Latest / Cleaning Business Life / CBL EP 176 The Secret to Repeatable Quality in a Cleaning Business

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CBL EP 176 The Secret to Repeatable Quality in a Cleaning Business · Cleaning Business Life

0:58
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, we're live.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back, everyone, to the Cleaning Business Life Podcast.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: I am your co-host, Jamie Ronko, and we are with Shannon Miller, our host.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: And today we are going to talk about reputable quality and systems that turn cleaning companies into real businesses.
1:22
SPEAKER_02: So let me ask you something.
1:25
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever walked into a house after one of your cleaners finished and thought, why does this look so different than when I do it?
1:32
SPEAKER_02: The same house, same supplies, same instructions, but somehow the result is different every single time.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:41
SPEAKER_02: I think that's probably one of the biggest struggles in the industry right now.
1:44
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: Consistency.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: Right.
1:47
SPEAKER_02: So it has to be repeatable quality.
1:51
SPEAKER_02: And I often reference McDonald's, right?
1:54
SPEAKER_02: McDonald's, you can any person in any position in the house at McDonald's can work any other position.
2:00
SPEAKER_02: They're they're cross-trained on everything.
2:02
SPEAKER_02: So having repeatable results obviously has to have standards in place.
2:07
SPEAKER_02: If your business only looks good because you're cleaning, then there's something that needs to be tweaked along the way.
2:12
SPEAKER_02: You know, letting them be accountable for their their performance, so to speak, on cleaning.
2:17
SPEAKER_02: So you don't have an actual business yet if you're not graduated from that little teeny spot there.
2:24
SPEAKER_02: You just have a job and it's super important.
2:27
SPEAKER_02: And I keep saying, we keep mentioning job, job, job, job, job.
2:30
SPEAKER_02: And it's not to belittle or take anything away.
2:33
SPEAKER_02: It's to make you aware that you're creating, you're growing your egg or your seed or whatever it is, and that you're blooming into a whole bouquet of flowers.
2:42
SPEAKER_02: And the only way to do that is to start taking actions and adding some structure into your business.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: Right.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: So this is also where a lot of cleaning companies will hit a wall.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: They'll hire people, they train them real quick, and then they'll send them out on their own, just you know, so that you can get those clients filled.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: And that's where they spend the next six months, you're spending the next six months of fixing mistakes and putting out little fires.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: Get it out of your head right now.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: No one can clean like you can.
3:15
SPEAKER_01: Right.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: You also need to step your standard down just a little bit because nobody can usually clean like you do.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: We're the business owners.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: We started off as the solo cleaners, usually.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you guys though, having a so you just drop that down a little bit.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: Have having a checklist is so important.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: It's what builds consistency over time, and your your cleaners aren't so lost.
3:49
SPEAKER_02: But I think there actually is a checklist in one of the episodes.
3:53
SPEAKER_02: I'll have to go back and see if I can hunt it down.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: You gotta have a checklist, you guys.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't send uh the your cleaners in there just okay, I'm just gonna start cleaning.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: You gotta have it.
4:06
SPEAKER_00: There's a formula to the mattics.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm horrible.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm horrible at training.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: At least I feel in some areas I'm okay with, but whenever it comes to cleaning, I'm like, how come you can't?
4:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't have the patience for it.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: I get really frustrated and bitchy.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Like, why can't this person get it?
4:27
SPEAKER_00: Like, and I don't want to feel like that.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: So I have passed off the torch.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: And you if you guys aren't there yet, you will.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: I have passed off the torch.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: Believe it or not, there's better cleaners than I am out there.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: They run circles around me.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: They're they're they run circles around me and make me put to shame.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: And I just I love it.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: Knock that that thought process.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: I just want to say that real quick.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: Knock that thought process out of your head.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: And it's not usually it's not the the employees' problem, right, Shanon?
5:04
SPEAKER_02: It usually isn't the employee, it's usually because you're lacking, you're missing something.
5:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
5:09
SPEAKER_02: The system, the system that goes with it.
5:12
SPEAKER_02: So, what does repeatable quality actually mean?
5:15
SPEAKER_02: It's a big, big, profound, like just gonna lay that in your lap, right?
5:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because you'll be stuck like I am.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: Like, here, here's a rag, just clean as good as I am, and everything.
5:28
SPEAKER_02: I will be okay.
5:29
SPEAKER_02: Consistency is key no matter who's doing the cleaning entirely.
5:33
SPEAKER_02: So, um, and that goes back to training and having that system in place.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: So the owner, the team member, the new hire, the six-month employee, the home should look the same regardless of who cleans it.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: Just remember I gave you the McDonald's reference.
5:47
SPEAKER_02: Every single person, it will, we don't really know what's going to happen with AI, but uh hypothetically speaking, in today's society, with actual W-2, every person in the McDonald's model can work every other position in the back of the house and a cashier.
6:03
SPEAKER_02: So that way, if someone were to call it sick, it's the same consistency all the time.
6:07
SPEAKER_02: So the home should look the same, and the only way that happens is when the process is standardized.
6:12
SPEAKER_02: So McDonald's is known for they're known for their properties.
6:15
SPEAKER_02: That's how what made them famous, but they're known for their systems.
6:18
SPEAKER_02: It used to be the myth was that they would automatically on a timer go and wash their hands every 15 or 20 minutes.
6:24
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if that's the case anymore, but that is a legend, an urban legend.
6:29
SPEAKER_02: They're like, how do you get your employees to wash your hands every 20 minutes?
6:31
SPEAKER_02: And they they have a timer that goes off in the back of the house.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: Right.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: So because if every cleaner is doing things their own way, you're basically running five different cleaning companies under one roof.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: It's true.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: It's so true.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: This is your company.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: You hired them.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: Man, there's not I can't say it enough.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Checklist, checklist, checklist.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: And they need to learn that.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: And that's how you do it in your business.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
7:04
SPEAKER_02: And that's what most people call training, is actually just shadowing someone for a day or two.
7:08
SPEAKER_02: I would imagine with AI, this is gonna change in the next couple years.
7:11
SPEAKER_02: And that's not really training, it's more observation.
7:15
SPEAKER_02: My training method's a little different than a lot of others.
7:17
SPEAKER_02: So the training means this is an order, this is a method, and this is expectation every single time.
7:22
SPEAKER_02: If you don't have the expectation of, hey, you got to check your mirrors in your bathroom by turning the light off and then turning it on to see if you miss anything.
7:30
SPEAKER_02: That's an expectation.
7:32
SPEAKER_02: I'm expecting you to go walk over to the light switch, flick it on and off, and look to see if you missed it.
7:36
SPEAKER_02: It's easy to miss something on a mirror when you're looking straight at it, just like granite countertops, right?
7:42
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you have to get down at eye level.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Right.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: Eye level.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Look at it from all angles.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
7:49
SPEAKER_02: Right.
7:50
SPEAKER_02: Because you'll see when you get when you squat down there on the granite counter, you'll be like, oh my God, look at all those crumbs.
7:55
SPEAKER_02: And you can't hear it.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: I've tried doing, hey, you gotta rub your hand across, especially those black and white granite countertops.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: It's like you can't see the little crumbs.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you can't fill them, but when you get down at eye level, you can, it's like, there it is.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Or a table.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: When that sunlight or or the floors, when the sunlight hits it just right.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: I've had to tell some of my employees that too.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: You gotta be able to look at it, especially Chris.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: No, no shade thrown at all.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: But if you look at it just right, the sunlight will hit, and you can see all these little fingerprint marks everywhere on like a table, more like my commercial accounts.
8:43
SPEAKER_02: You gotta have This is why you don't see very many houses with black flooring or the dark walnut because when the sun goes across in the morning, it drives the mud through like I hate this floor because you can see all the dust and the fur that has.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: You literally can see every speck.
8:59
SPEAKER_02: So uh there are three systems that create repeatable quality.
9:02
SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna we're gonna list them for you.
9:04
SPEAKER_02: If you don't have these, your quality will always be inconsistent.
9:08
SPEAKER_02: System number one is cleaning order system.
9:11
SPEAKER_02: And the person who made this most famous was Jeff Campbell, right?
9:15
SPEAKER_02: But he actually was the inventor, I believe his videos are still up on YouTube.
