house cleaning

Many ask me how and when to raise prices. In this episode, you'll learn how NOT to. The story I am going to tell in this episode is real and happened recently. I am protecting the identity of the solo cleaner by calling them "Jen". Thankfully, this story ends well. Take heart and do NOT copy Jen's mistake!

What did Jen do and why? I teach a proven strategy for how to raise prices in my ISO Model. I've been using this strategy since 2006. It's smart. It's battle-tested. It's strategic. And it's for optimizers ONLY! Jen is not an optimizer yet. Jen has a solid stabilizer business with around 20 clients. She loves her business and has amazing, loyal clients that will stay with her long-term. All she has to do is continue to serve them. These clients will absolutely pay more per visit over time as every business raises prices as the cost of doing business increases year-to-year. Jen got a call from a commercial property manager. She heard about Jen and wanted her do electrostatic disinfecting in multiple buildings. It was a huge opportunity for Jen and the promises sounded like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. At the same time, Jen was in an emotional state as a close family member was in an accident and required a lot of Jen's TLC. Jen really needed to make more money and have more time. In Jen's excitement at the prospect of the commercial disinfecting, she hastily sent price increase letters by email to half of her reliable, recurring house cleaning clients. Jen thought that some would not say yes and others would not. It would earn her more money per house that stayed and clear up enough time to do the disinfecting work. It was a perfect plan in Jen's mind. But was it?

Here's what happened next. One client fired her. One grilled her for 3 hours during the next cleaning and found out that increases were only sent to half of her clients. One prepared to fire her. She had not heard back from the others yet and decided it was a good idea to reach out to me. As she explained her actions, I panicked with her as I heard so many missteps. Jen could literally lose half of her business in 1 week!

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

I'm so thankful for a conversation I had with Patty in 2006. Let me set the scene. She was an executive for an apartment property management company with 13 complexes. I was cleaning for two of them and wanted to grow my solo business to as many as I could. During early to mid-2006, I drove all over the Capital District of NY to knock on the doors of small offices, apartment complexes, and builders to drum up more business. I had information packs with testimonials that I'd hand out at each. All in all, I visited over 300 businesses and dropped off over 50 info packs. This lead to 1 more apartment complex, 1 builder, and 1 new office. It seems like a waste unless you tally up the lifetime value of just that one office. I cleaned for this law firm from 2006 to 2018 and earned over $80,000 in revenue from that client. Yes, it was worth it. I wanted you to see the mode of growth I was in. We were struggling big-time with money and I was willing to do whatever it took.

When I walked into one of my complexes that spring, Patty was there. I knew who she was and that she was the decision maker to hiring me for more complexes. I never got a chance to ask her a question. She approached me and shocked me with this advice that has forever changed my business!

"I know you want more complexes. I've been hearing from our property managers that you've been visiting. But I'm not giving you any more right now because I don't want to lose you!" Patty had my attention and continued. "Do you know why good cleaners like you go out of business? They can't say no and take on more than they can do. They get further and further behind. They don't know how to properly hire employees to take off some workload. They start dropping in quality, missing commitments, lose trust, lose reputation, lose money, and we have to let them go. These good businesses eventually go out of business if they don't change. And we have to constantly replace contractors like you. It's time-consuming. Ken, you're doing a great job for our 2 complexes. Keep it up and truly decide if you want and can handle more."

Her message hit me right between the eyes. It was a turning point for me. I was only pursuing apartment complexes because we needed money. But really, I hated apartment complexes. They paid terrible. The hours were awful. I would often batch 3-4 apartments overnight after cleaning all day and sleep on the floor! They were unpredictable. They were feast or famine. They were dirty. They required a lot of thinking, planning, and mental time. I never did add the 3rd complex. I veered down another path instead. I started growing and stabilizing my company with recurring weekly, biweekly, and monthly houses fueled by working with realtors. The real estate work was tough, but it opened the doors to simple, clockwork houses. I also learned my niche of presentation cleaning and applied it to house and office cleaning to build my reputation. 

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

Do you know why books, mentors, and being curious are so vital to your future? I loved the "Rule of Thumb" that my friend Jon Appino uses. It's a joke, but exposes a truth. People do not like reading books because they were forced to in school. I was EXACTLY the same leaving college and working at GE as an engineer. But then I started my first side hustle as an Amway IBO and was encouraged to start reading personal growth books. I learned this right away, understood it, and decided to embrace it. "You will be in 5 years based on the books you read and the people you associate with." Then it all connected when I learned about the Four Windows from Amway legend John Crowe. This knowledge has served me well for over a decade and I hope it hits the nail on the head for you. Here's a word of warning. This episode will cut you open and expose some truths about you that you do not like.

Think of a window with cross lattices and therefore 4 individual panes of glass in the same window. These are the four windows. Each has a different viewpoint on YOU!

The top left window represents the THINGS THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT EVERYONE ELSE ALSO KNOWS. Typically, this window contains your physical appearance and outward habits. For example, I have brown eyes, brown hair, and record this podcast. We do not learn much in this window, but we tend to operate here in our life too often. Nothing ever changes and no growth occurs. This window represents the status quo.

The top right window represents the THINGS THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT NO ONE ELSE KNOWS. This can be your dreams and aspirations and it can be your internal struggles, addictions, double talk, hypocrisy. Since no one else knows what is going on in your head, they can't help you. Therefore, if you remain in this window and keep doing the same thing over and over again, you'll get the same results. This is what Einstein calls insanity. Others choose to grow and pursue change based on what they know about them. This was me when I learned how important books were. I made the decision to read personal growth books in the areas I was strong and weak to improve both! This was my first step to becoming a lifetime learner.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

One year ago, I had just returned from the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Gatlinburg, TN in mid-October 2019. My arrogance and pride were exposed to 20 other entrepreneurs from around the country and I was faced with a difficult choice. Do I go all-in to building a new solo cleaning company in the Philly Area and am I courageous enough to share my weekly progress to you, my podcast audience? If you've been a listener to this show for any amount of time, you already know my answer. "YES!"

