house cleaning

This is a follow up to "Top of Mind" as I walk through 3 examples of how I get my name out there. Also, make sure to listen to the "Go for No" episode before this one! If you didn't listen yet, stop, and go back! It's hard in the beginning to do this as you fear what others will think of your new cleaning business. I promise you. It gets easier the more you do it. The next mindset you need is one of service and helping others. Getting your name out isn't greedy or self-serving. There are people right now that need exactly what you offer. You would be selfish to hold it back. Therefore, have courage and overcome the fear. Share your knowledge and your business and let God work out the rest. That's what I do. Here's the examples that happened my solo cleaning business over the past 2 weeks.

1. I mentioned this on "Slow Down to Speed Up" This week, I resubmitted a proposal to an office prospect Drew at Town Supply. I have put myself out there to 100 people each and every time I send an email campaign with something of value to my local community. Over the past weeks, I've been teaching on building trust with your new cleaning service. Well... Drew must have connected as he opened my previous emails multiple times and the one from last week 23 times! I knew it was time to reconnect. He asked for the new proposal, sharing all of the details of what they pay the company they chose over me. I put myself out there and it could turn into a $5,000 per year new office!
2. During COVID, I put myself out there and offered to help my chamber run virtual webinars. This lead to more trust between my company and my chamber leadership. Our president, Steven Hunsberger, offered for me to lead a webinar on how to disinfect properly and return to work back in April. Here's that presentation! A few weeks ago, Steven asked if I'd be interested in a showcase interview on me and my company. I said YES! Steven emailed me the questions. I answered them all and supplied some pictures. That showcase went out this week to 300 members via email and I'm amazed at the outcome. My friend and client, Dennis Gehman, along with my chamber ambassador Scott Little emailed me to congratulate me on a well-done showcase piece. Pam owns a local cafe and loved my showcase. She emailed me through my website and wanted to set up an estimate. We spoke over the phone and I took my time (obviously.... Slow Down to Speed Up). During the phone call and in-person interview, Pam asked for other references. I mentioned Dennis Gehman and Evan Gehman (from my BIB and they are not related). She knew both well and it helped a ton. This speaks volumes to the networking I've been doing over the past year! There is a great chance Pam will hire me as a new recurring biweekly house cleaning client!
3. I put myself out there to meet with the realtors in my networking groups 1-to-1 to get to know them better and share how I can help them. This strategy adds my name and business to their list of preferred cleaning vendors. I got a call this week from Ginny who needed cleaning ASAP. It was a long shot and I wasn't available. I asked how she found me. Her realtor gave her my number and told her to call. I never even met the realtor. They just knew me because I was recommended by their office, thanks to one of my realtor meetings!

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

You need to read the book, "Go for No". It's recommended on my 'Resources' page! I first read this book in 2007.

It taught me that No is not the opposite direction from Yes. In fact, it's on the way to it! Once I got that, my brain shifted 180 degrees. I was still fearful to talk to people as an introvert, but I lost the biggest reason for the fear. This book lays this out. Most people assume that getting a No to your offer is failure and Yes is success. That's wrong! Getting No's is a part of the process to get Yes's. If I got 1 Yes every 10 times, it meant that it took me 9 No's to get 1 Yes. Thus, No (and many of them) was on the way to Yes and success. I also learned that failure was not trying at all or giving up. This totally gave me freedom and removed a lot of my fear!

Once I got the paradigm shift, I was able to start evaluating and tracking my No's and Yes's until I knew how many No's it took me to get a Yes. As an example, I used to get 7 No's before a Yes. When I got the first No, I kept going through No and No and No. I was excited to get my Yes, but then kept tracking my No's. Over time, it took less No's to reach my Yes. Today, I get 2-3 No's before a Yes. I'm telling you! This book is a game-changer! Read it!

We need to stop trying to rush everything. I do have a goal and teach optimizing and getting faster at cleaning. However, I DO NOT rush the marketing and new client process. I take a lot of time to connect with potential clients. This pays off as I understand the trust building process. I have a few examples from this week in my own solo cleaning business. Let me paint the picture first. I was gone all day cleaning houses. While I cleaned, two messages came through for cleaning inquiries. I could have answered them, but it would hurt my optimizing times as the distraction would cause me to lose momentum. Plus, I wouldn't be on top of my game to give full attention to the prospects. I took voicemails. When I got home, I stayed in my car for 45 minutes. My wife and kids wanted me to come in and see them. Teresa didn't know why I was sitting in my car for so long, but she gave me the space. I was making an investment. During this 45 minutes, I returned 2 phone calls and took my time.

• One found me highly recommended on the HVL Moms group. She wants 1-time cleaning and recurring. I answered all of her questions as she's never had service before. My advise was to interview companies and ask these questions: Do you have $2M of General Liability? Are you state and tax compliant? What is your COVID protocol? What is your knowledge and expertise with disinfecting? She called back the next day and hired me for the 1-time job and likely the recurring.
• The second call was referred by Berkshire Hathaway as a 1-time renter-ready cleaning. I gave a ballpark of $250-$500. This prospect was very interested and could hire me.

