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5 key points every cleaning business should know before marketing online

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Lisa & Hamish Macqueen, Owners of Cleancorp

Do You Know the 5 key points every cleaning business should know before marketing online?

What are the 5 key points every cleaning business should know before marketing online?    If you’re running or own a cleaning business, one of the most important things you need to know is that in today’s economy, you need to stay relevant.  Especially when it comes to marketing your cleaning services.

Whether your focus is on janitorial, residential, carpet cleaning, industrial cleaning or all of these services, your customers needs are evolving faster than at any other time in history – it can be overwhelming for some cleaning businesses just to know where to start in order to keep current with their marketing.

Today’s marketplace is shifting and changing in ways that most of us wouldn’t have predicted even 5 years ago.  Make no mistake, if you don’t market your cleaning business you won’t make sales.

And sales is 100% of profit. 

Here are the 5 key points every cleaning business should know before marketing their business online:

# 1 – Decision makers are everywhere – not just at the top

This is especially important if you are a B2B (business to business) operation, like Janitorial.  Just because someone has the authority to make a purchase for a business, does not mean they are going to be the one making the actual decision.  This is an extremely important distinction to make because if you  direct all your marketing towards the higher level executives of a business, or the perceived decision makers – you’re missing a huge opportunity.

# 2 Change your focus

In business today, dismissing junior employees could mean overlooking the exact people you need to be noticed by…  Remember, it’s often the more junior employees who do the researching for new cleaning services.  If you can build a good relationship with them right from the start, they will be much more likely to influence a decision in your favour…

What’s the definition of a “Millennial”?

# 3 – You cannot avoid millennials any longer

Because Millennials are the first generation to have grown up with the Internet, they are far more focussed on technology, and they use technology for everything.  What this means for cleaning businesses, is that to market yourselves effectively to millennials, you need to get online.  From now on, you should be using technology in a whole new way.

Millennials will be influencing workplaces more and more, especially as they move into more senior roles in the future.   If you aren’t marketing to this group yet, you definitely will need to in the future… so, my advice would be why wait?  Start right now.

# 4 – Mobile is more crucial than ever

You’re possibly reading this on your mobile device..  These days everyone uses their mobile to gather information before they make a buying decision – and yes, that also goes for businesses.

As a cleaning business, it’s wise to give your potential new customers the opportunity to interact with you over mobile at every stage of their buying process (even the purchasing stage… if you don’t have this automated, you are missing out on a lot of opportunities)…

# 5 – The role of video in marketing has changed

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ll know that video is now an essential part of having a conversation with your prospects.   In fact, your prospects, are using video as a way to compare products, check out reviews and share with colleagues or friends.

What this means for a cleaning business is that because video is forming such a big part of the decision making conversation, you need to make sure you have plenty of engaging video content available for your viewers, so that your target audience – whether carpet cleaning, residential, commercial or any other type of cleaning service, can engage with your brand at each stage of their buying journey.

Conclusion

Marketing strategies that may have worked even a year ago for your cleaning business, will lose their effectiveness over time.   As more and more tech-savvy consumers look for cleaning services, it will be the cleaning services who use modern marketing methods to reach their audience, who will win.

What are your struggles in marketing your cleaning business?  Let me know in the comments below (I read and reply to every comment)…

Today’s quote:

“Stay focused, believe in yourself and trust your own ability and judgment”.

 Mark Cuban 

Lisa Macqueen - Cleaning Marketer   Lisa x

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How to Manage a Cleaning Team (so it takes up less of your time)…

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How to Manage a Cleaning Team (so it takes up less of your time)…

How to Manage a Cleaning Team (so it takes up less of your time)…If you’re a cleaning business owner, I’m sure you’ve wondered how to manage a cleaning team more effectively, so that it takes up less of your time… right?

It’s one of the most common things I hear from time poor cleaning business owners.   Instead of focusing on winning new accounts, they’re often spending countless hours every day, managing staff and dealing with issues that stop them from growing their business.