My update this week takes you behind the curtains as I met with these same entrepreneurs a year later in Pittsburgh, PA. Before I could leave, I had some calendar shuffling to do as the retreat was Wednesday to Friday and I had houses scheduled. Here's what I did. A month before the trip, I connected with each client affected and shuffled them around to keep as many as possible. I was able to move my Tuesday client to Monday, my Thursday and Friday to Tuesday, and another Friday to next Tuesday. I had to cancel one of 5 houses and was able to clean every office over the weekend. It was an insane schedule where I cleaned offices Saturday & Sunday, houses Monday & Tuesday, drove to Pittsburgh Wednesday through Friday, offices Saturday & Sunday! I survived. Here's the point. A solo cleaning business is flexible and the trip was totally worth it!

While I was in Pittsburgh, my pre-scheduled newsletter went out to 100 local subscribers and a few interesting things happened. I was contacted by a Christian publication and radio station about advertising. These outlets found me online and subscribed to my newsletter. At this point, I do not do paid advertising as I don't need it. I'm just amazed that I've been able to build something in a short time that is locally recognized. I'd have to say that my newsletter and attending local networking groups may be the most valuable things I've done in 2020 for my new solo cleaning business. One other piece of marketing occurred while I was in Pittsburgh. My wife was selling some baby stuff on Facebook marketplace. She made a friend, Rebecca, through a sale. Rebecca saw on my wife's profile that we owned a cleaning business and said to her, "I'm in the market for a cleaner!" Teresa asked me what to do. I told her to send Rebecca to my cleaning website, specifically to an article I wrote about how much I charge for cleaning. Rebecca did and loved my website. She filtered herself into my sales funnel and wants me to do an estimate next week. She already knows how much I charge and is okay with it. That's the essence of how my ISO Model Marketing System works!

The Pittsburgh retreat was totally different this year. I was edified in front of the team for my progress in 1 year as I took a solo cleaning business from $25,000 to $80,000 in annual revenue during a pandemic. I was able to develop a comprehensive strategy for the Solo Cleaning School and the Elite Membership offered to accelerate solo cleaners through my system. Plus, I set some new cleaning goals and made some great friends!

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

We all have that one child that we seem to teaching the same lessons to over and over. That's my middle son Kolby. He's my main man, 9-years-old and we share the same birthday. I say that the best birthday gift I ever received was him! He loves that. Kolby has a way of asserting his belief that he is always right. He also tends to talk and hear, more than listen. He will interrupt others when they are talking and not realize he's doing it (as he's in his own head). If his mom says it's warm out, he says it's hot. If she says it's hot, he'll say it's cold. You get the picture. I was teaching Kolby the difference between hearing and listening recently. Kenny overhead the lesson and thought it was a podcast episode. So here you go! I hope Kenny was right!

Your ears are designed to receive sound vibrations and transmit them for interpretation inside your brain. If you're truly listening, your brain then processes the sounds and acts. If you are merely hearing, the sounds are received but are drowned out by your thoughts or your words. In other words, hearing is passive and listening is active. To listen, you must fully engage your senses, which  includes your ears, eyes with eye contact to the one talking, and your mouth by not opening it. Active listening also includes your body language like nodding along or leaning forward. These signs show the talker that you are truly listening, truly care about what they have to say, and therefore, truly care about them. Hearing and talking over someone is selfish and taking. It harms relationships. Listening is giving and builds relationships.

I told Kolby that I've had to work on this a ton. I've read books on it. In fact, I read on last year that was over 300 pages just on how to listen! He was shocked. I told Kolby that we must all work on this vital skill to be a better human and in our family's case, a better disciple. This skill requires humility and an attitude of curiosity. An active listener has some answers, mostly questions as they realize there is way more they don't know. This takes them from a place of arrogance and pride in their knowledge to a place of receiving and wisdom. Our bodies were designed with 2 ears and 1 mouth as insight into the proportion God wants us to use those organs. Kolby had heard enough. Just kidding. He got the lesson and truly listened to his dad.

Why do I teach this to solo cleaners? It's a vital skill to acquire. We can learn from anyone if we truly believe others around us have value. True listening will instruct you how to serve your community and clients better. You will act on what you learn and serve better, build more trust, and become indispensable. This one skill can literally pull you out of a low paying, low appreciation position to one of honor, gratitude, and high profit. Start truly listening and act on what you hear.

What do you think? Was my son Kenny right?

This personal business update will be a little different. I do have some updates and it looks like a new client is coming on board as well. I'm combining a few weeks and sharing the highlights. One of the benefits of building a profitable solo cleaning business like I have and being debt-free now is that we can take more getaways as a family. It did NOT used to be like this. We have struggled just as much if not more than many of you listening right now. At the end of last summer, our family rented a house in Ocean City, NJ right after Labor Day with the Pugliese Family. They have 3 boys, which are the same age as our oldest 3 and our families get along so well. We went to the Great Wolf Lodge with them a few winters ago as well. Last year's beach trip was so successful that we did it again last week. We rented a much larger house with 3 balconies with ocean view and a block form the sand. It was awesome. We were on vacation, but we were not idle. 