9:19
SPEAKER_02: If you've not met him, he's a very interesting guy.
9:22
SPEAKER_02: And he created a lot of systems that we actually used 20, 30 years later.
9:26
SPEAKER_02: And it's called the Speak Cleaning System, and it's top to bottom, left to right.
9:30
SPEAKER_02: You'll hear every single person in the industry reference it.
9:32
SPEAKER_02: So cleaning order has to be in that system.
9:35
SPEAKER_02: And the reason why is because you're creating a McDonald's for the cleaning industry, top to bottom, left to right.
9:40
SPEAKER_02: So that way you know you don't miss a step because it's easy to do.
9:43
SPEAKER_02: You get sidetracked, you go squirrel, and professional cleaning companies clean in a specific order, not random, not whatever looks dirty first, in a structured order every single time, from as I mentioned, top to bottom, left to right, room by room.
9:57
SPEAKER_02: And then in my area, we have a lot of hills in our area.
10:01
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, you have to see the paint again because I've been clicking painting the chicken fence.
10:05
SPEAKER_02: There, we have multiple homes that have three levels.
10:08
SPEAKER_02: So you might start maybe on the top level or the bottom level or sometimes the middle level.
10:12
SPEAKER_02: That plays into your timing and your production rates too.
10:16
SPEAKER_02: And when everyone follows the same order, things stop getting missed.
10:19
SPEAKER_02: It has to be the same thing over and over and over again.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, and it also helps them speed up.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: Believe it or not, whenever you start doing that, it speeds people up.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: They're not sitting there wandering around the house wondering what to do next.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: They actually have a system that is in place.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: We a room for us, whenever a room is done, it's done.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: Right.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: We usually always start in the kitchen because normally that I have seen, those take the longest.
10:52
SPEAKER_01: They do.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: So we start in the kitchen first, and believe it or not, it's mopped, it's done.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: We go on to the next room, and it's it's everything's done.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: I know not every company is like that where they'll wait till the very last you mop everything and mop you, you know.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: I but that's how we do it.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: Once the room is done, it is done.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: But it does create it creates order, it creates efficiency, they they get faster, they know exactly which in turn it gives them, it gives your business a raise.
11:32
SPEAKER_01: Right.
11:33
SPEAKER_01: More money, more profit.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, more profit because they're getting faster and better.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: They got more stamina and the checklist system.
11:44
SPEAKER_02: So checklists are probably the most one of the most important tools for any service business, especially in the cleaning industry.
11:52
SPEAKER_02: Airlines use them, not so much anymore, but we're we're starting to see a comeback.
11:56
SPEAKER_02: Cruise ships use them, hospitals use them, construction crews use them.
12:01
SPEAKER_02: Cleaning companies should too.
12:03
SPEAKER_02: And checklists just removes, you don't have to think about it.
12:06
SPEAKER_02: You just know that, okay, Mrs.
12:07
SPEAKER_02: Smith likes to have the kitchen done with the master bath or the half bath off the kitchen with the formal dining room and the regular dining room.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: You're getting that all done.
12:15
SPEAKER_02: That she likes that done the first because her husband can't wait till noon to eat.
12:18
SPEAKER_02: He's diabetic or whatever's going on.
12:21
SPEAKER_02: So instead of hoping for someone to remember everything, the checklist just goes ding.
12:25
SPEAKER_02: And this can be digitally if you have internet everywhere, or if you're rural, you can bring the old-fashioned old school inside a sleeve, uh, a plastic sleeve, or have it laminated.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: You can do like stuff like that.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: But checklist number one thing, again, you gotta get it out of your head and on to something.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: Because if it lives inside of your head, it's not scalable.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: You're you you're leaving your cleaning text just to flop all over the place.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: And then that that could also go through over to you know, whenever you start getting an admin, they'll need a their own checklist.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: Um this is for cleaning though.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you're you're out in the field, cleaners.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: This is huge for new hires.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: They need to know they can't be lost.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: I I promise you, whenever you start them off with their checklist, or hey, we have to have aprons, they cannot function without all of that.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: It's like it's like having GPS.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: It's it's their map, and whenever they don't have it, they act like they're naked.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: So we're all digital, we're completely digital, but it does, it removes a lot of stress for you and for them.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Because they uh at the end of the day, they really just want to make you really happy and make the client happy.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: Just they don't have to remember everything just yet.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: Right.
