August Focus: Domestic Cleaning Business

Questions and Exercises

The following questions and exercises are good to do ahead of time so that you can get a better idea of the business that you are going into:

What attitudes would be good to develop within yourself to help you make your business profitable and why should you go to the trouble of doing this?

What is the best system to use when first learning and pricing the jobs? An hourly rate or a job rate?

What other important step in preparation must you do each week?

How much time should you set aside each week for planning and sorting out your finances?

What percentage of your income should you set aside for the running costs of your business?

How could you reduce the running costs of your business?

How could you increase the profit of your business?

At what times do you need to make sure you collect the payment up-front from your client?

What must you always remember to do if you book a job where you will be there for more than one day?

If you have never been in business for yourself before and you have difficulty charging the right price for your services, what could you do to help overcome this?

In this business you are working in another person’s home on their territory, not yours. What could you do to make sure that you are paid the right amount for your services? (the answer to this question has to do with how you communicate to your client)

Why is assertiveness such an important skill to have?

How is the best way to handle a difficult situation?

Exercises

1. When you go to your client’s home to confirm your over-the-phone estimate, practice not being moved or phased by their reaction to your quote to do their cleaning.
2. In the early stages of your business, and even throughout a well established business, keep practicing your quoting skills by going to have a look at jobs that clients have asked you to quote on. Give what you may think are rates that you feel uncomfortable quoting, just to expand your comfort zone. If you look at a job and see that it would take about 8 hours to do, then quote the client for 9 hours. Push up against firstly, your own discomfort, and then the reaction of the client to your rates.
3. When you can see that the client has reacted negatively to your estimate, practice not being moved by their reaction. Go on to speak of the benefits to the client of using your service. Speak of the level of quality that you will provide. Show references from other clients (you should always have a folder with references from other satisfied clients that you can show to your prospective new client), and talk of the things that you will do to produce the best result for your client.
4. Do not be afraid to let the booking go if you can see that the client is only concerned about the price, not the quality. When this happens, give the client your card and say ‘please feel free to call me if you do not get the results that you are after from the person you choose to do this work.’ Practice maintaining an air of ‘I can give you the results you would like, but I don’t need you to be my customer’. This will give the client the room they need to make a decision that comes from them, not a feeling of obligation instilled in them by you. You don’t need to manipulate people with negative emotion.
5. If you are going to develop these skills then you will need to make sure that the level of service that you give is of a very high standard. You cannot charge a high price without giving an equally high service. You should still be studying how to separate your services, what jobs fall into what category, and how to do the work so that you produce the best result. Read each chapter on how to do the work on a regular basis. Refer to the training manual while you are at a booking if you cannot remember how to clean a particular surface.

 

You can read in next article about: Building your Roster

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Free From the Gilded Cage is the education arm of the Loving Heart Foundation Australia where we teach the basics of self-employment and basic budgeting skills. This is so that women can learn the skills needed to manage their own lives without feeling trapped in a relationship with a man who is beating them up. With these skills they can easily leave him.

Update: The first novel in our series of seven written to raise funds for those whom we assist is now published. It is the courageous story of a young teen growing up in a home filled with domestic violence, and how she manoeuvres her way through such a difficult situation. Click here if you’d like to know more about this novel.

Click here if you’d like to be taken to the site where you can purchase this novel.