Cancelled Cleaning Contracts and Endings at Three in the Morning

My only contract is gone!

Good to be back with you, it’s been a while. I want to talk to you about endings and how they feel at three o’clock in the morning. Things change, endings happen and you get to learn something.

At three in the morning wisdom gives way to exhaustion, fear and confusion. Every so often we get to see clearly what keeps us going. In adversity our foundations are laid bare but we may or may not like what we see.

Over the last year I helped a client take over a chain of health care centers. This account had been cleaned previously by two cleaning contractors. One contractor had half of these centers for seven years and the other contractor had his half for over twenty years. Both of these contractors had only one client and that one client cancelled the contract. These were very profitable accounts and this cancellation was the end of their businesses.

New equipment, new people, new keys (in the dark) and new alarms, all together provide for an “eventful evening”. Starting a chain of health care centers all on the same night has a few surprises even with good planning. Phone calls, checklists, spray bottles fly by at supersonic speed. Mini pep talks are dispensed. The same questions get the same answers, sometimes in English and sometimes not.

After the last building is done it takes a while to decompress and the date changed a few hours ago. This time I thought about those contractors who had lost their only account. This was the first night both of them were missing their one and only account. It’s three o’clock in the morning and I wonder if they are sleeping? I wonder if they were thinking what they could have done differently and not be out of business tonight. I wonder how much free time they had over the years while they sat comfortably with their one account.

I wonder if it occurred to them that by visiting the next closest health care center consistently, RIGHT next to the one they had, would have doubled the size of their businesses. Losing half of your business is bad but not as bad as losing the whole thing.

I have a firm ten percent rule about cleaning contracts and particularly those big ones. How much does your biggest client mean to you in dollars, to your company? Your biggest client is what percentage of your total revenue? No single contract should be more than ten percent of your total revenue. If you have one big cleaning contract then you better go find another and you better do it fast. If your biggest source of revenue is only 10% and they cancel, it’s a completely different matter. You can sleep just fine.

Having only one account leaves you vulnerable (and there was not ONE THING either of these two contractors could have done to save this account). Sit back and relax with just one client and late one night at about three in the morning it will feel like your whole world just ended.

Every single cleaning contract has a ticking clock attached. I can tell you with absolute authority that at three in the morning you can hear the movement of the minute hand on your clock in the dark with no problem at all.

Janitorial Company Basics: Everything You Wanted to Know About Bonds and Bonding But Were Afraid to Ask

If you run a janitorial company, chances are you've heard your competition market themselves as being legally licensed and bonded. Of course, all janitorial companies have to be licensed according to whatever state laws apply to them, but surety bonds are optional insurance policies that protect your clients.

So, what are janitorial surety bonds, anyway?

A basic definition explains that a surety bond is a legally binding contract that ensures a certain task is performed. Most janitorial service business owners buy surety bonds because they operate small companies and want a cost-effective way to protect against employees who might choose to act unethically. Even if you trust your staff to the fullest extent, the reality is that you and your business become easy targets if a client's belongings go missing.

Janitorial surety bonds are also known by other names such as custodian bonds or business service bonds. Regardless of the name, this bond provides protection for clients who work with residential and commercial cleaning services.

What kind of businesses get bonded?

Unlike most surety bond types, janitorial surety bonds are completely voluntary. You may choose to purchase a custodian bond if you operate a janitorial company, maid service, carpet cleaning service, house cleaning service or other type of cleaning business. Remember, the purpose is to convince prospective clients that their belongings and property will be safe from theft if they choose to work with you.

Do janitorial companies receive protection from surety bonds?

Surety bonds should not be confused with traditional insurance policies. When purchasing a surety bond, you and your company do not receive any of the bond's financial protection. Instead, the bond will protect your customers from losses that could result from unethical employees who might choose to steal. As such, buying a custodian bond reassures clients that you're committed to running a legitimate enterprise.

Will my bond protect against damages?

No, surety bonds only protect against theft. If you or an employee damages a client's property or possessions, the bond will not cover these costs. If you're looking for damage protection, consider purchasing a special insurance policy.

How much does it cost to get bonded?

Janitorial bonds are some of the cheapest surety bond types to purchase. The exact price you'll pay depends on how many employees you manage and much coverage you want. Janitorial bonds are typically purchased by

small business owners, who usually pay about

    $100/year for $5,000 worth of coverage for five or fewer employees
    $110/year for $10,000 worth of coverage for five or fewer employees
    $152/year for $25,000 worth of coverage for five or fewer employees

Of course, larger janitorial companies also purchase bonds, and higher bonding amounts are available as well. The best way to determine what you'll pay for a bond is to contact an online surety company quickly and easily.