Take your time with your trust-building and client on-boarding process. This will accomplish some vital wins for you. You will attract the right clients that will pay your prices. Over the long haul, this will set your solo cleaning business up for success in optimization. Look my own business forming up. I am averaging $175 per visit per house and the national average is $125! My clients hire me once and keep me a long time. They are grateful, pay on time, and turn into good friends. That's what I wanted. What about you? Slow down with your phone calls and explain what you do, why you do it, when you can do it, and how much it will cost them. In these two examples, I answered all of their questions including price. Plus, I built trust with both by equipping them on what questions to ask other cleaners they interview. Ultimately, this lead Meghann to hiring me for a 1-time cleaning for $250 and will likely turn into a recurring client worth $2,500 - $5,000 per year. Was the 45 minutes of slowing down worth it? You be the judge.

Let me hit some other highlights from my last two weeks building my new solo business. First of all, it's super cool to be attending my networking meetings in person again. At my MCBA group, I shared my overview of cleaning in a post-COVID world. Plus, I connected with fellow member Mike Thompson of Envoy Mortgage who hired me for biweekly cleaning. We confirmed our first cleaning for the end of the week. I showed up on Friday and impressed him! He asked how I got the metal sink so clean and my answer was simple. "It's all cleaning science!" This is my fourth biweekly house! At the BIB meeting, I was given the opportunity to do a short showcase on my business. I shared the TACT model of cleaning, which stands for Temperature, Agitation, Chemistry, and Time. I taught how to clean. It raised my level of cleaning in the group as I taught this.

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

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 Solo Cleaning School website

McDonald's is largest fast food restaurant chain in the world. There are nearly 40,000 stores worldwide totaling $21 billion in annual sales. I used to eat at McD's a lot as a kid and young adult. My favorite meal was the breakfast combo Sausage, Egg, and Cheese McMuffin, hash brown, and juice. Ray Kroc founded McDonald's on April 15th, 1955. He was a big thinker from the beginning and pioneered the franchise model, where you have a system for each new store empowering the spirit of the entrepreneur and leveraging the success of duplication. The company knows how to advertise with their jingles being some of the most well-known on the planet. They know how to entertain, bringing playgrounds inside their restaurants to get more kids to bring their parents. The company knows how to grow and scale. If you ever study this, you will be impressed. So many cleaning companies adopt franchise models as well for the same reasons. Like McDonald's, they can scale to incredible proportions.

Truett Cathy founded Chick-Fil-A on May 23, 1946. He was also a visionary entrepreneur, but his focus was different. They have been open 9 years longer than McDonald's, but have only opened 2,600 stores and these are mostly in the United States. On the surface, it appears that McDonald's is right with it's slogans of "Have you had your break today?" and "I'm lovin' it!" People are taking their breaks and loving it with over 1 billion served! However, let's study this further. 

Truett Cathy was a christian man who decided to observe the Holy Sabbath and close his stores every Sunday. This was an unthinkable move as restaurants make a fortune on Sundays! Truett focused on customer service with a smile and treating every customer with love and respect. He wanted his team to love what they did as they knew they were not in the food business, rather the people business. They also get paid more per hour than McDonald's. Truett Cathy decided to only serve chicken and has become world-class at it. McDonald's serves beef and chicken. Personally, I love the Chick-Fil-A Spicy Chicken Deluxe with waffle fries. They also know how to advertise. Their 'Eat Mor Chikin' campaign is brilliant and hilarious, displaying poor-spelling cows begging us to eat chicken instead of beef. Truett Cathy's methods have created raving fans of his restaurants. In fact, there are loyal patrons willing to campout for free sandwiches at new store openings. It's called the "Chick-Fil-A First 100 Campout Giveaway". These patrons are proud of their affiliation with Chick-Fil-A. The only time I've ever seen anyone camping outside of McDonald's are the ones that live there. Oh, and I challenge you to drive by both of these fast food restaurants and see which drive through line is wrapped around the building!

The typical Chick-Fil-A store is open from 8 am to 9 pm, while McDonald's is open from 5:30 am to 11 pm. Thus, the typical Chick-Fil-A store is open 78 hours compared to McDonald's 124.5 hours per week. However, something isn't adding up. McDonald's stores are open 60% longer and they have 15 times as many stores in the world, yet their annual sales are only a pinch over 5 times more than Chick-Fil-A. Do you know why?

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When I was 13, I got a job with the Movie Exchange. It was the company owned bye buy step-grandparents Monty and Shelly Tibbitts, whom I've talked about in prior episodes. They were the only entrepreneurs in my teen years, but I never had the courage to ask them real questions on business mindset. I wish that I had! However, I did learn a ton from them by watching the way the they lived and the way others treated them. First of all, they had money! There were always two Jags in the driveway. They owned a private plane, a boat, a beach house, wave runners. Secondly, they had beautiful decor and they entertained first rate. Check out "Eat with your Eyes First". The Tibbitts' were all about serving and mingling family with business. They made their business deals and built relationships with employees and their families at the dinner table in their home. Their imprint is definitely on me as an adult entrepreneur. I just didn't recognize it until Pop-Pop Monty passed away a few years ago.

