add value to others and you'll get paid in direct proportion of the value that you serve other people. This was always the hardest part for me. I asked myself this question. How much is my family worth today? I didn't want to bring home peanuts when they were worth gold bars!Would you like more information on CBF and the potential of growing your residential cleaning business beyond 7 figures? Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you. 

 J. Paul Getty was the wealthiest person in the world for 3 decades from the 1950's to the 1970's! His list of accomplishments are mind-blowing. At the end of his life, it's estimated that his net worth would be worth $27 billion is today's dollars.  He was very wealthy. I heard this quote when I was a new business owner in the Amway business in 2002 and it has stuck with me for 20 years. “I'd rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of my own effort.” - J. Paul Getty At the time I heard this, I was an engineer working full time and earning $50,000 per year off 100% of my own effort. I saw Amway business owners with teams of 100+ people earned 1-4% off the production of each team member and earning $500,000 per year. This quote hit me right between the eyes. However, I went another route as a solo cleaning specialist after my days as an engineer and multi-level marketer. I decided it was best for me to optimize what I could produce. In other words, how much could I make in how little time could I produce off 100% of my own effort? In my first solo cleaning business, the results were strong. I earned $55,000 and $70,000 per year profit off 2 days cleaning per week in each business respectively. Both provided a decent engineer level lifestyle so I could enjoy time with my family. However, it would never create freedom and lifestyle money. It would never create time, money, and location freedom. This is what I desired.I'm in a different position now where I am growing a cleaning business and I'm learning a lot about myself. This is an episode for the solo cleaner who is thinking about scaling and has fear or would never scale and has arrogance about it like I used to. Let's break down some numbers. The average cleaning technician can create $50,000 of annual revenue for a cleaning company. If you're a solo, that's $50,000 for you. Applying J. Paul Getty's advice, the numbers are totally different. A cleaning team of 100 people would produce $5M in revenue. If you only earned the 1% that Getty quoted, you'd earn $50,000 per year without having to clean.  But the reality is much better. A $5M company ought to pay out 15% to the owner. This is $750,000 per year income for the owner and they don't have to clean.  Let's play a game of Would You Rather.Would you rather work solo and optimize your business on 100% of your effort  working 2-3 days per week for $75,000 per year income? Or would you rather build a company and team to $5 million revenue, lead, and earn $750,000 per year income working on your business to lead your team? In the first example, you have no pressure of employees. You do all the work and have a simple life. You just better make sure to stay healthy, travel for short stints of a few days at a time, and budget really, really good. In the second example, you build a massive company, earn more than you can imagine, and live a life of total freedom. They each have their pros and cons. This episode isn't looking to persuade you, rather get you thinking.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

