Smart Cleaning School

I thoroughly enjoy giving these business updates. On the last update, $10,000 Watches and The Four Windows, I shared how important it is for me to have mentors and people showing me my blind spots. I attended the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Pittsburgh, PA last week. I've been cleaning non-stop and I'm exhausted, but the sacrifice is totally worth it! I've been cleaning offices with my kids every Saturday, but this past weekend my son was on a Royal Rangers Canoeing Action Camp. I had to clean 7 offices on Saturday and Sunday after a crazy week. I've been tracking the cleaning times of every office since July and this weekend opened up my eyes. My son has been doing bathrooms, some kitchens, and mopping. My daughter does dusting and glass cleaning. I do kitchens and vacuuming. I ended up doing the work of me and my son and identified a few areas to speed up. Each time one of my kids cannot help, I notice things that can be done better or faster. I train this into my kids and ultimately we got faster at the same level of quality.

I'll be talking about this on an upcoming episode, but this week I started a major overhaul and redesign of my Carfagno Cleaning website. It's a ton of work and every change was inspired in some way by my trip to Pittsburgh.

Okay, let's wrap this episode up with an audio recording that I did on my phone during an incredible discussion at my MCBA networking group this week. I've mentioned this before, but I'm the co-education chair with Shelby Miller of Keller Williams to generate excellent discussion and ideas between growing local business owners. I enjoy it. This week's topic was a TED talk by Mike Michaelowicz and his book "Profit First". I opened up the meeting by playing a 3-minute clip of my podcast episode "Kill Parkinson" to introduce the topic of plate sizes and our human psychology to finish the plate regardless of the size. We do this with time and money. Review that episode for more background. Then we opened up the discussion to members of the group and I only wish that I started the recorder sooner! Here's what I did get!

Each person gave me permission to use the recording to help others, so I wanted to personally recommend each of their businesses!

Tom McKee, Edward Jones

Gary Volpe, Volpe Enterprises

Marsha Poust, Signs by Tomorrow

James Hardy, The Carpet Guys 

Lisa Reiss, Optivia Health

Melissa Brindley, Quakertown National Bank

The past 12 months have been a whirlwind of emotion from COVID-19, shutdowns, almost losing my mom, losing my Nana (who was my 2nd mom), getting out of debt, helping my autistic uncle through multiple ICU and mental hospital visits, growing my cleaning business, and so on. Recently, I re-listened to my episode from a year ago called "Free Donuts". I had just returned from the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Gatlinburg, TN and I was convicted big-time to put my pride aside and really crank up my new solo cleaning business. It was also the genesis for what this podcast has become. Make sure to listen to this "Best Of" rewind along with my final comments updating you with 1-year later after returning from the TLF Retreat in Pittsburgh.

One year later, we increased our solo cleaning business from 3 offices, 0 houses, and $35,000 in revenue to 8 offices, 7 houses, and $85,000 in revenues!

Many ask me how and when to raise prices. In this episode, you'll learn how NOT to. The story I am going to tell in this episode is real and happened recently. I am protecting the identity of the solo cleaner by calling them "Jen". Thankfully, this story ends well. Take heart and do NOT copy Jen's mistake!

What did Jen do and why? I teach a proven strategy for how to raise prices in my ISO Model. I've been using this strategy since 2006. It's smart. It's battle-tested. It's strategic. And it's for optimizers ONLY! Jen is not an optimizer yet. Jen has a solid stabilizer business with around 20 clients. She loves her business and has amazing, loyal clients that will stay with her long-term. All she has to do is continue to serve them. These clients will absolutely pay more per visit over time as every business raises prices as the cost of doing business increases year-to-year. Jen got a call from a commercial property manager. She heard about Jen and wanted her do electrostatic disinfecting in multiple buildings. It was a huge opportunity for Jen and the promises sounded like a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. At the same time, Jen was in an emotional state as a close family member was in an accident and required a lot of Jen's TLC. Jen really needed to make more money and have more time. In Jen's excitement at the prospect of the commercial disinfecting, she hastily sent price increase letters by email to half of her reliable, recurring house cleaning clients. Jen thought that some would not say yes and others would not. It would earn her more money per house that stayed and clear up enough time to do the disinfecting work. It was a perfect plan in Jen's mind. But was it?