Again, this update has multiple weeks of highlights. I mentioned previously that my cousin Seth and his wife Abby invited us to do an estimate for a historic wedding venue. I worked on that proposal at the beach and was able to email it the day we left. Abby was very thankful. The prices I optioned were much higher than what Abby is currently paying, but it really helped her to see the going rate of an experienced, professional company. My friend Shelby Miller from MCBA referred me to Pastor Bruce. He is the president of the board for a local non-profit community center and wanted a professional company to check out the building and give recurring cleaning prices for various frequencies. The estimate went well. During the estimate, I explained many elements on how to disinfect properly. Pastor Bruce was really connecting as he used to sell commercial cleaning products. He was thankful for my advice. I sent the proposal two days later, really impressing him. I also checked in with a church I sent a proposal last month. Jennifer was thankful for my detailed and honest cleaning proposal and recommendations.  Like Abby & Pastor Bruce, Jennifer will let me know once the board meets. As a side note, I want to know if you're paying attention. How did I get these 3 referrals? 

Abby - She's family, but she has seen some of my training videos and my webinar on disinfecting

Pastor Bruce - Shelby referred me from my weekly MCBA networking group. She my co-education chair and we have become friends.

Jennifer - Her boss, the pastor, saw my cleaning profile in an email that went out to all Indian Valley Chamber members. I got that profile because of my service to the Chamber during COVID.

The takeaway is that I am creating a word-of-mouth machine in my new area and solo cleaning business. How did I do it? Well, you're going to have to start with podcast episode 1 and follow the bread crumbs as my new business has built to almost $100,000.

Later in the second week of this update, Pastor Bruce called me hoping to get some time and ask some questions. I called him and answered detailed questions right out of my "How to Disinfect Properly" mini-course. He was thankful for the help and gave me verbal confirmation that he's working to get me into clean monthly once he gets the board to agree. 

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

Toward the end of the summer, I met for breakfast with my Chamber of Commerce friend Ken Byler. He owns Higher Ground Consulting, helping leaders and their teams to thrive. It was fun to reconnect with Ken. He's super smart and knows how to ask great questions. In fact, he hit me with 3 questions that really got me thinking. 

1. What did you learn about yourself through the Corona pandemic?
2. What did you learn about your business?
3. What will you change about your business going forward?

This episode is not about me. It's for you! I want you to write down these 3 questions and answer them. Then I want to encourage you to send me your answers to ken@solocleaningschool.com and I will respond to each one sent. This one exercise could propel you further in 2021 than any other. Are you going to do it? I dare you. Oh... I double-dog dare you. Wait... I triple-dog dare you!

I won't end this podcast without sharing my answers. Here you go Solo Cleaning School!

1. What did you learn about yourself through the Corona pandemic? I learned that I wasn't strong enough in the science of disinfecting to truly serve my community. I thought I knew, but I didn't. This caused me to go deep during my time in lockdown and research how to disinfect properly. It turned into a mini-course and my local claim-to-fame now, the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". I've shared this on webinars, blogs, interviews, my podcast, Facebook groups. My local pharmacy made me their disinfection expert. I was willing to change and get better, then get out there and share my knowledge. It felt great. I helped many people and it separated me as a specialist in my area. I gained at least 5 clients as a result. 
2. What did you learn about your business? I learned that my business wasn't pandemic proof. I lost 4 out of my 6 house cleaning clients and 1 of my 3 offices. I also learned that my business wasn't big enough. When I lost that much business, it affected our income a lot. Fortunately for me, we were diversified with other income sources like online memberships and the monthly payments on the sale of my former solo cleaning business. On a positive note, I experienced the stability of certain sectors of commercial cleaning during the pandemic. I did lose 1 of my 3, but only for a month. I witnessed across the country that the cleaning companies with at least 25% commercial in their portfolio did better. Many of their commercial clients asked for MORE service during the pandemic to protect their offices and employees when they returned.
3. What will you change about your business going forward? My immediate answer to Ken on this question was that I already changed it. Over the summer, my new specialist role secured me new clients. I bolstered up my commercial side and now run at 67% small commercial and 33% residential. My ultimate goal for my solo cleaning business is to add 4 more houses and 2 more offices in 2020, which would give me a near 50-50 split of commercial to residential. That's where I'd like to be for many reasons and one of them is stability from what I learned during Corona.

I was having a pre-driving talk with my 15-year-old son and shared my example when I was 16. I wanted to drive a car, but my mom couldn't put me on her policy. I bought my car for $1,300. Then my monthly expenses of car insurance, maintenance, and gas cost a ton. I needed this car to get to my job at the mall, but really I wanted the car to look cool driving to high school. I felt like I was treading water and not going anywhere. Why? I was going to school all day and then working at night. My weekly paycheck after taxes was just enough to pay my car expenses. I was in an ironic situation where I was working just to drive and driving just to go to work. I could have quit the job and hitched a ride to school from my neighbor and spent my time doing something I wanted to do. It took me a few years until I learned how to earn more income with the jobs I took. I was no longer working to drive as I had extra. Thank goodness or I would not have been able to afford taking my girlfriend Teresa anywhere. I could and won her over. I told Kenny. "And now she's your mom."

I then told Kenny another example of this irony, relating to moms. The stay-at-home mom wants to earn more income for the family. She goes out and finds a job. Let's say the job pays her $3,000 per month after tax. That sounds great, except one thing. She needs to hire a daycare service to watch her kids. She needs more maintenance and gas for her car. She needs more money for lunches and coffees and clothes for work. There are so many moms that accept the job before calculating the cost to have the job. Many times they are in the same place as the 16-year-old driver. They are literally working for daycare and putting the kids in daycare so she can work. It's ironic and very sad. Moms have so much on their plates and this puts them into a downward spiral and hurts many families. Aside from the zero profit, the mom is also taking her kids out of the home and getting them around other kids in daycare. Kids in daycare are always sick, so now this mom's kids are sick and it affects the whole family. Maybe the dad gets sick and has to call out of his work or business. This is detrimental.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

I'm excited to take you backstage again into my own solo cleaning business as I work to achieve my 2020 SMART goals! Now that the school year was back for my family and for my clients, I made a shift to my new schedule. I shuffled my biweekly Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday houses to Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. My goal was to reduce driving. When you're adding new clients like I've been, it's hard to optimize for location as you go. I tend to put new ones where I have the time to do an amazing 3-part initial cleaning. Once I speed up and lock in new clients, I begin to play calendar Tetris. As a practice, I try to move clients infrequently like once per year or less. Once I had the new schedule decided, I connected via email and text with each client to let them know. They all happily agreed.

