Smart Cleaning School

 In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, we talked about one of the biggest struggles in the cleaning industry. This struggle is especially challenging for newbies. And it's not just pricing and how to price. This clip from the Solo Elite walks you through how to remove the emotion around the pricing you give. Wouldn't that be an awesome skill to learn? It will take a few vital other skills.

 1.      You MUST be willing to track your cleaning times and analyze them. This allows you to properly estimate ALL future jobs accurately. You can develop a quoting algorithm that allows proper pricing to be predictable. Say that 5 times fast!

2.      You MUST know your numbers from your business profit and loss. This allows you to evaluate how much you should be charging per hour or how much profit margin you need to create in your pricing. In other words, you need to know what it costs you to clean 1 hour. Once you know this, you can add profit and charge what you need to.

3.      Simply OFFER your prices. Offer this and other price options to cover the various possibilities for the customer to hire you. Hit send.

This process gives you an actual pricing process that you know is fair and reasonable. You don't have to wonder if you've priced too high or low. You will know that it is just right and in their hands to say yes or no. Either way, there is no emotion. You offer your "Blueberry Pie" and "Go for No". Make sure to check out those classic Smart Cleaning School episodes.

Once you learn how to track, price, and offer, you too will take the emotion out of pricing. Would you like to access membership calls and content like this one? You can optimize your solo cleaning business to make six figures without the drama of employees You can also earn full time income through part time cleaning! Get access to this game-changing training for only $97 per month or $997 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com. 

 In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, we talked about finding your ideal customer and niching. Unfortunately, most new cleaners will take anyone and anywhere. This is not ideal because you allow others to dictate the terms of your business. You need to set your own terms to be a real business. One of those terms is WHO will you serve and WHY?

 I use the analogy of fishing to parallel how to find our ideal customers.
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1.      What type of fish do you want? This comes with experience as you learn the types of customers you prefer to serve. It could be determined by their demographics like their income level, their location or neighborhood, or their age. It could also be determined by their psychographics, like their attitude on money with spending verses investing. You can identify to types of customers that are the least amount of drama as well. Over time, you will identify your ideal client.

2.      Where does this fish swim? You need to do the research and find out where your ideal customers hang out, whether that's in person at meet-ups or online on social media groups or even in local organizations and clubs. This will tell you a lot about your fish.

3.      How do you lure your fish? Be a giver and give what helps your fish. Consistently show up in this pond and be known as a generous person. Attract your ideal customer with the types of lure (information) that will speak to them.

Once you find your ideal customer and create the demand that they MUST have you as their cleaner, they will pay your prices. This is a huge secret of the ISO Model and the coaching you receive in the Solo Elite Membership. Would you like to access membership calls and content like this one? You can optimize your solo cleaning business to earn full time income through part time cleaning without the drama of employees! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com. 

 Much time is needed in this podcast episode to clear the names of several members of Total Life Freedom Philly. Before I share the final installment of 'Who Paid for Lunch Clue', I must share a few things that happened in my cleaning business since my last update. It will be short. Trust me! First of all, I was asked to lead an education piece for my local MCBA networking group. I taught on the "They Ask You Answer" process. I have LOVED this book and implemented it into both of my websites for Carfagno Cleaning and Smart Cleaning School. The group enjoyed the discussion as it gave them much to think about. I had a one-time cleaning job booked at a historic barn & wedding venue. When we got there, the plumber was replacing some parts and had the water turned off to the entire barn. The plumber was willing to give us an hour to "do our thing" with water, but I had to decline as we needed at least 5 hours of water. Ultimately, I rescheduled the job and wasted 2+ hours of my day and potentially $750 of other work I could have scheduled. Here's what I found out. The plumber was due to work on Monday at the barn, but got held up at had to postpone to Tuesday. I was scheduled for all day Tuesday. The plumber lets the barn know late on Monday that he can't make it and he'll come over in the morning. This is find in his isolated world, but in the greater picture, Tuesday was already booked. This plumber should have called the barn and worked out a suitable reschedule date like I did. He didn't and unfortunately, it only cost me not him. If this makes you angry, don't let it. It's my fault. I should have called to confirm the barn Monday night or Tuesday morning to make sure I'd have water. Things happen. I just wish that this plumber was more professional. ​

