Episode 45: From Me to We: Creating a Healthy Environment for Your Business to Grow

Episode 45: From Me to We: Creating a Healthy Environment for Your Business to Grow

Brandon Schoen:
We're taking everything off of our cleaners plates, they're not doing customer service. They're not even driving their own cars. They're not providing any equipment or breakage or any of that stuff. Hey, just get a show up and have fun and be part of a great culture. That's really it guys at the core of it. So I wanted to just ask you guys a question. If you are the one man show, maybe you'll have you're working with your family. Maybe there's just a couple of you. Maybe you're just solo cleaner, which is totally cool. What are you going to have to start offering to grow in that next direction?

Announcer:
Grow your cleaning business, make more money, have more time. This is the Profit Cleaners podcast with your host Brandon Condrey and Brandon Schoen.

Brandon Schoen:
Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Profit Cleaners, the only place where you can learn from the top 1% of cleaning business owners from around the world to level up your game. Take it to the next level. Welcome guys. Thank you for your time today. And I'm your host, Brandon Schoen. This is my cohost,

Brandon Condrey:
Brandon Condrey.

Brandon Schoen:
And we're in the house showing you how to do it, clean it up, do it right. Keep it clean, all that good stuff. So today we're talking about a really cool topic that a lot of you have been asking about, which is how do you take the step from being a one man show, a mom and pop to being a true business, where you're operating with systems and leverage, and you can really get things done efficiently, right?

Brandon Condrey:
You could boil that down to how do you hire your first cleaner? So you're cleaning houses right now. How do you make the leap to, I don't want to clean houses anymore. I've got someone who does that for me.

Brandon Schoen:
And we have a lot of you guys asking, well, I see all your content about how to get customers and marketing. Great. I don't even need customers right now. I'm having a hard time growing so I can take on new customers. I'm having to turn them away, right? So that's a good problem to have, but it's not a good problem. If you're fearful to hire or you don't have the things in place to make sure people want to come work for you. And a lot of you, I think maybe it's even a mental thing that you need to get over. That if you create the right environment, people will want to come work for you. And they do right now, but you just gotta believe it.

Brandon Condrey:
Maybe that's like a little bit of imposter syndrome. Like I'm just a small company. Why would someone want to come work for me? So they do already. And we're going to tell you why we're going to give you a couple of reasons why someone would want to jump ship. So in a lot of cases, we've got employees that had cleaned houses by themselves with family members in the past. And they ended up working for us. So why do they end up getting that way? So there's a couple of reasons that come to mind right away. It's when you're just two people or a person you are going to max out on your availability, like right away. So you're going to get five customers, 10 customers, whatever your bandwidth is. And then your schedule is full. So now you're turning away people all the time. What happens when one of those customers cancels, you just lost 20%, 10% of your customer base with one person being like, not hurt. I don't want you to do anymore. I'm out of here or removing or whatever it is. So we're at the point now where we're losing. I mean, someone cancels basically every day, maybe every other day. And that's not detrimental when you're in the thousands of customers. It's like, well, we wish you luck. See you later. So one reason is that the mom and pop cleaning company, people that you might want to hire, who are maxed out, they are having a hard time keeping up. So that's one.

Brandon Schoen:
Yeah. And just in general, they're noticing, they're going to notice any of these people that go out to clean, even you yourself. If you've cleaned, obviously, you know, there's going to be problems that come up, there's going to be equipment that breaks. And you're gonna break someone in something in a household of a customer, or you have to drive your own car and there's wear and tear. There's all these things that come up that would detract people from, you know, like that's a lot more extra work. I just want to show up and clean. And I think that's what we're getting at is that's what we've created here at Sandia Green Clean is this environment that people want to show up and clean. They know we're going to take care of everything else. And therefore we have no problems hiring because people are willing to maybe they could make a little extra money to do it on the side. But if you provide that environment where you're giving them all these extra perks and this culture and this thing, then it's easy for them.

