Smart Cleaning School

I was so thankful to have my friend Juan Chaparro of Gmaids and PipeHire HRMas our Smart Cleaning Tribe Expert for April 2021. I wanted to start a series for the members where I brought in million dollar cleaning owners to share the milestones and lessons they picked up along the way. Juan has an incredible story. He spent 5 years in Dallas growing his company, but he wanted more. He wanted freedom. Juan read the "E-Myth Revisited" and the "4-Hour Workweek" and applied what he learned. He was able to move to Miami to pursue freedom of time and location as he didn’t need a ton of money. It took Juan 13 years, but now he runs a 7-figure business remotely and enjoys a life of freedom. 

Juan invested over 90 minutes with our Tribe. It was outstanding. In this podcast, I am sharing one portion of this expert call where Juan goes through the various milestones from startup to a 7-figure absentee business owner. 

"This is a simple business. We do the same thing over and over, nothing new to create. It’s simple. We need to have a balance between customers and employees. Keep this growing every month. When you become a master at this. Take this from this call. Become an expert." - Juan Chaparro

Milestones in your company

• 0-$100k How to operate a simple business
• $100 - $250k How to become an entrepreneur, payroll, accounting, numbers, reports
• $250k-$500k Problem with hiring people becomes more real (4-8 employees), have to hire and fire a lot. This problem of hiring becomes real.
• $500-$750k Get organized to do office work correctly, become an office person. Need a great marketing, accounting, and payroll system by this point! Needs to be a well-run machine or you fall behind.
• $750-$1M Growing, but you need more people and hiring becomes the challenge again. You need a manager to replace you a lot more. You need 18-20 people always working
• $1M+ Management, office staff, expansion, growing to other cities. Hiring is still the problem. We have better systems and processes, but managing people is always the challenge.

"I waited too long to hire people fast. I was too nice for too long. I had this hope that people would change and get better. It’s hard to remove the emotional part of this. Being an absentee, I don’t get attached. It’s still hard. Get good to preserve the image and reputation of the company. Don’t let being nice to one person hurt the image of the company and hurt 10 others." - Juan Chaparro

Would you like to join our cleaning family? The Smart Cleaning Tribe is an exclusive membership for cleaning business owners growing teams who desired a cleaning family to help them set goals, hold them accountable, and grow in every area of their life.

My wife and I were enjoying breakfast at Postively 4th Street Cafe in Ocean City, NJ. We love this place and especially the lattes. Oh my, they are good! During our connecting time, we were searching for ways to improve our business and effectiveness as parents. I asked the question. "How can we become 10 Talent People in each area of our life?" This is a reference to a story that Jesus teaches in the Book of Matthew. I'll read it.

Matthew 25:14-30 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’  He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’  Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’ “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents. ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

We are Christians, so this has significant meaning to us. When I asked the question to my wife, "How do we become 10 Talent People", it was our desire to be the 5 talent servant who invests his five to make 10. We want to make 10 talents in every area of our life. From this question, multiple breakthroughs occurred. I'd like to share one of them with you as I believe it will help you a ton. In the Four Windows episode, I painted the image of a window with cross lattices that makes 4 individual panes of glass in each window. Each of the 4 panes represents something in our life.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

Earlier this summer, I was talking with my 16-year-old son Kenny about his podcast editing business. I asked him if he'd like to come with me to Nashville for the annual Podcast Movement Conference. He'd have to buy his own ticket obviously. At first he didn't understand why he would even consider it. This lead into a great discussion on networking and why we build relationships with others in our community, online, and nationally. I'll come back to that conversation soon. But first let me ask you, the Smart Cleaning School listener... Are you building relationships in your local community? Did you answer no? Why aren't you doing it as a strategic part of your work week? Is it because you don't believe it's worth your time because it's just more meetings? Allow me to demonstrate with a few stories...