  Okay, the time is here. I love my mastermind community, Total Life Freedom. There are 100 members all over the US and some out of country. Last fall as the restaurants were beginning to open, TLF Philly decided to get together for the first lunch. At the end of lunch, our beloved pastor paid for the table. It was an act of generosity that I so appreciated. I have struggled with accepting gifts, so I declared that I'd pay for the next TLF Philly lunch and made a podcast episode about it called,"Allow a Giver to Give." I had no intention of this free lunch to turn into anything. But that all changed when we met for the second lunch (Don't Fight Google or Facebook, Fight for Lunch). A few of us had the idea to try to pay, but a "Benevolent Benefactor" beat us to it. In my haste, I filed the case with Carfagno & Carfagno, a private investigatory firm in the Philly Area, one of the nation's finest. Our goal at Carfagno & Carfagno was to crack the case of 'Who Paid for Lunch Clue' on January 13th, 2021.


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

 My Total Life Freedom local friends and local networking friend Eric Laylon intersect for a second episode. In "Don't Fight Google or Facebook, Fight for Lunch", my friend Eric Laylon from ReachLocal shared great marketing tips and stats on the digital giants. I followed this with a story of who paid for lunch. In this episode, I am copying the format! 

 Last week in my local MCBA meeting, Eric ran the business education segment and taught on the benefits of using Alignable for marketing. I've personally avoided it, but Eric gives some great points and tips that may have persuaded me to look into it more. Thus, I wanted to share it with you. LinkedIn is a business platform for business owners and professionals (employees). Alignable is for small business owners locally (not nationally like LinkedIn). The platform is already niched to local and small business owners, which makes it a natural marketing companion to in-person local networking. Alignable has niche groups that you can join of "like interest". Eric says he has gotten so much more business through Alignable vs LinkedIn because of the platform's ability to hyper-niche. Eric explained that you can set up your profile with "who you'd like to connect with". Then, Alignable takes your preferences and puts you in front of those people. Eric uses the premium $30/mo version because the free version limits you to the # of people you can connect with. I thought Eric did a great job presenting Alignable and it really intrigued me. What do you think? Do you use this platform? I'd love to hear about it if you do.

​A few leads came in this week. The first one was military-like. My friend James Hardy of the Carpet Guys was in an online group and saw a request for a house cleaner. He was in the process of typing in my name and website when something else caught his attention. The owner of a local cafe gave my name first. He recommended me and then texted me. "Ken, do you clean for the cafe?" I said no, but I do clean the owner's home. Then he told me about the recommendation to Steven Hunsberger. I thanked him and shared that Steven is the president of my chamber and we're friends. Then I contacted Steven and he felt so embarrassed that his friend Ken and the only cleaner of 400 members in his chamber didn't come to mind when he was looking for a house cleaner. There are multiple takeaways here. First, I am so thankful that I was triangulated by multiple friends to recommend me and they all knew each other! Another is that I have done a poor job in communicating that I clean houses to Steven in all of our interactions including our recent breakfast! Steven knew that I cleaned offices, but had no idea that I did houses too. We talked on the phone and I answered all of his questions in hopes of educating him on the various options he had for hiring a house cleaning service.


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 In this episode, I have an important lesson to share from a new friend of mine in the digital marketing space on the power of Facebook and Google. Eric Laylon is a consultant with ReachLocal. He understands the online landscape more than almost anyone that I know. He's a new member of the MCBA networking group and had a chance to share a presentation on his work. I asked many questions as I wanted to understand a little more of the trends he's seeing in 2021.