Danielle Rodabaugh is the chief editor of "http://www.suretybonds.com/", an online surety bond agency that provides free surety bond quotes to business owners nationwide. For more information on the surety industry, you can find Danielle on "https://plus.google.com/u/0/113063981844601253780?rel=author">Google+

Bad News at Sunday Dinner

I hate liars. I feel sorry for the victims of liars. I have been lied to and those were among the worst moments of my life, finding out I had been lied to. Love songs are lies; no one “accidentally” falls in love like stepping in hot bubble gum in a parking lot. Another lie is that we all “live happily ever after” and this is the great lie in the janitorial business.

Commercial cleaning is based on commercial real estate development and occupancy of commercial space, which is finite. Your “dreams of success” do not change the amount of existing commercial space requiring cleaning. Do not believe the lies.

I got this note this morning;

Ed,

I started a commercial cleaning business last year and I failed. I could not attract enough commercial accounts to even cover expenses, regardless of what I did.

Its Sunday dinner and the bad news is there are only so many pieces of chicken to go around. There are 1,200 new cleaning services started every month and every one already seated at the table is still hungry. There is not one single cleaning service owner that does not want more accounts, not one. It does not matter how many they have, they want more.

The bad news is someone is going to go hungry. It does not matter how much you wish, there are only two thighs, two legs and two breasts and someone is going to get the neck and a couple will get the wings.

The dream peddlers are liars and seek only to take what little money you have and tell you there is no end to that plate of chicken.

Someone has to tell you the truth and I just did.

The cleaning business is a war just like the whole world of business. There are winners and losers. The losers will not live happily ever after.

Now what?

Hunters, Farmers and a Steady Diet of New Cleaning Accounts

(this is obviously not Ed)

If I can save myself some time, then I figure I am ahead of the game. I have to explain hunting and farming almost every day so now I can just send this post and save some time.

The feast or famine growth strategy in a janitorial company maintains a constant state of panic, confusion, and disarray. In 2012, the only way feasting happens in the janitorial industry is with a “slash and burn” competitor’s pricing strategy. Problem is that it works but a revolving door is created with accounts lost almost as fast as they are signed. Some rapidly growing franchises take this approach, as do some National multi-location cleaning management companies. It is not a new strategy and it never worked to build a profitable, healthy operation.

Janitorial sales famines are customary with inexperienced business owners who have bought into the “just grab a broom and a mop and make a million” touted by business opportunity magazines and the now pervasive internet cleaning gurus who will teach you if you buy their book of secrets. Sales famines also happen to hunters who are subject to hunting seasons or when they get around to it.

What do hunters do? They move from place to place looking for targets to shoot at. The take a shot and hit or miss and then move on to hunt their next target. They may stalk their prey for a little while but as soon as they get tired, they quit and go home empty handed. They got all dressed up, went out, worked hard but sit down and eat what they caught previously. They continue to hunt because they have scored in the past. New ways of doing things is not a big issue with hunters; in fact, some cling to old ways for the sport of it so there are hunters with bows and arrows.

A hunter catches his prey after relatively FEW points of contact.

One time through, smoke stack, (door to door) prospecting all by itself is hunting. Blasting one time through networking meetings is hunting. Purchasing janitorial sales appointments all by themselves is hunting. Going from one prospect to the next, making a presentation and then moving on to the next one, is taking a shot and either hitting or missing.

One of my first questions to janitorial company owners is how many proposals have you done in the last year. What do you do with the contacts you made during the last year AFTER those presentations have been made? It is at this point I know if I have a hunter or a farmer.

What do farmers do? Farmers stake out a piece of ground as their own. They go over that piece of ground, remove rocks and tree stumps and plant seeds. They again cover the same area and water all of their seeds until seedlings appear. They eliminate weeds so the seedlings absorb water. They apply nutrients and fertilizer and continue to remove weeds. They water it regularly. They watch over that ground and are aware of what is happening with a laser beam focus, nothing gets by them. New ways of doing things is a big issue for farmers; they are constantly on the lookout for improvements to increase their yield.

A farmer harvests his yield after MANY points of contact.

A farming system of janitorial selling starts with a map. Removing rocks and trees and then stumps is the sorting out of the types of businesses you will not do business with and identifies the business types you are going after. Seeds are your unique selling proposition and your elevator pitch, backed with an operational structure. Nutrients and fertilizers are your tools, your phone, your personalized direct mail and email templates, your online strategy and presence and your community networking groups.

Water is delivered by way of irrigation systems, timed release of the key growth factor water and delivered regularly. Watching your plot of land is your daily scan of the local business news that may mean new business to you, not the comics, not your horoscope, not the sports pages, the business news about local companies, promotions to new positions and construction (or business failures).

Finally, keeping informed about what is available that may increase your yield of profitable contracts is key. History is a wonderful area of study but how things were done 20 or 10 or even 5 years ago is a study of what used to work. A trip down memory lane.