13:59
SPEAKER_01: And they just follow that system.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: Super important to follow the system and not to deviate from it.
14:08
SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't have to be rigid, but it gives you guidelines to go by so that you're not having to think really hard about what you're doing.
14:14
SPEAKER_02: And it and it's the inspection system is something that a lot of clean companies skip.
14:19
SPEAKER_02: So it's either and then this has changed over time.
14:22
SPEAKER_02: Labor has increased immensely since Jeff Campbell stepped into the cleaning industry when it took off in the 90s.
14:29
SPEAKER_02: Inspection.
14:30
SPEAKER_02: So if you never inspect your work, like I just mentioned, I went and did to do house checks randomly and I was checking on the back of bathroom doors.
14:38
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it had been a while since anyone had checked.
14:40
SPEAKER_02: The homeowner didn't seem to mind.
14:42
SPEAKER_02: The cleaning tech didn't seem to mind, but I lined and I was like, oh my gosh, there's like thick dust.
14:48
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh, when was the last time anyone did these?
14:50
SPEAKER_02: So if you never inspect, you won't know and you can't maintain standards.
14:54
SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't need to be complicated.
14:56
SPEAKER_02: It just needs to be either random inspections like what I just did, photo inspections, which is great if you have remote teams out of the area, or say your office manager is doing it and they're getting the the photo inspections.
15:08
SPEAKER_02: And then there's supervisor checks.
15:10
SPEAKER_02: That typically happens when you have a customer service issue, and usually a customer service issue is a quality issue, nine times out of ten.
15:18
SPEAKER_02: It's not really, I don't like this cleaner type of thing.
15:21
SPEAKER_02: So there has to be some some form of quality control, and it should be frequent, it shouldn't be, you know, every year.
15:29
SPEAKER_02: It should be, you know, every night.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you get a complaint, right?
15:33
SPEAKER_02: Or if you get a complaint, you need to address that right away.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh and then it's like, oh, I need to go and check everything now.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: No, build consistency.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: Right.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: Build it to where you don't have to be the one that always you got a team lead, right?
16:16
SPEAKER_00: You should be you should be starting to have team leads, and if you don't, you'll get there.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: But this is where it all begins is having these checklists and a this inspect an inspection system.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: And their their checklist should be different.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: F they just know what to check for already.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: If they're going into a home, they know to check behind the doors and and the switch plates.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Are we hitting those areas?
16:46
SPEAKER_00: It should be consistent throughout and it don't matter who you send to that house, they should all be able to do it somewhat the same.
16:59
SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: Or it'll hard to to drift, right?
17:04
SPEAKER_02: So let's ask the listener something.
17:06
SPEAKER_02: And be honest with yourself.
17:09
SPEAKER_02: Do you actually have a repeatable system for quality?
17:14
SPEAKER_00: Well, I I wanna I would love to know that too, because I would like to know down in the comments if you guys are listening.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: I want to know, do you guys truly and it's okay.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: There's no shade thrown.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, you will get there.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: I do, but whenever it comes to whenever it comes to my leads doing inspections, I need to work on that a little bit.
17:42
SPEAKER_02: Definitely you're just gonna wait for them to do a good job and just wait and see.
17:46
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes that happens too, depending on where you're at in your business.
17:49
SPEAKER_02: Right.
17:49
SPEAKER_02: Right.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm guilty in both parts.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I that there's some just like everybody else, I'm still working on building that system.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: There's so much that goes into this, especially whenever you're building out your systems.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying I'm perfect at all, because you guys know that I am definitely, I'm only four years old.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: And but I still this is something that I myself, other than the the cleaning checklist, I do need to make like a teen lead checklist, or yeah, you know, eventually an administration checklist.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: We're again not talking about but that but these process these these need to be built.
18:33
SPEAKER_02: Definitely.
18:35
SPEAKER_02: And so here's why this happens so often.
18:37
SPEAKER_02: And most cleaning businesses start with one person, me, myself, and I.
18:41
SPEAKER_02: We uh I think most of us, 99% of us do it this way.
