Smart Cleaning School

  I have told this story so many times to friends and on other podcasts over the past 6 years since I've heard it. The Country Preacher teaches a powerful model for decision-making that I have used in the toughest of decisions.  Are you familiar with a Venn Diagram or the overlapping circles? Look it up if you're not familiar. Picture 3 circles overlapping in a way where there are 3 areas where any 2 circles intersect and only 1 area where all 3 circles intersect. Here are the 3 circles the Country Preacher used: 

1. Desire - Do you want to do it? Whatever the decision is, do you want to do it. Are you excited about the potential of i t working out? Are you passionate about going that new direction? 
2. Open Door - Is the opportunity available right now? Or is the door closed right now?
3. Peace - How do you feel in your spirit about this decision? Does it give you anxiety or total peace?

If you have a scenario where you have the desire and the opportunity is open, but there is no peace, do not do it.

If you have a scenario where you have the peace and the opportunity is open, but you don't want to do it, do not do it. 

If you have a scenario where you have the desire and the peace, but the door is closed, do not do it. In this case, pray through the closed door until it opens (if it ever does).

Let's use an example of a difficult decision our family faced in 2017. Do we leave 16 years of family and business roots we've forged in Upstate New York and move back home to the Philly Area? And by the way, I heard this message in 2016 and used this decision-making process to make this vital decision. We had a deep desire to go back to our hometown and be with our family. We missed Sunday dinners after church with my Nana and Pop-Pop after 18 years of living in other states. We missed my younger siblings having babies of their own and spending time with them. Yes, we had desire. After much prayer and talking as a family, we felt total peace that this was the right time to go back home. The kids were excited about it. We were excited. Sure, it was stressful to think how it would all work out. But that wasn't up to us to make work. We could only take action on the desire and peace we had. Was there an open door? Flashback. We wanted to go back to Philly just about every year we were in New York. But there wasn't an open door. This time there was. We prayed hard and long about this part. We'd have to sell the cleaning business. I'd have to replace myself as a Royal Rangers leaders. We'd need to find somewhere to live. In October 2017, we got the desire and prayed. In November, we were offered a free place to live with our family of 7 for a year with Teresa's mom. In December 2017, I replaced myself as a Royal Rangers leader. And in January, I took Ian to Dallas to a Debbie Sardone event called Speed Cleaning. Ian decided that he wanted to buy the cleaning business. There was the last part of the door opening. This one was hard as we didn't get the answer right away. We had to take action. The open door came. We've been out of New York for over 4 years now and it seems like a dream that we were ever there.  We are so thankful to be back home. We got to spend Sundays with my Nana and Pop-Pop for 2 years before they both passed. We have been to birthday parties and beach days with my 3 nieces and 1 nephew. We have seen and rebuilt relationships with friends and family members that we haven't seen in years. I am back in a position of leadership with the Royal Rangers and the new cleaning business is growing! This decision has been blessed because we sought after God's Heart on the matter. We made sure there was intersection of desire, an open door, and peace.

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 I introduced a new Smart Cleaning School character in "I Can't Take Any More Customers" His name is Robot Bob the Solo Cleaning Machine. Bob doesn't eat. He doesn't sleep. He only needs oil and a battery charging station. This stud of a solo cleaner can leave his charging dock at 7 am Monday morning and start cleaning his first house by 7:30am. He cleans 3 houses without a lunch break. He doesn't stop to answer a phone call. He is a phone. He doesn't check the news or social media. It's all hardwired inside of him. Robot Bob just cleans and drives. Oh yeah, Robot Bob can drive because he has a self-driving electric car.  Robot Bob finished 3 houses by 4:30pm and earns $150 per clean or $450 for his house cleaning day. But he is not done. Bob stops back at his charging station for a 1-hour recharge and then drives to clean his first office. Robot Bob arrives at this first nightly office at 6pm and proceeds to clean 4 offices straight through the night because he is a Solo Cleaning Machine. Robot Bob finishes his 4th office at 5:30am Tuesday morning. He earns $600 in offices for the night. Robot Bob then drives to his charging station for a 1-hour recharge and is back to clean 3 houses on Tuesday. That's just one day in the life of Robot Bob the Solo Cleaning Machine. He cleans 3 houses and 4 offices from Monday through Friday, then he cleans 8 offices on Saturday and Sunday. Isn't Robot Bob a total stud?! He is creating $7,650 per week in revenue and since he doesn't eat or sleep, his expenses are very small. He only has to pay for electricity, oil, maintenance on his car, cleaning supplies, and insurance. Yes, even Robot Bob realized he needs to be a professional. These numbers are insane for the Solo Cleaning Machine. Robot Bob is profiting $350,000 per year!  

