Watching New Trends In 2009

Happy New Year to all my friends in the housecleaning industry! I hope you had a blessed Christmas and I pray you'll have a prosperous New Year!

Trends to Watch in 2009
Be sure and keep your eye on the top trends this year. Everywhere you turn you’ll be hearing about one of these topics:

The Economy
Green Cleaning & Pink Giving
Health Issues
Baby Boomers

GREEN is the color of responsible living and pink is the color of benevolence. Anything pink and anything green in your business will resonate deeply with consumers. So much so, they’ll switch services to do business with you because consumers like “socially responsible” companies!

The ECONOMY - What goes up must come down. Consumers are no longer trading up when making their purchase decisions, but rather trading down. Believe it or not, your service can accommodate in ways your competition will never think of! Try offering discounts for pre paying each month, and even bigger discounts for paying up front for a year! We’ve done this recently with a letter to our clients called “Everybody’s raising prices, so we’re LOWERING ours!” where we offered a discount to clients who pay up front for the year! Several took us up on it.

HEALTH - Thanks to the web and aging boomers, we know more than ever about our health, and consumers are very concerned about a healthy home and healthy living. Instead of marketing your “green cleaning” for the earth's sake, market your “green company” for healthy living—"safe for pets and babies"! Health sells better than environmentally friendly when it comes to maid service.

BOOMERS Represent the biggest transition in history as these individualists are preparing for retirement, downsizing their homes and simplifying life in general. Keep your creative cap on and think of more services you can offer to the aging boomers. Don’t miss out on this huge population opportunity that has traditionally used maid services during their busy careers. You just have to think of new ways to solve their housekeeping problems.

Let 2009 be the best year ever for pricing jobs, winning sales, and keeping clients. Don't let the economy get you down, watch the trends and market to the needs of consumers and you'll have plenty of customers in 2009!

Debbie Sardone

http://www.themaidcoach.com/

Growing Your Maid Service In A Down Economy

Even as we're in the midst of our "busy season" and people are scrambling to get their houses cleaned before Christmas, everyone is thinking about the economy and how it will affect their business once the "rush" is over and January arrives. Well I came across an article today that really inspired me and I thought it would be good to share some principles I gleaned from it, as it applies to the maid busienss.

Small Is Good
First of all, I am truly grateful, more than ever to be called a "small business". right now, small business are more likely to have a "good month" the the larger corporations that are struggling. All we have to do is take on a few new customers and we can have a good month!

Focus on Profits
A recession is a good time to focus on net profitability. Trim expenses (except marketing!), reevaluate your marketing and only use what's worked best for you. Scrutinize every new purchase to be sure it's necessary before buying. Manage the minutes if you pay by the hour, and consolidate routes to reduce wasted drive time.

Sell Painkillers
When money is tight, people only buy when they are in pain. If you aren't solving problems and reducing people's pain you will have a tough time keeping up in a tight economy. Know one calls when they have a clean house just to "keep it up". People call when they have a problem so you must have the solution. Position your marketing to go after those who are "in pain" (company's coming, arguments over cleaning chores, time pressures).

Challange Your Assumptions
I had to learn this the hard way. Businesses change at least every five years in pretty dramatic ways. If you're still doing things the way you always have you could be in for a surprise during a tough economy. This is the time to think of ways your business can be done in a more efficient way and adapt. Years ago we would never clean a house without seeing it first. That's just the way we did business. After the recession in 2001 we disovered we had to adapt to a new climate where many people were just "one-time" cleans or only used us two or three times a year. Bidding over the phone became a must to minimize cost since so many did not convert to repeat service.

Maximize Your Current Clients
If you haven't added carpet cleaning, window washing, natural stone care (granite clean and care services), laundry services, etc. you are missing opportunites to generate revenue without marketing to new clients. Pick a couple of services you'd like to add and form some affiliate relationships with other hungry vendors.

Think Out Of The Box
Maid services are notorious for staying the same, year afer year. Get creative, think of ways to help save your customers time and money--and sell that! We've implemented several "pre-payment" programs that have ben very profitable and beneficial to our customers. Who said customers won't pay for a year of maid service up front? You have not because you ask not!