 I recently revealed the "The 4 ISO Model Fundamentals " as Financial, Strategic, Mindset, and People. It doesn't matter whether you own a solo cleaning business or a catering company. If you want to grow your company to create the life you've dreamed of, you'll need to master these fundamentals. I am not a caterer... obviously. I can't coach caterers. I can't coach photographers or digital agencies or doctors. I'm a 16-year solo cleaner that has optimized 2 solo cleaning companies to over $50,000 profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week without employees, subs, or drama. I've successfully sold one solo cleaning business for $80,000 and I've successfully scaled another solo cleaning business to allow my family to go to Florida for the month of February the past two years. I have mastered these 4 fundamentals for winning with a solo cleaning business and therefore, I am highly qualified to be your coach if you're looking to master your solo cleaning company.In that podcast episode, I stated that I wanted to lay out the 4 fundamentals in simple terms first. Then, I promised to follow-up with episodes adding more depth to each. Today, we start with the first one called FINANCIAL. There are thousands of cleaning business owners in Facebook cleaning groups. I have interacted with hundreds and personally coached dozens over the years. The ones I've coached have been side-hustlers, startups, solos, and striving to 7-figures. I have enough data to make this bold statement.Of the 4 fundamentals of a successful solo cleaning company or any cleaning company, the most lacking skill is Financial Fluency. In my experience (and the combined experience of other reputable coaches in the industry), over 95% of cleaning business owners do NOT know their numbers. They are Financially Illiterate. This is scary as these cleaning business owners go year-to-year making jokes about "sucking at math" or "not knowing where they are". It's not funny. It's sad. 95% of you RIGHT NOW are literally treading water and about to drown. You are one bad wave or rip current from financial bankruptcy and you don't even know it. 90% of you are anxious, stressed, and overwhelmed because you don't know where you stand. When you are Financially Illiterate, you are standing on sinking and shifting sand. You have literally nothing firm to build on. So what do you do? You continue to work harder and harder and hope that the money works out. Enter geniuses like Mike Michaelowicz and his book "Profit First". Mike was Financially Illiterate until he took the first step. He went from not-knowing his numbers to knowing his numbers. This didn't make the business any better. But it did allow Mike to place his feet on something firm and something he could build from. His stated mission is to help the millions of us in the same place and to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty.My friend Ellen was once in this position. She ran a successful cleaning company with 20 team members and close to a half-million in revenue. She did not know her numbers at all and she was the first to admit it. I helped her set goals to over a 3-month period to learn her business through a Profit and Loss Statement or a P&L. Once she understood her P&L, she was able to set financial goals and track her business through a financial dashboard. Ellen has grown quite a bit since this major change. There are thousands of Ellens' out there, so don't feel bad if that's you. We will address all 4 fundamentals over time.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

 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.The lesson here is simple and Jesus says it best. "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it —  lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish'?" That's from the Book of Luke, chapter 14 and verses 28-30. The 16-year-old driver and the stay-at-home mom MUST count the cost of the undertaking before embarking on the plan. In my son's case, he is already making money by cleaning and he get's paid way better than I did at his age. He was afford a car, but he is evaluating the best way to do it. What about the stay-at-home mom? Okay, there are tons of ways to achieve the goal. If she would adopt the "How Can I" mindset, she might decide to look for other options. One such option could be a solo cleaning business. Maybe that's why you're listening to this podcast right now? You may be a mom wanting to make more money and don't want to enter the full-time workforce. Cleaning houses and offices is an excellent opportunity. In fact, I've already spoken to this in the podcast, "How to Start a Solo Cleaning Business" and "The Pros of Solo Cleaning". You can design a flexible schedule, earn excellent income, and help others with a skill you already possess. Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

 You MUST know your numbers to survive and thrive in your solo cleaning company. Numbers Matter. I was asked WHY in a recent Solo Elite Membership Call. After answering the question, I realized that I needed to start a new MEGA-series on all-things-numbers.  In this episode, I answer the basic question of why. It's humorous as I poke and prod at the majority of solo cleaners that I get on phone calls with. They don't know their numbers… like NONE of them. This is so foundational that it's one of the 4 Fundamentals of the ISO Model. By the end of this episode, you will be ready for me to pile on the rest of the MEGA-series. Here is what you can expect.​Numbers Matter II: Count the Cost – You need to know your numbers in order to complete the project. It's biblical!Numbers Matter III: Are You Financially Fluent – This one will hurt if you don't know the language of numbers. But it will help!Numbers Matter IV: Would you Rather have 100% or 1%? – Now that you are gaining a foundation of understanding WHY numbers are important, this episode will allow you to see the benefits of strategic planning with your numbers. Numbers Matter V: What is Your Hour Worth – Have you ever stopped to consider if the work that you're doing is worth it? This episode will force you to measure your productivity and                  assess.Numbers Matter VI: Audit to Optimize  – In this final episode of the series, I am putting it all together. I break down  the 3 areas a solo cleaner needs to master in order to optimize. They will need to understand their numbers to conduct a proper audit of each area. The solo that is efficient in ALL 3 is the Optimized Solo that loves their business! Accounting Basics I: Accounting Basics – Where the heck do we start with accounting and bookkeeping? What's the difference? Colette Mellott is my accountant. She breaks it all down so it is easy to understand.Accounting Basics II: Hire Professionals on Day One – Stop trying to DIY your bookkeeping and accounting. Colette teaches us a valuable insight into how hiring a professional saves us money and time.Accounting Basics III: Keep Clean Records – How do you prepare your numbers to effectively work with an accounting professional? Colette explains the basics.Once I have proven numbers are important and shown you how to track them, I'll start the third numbers series on Investing in Your Business. I'm so excited to walk you through all-things-numbers this summer. I hope you stay tuned. I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com. 