Here's what happened next. One client fired her. One grilled her for 3 hours during the next cleaning and found out that increases were only sent to half of her clients. One prepared to fire her. She had not heard back from the others yet and decided it was a good idea to reach out to me. As she explained her actions, I panicked with her as I heard so many missteps. Jen could literally lose half of her business in 1 week!

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

I'm so thankful for a conversation I had with Patty in 2006. Let me set the scene. She was an executive for an apartment property management company with 13 complexes. I was cleaning for two of them and wanted to grow my solo business to as many as I could. During early to mid-2006, I drove all over the Capital District of NY to knock on the doors of small offices, apartment complexes, and builders to drum up more business. I had information packs with testimonials that I'd hand out at each. All in all, I visited over 300 businesses and dropped off over 50 info packs. This lead to 1 more apartment complex, 1 builder, and 1 new office. It seems like a waste unless you tally up the lifetime value of just that one office. I cleaned for this law firm from 2006 to 2018 and earned over $80,000 in revenue from that client. Yes, it was worth it. I wanted you to see the mode of growth I was in. We were struggling big-time with money and I was willing to do whatever it took.

When I walked into one of my complexes that spring, Patty was there. I knew who she was and that she was the decision maker to hiring me for more complexes. I never got a chance to ask her a question. She approached me and shocked me with this advice that has forever changed my business!

"I know you want more complexes. I've been hearing from our property managers that you've been visiting. But I'm not giving you any more right now because I don't want to lose you!" Patty had my attention and continued. "Do you know why good cleaners like you go out of business? They can't say no and take on more than they can do. They get further and further behind. They don't know how to properly hire employees to take off some workload. They start dropping in quality, missing commitments, lose trust, lose reputation, lose money, and we have to let them go. These good businesses eventually go out of business if they don't change. And we have to constantly replace contractors like you. It's time-consuming. Ken, you're doing a great job for our 2 complexes. Keep it up and truly decide if you want and can handle more."

Her message hit me right between the eyes. It was a turning point for me. I was only pursuing apartment complexes because we needed money. But really, I hated apartment complexes. They paid terrible. The hours were awful. I would often batch 3-4 apartments overnight after cleaning all day and sleep on the floor! They were unpredictable. They were feast or famine. They were dirty. They required a lot of thinking, planning, and mental time. I never did add the 3rd complex. I veered down another path instead. I started growing and stabilizing my company with recurring weekly, biweekly, and monthly houses fueled by working with realtors. The real estate work was tough, but it opened the doors to simple, clockwork houses. I also learned my niche of presentation cleaning and applied it to house and office cleaning to build my reputation. 

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

Do you know why books, mentors, and being curious are so vital to your future? I loved the "Rule of Thumb" that my friend Jon Appino uses. It's a joke, but exposes a truth. People do not like reading books because they were forced to in school. I was EXACTLY the same leaving college and working at GE as an engineer. But then I started my first side hustle as an Amway IBO and was encouraged to start reading personal growth books. I learned this right away, understood it, and decided to embrace it. "You will be in 5 years based on the books you read and the people you associate with." Then it all connected when I learned about the Four Windows from Amway legend John Crowe. This knowledge has served me well for over a decade and I hope it hits the nail on the head for you. Here's a word of warning. This episode will cut you open and expose some truths about you that you do not like.

Think of a window with cross lattices and therefore 4 individual panes of glass in the same window. These are the four windows. Each has a different viewpoint on YOU!

The top left window represents the THINGS THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT EVERYONE ELSE ALSO KNOWS. Typically, this window contains your physical appearance and outward habits. For example, I have brown eyes, brown hair, and record this podcast. We do not learn much in this window, but we tend to operate here in our life too often. Nothing ever changes and no growth occurs. This window represents the status quo.

