Little People

I have a confession to make.

There is a movie I have watched 50 times and I cry each time I see it. It is called You Can’t Take It With You. In the movie a quirky old man teaches a powerful, wealthy industrialist what is important in life. This film was produced in the 1930’s so I don’t really mind giving it away but what comes out is the value of a man’s life can be measured through the relationships he has accumulated by the end.

I learned what is important early in my career and it is the people I meet. Some I sell to, some I buy from and some I manage and pay. Business owners value people who can and do buy from them. Smart business owners know their biggest asset never show up on balance sheets and are the people in their companies.

Especially in the Janitorial Industry, Only Wet Babies Like Change

The saying goes, "the only sure thing is death and taxes." Those that come up with profound proverbs are never questioned or doubted. Except by a few folks like me who do a lot of doubting. They missed an important one, which is, the only thing that will remain constant is the fact that things WILL change.

No one LIKES change except a wet baby. So with change comes tears. For many of us, the older we get, the more we cry about things changing. We get comfortable with our familiar routines, our abundance, and our knowledge of how things work. Then someone comes along and changes things.

Our beloved building services industry is full of old crybabies. They were (and many still are) fat and happy but then one day someone said they had to buy a fax machine and that was only the beginning. The floodgates broke open and then came a tsunami. Cell phones, email, websites, and the absolute WORST, computers on EVERY one’s desk?

How our Prehistoric Predecessors Learned to Bid and Estimate Janitorial Services

In prehistoric times, when janitors roamed the wilds, hunting and gathering clients and buildings, there was a method they used to bid and estimate new jobs.

These were very different days, long before cell phones, computers, high speed burnishers and internet connections. At night these savages did primitive dances with mops after commandeering office overhead radio systems. An unrelenting, primal beat of the Doors, Sly and The Family Stone and the Jefferson Airplane blared as they helped themselves to candy not meant for them, from receptionist’s desk top, glass containers which they enjoyed without remorse.

These were brutal and lawless days, eons before CIMS, the Cleaning Industry Management Standard, which codified how janitors were expected to behave and organize their tribes. The janitorial business was only rock and roll back then.

Owner Cloning, Dead Fish and Dead Companies

When my daughter first wanted a pet, I wanted a teachable moment on responsibility so we started with a gold fish. She fed it and despite doing what I thought was a good job; Goldie was floating lifeless in less than two weeks.

We went and bought a hamster and named him MC. We were set with a great cage; toys and everything MC Hamster would need, even played his theme song, “U Can’t Touch This” as he ran around his wheel. Again, she did a great job and MC Hamster lived several months.

There were tears as we buried him in the backyard during our family memorial service. During the eulogy, everyone agreed that MC Hamster was the best hamster that ever lived PLUS he was with us longer than Goldie. MC Hamster had a good life and now he and Goldie were together. Some animals and companies die young, some live longer and some grow old. It is what happens to the survivors that I want you to know about today.

Five Sure-Fire Cleaning Company Killers

1. Not marketing

Sitting in front of a keyboard on the web all day long is not marketing, it is sitting. Subcontracting from other janitorial companies or buying accounts from franchise companies makes you a janitor not a cleaning company owner.

Marketing your services with no money is hard. Whoever said you could open and start a cleaning company with no money, any more than you can open a restaurant or a gas station with no money, lied to you. You can market your services with no money to a point, but getting rich is highly doubtful and you have to work ten times harder.

If No Man is an Island, What is a Janitorial Service Owner All Alone in a Utility Closet?

Are you missing developing an important network that can help you grow your janitorial company?

I was at a pre-bid meeting for a giant account; and, as always, everyone was sitting or standing with eyes down, stone-cold silent, pretending to be busy with high level, secret corporate stuff on their legal pads (they were mostly doodling). No one said a word except to whisper in the ear of someone they had arrived with, wearing a matching golf shirt, from the same company.

Absolutely no eye contact, only stolen glances by the men in the room at the one drop-dead beautiful, runway-model female sales rep one company thought was the key to sales (they were wrong).

Checklist for Success in the Janitorial Business

You are being lied to! Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Home Business Success Magazine, and a bunch of business opportunity magazines have told you that you can be rich and famous in your own cleaning business. If you are reading this then you have read one or more of these articles.

There is the story of some smiling Mr. and Mrs. Average holding a broom, posing with one foot on a mop bucket who are now millionaires with a successful janitorial business. The story is true but then the article goes on to say that, you can do the same thing.

Here is the truth, you CAN, but you may not.