Latest / Cleaning Business Life / CBL EP 199-The Business You’re Building Should Let You Live

Transcript

CBL EP 199-The Business You’re Building Should Let You Live · Cleaning Business Life

• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: One.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Shannon Miller here with Cleaning Business Life.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to come out here with Memorial Day coming up.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: I've been thinking a lot about freedom.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Not just national freedom, military sacrifice, but personal freedom.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of us a lot of business owners started chasing freedom.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's ultimately we wanted to have and I mean Jamie and I talk about it a lot, but blocks of time, drop-off, pickup, drop-off, pickup.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: We got everything has to be flexible, especially until you you can get enough systems in your business, and then things start to expand, right?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: But part of being an entrepreneur is having that freedom, having that gut check.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that sometimes we inadvertently built ourselves into a prison.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Adjust this camera here a bit.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: There we go.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: You can see my chords in the back because that's vacuuming.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: But somewhere along the way, the hustle became the identity instead of a season.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I just want to make sure to remind you guys that, you know, hustling all the time and being exhausted all the time is not the end game.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: The end game is to create legacy and freedom and financial stability for yourself and for your family, or you can sell it.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: You'll hear me say that a lot over and over and over again.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we're getting close to 200 episodes here.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know how many times I've said it, but a lot.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of cleaners and service providers are operating from survival wiring.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of us step into it because it's easy, it's a low threshold for buy-in.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone can clean, right?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Wink wink.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's only a broom sweep.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I can totally do this.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's true, people can clean, but not everyone can do it well.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And when you spend years in surviving, it's hard not to kick the can down the alley, right?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to start to kick the can down the alley and realize that, you know, 20 years in, that, you know, is it too late for me?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Is it too late for me?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to continue to be a solopreneur, I'm totally okay with it.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever decision you choose to do, I want you to make the most money doing it.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, and then when you spend years surviving, the rest actually starts to feel uncomfortable.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: You should be working, you should be posting, you should be answering clients, you should be making money.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it's hard to wind down from that.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I advocate for taking at least a vacation, even if you don't go anywhere having a staycation where, you know, the reality is, will your business survive if you're not running it, right?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because then you've created a job.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we all know what the definition of a job is, right?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Just overbrook.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, and that's not capping on anybody who still has a job or works a job and does this on the side or whatever it is you choose, whatever your situation is.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: But that we we should all have a job.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I actually picked up a book, you know, the series where the real estate guy.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: Shoot, I'm having a brain fart.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: He he created, he he, his latest book, I just picked it up the other day, talks about how the new wealth is having a business so that you have more tax write-offs so you can keep more of your wealth.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's this this plan, right?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not just real estate, but there's having forms of income, not just one, but multiple forms of income.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: So social media absolutely feeds the mentality you should be posting, you should be posting, you should be posting.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I sometimes, and I've mentioned it before, I feel like we're feeding the hamster wheel.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: How many of us have had a hamster when they were kids?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I've had one and you fed him a tree, and he'd then he'd get on the hamster wheel and he'd go around, and sometimes he'd spin around and like this.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen huge hamster wheels for cats.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Usually they're sphinx cats or they're hairless, and you can see how long their bodies are and they're just running along.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: But exhaustion is not proof of your business is healthy, it's proof that you've worked yourself too hard.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: So starting to really think about we're getting ready to hit the halfway mark of 2026.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you want to be at the end of the year?
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Are you totally comfortable being where you are?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to have firm goals to get you to the end of 2026?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And if you guys haven't figured it out now, this year is going by a lickety split.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So you're running open wounds and invoices when you're not putting any plans in place, you're just showing up and doing the thing.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I really say this with love because I've been there.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely have been one of the people who worked seven days a week and then got myself sick and then had to take four or five days off and didn't have anyone else to cover me while I recovered from me overworking.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: There were two times I did it.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the last time I swore I would never do it again.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, this is just crazy.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: You have, and I know that I spoke to someone recently who said, you know, this industry will either take you out or you'll take yourself out.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So physically, it's a hard job, and you don't want to do it for a long time.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the option is to scale, and it's entirely out for you, for you to decide.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: So when your business depends on you entirely, on your physical labor, emotional energy, constant availability, or your nervous system, you don't actually own a business.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: The business owns you.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had this happen twice in the last year.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: One person, Tomas, if you're listening, I love you.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: He got in a really bad accident and almost didn't make it.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we were all concerned that he wasn't gonna make it.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And what happened is, and I'll give you the very short version, one day I'm gonna have him on the guest and he's gonna tell us his story.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: He went down to Mexico over the Christmas break, got on a tour bus, which is the safest thing to do, him, his wife, and his baby, and he was hit head on by a semi.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Twenty-six people died on that bus.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it makes you think, and thank God he had things in place that his business did not collapse while he was in the hospital unconscious, not knowing that the rest of his family didn't make it.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna cry.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to have a plan.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: If something goes down, will your business run?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, will your business run without you?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Something to think about.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: I've had it happen to another person who was a cleaning business owner.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: She got in a head on collision and there was no backup.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: She had absolutely no backup plan, no one could access any of the payroll, no one could access any of the funds.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: There was nobody.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: She was it, and uh everything collapsed.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're working on rebuilding what she lost, but she'll never be out in the field again.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Never.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: She physically cannot do it.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the option for her is to scale.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: So those are two separate instances.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: One was repaired and one wasn't.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I'm like tearing up still from Tomas.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: So make sure that you have a plan so your business can run without you because you don't want to be the one stuck holding the bag trying to figure things out.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually your body starts to collect the bill, right?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: You physically cannot do it.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't want to be the person that gets stuck doing the cleaning in your 60s and 70s, that's hard.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's hard on your body.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Let the young people do it for sure.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the real freedom is in systems, boundaries, being able to take the weekend off without feeling guilty.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to Sedona.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Real freedom is pricing correctly, so you're not trapped in a constant panic mode, making sure that profit is not greed.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: I have the t-shirts, profit is not greed.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: I have a book.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: It says profit is not greed.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Check it out on Amazon and just search my full name, Shannon Lee Ann Miller.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of the few times I don't have glasses on for that cover.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: But and honestly, sometimes the most productive thing you can do is rest long enough to think clearly again.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love moments like that.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I call it being delivered from the shower gods.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And many of you might have experienced it.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: You're in the shower and suddenly you have this epiphany, or maybe you dream your epiphany's.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: However, you come to that emotional state, getting there is the hardest part.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I swear to you, once you wind down enough and your brain can actually relax and you're starting to think, fantastic ideas come to you that way.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: Just something to think about.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're able to rest and take some time out this memorial weekend, by all means, please do spend time with your family and your loved ones.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so this Memorial Day weekend, I hope you rest a little, you unplug a little, and I hope you spend time with the people that you love.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope that you remember.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Too emotional for Shanna today.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: And to those who served sacrifice or lost someone in service, thank you.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: From the bottom of my heart.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'll see you guys in the next episode.