During one of my house cleanings, I connected with my friend Ed Weidman. He helps companies attract their ideal clients through SEO, Facebook & Google Ads. After hearing several success stories on other cleaning companies running successful Facebook Ad campaigns, I decided to give it a try. I only need 4 more houses to hit my 2020 goal. I know that my prospect filtering process is highly effective and it will probably take 30 leads to generate the right 4 clients. Ed was very confident of this. He gave me the outline of what I need to do and I will keep you up to date on how this works out for me!

I've mentioned my cousin Seth Bryan in the podcast. He was on the good and bad end of a podcast. I shared his impressive story of how he finds potential houses to buy on "Finding Opportunities" and another story of how he cracked open his chin on Thanksgiving morning. Seth is like a brother. His wife Abby is part owner in a family business of a historic site for wedding venues and she asked me to come over for a cleaning estimate. We arranged to meet up early with the whole family before we went to a playground and saw a dinosaur show at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. During this estimate, Abby shared how unhappy she was with the current cleaner as well as the scope and frequency of the work. I took detailed notes of the facility and gave Abby much to consider. It's a lot of money, but the hours aren't ideal for me as she needs upward of 2 visits per week with one after 11pm on Saturday night. I promised to get the proposal out to her and go from there.

My integrity was challenged on Saturday morning. As I approached the door to office #2, I noticed a flyer stuck inside. I had to remove it to open the door. It was a business flyer for another cleaning company. Ooh, what to do... what to do? What would you do? Many would take the flyer and throw it away. That's logical. Remove the competition. That's one way to become the tallest building. You can knock the others down. I did something different to align with my integrity. I took the flyer inside, placed it on the receptionist's desk, and wrote a note. "I found this in the door. Have a great week!" This is the other way to become the tallest building is to build your building taller. This comes from a quote from Jim Rohn. Not only did I feel good about myself, but my kids saw me do it. I am confident in my cleaning and this was my way of building my building taller by building more trust with the owners. Remember, "Trust is Everything with Beth Lane"!

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

There are so many people with the words, "I can't" as a major part of their vocabulary. It's an easy answer and an easy excuse to fail. Those two words come from a society trained to be followers versus critical thinkers. I've been saying this to myself and my kids for over a decade. If we can change those 2 words to 3 words, everything changes. Do you know what the 3 words should be? You guessed it (it's in the title). "How can I?"

Why should you do this? The answer lies in the questions we ask our brains. Do you realize that most people make more statements than questions. This puts our brains on filing duty versus solving duty. It's a shame too because our brains are a nearly unlimited resource for solving difficult problems. Read the book, "Think and Grow Rich", and you'll see this more clearly. Let me explain what this change does in your brain. When you change the period of "I can't" to a question mark of "how can I" and your brain receives the words as a challenge to solve versus a statement of conclusion. To be successful entrepreneur, you need to learn how to think critically and to solve interesting problems. 

Let's make this clear with an example that happened last month with my daughter on the way to cleaning the first of 5 offices Saturday. Christianna currently shares a bedroom with her 3-year-old brother Kasey. She desires to get up earlier than him, but realizes an alarm clock won't work as it will wake him up too. She said this to her dad in the car. "I CAN'T get up on my own because of Kasey". I said this to her. "That's true. Let's change the statement to a question. HOW CAN I get up on my own without waking Kasey? 

This intrigued Christianna, but also let her know that she was about to undertake a long process of learning! My son Kenny was with us and he was smirking as he's already been through this many times with dad. I charged her with a thinking assignment while we cleaned. She had to come up with 10 possibilities of how she could wake up without waking Kasey. It was so much fun. We had a dinner picnic in between the 3rd and 4th offices in a park. Christianna came up with 6 ideas. Kenny and I added 4 others. We talked them over. Here they are!

1. Move my brother out of my room
2. Sleep downstairs on nights that I need to get myself up at a certain time.
3. Will myself to get up through neurolinguistic programming (NLP) the night before.
4. Sleep with earbuds and an alarm.
5. Wake up to just light alarm, facing away from baby.
6. Go to bed early enough to naturally awake at your time. 
7. Buy (or invent) a vibrating alarm. Be woken by feel vs sound or light.  
8. Setup contraption to dump cold water on your head at the wake up time. 
9. Put earmuffs or noise reduction earphones on baby or ear plugs.
10. Buy sleep number bed and setup program for head to rise at wake up time. 

As a team, we put our brains to work to narrow down the list of 10 to the best viable option for her. She decided. Some of the ideas were super funny and we laughed them out of contention. Others were unrealistic. Ultimately, we settled on our Top 3. They were the vibrating alarm, moving Kasey out of the room, and going to bed early. Christianna asked her brain more questions and she decided that the best solution to waking up before Kasey without waking him was to buy a watch with a vibrating alarm. She was amazed at how simple the solution was. You see, she had lived with "I can't" so long that she never tried to solve it. Once I changed her statement to a question, everything changed!

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

I would like to thank a listener to this podcast for this episode.  A few weeks ago, I received an email from Katie Young, sharing with me that she was in the planning phase of her new solo cleaning business. Katie was very excited to get started and thanked me for my support through this podcast. Then she asked a question that I have not directly answered yet.

"How do I name my business? My plan is to make my cleaning business eco-friendly and primarily residential."

She went on to share a few names she was brainstorming and wanted my opinion. I knew right away that my reply answer needed to be an episode so others could benefit. Thank you so much for your support and for this awesome question, Katie!