 In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, the conversation focused on commercial cleaning. I made one statement about the price per hour decreasing with increasing building size. This does not compute to the Solo Optimizer's mindset. Why would you charge less as it gets bigger? You would lose a lot of profit. This is absolutely true through the lens of the Solo Optimizer's Mindset where success is measured by the best trade of profit you can  make for the time you decide to leave your family each day. In the ISO Model Course, this metric is called the Workday Value (WDV). With the Solo Optimizer's Mindset of trading, there is no way a solo could charge less per hour for a larger building. Larger janitorial companies will come in at half the price and win every time. Solos cannot compete. This is why I heavily endorse a solo's commercial niche to be under 10,000 square foot buildings. The Scaling or Entrepreneur's Mindset is totally different. They are not trading their personal time. They have built reproducible systems through a team of employees. Therefore, they are selling manhours like the electric company sells kilowatt hours. In the scaling mindset, they are willing to drop the hourly cost of manhours to get larger buildings. This earns them a lot more volume and ultimately, a lot more profit. I shared in this clip that the Solo Optimizer can max out at $100- $150 per hour cleaning by themselves. This is amazing. It's what I did and it's what I teach in the ISO Model and the Solo Elite Membership. There is tremendous freedom possible in this career path with the Solo Optimizer's Mindset. Just realize that there is another level beyond this that you can only accomplish through duplication. J. Paul Getty is famous for this quote.“Would you rather have 100% of the effort off of you or 1% of the effort off of 100 people?” This is the central question between these two mindsets. The Solo Optimizer will maximize the 100% off the 1, while the Scaling Mindset seeks to maximize the number of 1% checks. You can earn a level of freedom as an Entrepreneur far beyond the freedom of the Solo Optimizer. It's a matter of choice.The end of this mindset and the question of which final career path to choose lies at the end of the Solo Elite Roadmap. Optimize first to freedom. Then you can either STAY, SELL, or SCALE to obtain further freedom. That's why we do this membership.I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com. 