It’s enough to make you scream…

Or, they have team members who are just the wrong fit.   But they keep them on out of either misplaced loyalty, or fear of what will happen if they move the ineffective staff out of their business.

It’s enough to make you scream…

However,  if you have team members who just aren’t ‘cutting it’,  you need to show leadership to the rest of your team, and make the necessary changes.  Interestingly, recent studies have shown that over the past decade, many organisations have been investing in developing their leadership rather than developing management skills.

(A cleaning business owner needs both of these skills.   If you feel like you’re lacking in these areas, investing in cleaning business coaching, will be a great way to shorten your learning curve..)

Management skills are those ‘one on one’ relationships between cleaning business owners (or managers) and the people in their team.

Having strong management skills, leads to a strong business. It’s as simple as that. So what do strong managers do differently to everyone else?

They communicate. Really well, and, have the difficult conversations when they need to.

Managing and leading a cleaning team is much easier when everyone understands their role. In other words, they understand the expectations of you, their manager, and the customers’ expectations.

And they work together as a team.  Working in alignment, rather than individually because good management shares the vision for the business.  Company alignment to a clear (shared) purpose is the biggest motivator you can create as a leader seeking to achieve scalable growth in your cleaning business.   Once your team buys into the vision that you have co-created with them, it will be easier for you to delegate and focus on growth, because you won’t need to micro-manage all of the details, because your team will take responsibility and ownership.

 

How to Manage a Cleaning Team (so it takes up less of your time)…

Good employees, share that vision, because they helped create it. They helped create the purpose (your why), the values (the how), and the mission (what you’re striving for).

Good employees, share that vision, because they helped create it. They helped create the purpose (your why), the values (the how), and the mission (what you’re striving for).

 So, effective cleaning team leadership and management, is all about the shared purpose of the business, and the conversations you have with your team.  Having great communication – what you say, and how you say it, is paramount.

Within a cleaning business there are so many different conversations we are having each day. Conversations around ideas, delegating tasks, feedback from colleagues and clients, and the conversations that happen in our meetings.

To help you have better conversations here are the keys to success:

  • A good conversation is two-way. It involves speaking and listening, and it’s imperative that everyone takes part in the conversation and is heard.
  • Secondly, be clear on what the conversation is about, and what the objective/s of the conversation are:  “Today, we’re going to discuss the feedback we received from Mrs Smith, and how we can fix our process to ensure that never happens in the future” .
  • Be respectful and open. It’s ok to be vulnerable with your team, it helps them to understand your position, and build trust..
  • Finally, be mindful.    Try to focus on building the relationship and encouraging new thinking. If a team member comes up with a great idea, thank them for their input, and encourage more: “That’s a fantastic idea Jane, how do you think we could incorporate that into our service offering”….

 

 

The Motivation Secrets of 5 Successful Entrepreneurs (and how you can be more like them…)

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Finding Motivation From the Most Motivated…

I get it.

In the cleaning business, Monday’s can be tough.  Really tough.  Complaints, issues, staff who didn’t clean over the weekend (but were supposed to..)…

Monday’s can be manic when you’re a cleaning business owner.

So today, I want to share advice from 5 of the world’s top entrepreneurs – and what motivates them.   These business leaders will inspire you to make the best out of every day and remember why you’re doing what you are doing.

Marcus Lemonis

“Stay focused, work hard, know your numbers, and be disciplined. If you do those things and take care of your people, the likelihood of being successful is very, very high.” – Marcus Lemonis (Billionaire and “The Profit” Host)

Clate Mask

“Feast on positivity, cause you’re going to get pounded with negativity every step of the way while you build your business. My biggest advice for entrepreneurs is to master the ‘game between your ears’, and that comes down to eating positivity for breakfast , lunch and dinner.” –Clate Mask (CEO of Infusionsoft)

Daymond John

“Success?  Most brands started with a strong base and kept a strong belief. – that’s how you achieve success” –Daymond John (Entrepreneur and Shark Tank Shark)

 

John Assaraf

“We can have whatever it is we choose, I don’t care how big it is. You become what you think about, but you also attract what you think about most”. – John Assaraf (NY Times Bestselling Author)

Andrew Warner

“I have to build something bigger than Bradford & Reed or else I will spend the rest of my life looking back at the good old days. And that is not the kind of life I want. On to bigger and better”.–Andrew Warner (Founder of Mixergy)

Andrew Warner

Andrew Warner

What are your thoughts?