Before I share my thoughts to this question in 2020, let me take you back and explain how my company name was chosen. I consider myself a pretty creative guy, but for some reason, my family members aren't too creative with names. Let me give you some examples:

• My daughter Chritianna named her stuffed Ram, Rammy, when she was young.
• My son Kenny named his stuffed Skunk, Skunky, when he was young.
• My son Kye named his favorite stuffed Elephant, Ellie.
• My wife and I named our first side businesses accordingly. We named the side Amway business, Carfagno International, the writing business, Carfagno Writing, and the cleaning business, Carfagno Cleaning. Yup, we added the type of business to our last name and whammo.

The only standout in our family was my son Kolby. He was the creative one, naming his stuffed dog, Money, and his stuffed cat, Paper. He's our future millionaire. Thus, you can see that my solo cleaning business had absolutely rhyme or reason behind it. Once it was established, I didn't want to change it especially when I paid for 5,000 business cards and embroidered shirts!

I do hold a position on this now. If I were to name my company again, it would not be Carfagno Cleaning. I would go with something like Indian Valley Cleaning. I've been in the cleaning industry for 15 years, but I've only been networking and consulting in the industry for 4 years. I have learned a lot by helping other companies. Are you ready for your answer, Katie?

Naming your business is important, but don't make it a stumbling block to starting. Here are 7 recommendations for you to consider as you name your business:

1. The name of the owner is common for solos. I chose this with Carfagno Cleaning. Many solo cleaner's do this as well and unfortunately many unregistered, uninsured, and unprofessional cleaners do as well. You'll see "Debbie's Cleaning" or "Sally's Cleaning". There are absolute exceptions to this, but naming your business this was has two huge cons. It communicates "cheap", "under-the-table", Aunt Sallie, and certainly a small business. When you name the business after yourself, you become the brand verses what you do and what sets you apart. The second con is that it's harder to sell a business with the owner's name in it. You may say, "but Ken, you sold yours!" That's true. I sold my client list and my systems, but I kept my name when I left NY and started in PA. There is a pro to naming this way. If you intend to keep your business small and solo for the life of your business, naming your business after you will communicate that you get Debbie or Sally every time. Many homeowners desire this. There is a third point. If you ever intend to do commercial cleaning, the more professional and the less your brand is tied to you the better. I also think that using your last name is more professional than your first when going commercial. My business name has never hurt me in the commercial world. 

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

This week started with content batching. Batching is an optimizer's tool for ultra productivity. Every month, I create blogs, podcasts, and videos for Carfagno Cleaning and Solo Cleaning School. It takes a ton of time to do each week. I used batching in my cleaning business and in other areas of business over the years. When Teresa's mom was available to watch the kids overnight, we jumped on the opportunity and grabbed a hotel for the night. I got so much done as I batched blog after blog after blog. We also enjoyed time together, so it was a win-win. The following day, I rented an office from my MCBA friend Vernessa Hopkins. Vernessa owns H3 Business Services in Harleysville, PA. The office was perfect and I was able to record all of my podcasts for the upcoming month. My batching goal was to invest a few days and dollars to complete all of my content for a month. I accomplished that! Please keep this in mind. The portion of my batching that related to my solo cleaning business was a small part, so it may not be necessary for you to batch your content. However, you may start sending out newsletters a few times per month, maintain your website, and repurpose content to Facebook and Google My Business. Batching would be a great idea for you at that point.

I've been tracking each of my offices from Saturday to Saturday, so I know how long they are taking. Plus, I've made changes to get faster. Over the weekend, I had a difficult email to send. One of these office cleaning clients took me longer because of paint speckles and glitter on the floor as well as increased kitchen areas. I knew I'd have to say something or scope creep would get me! 

[Before continuing, check out the bonus video, "How do I Deal with Scope Creep" on the Solo Cleaning School YouTube Channel. You'll learn how easy it is for your clients to unintentionally take advantage of you.]

When the scope of work increases over time, it causes our cleaning times to increase. The great majority of cleaning companies will NOT raise the price as the scope changes so slowly they don't notice it. Not me! I recognized the potential Scope Creep setting in and knew I would have to send a difficult email. I used the sandwich technique with praise and gratitude in the open and close of the email. In the center, I laid out the areas where the scope has increased. Then I shared how this affects my company. "I clean five offices every Saturday right now. I'm in the process of adding more as well. So when one office starts taking me longer, it ends up costing me money. I'm sure you understand!" Then, I offered possible solutions which either forced them to take ownership and have the staff do more end-of-day cleaning or I would submit a new proposal with higher prices for the increased scope. I was nervous about the outcome as it was surely possible to lose the client, but I had to do this. It's my business and I must run it like one! Fortunately, they responded with consideration and we worked through the solutions together. Ultimately, they decided to take ownership for one portion. The other part, where they've added more kitchen appliances, we decided to alternate half-and-half each week. They gave a little and I didn't raise my prices. It also raised my image of trust and professionalism.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

Building a business is a privilege we have as free people in America. Patriots have bled and died to give and preserve this freedom and I never want to forget it. I also don't want to take it for granted. Kathy Barnette is the Republican candidate for U.S. Congress for the 4th District of Pennsylvania. This is the district I live in. She was a guest speaker in our church prior to the election and I was so moved with her talk that I asked her permission, her campaign, and our church for the right to take an excerpt from her talk and share it to my podcast audience. They agreed that this was a powerful message about preserving liberty and should be shared. 

I am keeping my notes on the episode short, but I do want you to see this quote from Kathy in print. It is one of the most powerful questions I've ever been asked. It brought tears to my eyes when I heard it. 

"If God removed you today, would anyone notice the ripple your life is no longer creating?"

Kathy has an incredible story of struggle and victory. Please keep an open heart and mind as you listen to her message. It is powerful!