Today, I was able to bring Robot Bob onto the Smart Cleaning School to answer some Q&A. 

Ken: How are you able to be here for this Q & A at 12pm on a Wednesday?

Robot Bob:  Bob is cleaning right now. Bob am always cleaning. Bob has a built in computer and phone. Bob receives your questions and answers while cleaning.

Ken: Wow, you are quite the Solo Cleaning Machine. What do you think of the humanoid solo cleaners who try to clean as much as you?

Robot Bob: Bob laughs. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. No humanoid can clean like Bob. Humanoids need sleep. What a waste of cleaning time. Humanoids need food. What a waste of money and time. Bob only needs oil and a recharge. But Bob does wonder about the humanoid Chic-Fil-A experience?

Ken: I'm sure glad that I'm a human...oid because those waffle fries and vanilla shakes are delicious! Bob, here's another question. Where is your recharging station?

Robot Bob: Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Bob laughs at your humans. Bob earns $350,000 a year in profit.  Bob invested in a recharging station park with 100 charging stations. Bob uses one station and rents the other 99 to stupid humanoids to charge their Teslas.

Ken:  Robot Bob the Solo Cleaning Machine. And now he's Robot Bob the Slumlord.  Last question for today. Robot Bob, do you have any advice for the solo cleaning humanoids who have the weakness for needing to eat, sleep, and see their families that say they can't take on any more customers because they don't have any more time?

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I have a friend that I wish to keep anonymous. However, her story is one that I think many can relate to. Let's call her Abby. Abby is a single mom with 2 teenage kids that need her a lot. She also has a full-time job that needs her even more it seems. She can't seem to balance it all to get time for herself. Add to this that Abby was in a bad car accident as a young adult and suffered severe back injury. Thankfully, the accident was not her fault and she gets a monthly payout from the law suit for life. Obviously, it's not enough and can never pay for her back. But it helps her get by. The back injury has made sleeping virtually impossibly as she suffers every night with pain and discomfort. Many nights Abby will get to bed around 8:30pm and toss in bed sleepless with pain until 4:00am. When she finally falls asleep, her brain only registers an hour and a half to 2 hours of sleep because Abby has to get out of bed to go to work to pay the bills and take car of her kids. Somehow Abby has been able to function in life with little sleep. She gets her work done. She gets home to get her kids to and from school, feed them, clothe them, help them with their homework, and keep the house. Abby is a hero to those kids. All she wants is some sleep and some time for herself.  So she pays a big cable bill to have her shows to give her some peace before another long night of sleeplessness. Can you relate to this story about Abby at all. Do you know anyone like this? 

In a recent call with Abby, I learned some incredible news. She found a magic pill that one of her doctors wanted her to try. It enabled her to sleep through the night! Abby also noticed that she was more focused after getting good sleep. She could get things done at work faster. She didn't go through the day depressed or anxious. She had more peace, more ability to perform, more patience for others, more of a mom to her kids. This was incredible! I was nearly shouting through the phone! Just two of these pills and she could sleep. Praise God, right? Yes. But... it isn't free or part of a prescription plan. Abby has to pay close to $200 per month of money she doesn't have to afford the magic pills. She wanted help figuring this out. 

Abby has no money left over at the end of the month, so where was she going to find an extra $200? Since I'm a total numbers nerd, we dug into her budget and I saw the problem right away. The answer glared back at me. She was paying $275 per month for her cable bill, which included her internet. She also drove a luxury car which has average maintenance costs at $500 per visit to the shop. Everything else on her budget looked reasonable to me. I looked up her car compared to a similar Toyota model and found it to cost $13,000 more from purchase to maintaining for 5 years. This was an additional $220 per month in luxury car expenses. So I explained to Abby that she is also spending an extra $150 per month minimum for her high-end cable and internet service. Thus, I saw a potential of $370 per month in budget cuts. I compared that to the $200 per month expense that is changing her life with better sleep and productivity. I explained further that since she was asking my advice, that I would say it plainly. 