I worked for the Movie Exchange for 2 summers. In this podcast, I'd like to share a fun story about swatting flies that connects deeply to how solo cleaners speed up their cleaning. This episode will be a great companion to "Optimizing is More Mental than Physical". During one of these summers, Grandma Shelly sent me into an unused, overflow office area. During the 90's, the Movie Exchange was rapidly growing a pre-viewed VHS division. They would sell acquire grocery store real estate sell these movies for under $10 and they sold very well. The movies had to be inspected, shrink-wrapped, price labeled, and distributed to their display cases in various outlets. In fact, my step-dad Paul was a lead salesman for this division of his parent's business. As a side note, I got to work in the shrink-wrap & labeling side the summer after this story takes place. Now that you understand the business model a little more, Grandma Shelly took me out to the empty office areas and showed me a full room of movie jackets (covers). She wanted me to organize these movie jackets alphabetically, so that they could easily match the VHS movies from the warehouse to the correct jacket faster. This work felt like busy work; a way to teach a teenager humility and work ethic. But no... I confirmed with Grandma Shellie recently and she assured me this was an important step in the process in 1990. She showed me where the box cutters, tape, and empty boxes were located and told me to stop by her office with any questions. That's all of the direction she gave me!

I remember this job distinctly 30 years later. There was a large central room approximately 40 feet by 30 feet and few side rooms. One of those side rooms was empty and the other was stocked floor to ceiling with movie jacket boxes. In 1990, I was a HUGE Beatles fan and was already wearing out the cassette tape of the Beatles Greatest Hits 1962-1966 on my Sony Walkman. I was ready to play this over-and-over while sorting through boxes all day... and I did! The Movie Exchange was paying me minimum wage of $3.85 per hour. I worked through July and August for 5 hours per day. It was awesome earning that biweekly paycheck as a teenager.

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I met Tom while living with my mother in-law. He was so nice and gave recycled computers to Kenny from his computer repair store. It started Kenny on a path to do computer flipping as a side business. We stayed in touch with Tom, with a possibility of Kenny doing some interning for him. I bumped into Tom again when he was on the Chamber webinar where I taught the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". Tom was really impressed and wanted to have me speak on the topic in a local business owner's group. We stayed in touch as COVID slowed. He invited us over as he had more recycled computers for Kenny. I've been very grateful that Tom thought of my son and helping a budding computer entrepreneur. I showed up with my son a few days later during a podcast recording day. I was dressed in shorts and a tank top. While Kenny was rummaging through computers, Tom mentioned that he was interested in getting a cleaning quote down the road. Of course, I told him we could set it up. But as Kenny took his time, Tom said. "Would you like to see it now?" I was not in professional dress and told Tom that I felt funny. He laughed and took me around the building. I took notes and promised to get some quotes out to him. When I saw the bathroom, I felt challenged by the rings in the sink. I knew Kenny wasn't done yet, so I said to Tom. "I'll be right back. I'm going to get the big guns and make this sink look awesome." He didn't argue at all. By the time Kenny was ready, the sink was glistening and Tom was amazed.

The rest of our visit at Tom's was very interesting. Tom agreed to allow Kenny to cut videos for his YouTube channel on computer repair for beginners, so we staged a video of Kenny knocking on the back door and Tom letting him in. The video then cuts to Kenny carrying computer parts and monitors out of the store and loading our SUV. He described what and why he was there. During our conversations with Tom, he shared something very interesting after I mentioned a mutual friend in Tom's industry that I just started cleaning for. Tom said this. "He's a MSP. I'm in the break-fix side of the business." He then explained the two business models in his industry and, of course, I related it to cleaning. Tom shared that break-fix businesses deal with smaller companies and have computers dropped off. He can work by appointment, and have a lot more flexibility. Plus he doesn't need many technicians to accomplish the work. It's a small, efficient business with flexibility. Tom explained the MSP (or Managed Service Provider) model like a hospital nursing station, where the company has screens monitoring the computer systems of all their customers in real-time. The MSP must be quick, nimble, on call, and ready to tackle anything that comes their way. They work on a recurring model paid monthly. Tom doesn't have a paid monthly model. He does one-time fixes. However certain customers come in for tune-ups few times a year most likely or have multiple repairs in a year as Tom is "their guy". Tom is the solo cleaner version and Chris is the team cleaner version. Both are excellent as they are different models and appeal to different clients. Tom knows what he is and why he does it. It was so encouraging to connect with a solo cleaner in the computer repair industry. I was also able to sent Tom's proposal two days later and got a "Yes" within 15 minutes! This is a new record for yes-time!

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

I loved and hated the movie "Patch Adams" when it came out in the late 90's. There is one scene that is burned into my mind and unfortunately, I'll never forget it. Patch and his girlfriend Carin Fisher were serving the community with a medical clinic. A man named Larry enters the clinic and they take him in. He is mentally ill and disturbed, but seems harmless. One night, Larry calls Carin and asks her to come over and help him. She is so trusting and willingly comes over. She enters Larry's house with a smile, says his name, then sees his face. The scene ends as my heart fell into the pit of my stomach. I knew what happened and it was confirmed when the scene ends and goes to Patch receiving the news that Carin was murdered by Larry, who then killed himself with a shotgun. Years after this movie, I still think of this scene for my wife, my daughter, and even myself as I enter homes and offices to clean by myself. What could Carin could have done differently? Are there steps that solo cleaners can take to protect ourselves? I admit that I don't worry as much as a guy cleaning, but I've still had my doubts from time to time. The majority of solo cleaners are female, so I've asked a solo cleaning community that I lead for suggestions. Here's what they said...

