The Buffalo Charges On

If you've been following this podcast for any duration of time, you should have noticed a major shift in how I am teaching. I have organized my content for helping side hustlers, startups, and solos around 4 basic fundamentals of success: Financial, Mindset, Strategic, and People. I highly recommend that you check out the previous episode to gain the perspective I've learned on why so many of you are struggling. It's called "Why Side Hustlers, Startups, and Solos Struggle".

Armed with the basic understanding that these 4 are essential, I wanted to compare and contrast a few business opportunities out there. The first one is the multi-level marketing business. I was an Amway IBO for 10 years. I am thankful for my time and mentorship in this business opportunity. We didn't make it. Many don't. Why? Well, let's look at the 4 fundamentals.

• Financial – It's less than $100 to start! This is why so many can join. There really aren't any P&L's to study.
• Mindset – You can invest in books, weekly audio lessons, quarterly in-person conferences, and 1-on-1 mentoring sessions to grow your mindset. Coaching and mentoring and personal development in MLMs are second-to-none.
• Strategy – I was provided with a strategy and game plan for success from Day 1. The MLM strategy falls under the category of a business system or franchise. They know what works. You just have to follow the proven system and do the work.
• People – This is the most difficult part of the MLM. There is a tremendous momentum to overcome with people. You have to become an amazing people person. You have to learn to handle objections, stay positive, win people to your cause, and lead people. It's such a simple business model, but extremely hard to get buy-in from people. People is the biggest barrier and struggle in this business opportunity.

The second business opportunity is a manufacturing company producing widgets that everybody needs. The 4 fundamentals are different here. There are no objections to overcome with people. You mainly deal with larger B2B situations where what you sell is needed. Strategy can be challenging, but the simplicity is this. Just scale and grow your operation to handle the demand. Mindset is also challenging as scaling is taxing and stressful. Dealing with complaints and legal and regulations can be difficult. The biggest barrier to this business opportunity is Financial. It may require $1 million to even start! That wipes out most of us right there. You also need to be incredible with your numbers as the margins are small in most cases and you better know how to guarantee profits at every level.  Financial is the biggest barrier and struggle in this business opportunity.

 How about a solo cleaning company as a business opportunity? Let's examine the 4 fundamentals again.

• Financial – It's less than $1,000 to start! Like a MLM, many can join and we know by the stats out there that there are 50,000 new businesses starting each year! However, many don't know their numbers and they need to know basic P&L math to ensure profitability. This is a barrier, but not huge!
• Mindset – I have found in my 6 years of coaching and interacting with newbies in this industry that this is the #1 barrier. The basic assumption is this. "I'm good at cleaning, so I'll be good at a cleaning business." Bad assumption. The skills you need to clean and run a cleaning business are night and day. Most are entering with a job mentality or fixed mindset. They think and act with lack versus abundance. They want it now versus delaying gratification, staying persistent and consistent over time. They are not willing to spend money versus being excited to invest to grow. Mindset is the biggest barrier and struggle in our business opportunity.
• Strategy – This is likely the second biggest barrier I have found after Mindset. They don't have a clue what to do or how to do it. Questions on how to price, how to clean, and how to deal with a people situations flood the free groups.
• People – Most newbies aren't great with people. It's not a huge detriment as everyone needs cleaning. It's not a hard ask or "sell". Yes, there are some basics you need to learn in human interaction and people skills. This is not a huge barrier.

What's the point of all of this? I am communicating that every business has these 4 fundamentals. Some have even more. If you are looking for the easy win, there isn't one. Every business opportunity will have at least one huge barrier or struggle to victory. And if it didn't, it wouldn't be worth it. You will have to overcome all 4 fundamentals to win in your cleaning business.