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 I have been habitually late my whole life. This is not new news to long-time Smart Cleaning School Podcast listeners. In fact, I blamed it on my mom in a past episode. Let me first right a wrong. My mom declares that it was not her that was always late when I was a kid. Yes, our family was always late for events (all of them). But my mom has edited my blame from her to her husband, my step-father Paul. Sorry Dad. You're the culprit of lateness. I was influenced by this as a kid and carried lateness into adulthood. It wasn't until a few pivotal times that I learned some things that would change me. One is from the Royal Rangers Ministry that I am very invested. I've been to leadership training camps with the Rangers and hear this from the beginning to the end. "5 minutes early is on time and on time is late." The other is from my Pop-Pop. I shared in "He Built You a Clock" how my Pop-Pop showed me all throughout his life that being on time was important. It showed others that you value their time. I learned this on the weekends growing up and learned lateness during the week. At the age of 45, I can say that I finally get it. I don't want to be late anymore. I want to show people that I value them by being there on time. In fact, I want to be early. Does this relate?  

How do you change? It seems so silly to ask, but let's break this down. You and I have been so programmed to leave the house at the exact time you need to get there on time. In many cases, we leave a few minutes later and believe we can make it up with going faster. We leave no margin for traffic, for forgetting something important at the house, for anything that could go wrong. In fact, we try a sort of inverse margin by leaving late and trying to miraculously make up the time. This margin is called a buffer. I want you to hear some notes from one of my favorite books called "Essentialism" by Greg McKeown. This comes from an article from mentalpivot.com.

Chapter 15: BUFFER: The Unfair Advantage

• “A buffer can be defined literally as something that prevents two things from coming into contact and harming each other.”
• Buffers are effective strategies for dealing with the unknown and circumstances beyond our control.
• “The essentialist looks ahead. She plans. She prepares for different contingencies. She expects the unexpected. She creates a buffer to prepare for the unforeseen, thus giving herself some wiggle room when things come up, as they inevitably do.”
• Extreme preparation vs. ideal circumstances as illustrated in the story of Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott in the race to the South Pole. Amundsen build slack and buffers into his plan with food/supply caches, redundant supplies and frequent trail markers. Scott’s planned for the best-case scenario and once external circumstances upended Scott’s plan, his team paid the ultimate price.
• As a rule-of-thumb: Double your time estimates.
• Planning Fallacy: Human tendency to underestimate how long a task will take (even if they’re familiar with the task and have done it before).
• Questions to ask when building buffers for personal projects:
  1. What risks do you face on this project?
  2. What is the worst-case scenario?
  3. What would the social effects of this be?
  4. What would the financial impact of this be?
  5. How can you invest to reduce risks or strengthen financial or social resilience?

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 This will be a fitting follow-up episode to "2 Rewards and a Consequence" I shared an elaborate goals structure for 90-day SMART goals. That's what I'm doing. I didn't want it to necessarily be what you're doing. Each of us is unique and responds to goal-setting differently. I know that I've covered these stats before, but listen to them again. 83% of people do not set goals. 14% set goals, but don't write them down. These 14% are 10x more successful than the non-goal-setters. 2% set goals and write them down. They are 30x more successful than the non-goal-setters. 1% set goals, write them down, and are held accountable to achieving them. This 1% Club is over 100x more successful than the non-goal-setters. The takeaway should be abundantly clear. Set goals, write them down, and get into accountability. If you don't, you'll wander aimlessly with the 83%. Let me also be clear. I never said the 83% were unsuccessful! Many of them do extremely well and many of them do not. These stats simply show that the average of the non-goal-setters pales in comparison to the focused few that have goals.  

Now, I would like to introduce a concept to you. It's called the Messy Middle. I have referred to it in this podcast before. I'll describe it first outside of cleaning.  This is my wife's project right now. You are fed up with the state of your home. It's cluttered and full of 20 years of kids stuff, trinkets, unused furniture, books and more books, papers, keepsakes. This has been mounding up for years and nothing you do ever seems to reduce the size. It just grows. [Notice that I didn't say that the kids themselves were the clutter.] You feel tight and stressed every day you walk through your home and see it. Is this a Hoarders episode? No, this is no where near that. But it's bad and stressful and an eye-soar to you. You've finally had it! You proclaim a new goal! I am going to declutter this house. I am going to get rid of all the junk. I am going to create space. I am going to have peace back in my home. There's an "I've had it" moment. This happens in way more than just your house. It's in your health or weight, your relationships, your finances or debt, your business, your job. Do you relate? Back to this decluttering project.

You've proclaimed your new goal. The thought of a decluttered and minimized home sounds like paradise. You get excited. In fact, you get really, really, really excited. You are ready to bag everything, tear down drywall, and personally lift dressers by yourself to accomplish this goal. Adrenalin is rising. It's the beginning and you have a new goal's Dopamine spike! Have you ever been there? You can see what it will look like in the end. You begin.