• Beth Lane - I always try to vet them online through Google, the socials, etc. On the walk through, I only agree to the job if my “gut” tells me it’s okay. And if not, I need no logical reason to say no. My instincts are enough. Also, I don’t service homes of single men. Nothing against single guys...it’s just not my personal comfort zone as an unmarried woman.
• Heather Albrecht - I keep a Google calendar and my clients addresses are all in it. Its shared with my husband, he always knows where I am. If my clients leave, I lock the doors behind them. I keep my phone on me. I try to always be aware of my surroundings. If I go to meet a new client, I make sure to have my pepper spray, keep my keys on me, I also again make sure my husband knows where I am.
• Chelsea Donaldson - Look the person up on Google/Facebook. I always feel better if we have mutual Facebook friends. Once, a bachelor client had a news story done about him rescuing a dog that was hit by a car. Generally, single male clients are the ones I'm most nervous about, but that news story made me feel much better! 2 years later, I still clean for him bi-weekly. Great guy! Carry pepper spray the first time and always let them lead when showing the home (i.e. don't let them walk behind me). I do a walk-through before EACH cleaning. This is to see which areas need most attention, but also to make sure nothing is out of the ordinary or potentially dangerous. Lock the door when I'm alone in a house. My husband always knows where I am and when. I like to say hi to any neighbors or delivery/service people that I see before I go in. Just extra people to know who I am and where I am. I'll add here. If you have mutual friends on FB, check with those mutual friends and see if they have any feedback on this potential client.
• Letra Grayer I bring pepper spray and share my location with someone at all times. Sometimes, I may call someone to let them know I made it to the location in front of the customer and I let the person know that I’ll call them when I leave. They have the address and contact number and will do a follow up service call. Mainly to ensure I have left the premises.
• Carol Lange Always make sure you know the address. Keep your phone on and charged. Consider obtaining your conceal-carry permit. My husband always knows where and when I'm supposed to be. Lock all doors. When exiting he also knows this. Been doing this 23 years. Never be alone when they have workers in the home.

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

I shared in previous episodes that marketing is layered. You add one at a time. Well, I began to use the free Google My Business listing in November 2019. It's a simple tool and totally allows me to showcase my strengths. I call this in my ISO Model Course, a "Profile to Win". Here's the gist. What can I display about me and my company to create trust and credibility before they ever call me? In my 15 years, I have learned that before & after pictures, professional credentials, and recommendations are essential. This is what I love about Google my Business. You can collect 5-star reviews, add posts and credentials to show off your level of specialization, and post before & after pictures. Google has internal analytics that I can easily track called "insights", allowing me to see the impact of these updates. I currently have 21 5-star reviews, tons of pictures, and a weekly blog with links to my website. Google uses this information to boost me for free up their search algorithms. In fact, when you search "House Cleaning Harleysville", you'll find my company highly ranked in the map pack on page 1. I've been wondering if this effort was going to pay off as no leads have come yet (at least that I knew about). Please understand. I ran my solo cleaning company for 14 of 15 years with NO website. I didn't have a Google My Business listing until last year and started my Facebook business page 2 years ago. You may be asking yourself how in world I ever got any leads! I grinded it out and was referred by word of mouth and I had a ton of success in earlier years with ServiceMagic (presently HomeAdvisor). However, some marketing channels that worked in prior years may not today. I ditched HomeAdvisor for Facebook, Google, and a website. It's so cost effective as I only pay like $20 per year for the website and the others are free. Anyway, it goes without saying that I've never received a lead through my website until this week! Thank you Google!

Last weekend, I got two leads through Google My Business and Facebook simultaneously. Here's a HUGE tip. When you have multiple marketing channels, it's hard to figure out which one they found me on. People are looking everywhere. Sam searched for a house cleaner and found my Google listing. She dug deeper and found me recommended in her Facebook mom's group. Sam visited my website and called me! Kathryn found me on the Facebook mom's group and then searched me online. This lead to my Google listing with my reviews, pictures, and posts. Ultimately, Kathryn visited my website and called me! 

I also got my first ever website email inquiry this week. This potential client saw my posts on the Skippack Pharmacy Facebook page, which linked her to my Facebook buisness page. She liked my page. I friended her and thanked her for liking my page, plus offered to help with cleaning. She visited my website from my Facebook page and send me an email a few weeks later to clean her new home. I closed the deal on this lead with a phone call and phone estimate. I booked this job for a ballpark price range of $600 to $1,000 next week. This is a common strategy I use to lock in 1-time jobs as I'll price the exact quote prior to starting.

Are you starting to see how marketing layers work together? After the fact, I went back to my Google insights and looked at the past quarter. This blew my mind. I've had 550 total searches driving people to my profile over the past 90 days. 38 of these searches landed on my website and Google reports that 5 have called me directly! Now, I'm not sure how Google figures this out, but I definitely got 2 calls this week!

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

This episode is completely different from others! I made a mistake in my industry, owned it, and it turned out really well! I'm a member of various cleaning groups on Facebook. One of them is called Professional House Cleaners, run by my friend Angela Brown of Savvy Cleaner. There are over 10,000 cleaning service owners active in this group to share lessons and best practices for the benefit of our industry. That's how it's supposed to work. We are all a part of the same industry and we understand that a rising tide, rises all ships.

I typically go in this group a couple times a month to skim the posts, learn, and answer questions. At any given time, there are thousands of brand new cleaning owners that have very basic questions like... "How much do I charge for this house?" "How do I clean this shower?" I don't typically engage with these questions. I like to answer deeper science or people-related questions. Well, I was on Facebook late one night and thought I'd skim a few recent posts. I saw a dozen or so of these basic starter questions and scrolled past. Then I stopped to answer a few newbie questions that were mindset or science related. It was late. I was tired and admittedly, I didn't read the entire posts. I got to this guy, Mark Baker. He had a post on the use of Bar Keeper's Friend in kitchen sinks. I barely read the post, made the assumption in my tired state that Mark was a newbie, and answered why BKF works using basic cleaning science. Then I shut down and went to bed.

