Reminder to all building cleaners: we are dirt and odor removers. Wherever there is dirt, dust, or odor, it is our job to remove it; we get paid for doing this. Again, no one should ever have to call you and tell you that a certain area was not cleaned. When that happens, we can all suffer.
We do not want any of the property managers ever to go back to using their own in-house
cleaning staff. This would be bad for all cleaning contractors.
Keep in mind that your cleaning staff can damage expensive carpeting easily, especially
oriental or designer rugs, if they get the carpets too wet or use too much shampoo. This will create a bad odor for a few days until the back of the carpeting completely dries out. To avoid problems such as this, always try to do a little research and a training demonstration for your cleaning staff before letting them clean any carpets or rugs.
Weekly or bi-weekly, you should do a complete check for hidden dirt and odor in every
building. If there is dirt, odor, or dust on a new construction site building, hospital, office, store, airport building, casino, bank, doctor’s office, or government building we are cleaners, our job is to remove this dirt and make sure that all the areas in the building are clean and smelling good.
Dirt and odor control is our job. Remove the dirt and odors and everyone will stay happy, I promise; and you will be well paid for doing it. No one wants dirt inside their buildings and you want to be highly paid to remove it for them.
Trash Removal
There is usually a trash compactor or dumpster in the basement, at the back of the
building’s loading docks, or at the rear of the building just for disposing of trash. Many property managers hire a trash removal company to bring a rented trash dumpster to the building site. The trash removal company will pick up trash from the dumpster once or twice a week and drop off a clean, empty dumpster. All trash removal areas should be kept extra clean from the ground up to keep rodents and insects away. On a daily or nightly cleaning contract, you should empty all of the trash cans at each desk, and replace trash can liners each night if needed. Always put the trash can back in the place where you found it. Check the inside and outside of the trash cans for dirt and coffee spills weekly. If the can is dirty, take it to the building cleaners water closet and wash both the inside and outside with warm soapy water.
Trash removal is very important and a bit more complicated today. Some building owners
may want you to take a few extra minutes to separate recyclable bottles, cans, newspapers, magazines, and books for their city or county recycling program. You may want to add that extra cost to your bid, because it can be time consuming. Remember, removing the trash and bags each night will keep rodents from being tempted or drawn to the inside of your clean building. Empty each and every trash can in the building to control odors, insects, and rodents. Never leave any of the full trash bags in the building cleaner closet overnight; this would be the same as giving rodents an invitation to dinner. If you miss emptying trash cans in an office a time or two, you will definitely get a phone call from the property manager. If you are short of staff on any particular night for whatever the reason, you must still always empty the trash cans in the building and clean the rest rooms, even if you cannot do anything else before your shift ends.
Now that you know how to get your building contractor or cleaning business started, let’s talk more about recruiting clients. Once you are ready to operate your business, you’ll need clientele. So, how do you find people who need your services? Well, when you are just starting out, one of the ways to start is to do lots of cold calling; it is a great way to recruit new clients. Cold calls are calls you make to people you don’t know and who have not asked you to call. Although cold calling is not always easy, you can make contact with many people simply by picking up the phone and telling them about your business. They may need your services or may know of someone else who does. The more people you can tell about your business, the better. Another approach is to fax your brochure or give a business card to lots of clients.
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Recruiting Clients
Cold Calling to Recruit Clients
One sure thing about cold calling potential clients is that there will be some obstacles to overcome. This is a natural thing, so try not to be discouraged by it. Be persistent without being obnoxious as you make your cold calls. Try to get one piece of helpful information from the person who usually answers the phones at the places you call. You may get about sixty seconds to talk when it comes to cold sales calls, so be prepared to deliver information about your business and get as much information as you can in this short period of time. As you make repeated calls to a company, you will get to know the person who is always answering the phones, and then you will get a little more time. It will be easier to get information from this person if you remember personal information about him or her. The most useful information you could get from a cold call is the name and direct phone number of the person who makes decisions about the kind of service contracts you want to bid on. You might want to ask for a construction or project manager if the site is still under construction or an officer in charge of contracts for a government building or complex to be discussed in more detail later. Before calling, always try to get a referral, the name of a person who is working with the decision maker, from someone who may know these top people on a personal or business level. A little piece of information is a better starting place than nothing. You must write down everything you learn about the person you need to be in contact with. This lead information and the right person may get you another job, even if you don’t get the one you are calling about. Most managers work together and know other property managers on a business and personal level. This means any lead could send you your next
opportunity, if a need for your service comes up and your contact mentions your name to
someone else. To make sure your cold calls lead to more contacts, you need to prepare carefully before you begin making your calls.