You're a few days into your project. The work is getting cumbersome, monotonous. You're starting to struggle with decision fatigue on what to get rid of and what to keep. Do you keep this beautiful work of art from 12 years ago that simply says "I love you, Mommy" in green crayon on red construction paper. There's no date, no name. But you know who did it and now they are driving a car. Even though the work is getting to be work, you're still excited as you can see the finish line. You keep going.


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 It's been a while since I shared a business update from Carfagno Commercial Cleaning also known as the C3 Experience! This podcast started exactly 3 years ago as the Solo Cleaning School because I was starting my second solo cleaning company. If you are unfamiliar with my story, please go back to the "Introduction to the Solo Cleaning School". I encourage you to continue listening from the introduction as this podcast is a "how did Ken do it" course for free. The other major episode to check out is "A New Freedom Vision", which is where I declared that I was done solo cleaning and that we were going to take a family trip to Florida for a month. I started sharing monthly updates with Coach Josh with our family and business progress on transitioning from solo to a team with systems. It was very difficult, but "The Fight Was Worth it"! There, I've given you a 3-year C3 update referencing 3 popular episodes.  

Here's the C3 update. I don't clean houses anymore. We do still have 2 residential accounts, but I've delegated them to my son for extra money. We currently service 18 commercial locations and just hired our 5th team member. We are so thankful for these amazing people. They have found a part-time job that pays them well and provides them with the flexibility they desired. Each of our team members has a goal and we are actively working together to help them win and achieve. One of our team members was living in a toxic situation with a duplex neighbor. They wanted desperately to get out. The part-time money from this cleaning job has been a huge blessing in helping them make an offer on a new house that has no neighbors. Another team member saved up her part-time cleaning money to take a vacation to Myrtle Beach to see her sister for the first time in a while. I love these stories and it really motivates me to continue finding more amazing team members and customers. We added 2 new locations in June, 2 new locations in July, and lost 2 locations in August. Our revenue for commercial cleaning is currently $12,000 per month, plus we have $777 per month of residential. C3 is currently at $153k in annual revenue. We have 15 of 18 locations delegated to the C3 Team. I personally clean 2 vet hospitals every weekend with my kids. 

This all sounds great, right? Yes, it does. We're very thankful. However, I pulled some numbers from the end of the summer when I was traveling a lot. We may have hit a few trailing goals. We did not set or hit any leading goals. This is a dangerous sign and told me that we were running an unhealthy business. What do I mean by that? Coach Josh continually tells me that we must be always rowing with both paddles in the water. The business needs to be adding new team members and new locations on a regular basis. People will quit, even ones achieving goals. This happened in July when we had to replace a team member. Customers will fire you. This happened in August when we lost 2 in the same month. We can never rest on our laurels. I'm going to share with you Smart Cleaning School how poorly our leading indicators look for future growth. First, I'll share them. Then I'll teach you what all this means.

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 I have prescribed a heavy dose of business owner's mindset on this podcast. My desire is to level-up the newbies and speed up their success. Plus, I really enjoy teaching this stuff. Sometimes I teach something on the podcast and use it as a lesson to my kids or in a local networking group. Sometimes I teach in my local networking group and share it as a podcast. In this case, I taught a lesson to my daughter with my wife that I also wanted to share with you. If you are new to the show, go back a few episodes and listen to "Beginner's Business Mindset". It's a great place to start your journey as an entrepreneur. Speaking of entrepreneurs... let's do a test. Are you an entrepreneur? Entrepreneurs are always thinking. We are looking for problems for the opportunity to solve them. This leads to so many new businesses, inventions, books, etc. Some entrepreneurs are overactive problem solvers like my friend Vincent that they're always in problem solving mode, finding problems even when it doesn't exist. It's a curse and a blessing of the entrepreneur. We are ALWAYS thinking, figuring, bettering, tinkering, creating. We can't stop. We say "How Can I" to every problem, where the employee mindset will say "I can't".  