In the morning, I had a personal message from Mark Baker. Here's what it said.

"Hi Ken.. thanks for your comment on my post. I felt a bit like you were talking down to me a bit with it and I wanted to reach out and let you know. I know you run a business assisting cleaning pros and I'll be listening to you at the maid summit. Just wanted to note that my post didn't insinuate I don't know the science of cleaning. I actually built my business from solo to 1.87 million in annualized sales (before pandemic shut down) in under 5 years in a very small market with just residential and now have a national company with cleaning pros in dozens of cities across Canada. We are well educated on the science of cleaning from HCT training to GBAC training, to pretty much every cleaner training program out there and have our own program which combines them all. I don't put that out to the group much as I enjoy learning and I am a cleaner at heart and every single day the group teaches me new things and I love interacting with my industry peeps. With all that said, i'll check out your solo cleaning tribe website. I wanted to share as most would appreciate the comment but for some of us it can come across as condescending as you made an assumption I wasn't in the know and you were. Looking forward to checking out your site!"

I immediately felt terrible about what I had done. I wasn't trying to put Mark down. I just made an assumption in my tired state and he rightly called me out on it. Here's my response!

"I'll have to read my comment and will edit it. I never want to infer arrogance. I'm very sorry about that and thank you for bringing it to my attention. It was late and I rarely go into the other groups lately. I was answering questions and saw your post on the sinks and BKF. I prefer the creme version. Congratulations on your success and I really like your desire to stay 'new'."

I followed this up with 2 voice messages directly to Mark explaining and apologizing again. Then I updated my comment on his post. I didn't delete it. I owned it by typing "update to original comment", followed by an public apology to Mark and a better explanation of my full answer to the cleaning science I mentioned.

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

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!

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This episode is completely my son's idea. Kenny jammed his finger a couple months ago. I noticed that he was dragging his feet with household chores because his finger hurt. He wasn't shooting the basketball well and losing in PIG because his finger was hurt. It seemed like everything Kenny did that first week, he was looking for empathy and wanting everyone to see him suffering. It also gave him a built in excuse why he wasn't performing in multiple tasks.

Was his finger hurt? Yes, it was. Was Kenny capable of more than he was showing? Yes, he was. I identified the mindset as "Loser's Limp". Zig Ziglar coined this phrase in his book "See You at the Top". Here's how I relate the concept from reading Zig's book. It's 4th and goal in overtime with 3 seconds on the clock. It's the last play of the game. The quarterback takes the snap and has a wide open receiver in the endzone. The receiver can squeeze the ball into his chest for the victory. He drops it as he falls to the ground. The game is over. The other team is celebrating. When the receiver gets up, he could say, "My bad." and take ownership, get better from it, and perform next time. However, he does something different. He gets up with a limp and hobbles off the field. The supposed injury masks his mistake. His teammates and fans show empathy. "He was hurt and couldn't make the catch." They validate his limp. They validate his excuse. They validate his losing mindset. Another example in the same sport is when the referee makes a bad call and that's why the other team won. Zig's example in the book is more about business. "I'm not a born salesperson or a born doctor, lawyer, artist, architect, etc." These people, like the football athlete, use this as an excuse whey they can't succeed. Zig also says."If you think you can or can't, you're right." The takeaway here is simple. You must decide to win or succeed. It's a mindset, not an outcome!

I explained this to Kenny. He didn't like it, but he agreed. Last week, Kenny and I were outside reading by the campfire and he stepped on a sharp twig. We literally had to cut skin away deep into his heel. It hurt. The next day, I watched him mow the lawn. He bandaged it up and completed the job in 1 hour! This is a big deal if you listened to the last podcast on Optimizing is More Mental than Physical. After he was done, he said this to me. "Dad, I found my Winner's Stride." I asked him what he meant and he shared. "I realized that I had the Loser's Limp and it was holding me back. I decided to think differently and stop looking for excuses for why I was losing. Instead, I starting finding ways to win."

If Zig were alive and heard this podcast, he would smile as his teaching made it's way into my son. But what about you? Have you ever been guilty of the "Loser's Limp" in your life? Have you ever used a disability, lack of opportunity, health or money challenges, mistreatment from others, injury, or 'not born with it' as an excuse for why you didn't succeed? I challenge you today. Turn that disability, lack, challenge, mistreatment into the reason why you succeed. That's how you create a platform to help others by sharing your testimony. Kenny called it the 'Winner's Stride'.  I'm a proud papa.

As we emerge out of the pandemic, people are wanting their homes and offices cleaned again. This week alone, I got 5 opportunities to quote! Before I share the 5 leads, I want to explain a principle. Are you familiar with the lotto machine?