• Kelly Jones -  Her entire Delaware cleaning empire emerged through local netwoking and serving her network. Listen to her interview, Become a Bridge-Builder for the full story.
• Alonzo Adams - Check out Be a Lighthouse, Not a Buoy for the full story. Alonzo attended one conference in Las Vegas that lead to a $100k+ cleaning contract!
• Vincent Pugliese - He attended a mastermind retreat in Nashville when it wasn't convenient at all. He made one connection there with a photographer that turned into a $30k+ ongoing income stream for 2 years.
• Nick Pavlides - He runs the Ghostwriter School and is a friend that Vincent introduced me to at a conference. Nick is the one that persuaded me to name this podcast with "school". Nick attends conferences regularly and I've heard multiple testimonies of Nick closing $20k ghostwriting packages at conferences he attends!
• Ken Carfagno - I attended Debbie Sardone's Speed Cleaning conference in Dallas when we were trying to sell our first cleaning business. I had no time or money to attend this at the time. But I brought my friend Ian who was very interested in my company. He saw the vision of what a cleaning business could do in his life and this conference locked in a $80k business sale for my family. It was worth the $1,500 and 4 days invested!

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

In this episode, we pick up where we left off with Kelly Jones of The Cleaning Girl.  You will enjoy her story as it goes from humble beginnings as  22-year-old mom to SBA Woman Entrepreneur of the Year in her state. Pay close attention to the story of how Kelly was nearly featured on Marcus Lemonis's new show, "Lemon-Aid". Marcus is the award-winning host of "The Profit". Kelly is a bridge-builder. She has built thousands of little bridges to get her to that pinnacle. Every bridge is a relationship.

This podcast will show you what is possible when you build relationship bridges and serve like Kelly has done so well.  Make sure to follow Kelly as she launches her first product line for homeowners, Maid in a Bottle.

Kelly Jones of The Cleaning Girl (Wilmington, DE) was a 22-year-old mom working at a bank. She got into a car accident and was given the summer off to recover. During this time, she enjoyed the pool with her young children. Then the bank came calling for Kelly to come back to cubicle world. Her husband asked her as she whined about going back. "What are you going to do? What can you do?" Her answer is the title of this podcast.

Kelly quickly found a few clients and then connected with a mom selling her company. Kelly went all in and purchased the business. But the business took its toll on Kelly and she was burnt out after 10 years. That's when her husband stepped in again to ask her. "What are you going to do?" Her answer to this second question is what has built The Cleaning Girl to a BRAND recognized and respected throughout her entire state and earning her multiple business awards!

I recently coached a new friend and solo cleaner, Angelica Pedraza of U B Lazy Cleaning Services out of San Antonio, TX. She had just completed her onboarding as a new member of the Solo Cleaning School Elite and had a few questions. The conversation was beneficial both ways. I was very impressed with her progress. Angelica has been in business 3 years as a solo and she has listened to every one of my podcasts. And no, that's not why I was impressed. She is 21-years-old and has served in our military. Yes, this means she served our country and started her cleaning company before the age of 20. I'm impressed because we hear so much negative about the Milennial Generation and their tendency to look for the easy path. Not Angelica! She is driven and accomplished at a young age. Angelica, if you're listening to this... you have a BRIGHT future! Welcome to our Elite Membership!

She told me on the phone that she is super busy cleaning houses and hasn't even had a weekend off in 3 years! I asked her about her Why and Dream. "Ken, I want to take a month off like you are. I want to make more and work less." She wants time. That is a gift that has to be earned. I then dug up a story that I haven't told in a while. It was meant to inspire Angelica. It's hard for her to see my life and think that she can do it. But I can put myself BACK into her life and share how I did it. That's what I did. I then told her the story of the Monday and Friday Mugs. You'll have to listen to the whole story on the podcast, but here's the takeaway. I had to earn my Mondays and Fridays away from cleaning. Then I earned my Tuesdays. Eventually, I was cleaning 2 days per week, sold the business, and did it again in a second state. Now, I'm earning back the last 2 days. This requires me to scale my solo cleaning company through a team. There was never an easy step in the process. Some steps took me months, while others took me years. Angelica was so encouraged after my story, so I ended it like this.