My wife and I were walking with our daughter and training her on these basics of entrepreneurship or growth mindset. She is 14 and is operating her first business creating and selling greeting cards in diners. She is so gifted with the cards. She also has a Why to use the profits to support her ballet dream. During the walk, we noticed that she has ideas to grow her business but she's not taking action. She was not being proactive. We explained to her that she's acting more like an employee, where she's waiting for Mom and Dad to tell her what to do next and then she'll do what we tell her. We explained that's not how entrepreneurs think or act. She understood. I shared. "Christianna, we taught you how can I over I can't." She remembered that for sure! I continued. "Here's the next lesson that goes hand-in-hand with this one. There's a difference between proactive and reactive. Here's the simplest version. In a reactive state, something happens and then you take action based on what happened. In a proactive state, you take action and then something happens based on what you did. In a proactive state, you are driving the business or the idea. If you were being proactive you'd be like a boat on the lake cutting through the undisturbed water. You are proactively cruising through. This causes a wake behind you, which disturbs the resting ducks on the water. The ducks now have a choice. They either move, fly away, or deal with the wake. You were proactive and cut A new path and the ducks were reactive and had to find comfort somewhere else. There is always someone being proactive and someone being reactive as a result of someone else being proactive. If you're proactive, you can get ahead of problems (like the wake) before they come. The ducks could have seen the wake and decided that they were going to move before the wake got there or move over. That would be proactive to them. They don't. Some people are always waiting for something to happen before they take any action. They live in a reactive state and will rarely have control of their environment. They are at the mercy of so many other people and things. They are ducks! Proactive people drive change and have so much more control and flexibility over the outcome of their life."

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This interview originally released on December 13, 2021. At the time  of our interview, I did not know that we would sponsor Damon's product the T-Bag. We were simply having a conversation from one cleaning business owner to another. Damon has a great story of try, fail, and adjust. He has been in this industry for decades and found a pain point that he wanted to solve. Damon invented the T-bag to solve the problem of janitors wasting time replacing trash bags while cleaning. It's a simple invention, but so is the coffee collar and the button. These inventions remain in the creative minds of most. It takes a special type of person to take a chance. That's why I support Damon Washington so much. Before I replay this interview, I wanted to give an short update on the T-bag since last December.

2022 has been a profitable year for the T-bag. The Waist 1pocket version of the product has taken off pretty well. This allows cleaners to wear the T-bag on their waist, which has application to janitors not rolling around a trash can. I am one of those janitors. Damon sent me the Waist 1pocket earlier in the year. It's a welcome addition for sure! Damon was also proud to report that he was able to get his product into Johns Hopkins University and Indiana State University. An unexpected success has been the reception of the T-bag into the landscaping community. Damon will be a vendor at the ISSA Convention in Chicago from October 10-13, 2022 if you happen to be in that area and would like to meet him. Great job Damon! Here's the replay...

Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page at smartcleaningschool.com/resources. 

 Colette is my personal accountant and she closes out a 3-part interview series we did on the Smart Cleaning Tribe. Colette gets into the nitty gritty of what a valuable accountant can do for you.  First of all, she dives into business budgeting and how the business owner and accountant partner to help the business grow and plan for the unexpected. I took Colette's advice from the last episode "Hire Professionals on Day One" I hired an accountant in my second year when we had no money. I purchased insurance on day one. I found an attorney to work with in year two. However, I never had an accountant that does as much as Colette does for us. Beyond business budgeting, Colette explained what tax planning looks like. This is a huge value add your accountant can add for you. She shared some 2022 tax updates and how they may impact each of us at a high level to demonstrate how vital it is for us to have the right tax professional. Make sure to listen to Colette's checklist of what questions we should be asking our accountant when tax planning. Lastly, Colette gives us a checklist to us, the cleaners, on what we need to do on our end to help our accountant help us.

Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page  at smartcleaningschool.com/resources to see if CBF could be the right solution for you. 

 In part two of this 3-part interview with my accountant Colette on the Smart Cleaning Tribe, she dives deeper into the role of the accountant. In one question, she explains the benefits of hiring an all-in-one bookkeeper and accountant to help the business with tax planning and prep way before tax day. In another question, Colette surprised us all. "When should we hire an accountant?" Colette said that she is a big believer in hiring insurance, tax, and legal professionals in your business on Day One. Yes, it will cost you in the beginning. But the cost of fixing bad books or hiring a legal team after the fact or not having insurance coverage and an event happens is WAY more expensive. She is an advocate therefore of hiring these 3 professionals on Day One. Colette answers an interesting question about state versus federal tax laws. Plus, I share how Colette personally bills me for services. I think it's brilliant as I can budget accounting all year at the same price. It's a win for the cleaning business owner. From her side, she has reliable recurring income. That's a big win for her. I highly recommend an accountant that bills on a monthly retainer. 

As mentioned in episode 1, feel free to reach out to Colette with questions or to hire her for accounting services. You can find her at CMBA Solutions.