The initial words you will use should be rehearsed just a bit so you are prepared when the cold-call clock starts ticking. Typing up a short script is a good idea. You should plan your calls by gathering information about the person or the site and putting it on paper or file cards so you can call the person who answers the phone by name, mention relevant things about their site, and say everything you want to about your company. You can even set up your cold call system and store all the information on your computer. If you say you will call back for updates, make the follow up call on the date and at the time you said you would call back. This will help take some of the chill out of the second and third call. Doing cold calls is just another part of this business.
Again, it is not easy for most people, but it is another “must” if you want to fill your bank account with money each month.
If a contact cannot be reached, call back at a later date or time, and leave a clear
voicemail message if no one picks up the phone the second time. You always want to try to speak to a person, so you can gather specific information regarding the company’s building cleaning needs and the people in charge of deciding how to meet those needs. Sometimes, however, you can’t get through to a person. In that case, remember that a voicemail message can be very effective, especially after you have made a few attempts to reach someone. Give a lot of details in your message. You usually have more than 60 seconds with voicemail. A voicemail message will help give the person the idea that you are serious and that, after a few days, you will continue to call until you reach them. In some cases, voicemail messages will help more; they will warm up the client a little because your messages will have already given the person information about you, your business and what you can offer.
Always try to be relaxed and remain a business professional at all times. Make sure that you have a comprehensible message and an understandable speaking voice - not too slow, not too fast. Have your pen, paper, and calendar on hand so you are prepared to book appointments and keep good notes. Though you might be reading a cold call script, it’s imperative that you sound genuine. Keep accurate documentation of the numbers you have called, when you called, the people with whom you have spoken, and the information you received. Keep careful notes with personal, as well as business, information you learn during your cold calls. Include in your notes information you have about the properties managed by the companies you call. Also, make sure you keep a spreadsheet or file of the dates and times of future appointments.
Keeping good records will enable you to look back and remind yourself of the
conversation you had and anything personal you learned, like the person’s favorite sport, cars, jobs, kids, birthdays, business partners, jokes, etc. These little things are important if you can just let them flow into your conversation on a later call. Do not force them out, or it won’t sound natural. If you don’t keep good notes, it can be tough to remember someone and all of the person’s details when you call again. If you can say that you remember speaking with them and a little bit about what the conversation was about a few weeks later, they will be impressed. It shows that you are organized and personable; this counts for a lot in the business world. You should never forget a potential client although, every so often, if your notes are not fully together, it is bound to happen. Taking excellent notes can make forgetting less likely and will help you on your way with new cleaning contacts that can turn to contracts. Remember, you may have
information about a job from walking/driving by a site or reading an ad, but if you want someone to pick your bid out of the pile, it helps to have a good personal and business relationship with that person. These personal relationships will also help when you make put in lots of bids. One good cold call resource system you could start with is The Black’s Guide. It provides information about commercial property managers and office/industrial buildings of all types and size. More information about The Black’s Guide is in the Resource chapter.
Whether you are just starting your business or already have a medium-sized contracting
service company that you want to become larger, you need to make a lot of calls and send out a lot of information about you and your business. Always let the building owners, managers, project manager and officers in charge of construction, know what you do, that you have a good, fair pricing and bidding system, and that you are ready to work for them. You see, in business everyone wants to know in detail, what you can and will do for them. Always keep this in mind, and you will go far when you are in negotiations or talking business with a potential client. You must, for the moment, forget about yourself. You need to be sincere, truthful, and realistic about all of your soon-to-be customer’s needs and the abilities of your business. If you walk into your potential customer’s office with only your desires and needs in mind, the customer will see you as a business fake almost immediately, and will avoid doing business with you again. You must keep the business side of you real with good clean intentions, as you use your communication skills. Always be yourself. Note; advertising your business for a small fee, in most of the books, magazines, and publications that I talk about in this book with the other systems you use and research. It will pay off for your business, just as well as making cold calls.
