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
Thursday, 4 March 2010
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.
Saturday, 11 July 2009
End of week 1
Hi everyone, I ws going to write every day, but things are too hectic, so I am going to write every week instead. So here goes; Week 1;
Monday up at 5:30. Today was a challange feeling ok though - 2 driving staff members on holiday, one from cleaning and one from gardening. Thankfully most of the staff have now had their holidays - not looking forward to my co director having her holiday, but I'll manage. Got to bed about 11pm. Appraisal given to one of the staff, it went very well. Staff member feels valued. Tuesday was a bit mad, wished the cleaner that drives wasn't on holiday begining to feel the pressure, of trying to run a business and drive the girls about, but I have my Homeopath pills to take so I should be fine. Staff member who had the Appraisal is happier today, more positive? Peninsula came for our check up. We passed, doing all we should. See him in another 9 months. Another late night. Got to bed about 12pm Wednesday up at 5:30 to go to BNI. Covered for two jobs, good opportunity to see if the staff are looking after the contracts. Customers seem happy - so all is well. All these early mornings and late nights are getting to me, feeling tired today. Thursday - up at 6am have an End of Tenancy clean to do today. only three of us available. Hate working in the business, need to be working on the business. Not able to phone who I want to cause always bloody driving!!! Important client wants carpets cleaned on Friday and our main cleaner is on holiday. Will have to re-organise the jobs for Friday. Still need to go through the tender docs, Trying not to get stressed about it. It's not easy to get part-time staff, they want regular hours. Clean went ok, need to do carpets tomorrow to complete job. Went to bed at 11:30pm Friday - Hooray, a lay in til 7am - dropped cleaner off. Bloody carpet machine has decided to play up, spent 2 hours trying to get the thing to work! Wouldn't mind, but it is serviced twice a year. Finished late because of the carpet cleaner. Chatted to a guy over the phone this evening about working as and when, seems promising. New guy who started two weeks ago still hasn't sorted out his driving liscense. What do I do, catch 22 situation - good worker, reliable but can't drive the vans. Such a pain. Hopefully new guy starting on Monday who does drive. Need to think about a light-weight staff member, can't afford to carry anyone in this economic climate. Had two chances already - need to have that appraisal, see where we go from here. Late night again. oh well. Saturday up at 6am, need to go cut some willow for our willow project we are doing for a primary school, grand opening on Tuesday, so must be finished today - the lady where we store our equipment has decided that she doesn't want us in her garage after all! Now have to find some more storage that is close by - not easy to do. Good news though, a girl I was talking to about tender docs has sent me an email to say that Croydon Council are offering 4 hours of free consultation on how to put together tender docs, how cool is that! All booked for next Friday. Going to spend the week-end reading the tender docs. No I'm not, I now have 4 cleaing jobs to do, cause the gardening run over time due to the extra carpet cleaning and they have to finish it Saturday. Lightweight not got enought oomph according to my guy. Now I need to cover the cleaning. There goes Sunday!
See you all next week.
Monday up at 5:30. Today was a challange feeling ok though - 2 driving staff members on holiday, one from cleaning and one from gardening. Thankfully most of the staff have now had their holidays - not looking forward to my co director having her holiday, but I'll manage. Got to bed about 11pm. Appraisal given to one of the staff, it went very well. Staff member feels valued. Tuesday was a bit mad, wished the cleaner that drives wasn't on holiday begining to feel the pressure, of trying to run a business and drive the girls about, but I have my Homeopath pills to take so I should be fine. Staff member who had the Appraisal is happier today, more positive? Peninsula came for our check up. We passed, doing all we should. See him in another 9 months. Another late night. Got to bed about 12pm Wednesday up at 5:30 to go to BNI. Covered for two jobs, good opportunity to see if the staff are looking after the contracts. Customers seem happy - so all is well. All these early mornings and late nights are getting to me, feeling tired today. Thursday - up at 6am have an End of Tenancy clean to do today. only three of us available. Hate working in the business, need to be working on the business. Not able to phone who I want to cause always bloody driving!!! Important client wants carpets cleaned on Friday and our main cleaner is on holiday. Will have to re-organise the jobs for Friday. Still need to go through the tender docs, Trying not to get stressed about it. It's not easy to get part-time staff, they want regular hours. Clean went ok, need to do carpets tomorrow to complete job. Went to bed at 11:30pm Friday - Hooray, a lay in til 7am - dropped cleaner off. Bloody carpet machine has decided to play up, spent 2 hours trying to get the thing to work! Wouldn't mind, but it is serviced twice a year. Finished late because of the carpet cleaner. Chatted to a guy over the phone this evening about working as and when, seems promising. New guy who started two weeks ago still hasn't sorted out his driving liscense. What do I do, catch 22 situation - good worker, reliable but can't drive the vans. Such a pain. Hopefully new guy starting on Monday who does drive. Need to think about a light-weight staff member, can't afford to carry anyone in this economic climate. Had two chances already - need to have that appraisal, see where we go from here. Late night again. oh well. Saturday up at 6am, need to go cut some willow for our willow project we are doing for a primary school, grand opening on Tuesday, so must be finished today - the lady where we store our equipment has decided that she doesn't want us in her garage after all! Now have to find some more storage that is close by - not easy to do. Good news though, a girl I was talking to about tender docs has sent me an email to say that Croydon Council are offering 4 hours of free consultation on how to put together tender docs, how cool is that! All booked for next Friday. Going to spend the week-end reading the tender docs. No I'm not, I now have 4 cleaing jobs to do, cause the gardening run over time due to the extra carpet cleaning and they have to finish it Saturday. Lightweight not got enought oomph according to my guy. Now I need to cover the cleaning. There goes Sunday!
See you all next week.
Monday, 6 July 2009
Diary of running a small business
Day one; Got up at 5:30am as the cleaners need to collect keys etc on a Monday and one was starting at 6:30am. Two more arrived at 7:30am to collect keys for the gardening job and now it's pouring with rain. Lucky I supply rain suits to keep them dry! 7:45am compose 'to do list' for the day so I don't waste any time faffing around. 8:30am on the road to collect more keys for a job, also meet cleaner from bus to give her cleaning equipment. She doesn't drive so I have to deliver the cleaning things as we can't leave them on the premisis. 9:30am carrying out a small cleaning job because one of the staff is on holiday. Couldn't get a replacement, very furstrating. Meet client for an End of Tenancy job, collect keys as he want to go ahead. Go back to office. 2:30pm - go over tender docs with co director. 5:00pm have a meeting with staff member for an appraisal and to discuss salary. Just been told that the cleaner has forgotton the keys for tomorrows job and she starts at 7am. 6:30pm grab some food that my lovely husband has cooked. 7:00pm take keys to cleaner for tomorrow. 8:00pm type testimonial for business collegue who has made a huge difference to my life. 8:30 go through emails and answer what I can. 9pm log into webinar broadcast for my Utility business. 9:30pm go through the diary for tomorrow's work. 10:oopm, do my blog.
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