The Power Ball Lotto Machine has 69 white ping pong balls that bounce around off each other and the machine walls until 5 are selected. There's a second machine with 26 red balls, where 1 is selected to go with the 5 white ones. I want you to think about your marketing machine like this lotto machine. Every time you make a new connection and build up the know, like, and trust factor in that relationship, you enter a new white ball into your machine. If you only have 1 ball in there, you will get a lead eventually, but you will have to wait. What if there was only one white ball in the lotto machine? Well, you'd have a 100% of winning and therefore the Lotto would not allow that game to run. The 'house' would lose every time. One white ball is a losing game. What about adding a second white ball? Well, if the Lotto game was drawing one ball as the winner, you'd have 50% odds like a coin flip. The house would lose here too, so they would only run this game if the payout was small. As you add more balls from 1 to the full 69, the odds of winning reduce dramatically. Therefore, the payout increases as the odds decrease. Check this out, the odds of winning Powerball are 1 in 292,201,338! With odds this low, the house knows they can create HUGE payouts to entice more players to play with the higher payout stakes. And the house knows that they will make money. They will have payouts to winners of $150M, $300M, $500M, or 63% in total payouts (according to a CNN Money article from 2017). In other words, the 'House' or state governments that run the Lotto count the 63% in winner payouts as an expense. There is still 37% leftover that pays the overhead and variable costs to run the Lotto. The profits remaining according to the article can be upwards of $16B annually for states. It's a profitable business for sure. 

Here's the concept I want to draw from this. The more balls in the machine, the lower the odds and higher the payout. Treat your solo cleaning business like a Lotto Machine. Put yourself into position as often as possible to create new connections for future business. Nurture those relationships by serving them. Build your Know, Like, and Trust factor over time. This will add tons of white ping pong balls into your marketing machine. They will bounce around and leads will start coming more and more frequently. As you get more leads (due to more connections and ping pong balls), the demand for your service goes up... and so do your prices or payout!

If you're been following this podcast, you've listened as I've built my new cleaning network in the Philly Area. I've made many connections and I've served them. In early 2020, I had a handful of ping pong balls in my marketing machine that generated a few leads. I invested time during COVID to educate and serve. This added a ton of white balls. Now, I'm seeing the fruit. This week 5 white balls were drawn from my machine:

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My son was getting frustrated with cutting the grass. We have an acre and he'd take 2 days to complete it. His total time was 2 hr 45 min (30 min prep, filling up grass, picking up large sticks, cleaning up yard toys and moving furniture) and 2 hr 15 min to mow over 2 days. He wanted a riding mower because it was taking too long.

I have done this to solo cleaners for a long time and knew it was time to prove a point to my teenage son. I told Kenny. "You're off duty this week. I'll cut the grass and will have it done in an hour. I had Kenny do the pick up and prep, so I could simply grab the push mower and cut grass. I had no system as this was literally my first time cutting the grass at our home and it took me 1 hour and 15 minutes. Kenny was stunned and mad! His upper limit was blown. Prior to watching me cut the grass, he was like the Roger Bannister haters. Do you know that story? People thought it was impossible to complete a mile in under 4 minutes. The best in the scientific and medical field even proved that it was physically impossible. Then Roger broke the 4 minutes mile in 1954 and hundreds have done it since! 

Kenny's belief system changed when he saw me do it in 75 minutes compared to his 120. "I heard you say you could do it faster, but I had to see it to believe it." Kenny said. This gave him a new target. Realize that we are wired to compete. Once I showed Kenny that the grass could be cut in 75 minutes, do you know what that sucker did?! He duplicated me on the first try. This happened two months ago. Kenny gets the yard done in less than an hour every time now. He has optimized it better than I did. My son needed a new number to shoot for and beat. It's like the Charles Schwab story in "How to Win Friends and Influence People". The day and night crews in a manufacturing facility were underproducing. Charles didn't yell at them. He simply wrote a number on the floor in the morning for how many units the night crew turned out. The morning crew surpassed that number, erased the night crew's number, and replaced it with their own. This friendly spirit of competition built unprecedented levels of production for Schwab.

Take this mindset into house cleaning. We need to train our clients to do the pick up themselves (pick up toys, clear counters). They do the work of Kenny. Then I come in to do the cleaning in a system that can be efficient. Imagine if you're a house cleaner with times like Kenny. Your average house is 4 hours. If I taught you how to shave an hour off each house, do you know how much time that can save you at 10 houses per week? 520 hours per year. If we fill that time with new biweekly houses at $150/visit, that's an extra $26,000 in revenue per year! Optimization is the addition of little numbers equaling a big one! Once he had a challenge, he worked against the clock to win. This is how optimizing happens!

This was a breakthrough week for the Big Picture of what I'm doing. I have business SMART goals that I set for my solo cleaning business on 1/1/20. I share this mindset in my goal-setting series (What is Your Why, Why Set Goals, Make Your Goals SMART, The Accountability Roadmap, and Kill Parkinson). The lessons and reminders from this week in business forced my hand to create a 6th installment to this series.

As many of my podcast listeners know, I have other streams of income. I run the SMART Cleaning Tribe for team cleaners. I host this podcast and the connected Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership for my students to learn my ISO Model to hit their goals.  I am also at the beginner stage to consulting large cleaning companies with employees that would like to scale with optimized solo cleaners or Solo Teams. I'm also a published author of an interactive book for fathers to read to their kids called "Arctic Land".  In past years, I have struggled with holding it all together and being productive with multiple irons in the fire. This year is different. I have figured out a way to prioritize and follow through. I call it reverse engineering your dreams and I hope this podcast will help you find a similar system that works for you! 

I knew (prior to COVID) that this year needed to be our breakthrough year. We needed to build a new solo cleaning business to become an optimized part-time 6-figure income. There were multiple reasons for this:

1. To teach our kids the "family trade" by working with dad, earning income, saving, giving, spending, and investing.
2. To show YOU (the listeners) that my ISO Model works by building and optimizing a second solo cleaning business to the same level as my first in a fraction of the time.
3. To earn a main income source in the schedule I was willing to clean that would provide everything our family needed too thrive in 2020 & beyond, not relying on any online income.