• Google drives 85% of all online traffic and still dominates the online search landscape. Bing is #2 because Comcast uses them as a default, but they use Google ad platforms. Google will continue to dominate. If you're not visible on Google, you're not visible.
• Google My Business is a free way to create SEO for your business through images, reviews, articles, and deals. Ads are an excellent paid option to generate leads.
• Eric says you should be investing 3-5% of revenue into marketing for average returns. 8% is aggressive and 3% is slow growth. Invest 60-70% of this marketing budget on digital. This is what the large companies are doing in 2021!
• Facebook is similar to google. They have 223 million users in the United States alone out of 331 million people. That's 67% of the US is on Facebook. A business page is free and allows you to create interest for your product or service for free. Ads (like Google) are an excellent paid option as well.

Thank you Eric for teaching and sharing the trends and stats for 2021! My takeaway is simple. If you ever want to be found in your cleaning business, you have to be on Facebook and Google as they represent 67% of the country and 85% of all online searches. And you can access both for free through a Facebook business page, personal page, Google my business profile.

That was quick and to the point! Let's dive more into my own solo cleaning business. I have used digital marketing to grow my solo cleaning company in 2020. I tried everything, but focused on Facebook and Google My Business digitally while attending local networking to round out my marketing strategy. I didn't use any paid advertising and grew my company by $60,000 in revenue in 2020. Going forward, I plan to continue. I did get an idea this past week that I had originally planned in 2019 and never did it. I am the only cleaner in a 300 - 400 member chamber of commerce. Many members know who I am now since I've been helpful in leading webinars for the chamber, but I figured that the majority do not know me. I could cold call them and try to fleece them for business. I don't operate like that. Here's what I'm going to do. I'll make a list of the members that have an office that is a good fit for my office cleaning company. These are buildings under 5,000 - 6,000 square feet that need cleaning weekly or less. Once I have the list completed, I'll send emails with personal videos to the owners or contacts through the chamber to say hi and introduce myself. From there, I'll see who has any interest in connecting more with me. I'll schedule Zoom calls or breakfast meetings with the ones who want to know me. Then I'll add these new friends to my twice-monthly newsletter. I am guessing that 150 of the members fit into my demographic out of 400. Out of the 150, I wouldn't be surprised if I can connect and add 30 to my newsletter. Who knows from there. Those 30 could be 10 clients at $500 - $800/month in the future, which is over $60,000 of annual revenue! Either way, I make new friends. Win-win.


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 At the end of 2020, I attended my first lunch with local Philly-based members of the mastermind I am a member.When this meal was paid for by another member, we were all grateful and a few of us learned a lesson to allow others to give. But what none of us expected was that this would be the first of multiple lunches where the lunch itself became secondary with who would get the privilege to pay for it! The next 4 episodes are a fun replay from this Smart Cleaning School humor. Enjoy!

 Before we end, I would like to thank our podcast sponsor. Are you a residential company with a team wanting to scale your house cleaning company on your own to 7-figures and beyond? You can do this, but why would you try. Debbie Sardone shared her proven system to getting residential cleaning owners to 7-figures faster, with more profit, and better, career cleaners in "CBF Success Stories with Debbie Sardone and Friends". I highly recommend CBF to any residential cleaning company looking to scale to 7 figures. Check out the Smart Cleaning School's CBF Exclusive Deal. Get Debbie's impactful "Succeeding on First Time Cleans" for 50% OFF and a free CBF discovery call with Debbie or one of her certified CBF Coaches! Just go to smartcleaningschool.com/resources and you'll find "Featured Sponsor" at the top of the page. If you want to scale your residential cleaning business to a million dollars, get CBF now!
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As we begin 2023, I want you all to know where I am putting my energy. #1. I am growing our local cleaning company, C3 in the Philly Area. #2. I am helping solo cleaners optimize their solo business to earn full time income through part time cleaning without the drama of employees! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com. 

