Smart Cleaning School

 I teased this episode in the previous one, so here it is! Did you know that your good name can be good marketing? I want you to think about this. How many companies do you buy from on the name alone? Have you ever hired a babysitter or other service provider in your home because they come from a good family name? How many times have you done the opposite when the company or person in question has a poor name and reputation? I work very hard to add value everyday to our good name. The Carfagno name means something to me. We are disciples of Jesus. We are hard workers. We are honest. I could go on and on. What are the values you add to your good name? I encourage you to develop these in your home and with your family. Transfer these values to your kids.
 
 I get inbound leads through my website and Google every month. This is so cool to me. We've followed Jesus. We've worked hard. We've been honest. This has earned my name and our company a great local reputation. Our Google profile has 34 5-Star reviews, an article showing us winning the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce Small Business of the Year for 2022, and many other helpful insights for prospects to learn about us. When I receive an inbound lead, my policy is to call within 1 business day. It's a boundary. I chit-chat and learn about the job. I always ask how they find me. Usually, I hear. "I searched online and found you highly rated in the area." That means so much to me. I desire a good name and this is showing it. The Carfagno Name in my area is respected and I'm so thankful for that.

A lead came in recently that seemed like any other. I returned the message within 1 business day. It was a local accounting firm. The office manager and I chit-chatted about the job and then I asked the question. "So, how did you find me?" I expected the same thing. She said. "I searched online and saw the name Carfagno. I'm a Carfagno on my mother's side. I wondered if we were related. I just went to our Carfagno Family Reunion. Maybe you were there? Your name got me to click on the Google profile and I saw the big award you won and your reviews. It felt right." We spent 5 minutes on geneology trying to find out if we were related.

This is a side note. I live in Harleysville, PA but grew up in Norristown, PA. When I was a kid, I used to joke that although our name was obscure and uncommon, there's a half page of Carfagnos in the Norristown phone book. After college, we moved to Greenville, SC. There wasn't a single southerner that could pronounce my last name. I was the only Carfagno down there. We moved to Upstate New York for 16 years where plenty of Italians lived. More could pronounce our name, but I still phonetically spelled C, A, R as in Ralph, F as in Frank, A-G as in Gary, N as in Nancy, O to just about everyone. There were no Carfagnos in the New York phone book. We moved back to Montgomery County, PA in 2018 and I felt like I was in Cheers. Everybody knew my name. They could say Carfagno. They could spell Carfagno. Heck, many of them knew a Carfagno. Here's a funny one. My uncle Bob Carfagno married Patty Carfagno. Her name was actually Carfagno when they met and they weren't related! She married a Carfagno in her first marriage, kept the name, and married Bob! In my area, the name Carfagno is more known. It's a marketing niche of its own. I know this won't apply to all of you or perhaps not many of you at all. But imagine you have a name that is less popular or common. You go out and make a name for yourself and add value to your name. Then when prospects come across your Google profile and see your name, they feel good about hiring you.


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 This was one of my favorite episodes to create. It gave me a chance to research more of my family lineage and share one of my favorite bible verses. This teaching is foundational in my home and I wanted you to all hear it. This replay is intentional. The next episode takes the good name to another level. Did you know your good name is good marketing? You will. Re-listen to this one first! 

 ​I shared this exact post in a free Facebook cleaning group and thought it valuable enough to include on the podcast. Here's the post.

I'm new to this group but not to cleaning. I love this industry and helping newbies. I see pricing posts all the time and wanted to share some insights that I just shared with another member on her private question. The question goes something like this... "Is this price too high, too low? "People are so cheap. How do I get them to value what I do as a professional cleaner?" Here's my response that will help you overcome these pricing objections. It's not your price. It's your process. When people ask for price first and quibble over price first, one of two things is happening psychologically. 