Get An A+ In Customer Service
Now is the time to foucs on quality and consistency. People are on edge and more easily frustrated and breakage, showing up late, and sloppy work will get you fired quicker than ever before. Set up more random house checks, inspect first time cleans, make plenty of follow up calls. Let your customers know you love and appreciate them! Turn Off The News
Too much media doom and gloom will have an effect on your morale and attitude which will spill over onto your staff. Catch just enough of the news to keep from being ignorant, but spend more time than ever reading marketing and business strategy books and save the doom and gloom media diet for your competition!
Remember your resiliency. Economic cycles come and go. We've have been here before and survived. Don't throw in the towel growing now can give you the competitive edge!

If you'd like my audio CD "Growing Strong In A Weak Economy" please visit:

http://themaidcoach.com/products.htm

Cleaning Business Holiday Party

In these tough economic times, everyone is looking to cut expenses any way they can. Hosting an employee Christmas party can get expensive if you aren’t careful. Several years ago, a colleague of mine in the residential cleaning business confided about how frustrated she was with her employee Christmas parties. She would spend several thousand dollars each year securing a lovely banquet hall with a full sit down dinner, music, and elegant décor, only to hear employees complain that they didn’t want to go. If they did commit to coming, many just never showed up. She was tired of wasting so much money that she was considering making the event “mandatory”! I helped her see that she had it all backwards. Her employees complained that they’d much rather have the money than the banquet. This banquet was for her, not her employees. It was a demonstration of her own success and did not reflect her staff’s wishes or style. She needed to come up with another plan. That was a long time ago and I don’t know how she resolved it or if she followed any of my advice. But if you are hosting an employee party that no one wants to attend you may need to re-think the format of your program. It doesn’t have to cost mint to do it well. In fact, we’ve hosted our banquet for years for under $1,000 for 40 to 50 attendees. We use a restaurant with a nice candle light atmosphere, cloth napkins, and a buffet dinner. We encourage our employees to dress up or come as casual as they like to insure everyone is comfortable. Some come in formals, others come in jeans. We make sure they feel accepted in whatever attire they choose.

We’ve had great success year after year with our Annual Employee Awards Banquet. We hold it at Christmas time in order to “kill two birds with one stone”. We’ve held our employee "Awards Banquet" every year for the past 17 years. Our employees love it and talk about it all year long. If you start this tradition, I encourage you to keep your expenses to a minimum so you can afford to do it year after year even as you double and triple in size. You can watch my YouTube video from last year’s event: holiday party

I’ll have another one up soon, as our banquet is this coming Tuesday night, December 9, 2008! Here are a few things we've done that you might consider:

1. We usually have a "Santa" who pulls funny gag gifts out of his big black bag and hands them out with a funny dialogue to various employees regarding the things that happened through out the year ("Santa heard you found a dead snake under a pillow in the Smith's home this Spring, we'll I brought you a bottle of snake oil to carry in your cleaning caddy....." for example). Come up with half a dozen funny things and gifts to give out. Never a “put down though” (like a watch for someone who is always late), make sure the gag gifts don't hurt feelings or make people laugh at someone else’s expense. Santa makes them come up to him in front of everyone while he presents them with the gift.
2. If someone on your staff sings, writes poems, or plays a musical instrument (well), include them. We always do. It's a nice touch to see their other side!
3. We include an "optional gift exchange" for those who want to participate.
4. The HIGHLIGHT of our banquet is the "DOOR PRIZE TABLE". We fill a table with about $300 worth of goodies (ranging from $10 to $50), things like lovely wine glasses, pretty place settings, Christmas wreath, lovely wall hangings, inexpensive DVD player, mp3 player, tools, decanters, platters, just all kinds of pretty things for the home, etc. Each employee gets a door prize ticket when they arrive, and we call numbers throughout the evening all the way to the end. The first winner gets first pick on the table! and so on until the last ticket is called. They LOVE this. About 15 people will win. Odds of winning are good, and they love it!
5. Since this is our Christmas party and Awards Banquet, we hand out our 3-year watches, 5-year watches, 6-year pearls, 10- year trophies, and “Cleaning Tech of the Year” award, as well as other recognition milestones.