The top right window represents the THINGS THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT YOU THAT NO ONE ELSE KNOWS. This can be your dreams and aspirations and it can be your internal struggles, addictions, double talk, hypocrisy. Since no one else knows what is going on in your head, they can't help you. Therefore, if you remain in this window and keep doing the same thing over and over again, you'll get the same results. This is what Einstein calls insanity. Others choose to grow and pursue change based on what they know about them. This was me when I learned how important books were. I made the decision to read personal growth books in the areas I was strong and weak to improve both! This was my first step to becoming a lifetime learner.

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

One year ago, I had just returned from the Total Life Freedom Mastermind Retreat in Gatlinburg, TN in mid-October 2019. My arrogance and pride were exposed to 20 other entrepreneurs from around the country and I was faced with a difficult choice. Do I go all-in to building a new solo cleaning company in the Philly Area and am I courageous enough to share my weekly progress to you, my podcast audience? If you've been a listener to this show for any amount of time, you already know my answer. "YES!"

My update this week takes you behind the curtains as I met with these same entrepreneurs a year later in Pittsburgh, PA. Before I could leave, I had some calendar shuffling to do as the retreat was Wednesday to Friday and I had houses scheduled. Here's what I did. A month before the trip, I connected with each client affected and shuffled them around to keep as many as possible. I was able to move my Tuesday client to Monday, my Thursday and Friday to Tuesday, and another Friday to next Tuesday. I had to cancel one of 5 houses and was able to clean every office over the weekend. It was an insane schedule where I cleaned offices Saturday & Sunday, houses Monday & Tuesday, drove to Pittsburgh Wednesday through Friday, offices Saturday & Sunday! I survived. Here's the point. A solo cleaning business is flexible and the trip was totally worth it!

While I was in Pittsburgh, my pre-scheduled newsletter went out to 100 local subscribers and a few interesting things happened. I was contacted by a Christian publication and radio station about advertising. These outlets found me online and subscribed to my newsletter. At this point, I do not do paid advertising as I don't need it. I'm just amazed that I've been able to build something in a short time that is locally recognized. I'd have to say that my newsletter and attending local networking groups may be the most valuable things I've done in 2020 for my new solo cleaning business. One other piece of marketing occurred while I was in Pittsburgh. My wife was selling some baby stuff on Facebook marketplace. She made a friend, Rebecca, through a sale. Rebecca saw on my wife's profile that we owned a cleaning business and said to her, "I'm in the market for a cleaner!" Teresa asked me what to do. I told her to send Rebecca to my cleaning website, specifically to an article I wrote about how much I charge for cleaning. Rebecca did and loved my website. She filtered herself into my sales funnel and wants me to do an estimate next week. She already knows how much I charge and is okay with it. That's the essence of how my ISO Model Marketing System works!

The Pittsburgh retreat was totally different this year. I was edified in front of the team for my progress in 1 year as I took a solo cleaning business from $25,000 to $80,000 in annual revenue during a pandemic. I was able to develop a comprehensive strategy for the Solo Cleaning School and the Elite Membership offered to accelerate solo cleaners through my system. Plus, I set some new cleaning goals and made some great friends!

Read the rest of this article at the Solo Cleaning School website!

We all have that one child that we seem to teaching the same lessons to over and over. That's my middle son Kolby. He's my main man, 9-years-old and we share the same birthday. I say that the best birthday gift I ever received was him! He loves that. Kolby has a way of asserting his belief that he is always right. He also tends to talk and hear, more than listen. He will interrupt others when they are talking and not realize he's doing it (as he's in his own head). If his mom says it's warm out, he says it's hot. If she says it's hot, he'll say it's cold. You get the picture. I was teaching Kolby the difference between hearing and listening recently. Kenny overhead the lesson and thought it was a podcast episode. So here you go! I hope Kenny was right!