Faxing Flyers and Brochures to Recruit Clients
When you have handed out flyers and business cards all around your town or tri-states,
you might decide to fax your introductory information out to companies further away. You might do this using the thousands of contact fax numbers you can get from resources like self research, The Blue Book, Black Guide and CDC publications. There are two approaches to faxing out your information. You can either fax out your messages yourself or you can have Professional
Company do it for you.
To do lots of faxing yourself, you should know that there are phone companies that have
plans with unlimited calling for around ninety dollars per month. If you sign up with one of these phone companies, you will be able to make unlimited phone calls and send unlimited faxes yourself. Another way to make it easier to send out a lot of faxes is to buy automatic phone number dialing software and hook a fax machine up to your computer. One good dialing program is Winfax Pro Message, but there are other good programs at your local office supply store also.
These programs make it easy to fax out information about your company to potential clients.
When you are away from your office, this system will continue to send out your flyers and brochures. Please note, however, that there are laws in some states about unsolicited faxing, so you have to check out these laws first. Be sure to study state laws before you start faxing thousands of flyers all over the country.
Faxing out large numbers of flyers can be very time consuming if you do not have a good
automatic fax system, and it can take a toll on your office equipment even if you do have a good automatic fax system. I found that one of the best ways to do large numbers of faxes is to use a fax service like Business Link, 800-929-1643Support Systems. Fax services will quickly fax about 10,000 flyers all over the country using a list of fax numbers you provide. Today, the cost is about $300 for every 10,000 letters or flyers. It takes Business Link only about three minutes to send out a full 10,000 faxes. Your work is done that easily! How much you fax out is up to you when you use a fax service. The cost will vary according to how many faxes you have sent out each time. Companies like Business Link can save you a lot of headaches, time, and money.
Ten thousand flyers or introduction letters faxed out in about three minutes will remind your old customers of your services and bring some new business from them. It will also bring in some new customers. In time, you will make your $300 back, plus a large profit from most large fax send-outs. One return call from a new customer could bring you thousands of dollars. Yes, it will take time to put a fax list together, but it is worth it. You can save yourself some time by hiring a local high school student to help put the list together. You’ll see the value of the faxes once the list of fax numbers is completed and you send out your first or second large fax list job.
One way to develop a fax list is to buy one from companies that sell them like, Power Business Leads (877-56LEADS). The problem with this approach is that you won’t know what you are
getting or how many other companies like yours are using the same list. It may take a little time, over the course of a couple of months, to develop your own fax list, but it’s worth it because businesspeople and companies will start calling you soon. Once they see your business flyer in their fax machine a few times, your phone will ring and keep ringing.
Always allow some time between faxes, about two months for each different 10,000 fax
number list. You don’t want to use your future business customers’ fax ink all up before they get a chance to use your service. Also, you don’t want to become a pain in the “fax” by over-faxing the same companies too often.
While you are waiting for the people you just faxed to call you, start building your next list of 10,000 new numbers and call it “part two faxing.” Then, start parts three…until you have a list of 60,000 or more fax numbers to work for you as you rotate them. You will fax your information to the companies at different times over the course of the year. For example, in January you might send out the first 10,000 faxes to one group of companies; in March you’ll send out the second 10,000; in May, the third 10,000; and so on until it is time to start over at the top of the new year. If you have six fax lists, you will send out a fax to one list every two months, or about 60,000 flyers per year. If a fax number changes or does not work, Business Link will not charge you for faxing to that number until you correct that number on the next fax-out job with the same list. Just for the record, you could fax out all 60,000 flyers at once.
Remember, though, that you would have to be ready to handle all the phone calls at one time, rather than a spread out over the year.
Clearly, I suggest using a fax service when faxing out a large number of flyers or
introduction letters to businesses you want as customers. In addition to freeing up your phones and computers, a fax service will save your equipment from wear and tear. Finally, they will know all laws concerning faxing in each state, since this is their area of expertise.
