Smart Cleaning School

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. 

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. 

I asked my personal accountant Colette Melott (CMA, EA) to join the Smart Cleaning Tribe for an Expert Call to help cleaning company owners understand their numbers and who to hire in their specific case. Colette starts this interview with the accounting basics. 

Bookkeepers helps you track transactions with your money coming in and your money coming out. In most cases, a bookkeeper does not help you apply what those numbers mean to anything. They are putting your puzzle together, but they're not telling you what the picture on the puzzle is. There are not too many certifications for bookkeepers. However a Quickbooks Pro Advisor is a great designation to find especially if your business utilizes Quickbooks. These certified bookkeepers are proficient enough to adapt your business numbers appropriately and legally to Quickbooks.

Accountants puts it all together for you. Bookkeeping is a task of accounting, but they don't stop there. They take those numbers and apply meaning to them to help you make business and tax decisions. There are several designations of accounting professionals.

• General Accounting - This is an accountant with a Bachelor's Degree in accounting that operates UNDER a CPA or CMA licence. For example, Colette used to work in two corporate positions where the company held the certified accounting license and Colette worked under it. This is exactly how I operated as an engineer. GE held the Professional Engineer's license and I was a general engineer under this certification.
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA) - This designation is granted at the state level. The accountant must pass a high-level exam to obtain their CPA license. Plus, they must maintain this high-level each year. There is a high standard. At the corporate level, they are qualified to take the numbers a publicly traded company provides and certify them to the public. They are on the company's external team. However, most CPAs operate out of smaller offices and work with small private companies. 
• Certified Management Accountant (CMA) - This is an international accounting designation. Therefore, their training must keep them familiar with domestic and international accounting standards. At the corporate level, they are qualified to be the comptroller or CFO to help the company compile the numbers to present to the public. They are on the company's internal team. The CMA must also pass a high-level initial and annual exam process to obtain and keep their license. There is a high standard.
• Enrolled Agent (EA) - The IRS has 3-part tax proficiency exam and certification process to enroll accountants in the IRS code. This allows them to prepare tax returns The Enrolled Agent is one of 3 designations that can legally represent you on an IRS audit. The other two designations that can do this for you are the CPA and the tax attorney.

Tax Attorneys are the only ones who can practice law. They help if you need representation in tax court. This is a high level professional that you need when you're in trouble! Therefore, study this episode and hire the right professional so you never NEED this pro!

That's part one of my interview with my accountant Colette. These are accounting designations I wised I knew 20 years ago. I hope that Colette helped you understand the landscape of accounting professionals. 

Would you like to connect with my accountant? You can find her at CMBA Solutions. 

I thought the previous episode “Audit to Optimize” was the final installment in the Numbers Matter Series until I wrapped up a Solo Elite Membership Call on July 2nd, 2024. On this call, I had the opportunity to teach Sunny how to apply everything in the Numbers Matter Series to complete her ISO Model Scorecard.

I took a clip from this call and decided to share it with you, so I hope you enjoy it. Keep this in mind. I was sharing my screen, so Sunny and the other Solo Elite members were watching me in real time change Sunny’s business on paper to the business that Sunny defined as freedom for her family. It was so much fun. There may be points on this audio where you get confused. Hang in there and listen for the takeaways and signs of peace from Sunny as we optimize.

This is the end of the Numbers Matter Series. My hope is that you reach this point and are excited about the possibilities for you and your future. I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com. 

I hope you’ve been paying attention and taking lots of notes during this series on “Why Numbers Matter”. In my experience, I have observed that most people do not know their numbers. These same people spend too much money to run their business. This means they are not profitable. 

In this episode, I walk you through doing an audit of your profit & loss statement so you understand how important this accounting form is to your business. Then I explain the 3 areas of Optimizing and how to AUDIT your solo business in each area. Here’s the 3 areas.

1. Lower your Expenses: We use the Profit & Loss to audit this area of optimizing.
2. Increase your Prices: We use marketing and sales tracking and metrics to audit this area of optimizing.
3. Decrease your Cleaning Time: We use time tracking to audit this area of your optimizing. 

