When Hernando Cortes sailed across the Atlantic and landed in the New World, one of the first things he did was to burn his ships. There was no turning back. Either he and his men would succeed or they would die.

This is not how you should start-up your janitorial service business. For one, your fellow “sailors” are often your family, whom you shouldn’t put in a “sink or swim” situation. For two, Cortes had a wealthy investor (a king) and could afford to live without income for a while.

You may be asking, “So how should I start my janitorial service? What are some ways to venture into the “New World” without burning the ships?” Read on for some simple but wise ideas on boot-strapping your operations.

Start Small

Don’t quit your job today and then figure out how to start your business tomorrow. Millions of Americans have second jobs – why not let yours be your business? Since janitorial services are usually performed at night and on weekends anyway, it’s a great complement to a regular day job.

By beginning your business as a side job, you have the security (and income) of your current job and can afford to make the inevitable mistakes that come with beginning any business. It’s a lot easier to eat the costs of a job you underbid, knowing that you and your family will still be able to eat tomorrow.

Experience first, expertise later

“A ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” as the saying goes. One of the best ways you can finance your janitorial service is by not making costly mistakes. Experience is truly the best teacher, and so your first foray into the business should really be about gaining experience. You may even consider working for another janitorial service so you can learn from their mistakes and make money to put towards your business in the future.

Virtual office

Your work will be done on-site and you can meet your clients there, too. You don’t need to rent/lease a building in the beginning. Depending on your business model, you may never need a designated building.

With a cell phone (preferably a smart phone) and a free email address, you can put on the face of professional without having the overhead costs of the associated building, etc.

The right customer

Some of your potential customers may want a janitorial service that’s more established with pretty vans and employee uniforms, but most of them simply want great service that’s consistent and competitive. Don’t break yourself or your business changing to suit some customers. In any relationship, there has to be a good fit between both people. Business-to-business relationships are the same way.

Employees

Don’t worry about hiring other people until the business is paying for itself and you. When you absolutely must hire someone, hire them as contractors – not employees. This way, you can pay them as you need them and you’re not committed to a certain amount every week.

Securing Operating Equipment

One of the biggest costs that you can’t avoid is the equipment to do the work. Here are just a few ideas on creatively acquiring them without paying full price.

Rent from another janitorial service

Call other janitorial services outside of your market area (and maybe even your potential competitors). Ask them if they would be willing to rent you their cleaning equipment. From their perspective, if they have down time they’re losing money with idle equipment. Renting to you may be a way they can make easy income.

Rent from rental stores

You may be surprised what rental stores have available. Even though you’re paying more by renting, it may be the cheapest way to start working without having to invest a large amount of money up front. You can save your profits, then invest in equipment when you have enough.

Buy from another janitorial service

Your competitors may be profitable enough that they’re buying new equipment. Or maybe they’re so unsuccessful they’re going out of business. Either way, you may be able to scoop up some great deals on their used equipment and make it last long enough for you to purchase better equipment down the road.

Buy at auction, online or otherwise

If you can’t find anything in your area, eBay and other sites may be good places to find deals on janitorial supplies and equipment. There are also sites like Craigslist where you can post requests for equipment as well as contact equipment sellers in your local area – for free.

Equipment Storage

Since you’re bootstrapping, you don’t have an office/warehouse. If you’re not renting your equipment, you’ll need a place to store it. Here are a few alternatives.

Van

Although perhaps not the safest option, you can simply keep your equipment locked in your van or work trailer (or whatever you use to haul the equipment to and from the work sites). You should have insurance on your equipment anyway, but be double sure to have adequate insurance in this case.

Shed

Although storing your equipment in a good storage shed behind your home may not be your glamorous idea of a thriving small business, it is a good option. Again, make sure you have good insurance and a great padlock.

Low-cost storage unit

A good option may be a small storage unit. The rent is minimal compared to renting an office/warehouse. Pick one with surveillance and on-site security for extra peace of mind.

A Series of Small Successes

Rome wasn’t built in a day and no business was built overnight. By building upon each small success – another client, another project, a financial milestone – you can build a profitable business without having to take out tens of thousands of dollars in loans and investments. By self-financing, avoiding mistakes, and gradually transitioning into your business, you can achieve success without the heartaches and fears that accompany many new start-ups.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and your janitorial service business won’t be built overnight. However, that’s not to say you can’t make money when you start out.

Many entrepreneurs hear about small businesses not turning a profit for their first year or their first five years. Forget that. Use these tips to avoid the hurdles to profitability.

Time is Money

If a client contracts you to perform a cleaning job and you estimate it will take 3 hours, you base your proposal on 3 hours of work, right?

Wrong. Think about how the time you took to talk with the client, inspect the facility, go over the details, and prepare an estimate. A lot of time goes into the sales process – not to mention the time for bookkeeping, equipment repair, and everything else that goes with a business.

