January 2022 Freedom Report with Coach Josh

This month's Freedom Report starts with a clip from a call with Coach Josh. I had accomplished a lot in December as you heard in the last report, adding 5 new buildings and 1 new team member. The 5 buildings added $3,800 per month of new revenue and brought us to 13 buildings and 5 houses to delegate. The new team member would take 3 of the buildings, leaving a lot more still to delegate. I felt confident at the end of December that I could shift focus from marketing & sales to hiring. The #1 priority had to be working my way out of a job!

In this clip, there are a few great quotes from Josh.

"We'll always be leaving money on the table. If we're so focused on getting all the money on the table, we'll never be the greatest at any one thing."

"I have to choose the sanity of my team over the expansion of my business."

"Just because you could pick up these clients doesn't mean you should."

"You're eliminating margin when I don't think you have to."

This conversation has been the hardest one for me in coaching. I'm amazed. The calls where we needed revenue and team members challenged me, but they were all answers that ended in 'yes'. This answer has to end in 'no'. I did focus on the team-building, training, and systems in January. That was how we'd get to Florida. Before I go there, let me share more about margin as that was such a vital lesson from this coaching call. I have made promises to my current 5 houses, 13 buildings, and 5 team members. My number one priority is to honor all those promises. I could do this with the time window, but we'd have little margin. Therefore, I made some key decisions in January. 

1. Decision 1 - I don't know what I'm going to do with house cleaning, but I decided to create some margin as I'm away in Florida by canceling my house cleaning while I'm gone. I will lose $800 in profit. I talked to each of my customers and 4 of the 5 are okay with it. The 5th house wanted a referral to another company that could fill in while I'm gone. I fully accept that I may lose this customer as a result. I am okay with it as I am going away from house cleaning and it's my least profitable house of 5. Removing 5 houses from my calendar for a month adds a lot of margin. In other words, it's less for me to think about while I'm gone.
2. Decision 2 - I have three buildings that are monthly. I will not delegate those yet. I completed them at month-end and will clean them again with my kids after I get back. I just had to shift them back one week. This adds more margin as my 13 buildings and 5 houses is down to just 10 buildings. I actually gain about $300 profit as I don't have to delegate this work.
3. Decision 3 (THE HARDEST )- My promise to my customers is now down to 10 buildings. I can complete this with 5 part-time team members that clean Tuesday nights, Friday nights, Saturdays, and Sunday mornings. One of my 5 team members is the Support Specialist assigned to be my boots on the ground to keep supplies filled up and be the back-up cleaner for all 10 locations. This will cost me about $3,000 to delegate while I'm gone. I added 3,800 in revenue. Subtract the house cleaning, add the gained profit from the monthly buildings, and our family income will be the same as it was before adding the new buildings in November while we are gone in Florida and not cleaning it all. That's incredible! Five team members to do 10 buildings is a lot of work to train in January, but there's plenty of margin so that I can enjoy Florida with my family for a month and not worry about all the potential things going wrong or people calling out especially when there's a lot of viruses flying around in the winter. I chose to say 'no' to the 3 prospects. I didn't want to eliminate any margin at the expense of my sanity while away.
   • Prospect 1 House - I emailed my new commercial customer and said that I cannot take on this house right now. He understood and asked for a referral. I referred a member of my Smart Cleaning Tribe who is local to me. This is a win-win-win. My customer gets their wish. My friend and house cleaner gets a new customer. I keep my margin and still look good.
   • Prospect 2 Building (electronics lab) - I chose not to do the proposal after completing the estimate. Instead, I emailed my business contact there and told them that I am not able to take on any new buildings for 60 days. They never responded.
   • Prospect 3 Building (insurance firm) - I did complete this proposal because I promised. Right after sending it, I called and spoke to the office manager. I told her the situation. "Our services are in high demand. We just added several new buildings and team members and need 60 days to honor all of our current promises. We would love to take you on as a new customer, but cannot for 60 days." She was disappointed. She emailed me back the next day. "We are willing to wait the 60 days because we feel as though you are the right fit.  In the meantime, are you able to recommend a company that can clean for us until you are available?" I added this company to the waiting list for March. They will be a new $475 per month customer!

I ran the hiring process again as 15 applicants collected on Indeed in late January. I had all 5 team members in place to complete 10 buildings, but I wasn’t fully secure yet. I wanted to keep interviewing and possibly hire one more and train them. They would not start until March, but they’d be available as a back up of my back up. Of the first 15 candidates, 5 sent resumes and a few may make it through to the interview step. As I was doing this work, I got the background check back on team member #5. There was a flag on her report. Uh-oh! It was a charge that I never heard of and only registered as a 3rd degree misdemeanor in my state. Josh coached me through it.

1. Did she say nothing would show up on her background check? Yes. My onboarding process starts with the background check and has this question embedded. She filled out the background check and replied that nothing would come up. This was a second flag. I was already beginning to be thankful that I started the hiring process again.
   
2. I responded in kindness and being very specific that I would to discuss this with her to hear her side. She responded to my email with a call in less than 5 minutes. This erased 1 flag. She explained exactly what happened and it eased my mind. It was a mistake, but one that I could easily have made. I requested documentation.
   
3. She sent the documentation and it checked out. This erased the second flag. I talked it over with my wife and coach. We agreed to keep her on the team. She is grateful and I am thankful to have someone to her caliber. She has a master’s degree and we still have 5 team members!

Let's close this out. I spent the final 15 days of January doing 3 things.

1. Swept full integration - I invested $150 per month in this operations app to automate so much of my work. This technology tool removes 5 hours+ of work each week. It's a great buy!
2. Cleaning supplies fully stocked - I had to order another $1,000 in cleaning supplies to finish my first batch of buildings for this trip. It cost me $6,500 to fully stock 10 buildings or an average of $650 to stock each. This is a lot of money, but it is included in my first year pricing.
3. Training all 5 team members - I was successful at increasing each team member's overall C3 Score to an 8+. This is an internal score needed for me to feel secure with their ability to clean and my overall trust in them doing it.

Can you believe it Smart Cleaning School? You've listened to these reports for 8 months. Our family's Florida trip looked so bleak for 6 of those reports! Everything changed in the past 60 days! We give all the honor and praise for this accomplishment to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So many things had to happen right that were completely out of my control. How else could I have landed 5 amazing new customers for the exact amount we needed to make this trip without us dipping in income? How else could we find 5 high-quality team members that fit my culture and were truly grateful for the opportunity to work for our company? How else could all the details work out the way they were supposed to? My answer to all these quesions is Jesus. You may not relate. That's okay. Thanking God is a promise I made to Him years ago.

Check out my interview with the T-Bag Company Founder, entitled "Respectful, Reliable, Responsible with Damon Washington". You can purchase any of the T-Bag products at a 10% discount through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page.