Pandemic Proof Your Business

In my last solo cleaning business update, I shared how sharing my knowledge directly lead to my local pharmacy boosting a video I made leading to over 4,500 views! Collaboration is so vital. It's what networking done right really is. Like-minded local business owners sharing with each other for the greater good of the community. Life also gets in the way. I've shared how losing my Nana caused me to slow down work to attend to family matters. The last few weeks have been difficult as I'm the family point of contact for my autistic uncle. I had at least 2 full days of phone calls, emails, and updates to my family members and his team to take care of. I only share this to be real. I had less time and had to prioritize this week and I prioritized collaboration! Here are some examples of actions I took this week:

• Collaboration set up with IV Chamber, Jackie Silveri of EDS on how we complement each other as partners / collaborators in our MCBA networking group. 
• Did 2 interviews with Shelby Miller and Trisha Lutteroty from Keller Williams with good questions and comments
• Taught my chamber how to protect against corona and disinfect properly with 30 attendees. I will email each back personally with a video message. One of the attendees is Tom Merrick, owner of Tom's Help Desk and President of the Skippack Business Owner's Association. He wants me to come speak for their group in June in the same format as today's talk, only shorter in content. You just put yourself out there
• I went back and forth with my veterinary hospital client to get the map correct (the one I made in Boost My Post). The doctors are talking and collaborating with me to design the best strategy for them. Their goal is to have their staff clean & disinfect daily, have my company work in tandom with one of their employees to deep clean, disinfect, and presentation clean their hospital. They LOVED the map and were so thankful to have a plan forming up. I was given the green light to increase my monthly service and wrapped up the week with a beautiful powerpoint with 5 options to expand my cleaning service.
• Brad Imming of SEP Pathfinders helped me set up Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics so I can start tracking visitors to my website. I just need to determine my goal for the site, so Brad can help me design and optimize the funnel to capture more newsletter subscribers, YouTube subscribers, clients. 
• Got my first call from the Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Concierge that Mary Ann Alig added me to. It got us a 1-time move out clean.This was a nice $250 1-time job. I took before & after pics and had the client pay online.
• Went through my CC emails and collected all prospects and new friends and added them to my newsletter
• Created the 9 videos under 2 min each, uploaded them to YouTube, and scheduled them into MailChimp to go out twice per week throughout May. I'll be updating Google My Business with each release.

Let's get to the meat of this episode. This COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out so many cleaning companies, but not all of them. Let me first share what has happened to my business.  Prior to COVID-19, I earned 33% through cleaning locally (16.7% through commercial, 16.7% through residential), 33% through cleaning memberships nationally, and 33% through the sale of my former NY cleaning company. My business sale is guaranteed through contract, so that hasn't changed. My memberships lost a few members, so I'm down 10%. My residential cleaning is down 67%, which is consistent with the rest of the country. My commercial cleaning is even. However, I have a few two likely commercial add-ons coming soon which could easily bring my commercial cleaning division to +40%. I am so thankful that I diversified my income in the type of cleaning I do and how I derive income through cleaning.

I was very interested in this discovery about commercial cleaning and interviewed 10 other cleaning business owners (mostly with employees). The results were telling. This crisis clobbered the residential house cleaning industry with many owners losing 50-100% of their clientele! Meanwhile, the commercial industry is spotty. Some commercial cleaning companies with schools and churches were crushed along with other industries deemed "non-essential". The essential businesses are strong with most adding to their cleaning service. This dynamic is causing some commercial companies to get by and others to thrive. This doesn't even include the 1-times that are coming from re-entry into the workforce and the disinfection they'll be hired to do!

My conclusion is this. Commercial cleaning is more pandemic proof and an excellent stabilizer for your solo cleaning business! Who knows if something like this will happen again?! If it does, I'd like to be prepared. How about you?

Tech Tip from my TLF Mastermind buddy Gustavo Fernandez - I Used WiseStamp.com to create new email signature. It's so professional!