"Angelica, you have a lot to look forward to. You're 21 and already make good money as a solo cleaner working all week. Over time, you too can drink coffee out of your Monday mug and then your Friday mug. Down the road, you may even have a mug for all 7 days of the week. It's called Freedom and you're on the pathway. You made a smart investment! Let's go accomplish your dreams!" Your dream may seem so far away like it does for Angelica. Don't fret. Just set some smaller bite-sized goals and attack them one-by-one. Celebrate at each achieved goal. Before you know it, you'll be living your dream, one step at a time.

This original episode was very popular because it spoke to a mindset of defeatism. In a recent episode, "Pick Up Your Problems", I shared a powerful quote from NBA Champion Chris Bosh. "The problem and the solution are both in the mirror." That really speaks to the heart of this 'Best Of' re-run. Make sure to listen again as it equips you to think like a problem solver over someone who takes the lumps and gives up.

July was a crazy month. As a family, we had a ton going on. We had Kid's Camp and Youth Camp at retreat camp centers for 4 of our 5 kids for 5 days each. During one of those camps, Teresa and I slipped away for 4 days to the beach.  I had a 5-day father / son camping trip with my son to the Adirondacks that I do with each son. This was with my 8-year-old Kye.  It was glorious being off the grid for 5 days with no phone or social media! We just connected, camped, swam, boated, ate, heard campfire stories, songs, and devotions, and did shooting sports and hiking! Awesomeness! Coach Josh was also away in Florida for 2 weeks, so we had to move our coaching to Marco Polo and email. Even with all of this going on, I had BIG goals!

The first step in this process was putting our money where our mouth was. On July 7th, we booked it! Booked what? We booked a rental house on the Gulf Coast for a whole month next winter! The house is awesome with 7 beds, a porch, and a short 8 minute ride to the beach.  There's a pool table too. Our kids are so excited and so are we! We've never done anything like this before.  July had to be a big month to get this "Freedom Vision "cranking.

Before I go into the details of our month and share tidbits from coaching, let me give you the end results. We started the month with no employees, no payroll, no systems, a new accounting firm client for $3,000 per month that we had to staff, and no clue! The month ended with no new clients, which is the sad news. But we fully outsourced and completed our Quickbooks migration from desktop to online and have an accountant walking us through whatever we need for a year. Our financial system is now automated! I can't believe it! We hired a payroll service and a background check company. I built out a basic onboarding  system, job description, and training system. Teresa and I were trained how to use the online payroll dashboard to submit employee hours. I found out that I wasn't submitting payroll correctly for the state and local taxes. Thankfully, my new payroll company fixed it for me and I'm paying a penalty for the remainder of the year. That's a relief. I hired my first employee. Leah works full time at a daycare and is a college grad. She wanted a part-time job to make $500 per month and found me through a referral. It works out perfectly. She started training on July 29th! It's crazy! I also was privy to systems used by my coach. I am so grateful for this. At the end of the month, Josh introduced me to his HR & Finance Manager. We talked for over an hour. I helped him by teaching him the ISO Model to increase revenues in their company. He taught me their onboarding process and is sending the documents, videos, and other forms & ads I need to start a strategic hiring process. I also completed a branding change from Carfagno Cleaning to Carfagno Commercial Cleaning and my C3 Experience. My friend Billy designed a new logo and I upgraded my proposal to new offices prospects with my new branding. As I even share this, I'm dumbfounded at how much I got done this month when at times it felt like nothing was happening! Last but not least, I added a key member to my team. For the first time in 16 years, my wife Teresa is stepping up to help the family company. She is a busy homeschooling mom of 5, so I NEVER asked her involvement. I am grateful that she is helping with admin and is taking over the QBO and payroll components from me! I am working hard to delegate as much as possible to focus on growth of new clients and new team members!

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

I'm currently reading Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People". It's hard to believe that I never read it before. The book is literally eating me alive. What do I mean by that? Do you know when you're out at night in the summer and the mosquitos start to attack? You lose the ability to move forward with your plans as you're consumed with the bugs. That's what is happening with this book. I read a chapter and literally have to stop reading and just stew!!! One concept from the book early one got my attention big time and it should get yours too. So listen up!