Share your thoughts – who inspires you?  Maybe you’re more inspired by Richard Branson or Oprah Winfrey, or another amazing entrepreneur…   we’d love to hear who you find inspiring and why…. leave a comment below, or head on over to  Facebook or Twitter and share…

 

How To Follow Up With Prospects

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How To Follow Up With Prospects

How to Follow Up With Your Prospects

This video is literally going to make you money in your cleaning business.

Ok, it’s a lofty prediction – but, if you do this properly and consistently, I stand by my statement.

Because almost every cleaning business owner I’ve worked with, doesn’t do this one thing well.  In fact, sometimes they don’t do it at all.

What is this one thing?

Follow up.  It’s following up with your prospects until they become customers.

It may sound simple, but it’s not easy.

The problem is, that so many cleaning business owners don’t know how to follow up with prospects, that I thought it was time to share some ideas and resources.

So, in today’s video, I’m going to share why your clients don’t call you back after you’ve given them a quote, and then, what to do about it.  

I think you’re going to love it… check out the video below

Let me know what you think in the comments, and if you have any great ways you follow up with prospects in your cleaning business, tell us in the comments below.

Lisa x

Lisa Macqueen - Cleaning Marketer

 

 

 

 

Lisa Macqueen

lisa@cleaningmarketer.com

www.cleaningmarketer

PS  Like to work with me on building your cleaning business?  Contact me at lisa@cleaningmarketer.com for details, or head on over to www.cleaningmarketer.com for more details.

1 Crucial Tip For Hiring Cleaning Staff

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Would you like to know a crucial tip for hiring cleaning staff?

Hiring Cleaning StaffHiring the right cleaning staff can be punishing.  When I started my business I had no idea about hiring cleaning staff, hiring the wrong people, took up a lot of time and resources, and quite frankly, it sucked.

If you’re like me, hiring staff is probably one of those jobs that you dread doing because all you want to do is get on with building your business.  Wouldn’t it be a dream to have a great group of people around you, that were likeminded and in alignment with you and your business values.

I have definitely hired the wrong people in the past (and paid the price…).

Here’s some examples of when hiring cleaning staff went bad:

The guy who literally moved in to one of our client’s buildings…

Or;

The woman who wanted us to loan her money all the time before payday every week….

Or;

The guy that got a family member to pose as him because he couldn’t speak english and they could…

Oh, I could go on and on and on….

But here’s the thing, there’s a better way to attract the right people, and in today’s video I’m going to reveal 1 crucial tip that changed the way I advertised for hiring cleaning staff.

I think you’re going to like this… 🙂

What do you think about that tip?

Have you ever thought about it that way before?

Comment below and if you have any tips of your own, please let us know – sharing is caring.

Lisa x

Lisa Macqueen Cleaning Marketer

Lisa Macqueen’s Cleaning Marketer Blog Email: Lisa@CleaningMarketer.com Periscope: Lisa – Cleaning Marketer on Periscope

Considering Coaching? Contact me at Lisa@CleaningMarketer.com where we help people build their dream business.

You’re the cleaning business boss. So what’s your plan? 

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download

There’s nothing like running your own cleaning business. You:

  • make the decisions
  • drive the actions that bring value to your customers
  • reap the rewards of ownership

You are also the only one who loses sleep over the profit/loss statement. But you don’t have to go it alone.

This isn’t rocket science.

