Hello again, it's been a tough two weeks. Customers have been finding it hard to pay their bills on time, which means our cash-flow is stuffed! Because we are not getting paid on time it is having a knock on effect. Took a good look at the finance situation again, not looking good. Decided to put one of our guys on a three day week as we cant afford to pay his wages, so I will go out and cover his work,. That way the money we get can go back into the company. Got myself a regular 3 days cleaning a large house in Surrey. Had to go for an interview, got the job. It was really weird! Haven't been for an interview in about 10 years. Lol! That will cover the money we owe the Inland Revenue for the NI. One headache out of the way. You have to do what you have to do. I am not going to let this company be another stat, that's for sure.Had to leave BNI though in order to do the cleaning, sad to go after nearly 5 years.
Have been implementing the stuff I learned from the Mastermind Group and It is paying off!! I made a decision to put my guy on a three day week and loads of work came in form the PPC campaign, now he is full up again. He now thinks I've completely lost my marbles and just raises his eyebrows at me. Because the weather has finally picked up, we have our old gardening customers coming back from last year so that will really help. Building up the business for large houses and sticking to my guns over the minimum of 4hrs is also paying off. We are taking on larger properties and this helps with petrol costs etc. Taken on a new girl as one of my regulars has a job interview on Monday. Nice of her to let me know though, as I now have a chance to replace her. Took some advice from the Glazer-Kennedey over advertising for staff. Didn't do the usual. Said I was looking for someone who liked to see things sparkle and had an adverse reaction to dust and mess. I need to train someone in advance of my staff member possibly leaving, if she doesn't, then I will have enough trained staff to build on the larger properties coming in. Being positive and persisting instead of giving up sure does work. We managed to find a lovely mature lady who is going to join us next week.
We are feeling better about the financial situation, but have to say I am soooo knackered! The people I met at the Mastermind group are all keeping in touch. The support is fanctastic. I have to say, I was a little nervous of spending so much money on the workshop, but it ahs need worth every penny and I will easily recoup the cost in a few months. I will now attend the regular meetings and continue to grow even more.
see you soon. Thanks for reading the blog
Saturday, 10 April 2010
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
When the Inland Revenue comes knocking.....
I learnt last week that business owners owe the inland revenue about 46 million pounds in unpaid revenue for National Insurance contributions and they are not happy about it. We are one of the companies, but it is good to know we are not alone! We are working hard to get up to date, but cash flow is particularly difficult to come by at the moment. I was advised to put DD's into place so cash flow, flows. When you are cleaning domestic properties, it is more difficult as clients tend to go on holiday etc and are not willing to set up DD's as it still goes out when they don't actually have a clean. I am working on some ideas to get some cash flow flowing. The Inland Revenue are not being very helpful, but we have offered a payment plan and hope that they can see the sense in agreeing to it. If not, who knows......... Tough times indeed.
I sent myself on a Mastermind Workshop for two days in Solihull. Fantastic, Brilliant, Amazing! if I have learnt one thing about being in business, it is to invest in yourself. Nigel Botteril who ran the group, agrees with me. I have lost me right had girlie for a couple of weeks as she had a collapsed lung and spent the week-end in hospital. It has been a testing time, but without the learning I gained regarding helping myself to de-stress and focus, I may have been pulling my hair out by now. I am about to learn all I can about Pay Per Click and Twitter so things can only keep getting better. I have decided to work on a more niche market targeting larger houses and high end properties. With my knowledge and being the cleaning experts on Radio 5 Live, I certainly have the knowledge and know-how to give the best service to my clients.
Work is still coming in steadily, due to I think, the marketing and exposure I have in place. I was featured in the Business news in Croydon last week for my Radio 5 Live 'Help' spot. You can listen in on a Thursday between 3:30 and 4 on the Richard Bacon Show. Things are looking up!! Another thing I learned is to become an expert in your field. On that note, I have also won an award from Constant Contact for my newsletter. Best contributor for 2009! Want help? log onto my website contacts page and send me a message http://www.kingswoodecocleaning.com/contact-us.php
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007lb08 - Richard Bacon link
speak soon bloggers!