Brandon Condrey:
And that's what part of it is that running a business is hard, right? So even if you're a mom and pop, you still have to do taxes And payroll and all these things. And you're doing that on top of cleaning, which sounds horrendous. So what you're offering people that already are running a side business cleaning, is that, look, all that's taken care of. This is a job. Like this is a place where you can come in. We got you nine to five. We're going to provide you with high quality uniforms and high quality pieces of cleaning equipment that you can use every day from a company culture standpoint. We want you to be able to be open with us. So if you think that there's something that you can do better, like if there's a chemical that we don't know about, that we should know about, tell us, like, we're happy to like adjust to you to make it a place that you want to work. Like you get to take control of your environment, make some changes. And then yeah, the car thing that you mentioned. So if you're out driving your own car, that's a lot of miles, man. Some of our cars are driving a hundred miles a day. So you're talking about shoving a oil change in there, like every four weeks or something. So we're going to take all that for you. You don't have to drive your car. Your car is safe in our parking lot at work while you're out and about, it's not going to get broken into, if something gets broken into while you're cleaning, don't worry. That's us. That's our car. We'll sort that out for you.

Brandon Schoen:
Yeah, absolutely. So let's go through all these. So how do you attract people and why do people come to us instead of doing it themselves? What's the incentive. So Brandon, we're just talking about the car. That's a whole nother episode we did on the cars, but this is just another reason to do cars is because it creates this incentive for people that, well, I don't have to drive my car around and well less wear and tear less problems. Cool. Like that's just one more thing that you can give them. What else can we tell them, Brandon?

Brandon Condrey:
So we're not going to do the car thing, but you don't have to do extra work. There's no customer service. You're not going to have to call someone to chase down a credit card number. You're not going to have to run to the bank to deposit cash or checks. All that stuff is just done. You were just here to clean. So we got that part.

Brandon Schoen:
That's right. And just in general, we're creating a culture where they feel appreciated, right?

Brandon Condrey:
That one's a big one. So the culture is like, if you've got the bandwidth, you need to plan for this bandwidth, but you gotta be able to do bonuses. And so that's bonuses related to cleaning. So that's another incentive is like, come work for us. We've got cash bonuses. Yep. But sometimes we're doing cash bonuses, just like it's Christmas. We're handing out a hundred bucks in an envelope to everybody and we want to reward the type of behavior that makes you want to stay with us. So the culture is like stability. It's fun. We do meals sometimes right now we're doing this coffee truck that we have. And every month at our staff meeting. So even if you're small, there's some way to work that in. Right. It could be a fun place in the morning. There's music. When you get here, like high five, you're our first employee, like thank you for coming in. And we love you so much.

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Brandon Schoen:
Hey guys! So how can Profit Cleaners help you? Three ways first off, head over to a podcast, or if you're on YouTube, we've got loads of free content. We're republishing the podcast here as well. Check out the podcast. That's a great place to start.

Brandon Condrey:
Next, you can grab our 10X marketing course to help you bring your business up to seven figures, get a bunch of customers. You can check that out at Profitcleaners.com/courses. And then lastly, if you just head to the website in general, Profitcleaners.com, there's lots of free tools on there. All the podcast episodes are on there. And then there's also a free masterclass that we run every week that you can still register for.

Brandon Schoen:
Yeah. Check out the show notes and all sorts of resources. So hopefully that helps you guys. We'll see you guys soon. Take care, keep it clean.

Brandon Condrey:
Keep it clean!

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Brandon Schoen:
Yeah. And it could be something like a lot of companies that health insurance, maybe not in as much in this industry, we haven't found a lot of employees at one health insurance. But if you can think of something like that, that people do want or just offer anything up that adds value to their life. That's what we're talking about here is, is that culture that you're creating, that they know you care and appreciate them. And you're going out of your way. I know Corby in Denver. This is one of our goals. At some point too, he liked lends money to his employees. And if they need money and something happened and they can't get a couple grand real quick, well then he'll lend it to him and they can pay him back as needed. What a great culture, what a great way to incentivize people to stay at your company. Where else can they get stuff like that.

