August 2021 Freedom Report with Coach Josh

There is so much to dig into for this month's update of my personal cleaning company. If you're new to this show, here's the quick version. I've been a solo house and office cleaner for most of my 16 years in business. I have a system that initializes, stabilizes, and optimizes solo cleaning companies to create over $50k profit per year on a few days per week. In fact, I've done it twice. My first solo cleaning business was in Upstate New York from 2005 - 2018. I optimized this company to create $55k profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week without employees. The company was 90% residential and 10% commercial. I sold this company in 2018 for $80k and moved back home to Montgomery County, PA. We have since built a second solo cleaning business to $70k profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week. This new company is 75% commercial and 25% residential. As amazing as this sounds and it has been, our family wanted more. Our coaches and mentors challenged us to follow our dream as a homeschooling family. We had a New Freedom Vision and booked a house on the Gulf Coast of Florida for a month next winter! We wanted to go from $70k profit on 2 days per week to 0 days! This requires a team and systems. As an engineer, I love systems. But I've resisted them as a solo as I viewed them as tedious. Thankfully, I've hired Coach Josh to walk me into our dream. Josh is a co-owner at Athens Cleaning in Athens, GA. He is a fast-growing commercial cleaning company serving small, professional offices with professional workers. This podcast feature is a monthly peak into my own company, Carfagno Commercial Cleaning, as we build our business with systems and team members in order to start living our dream.

August Update:

• The first week of August was my trip to Nashville for Podcast Movement 2021. This was a great trip for me personally and professionally. I had lots of down time to think, plus numerous opportunities to meet new people and build better relationships with podcasters I already knew. The biggest takeaway had nothing to do with my podcast. On Thursday night, my buddy Vincent and I figured out a way to map out our businesses on a simple 3 x 3 grid. We started with the basic 2 x 2 grid of drama vs profit from Why I Fired My First Client. All we did was add a middle scaling option. The analysis revealed so much to me as it confirmed what I was already feeling. My goal is to simplify every area of my life, so that I can create more memories with my family and art for my community and disciple my family. I needed simple. Of the various income-producing efforts I am involved in, a few emerged as most profitable with least time and drama. All house cleaning is OUT and all small, professional office cleaning is IN! This was a vitally reflective process that will allow me to hyper niche with my coach and go crush it in small, professional, essential offices in my area. If you'd like to learn how to do this with your business, reach out to me on my website and request a free call.
• Now that I had my niche, I could go to work on completing my Project 100. This is a specific list of companies that I'd like to clean for. Coach Josh has already taught me that I can earn my freedom with only 20% of this list! Think about it. 20 new offices averaging $800/month equals $192,000 in additional revenue. This would increase my total revenue in office cleaning to $280,000. At 35-40% profitability, my family would earn between $100k - $115k per year and I wouldn't have to clean anymore! I had a lot going on in our family in August with summer kids activities and training my first employee, so I failed at completing the Project 100 by month end. However, I did get 50 offices targeted. Here's what has emerged.
  • My specific niche is Office Cleaning ---> Small Offices, under 5,000 sqft ---> Professional, appreciating high quality and presentation --> Essential, not shutting down during a crisis --> Weekly cleaning or less as I don't like multi day cleans --> Law Firms, CPA Firms, Dental Offices, Pharmaceutical, Chiropractors, Physical Therapy, Small Medical Integrative, Vet Hospitals
• I sent 5 cleaning proposals out in August! 2 years ago, I did my "New to the Area" tour to market my office cleaning business locally. This is how I met Dennis Gehman and secured his office. Another office that I did a proposal for opted to stay in-house for cleaning. This office contacted me in August wanting an updated proposal as they needed to outsource. This looks promising. The other 4 proposals were a package deal. I shared the story of a house cleaning prospect that offered me an intriguing offer. "I own 13 dental clinics in the area. If I gave you a couple to clean, would you also clean my house?" I completed the house cleaning estimate and 3 dental office estimates in back-to-back weeks and bundled them into a proposal. Notice that the offices align with my target niche. If I get all 4 offices and 1 house, our revenue would increase by $40k per year.
• Once I had my niche and realized from Coach Josh that I only needed 20 specific offices to hit our goal, it made me think differently about my local networking. I have been networking in multiple meetings to grow my network. It has yielded credibility and some referrals. I realized that I've been doing general networking and taking a lot of time. I was even considering a 3rd weekly group plus the chamber. Thankfully, my friend Kelly Jones talked me out of it. She was an expert in our Smart Cleaning Tribe in July and taught us the concept of specific networking. This aligned well with my Project 100. I don't need to network everywhere. I simply needed to serve my community, grow my network, and target network to my Project 100 list. Over time, I'll acquire 20% of this list and earn our freedom. Therefore, I said no to the 3rd networking group and stepped back from the BIB group that I loved. I needed more time for my family and more time to go after my goals. I did decide to keep the MCBA weekly meeting as it gives me opportunities to test presentations. This will allow me to become a paid speaker in the coming years.
• The most exciting part of August was the training of my first employee, Leah. I am learning so much about how I clean by training her. I was able to systemize the cleaning of an entire office with a single sheet of paper and 8 circles. Leah loved it and it has been her guide along with my training videos and my 1-on-1 in-person training that is helping her. Our goal is for her to be cleaning 3 offices per week by the end of September at the latest. I also have a friend and her sister whom I trust seriously looking for part time work. They are currently on my employee waiting list to take on the 3 dental offices if I get them. I'll also mention that my Quickbooks Online migration is nearly done, thanks to my local friend Colette Mellott of CMBA Solutions. This is taking a huge weight off. I am equally thankful to my new payroll company for doing all of the work so I don't have to. These 3 systems are new to me and critical to my goal.

​Coaching Insights for August:

There are two clips that I am sharing in this podcast episode. The first goes through Josh's SAFE acronym as it's one of his core values. The second clip covers Josh's strategic 5 step action plan toward acquiring and systemitizing new clients. It's awesome. Here are the notes from these coaching calls, but make sure to listen!

• How to Build Your Business in Steps (Chris Brady)
  • Identify - ideal candidate for team and client. Who are they? Name your clients (Project 100). Comes from “Traction”. For your team - I want an introvert who is 25-35 or 45+ to avoid little kids. I want certain cultural things or worldview that are the same so our words mean the same thing. This isn’t diverse.
  • Attract - How do you bring them to you? Or how do I present myself to go to them. Trojan Horse.
  • Conquer - Clean out the city and dominate. Sign up a new client or team member to win them over. We advanced the relationship.
  • Fortify - Rebuild the city because you just took it. Make it safe again. Training and onboarding them properly. Build the relationship and skill level of the team member. Same with the client. Building the 80/20 with the client to make sure the client is happy. Earning your trust.
  • Domesticate - It’s time to repopulate and bring our wife and kids in. We can bring our team members in. 
• Make SAFETY a core value!
  • S=Secure the building
  • A = Address the major issues, the 20% that the client wants, restocking paper, quirks of client
  • F = Follow the checklist
  • E = exit with excellence, to exceed, leaving do a 5 min walkthrough to make sure all is okay, no left supplies, lights off, cleaned well, alarm on, doors locked). They take a picture of the alarm being set and key locking the door and documented on Swept to protect. Some employees of company work weekends after cleaners. Take pictures of toilet paper