Believe it or not, we actually charge for this event. We make the charge very low, but I believe people don’t value what costs them nothing. People will be more likely to no-show an event they didn’t pay for. We charge $4.50 per person for a dinner than would cost them $15 to $20 if they ate there on their own. We allow them to bring one adult guest only (no kids under 17). We only serve tea & coffee, but there is a cash bar if they choose to purchase an alcoholic drink. This keeps expenses low and limits our liability. By the way, we barter this entire event! Only the tip to the wait staff is paid in cash.

Employees want to be recognized and appreciated. This entire evening is centered around them, for them. We try to reflect their tastes, their styles, their wishes. It’s not a time for us to show off our style! I hope this helps you throw a successful and meaningful employee holiday banquet or party!

A little clip of last year's holiday party:

(pictured: Olga, Cleaning Tech of the Year - 2007)

Debbie Sardone
Maid service Business Consulting

How To Grow Your Business In A Down Economy

Just tonight, a friend of mine told me that he wakes up every morning and listens to the doom and gloom of Wall Street on the MSN network. He then becomes utterly depressed and then starts his work day. Whoa! That's no way to start the day if you're an entrepreneur and responsible for creating the morale and vision of your residential cleaning company. Now, I'm not advocating sticking your head in the sand and becoming oblivious to what's going on in the world's financial market. But I also don't agree with ingesting a steady diet of despair and misery. I tune into the news just long enough to be in the "know" and then I watch a comedy or turn off TV altogether. A steady stream of "the sky is falling" will polarize you in business. Business owners need encouragment, inspiration, and possitive motivation. I am firm believer that you are what you eat. And that goes for the food of the mind as well as the belly.

There's only so many hours in a day. How will you spend those precious hours this next week? You could fill your mind with new information on how to market and grow your business (like my upcoming Power Workshop: "The Ultimate Gift Card Sales Workshop"). And there are dozens of new books on the market each year that will help you focus on growth and management! What about audiobooks on employee motivation, and retention? You could listen while you work out. I'm listening to an audiobook biography on Benjamin Franklin, during workouts on my eliptical machine. Talk about a power entrepreneur! He started and operated numerous successful businesses during some of the most dismal of economic times. He was surrounded by extreme poverty in a time that had almost no "middle class". His businesses thrived because he understood how to create new markets, not just new products.

Let's face it, we may be in for a long, hard recession--they usually last a minimum of 18 months; the last one I went through seemed to last 36 months. We can't change the financial market. But we can be smart business owners and brilliant entrepreneurs! We can take a pro active approach to meeting the new challanges head on, and actually gain the competitive edge over our competition during this time. Remember, often only the strongest businesses stay standing during the tough times, the weaker ones drop like flies. You could emerge from this "recession" in a stronger position than ever, especially if the weaker, "cheaper" compition bites the dust (he he--no pun intended).

Join me Thursday evening, October 23, 2008 at 6:00 p.m. CST for my live Teleworkshop "How To Grow Your Business In A Down Economy" and let's focus some time and energy on growing your business. We'll also talk about strategies for change in a tough economy and how you can differentiate even more during this time. Join my online cleaning business network and you'll be informed every time I have workshop on maid service growth and management. Remember, if you can be the solution to their problem, you won't lack for customers. When times are good, people have money to hire a maid service. When times are bad, people work more and harder, and need a maid service! Let's grow together.

www.themaidcoach.com

The Recession and Your Cleaning Business

A maid service business owner called me today, a little bit in a panic over "the recession" and 18 lost clients for the month of August. She's working with a business coach who suggested she implement a "recession back up plan" for her business. Knowing my cleaning business, Buckets & Bows Maid Service (Lewisville, TX) had gone through a very serious recession right after the events of September 11, she called me to get some ideas and general "what not to do's".