Brandon Condrey:
You had mentioned the breakage in a customer's home, but like, they're not liable for that. If you, as a cleaner had gone in there and knocked a painting off the wall, and it was some priceless piece of art. If you're a mom and pop industry, you are freaking out that you just broke. Somebody's Picasso. Not that I've seen any in our customers' houses, but you never know what's in there. Right? You're freaking out that you broke something. It was really expensive. Well, part of the reason you want to come work with us is that we're an organized company. We've got all this insurance that's going to cover you. There's no punishment for breaking stuff. Stuff happens. These are all things in the company, culture side of things that will make people want to jump ship and just get something that's like a steady nine to five sort of gig.

Brandon Schoen:
Absolutely. And that's just going along with some of these other comments and tips we have here guys, which is just when they're off of work, they're off of work, right? So they're not having to do customer service or reply to bad reviews or take care of some breakage that happened during that day. You want to lift everything off their plate so they can show up and do the one thing that they do best, which is clean. And they clean really, really well because they have no other distractions, nothing else weighing them down. And that's how you're optimizing for that position. You have your best customer service person in the office answering phones. They handle it. But your cleaners, they don't have to do any of that stuff. Right? Cause they're doing the thing that they do best. Now. They're super efficient. Now everyone's happier. Customers are happier. You're happier. And that's all you wanting to create here.

Brandon Condrey:
Yeah. So that's what you can do as a company to make it attractive for them. Right? But there's another way that you can make it attractive for them, which is the work that they're going to do. And so the system, we always pitch you guys as a team set up. So it's not one person cleaning a house by themselves all day. You get some friends, you get to hang out during the day, it'd be in between houses. You're going to have lunch buddies to do, but you get specialized in these different parts of work. So it's not that you have to clean a bathroom and every single house, this house, you have to clean the bathroom. The next one you get through the kitchen, the next one you're doing vacuuming. So the work is a bit easier. It goes a bit faster, right? So there's that you put down on here, which is a great one, was that that's not dangerous. So part of the customer, like our company is looking after the employees. And so that's making sure that we're not sending the employees into dangerous situations. We've vetted these customers we've seen inside their house. We know that they're not predatory. We had an incident today where a neighbor of a customer was making loo gestures. Our team filed a police report on behalf of the team. So they don't have to do that stuff. Like you're going to take care of them.

Brandon Schoen:
They know we have their back. There's clear expectations that we're setting up front with the clients. So when the team's going, they know, Hey, they got my back. They're not going to let me go into someone's house. That's a bad person. Or it's dangerous, or it's a hoarding situation or something way out of our league. So because they know that again, it's just one more thing off their plate that they don't have to worry about. And now they can just go on and do their job and do it to the best of their abilities.

Brandon Condrey:
Yeah. So That might be something to ask in interviews like you clean houses by yourself now, like have you ever gone into a house that wasn't the way that you expected it? And then they'll tell you some horror story about the hoarder house or like, yeah. Well, we look at those beforehand. So we know that we're not going to send you in there.

Brandon Schoen:
Right. Another thing other than you get the best customers. So they don't have to worry about that is we pay them really, really well. So there's absolutely no questions in the back of their mind. Maybe they're thinking, well, I could make more money if I do this myself again, we're taking away all the variables, all the things that are headaches and the monsters in their head, keep them up at night. And all they have to do is show up and do their job. They're getting paid well enough that they don't even think about it. And I think that's a big thing we have going for us. A lot of people don't pay cleaners very well. And especially in Albuquerque, we hear it all the time. Yeah. And it's crazy.