This episode is a follow up to "The Messy Middle" There was a place in between your initial goal to start your cleaning business and the place that you defined as success where things got messy. It got really hard to stay motivated. You weren't sure if you made the right decision. Your doubts and fears and condemnation crept in to try to steal your dream. This is the messy middle. I shared this truth about setting big goals and starting something new. "It always gets messier after you start!" I want to turn your attention to another destructive habit that can steal your dream. It's called anger. This will not apply to many of you, but for the ones that it does, please listen. I have personally listened to a lot of podcasts and many on cleaning and entrepreneurship. I have never heard one on anger.I was in the Messy Middle in our first New York solo cleaning business from 2007 - 2015 and from 2019 - 2020 in our second Pennsylvania solo business. I know what that feels like. If you've never heard me speak or share my story before, here's the nutshell. It took me a long time to develop my ISO Model for solo cleaners. In fact, it was the 8 years in the Messy New York Middle that I figured most of it out. This ISO Model allowed me to duplicate our first solo business in a fraction of the time. I want to dive into my 8 years in the valley, the mess, the pit. I was working so hard, going where ever I had to go to clean and make money. I was cleaning around the clock on many days. I injured myself by tearing tendons, meniscus, and even contracted Lyme Disease. I was often tired. I was often filled with doubt. I was often sad. And I was often very angry. Thankfully, I was walking with Jesus through this time to help me keep my peace. But even I'm no where close to perfect. I would lose my cool and freak out. I'd be late leaving the house and miss my shower. I'd have a foot of snow and ice on my car at 7am and 5 below. I'd get stuck in morning rush hour traffic and be even later to my first house. I'd trudge through the snow into the house. I'd bump into a piece of furniture with my cleaning gear or smack my knee or hip against a sharp wooden door or railing. I'd set down my gear and spill it all over the customer's floor because the duffle bad was torn from use in 3 places. I'd be vacuuming and suck up a carpet fiber that wrapped around the beater bar until the vacuum seized. I'd suck up a penny and seize it too. I'd crack my head on the shower metal or on a low doorway. I'd turn on the shower while cleaning and get soaked in the middle of winter. I'd break something in a house by accident. I'd be cleaning with spray bottles in each pant pocket when one would unscrew and dump a whole 32-oz bottle of cleaner on the customer's floor. All of these things seemed to happen to me when I was already struggling and mad. They would take me from mad to angry and many time angry to wrathful. I would literally leave the house and start screaming outside. I may even take my seized vacuum piece and either smash it on the ground or toss it in the bushes. Yes, it's dumb, but haven't you ever been angry?! It's irrational. I'm irrational when it happens. I would waste time, lose money, and lose belief that I was doing the right thing. Meanwhile, my friends from high school and college were all growing in their jobs, buying nice cars, having kids, buying them nice things, and living in nice houses. And we were driving old beaters and living in rented houses. I'd question myself all the time. I was angry again and again and again. Over the years, I learned my triggers and managed my emotions better. It wasn't easy, but I did it.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

 In my "January 2022 Freedom Update with Coach Josh", I inferred that we qualified for the trip to Florida that we booked after "A New Freedom Vision". I had just onboarded my fifth and final cleaner to cover our tenth and final building. The other 4 C3 Team Members were all doing well and Florida was inevitable. We had fought hard for several months and especially over the past 60 days to make this dream a reality. However, there was still 10 days to go... We were due to leave for Florida on Sunday, February 6th at 4am. Let's go back to Sunday, January 23rd. I met the newest C3 Team Member at our biggest client to start training. Our van wasn't acting right either, so I knew it would need a drop at the shop to make sure it was okay for our big trip. The day of training went outstanding. I'm keeping the team member's name anonymous, but they were performing extremely well. I felt confident that I could train this Sunday and the next to get the excellence score over 8 so we could leave for Florida. After 7 hours and no lunch break, I asked if they were hungry. I had asked before and felt bad. I offered to go get food. They decided to take a 30 minute break to grab food, return, and finish the training job. "I'll be back. I promise." That was a weird thing to say. I was sitting in the waiting room of this vet hospital doing some work on my laptop. 15 minutes. 30 minutes. 35 minutes. Nothing. I started to wonder. A text came in at 40 minutes. "I had to take care of an emergency. Thank you for training me, but this job isn't going to work for me." My heart sank. I just sat there. I had been working around the clock since Christmas onboarding  5 new customers, ordering supplies, stocking offices, building out my systems in Swept, hiring & training 5 C3 Team Members. I was managing multiple cleaners at multiple sites at the same time all month. I cleaned houses during the week and offices nights and weekends. Just 45 minutes prior I was so thankful to reach the end of our massive goal to delegate our 10 buildings through 5 trained team members. I was ready to finish this vet, go home, and tell the family we were definitely going to Florida. But now my heart sank into the couch I was sitting. I literally didn't know what to do, but I had a choice in that moment. I could be positive and solution-oriented or I could be negative and accept defeat. I called my wife and shared exactly what happened. We prayed together. She said the obvious. "Well, you better get cleaning so you can come home." I then proceeded to clean the remaining parts of the hospital with my wife on the phone. We talked through everything and made a proclamation. We would not rest until this goal was achieved. We were not going to be denied. We would evaluate our calendar and literally clear everything that wasn't an absolute priority for our family at that time. I got home and told the kids. They got behind mom and dad as well. We prayed as a family.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website