The solo cleaner effective in zero of these areas is a frustrated solo that wants to quit. The solo effective in 1 area is frustrated and wants to quit. The solo effective in 2 areas is a happy solo. The solo effective in all 3 is the Optimized Solo that loves their business!

I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com. 

I have a few stories to tell you and I won't take much of your time because your time is worth a lot! The first one is about a little boy who desperately wanted time with his Daddy. The second is about a Daddy who desperately wanted time with his little boy. This second story lead to the creation of a metric I've used in my business for a decade. It's called the Work Day Value (WDV). What are you earning for a day away from your family? Or what are you earning per hour working away from your family nights and weekends as a side hustle. It's okay to make $25 - $30 per hour as a beginner with a plan to grow. But if your still there after a year, you're losing time that you'll never get back. What is your work day value? What is your time worth because you are trading it for time with your little boy. Some of you will feel that question more than others.

The third story happened when I was pumping gas at Wawa. There was a problem at the pump and one of the workers came out to help a customer. At the end of the exchange, the employee said to the customer. "Sorry it took too long to get to you. The customer. It's okay. Hey I'm getting paid." The customer was on company time and had an hourly mindset. It doesn't matter how long it takes to wait at the gas station because he's getting paid by the hour. This man was in his sixties and had a lifetime of job mentality. There's nothing wrong with this at all. But it's limiting and scarce. Here's what I mean. As he stands around doing nothing at the pump for his $30, $40, or $100 per hour, he's fully satisfied. What if he thought differently? What if he valued his hour at $500 or $5,000? There are plenty of people that make that kind of money. He would no longer be satisfied at the level of income he's earning in one hour now. If he was getting paid by the job he'd be very unsettled because he realized he be wasting time. He'd want the Wawa employee to get him filled up and out of there faster. If he was getting $250 to get a job done, he'd rather have it done in 1 hour versus 10. Standing at that gas pump would drive him crazy. The mindset is totally different.

How much do you value your time? How much is your day worth? I don't want to ever leave my family and exchange it for something that is not satisfactory for me. Some food for thought. This works for your compensation for your team and how you charge your customers. It applies to what you might do outside of cleaning. There's so many things you can offer others for other income. Don't ever settle and say you're getting paid as you're standing around doing nothing! Go make a difference and go add value to others and you'll get paid in direct proportion of the value that you serve other people. This was always the hardest part for me. I asked myself this question. How much is my family worth today? I didn't want to bring home peanuts when they were worth gold bars!

Would you like more information on CBF and the potential of growing your residential cleaning business beyond 7 figures? 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 to see if CBF could be the right solution for you. 

 J. Paul Getty was the wealthiest person in the world for 3 decades from the 1950's to the 1970's! His list of accomplishments are mind-blowing. At the end of his life, it's estimated that his net worth would be worth $27 billion is today's dollars.  He was very wealthy. I heard this quote when I was a new business owner in the Amway business in 2002 and it has stuck with me for 20 years.

“I'd rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of my own effort.” - J. Paul Getty

At the time I heard this, I was an engineer working full time and earning $50,000 per year off 100% of my own effort. I saw Amway business owners with teams of 100+ people earned 1-4% off the production of each team member and earning $500,000 per year. This quote hit me right between the eyes. However, I went another route as a solo cleaning specialist after my days as an engineer and multi-level marketer. I decided it was best for me to optimize what I could produce. In other words, how much could I make in how little time could I produce off 100% of my own effort? In my first solo cleaning business, the results were strong. I earned $55,000 and $70,000 per year profit off 2 days cleaning per week in each business respectively. Both provided a decent engineer level lifestyle so I could enjoy time with my family. However, it would never create freedom and lifestyle money. It would never create time, money, and location freedom. This is what I desired.