If you’re  just starting out, consider sub-contracting to another cleaning service. Although you’ll be paid less, you’re saving the time it takes to chase after new clients. Plus, you can start making money right away, which you can invest in your business.

Flexible Costs vs. Fixed Costs

“A penny saved is a penny earned,” right? Profitability has two sides – income and expenses. If all you focus on is the income, like getting new sales, you’re missing half of the equation. You have to focus on the expenses too if you want to achieve profitability.

At the start of your business, don’t lock yourself into contracts and monthly payments (“fixed costs”). Try to stay as flexible as possible. Since you’re new, you don’t really know how stable your sales and income will be. If you lease a building or take out a loan for equipment, you have to make those payments every month – whether you’ve made a sale or not.

Don’t do the work and wait until the end of the month to figure out whether you’re making money or not. Try to make each project pay for itself completely. That way, when business is slow, you get to keep the money you would have spent on monthly payments.

Projects vs. Contracts

What would you do if someone handed you a blank résumé and said, “I don’t have much experience, but hire me for a guaranteed 40 hours a week and I’ll work hard.”

You’re putting your prospects in the same situation when you ask them to sign a monthly contract with your brand-new cleaning business. You’re asking them to pay you every month, and you haven’t really proven what you can do.

Instead of trying to land monthly contracts, consider going after projects instead. Projects could include being a sub-contractor for other cleaning services (as mentioned above), but more likely it would be going after smaller special events. For example, if your local Chamber of Commerce is throwing a gala, perhaps you can bid on cleaning up after that event. It’s a lot easier to convince someone to use you once than it is for them to agree to a recurring contract.

Another type of event is a disaster or an emergency. Think of fires, commercial realtors who need a property cleaned and ready to show, or apartment managers who evict a renter and want to rent the unit again as soon as possible.

The possibilities with a janitorial cleaning service are almost unlimited – and so are the ways to make, and keep, profit.

All businesses look for ways in which to cut down on costs. This is understandable as anything that cuts into the company’s profits can undermine the operation of the business. However, many companies will attempt money saying strategies that do not serve them will in terms of actually saving money. On the contrary, some of the methods they employ might actually end up costing them money. For example, offices that need a good cleaning would save far more money hiring office cleaning companies Los Angeles as opposed to doing it themselves. Now, some may wonder if it is not the opposite that is true. After all, wouldn’t a cleaning service come with fees? Yes, this is true but the fees would be far less than if the company attempted to perform its cleaning duties itself. How can this be? Let’s take a brief look at a number of reasons why a professional cleaning service may be the wiser financial option.

If you wanted to clean your own office, you would need a number of cleaning supplies. These items would obviously have to be purchased from a store. This, in turn, is going to cost money. Now, someone will need to perform the actual office cleaning. Hiring a professional service eliminates this needless expense since they will have their own cleaning equipment that they regularly use for several jobs.

If you are not bringing in an outside service, you will certainly need to have someone in house do the work. That person would probably be a member of the administrative support staff. If such a person is performing cleaning duties, then he/she will not be performing their regular duties. That means any work they need to perform in their regular position will not be attended to. This further contributes to a drain on your resources.

Then, there is the potential problem of the individual not properly cleaning the facilities. This means the office will need to be cleaned a second time which would be a further added expense. And, once again, the office staff would be applying their skills to an area that may not be in their area of expertise.

And there is another serious problem that may rear its head if you do not utilize the services of a professional office cleaning companies Los Angeles based services. There will be the potential for the office interior to be damaged. Case in point, if an inexperienced person cleans a carpet with the wrong solution, the carpet may end up being ruined. This would necessitate the obvious expense of having to replace the entire carpet. And, yes, the costs associated with saving money doing your own in-house office cleaning will continue to needlessly rise. Again, it would have been much better to hire a professional company since they will not be prone to making such errors.

The bottom line is that the costs associated with hiring professional office cleaning companies Los Angeles based services will yield far greater savings than going at the project yourself. This is why such professional services are in such demand. They truly know how to deliver on their promises.

For more information call 877-881-9523

or visit us at http://www.nationalcleaningassociation.com

The headlines continue to broadcast the worst economic news in a lifetime, with devastating unemployment figures, record foreclosures and dwindling opportunities. And yet, an elite group of entrepreneurs in the Commercial Cleaning and Janitorial business are making money hand over fist.

Sure, the janitorial business consist of cleaning up someone else’s mess but you will get the last laugh knowing you’re pulling down six figures cleaning toilets.

My name is Sakeenah Redmond and my family and I have been in the janitorial industry for more than a generation. I remember keeping my Mother company while she cleaned offices at night, while she and my Dad-he was a firefighter-worked to save enough to buy their first house.