Learn more about Kathy on her website.

This episode is in the same mindset of "Top of Mind" and "Get your Name Out There ". My solo cleaning business grew this week with a new client, but first I want to share about Tom and Andrew and how they each helped me. I wasn't afraid to ask for feedback.

Tom and graduated high school together. We haven't talked in 25 years, with the exception of a few Facebook likes. Last week, I got a private message from Tom. "Hey Ken I tagged you on a comment from Ryan Nyce. He went to MHS a few years younger than us. He's a realtor in our hometown area. He was looking for a cleaner for Trooper. If that's in your sandbox, then feel free to comment to him as well. Good luck man! I listened to a few episodes of your podcast. I'm not a cleaner, but some of the business-related stuff I enjoyed! Keep up the good work!" I had no idea that Tom was paying any attention to what I've been working on. I was honored to be honest. I always liked Tom. We had our jokes and goofed off as seniors, but he's done very well in life and I respect him. This message was so encouraging. I did connect with Ryan and friended him. He added me to his cleaning list and we'll connect sometime and I'll share with him my 3 levels of cleaning so he understands what I do.

Andrew has been following my cleaning email newsletters and typically replies to them with an encouraging word. Like Tom, Andrew is paying attention. I'm always thankful. Well, we talked in person at a recent BIB meeting and I asked him for feedback about my newsletter. I was working hard to put out a weekly cleaning article, but it was draining. I wondered his opinion on doing it less often. Andrew gave me great feedback. He said. "Ken, if you were a big company trying to grow big, I would keep it weekly to keep your name in front of people more. However, your articles are really good and every other week isn't as big of an ask for your subscribers to open and read. A monthly email isn't enough. They would forget you." This was such great advice that I made the switch for my August newsletters and saved a bunch of time.

Let's wrap up this episode with a another win from my solo cleaning business. The Skippack Animal Hospital hired me for monthly cleaning, adding another $5,000 per year in annual revenue. This new client hit my personal SMART goal for August 31st to add $15,000 in new annual, recurring revenue. I've not hit 4 SMART goals this year, increasing our revenue over $55,000 in 2020 alone! What an amazing year. I already mentioned in prior episodes that this new client was watching me from the behind the scenes and asking colleagues about me. They were paying attention. If you're putting yourself out there, I promise you there are people paying attention.

There are two stories I'd like to share to prove that mastery comes with strategic practice. The first story is cute. While making a secret Santa with my son Kye in the basement, I was painting meticulously. Kye marveled and said. "Wow, Dad. You're really good at that. When I get bigger, I'll be able to do it too." I said. "Kye, it's not getting bigger that will make you better. It's a lot of practice. I've been painting for 35 years." He got it right away. It's not how many years you've been alive. It's how many reps you put in. Do you follow this simple mindset?

Once you get better with practice, you will start to notice a phenomenon take place. Your body will just do the best version without you thinking about it. It's called Unconscious Competence and it's where you have a routine that is excellent, efficient, and unbreakable. That's what we need to win in anything. And it's what we need to be able to optimize our solo cleaning businesses. I won't dig into this now, but there are 4 levels to work through: Unconscious Incompetence, Conscious Incompetence, Conscious Competence, and Unconscious Competence.

It takes lots of reps to master these 4 levels. There's another mindset we can borrow from weightlifting too. You can bulk up with high weight and low reps. Or, you can build lean muscle with precision movements, maximizing the negatives of the exercise, through lower weights and high repetitions. That's what I want you to do in your solo cleaning business. Lower the weight and work with precision slowly at first. Master the 4 levels until you reach the pinnacle, then switch to high weight and optimize with speed.

That's the process. Let's close this podcast with a story I've never shared publicly. But if you can get past the funny parts and the title of the competition, you will possibly catch the biggest nugget I've ever shared in the Solo Cleaning School Podcast.

The movie Forrest Gump came out in my freshman year at Penn State. I was an engineering student with homework until 3 or 4am every night. It was brutal. My freshman classes had 300+ students and my sophomore had 100. That's why many said that engineering was pre-business as the drop outs went into the school of business. I couldn't possibly work straight through, so I'd mosey to the freshman commons with my ping-pong paddle, wait my turn, and play until I lost. That's how it worked. The winner would stay on the table accepting new challengers. After a month or two, I improved my already excellent game to become the best freshman ping-pong player. I was already the best in my high school, or at least tied with Scott Shalom, who was a year ahead of me. How did I know I was the best freshman. Simple. I would get on the table when it was my turn and I would stop playing when I was tired. I didn't lose. I was good! There would always be the same pack of Chinese students hovering around the tables and they would cower when I showed up. I was arrogant for sure!

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

I've broken a lot over 15 years, but it's all relative. I have two mindsets to discuss before I share my cleaning misdeeds.

1. Your auto insurance company keeps actuarial tables and knows exactly how much an accident costs on average. These numbers are taken into account when you get and pay your annual insurance premium. In fact, it is designed to be a win-win. If you get into an accident or not, the insurance company still makes money. They win. Plus, your accident or claim is covered so you don't have to pay out of pocket. If you cost the insurance company too much money, they will raise your premium to ensure they make a profit and you can still be covered. Insurance is a product. We insure many things. One of those things is our business against general liability and bodily harm. Your business insurance company has the same actuarial tables and business model. I personally pay $550 per year in general liability and yes, I've had to use it once. The first mindset to take is this. You need insurance because things WILL break or get damaged!
2. I'm a former General Electric mechanical engineer and Six Sigma Green Belt. Six Sigma is a design system to minimize defects to 6 per million opportunities. It's an extremely difficult high bar in engineering design to achieve, that's why companies like GE and Motorola in the 90's and 2000's thrived. As a cleaner, I touch 500 things in each house or office. Over my 15 years, I've cleaned an average of 250 houses and 250 offices or 500 cleans per year. If you multiply the this out, I've created 3,750,000 opportunities to break or damage something. I call this a defect. Over this same 15 year mark, I have 75 defects. Continue the math and you'll conclude that my defect rate is 20 per million opportunities. 5 sigma is 233 defects per million opportunities. I've been cleaning for 15 years right on the cusp of 6 Sigma. In fact, I am literally a 6 Sigma Green Belt in my defect rate over the past 5 years as most of my 75 defects happened in the first 10 years. Therefore, my rate of damage or defect is as good as GE designs the airplane engines you fly with!

