Grow a Healthy Profitable Cleaning Business That You Can Be Proud of and Rewards You, Bountifully
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About this ebook
After seeing, reading, and hearing lots of bad advice about building a cleaning business, I decided to write advice that I know to be true. I know it’s true because these are some of the steps that I used when I grew my own successful cleaning company. Hi, I'm Susan O'Grann, author, and creator of a cleaning company that saw its first six-figure contract in just over one year. I say I followed "some of the steps" because when I started there was no internet library, no books, or advice. Just the school of hard-knocks, from which to learn.
But looking back and having gone forward I can tell you, from experience, that these steps are virtually foolproof if you follow them. Not only will you learn to construct a business from the ground up, but I also share with you how to locate and solicit to your target market, identify that market, and negotiate with confidence because you will understand every step of what you are building. You will be the creator and builder, but I will be your guidance partner every step of the way. From tax forms to new hires, I cover it all. It doesn't matter if you're just wanting some "rainy-day" income or you plan to specialize in hazardous material clean-up, you'll want to carry this book with you, at all times. Thanks for reading and good luck with your business!! Sincerely, Susan O'Grann
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Grow a Healthy Profitable Cleaning Business That You Can Be Proud of and Rewards You, Bountifully - Susan O'Grann
Grow a Healthy Profitable Cleaning Business
That You Can Be Proud of and Rewards You, Bountifully
By
Susan O’Grann
Table of Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Introduction
Chapter One - Why a Cleaning Business?
Chapter Two – What Type of Business?
Chapter Three – Franchise or On My Own?
Chapter Four – The Business Structure
Chapter Five – The Taxman Cometh
Chapter Six – Business Insurance
Chapter Seven – Equipment
Chapter Eight – Cleaning Products
Chapter Nine – Cleaning Methods
Chapter Ten – Competition in the Cleaning Business
Chapter Eleven – Charging for Your Work
Chapter Twelve – Locating Customers & Marketing
Chapter Thirteen – Taking the Reins
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Author Comments
Helpful Links to Free Information
Copyright
Copyright © Susan O’Grann, 2017
Published: 7 Nov 2017 by
Susan O’Grann at Smashwords
Smashwords Edition License Notes
ISBN: 978-1-3701724-1-2
Ebook Edition
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.
This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.
If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.
If you are re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Cover Illustration by: DSG Design, France
Dedication
To the fine folks at D&T
T, E, S, & A
We worked hard and had a great time doing it.
Thanks all, for making it what it was.
Introduction
Hi, I’m Susan O’Grann. I was motivated to write this book because my curiosity, finally, got the best of me. Let me share with you my own story, in brief, before we get on with the actual How To
portion of the book (The rest of the book, mostly).
In 1997 I was laid off from a factory job because the supply of what we manufactured no longer existed. So, I was in search of a job. In ’97 I really had no other skills but restaurant skills and couldn’t afford to go to college. Restaurants were all staffed and you had to know someone
to get anything above minimum wage. Well, I knew no one. So I needed an alternative. I said, in Brief
, didn’t I? Oops.
I opened my very first business with my very first unemployment check, less than $200. Within just a little over a year (15 months), my company went from cleaning residential houses to new construction home/condo cleaning contracts. The first contract that I’m talking about was over $.25M. $386,000 to be exact.
The business grew at a nice, healthy pace. Not too fast, not too slow. I won’t say it wasn’t stressful at times but the rewards were unbelievable. Anyway, soon after receiving stardom in the cleaning industry, I was rocked with the news that my partner had serious health issues that were going to require a series of operations.
We were devastated, not business wise but in a personal way. It was a sad time for us, my partner and me, as well as our clients. We had all grown rather close. So I closed that business and took care of those affairs and moved on. I returned to school to go back over the mistakes that I made along the way and learned what to do differently. Not that we weren’t a success but I’m still not sure that my first company was built for longevity.
Back to my curiosity that urged me to write this book. In 1997 the internet was not quite the info bank
that it is today. If I wanted to find information on starting a cleaning business I would have either had to go find someone who had done it, or go to the library and pray I could find what I was looking for. I didn’t by the way. But today, information is everywhere. So I went trolling.
I wanted to see just exactly what kind of info there was out there on the subject. Some are actually excellent and explain the mechanics
of running a cleaning company in great detail. But I think there’s more to it than just mechanics. Some, incidentally, seem to be written by people who just want to sell books; lots of words, no info.
But there is more to owning and growing your own business than just the mechanics. It’s a feeling and sensation and a million emotions rolled up in with those mechanics. You are growing a business with your own two hands and want someone to know what that feels like…well I get you!!! You are developing a new member of your family.
That’s how I wrote this book, with the mechanics AND the personal side. There are ways to be great in this business. Not just good. This book will change your thinking and turn you into a responsible, confident business OWNER.
Your business will make you cry, it will make you laugh, and it will take you to your absolute limits. But it’s a ride that I highly recommend and am willing to share my PROVEN secrets, of how I made it happen. Sprinkled in you will find the ingredients that the benefit of two universities permit me to mix into the batter. Enjoy the read.
Thank you and good luck with your future cleaning business!!
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, Dream, Discover.
–Mark Twain
Chapter One
Why a Cleaning Business?
Profitable
Profitability is why we’re in the business in the first place. You’ve probably heard cleaning can become a very profitable business but you’re looking to find out how much money can actually be made. And if you haven’t heard, I’m honored to be the first. Yes, it can be very profitable. Of course income desires vary, and profits are certainly a-kin with the amount of work you’re willing to produce, but done correctly, it can be an unexpected gold mine.
In this business, like any really, reinvestment into the company is the key to its future. You have to be willing to spend more to make more. Meaning, you HAVE to spend money on the business itself for it to grow.
For me, in the beginning that was impossible, I needed to pay MY bills with the cleaning money
. That’s what I called it.