Did you ever hear the full story of the goose that laid the golden eggs in Aesop's Fables? Go back and look it up. Here's the summary. The farmer discovers a golden egg and gets rich from the daily production of gold from his Golden Goose. But the farmer gets greedy and wants more than one day's production. He decides to kill the goose thinking he can get all the eggs out of it. To his horror, he opens up his Golden Goose and finds no golden eggs. Even worse, the goose is destroyed as well. Stephen Covey relates this to the business that purchases an expensive machine. This new machine can create widgets better and faster than anything else out there, so the owner cranks its output to top capacity. He only cares about the output and therefore never schedules proper down time to maintain the machine. You know what happens next. Eventually, the machine crashes or fails. All production stops and widgets cease. The machine either requires a significant level of time and investment to repair and get it back on line. Or worse, the business has killed their Golden Goose and needs to buy a new one. In either example, they thought they were being productive and pumping out profits. But in the long run, they were worse off with the machine that breaks and would have been better off with their old reliable system of consistent widget production. What is the lesson here? Does the business decide to stay where they were? No, of course not. Progressive improvements in technology increase profits. However, the business needs to follow the maintenance instructions to ensure that the machine performs at a top level for a long time.

Are you catching my drift yet? Do you see the applications to your life and business? Here are a few for you to ponder.

• How well are you taking care of your machines? Are you doing the scheduled maintenance on your vehicles and vacuum cleaners? They will function for a long time if you take care of them. I learned the hard time, many times with MDT or Machine Down Time. Check out my episode, "Caught Red-Handed".

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

I met with a good friend and spiritual mentor of mine recently for breakfast. I'll keep his name anonymous, but not his message. In fact, we'll call him Todd. Todd loves breakfast and knows everyone in the restaurant. He regularly takes his friends out to breakfast and won't even let us pay. As you know from this podcast, I like hanging out with friends like that. I love being around generous people as it rubs off on me.  Todd is a retired/semi-retired painter. He was excellent at his craft for over 35 years. He ran crews, teaching and mentoring many younger apprentices over the years. I was staring at the wall next to our table and noticed some trim work. "Would you tape this off?" In my mind, I assumed all painters had to use tape so you wouldn't get paint from one area onto another. Oh boy! I had no idea that this was the wrong question to ask a professional painter! Todd responded. "Painters don't use tape!" He did explain later that there are certain applications where special painters tape can be useful. For the most part, it's time consuming to use tape, adds expense, and lowers the quality of the job. Of course I had to dig into his response.

Todd went through a thorough and detailed technical explanation of how he paints and how he teaches his guys to paint. Here's a few things I learned. He wears special painters pants and always keeps his putty knife, some clean cotton rags, and a screwdriver in his pants. If he's painting molding in a room and happens to get some paint on the wall, he can use his putty knife and a cloth and fix it. I asked him about the tape. He said. "When I get someone working with me, they don't use the tape. They learn with the tools. I teach him my method and I don't care if they mess up and need to use the putty knife nine times. Over time, they'll need the putty knife less and less until it's barely used."  Todd was training his guys in his best painting system, yielding best quality and best efficiency regardless of how bad or slow they are in the beginning. This explanation brought me to attention at the table as I recognized so many parallels between painting and cleaning. Todd went on. "Truth be told. The newer guys are not going to be bad. They're going to have excellence, but they'll be slow because they may have to get used to making the mistakes and using the tools 10 times on the first day." I connected that to training cleaners and how they always start out slow and get faster, but you never teach them shortcuts to get fast in the beginning. Why do I train this way? It's a simple concept. Train for excellence first, then speed. This guarantees a level of quality, which can be optimized. You don't lose clients this way. If you train for speed first, mistakes will happen. Things will break. Areas and details will get missed. This will cause you lose clients and tarnish your reputation. Todd finished with this. "Tape is a crutch for painters." They don't have to get excellent as it encourages sloppy work.

Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website