Since becoming a maid service business coach myself over two years ago, I've learned to ask questions before I start answering any. The first thing I asked her is, "what is your attrition rate"? She wasn't sure, but she uses a maid service software and quickly retrieved that data from her database. She noted that last year her customer lossage rate was 3.8 customers a week. We multiplied that by 4.33 (the number of weeks in a month) and came up with an average of 16.45 customers lost each month last year. Given the fact that she had fewer clients last year, than she does now, I pointed out that her customer lossage rate has not gone up at all. She lost just 1.5 customers more in August than last year's average. This could be attributed to growth--if you have more, you'll loose more.

Next, I asked if she has around 360 customers, she said I was right on, because she started the month with 378 and now only has 360! We divided 18 lost customers by 378 customers to get a lossage rate of .0476. A 4 to 5% customer lossage rate is typical of a quality focused, non-franchised maid service and by no means represents high customer turnover. It represents reasonable customer attrition. My company is about 5% and I'm satisfied with that number.

So what is attrition? Attrition is the number of clients you can expect to loose on an average, every single month. It has very little to do with quality or service. It's "customer churn". It's clients moving away, loosing their job, cutting back their work hours, kids are grown and out of the house, their retired and can now clean it themselves, and of course, bad service. It's all of these things rolled into one. If you track this information carefully you will see a pattern emerge. You should always watch the patterns. Watch for spikes and variations. It helps you react quickly when something is wrong and calms your nerves when you think something is wrong and it isn't. Attrition is one of those things few maid service owners pay attention to, but that number is extremely important and tied to to your growth, shrinkage, and the pulse of your business! As a business coach, I help people understand what numbers to track and pay attention to. How profitability can be improved, and of course how quality and service can be maintained even when you have 30 employees and a million dollars a year in sales! Visit me at: http://themaidcoach.com

Barter Is A Guaranteed Sale

Someone recently asked how barter actually saves me money as a business owner. I was thrilled to answer her question because the subject of barter is one of my favorite topics! In fact, as a business coach (I coach residential maid services in business growth), I have a popular workshop on that very subject called, of course, "Barter Is A Guaranteed Sale". Business owners who get stuck in a rut and stop thinking "out of the box" don't always "get it" at first. It takes a while to sink in. I know, because I was one of them, for too many years. I argued "why would I barter with you; I'd rather have the money". Here's the deal, when you barter you are bartering with someone who won't hire you for whatever reason (can't afford you, not sure they need you, uncertain of your skill level). A barter client is supposed to be someone who was not your client in the first place and are not planning on hiring you. In other words, you never convert a "cash" ("cash" meaning "paying client" whether by check, credit card, or real live greenbacks) client to barter, that's a mistake and evidence that you don't understand barter. You convert those "no thank yous" to barter! If they have what you want or need, you've just made a guaranteed sale on your light days! Now, if you barter for something you don't need, don't want, or can't use then you've wasted your money as it will cost you something to deliver your portion of the barter. Also, if you pay more than "regual price" for the barter then you will also waste money unless your margins are extremely low. If you are in a labor driven business (a business like maid service) your margins are pretty high so you can only barter for goods and services you need and at prices you would have paid. (by "margins" I mean the cost associated with delivering your part of the barter--your labor costs)
Let me illustrate for you:

If I'm in need of about $1,000 worth of printing (brochures, business cards, stationery) and I have no money in the bank to pay for it, I know I'll have to sell about $2,000 worth of cleanings to pay my printer (because my direct labor cost on the cleanings will be a little more than 50%, I can't sell just $1,000 worth or cleanings. I'd only have about $450 of profit to buy my printing). But, if I knew another printer in town that will match the price I was quoted by my existing printer (who, by the way, won't use my service because "he lives in an apartment and doesn't need cleaning") and who lives in a big house (the new printer, that is), has kids and pets and "would love to have housecleaning but can't afford it right now" I have the perfect barter opportunity! He's not a client any way. Your not his customer because you've been using the other guy for years. That is the perfect barter contact. If he's been getting cash out of you he's not likely to barter, but since you aren't his customer he has very little to lose and his wife will be thrilled with their new maid service! The best part of all, you only clean their house on your "light days" so for a maid service that would be a Monday or a Tuesday, never a Friday. He gets $1,000 credit for maid service (or mail him 10 $100 gift certificates) and you get your printing NOW! You'll deliver your $1,000 worth of cleanings over the course of 10 weeks or 20 weeks, depending on whether they go with weekly service or bi-weekly service. So, you just got your $1,000 worth of printing on "credit / no interest"! And now, the best part--if they fall in love with having their house cleaned every week (and who wouldn't!) they will either hire you to continue or you will come up with more printing projects for them to do! You sold that work on a light day, so you didn't turn down any "cash" clients for his spot, your employees got more work on their schedule, which makes them more happy with their paycheck, and you didn't write a check out of your checking account for the printing. You paid approximately $500 plus payroll taxes for that $1,000 print job!