I want to revisit a fantastic mindset from my friend and our show sponsor, Debbie Sardone from "A Buffalo Charges the Storm". Here's the mindset. When a great storm approaches the plains, there are two types of animals. The cow runs away from the storm in fear. They outrun the storm for a little while, but the storm eventually overtakes the cow. The cow remains in the storm for a long time. Their decision to run away costs them a lot more suffering and time and possibly their life. On the other hand, the buffalo charges the storm. They sense the storm and run right into it. The storm hits them harder than the cow, but they endure the storm for a fraction of the time. The buffalo suffers, but for a short time. They emerge on the other side with the storm still chasing after all the cows. Debbie asks each of us the question. Which are you... a cow or a buffalo?

I wanted to re-introduce this mindset for a few reasons. I just made the statement that the biggest hurdle for new cleaning business owners is mindset. This is a great one to adopt. Don't run from your fears. Charge into them. Build your business with courage and get to your goals fast. You can absolutely put in a ton a work through discipline, delayed gratification, humility, and persistence. This will push you through the storms that come your way faster and allow you to emerge faster each time. I'm going to reference my time in Amway again. There was a foundational teaching or mindset that the best way to build the business was fast. It would take a lot less time and lot less money to get to the Diamond level if you worked like crazy. You could outwork the barrier of people by creating such a work ethic that people wanted to follow you. They also taught that most don't do this. They build it slow and methodically. In turn, they take a lot more time, spend a lot more money, go through a lot more pain, and usually don't hit the Diamond level. I knew this and still built Amway slow. The result is 10 years in the business with a top income of $1,000 in a single month 3 times and a monthly average of $200 revenue over 10 years. We reached the 2500 pin and almost the 4000 level, but never any higher. We had to replace people as fast as we were putting them in because of the slow speed at which we were building. I was a cow as I ran away from the advice to do it fast.

I've seen the same in the cleaning business. There are many cows stuck in what Debbie calls the Valley of Despair. Their businesses do about $400k in revenue and they are working a ton and making no money. Meanwhile, there are buffalos like my friend Crystal Hamm from "My Business is Not My Identity" that went from $0 to $1 million is under 2 years and to $3 million in under 6. This is incredible. I have personally seen the offices and operations of both Debbie and Crystal. They are both so impressive. They are proof that being a buffalo is the way to build this business and confirms what my Amway mentors have been teaching since 1950. You've gotta build it fast.

You are a solo cleaner or just starting out and possibly wondering, "how can I be a buffalo?" Here's my advise. You need to take on all 4 fundamentals like a buffalo, no matter how hard or uncomfortable it is. You need to do the work like a buffalo and charge, charge, charge. You need to be like some of my current and former Solo Elite students. Heather optimized her business in under 1 year. Robert started a side-hustle with a full-time corporate job. He built his house cleaning business fast and quit his 20-year career to be a cleaner full-time in 6 months. Whitney is currently optimizing her solo business to $50k profit and will triple her income in less than 6 months in the Solo Elite Membership. They are buffalos. If you want to be a buffalo and you would you like to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn over $50,000 profit cleaning less than 20 hours per week without employees or subs or drama! You need to join the Solo Elite Membership! Get access to this game-changing training for only $57 per month or $597 per year in the Solo Elite Membership atsmartcleaningschool.com/elite. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, plus access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and additional courses at 50% off! You can also sample the membership with our brand new "Backstage Pass", which is found at smartcleaningschool.com.

What if you're a buffalo that wants a big cleaning company and wants to avoid the other cows?! You need to join Cleaning Business Fundamentals, our podcast's sponsor. Are you attempting to scale your house cleaning company on your own to 7-figures and beyond? You can do this, but why would you try. Debbie Sardone shared her proven system to getting residential cleaning owners to 7-figures faster, with more profit, and better, career cleaners in "CBF Success Stories with Debbie Sardone and Friends". I highly recommend CBF to any residential cleaning company looking to scale to 7 figures. Check out the Smart Cleaning School's CBF Exclusive Deal. Get Debbie's impactful "Succeeding on First Time Cleans" for 50% OFF and a free CBF discovery call with Debbie or one of her certified CBF Coaches! Just go to smartcleaningschool.com/resources and you'll find "Featured Sponsor" at the top of the page. If you want to scale your residential cleaning business to a million dollars, get CBF now!