18:44
SPEAKER_02: There are other cases that are coming out that I've we've witnessed.
18:47
SPEAKER_02: So, and so that that dynamic's gonna change.
18:50
SPEAKER_02: So it's me, myself, and I, and the owner knows how to clean instinctively.
18:54
SPEAKER_02: We just go on automatic, pop our headphones in, listen to whatever we're listening to.
18:58
SPEAKER_02: And they've done it a hundred times.
19:00
SPEAKER_02: So it's like it doesn't, okay, I'm in and out in two point two point five hours to the to the second, right?
19:07
SPEAKER_02: Or two hours, no extra seconds, nothing.
19:09
SPEAKER_02: You're in and out.
19:10
SPEAKER_02: And then someone they hire, they think, okay, I'm just gonna show them once.
19:14
SPEAKER_02: And that's not really relatable.
19:16
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of questions, especially when you train them and you're like, okay, you're gonna do your first house by yourself, and they're like, What?
19:22
SPEAKER_02: And then, but it feels obvious to you, and it it's not gonna be obvious to a brand new cleaner.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: There's a lot, there's way a lot of stuff that's lost in translation from when you're training versus going to your first house by yourself.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: There's a huge like, do I take my shoes off?
19:39
SPEAKER_02: She wants me to take my shoes off.
19:40
SPEAKER_02: Do I do that?
19:41
SPEAKER_02: Do I not do that?
19:41
SPEAKER_02: What do what is what does Shannon say?
19:43
SPEAKER_02: Do I fold these towels?
19:44
SPEAKER_02: Does she not want the towels folders?
19:46
SPEAKER_02: They're on the ground.
19:46
SPEAKER_02: Are they dirty?
19:47
SPEAKER_02: Are they clean?
19:48
SPEAKER_02: What about sheet changes?
19:49
SPEAKER_02: Do they want the first sheet folded?
19:50
SPEAKER_02: Is it tucked?
19:51
SPEAKER_02: Or the is the other blanket tucked?
19:53
SPEAKER_02: What about the bed spread?
19:54
SPEAKER_02: How many pillows do they want the pillowcases on the inside?
19:57
SPEAKER_02: The out-I mean, these are all the questions that go in the mind of a cleaning cleaning tech who's brand new.
20:03
SPEAKER_02: Like, don't touch that ceiling pan.
20:05
SPEAKER_02: We know it's broken.
20:06
SPEAKER_02: What do you mean it's broken?
20:07
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know.
20:08
SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
20:08
SPEAKER_02: It's just this whole dynamic.
20:10
SPEAKER_02: Right, right.
20:12
SPEAKER_02: So having those systems in place and having that checklist so they know what to do versus not know what to do and they're not guessing.
20:18
SPEAKER_02: So consistency is key.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, having something, again, we use Jobber, having notes is a real huge and showing them before they even do go out on their own how they can look for those notes, how they can take pictures.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: All that orientation should have been done to get to this point before they go into their own house by themselves.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: They should feel somewhat confident.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: They should be prepared that they're not going to be dropped off, left alone to fend for themselves.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: They should be pretty prepared that they know that they're gonna go eventually, because I I am a solo or a single cleaning tech type of person, unless it's a really large house and we have a lot of those here.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: Solo method, definitely.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: It would probably take about eight hours for one, and we know cleaning for eight hours is just daunting.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: And we don't do that.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: We we don't c clean any longer than six hours, just physically and mentally exhausting for your cleaning checks.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: But they should have a little bit of confidence before they step foot in the house because you don't you want to avoid inconsistent inconsistency leads to complaints.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: Complaints lead to stress, stress makes you think that you can never walk away or that you can't ever go on vacation.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: You can't two weeks.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: I just if that would scare somebody if that's you know.
21:57
SPEAKER_02: And the real goal is to have a business that runs without you.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: That's you know, we talk a lot of people throw they sprinkle it out.
22:03
SPEAKER_02: I'm an absentee owner, I'm this, I'm that.
22:05
SPEAKER_02: But that that's ultimately the end goal, so that you can do other entrepreneurial endeavors with the cash flow that you're making from your cleaning business.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: But repeatable quality is more than just cleaning, it's about freedom.