1. They don't trust you yet. SOLUTION - Remove your price list first. Don't lead with that. Lead with YOU. Lead with your unique solution to the community. Lead with your personality. Lead with how your service will make their lives better. This builds trust. The price question will come up, but not right away. In my experience, my best and highest-paying clients didn't even ask about price until the end of a phone call or in-person meeting. They were so excited to get their problem solved through my service.
2. They don't respect cleaning as a craft or field of expertise and are treating it like shopping around for the cheapest widget. SOLUTION - Either EDUCATE these people through your content (Google, FB, website, blog, in-person presentations) or AVOID them to find better clients. They are easy to identify! There is an abundance of potential clients that want a professional cleaning service that solves their problems.

It's nice to be here. I pray that speaks to you. This is good for solos to hear as they consider scaling or those already doing it.
 
This post was well received with many exclamation points in agreement. I want you to study the 2 reasons you are struggling with  cheap prospects. Have you dealt with each scenario? How did you deal with them? Did you try to appease or lower your prices? Did you get mad and complain to someone on Facebook? Did you learn what you could from the scenarios and become a stronger business owner? Do you realize that knowing who you don't want is many times more valuable than knowing who you do want?

Are you struggling with pricing and cheap clients? Would you like to find the best ones that appreciate you and pay your prices? You need the ISO Model and the Solo Elite Membership! You can optimize your solo cleaning business to earn over $50,000 profit cleaning less than 20 hours per week without employees or subs or drama! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.


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 I have a heart to help everyone who wants to start a cleaning business and optimize as a solo. I have found this to be a great strength and weakness. In two recent scenarios, I have learned that while helping one I'm hurting another. I'm going to teach the destructive mindset in each of my two recent scenarios.

 Scenario #1:

A lady found my podcast, loved it, and emailed me some questions. I answered her and started coaching her only to find out that she was currently working for another cleaning company and wanted to go on her own. I don't know her current boss. I advised her to be ethical and not poach any clients. She didn't want to hire, so poaching her coworkers wasn't a concern... now. I did not deter her from starting a business or from quitting her job. I had the mindset that there is plenty to go around and there is still more work than workers. I do believe this still. However, there is a major flaw to my advise. It hurt the current cleaning company she is working for. This company owner paid the price to start her own company. I know what it takes to win a cleaning company. I know how hard it is to find good people and to train them and keep them. This cleaner that contacted me had benefitted tremendously from the work and training that her boss provided. Like so many cleaning employees, they perceive that the boss isn't doing any of the cleaning, yet making so much more than the cleaner. It's not fair. It's entitlement and scarcity mindset. They don't yet know how hard it is. They think  erringly that being a good cleaner (which they only know because of their boss) will make them a good cleaning business owner. We know from the previous podcasts that this is not true. They don't yet have the 4 fundamentals of Financial, Mindset, Strategic, and People conquered. So many cleaners perceive the easy street it appears to change from employee to owner. They quit and then call on the houses or offices they were cleaning and steal them. And that's exactly what it is. Theft. Then they call their former co- workers and offer them a better deal.

What happens next? The cleaner turned owner doesn't know to get any insurance or to become legit and professional. They put themselves and their stolen customers at risk. They have very shallow roots and the new business is scorched by the hot sun and pressures of being in business for yourself and the business dies. The customers are hurt as they lose their cleaner. The original cleaning company is hurt as it lost customers and employees. The new cleaning business is done and begging for their old job back. The employees that jumped ship don't know what to do. This is destructive to all. If I would have helped this cleaner, I would have helped them succeed in their business for sure. But I would have helped the other cleaning company lose a good employee and potentially customers and employees. I would have helped one to hurt another. I will NOT do this! It's not ethical for me. Plus, if there is a non-compete in place, it's possible that I'd be complicit in helping a cleaning employee illegally break their binding contract. This is a potential legal liability for me. Again, I won't do this. And I didn't help this cleaner once I realized the potential destructive downstream path.

I don't want to be all doom and gloom. In limited cases, this works out. For example, there are cleaners that inform their bosses that they want to start their own company. These company owners are Dream Managers and mentors and actually help them do it. They ensure that there is win-win and more than enough to go around.