Always ask questions before you start something new like faxing. If you want to fax out
your own information from your own fax and computer system, you should have a toll-free
number or your office number on the bottom or top of the flyer sheet so that companies can call you to be removed from your fax list if they do not want any more faxes from you at this time.
Again, your company name and fax number must be across the top or bottom of any fax sent by your machine. When companies do not want your information faxed to them again and again, they can fax you back or call you to have their business and number removed from your list. This will keep everyone happy. Also once again, before you start faxing, you must check the laws in each state to which you will send a fax.
A newer way of sending out information is to use email. The same companies that sell
fax lists can also provide you with lists of companies’ emails, or you can develop your own email lists. One difficulty with email is that your email is likely to end up sometimes in the spam folder unless the company already knows about you.
By aggressively promoting your business, you will capitalize on the many properties that need to be cleaned. Again, you’re going to be surprised by just how much money you can make in the building contracting, repair, cleaning and maintenance industry. If you make good contacts with the property managers, project managers, building owners, or other potential clients who need your work, you will maximize your income by maximizing your opportunities for future work.
Every business needs to have procedures they follow to get the job done, done right, and done in a cost effective way. Standard Daily Procedures will help you get the job done right, come up with your bid prices, train your employees, and make sure you are making money on your contracts. So let’s see how Standard Daily procedures are set up and used.
11
Standard Daily Procedures
Standard Daily Procedures (or SDP) are key elements in a comprehensive business
program. They are the fundamental expectations you have of each employee on each job. You should have some of these procedures together when you start your building cleaning business, and use them when you bid. SDPs should be outlined in a step-by-step manner, explaining how various tasks or duties should be performed. Having an SDP setting out what you expect, from whom, and when, will help you set up bids and be sure you are covering all your costs. A bid should include labor, time, money and supplies needed for the job. Your SDP will help you calculate your costs for supplies, labor, and time needed to complete a job. The key is to keep things simple, up-to-date, and accurate. A new employee should be able to read the SDP and do an acceptable job with little guidance. A supervisor should also be able to make a decision about a bid and any cost with ease if you are not around to give your bid input.
One Standard Daily Procedure I use is that my night supervisor prepares for the next day of business at the end of each night shift. By setting up the cleaning carts and getting the van/truck stocked to perform jobs the following day, I save time and money and keep within the limits of the original bids. Your budget and their time are very important for the day workers. If they have to spend two hours setting up as well as making a long drive, you won’t make much profit because the crew is losing two hours setting up in the early morning hours, plus drive time.
Setting up the night before will save time and money and keep your costs within the amount you figured on when you made the bid. This type of preparation will also enable you to be prepared for any surprise visits from the property manager if he or she shows up, because you will look organized, and like your workers hit the ground running, instead of wasting time each day.
The best person to create an SDP is the one who is in charge of doing the daily tasks,
based on their experience and your bid amounts for the project. This requires a supervisor or an assistant supervisor to observe the task performed while writing down the key steps in the process and making sure that everything is being completed within the limits of your bid price. To test an SDP, each month see whether an employee can adequately perform the task simply by following it as it’s written in the SDP. For example, here is the SDP we have for cleaning an office: Empty all trash cans replace liners if needed, dust desk tops remove spills, polish furniture if needed, sweep floors, mop floors, buff floors if due, clean and polish drinking fountains, high and low dusting, clean all entrance door glass, clean rest rooms, vacuum and spot clean carpets. After all this cleaning is done, turn off lights, and lock office doors.” If, when the employee follows your SDP, the job is done well and within the time limit you used in your bid estimate, you have a good SDP which will be useful to new employees and to you when you start any new contract.
Your SDP may not work well the first time, but this is to be expected. To work along
with your bid price, the SDP development process may require several versions before being finalized. To avoid confusion on this SDP and all other documentation, put the date and page number at the bottom of each sheet (for example, “RV 7/7/09, 1 of 4 pages”). It is also a good idea to come up with a standard format that is used for all standard daily procedures in most of your cleaning and contracted buildings. Provide uniformity if possible, so that when you can take employees from one building to another, they will find it easy to understand, adjust and meet your expectations.