Side note: If you're struggling with breaking or damaging things, first evaluate your defect rate. Feel free to assume 500 opportunities per house or office. Secondly, if your defect rate is over 50 per year, you need to make changes in how you clean. A few simple system changes and routine can fix it.

Now that you have the proper perspective on my defect record, let's examine some of the 75 so you can see how I handled them.

1. Knick-Knacks - In my first year, I had a client with a LOT of knick-knacks, especially in the kitchen. I decided early on to be a full surface cleaner, so I would move everything in order to clean under it. This house made me change my policy. I had to move close to 100 items to clean the kitchen every 2 weeks. It's no surprise that I broke 3 of them. I would slide them or bump them and it would crack or break. I told the owner each time. After my second break, she held back $20 from my cleaning check and fired me on the third.
2. Coffee Pot - What happens when you attempt to clean a thin glass coffee pot in a slippery wet hand over a hard granite kitchen counter? The answer is a broken coffee pot. I told the homeowner. He ordered a new one and I asked him to dock the amount from my next cleaning. It cost $25.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

I've told this story for years. Teresa and I were in the Amway business from 2002 to 2012. While we were there, we were blessed with incredible friends and mentors. One of those men is Herb Eplee. He build his Amway business to 6-figures and residual income in the early 90's and retired from corporate America at 37 years old. Herb is a self-acclaimed Kentucky redneck. He had a retirement party that literally made the Spartanburg, SC newspapers as he set 5 alarm clocks in a field. He labeled them Monday through Friday and blew them up one by one with a shotgun. All of his friends in the Amway business celebrated with American flags as he quit his job. I met Herb 10 years later. He was my Amway Upline and helped Teresa and I in so many ways along with our other upline mentor Joe Schirripa. These two men, whom I'll share more about in future podcasts taught us business owner mentality and mentored us in business, marriage, and faith. 

In July 2008, Teresa and I were fed up with our cleaning business. We had 3 part time employees. I was pulling in $5,000 to $6,000 per month, but kept less than $2,000 in profit. We were starving and full of debt and stress. Our tea kettle was past the whistle; check out "The Whistle is a Warning". We got on this coaching call with Herb wanting help on fixing our cleaning business, so we could be more effective in our Amway business. Well, good ol' Herb gave us some advice we did NOT want to hear. Here are some of the highlights on this call:

• I knew my numbers. This coaching call could NOT have happened if I didn't know my numbers. At the time of this call, I was in business full-time for 2 1/2 years. I've always tracked and known my numbers. This is huge!
• I wasn't able to be a giver. Herb wanted us prospering in our main source of income so we could be a giver and greater benefit to our community. We were so broke that we couldn't even help ourselves. "Ken can do without, but I don't like seeing Teresa and Kenny doing without."
• I was such an over-optimist. My response to Herb's first question, "how are you doin'", was "I'm doing awesome! We definitely could use some more money coming though." I was NOT doing awesome!
• I was employee top-heavy. You have to move yourself into the employee game very slowly. You have to work yourself up until you're very busy, then you bring on someone very slowly so it takes a little pressure off of you. It's a cash flow game. Herb perceived that we needed the entire $5,000 to $6,000 per month for ourselves after taxes to make it. He said, "with 3 employees and paying them, you're way-bad not making it!" This was a super simple way of testing if I could afford employees. Herb said. "Ken, you can afford to pay employees everything over and above what it takes you to float your budget." I wasn't even close! He made one exception. If I couldn't handle my full family budget cleaning solo, then I'd have to make due with employees and fight through with aggressive marketing. 
• I wasn't disciplined to marketing daily. I was not marketing to a level that would create new clients fast enough to keep the employees I had. Herb laid out the strategy to grow our business (in 2008) and how I could get my wife Teresa involved as a business partner. Teresa would need 2 hours per day to make 20 phone calls, which would create 1 new client per day and 5 new clients per week. I would need 2 hours per day around my cleaning to complete the estimates and proposals to close the deals.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

I brought my friend Vincent Pugliese into the SMART Cleaning Tribe that I facilitate in July as an expert to share mindset on building a life of Total Life Freedom. We covered many topics, but one connected more than any other. It was the concept of quieting your brain. Listen to the podcast for the full discussion. I'll share a few points he made while talking with Lizzie Strohl of Lebanon Cleaning Crew out of Lebanon, MO.

"It's easier to work 60 hours than to work 40 hours. I used to be that way, but you miss a lot. You the miss the ideas and you miss the creativity. Because if you can give yourself that time to relax and quiet your brain, and slow your body down verses always doing something... My greatest ideas have never come from being busy. I can get more work done by doing work, but the ideas that will grow everything that you're doing come from quiet. And when you don't allow yourself to be quiet, you'll just continue to do more work."

Since this expert call, our Tribe members have really taken this quiet time as a challenge. Jenn and Michelle decided to do a daily accountability and share ideas. Kate gets ideas right before waking up, coming out of her dream state. She started writing notes on a pad next to her bed when she wakes up. Plus, she has her phone with her while enjoying her favorite past-time of kayaking. Ellen has blocked off 2-3 pm every day to float around in her pool. She keeps her phone on a raft nearby on 'Do Not Disturb' mode and ready to write down any ideas. Ellen shared on a recent Tribe call that this simple investment of time is creating tremendous ideas. She brought one of them to the call and we had a blast brainstorming with her. This one idea could launch an entirely separate business, allowing Ellen to create the passive income she would love to create. She recognized there were common complaints in house cleaning and may have discovered a way to fix one of them! It's exciting, but I can't share it. Vincent was right. "My greatest ideas have never come from being busy."