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 If you've been following this podcast for any duration of time, you should have noticed a major shift in how I am teaching. I have organized my content for helping side hustlers, startups, and solos around 4 basic fundamentals of success: Financial, Mindset, Strategic, and People. I highly recommend that you check out the previous episode to gain the perspective I've learned on why so many of you are struggling. It's called "Why Side Hustlers, Startups, and Solos Struggle". 

Armed with the basic understanding that these 4 are essential, I wanted to compare and contrast a few business opportunities out there. The first one is the multi-level marketing business. I was an Amway IBO for 10 years. I am thankful for my time and mentorship in this business opportunity. We didn't make it. Many don't. Why? Well, let's look at the 4 fundamentals.

• Financial – It's less than $100 to start! This is why so many can join. There really aren't any P&L's to study.
• Mindset – You can invest in books, weekly audio lessons, quarterly in-person conferences, and 1-on-1 mentoring sessions to grow your mindset. Coaching and mentoring and personal development in MLMs are second-to-none.
• Strategy – I was provided with a strategy and game plan for success from Day 1. The MLM strategy falls under the category of a business system or franchise. They know what works. You just have to follow the proven system and do the work.
• People – This is the most difficult part of the MLM. There is a tremendous momentum to overcome with people. You have to become an amazing people person. You have to learn to handle objections, stay positive, win people to your cause, and lead people. It's such a simple business model, but extremely hard to get buy-in from people. People is the biggest barrier and struggle in this business opportunity.

The second business opportunity is a manufacturing company producing widgets that everybody needs. The 4 fundamentals are different here. There are no objections to overcome with people. You mainly deal with larger B2B situations where what you sell is needed. Strategy can be challenging, but the simplicity is this. Just scale and grow your operation to handle the demand. Mindset is also challenging as scaling is taxing and stressful. Dealing with complaints and legal and regulations can be difficult. The biggest barrier to this business opportunity is Financial. It may require $1 million to even start! That wipes out most of us right there. You also need to be incredible with your numbers as the margins are small in most cases and you better know how to guarantee profits at every level.  Financial is the biggest barrier and struggle in this business opportunity.


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 I recorded this training for the 2023 Maid Service Success Summit

Fundamental #1: Financial

Start with the Stats!

• 90% don't know their numbers (Life After Sale YT)
• 98% don't know the value of their business (cnbc.com)
• 72% don't know their credit score (smallbiztrends.com)
• 73.6% of all statistics are made up (businessinsider.com)

  Notes from the Talk!

• Me – I knew my numbers and optimized every 90 days with SMART goals from 2014-2017 to go from 5-6 days solo cleaning per week to 2 days all while earning the same profit! We started at $60k profit and ended at $60k profit. This is the ISO Model.
• Kate – I was helping a friend running a $1.2M residential cleaning company. She has 375 clients. We analyzed her business with numbers and calculated that her average biweekly client is paying $130/visit. She recognized an opportunity to grow that average to $160/visit. I coached  her to use the 80/20 rule and assume 20% of her clients are leading to 80% of the high drama and low profit costing her business money. This amounts to 75 clients. We used numbers to determine the potential of her business with the SAME number of clients (375) but replacing the 75 with great ones. It was an additional $50k-$100k per year in profit! When we increased every client from $130 to $160/visit, it added an additional $150k-$250k per year in profit! Same business, same size, better numbers! Mind-blowing.

Fundamental #2: Mindset

Start with the Stats!

• 60% have a fixed mindset (Dweck).
• 98% don't pursue their dreams with confidence and excitment (2% Mindset).
• 33% are held back by fear (Smallbiztrends.com).

Notes from the Talk!