Brandon Condrey:
So that's good to get cleaners from other companies that are already employing cleaners. We know we pay more than them, your cleaners, that you're trying to make, come off of the front lines and stop running their own sort of hustle and come do it for you. They're likely going to get more per hour cash wise than what you're gonna be able to offer them. But that's why you have to spell out all these other things. So like, yes, you got 30 bucks an hour and we're going to pay you 15. However, we're covering gas. So you're not paying that gas anymore for your car. We're covering insurance. So you can drop the insurance on your car, that was high because it was commercial insurance. There's lots of trade offs on the monetary side of things, but they're likely going to be taking a pay cut. But we're trying to give you the ammunition to be able to say, what about these things? They don't have to do that anymore. You don't have to buy supplies. All that's included.

Brandon Schoen:
Absolutely. So again, you guys were just reducing to the ridiculous, we're simplifying. We're focusing on the one thing. So we're taking everything off of our cleaners plates. They're not doing customer service. They're not even driving their own cars. They're not providing any equipment or breakage or any of that stuff. They just get a show up and have fun and be part of a great culture. That's really it guys at the core of it. So finish the show off guys. I wanted to just ask you guys a question. If you are the one man show, maybe you will have, you're working with your family. Maybe there's just a couple of you. Maybe you're just solo, cleaner. Just totally cool. What are you going to have to start offering to grow in that next direction? So you actually can start scaling. So you start having a real business. That's working, whether you're there or not, what are these things that you can start incentivizing an offering? So I think we covered a lot.

Brandon Condrey:
Yeah, no, I think so. And if you have any things that we didn't cover, or maybe you tried something unique in your setup that made you jump from, I was cleaning houses to I don't clean houses. I only talked to customers like the idea is to get you. We want you to be able to grow your company, that I want you to listen to this podcast for sure. But we also want you to be able to focus on what you like. If you like talking to customers, then boom, you're the sales guy. You get to talk to all the new customers. If you like customer service, then great. You get to talk to all the people. Actually they've got it done. And you just have to, we're trying to talk you into mentally reverse engineering. What the ideal job would look like for you, what the ideal part of the company is that you want to be a part of. So don't be afraid to think big man, this is a mountain. This is like climbing Mount Everest. A lot of people try, not a lot of people get to the top, but we want you to be able to get there. So if you're at base camp, just one person, how do you hire your first Sherpa to like help you do stuff? Like that's where we need to get you.

Brandon Schoen:
This is a huge lesson in delegation too. And you can't do business by yourself alone. You have to have a team around you, especially if you want to go big and go far. And so these are things that you should really start considering. How can you incentivize people and even just let yourself go a little bit and be like, I'm not going to try to do everything. I'm not going to try to clean and do customer service and do this and then start delegating and start letting go of those things as hard as it can be and let that team clean. So you can handle customer service. And if you're really good at that, just keep doing that or find someone else who's really good at and start building that team around you. And that's how you grow. That's how you're going to get to the next level is not doing it all yourself. Just Let it go a little bit.

Brandon Condrey:
You have to be comfortable with letting go of those things. Whether it's cleaning, we did a lot of inspections in the beginning. You're paranoid that someone's going to do it wrong. I wasn't a cleaner, we never cleaned, but I remember doing a lot of inspections. It's just, we're so worried about stuff, but this is part of the culture is that you have to empower your people and they know that you trust them to do a good job. And then you reward the good jobs. They got a five star review. They were mentioned by name, boom, here's your $25 gift card or $50 cash or whatever it is like, they just want to know that they're doing a great job and you want to let them know.

Brandon Schoen:
And you got their back. So, so awesome guys.

Brandon Condrey:
So take that. Yeah, take that. Run with it. Let us know how it goes and keep It clean.

Brandon Schoen:
Keep it clean.

Announcer:
Thanks for joining us today. To get more info, including show notes, updates, trainings, and super cool free stuff. Head over to Profitcleaners.com and remember keep it clean.