I will confess here to being city born and raised. I do not own a pair of bib overalls or a straw hat but I did figure out early on that hunters score every so often but farming is the correct approach to build a profitable cleaning company.

Just a Casserole Ingredient

Never mind "thinking outside the box" for a moment (a term I REALLY hate), think what happens on a grocery shelf when faced with a selection of canned vegetables that will only wind up buried in a casserole or "Hot Dish" back in Minnesota.

Which one do you pick? Is it the package? Is it the brand name? Is it the price?

This is not the key ingredient that will make or break the meal but it IS necessary so you have to pick one.

A really well done, stand out, amazing package may get you to pick that one regardless of the price.

A trusted brand name may get you to pick that one (and that is because you have SEEN that same name repeatedly enough to make an impression, repetition which co$t the company $omething).

Nevertheless, if none of those factors is at play then you decide based on price.

Had a Certified Property Manager (one who had bought $10 million in cleaning) who I raised the issue of going with the low bidder, tell me that was an excuse for someone who was lazy or clueless.

Amazing packaging, establishing a brand name, or commodity (by the pound) pricing, YOU choose.

Moses, Mount Sinai and 21st Century Soap Salesmen

The serious study of history includes seeing and interpreting it through different disciplines. Therefore, an archaeologist and an economist and then a sociologist would all see history through the lens of their own interests. One way to look at history is through systematic sets of laws that divide one period from another. Therefore, we can study and correctly conclude that the Code of Hammurabi (from around 1770 BC in Babylon), the Magna Carta (the foundation of English law from 1215), and the Nuremberg Laws of Race (1933) all signaled important milestones in human history.

Western culture owes much to Moses receiving the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai around 1240 BC. Three major world religions point back to that pivotal event. The cleaning industry experienced an event that will be viewed in the future just as pivotal as what happened on Mt. Sinai.

The International Sanitary Supply Association was originally chartered for manufacturers and distributors of chemicals and equipment used in the cleaning industry. The very first time I learned about the association, a distributor proudly told me it was the trade association of soap salesmen. Founded in 1923 by Albert Richter who wanted to trade information between distributors around the US, the ISSA became a global trade Association in 1966.

I mopped floors at five star hotels in Miami Beach starting in 1974 and launched my first janitorial company in 1977. No internet (Al Gore had not invented the world wide web yet), my library at the University I was attending was all I had as a resource and everything I could find out about my new business and my new career, I learned from my sanitary supply distributor who was an ISSA member.

How does a truly great commercial cleaning company operate? Hiring and training and supervising my staff, the best way to deal with service defects, what constitutes quality service and hundreds of issues I had to figure out all by myself with the help of my supply company. What I needed was an operating standard to compare what I was doing with what was considered the best practices of my industry. Nothing of the sort existed so it was my best guess based on what other industries did.


The single most important event in the janitorial industry was the publication of the Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) by the ISSA. Not the voice of God or even a modern day Moses but the best practices of our industry agreed on by some of the best-organized janitorial companies in the country. A collaborative effort by the best minds of our industry organized by the ISSA, several years in the making but then the most amazing move by the Association is that CIMS is public and available to the entire industry free through the ISSA. (http://www.issa.com/?m=download )

CIMS is a standard for us to go by, a framework from which we can assemble the management structures of our businesses and a way for clients and prospects to know they are dealing with the best in the industry. CIMS is how the best companies organize their businesses spelled out in detail. For the very first time the janitorial industry is able to point to a set of practices that constitute how a company should operate.

The CIMS program is not simple and certification is a major endeavor but the results are worth every single bit of effort. There are currently 116 companies that have achieved CIMS Certification with 92 opting for an additional Green Building designation, which provides for the US Green Building Council’s LEED program.

Every janitorial and cleaning service owner needs to have a copy of the CIMS document and build around this standard. Certification may be a long way off in the future or maybe not at all but the standards are sound and provide a yardstick for managerial excellence.

Janitorial Services is Searched 368,000 Times Per Month in the U.S But This Is Only One Third of The Story

Annette Penney of Inspire and Acquire

So Why Aren’t You Generating More Leads Online?

Keyword research on the terms being used to find janitorial and commercial cleaners, indicate that in the United States more than a million searches were conducted in the month of March, 2012 on: janitorial services, commercial cleaning, office cleaning, and floor cleaning. If you have a business in the janitorial sector, you must have wondered at some point why you are not generating more leads from your website.

The team at Inspire and Acquire conducted a brief study of a small group of websites in the janitorial industry, whose names were chosen randomly from the MasterMind group on LinkedIn (permission was obtained from the group owner). Analyses were performed to determine the Internet Marketing Effectiveness of these websites and the results were not surprising. In this article we share the top 3 critical areas of online marketing that were shown to be problematic for business owners in the janitorial industry. We also provide solutions for dealing with these issues.