• Fixed vs Growth Mindset – "This is the idea behind a growth mindset: we believe our intelligence and abilities can be developed over time. Growth mindsets are one end of the spectrum of how we think about ourselves, with fixed mindsets on the opposite end. Having a growth mindset means we are eager to learn, adaptive, find value in embracing challenges, and believe that being effortful can improve certain skills, compared to the fixed mindset’s belief that our abilities are unchangeable." A fixed mind sees limited opportunity and the cards they were dealt are the ones they must keep. A growth mind can change and must change as nothing in life ever stays the same. It either grows or dies. So the irony of the fixed mindset is that it is decaying or dying over time. You have to grow a little to "stay the same". (Carol Dweck, "Mindset")
• A growth and business-owners mindset sees investment, not cost. They see delayed gratification vs immediate. They see long-term thinking and planning vs. immediate. They seek mentors, coaches, and  value life-long learning.
• If you don't believe you can grow your mind, you're right. And if you are fixed in your mindset, you better know your numbers because you'll be holding onto whatever you've got as the only way to grow your income in to grow your mind.
• How do you acquire a Growth Mindset? First, you must believe it for you. Second, become a reader of personal development books and  NEVER stop. Get around those that stretch you. Stretching your mind shows you the gap and forces you to want to grow to fill the gap.

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 I have a friend, whom will remain anonymous. I won't share their full story, just the high level. Let's call her Jill. Jill ran a very successful and profitable solo cleaning business in Florida. Hurricane Ian pummeled her area and completely wiped out everything Jill had. Thankfully, her family was okay. But not her house. Not her vehicles. Not her business. Jill invested years to build and it took a few days for a natural disaster to destroy. What could Jill have done differently? Not live in Florida? I suppose. But that's her home. Here's the good news. Jill has a great mindset to grow her cleaning company. She is resilient and determined. She grew it back. What would you do if you lost it all? Would you be like Jill or would you give up?

 My goal here was to dial this podcast back a bit and get you to stop and take inventory of your life, your family, your health, your business, and your eternal future. My goal was for you to pause and be grateful for what you already have and sure up the things you don't. Like Jill, many of you live in areas with natural disasters. A tornado or earthquake or forest fire could take it all away in an instant. What happens when you work hard to build something and then lose it all from something totally out of your control? Like a once in a decade category 4 hurricane that wipes out Southern Florida? On the other side of a disaster like that, how do you pick yourself back up and start over? The words for this are called grit and perseverance and hope and faith. What gives Jill and some of you out there the courage to build when the Big Bad Wolf might come and blow your house down again? I'm going to share this amazing quote from Jesus.
 
"Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock." (Matthew 7:24-25)

The answer is simple. We need to all build a company with a strong foundation. What are some ingredients of a strong foundation? As a follower of Christ, I put a relationship with Jesus as my rock as number one! This may not be true of you as you listen to this. That is absolutely okay. For me though, having a firm foundation that God owns it all and I am a steward to manage what is already His. This allows me to go with the flow more and trust that God's in control. It doesn't mean I don't work hard. I do. I just have faith that God has a greater plan and purpose for me. So if a major storm would have wiped everything away, I still have Jesus and that's all I really need. That may not be what you believe. That's okay. We're not clones. What are some other ingredients of a successful foundation? I believe being out of debt and having cash and a solid financial plan is super vital for your foundation. I believe if you're married, that you and your spouse are on the same page and walking in unity. I believe trust and amazing relationships with your customers, your team, and your community is a vital ingredient. If you have these ingredients in place and another storm hits and wipes you out, you have hope. The community binds together to fix it. The relationships you have in the community are strong and you get involved even if you have nothing. On the other side, the community rallies around you and your business grows again. The point is this. Regardless of where you live and the natural disasters that may surround you, nobody has a certain future. Jesus declares it plainly. The wind and the waves are going to hit. It's not a matter of if, but when. And like the third pig who built the house out of brick, will you be prepared when it does?