I sent myself on a Mastermind Workshop for two days in Solihull. Fantastic, Brilliant, Amazing! if I have learnt one thing about being in business, it is to invest in yourself. Nigel Botteril who ran the group, agrees with me. I have lost me right had girlie for a couple of weeks as she had a collapsed lung and spent the week-end in hospital. It has been a testing time, but without the learning I gained regarding helping myself to de-stress and focus, I may have been pulling my hair out by now. I am about to learn all I can about Pay Per Click and Twitter so things can only keep getting better. I have decided to work on a more niche market targeting larger houses and high end properties. With my knowledge and being the cleaning experts on Radio 5 Live, I certainly have the knowledge and know-how to give the best service to my clients.
Work is still coming in steadily, due to I think, the marketing and exposure I have in place. I was featured in the Business news in Croydon last week for my Radio 5 Live 'Help' spot. You can listen in on a Thursday between 3:30 and 4 on the Richard Bacon Show. Things are looking up!! Another thing I learned is to become an expert in your field. On that note, I have also won an award from Constant Contact for my newsletter. Best contributor for 2009! Want help? log onto my website contacts page and send me a message http://www.kingswoodecocleaning.com/contact-us.php
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007lb08 - Richard Bacon link
speak soon bloggers!
Thursday, 4 March 2010
Do you want a Champagne service for Lemonade money?
Most of our customers do! Wouldn't the business world be a wonderful place without customers? Well, it would be really, really, easy to run that's for sure, because without them there would be no business! This was something I had to talk to the staff about today. Customer service is the key to the future. Customers do not want to be fobbed off with second rate services. Today's customers know what they want and have high demands. As a customer myself sometimes, I want good service. I have changed my garage several times over the years, because I thought I was not getting a good enough service. I want to be made to feel important and not just another number in their sales ledger book. I have had a chat with all the staff today regarding putting the customer first. Not easy to get them to understand, because they can't always see it through the customers eyes. If you go to a supermarket and pay full price for your goods, you expect to get good quality merchandise. In this world, you really do get what you pay for. Some customers want a champagne service for lemonade money, but that is what I mean by having high demands.
Been a tough week cash flow wise this week. Customers are not paying as quickly as they once were and added to that, two cars needed Mot's, one car needed a new fan belt and the vat and the NI was due. Still, we made it through. I am sending myself on a Mastermind workshop for two days with Niger Boterill from Best of... I do believe in investing in yourself as much as you can. You need to grow with your business and you can't know it all, you have to put yourself on a learning journey all the time. The End of tenancy has gone a little quiet so next months revenue will be down on this month. I am covering some jobs, so that the company receives a 100% profit. This will compensate for the expenses we have had regarding the vans etc. We did this last year to build a cash buffer when customer's were being a little slow and it worked well. Not what I want to be doing, but it is necessary at the moment.
Attended some good networking events over the past few days. Re-acquainting myself with old colleagues and making new connections. One thing I did want to tell you about was, my newsletter. I send it out every 6-8 weeks and have been doing this for the past 3 years. Last week we received an order from a customer who started receiving it 2 years ago! So it pays to keep sending things out. As all the marketing guys tell me, just because they don't buy now, doesn't mean they won't buy later. It would appear they are right!
See you again next week and thanks for reading.
x
www.kingsewoodecocleaning.com
Been a tough week cash flow wise this week. Customers are not paying as quickly as they once were and added to that, two cars needed Mot's, one car needed a new fan belt and the vat and the NI was due. Still, we made it through. I am sending myself on a Mastermind workshop for two days with Niger Boterill from Best of... I do believe in investing in yourself as much as you can. You need to grow with your business and you can't know it all, you have to put yourself on a learning journey all the time. The End of tenancy has gone a little quiet so next months revenue will be down on this month. I am covering some jobs, so that the company receives a 100% profit. This will compensate for the expenses we have had regarding the vans etc. We did this last year to build a cash buffer when customer's were being a little slow and it worked well. Not what I want to be doing, but it is necessary at the moment.
Attended some good networking events over the past few days. Re-acquainting myself with old colleagues and making new connections. One thing I did want to tell you about was, my newsletter. I send it out every 6-8 weeks and have been doing this for the past 3 years. Last week we received an order from a customer who started receiving it 2 years ago! So it pays to keep sending things out. As all the marketing guys tell me, just because they don't buy now, doesn't mean they won't buy later. It would appear they are right!
