The Profitable Cleaner

How to Fix Employee Turnover in Your Cleaning Business | Polishing Profits Ep. 11


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Lets talk about “Guerrilla Management”: How to Think Differently and Win in Business

In this eye-opening episode, your hosts Mark Anderson, Sharon Cowan CBSE, and Ed Selkow, dive into the mindset behind Guerrilla Management — the art of solving business problems by stepping outside traditional systems and building smarter, more flexible teams.

From empowering front-line supervisors to pivoting your org structure, you’ll hear real stories of unconventional decision-making that led to higher profits, lower turnover, and better service.

💥 Expect plenty of laughs, wisdom, and 140+ years of combined experience talking shop.


🔑 What You’ll Learn:

  • ✅ Why “If you always do what you’ve always done…” is a trap
  • ✅ How Sharon’s risky pivot fixed her staffing crisis
  • ✅ The power of decentralized decision-making
  • ✅ Why most org charts in cleaning are outdated
  • ✅ How to build autonomy at the point of service
  • ✅ Why empowerment creates loyalty, speed & growth


🧠 This Episode Is For:

  • Cleaning business owners stuck in the same management cycles
  • Operators frustrated by turnover and service inconsistency
  • Leaders ready to think differently and try bold ideas
  • Teams looking to boost retention, efficiency, and culture

🕒 Episode Highlights:

  • 00:00 – Guerrilla Management: What It Is (and Isn’t)
  • 03:30 – Business Lessons from Revolutionaries & Netflix
  • 08:10 – Sharon’s risky (but profitable) field leadership pivot
  • 11:30 – Rethinking your org chart to retain more clients
  • 17:00 – The 7 Principles of Guerrilla Management
  • 24:00 – How to train teams to make smart decisions

🧠 Resources:

  •  ➡️ Catch up on previous episodes of Polishing Profits here:  The Profitable Cleaner Network - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKiuPQwwn4m9gWk0lBbzKVg5LwhwErhwn 


🔗 Where to Find Your Hosts

  • Sharon Cowan, CBSE – LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram
  • Mark Anderson – LinkedIn
  • Ed Selkow – Facebook


About Polishing Profits

Polishing Profits is hosted by three of the most respected leaders in the janitorial industry—Mark Anderson, Sharon Cowan, and Ed Selkow. With over 140 years of combined experience, they’ve built and scaled cleaning companies, coached hundreds of owners, and helped countless teams grow stronger.


Every episode delivers real stories, actionable strategies, and tools to build a cleaning business that thrives.


Produced by The Profitable Cleaner Network.


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