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 I recently revealed the "The 4 ISO Model Fundamentals " as Financial, Strategic, Mindset, and People. It doesn't matter whether you own a solo cleaning business or a catering company. If you want to grow your company to create the life you've dreamed of, you'll need to master these fundamentals. I am not a caterer... obviously. I can't coach caterers. I can't coach photographers or digital agencies or doctors. I'm a 16-year solo cleaner that has optimized 2 solo cleaning companies to over $50,000 profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week without employees, subs, or drama. I've successfully sold one solo cleaning business for $80,000 and I've successfully scaled another solo cleaning business to allow my family to go to Florida for the month of February the past two years. I have mastered these 4 fundamentals for winning with a solo cleaning business and therefore, I am highly qualified to be your coach if you're looking to master your solo cleaning company.

In that podcast episode, I stated that I wanted to lay out the 4 fundamentals in simple terms first. Then, I promised to follow-up with episodes adding more depth to each. Today, we start with the first one called FINANCIAL. There are thousands of cleaning business owners in Facebook cleaning groups. I have interacted with hundreds and personally coached dozens over the years. The ones I've coached have been side-hustlers, startups, solos, and striving to 7-figures. I have enough data to make this bold statement.

Of the 4 fundamentals of a successful solo cleaning company or any cleaning company, the most lacking skill is Financial Fluency. In my experience (and the combined experience of other reputable coaches in the industry), over 95% of cleaning business owners do NOT know their numbers. They are Financially Illiterate.

This is scary as these cleaning business owners go year-to-year making jokes about "sucking at math" or "not knowing where they are". It's not funny. It's sad. 95% of you RIGHT NOW are literally treading water and about to drown. You are one bad wave or rip current from financial bankruptcy and you don't even know it. 90% of you are anxious, stressed, and overwhelmed because you don't know where you stand. When you are Financially Illiterate, you are standing on sinking and shifting sand. You have literally nothing firm to build on. So what do you do? You continue to work harder and harder and hope that the money works out. Enter geniuses like Mike Michaelowicz and his book "Profit First". Mike was Financially Illiterate until he took the first step. He went from not-knowing his numbers to knowing his numbers. This didn't make the business any better. But it did allow Mike to place his feet on something firm and something he could build from. His stated mission is to help the millions of us in the same place and to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty.

My friend Ellen was once in this position. She ran a successful cleaning company with 20 team members and close to a half-million in revenue. She did not know her numbers at all and she was the first to admit it. I helped her set goals to over a 3-month period to learn her business through a Profit and Loss Statement or a P&L. Once she understood her P&L, she was able to set financial goals and track her business through a financial dashboard. Ellen has grown quite a bit since this major change. There are thousands of Ellens' out there, so don't feel bad if that's you. We will address all 4 fundamentals over time.


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Pricing questions are one of the most commonly-asked in Facebook cleaning groups. The post usually goes like this. There's an image of a house or details of the house or office. It is followed by "How much should I charge for this?" The only question I have seen more often in the last 7 years on Facebook is this one. "How do you clean this?" and there's a picture of something.

I visited Angela Brown's Professional House Cleaners private group on June 5th, 2023 and answered multiple questions with the same response. I noticed there was a common struggle with pricing that I wanted to address, so I posted this the same day to the group.
​
Watch out for Watch-Watchers! Don't Charge by the Hour!

I've seen this play out so many times in the cleaning industry and quite honestly, in many industries. Many of you are still charging by-the-hour. You can do what you want. You can make a case for it early on if you're terrible at numbers and estimates. But it will only attract "Watch-Watchers" and drama. These customers will time your every cleaning and you'll be penalized for taking longer ("Why am I paying so much?") or taking shorter ("Why were you so quick, what didn't you do?"). It sets you up to never earn more per hour unless you raise your hourly rates. It sets you up to have customers watching your every move and watching their watches. This is not good for you or your customers. Don't do this!