See you again next week and thanks for reading.
x
www.kingsewoodecocleaning.com
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Are men better at it then women?
Well, another interesting week in the life of a small business. After losing most of our domestic staff last week, we took on Keith to carry out some house-work for us as his day job is that of a house-husband. We asked our customers if they thought Keith had done a good job for them and they said he was charming and surprisingly effecient. So I guess men can do it as good as women! Because of losing the five staff in a matter of days we had to decide what to do about it toot sweet. We decided to carry out a costing exercise for our domestic cleaning. It turned out interestingly enough, that the domestic work we had for 4hrs + each week, made more profit than all the work for 3hrs or less put together!! So, now we will not take on any more domestic work for less than 4hrs per visit. Even more amazing is the commercial work which has gone through the roof. We didn't use the domestic staff for those jobs anyway, so we have saved money on salary, fuel and cleaning products. Fantastic!
As you know if you follow my blogs, I am learning marketing from Glazer Kennedy and Chris Cardell. One of the things they teach you is to become an expert in your chosen field in order to get known locally. I joined an 'Ask the Expert' site, which asks you to give expert help to anyone who emails the site. I had actually forgotten about it because the site went very quiet. Lol and behold, I had a phone call from BBC 5 Live to ask me to join their radio show as their expert on cleaning!! It goes to show, it does pay to get your name out there because you never know who might see you.
Things are definitely looking up! Our commercial work is coming along nicely and through hard work and persistence we are getting through this recession!!!
See you next week.
x
Annette
www.kingswoodeocleaning.com
As you know if you follow my blogs, I am learning marketing from Glazer Kennedy and Chris Cardell. One of the things they teach you is to become an expert in your chosen field in order to get known locally. I joined an 'Ask the Expert' site, which asks you to give expert help to anyone who emails the site. I had actually forgotten about it because the site went very quiet. Lol and behold, I had a phone call from BBC 5 Live to ask me to join their radio show as their expert on cleaning!! It goes to show, it does pay to get your name out there because you never know who might see you.
Things are definitely looking up! Our commercial work is coming along nicely and through hard work and persistence we are getting through this recession!!!
See you next week.
x
Annette
www.kingswoodeocleaning.com
Monday, 25 January 2010
Mass exedus of staff - good or bad thing?
Hi everyone,
Well it's been a good start to 2010 work-wise, and an absolute disaster employee wise! We had a fantastic week when we came back, although the 2nd week was quiet. Discovered we are running at a loss again. Took a look at our spending, our staffing costs and our general overheads. As it happened we lost all of our domestic cleaning staff in one week, so that sorted out some overheads! Decided not to get stressed about it. We cancelled all the domestic cleaning which was less than 4 hours per shift. Laid off one casual guy due to lack of additional work and because we discovered by doing a time-in-motion exercise that one guy could do the work of two with just a few tweaks, we saved some more on overheads. We also discovered that 5 of our 4hr + jobs were making more than 7 of our small jobs, so the small jobs are no more. I started interviewing immediately and found a house-husband who, as it turns out, is very good at house-work. We started him today (Monday) so we'll see how it goes. The networking is going well. Had three recommendations since Christmas. One for a letting agent, one for a private landlord who own a few properties and one for an office in Central London. All i need to do now is find some staff!!
Still doing my marketing using Glazer-Kennedy Insider Circle ideas, although it has been put on hold this week due to lack of staff. I am getting really good at Swipe and Deploy as taught my Bill Glazer. Sending out a direct mail shot to small business's who might need out services, with a free packet of biscuits inside. Because I hate doing followup calls, I have asked a virtual PA to do it for me. Now, my colleague felt that we should do it ourselves to save on costs, but we just don't feel comfortable doing it and so the followup would never be carried out and the work may never come in. I'm told Follow up is so important, it makes sense to ask someone who does it for a living to do it. I will let you know how it goes.
We have been offered our start up loan for the letting agency, but again it is on hold until I can sort out the staffing problem. Which is a pain as we have found a good location for a shop front which used to be a letting agent. Now you may think I'm mad, but local people and people getting the train in the morning know there is a letting agent there, so we already have potential clients.