Your ears are designed to receive sound vibrations and transmit them for interpretation inside your brain. If you're truly listening, your brain then processes the sounds and acts. If you are merely hearing, the sounds are received but are drowned out by your thoughts or your words. In other words, hearing is passive and listening is active. To listen, you must fully engage your senses, which  includes your ears, eyes with eye contact to the one talking, and your mouth by not opening it. Active listening also includes your body language like nodding along or leaning forward. These signs show the talker that you are truly listening, truly care about what they have to say, and therefore, truly care about them. Hearing and talking over someone is selfish and taking. It harms relationships. Listening is giving and builds relationships.

I told Kolby that I've had to work on this a ton. I've read books on it. In fact, I read on last year that was over 300 pages just on how to listen! He was shocked. I told Kolby that we must all work on this vital skill to be a better human and in our family's case, a better disciple. This skill requires humility and an attitude of curiosity. An active listener has some answers, mostly questions as they realize there is way more they don't know. This takes them from a place of arrogance and pride in their knowledge to a place of receiving and wisdom. Our bodies were designed with 2 ears and 1 mouth as insight into the proportion God wants us to use those organs. Kolby had heard enough. Just kidding. He got the lesson and truly listened to his dad.

Why do I teach this to solo cleaners? It's a vital skill to acquire. We can learn from anyone if we truly believe others around us have value. True listening will instruct you how to serve your community and clients better. You will act on what you learn and serve better, build more trust, and become indispensable. This one skill can literally pull you out of a low paying, low appreciation position to one of honor, gratitude, and high profit. Start truly listening and act on what you hear.

What do you think? Was my son Kenny right?

This personal business update will be a little different. I do have some updates and it looks like a new client is coming on board as well. I'm combining a few weeks and sharing the highlights. One of the benefits of building a profitable solo cleaning business like I have and being debt-free now is that we can take more getaways as a family. It did NOT used to be like this. We have struggled just as much if not more than many of you listening right now. At the end of last summer, our family rented a house in Ocean City, NJ right after Labor Day with the Pugliese Family. They have 3 boys, which are the same age as our oldest 3 and our families get along so well. We went to the Great Wolf Lodge with them a few winters ago as well. Last year's beach trip was so successful that we did it again last week. We rented a much larger house with 3 balconies with ocean view and a block form the sand. It was awesome. We were on vacation, but we were not idle. 

Again, this update has multiple weeks of highlights. I mentioned previously that my cousin Seth and his wife Abby invited us to do an estimate for a historic wedding venue. I worked on that proposal at the beach and was able to email it the day we left. Abby was very thankful. The prices I optioned were much higher than what Abby is currently paying, but it really helped her to see the going rate of an experienced, professional company. My friend Shelby Miller from MCBA referred me to Pastor Bruce. He is the president of the board for a local non-profit community center and wanted a professional company to check out the building and give recurring cleaning prices for various frequencies. The estimate went well. During the estimate, I explained many elements on how to disinfect properly. Pastor Bruce was really connecting as he used to sell commercial cleaning products. He was thankful for my advice. I sent the proposal two days later, really impressing him. I also checked in with a church I sent a proposal last month. Jennifer was thankful for my detailed and honest cleaning proposal and recommendations.  Like Abby & Pastor Bruce, Jennifer will let me know once the board meets. As a side note, I want to know if you're paying attention. How did I get these 3 referrals? 

Abby - She's family, but she has seen some of my training videos and my webinar on disinfecting

Pastor Bruce - Shelby referred me from my weekly MCBA networking group. She my co-education chair and we have become friends.

Jennifer - Her boss, the pastor, saw my cleaning profile in an email that went out to all Indian Valley Chamber members. I got that profile because of my service to the Chamber during COVID.

The takeaway is that I am creating a word-of-mouth machine in my new area and solo cleaning business. How did I do it? Well, you're going to have to start with podcast episode 1 and follow the bread crumbs as my new business has built to almost $100,000.

Later in the second week of this update, Pastor Bruce called me hoping to get some time and ask some questions. I called him and answered detailed questions right out of my "How to Disinfect Properly" mini-course. He was thankful for the help and gave me verbal confirmation that he's working to get me into clean monthly once he gets the board to agree. 