In a recent solo cleaning business update, "Slow Down to Speed Up ", I invested 45 minutes in the driveway talking to potential clients. I answered all of their questions and even walked one through a series of questions to use to interview other cleaning services. Her name is Meghann. She hired me for an initial cleaning last week and it went splendid. Meghann was very impressed and wanted to get quotes for a recurring service either biweekly or monthly. I provided those prices within a day. By the end of last week, we agreed on a monthly recurring service for $160. Yay! It pays to slow down. I invested 30 minutes on the phone and it turned into $2,200 in revenue over the first 12 months!

I've shared the story of Tom and recycled computer parts for my son and that he hired me for biweekly office cleaning. This week, Tom decided to shut down his office again through COVID and drop cleaning to monthly. No big deal. I'm flexible and my proposal has this exact line in it. Tom was grateful.

"Contracts: Carfagno Cleaning, Inc DOES NOT require contracts. Our word is our bond.  Keep us as long as you're happy! But please, let us know if you ever feel something was  missed. A contract-free service allows you to switch between cleaning options as needed."

Here are some marketing-related activities from last week. My wife noticed that a local restaurant was looking for cleaning and forwarded the message to me. I immediately recognized it as Sammy's Bullfrog Cafe in Harleysville, a place where I've already submitted a proposal for biweekly cleaning. I thought this would be a good time to reach back out to the owners and say hi. It was no surprise that they asked me to send a requote and if I cleaned kitchens. I replied no to the restaurant kitchens, but resent my original proposal. I got a call from Heather for a biweekly cleaning, thanks to a referral from my realtor BIB group friend Mary Ann Alig. I took my time with Heather and gave her a bunch of information to share with her husband. Lastly, I completed the proposals for the owner of a local cafe, Pam, and the Skippack Animal Hospital! I was really proud of myself as I took my house and office cleaning proposal templates to the next level.

Now, it's time to get to the title of this episode. Susan Sloan is a fellow member of my MCBA networking group. She owns Real Health Quotes and recently partnered with her husband Tom on video interviews with local businesses to serve her clients. It's quite ingenious as she can bring experts from various industries to add value to her clients and it brings word-of-mouth power to the experts like myself. We have been trying to schedule this interview since February and finally got it done! Susan prepped me well for two short pieces, where Tom had varying camera angles. The first interview was geared to equip workers and small business owners to go back to work safely with respect to cleanliness. The second interview geared toward moms at home dealing with homeschooling and how to get the kids involved in the cleaning of the house. They were a lot of fun to create. 

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website

I published the article, "Did you Know Cleaning has a Specialist Too?" for Carfagno Cleaning and sent it out as my weekly newsletter. I want to read you this article as it will help you understand WHY I earn more per client than others. 

I also want to thank my fellow BIB member and insurance agent, Andew Rumbold of the R.A. Fraser Group for asking me the follow-up question "What is a Level 4 Specialist"? Andrew, that's an amazing question and here's my answer. I believe that the highest level one can attain in a craft or discipline is one of the teacher. You cannot teach what you haven't done. Thus, the teacher is higher than the doer. I labeled Level 2 and 3 as the experts in the science and art of cleaning and therefore labeled myself a Level 3 Cleaning Specialist. But thanks to Andrew, I am changing my label to the teacher and Level 4 Cleaning Specialist. I teach the science and art of cleaning to you listening to this podcast, to my students in the Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership, and my local community through newsletters, network meeting presentations, and webinars. I am a Level 4 Cleaning Specialist and like the doctors and surgeons from the medical field earn the most... so do I! 

There is a Level 0 Cleaner too! I call them "Aunt Sally" cleaners. They are sweet ladies who live down the street or clean part-time while in college or raising kids. They are uninsured, under-the-table & non-compliant on taxes, and come with HIGH-risk of getting you in trouble if something goes wrong.

I wanted to lay this out before sharing my prices. 

• My House Cleaning Prices: I currently clean houses on a biweekly (every other week), monthly, and bi-monthly (every other month) basis. I've cleaned in Upstate New York for 13 years and the Philly Area for 2 years. Over the past 3 - 5 years, my houses have ranged in price from $150 to $300 per visit and $150 to $250 for just the biweekly.
• My Office Cleaning Prices: Janitorial companies dominate this industry. They are large with many employees and typically clean large buildings multiple nights per week. I don't compete here! I'm a Level 4 house cleaner that has taken my specialty into cleaning smaller offices on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis. My current offices range in price from $200 to $1,500 per month (weekly offices from $500 to $1,500).

Here are some tips I offer prospects on my website and conversations to help them overcome price concerns:

• If you are looking to spend less than the prices I charge, I recommend finding a Level 1 cleaner. Do NOT be lured into a Level 0 Aunt Sallie option. They will cost half as much as my Level 4 prices, but the risks are too high especially in this post-COVID environment.
• Most families budget on a monthly basis. An excellent Level 3/4 cleaning service like mine can keep your home cleaned with more excellence once per month than a Level 0/1 cleaning every other week. A biweekly Level 1 cleaning at $100 costs $216 per month. You can invest that same amount into a Level 4 monthly cleaning and "feel" better because higher quality can be felt.
• I don't do contracts for homes or offices, allowing clients the flexibility to switch their cleaning frequency as needed.

If you found this useful, I encourage you to join our Elite Membership for the Solo Cleaning School for $50 per month!