Thus, I set the SMART goals on 1/1/20 to add $10,000 of new annual & recurring cleaning revenue every 60 days. This seemed like a tall order, but I believed it was A-chievable (the "A" in SMART Goal). I added 3 new houses in January & February to hit my first SMART goal for 2/29/20. March and April were very difficult with COVID-19, but I plugged away at my #1 goal for 2020 and upgraded a veterinary hospital by doubling the monthly service fee to hit my 4/30/20 SMART goal. We added 2 offices and a house to not only hit our 6/30/20 SMART goal, but we doubled the goal! The year is halfway over and we've hit 3 out of 3 goals. We have accomplished this through COVID, the loss of my Nana, near loss of my mom from COVID, and the emotional toll of helping my autistic uncle. How is this possible? We've been focused and having a #1 priority all year has allowed me to tend to other things. I have NOT been distracted. This level of FOCUS is necessary. And FOCUS stands for Follow One Course Until Success.

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

Chest freezers are super-hard to get right now with the COVID pandemic. They are back ordered by manufacturers and the used market is dry. So when Teresa came across one on Facebook Marketplace, she jumped at the opportunity as she really wants one. It was a great deal and the seller was going above and beyond to save it for us. He assured me that it worked and I trusted him. He's a business person and had a solid story for why he was selling it. I'm usually a very good judge of trust.

We paid him $400 cash, no haggling. We got it home and I thoroughly disinfected it for over an hour. It was a lot of work and ended up costing me a full work day. But my wife was happy and that has a great value. I plugged it in overnight to make sure it worked. In the morning, the alarm sounded as it reached 26 degrees. The temperature never dropped below that. In fact, I lost more time throughout the week fiddling with it. Eventually, I spoke to an appliance repairman who diagnosed it over the phone. "It's leaking Freon and is junk." He went on to explain that it would cost way too much to repair and we could just wait to buy a new unit for $1,000 - $1,200. Darn! Teresa and I were upset that we had no freezer, lost $400, and had to pay to recycle our cold closet! Plus, the seller was not responding to us at all! I was duped!

Let's look at this story from an opportunity cost standpoint:

• The freezer cost $400 used. It was available immediately.We had no idea if it worked. There was no guarantee and no refund.
• It consumed a total of 1.5 work days in total to obtain this freezer, set it up, clean it, diagnose it, and recycle it. If I were to just clean at my current average rate of $55/hour, I could have earned $660. If I used my consulting rates, it would be well over $1,000. Plus, it costs $75 to recycle.
• The drive also caused wear-and-tear on our family van and cost another $10 in gas. We drove 38 miles total. The IRS currently gives $0.575/mile to cover all vehicle expenses. This amounts to $22.
• A brand new freezer would cost $1,000 - $1,200. It is not available for 3 months, but is delivered to our door with a 1-year warranty.

The analysis is simple. I chose to act like a poor man with Poor Man Mindset (as explained in Rich Dad Poor Dad). I only considered the $400 cost and availability. I did not account for inconvenience, lost work hours, and most of all... RISK of it being junk! My total cost from this Poor Man example is $1,157! I literally spent enough in actually cash and opportunity cost to buy a brand new unit and I didn't even get a freezer out of it! This makes me sick to see the numbers like this. 

If I had thought like a Rich Man, I would have said NO to any used, risky option to save me money as I would have known that the cost would have been more. It's the Bill Gates $100 bill story that I've told on this podcast. If I was thinking like a Rich Man, I would have told my wife to buy a new freezer and get the one that she wants for a decent price. Then have it delivered, setup, and get the warranty WHILE I worked in our family business on the 20% of work items that earns me 80% of my profits. If I were thinking like a Rich Man, these decisions would have earned me $2,000+ while my wife spent $1,200 on a freezer. I would have been $800 ahead instead of $1,157 behind. In this example, the Poor Man to Rich Man swing is $1,957! Imagine how big this opportunity cost gets when you look at big items and lost time in weeks or months!

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

We watched "Hamilton" as a family and loved it! Lin-Manual Miranda is genius and so talented. We can't stop singing the songs and I keep finding myself singing, "You'll be back" or "I am Alexander Hamilton". There was an incredible lesson in leadership that was introduced in the earliest scenes of the play and played out in the Election of 1800. Aaron Burr was portrayed as an excellent politician, but held no definite position. In the play, here's Burr's advice to Hamilton in the opening. "Talk less. Smile more. Don't let them know what you're against of what you're for." Hamilton's response was, "you can't be serious." Burr simply stated as a politician would. "You wanna get ahead? Fools who run their mouth off wind up dead." Burr followed his own advice and climbed the political ranks.

Hamilton did not listen and held a position and made it known. He didn't care who he offended because the ones that agreed, followed him. He was a leader. Burr was a politician. In the Election of 1800, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr were deadlocked until they asked for Alexander Hamilton's endorsement. Hamilton hated Jefferson, yet he chose him. Here's his words in the play. "I have never agreed with Jefferson once. We have fought on like seventy-five different fronts. But when all is said and all is done, Jefferson has beliefs, Burr has none." Jefferson became the third president and the wound Hamilton inflicted on Burr's pride ultimately caused the duel that killed him. 216 years after the famous duel between the leader and the politician, Burr is vilified and Hamilton has a Broadway show honoring his life and accomplishments. Leaders stand for something and their mark is remembered. It's the difference between the lighthouse and the bouy. Burr is a buoy, rising and falling with the tides of life and popular opinion. Hamilton was the lighthouse, a rock-solid structure leading others to freedom.