Barter is a guaranteed sale! Once you really "get it" you will ask every single prospect who inquires about your service, "so, what do you do for a living............" If they do not convert to a cash sale, keep their name and number an contact them later if they have something you can "trade" for (and only if they did not convert to a client)! I have a full two-hour workshop on navigating barter relationships. There are many, many ways to deliver your barter jobs in a more profitable manner than you think! There are also pitfalls and perils you MUST know about before becoming a "Power-Barterer"! I do about $20,000 in barter a year through an organized barter association called ITEX. You can get burned or you can leave money on the table, and you can get in trouble with the IRS if you don't know what you're doing. The safest way to manage barter is through a "trade" organization. I have a terrific broker (Gary Smith) who is very helpful. For information on my "Barter Is A Guaranteed Sale" Audio CD, visit my website. If you enjoyed this post, please comment! I welcome your feedback. Or visit http://www.themaidcoach.com/

Suffering From Wedding Brain

Wow, I feel like a new person! I've had "wedding brain" for three months and now that my daughter's wedding is behind me I feel like a new person. It's a lot of work to run three businesses and plan a wedding. But, it went off with very few hitches and I'm happy to say that all went as I had hoped it would. The wedding was so beautiful and if I told you what I spent on the wedding you would never, ever believe me! (it was that low). I teach a workshop on how to grow your business using barter by spending your trade and saving your cash. Well I practice what I preach and I bought a ton of this wedding on barter. From the gorgeous wedding cakes, the photobooth, fresh flowers, to the limousine service. I've been dubbed "the queen of barter" by my Trade Broker and I think the wedding proved that. Take a look at some of the photos and see what I got on barter!

Cakes and tuxedos on barter!

And floral center pieces and bouquets, and......
the photobooth, and the limousine!

I also got a professional photographer on barter. But I ran out of time and didn't find the cellist on barter :( (But he was good and well worth the price).

If you don't barter, you're missing out. Remember, a barter is a guaranteed sale. www.themaidcoach.com

Til next time,

Debbie

5 Recession Busters For Your Maid Service

As a business coach, I'm in touch with maid service owners all over the country (and Canada and Australia!). I was talking to a maid service business owner the other day that was very concerned about the economy in her area. For sure, much of the recession hype is generated by the media and by the non-stop reference to it; but there are pockets of the country that is experiencing a definite economic slow down. I used to think that maid service businesses were the most insulated against economy hiccups and my customer base unaffected--but I changed my mind after 9-11 when North Texas became recessed for almost three years. Here are some of the lessons I learned, many of them the hard way, during this most stressful of business times at Buckets & Bows Maid Service:

1. Wake up sooner rather than later. It took me way too long to react to the recession because I was in denial for the first year and a half. The signs I missed back then were weekly clients converting to monthly, bi-weekly clients going to "occasional" service, and more and more people calling to set up a "one time" cleaning and really meaning it it. They were satisfied and not continuing with repeat service. This was happening at an alarming rate; completely different from the business model I was used to.
2. Make changes that fit a business that's doing more one time cleans. I started taking credit cards, I stopped requiring in-home estimates when they said they were only looking for a one-time clean (since too many were not converting to weekly and bi-weekly it was too expensive to pay for an estimator to bid the job).
3. Develop a compassion policy. In hindsight, when some of my long standing clients called sobbing that they had lost their job and had to cancel service for a while, I wish I had offered some of those clients a free cleaning every other month for a defined period of time, or half price for six months. Think about it, If they pay one month, and you pay the next month you'll have your labor costs mostly covered. You won't make any money, but you endear that client to you forever, you raise their spirits during a tough time, and you provide some much needed work for your crews that are going be hurting for jobs. It's a win-win, break even proposition that helps all parties involved. Can you imagine the wonderful things she will tell others about your company!? I would re-evaluate the situation every 90 days.
4. When times get tough, guess what we cut? Marketing! How crazy is that? That was the biggest mistake of my recession experience. I should have gotten back out there, doing what made my company famous in those early days: teach a cleaning class, join networking groups, get in the newspaper, participate in local expos. I waited way too long to get back to the basics.
5. Barter! I should have found people to barter for services I was struggling to afford during this tense time. I could have bartered printing, advertising, and even payroll services if I'd known better. This would have saved valuable cash resources when money was so tight.

When business is booming and customers are a dime a dozen we get lazy in our business because everything we touch seems to turn to gold. Then, the economy hiccups and all our bad habits come home to roost. The best thing that ever could have happened to my business was the recession. It forced us to tighten up our budget, move to a smaller cheaper office, and get back to knock-your-socks-off customer service! We're better for it, even though it was no fun at all. If you need help recusitating your business, call a maid service business coach that still owns a local residential cleaning business. I can help you plug the profit leaks and grow strong then BIG! www.themaidcoach.com

Exciting News

I'm going to try harder to post several blogs a month. Running three businesses and expanding my primary business is keeping me busier than a one-armed paper hanger. It's a lot of fun though so I don't want to give a single thing up, but it's getting harder and harder to juggle all of my responsibilities. So, even though I try to be super woman, I'm not and something has to give. So I'm pretty excited to announce that I have identified my replacements at Buckets & Bows Maid Service; staff who will run the day to day operations for me, while enabling me to maintain ownership of the business and pursue my consulting business. I've only been a part time fixture in my office for the last couple of years, so the change is a welcome relief to my staff of more than 10 years. Together, my staff and I plan to expand the Buckets & Bows Maid Service enterprise by opening multiple locations around the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex via independently owned licensed agents. I am talking with several interested parties about opening their own Buckets & Bows Maid Service in the area. They get to learn from "the best" (my system and my office staff) and utilize a step-by-step proven system without being tied to royalties for life. We are hoping this concept takes off like wildfire. How exciting to see these dreams evolve and take form. The BBMS system is so unique and profitable we believe others will jump at the chance to be licensed to use the name and the system! My staff is committed to helping other succeed and they can't wait to help this thing take off. If you know anyone who is looking for a low cost start up business with a high profit margin send them our way! www.themaidcoach.com

Setting Goals For The New Year

Here it is, already January 21, 2008 and I'm just now getting around to putting some goals down for this coming 2008 year. I've been thinking them over and over in my head, but I haven't taken the time to put them down on my "virtual" paper--my blog. The scary thing is, next year I will have to look at this public blog and see how I did! Yikes, should I aim low so I hit the target? Aim high so I achieve more than I thought I would? Keep it in the middle where safety and prudence reside? Not! I'm not that kind of girl. I think I'll just share what I really hope to accomplish this next year, from my heart. Then, we'll peek back at this list next January and see how I did, what I adjusted, and what is no longer important to me afterall.

• Help Buckets & Bows Maid Service maintain solid brand recognition and market share
• Teach and speak more often in my community, further branding Buckets & Bows Maid Service through the exposure
• Hold at least one local business seminar per quarter for local women in business
• Develop my current staff further through outside local training and seminar opportunities
• Turn Buckets & Bows Maid Service over to a Revenue-Share Manager
• Go full time into coaching / mentoring other maid service business owners
• Recruit at least 10 to 20 new members into ARCSI
• Get NASA certified
• Help Cleaning For A Reason reach 500 Partners
• Appear on one major network like Good Morning America on behalf of Cleaning For A Reason

Whew! I'd better get to work. If anyone wants to post your goals for 2008 and I'd love to see them. www.themaidcoach.com

Debbie