 John Maxwell is internationally acclaimed and sought after for his gifting in the instruction of leadership development. He has spawned thousands of leaders through his system. I may never physically meet him in person, but his books and talks have mentored me for over a decade. There is one specific annual exercise that I would like to wrap up 2019 and I hope you'll join me. Check out John's blog article first

Here's what John is doing right now and I'll quote him directly from the blog.

"I steal off to my study while everyone else is watching television or napping. There on my desk waiting for me is my appointment calendar from the preceding year and a yellow legal pad. Starting that afternoon and continuing that week up until New Year’s Eve, I spend time reviewing my calendar. I review every appointment, meeting, commitment, and activity—hour by hour—from the previous 359 days. And I evaluate each of them.
Right now, I’m in the midst of this process. 

1. I’m looking carefully at my speaking engagements and considering what I should do more of, what I should do less of, and what I should eliminate altogether.
2. I’m looking at the growth opportunities I pursued and judging which gave a high return and which didn’t.
3. I’m looking at all the meetings and appointments I had, to determine which ones I should do more of and which I should eliminate.
4. This week, I’ll also consider how much time I spent doing things that I should have delegated to someone else. (I’ll also look at what I delegated and reconsider whether I should pick anything back up or delegate it to someone different.).
5. I’ll evaluate whether I spent enough time with my family.
6. I’ll also make a list of all the things Margaret and I did together this year, and take her out to dinner one night so we can reminisce and enjoy them once again.

With this annual process, I try to account for every waking hour I had the previous year. What’s the value of that? It helps me to develop strategies for the coming year. Because I do this every year (and have for decades), I’m continually becoming more focused, strategic, and effective. Even if I have a difficult time or relatively unproductive year compared to what I desired, it’s never a loss, because I learn from it and improve upon it in the coming year."

Most people allow their lives to simply happen to them. They float along. They wait. They react. And by the time a large portion of their life is behind them, they realize they should have been more proactive and strategic. My yearly process is just one method that I use to be strategic and intentional.
I’ve found that this is a perfect time of year for reflecting and setting goals."

Here's John's advice for us for 2020 -

"Start by sitting down with your calendar for 2019, along with any to-do lists or journals from the past 12 months. Make note of each event, appointment, and activity. Then evaluate every item on your list.

1. What did you enjoy?
2. What were some of your proudest moments?
3. What did you spend too much time on?
4. What didn’t get enough of your time?
5. In what areas were you especially effective?
6. Where did you fail?
7. What can you learn from your mistakes?

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 This goes back to my introduction episode and going into more mindset on honoring what you currently do and have. Every seed sown comes up. The message here is simple for you to ponder during Christmastime... what are you sowing into the ground with your current job or business? What about your relationships? Every action you take will leave a ripple in the pond of your community. Which ripple are you making... one toward good will or bad? Merry Christmas to you and your family!

 This is the last business update on my new solo cleaning business for 2019. What a way to go out! Andrea Szlavik of A2Z Realtor Pa assures Ken that he is not a cleaner who happens to do business. He is a business person that happens to clean. This is a big difference. Let's dive into this week in my business!

We had a business showcase presentation from Laney Landis this week at MCBA. She is the 5th generation owner (over 200 years in the family) of Old Village Paint. I was mesmerized at the history of this American Pre-Civil War paint company. I happened to record this meeting as I wanted to learn each member's business better. This was very fortuitous as Laney was sad she didn't have a recording of her showcase on her family company. Afterward, I told her of my bootleg recording and sold it on the black market for a can of paint. Just kidding. I sent it to her after the meeting and she was so pleased and thankful. As I've shared many times, always look to sow good seeds.

I also connected with a few other members after this meeting. James wanted to set up a 1-to-1 breakfast meeting to get to know each other's stories better. Charley wanted me to start sending me cleaning referrals. Paul wanted to connect. I am becoming a trusted face & member and others recognize that and want to get to know me better to refer me.