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

Toward the end of the summer, I met for breakfast with my Chamber of Commerce friend Ken Byler. He owns Higher Ground Consulting, helping leaders and their teams to thrive. It was fun to reconnect with Ken. He's super smart and knows how to ask great questions. In fact, he hit me with 3 questions that really got me thinking. 

1. What did you learn about yourself through the Corona pandemic?
2. What did you learn about your business?
3. What will you change about your business going forward?

This episode is not about me. It's for you! I want you to write down these 3 questions and answer them. Then I want to encourage you to send me your answers to [email protected] and I will respond to each one sent. This one exercise could propel you further in 2021 than any other. Are you going to do it? I dare you. Oh... I double-dog dare you. Wait... I triple-dog dare you!

I won't end this podcast without sharing my answers. Here you go Solo Cleaning School!

1. What did you learn about yourself through the Corona pandemic? I learned that I wasn't strong enough in the science of disinfecting to truly serve my community. I thought I knew, but I didn't. This caused me to go deep during my time in lockdown and research how to disinfect properly. It turned into a mini-course and my local claim-to-fame now, the "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting". I've shared this on webinars, blogs, interviews, my podcast, Facebook groups. My local pharmacy made me their disinfection expert. I was willing to change and get better, then get out there and share my knowledge. It felt great. I helped many people and it separated me as a specialist in my area. I gained at least 5 clients as a result. 
2. What did you learn about your business? I learned that my business wasn't pandemic proof. I lost 4 out of my 6 house cleaning clients and 1 of my 3 offices. I also learned that my business wasn't big enough. When I lost that much business, it affected our income a lot. Fortunately for me, we were diversified with other income sources like online memberships and the monthly payments on the sale of my former solo cleaning business. On a positive note, I experienced the stability of certain sectors of commercial cleaning during the pandemic. I did lose 1 of my 3, but only for a month. I witnessed across the country that the cleaning companies with at least 25% commercial in their portfolio did better. Many of their commercial clients asked for MORE service during the pandemic to protect their offices and employees when they returned.
3. What will you change about your business going forward? My immediate answer to Ken on this question was that I already changed it. Over the summer, my new specialist role secured me new clients. I bolstered up my commercial side and now run at 67% small commercial and 33% residential. My ultimate goal for my solo cleaning business is to add 4 more houses and 2 more offices in 2020, which would give me a near 50-50 split of commercial to residential. That's where I'd like to be for many reasons and one of them is stability from what I learned during Corona.

I was having a pre-driving talk with my 15-year-old son and shared my example when I was 16. I wanted to drive a car, but my mom couldn't put me on her policy. I bought my car for $1,300. Then my monthly expenses of car insurance, maintenance, and gas cost a ton. I needed this car to get to my job at the mall, but really I wanted the car to look cool driving to high school. I felt like I was treading water and not going anywhere. Why? I was going to school all day and then working at night. My weekly paycheck after taxes was just enough to pay my car expenses. I was in an ironic situation where I was working just to drive and driving just to go to work. I could have quit the job and hitched a ride to school from my neighbor and spent my time doing something I wanted to do. It took me a few years until I learned how to earn more income with the jobs I took. I was no longer working to drive as I had extra. Thank goodness or I would not have been able to afford taking my girlfriend Teresa anywhere. I could and won her over. I told Kenny. "And now she's your mom."

I then told Kenny another example of this irony, relating to moms. The stay-at-home mom wants to earn more income for the family. She goes out and finds a job. Let's say the job pays her $3,000 per month after tax. That sounds great, except one thing. She needs to hire a daycare service to watch her kids. She needs more maintenance and gas for her car. She needs more money for lunches and coffees and clothes for work. There are so many moms that accept the job before calculating the cost to have the job. Many times they are in the same place as the 16-year-old driver. They are literally working for daycare and putting the kids in daycare so she can work. It's ironic and very sad. Moms have so much on their plates and this puts them into a downward spiral and hurts many families. Aside from the zero profit, the mom is also taking her kids out of the home and getting them around other kids in daycare. Kids in daycare are always sick, so now this mom's kids are sick and it affects the whole family. Maybe the dad gets sick and has to call out of his work or business. This is detrimental.

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