22:17
SPEAKER_02: So I won't sing you a song and you sing for my dinner because systems are strong and the business stops depending on you personally, and the work gets done right away, whether you're there or not.
22:27
SPEAKER_02: And that's the shift from cleaner to CEO and freedom.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like and freedom don't come all like all of a sudden it's there.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: No, it comes in little spurts.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: You get a little bit longer, a little bit longer, a little bit more, a little bit more, okay.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: You're like tapping your toe backwards, you're like, okay, okay, this is working, okay.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: And that's the ultimate goal for anyone building a real company, you guys.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: That it's what our ultimate goal is to be able to, like Shannon said, be able to go out and do other endeavors like I am.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, my cleaning business is propelling me to make my own cleaning product that I get to work on while my b cleaning business is literally making money.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: It's All going together.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: It's I'm excited to share all of that with you guys too.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: And and you guys can get do whatever you want.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Go flip houses or or you know.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of it, this cleaning business propels that freedom.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: You just gotta put these things in place before you can just go off and okay, here's a rag, here's some cleaning product.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: Get you down and uh you know, you're on your own.
23:54
SPEAKER_02: I I've seen it happen.
23:55
SPEAKER_02: I've had it happen in my when I got hired on Mary Maid's after I closed my retail location.
24:00
SPEAKER_02: I think I got two hours of training.
24:03
SPEAKER_02: And Mary Maids worked in teams of two, and I didn't really know any difference.
24:06
SPEAKER_02: Didn't know a lot about the industry back then, but like legit, like two hours.
24:11
SPEAKER_02: Like, here you go, you're you're off on your own.
24:13
SPEAKER_02: This is what you're gonna do.
24:15
SPEAKER_02: And it's just it's an interesting business model.
24:17
SPEAKER_02: I've seen the you know, the teams of three still work, if that's your thing.
24:21
SPEAKER_02: I'm not here to criticize what what I see.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: So you want to strengthen your cleaning business, and you need to start with this question is your is your quality system repeatable?
24:29
SPEAKER_02: Is is there a process in place for you to do quality control, whether you do it yourself, whether you have your team lead do it, whether you have your office manager have the team lead do it wherever you're at.
24:40
SPEAKER_02: So you need to have a clean cleaning order top to bottom, left to right.
24:44
SPEAKER_02: You need to have a checklist.
24:45
SPEAKER_02: I believe that's in one of the other prior episodes.
24:48
SPEAKER_02: I'll have to look.
24:49
SPEAKER_02: If I find it, I will leave it in the show notes here.
24:52
SPEAKER_02: There is an inspection process and it should be random and it should be on the calendar, like inspections today, you know, and it's it's always a different day, so that everyone is kind of like, you know, is is James coming to me.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I guess so it's not so shocking.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: It's a normal thing.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: Like, hell yeah, we have inspections all the time.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Just especially whenever they're first coming on, they wouldn't know any better.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: They don't know any better.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: They don't know that, you know.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: Some people, whenever I first introduced trying to introduce all of this after they've already been hired and you're just doing it any old way.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Like whenever I remember whenever I first introduced the apron, it was like I got such like I remember I'm not wearing those.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: I had on my face or something.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: And it was like, okay, just give me a week with it.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Let's try it for a week, and then and then now it's like, you know, but the new hires, they have no idea.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: Right.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: And it makes life so much easier.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: But when when you don't have them systems in place at first we and then trying to put it in there after the you're already predictability businesses are also a lot again, they're a lot stressful to Ron.
26:14
SPEAKER_02: I think they're a lot less stressful.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: They're a lot less stressful.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: A lot less stressful.
26:20
SPEAKER_02: And that's it for today's episode of Cleaning Business Life.
26:23
SPEAKER_02: Again, if you like this, share this with another cleaning business owner.
26:27
SPEAKER_02: Um if you feel inclined to give us a five star review, that is so awesome because it tells the algorithm we are worthy, and then then it gets shared on by default.
26:35
SPEAKER_02: We love, love, love you guys, and we look forward to your questions.
26:38
SPEAKER_01: Take care.
26:39
SPEAKER_01: Bye.
26:40
SPEAKER_01: Bye.