Sent out a few quotes for office cleans. One seems quite positive so feeling optimistic. Have a feeling this will be a good year for us, even though we have a bad start staff wise. Maybe this is a godsend as it means I can cut back waste and 'dead wood' within the business. Reminds me of a song 'Always look on the bright side of life' !
see you next time
Annette
x
Well it's been a good start to 2010 work-wise, and an absolute disaster employee wise! We had a fantastic week when we came back, although the 2nd week was quiet. Discovered we are running at a loss again. Took a look at our spending, our staffing costs and our general overheads. As it happened we lost all of our domestic cleaning staff in one week, so that sorted out some overheads! Decided not to get stressed about it. We cancelled all the domestic cleaning which was less than 4 hours per shift. Laid off one casual guy due to lack of additional work and because we discovered by doing a time-in-motion exercise that one guy could do the work of two with just a few tweaks, we saved some more on overheads. We also discovered that 5 of our 4hr + jobs were making more than 7 of our small jobs, so the small jobs are no more. I started interviewing immediately and found a house-husband who, as it turns out, is very good at house-work. We started him today (Monday) so we'll see how it goes. The networking is going well. Had three recommendations since Christmas. One for a letting agent, one for a private landlord who own a few properties and one for an office in Central London. All i need to do now is find some staff!!
Still doing my marketing using Glazer-Kennedy Insider Circle ideas, although it has been put on hold this week due to lack of staff. I am getting really good at Swipe and Deploy as taught my Bill Glazer. Sending out a direct mail shot to small business's who might need out services, with a free packet of biscuits inside. Because I hate doing followup calls, I have asked a virtual PA to do it for me. Now, my colleague felt that we should do it ourselves to save on costs, but we just don't feel comfortable doing it and so the followup would never be carried out and the work may never come in. I'm told Follow up is so important, it makes sense to ask someone who does it for a living to do it. I will let you know how it goes.
We have been offered our start up loan for the letting agency, but again it is on hold until I can sort out the staffing problem. Which is a pain as we have found a good location for a shop front which used to be a letting agent. Now you may think I'm mad, but local people and people getting the train in the morning know there is a letting agent there, so we already have potential clients.
Sent out a few quotes for office cleans. One seems quite positive so feeling optimistic. Have a feeling this will be a good year for us, even though we have a bad start staff wise. Maybe this is a godsend as it means I can cut back waste and 'dead wood' within the business. Reminds me of a song 'Always look on the bright side of life' !
see you next time
Annette
x
Thursday, 27 August 2009
Why the Rich get Richer and the Poor get Poorer
During the last two weeks it has begun to get a little quiet again. My confidence has taken a bit of a dip. I had taken on the new guy and it is imperative that I find him work otherwise he may leave. It is also imperative that I keep my existing staff in work in case they decide to leave. You may remember I said I had been following a guy called Chris Cardell. Now I know it's no good just listening and reading what people have to say, you need to take action on what you have learned. So, I followed through and sent out a mail shot to my potential customers. We only sent 100 because I couldn't see the point in spending lots of money if the mailshot was worded wrong or potential customers were not interested right now. Well, I am pleased to say that yesterday (Wednesday 26th) we had our 1st enquiry as a direct result of our mailshot, for exactly the type of work we were looking for. I've also been networking heavily again, I've been at the events by 6:30am. Networking is very important. There are free ones out there, so you don't have to pay a fortune to attend. One in particular in South Croydon is held once a month and is only £8. If you are in that area it is at the Purley Downs Golf Club, from 7:30am til 9am. It is held every 3rd Thursday of the month. I have also written to my past customers, my present customers and more potential customers. We'll wait and see what happens. I am still updating the old website whilst focusing on a new one for the more commercial side. The survey I carried out using Constant Contact Survey (which was free for 30 days!) has shown me that price is key, but if we are the same price as our competitors, because we are Eco Friendly, we would be more likely to get the contract. It is important that you have an edge over your competitors if possible. If you haven't got one, go find one!