Once your SDPs are finalized, they should be posted in all employee assignment areas,
attached to schedules and/or cleaning carts, and posted in the appropriate work areas for easy reference (for example, in all cleaning stock closets). File the master copy in your “Building Cleaning Operations” manual or desk files. Be sure to update all of the copies when changes are made or related to other buildings.
Keep in mind that you are standardizing a procedure that will be followed by all
employees who perform the same task. This will allow you to make cost estimates that will yield a good profit on your bids/contracts. Once your SDP is finalized and perfected, it should be followed until you decide to improve it. Any change should be analyzed to be sure it will still work with your existing contracts and bids; you don’t want to add new work time to a standard procedure, that will make you lose money. It should also be approved by the working
supervisor/manager or an assistant supervisor who understands the working conditions, your bid price, and the type of profit you are trying to make each month. Of course, you want to make changes without compromising the quality of the cleaning service expected from you, your staff, and your customer.
In some cases, a job opportunity might require you and your crew to travel. If you will make plenty of money by doing the traveling, take the job. However, I would not recommend too much traveling when you first start your building cleaning business.
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Travel
Try to stay local with your cleaning business in the beginning. A three-state (“tri-state”) area is a good idea for starting out. I say a three-state maximum because you do not want to put too much of a strain on your new company. I would also suggest that you stay out of town as little as possible in the beginning, so you do not acquire too many travel costs such as gas, food, and hotel/lodging. When employees stay out of town, you will be required to pay for their lodging, some of their travel time, and a food and gas allowance. This would be all right for a one-time cleaning project that is paying you $12,500, for a 50,000 square foot building at twenty-four cents per square foot, for example. You could take a small crew of people, equipment, and supplies in the work van, complete the job in four or five days, and receive your payment for this cleaning service soon after you get back to your home office. You would also know that after seeing what a good, quick job you did, that company will use your cleaning service again. Since big
companies have jobs in many locations, the next job could be in your home area. If you decide to drive to this job on a daily basis, it can be stressful and costly, leaving you with very tired employees, reducing safety on the job and on the road. It also will make everyone’s day a lot longer.
If a job site for a one-time clean-up will only take four or five days, such as a new
construction final cleaning, and is more than a two-hour drive away, it’s safer, cheaper, and a lot easier just to stay in a hotel each night, or to subcontract the job out to a cleaning company that’s already located in this area. Remember, when you sub out a job, you still profit and still make the client contact during the next bidding process.
Out-of-town jobs can also be thought of as a way to find some new cleaning
opportunities. While you are on the road for an out-oftown job, talk to contractors on the job site, and others in and around town, to see what other building cleaning services are around. Find out what companies have a good reputation for cleaning. Contact building cleaning supervisors and other companies and ask them to mail or fax to your office some information regarding their cleaning company and past business contracts. Find out how their method of bidding differs from yours. Try to visit some other building cleaning companies’ offices and talk to the owners about setting up an agreement for subcontracting your building cleaning work in the area. You will also want to contact their cleaning suppliers so that you can order supplies without any delay when you are working in this town again. Give these companies your information and provide them with your reference list from jobs that you have bid on and completed in and near their town. If you are working on a construction site and your work day ends around 3:30 or 4:00 p.m., ask your work crew if they would like to make a few extra dollars. If they say “yes,” everyone should go back to the hotel, change out of their work clothes, and go out, door to door, passing out your cards and flyers to drum up more new business in this area. Ask the hotel manager if there is a local phone book you can take back to your office, so you can start doing cold calls and faxing when you get home. If you have done all this, you’ll have a system in place the next time you need to visit this town to start a new job or subcontract out a job.
Once you find some out-of-town companies interested in speaking with you about new
cleaning jobs, set up an appointment for a job site or office visit. They can also fax their bid information to you if you don’t have time to visit the new job before the bid is due. Present them with your bid and hope for the best. Remember to always keep plenty of bids going out, most of them local. It’s best to send out at least twenty-five bids each day (in other words, at least three to five hundred a month). This will keep you and your staff working, and it will also keep your name and business information out there, whether you win every bid and contract or not. When you are ready to submit bids for this town, complete your pre-made or office store purchased bid forms with the necessary information and start faxing or mailing your bids out. Once you start another out-of-town job in the same town, try to set up everyt