I'm in a different position now where I am growing a cleaning business and I'm learning a lot about myself. This is an episode for the solo cleaner who is thinking about scaling and has fear or would never scale and has arrogance about it like I used to. Let's break down some numbers. The average cleaning technician can create $50,000 of annual revenue for a cleaning company. If you're a solo, that's $50,000 for you. Applying J. Paul Getty's advice, the numbers are totally different. A cleaning team of 100 people would produce $5M in revenue. If you only earned the 1% that Getty quoted, you'd earn $50,000 per year without having to clean.  But the reality is much better. A $5M company ought to pay out 15% to the owner. This is $750,000 per year income for the owner and they don't have to clean.  Let's play a game of Would You Rather.

Would you rather work solo and optimize your business on 100% of your effort  working 2-3 days per week for $75,000 per year income? Or would you rather build a company and team to $5 million revenue, lead, and earn $750,000 per year income working on your business to lead your team? In the first example, you have no pressure of employees. You do all the work and have a simple life. You just better make sure to stay healthy, travel for short stints of a few days at a time, and budget really, really good. In the second example, you build a massive company, earn more than you can imagine, and live a life of total freedom. They each have their pros and cons. This episode isn't looking to persuade you, rather get you thinking.


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

 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.


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

 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.

The lesson here is simple and Jesus says it best. "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it —  lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?" That's from the Book of Luke, chapter 14 and verses 28-30. The 16-year-old driver and the stay-at-home mom MUST count the cost of the undertaking before embarking on the plan. In my son's case, he is already making money by cleaning and he get's paid way better than I did at his age. He was afford a car, but he is evaluating the best way to do it. What about the stay-at-home mom? Okay, there are tons of ways to achieve the goal. If she would adopt the "How Can I" mindset, she might decide to look for other options. One such option could be a solo cleaning business. Maybe that's why you're listening to this podcast right now? You may be a mom wanting to make more money and don't want to enter the full-time workforce. Cleaning houses and offices is an excellent opportunity. In fact, I've already spoken to this in the podcast, "How to Start a Solo Cleaning Business" and "The Pros of Solo Cleaning". You can design a flexible schedule, earn excellent income, and help others with a skill you already possess. 


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

 You MUST know your numbers to survive and thrive in your solo cleaning company. Numbers Matter. I was asked WHY in a recent Solo Elite Membership Call. After answering the question, I realized that I needed to start a new MEGA-series on all-things-numbers.

 In this episode, I answer the basic question of why. It’s humorous as I poke and prod at the majority of solo cleaners that I get on phone calls with. They don’t know their numbers… like NONE of them. This is so foundational that it’s one of the 4 Fundamentals of the ISO Model. By the end of this episode, you will be ready for me to pile on the rest of the MEGA-series. Here is what you can expect.
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1. Numbers Matter II: Count the Cost – You need to know your numbers in order to complete the project. It’s biblical!
2. Numbers Matter III: Are You Financially Fluent – This one will hurt if you don’t know the language of numbers. But it will help!
3. Numbers Matter IV: Would you Rather have 100% or 1%? – Now that you are gaining a foundation of understanding WHY numbers are important, this episode will allow you to see the benefits of strategic planning with your numbers. 
4. Numbers Matter V: What is Your Hour Worth – Have you ever stopped to consider if the work that you’re doing is worth it? This episode will force you to measure your productivity and                  assess.
5. Numbers Matter VI: Audit to Optimize  – In this final episode of the series, I am putting it all together. I break down  the 3 areas a solo cleaner needs to master in order to optimize. They will need to understand their numbers to conduct a proper audit of each area. The solo that is efficient in ALL 3 is the Optimized Solo that loves their business! 
6. Accounting Basics I: Accounting Basics – Where the heck do we start with accounting and bookkeeping? What’s the difference? Colette Mellott is my accountant. She breaks it all down so it is easy to understand.
7. Accounting Basics II: Hire Professionals on Day One – Stop trying to DIY your bookkeeping and accounting. Colette teaches us a valuable insight into how hiring a professional saves us money and time.
8. Accounting Basics III: Keep Clean Records – How do you prepare your numbers to effectively work with an accounting professional? Colette explains the basics.

Once I have proven numbers are important and shown you how to track them, I’ll start the third numbers series on Investing in Your Business. I’m so excited to walk you through all-things-numbers this summer. I hope you stay tuned.

I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.