In the first year of my cleaning business, we were struggling big time! Every house was a chore and every dollar was spent before I even earned it. I'll never forget the house at Lake George. It taught me so much. 

• Keep your dream big and keep it alive. Every struggle seems worth it when your dream is big. Every nasty house you clean after Lake George is worth it. A leader in the Amway business named Larry Winters said this. "If your dream is big enough, the facts don't count."
• Not everyone is trustworthy, no matter what they look like. Michael was an attorney from NYC with a lot of money. He had prestige, a beautiful house, but he didn't pay me for 3 months after constant pestering. He didn't think highly of me as I was just some lowly house cleaner. Michael was creating negative ripples.

This happened in 2006. We had $170,000 in debt and earned less than $20,000 that year. My wife was home with our first son and we lived in a rented house in an unsafe part of town. That lake house built a dream for me and sustained me through some difficult years. As I record this podcast, we are literally paying off the final debt payment and will be 100% debt-free for the first time in our adult lives. We still live in a rented house, but it's safe. We live in a 2,300 square foot farm house on 2 acres with a large creek in the back. We love it. We are beginning the wealth building process and who knows... maybe we'll have our own lake house in a few years.

What is your Lake George house that built your dream for a prosperous future? Keep this story in mind as you work through your struggles. No matter how hard it gets... Remember Lake George and it will get you through it.

Six months ago, I met Michelle at a chamber luncheon and handed her my business card. After the luncheon, I sent a personal video message through VidYard as a follow-up to our meeting. She watched the video and replied back with gratitude. Then she told me she would keep my information on file. Then Corona hit and real estate was crushed, so I wasn't expecting anything.

I received a phone call from Lon this week, a local realtor. He wanted an estimate for a sale-ready presentation cleaning for an estate scenario prior to showings as the real estate market opens more. As we talked, Lon mentioned his colleague Michelle and that I was "highly recommended". I NEVER cleaned for this real estate firm or Michelle, yet she highly recommended me. That's the power of making a strong professional impression. My initial handshake and conversation wasn't special, but going the extra mile with a personalized video made all the difference. I booked the job with Lon for $450 and I never even met him.

If you're paying attention to this story as I paid attention to details of my conversation with Michelle (to send her a personalized video), you can take your networking to the next level. Every conversation is a seed. There's another takeaway solo cleaners. This job was a 1-time cleaning for $450. I averaged over $60 per hour and I'm just getting started in my new solo cleaning business as a Stabilizer. I used to earn over $100 per hour as an Optimizer in my 1st business. I'll get back to that level, but the point is that 1-time jobs are very profitable. They also lead to other profitable 1-time jobs and recurring jobs. I build my 1st business on real estate 1-time jobs that lead to recurring. Lastly, these 1-time opportunities have helped buffer our income during COVID-19.

I followed up with Drew from Town Supply. He went with another cleaning company. If you remember from "Don't Be a Hoarder", Doug's wife said this to him. "This guy knows a lot about cleaning! Can we get him to clean our new office?!" I thought this job was a definite, but it just goes to show - "Blueberry Pie". I wished him well and kept him on my mailing list. Then something interesting happened. Drew considers me the cleaning & disinfecting expert, but he hired another company. He emailed me asking for some disinfecting recommendations. I shared what I'm using and how to get it. Drew ordered it. How many contractors would have said, "you didn't hire me, ask your new service"? That's not going the extra mile and creating positive ripples in your community. I have shared many times before in this podcast that I consider myself an educator first, then a cleaner. In this case, I was able to serve through education. 

Mike from my MCBA called me this week to set up a cleaning estimate for his house. He's been reading my weekly educational emails, keeping me "Top of Mind". We scheduled an estimate in 2 weeks. The veterinary hospital that I mapped out a few weeks ago gave me the green light on a new cleaning service. The scope and service cost nearly doubled! This is huge. Since the construction is not done yet, they wanted to phase the increased scope. I developed a 3-month plan and got it approved.

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

I used to get nasty poison ivy as a kid. It would bubble up and itch like crazy. The worst case I ever got was on my face. My eyes were puffed nearly shut in the heat and humidity of July. It was torture. Thankfully, the doctor gave me a steroid to help heal it. You get the point. Now my son gets it bad. Last summer, he attended a survival action camp for Royal Rangers and in that camp learned something amazing. Jewelweed is a natural remedy for the poison ivy infection. The best part is that God placed the Jewelweed next to the Poison Ivy! The cure was with the poison. This is amazing and frustrating at the same time, as I never knew this and had to endure harsh Poison Ivy every summer.

Napoleon Hill says this in "Think and Grow Rich". "Every adversity has with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." The Poison Ivy is the adversity and the Jewelweed is the seed of an equal of greater benefit. COVID-19 has been the most recent and impactful adversity. What seeds have you discovered of equal of greater benefit? I've shared mine several times. I dug into the science on how to kill Coronavirus and in that research, I built my "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting" presentation to serve my community. This has already lead to cleaning business growth and actual dollars, many of which are recurring profits!