Solution: Learn how to price. Know your numbers and stop making the excuse! You need to price badly in the beginning and learn through experience how long every part of cleaning a house or office takes. You'll never price badly again. You'll even learn how to set buffers on different types of jobs so you'll stop underestimating jobs, which we all do. The good news is that we underestimate less with more experience. Set by-the-job pricing, get your rhythms for each house, and speed it up over time with high quality. Your hourly rate that you calculate internally will skyrocket. I got mine to the $80-$120/hour range when I was solo for many years and this was pre-pandemic before prices shot up. I still average above my competitors locally as we build our team. By-the-job pricing is a Win-Win for you and your customers. The customer simply wants excellence and quality. They also want you in their house or office less. Minimizing our times minimizes our footprint into a homeowner's or office's schedule. The less we are there, the less they think about cleaning. The less they thing about cleaning, the happier they are. As long as the quality is amazing as usual, they win. We make more per hour and per day and we are happy. We win.

I ended the post with this call to action. Feel free to discuss. I think this will have a lot of passionate responses. It's always fun to hear the feedback of others. Some agreed with me. Some did not. I want to share some points of view from both sides.

Victor Jaramillo, Jr. – "Agree 100%. The only issue I transitioned to by-the-hour for initial cleans while I trained new staff but now that they’ve been with me for a few it’s time to switch to a flat rate as I calculate in my head. My staff will either maximize or minimize their hourly earnings based on their following our system."

Bert Sloan – "Charging by the hour opens up a plethora of problems."


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 My sister Jenna is doing amazing in her career so far. She just finished a few rotations as a traveling nurse and is currently working on her Nurse Practitioner license. She just got back from a 2 week trip to Europe and has saved a ton of money. I'm such a proud big bro. She visited our family in Sarasota, FL this February when we were escaping the cold Northeast winter along with my mom and step-dad. It was a great visit where we checked out multiple Gulf Coast beaches, sunsets, kayaking in the mangroves, and Jake's amazing ice cream (shout out to Jake in Siesta Key)!

Jenna asked me an awesome question one night after all the kids were sleeping. "I want to start my Roth IRA, but I'm leery of hiring a financial advisor. They cost a lot, right... and I'd have to pay them a commission out of my investments?" She was asking a great question that was a 25 mile per hour, high-arcing softball pitch that I had a wide-barreled aluminum bat ready for!

I pulled up a quick Google search to teach her with an example from real estate. "Jenna, there are many homeowners that ask the same question. Why should I hire a realtor? I can sell it myself and keep more of the money. Yes, this is true. You do keep a higher percentage of the sale price when you do a 'For-Sale By Owner' or FSBO. However, FSBO stats online show that only 11% of FSBO sellers actually succeed at selling their home. And to make it worse, the 11% sell their homes for 26% less than their professional realtor counterparts." I let this sink in. Jenna is very sharp. I continued. "These stats suck! Let's say you own a $300,000 home. Let's say you actually figure out how to sell it and that's a BIG IF! This is an example. You sell it for $300k! Yay... and you save 3% on realtor fees. You saved $9,000 and walk away with potentially $292k. That's amazing. What if you sold through a professional, marketing machine realtor like my friend John Schuchman (host of the Real Estate Survival Guide)? Using the 26% upsell average, John sells your house for $378,000! John splits the $22,700 commission with the buying agent. John makes $11,350. He is motivated to sell your home! You pay the same closing cost plus the realtor commission. You keep $357k! That's $65,000 more when you hired the professional."

That pretty much put the whole topic to bed. Jenna simply said. "Okay, I'll hire a financial advisor." Now, I want to talk to you, listeners of the Smart Cleaning School Podcast. What are you skimping on, trying to save money on and do yourself? Jenna had a SPENDING MINDSET, which literally cost her $65,000! My big-brotherly talk changed her thinking to an INVESTING MINDSET. It's so ironic too. Jenna is highly educated. She has invested over $100,000 in her overall college education to soon become a Nurse Practitioner. This investment allowed her to make serious bank as a traveling nurse, go to Europe for 2 weeks, and have the cash in the bank to even ask me the Roth IRA question. Mic drop for Jenna! I'm so proud and love my baby sister. By the way, I was 14 when she was born so I've been a big brother and fatherly role to her.


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