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.