Have you ever heard of Tony Robbins? What a guy. I just found out the holy grail of why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It's all to do with conditioning the mind. I am a great believer in this. Here's how it works; If you believe you have the potential to do something you will take action. If you take action, you will see results. If you see results, you will believe even more in your potential so you take more action. The cycle begins. In the same way, if you don't believe in your potential, you will not take action, you will not see results and you will not believe, so your belief in your own potential will be knocked and you will take even less action, resulting in even worse results. That's why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I truly believed that within 5 years of running my business I would not be carrying out the cleaning, but working on my business in a managerial roll. That has come true. I also truly believed that after my 50th birthday I would be able to own a new car. That has also come true. I do have bad days when my belief in my own potential dips, but at the end of the day, I truly do believe that I will succeed. In my new business, I feel I have failed so far in the utility business, but I have not stopped believing that it will work. Today, for the first time, I have begun to condition myself to believe that I have the potential to make it work, and today I took real action. I had some real interest for the first time. I think because I believe in myself, other people believe in me. I will let you know how I get on over the coming weeks.
I also, today booked myself on a speakers course to improve my 60 second pitch. You have to invest in yourself too. I feel I need to learn a bit more about marketing. I looked up a course at the local college, £850.00! So I am also teaching myself marketing via the Internet. There is so much free stuff out there!
Read me next week!
x
Have you ever heard of Tony Robbins? What a guy. I just found out the holy grail of why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It's all to do with conditioning the mind. I am a great believer in this. Here's how it works; If you believe you have the potential to do something you will take action. If you take action, you will see results. If you see results, you will believe even more in your potential so you take more action. The cycle begins. In the same way, if you don't believe in your potential, you will not take action, you will not see results and you will not believe, so your belief in your own potential will be knocked and you will take even less action, resulting in even worse results. That's why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I truly believed that within 5 years of running my business I would not be carrying out the cleaning, but working on my business in a managerial roll. That has come true. I also truly believed that after my 50th birthday I would be able to own a new car. That has also come true. I do have bad days when my belief in my own potential dips, but at the end of the day, I truly do believe that I will succeed. In my new business, I feel I have failed so far in the utility business, but I have not stopped believing that it will work. Today, for the first time, I have begun to condition myself to believe that I have the potential to make it work, and today I took real action. I had some real interest for the first time. I think because I believe in myself, other people believe in me. I will let you know how I get on over the coming weeks.
I also, today booked myself on a speakers course to improve my 60 second pitch. You have to invest in yourself too. I feel I need to learn a bit more about marketing. I looked up a course at the local college, £850.00! So I am also teaching myself marketing via the Internet. There is so much free stuff out there!
Read me next week!
x
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Sometimes you have to let people go
Well it's been a tough week. I hate the part of being a business owner when you have to let a member of staff go. Trouble is, no matter how many chances you give, if they don't understand what it is you want from them, you will never help them to succeed and the company can suffer. You can't 'carry' anyone in this climate, they all need to contribute to the work they are doing, you can't do it for them. I must remember to have enough stock and not let it slip! I had to stay up till gone 12 on two nights last week to make sure the cloths were washed for the cleaners the next day. Found a great wesite and ordered loads more, so now I can get some sleep!!! Still working on the tender, guy from Croydon Council turned up and was very helpful. I think I understand it now. At least I know the questions to ask. Worked on a two day End of Tenancy, getting very stressed because I must work on the business not in it. Decided not to do any more cleaning for now. Started a new guy for on Monday for the heavier work and to train to do End of Tenancy cleans. It's really difficult when you know you have to let go, but you also know you are the only one that can do a perfect job. We have a fantastic reputation for this type of clean, i mustn't let anyone do them without it being their core work. I just don't feel confident in anyone at the moment. Inundated with work at the moment - got three more EOT cleans and two gardening jobs - fantastic!!! Grand opening of the willow project at the primary school finally hapened. The mayor was there to open it, even if the head did get my name wrong!! Envibe have now nominated us for another environmenatl award for the project. It's great to give something back. The project will be on-going. I hope they go with the meadow idea. Hopefully got a new customer for my Utility business. One more to go, then I can get paid. Whoop! Whoop! Had to cover a cleaning job on Saturday because the cleaner wasn't up to it and let me down, but I couldn't let the customer down and it was an EOT. Sunday worked with grand-daughter on a clean. it's good she learns that you have to earn your money, not run to mum and dad all the time. It's becoming a real family firm now. My son is joining us, so that makes 4. It makes you feel good, like the business will be looked after when you can't be there. Great networking this week. BNI, Envibe training,Cut to the Chase and Makro win a mini. Definately going to train a team of two to do the EOT cleans. I guess the more they do the better they will get.
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