Two things are required to win in the cleaning business –

First the right mindset for success; and then

Follow through on the action steps that will increase your sales, revenue and profits.

Sounds simple right? But it’s not that easy. Building your own cleaning business is a process of learning and implementing strategies that often take many years to learn and perfect.

And right now, you don’t have years.  You need to collapse that learning curve – now.

We’ll show you how to redefine the possibilities for both you and your cleaning business so that you can start to:

  • attract more clients so that you can build sustainable, long-term growth
  • generate more sales from existing clients
  • make more profits from existing sales

So where to start today?

Become an ambitious learner.  Understand that you don’t have all the answers, but that the knowledge you need is around you – if you know where to look. And week after week, you’ll find that information here, at Cleaning Marketer.

We’ll be providing our members with practical insights from thought leaders in small business both within the cleaning industry and outside of it.   We aren’t interested in ivory-tower theory, and our members don’t have time to wade through stacks of 300-page business books.

Here we’ll focus on the practical problem-solving information that helps cleaning business owners smash through whatever obstacles are in their way – via interviews with experts,  access to our Library of step-by-step blueprints and document templates, which we’ll deliver to our members, via video, print and audio.  We’ll also make it easy for our members to connect and learn from each other and directly with the Cleaning Marketer Team at our private members-only Facebook Page.  Coming Soon…stay tuned.

What’s Your Cleaning Genius Superpower?

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genius

Admit it, you have a gift. It’s something you’re freakishly good at, you care about, and have probably taken for granted.

In fact, you’re an expert at something that other people probably have to work very hard at. They just can’t do what you do so easily. What is that superpower?

Running a cleaning business…

So the question is, what are you doing with your talent, your genius – your superpower? Because here’s the thing — whether you are just launching your cleaning business, struggling with the business you already have, or you just want your business to perform better, the way forward is to leverage your strengths and become the best in the world (your world) at what you do.

But… how do you become the best? Do you go to a seminar, get an MBA, read the Wall Street Journal? Seriously, there’s an expanding universe of how-to-succeed materials and marketing gurus (who know nothing about the cleaning industry) out there…

First of all, you follow your passion and your talent. The things you are not good at (and don’t enjoy), you can outsource, delegate and form partnerships around. The trick is to make the most of your time, every day, by focusing on what you do best — what you’re a genius at — and deliver so much value to your clients that they can’t imagine going without your service.

What’s your genius superpower? Think about it…. Maybe you have a knack for connecting with people and putting them at ease. It could be your ability to perceive opportunities where others see problems. Or your keen eye for detail. Or, your capacity to manage staff and jobs super effectively to deliver the best outcomes to your staff and clients.

And that’s what this blog is about. Delivering perspective, tips and tools to help you grow your cleaning business. We’ll be pointing you to best-practice content from within the growing Cleaning Marketer community and elsewhere.

We have access to many small-business experts, so let us know in the comments below what challenges you’re facing in your cleaning business, and we’ll help you find the information you need to take the next step with your business.

If you haven’t yet, you can sign up to be notified every time a new post appear. Either way, we look forward helping you leverage your talents so that you can grow your cleaning business faster.

And remember… you really are a genius!

What’s Your Cleaning Business Story?

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Change

Every cleaning business tells a story.

It might begin as an outline or idea at first. It could be passed down through generations, or purchased as franchise. Regardless of how it starts, your cleaning business embodies your deeply held hopes and aspirations for the future. The highs and lows, setbacks and disappointments, reversals and triumphs are part of the growth of your business. And when the business finally succeeds, it disproves the critics and the doubters. But what happens when your business falls short of your ideals? What then? It’s hard to give up on your dream, but something has to change if your business is going to reach its full potential.

You cannot change your business without changing what you believe to be possible.

This is what we do.