I met Andrea Szlavic on NextDoor last week and she added me to her realtor preferred vendor list. I was very thankful and asked if she would like to grab a coffee and connect. She opted for breakfast at a brand new local spot called Sammy's Bullfrog Cafe in Harleysville,  It was a productive meeting where we shared our business stories with each other while enjoying the new flavor in town. We discovered a common connection as well. I had attended the Growth Now Movement LIVE! Conference in Reading, PA with Justin Schenck. While at this conference, I met another Keller Williams realtor at the same office as Andrea. It's a small world, after all. At the end of the meeting, I asked her this question. "Why did you add me to your preferred vendor list without meeting me or seeing my work quality first?"  Her answer floored me and became the title to this episode.

"Because you set yourself apart by reaching out to me first on NextDoor. That told me that you were a business person that did cleaning verses a cleaning person that tried to do business. Most cleaners don't take that initiative."

As we parted, she assured me that she would get me out to her team's office in the spring for a real estate cleaning presentation. Then instead of getting in my car, I went back into the cafe and asked to speak to the owner. They were hesitant as they assumed I wanted to complain. Then I told them that I enjoyed the experience and would like to leave the cafe a 5-star review on Google. The hostess introduced me to my breakfast waitress, who was also part owner in the brand new cafe! She was very grateful and told me where to leave these reviews and asked for my cleaning business card. I left one on the cafe's bulletin board and went home.

Once I got home, I followed up by giving 5-star reviews on Google, NextDoor, and Facebook for Andrea and the Bullfrog Cafe. Andrea and Kayla (my breakfast waitress) were so thankful. Again, these are good seeds!


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

 This is Smart Cleaning School episode 4-1-1. Do you know what that means? It means "Directory Assistance" and derives from the old days of telephone operators in the United States and Canada. 4-1-1 has been used since 1930 if you can believe that! The number has taken on a whole new identity in pop culture since the 1980's where 4-1-1 is slang for "Information" or "What's the deal?" or "What's up with that?" What's the 4-1-1 with the Smart Cleaning School Podcast? Are you enjoying it? Are there episodes you'd like me to do that I haven't. Email me at [email protected] to request topics. The 4-1-1 was a fun side path for this episode. Let's get to it!

 A member of the Solo Elite asked a really good question in our community. Ian asked. "How do I deal with rejection of a prospective client and still be able to build a relationship with them?" A question often times reveals ones internal mindset. In this case, I can recognize the mindset. I'm now going to help all the Ian's out there. You believe that a client saying no is a personal rejection and a failure. You have incorrectly associated a No with failure. This incorrect association causes you to feel rejected and therefore less willing to take more positive action. I mean... why would I? They don't like me. They don't like my cleaning service. I'm not good enough. This is a slippery slope and many struggle with rejection. It's natural. We want to protect ourselves from that pain. This is where Ian's question stems. He cannot see a reason for building a relationship with someone who rejected him. Rejection is bad. How do you handle that?

Do you see why people ask this question? They want to win, but they are stuck. They believe that they have to figure out how to manage this pain in order to win.  In this line of thinking, it makes total sense. But this mindset and association is incorrect. There is a great book out there called "Go for No", where the authors rewire your thinking. Yes and No are not opposite directions. In other words, a No doesn't take you farther from Yes. It brings you closer. Change the image and definition in your brain. Currently, you stand in the middle of Yes and No. Yes is to the left and is on the way to Success. No is to the right and is on the way to Failure. Move No to the left side before Yes. Put another term to the right. Quit is on the way to Failure. No is on the way to Yes. You need to get many No's before you get a Yes. Many Yes's lead to Success. Therefore, you can't succeed unless you get No's. You can't succeed unless you get rejection. Rejection is now a positive. It's not a negative. If rejection is a positive, you don't have to manage the pain of it. You measure the gain of being rejected. And if rejection is a gain, you get excited to achieve the next gain.


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