Cleaning business success doesn’t depend upon fate, genetics, or working harder than everyone else. It is simply a matter of developing the confidence and certainty that you will achieve your biggest goals and dreams, and then applying the skills, strategies and support you need to bring that vision into reality. Success is absolutely possible for any cleaning business. And when it happens, it’s like a dream come true, and that sense of victory becomes contagious, and that positive charge will have the most amazing effect on you, your staff, your clients and then out into the community.

Multiply that a million times, and you’ve changed the world.

 

Stop Wasting Money on Marketing for new Cleaning Contracts

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risk (1)

What’s the one key factor that will have a huge impact on your cleaning business success and stop you from wasting marketing $$ (oh, and here’s a clue, it’s not your location, having a great team, or working like a fool. (Or even just being lucky).

It’s… can I get a drumroll please?

Knowing exactly who your ideal client is.

If you don’t, there’s no way your marketing is going to be compelling or captivating to your audience, the people you want to serve, because you’re not talking to any customer in particular, you’re talking to everyone, and everyone doesn’t need your services.

(I can hear you thinking…. “yes, everyone needs cleaning” …. Sorry to burst your bubble there, but no they don’t). As soon as you get laser-focussed on who you want to attract into your cleaning business, you can make your marketing and sales messages with them in mind. In other words, you’re talking to the exact people who you want to be working with – you just became compelling because you’re talking to them, whereas every other cleaning business, is talking to everyone…(which is not compelling).. See the difference?

That’s powerful stuff for a cleaning business.

Think about it – when you know more about your clients, average age, residential or commercial, where they live, what their concerns and needs and wants are, when you really know what makes them tick, then, you can push the hot buttons that compel them to buy – oh, and you can avoid the high-maintenance clients who actually cost you time and money. It’s almost an unfair advantage – and your competitors aren’t doing this!

Here’s the crazy thing – all it takes is a little homework. Starting with taking a good look at the clients you already have, and building a detailed demographic and psychographic profile.

To develop your client profile, there are four simple steps:

1. Identify your clients’ needs and wants. 2. Identify what you need and want in an ideal client. 3. Compare them to see if they match. 4. Decide if current clients are ideal clients.

The only reason clients do business with you is to fulfil some want or need that they have. They want you to solve some problem in their lives. Find out what those needs are and fill them better than anyone else, and you’ll dominate your entire market. Your competitors won’t know what hit them.

And once you do that, it all gets easier. You’ll be well positioned to make more money from clients who love your service, and are eager to refer you to their friends and colleagues – so you add more clients and build your business faster!

Want some help with this?

Richer. Smarter. Happier. What can Cleaning Marketer help you with to grow your cleaning business today?

Resistance to Change Syndrome

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resistchange

I love change. Change of season, change of view, change of outfits, change of well, just about anything.

Why?

Because when I’m intentionally working on changing something in my business or my personal life, I feel like I’m actively working on improving, and not just doing the same things I’ve always done (and getting the same results).

And if you think about it, if everything is in a constant state of change (like your business & your clients), then why would you want to stay the same anyway?

Stand still or stop growing, & you run the risk that your competitors will start winning more of ‘your’ clients, and you’ll be left behind.

You’re certainly not on your own if you don’t like change. Most people don’t, and yet the results are in. Believe it or not, the process of change is usually when you are the happiest and most productive – the thing is, people think they dislike change, but what it really is, is that they just don’t like being forced to change by others.

Let’s take a look at the top 3 reasons people tend to resist change: • Scared. What if they fail? • Overwhelmed. Can they handle the new system? • Negative. Oh, that will never work…it’s too hard.

Can you see the pattern here? Fear. It is important to recognize these feelings so you can identify them when they show up, and are prepared to deal with them with either your clients or staff…

Oh, and one last thing on change – remember, an undisturbed prospect is probably not going to buy from you. To get the sale, you’ll most likely be discussing how changing to your cleaning service will be great for them…

See, change doesn’t have to be uncomfortable… Just stretch yourself and your team, and see what you can change today, that will bring big changes to your business tomorrow.

Ready to make some changes in your cleaning business? That’s what Cleaning Marketer is here for.

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