Eventually they not only had their own cleaning franchise, but they sold cleaning franchises to hundreds of other entrepreneurs as well.

“My family and I have made millions over the years with great success in this business and now I am going to spill the beans and share all of our family secrets.”

The secrets I learned over the last two decades looking over my parents’ shoulder at the businesses they started, built and sold have helped me to achieve incredible success in the commercial cleaning and janitorial industry. So much success, in fact, that we started the National Cleaning Association to help others make their dreams come true.

join-now

Demand is just as high today as it was when I first got started. Clearly, people have money to spend on cleaning & janitorial services… so how about building a better business to capitalize what people want, now.

Is There Really That Much Income And Lifestyle
Wrapped Up Inside Owning A Successful
Janitorial And Cleaning Business… Absolutely!!

Americans will spend nearly $100 billion with local and national providers this year, and you deserve your slice of that fortune. There are a lot of pitfalls along the way, however, from marketing woes, employee issues, administrative hurdles and sometimes just getting in the door to see a client, so I’ve put together a team to help you dodge the potholes along the way and shorten your path to success.

“You can go into business for yourself, but we’re there to make
sure you’re never in business by yourself.”

The National Cleaning Association offers you the opportunity to build a successful business in any economy, to have the job security you deserve with the flexibility and freedom of self-employment while offering a service people must have.
Membership in the NCA includes:

* Low cost startup secrets so you don’t waste precious capital during startup

* Lost cost financing, so you can grow your business efficiently

* Insider strategies for demanding the highest possible service fees

* Secrets to attracting the big contracts

* How to structure your business so you never have accounts receivable problems

* How to find, hire and retain the best employees

* Tips to generate cash right away so you’re profitable quickly

And my personal secrets for dominating the competition!

Think of membership in the NCA not as just another business association, but like having your own personal business coach, executive advisor and mentor all in one! You can tap into my 20 years’ experience in the industry and learn from all the mistakes I made!

join-now
Here are what a few of our members have to say:
“With your help I made over $100k my first year and $170k my second year…just one lesson from you helped me get accounts without having to buy them or pay a management and royalty fee…I’m positioned to build my business faster and easier.”
Jamil Kareem, Lemon Dropps Janitorial

“The beauty of your association is you have a proven system that works with all of the resources an entrepreneur needs to succeed…without having to pay franchise fees.”
Adel Mikhail, Mikhails Cleaning

“I never thought I’d get the kind of support and connections for networking and growing the business that NCA has provided. I feel like I have an older brother in the business who I can tap whenever I need advice or suggestions. I can’t imagine doing business without NCA.”
Guillermo Flores, Americlean California,

“I hesitated to commit to the membership until I realized that the leads alone were worth the price of admission…just one client pays for the cost of membership for several years and I’m on my way to having several BIG clients, thanks to your help.”
Jose Jimenez, Apple Janitorial

Membership in the NCA also includes:

* Downloadable of forms and templates to manage your business

* FREE Janitorial Leads

* Webinars and Teleseminars so you can learn what is working for other cleaning professionals

* Bidding software and calculators so your bid is always accurate and professional

* Janitorial Management Web Base Program so you can access client information from anywhere

* NCA Online Classroom Learn the industry you ‘re in with free online janitorial courses

* Classified Ads so you can buy, sell or trade whatever you need

* Subscription to The Cleaning Buzz an industry specific Newsletter

* Members Only Directory so you can list your company in our national directory

* Huge Savings on Janitorial General Liability Insurance

* NCA Government Certification Page Get easy access to obtaining Government Minority Owned or Small Business Certifications

* Government Bid Opportunity Email Alerts Letting you when there is a Janitorial RFP in your area

* Discussion forums so you can swap ideas with other entrepreneurs and get advice from industry experts

* Article submission, blog posting and internet marketing assistance

* $200 off on Your Green Clean Certification

* Discounts on training and audio videos

But That’s Just The Tip Of The Iceberg Because You Also Get NCA BiddingPro Software Absolutely FREE!

The NCA BiddingPro system is included when you sign up for our membership program ($995 Value)

You will never have to guess cleaning times and monthly prices again. This software comes ready to use and does all the hard work for you. In 4 Easy Steps You Get Instant Price Recommendations and a Professional Ready 2 Send Bid Proposal with Detailed Itemized Cleaning Specifications For Any Cleaning Job You’re Bidding On.

With that…here’s a glimpse into how this program will take the guess work out of bidding

Step 1 Bidding Details

Here you will input the company’s information

Step 2 Area Measurement

Select each room description that applies to the account you are bidding on and input the following

* Square Footage/Length and Width
* Type of Floor Surface
* Difficulty Level of Cleaning for That Area

Step 3 Price Generator

This section is where the software will automatically calculate the monthly price based on the information you added in the previous steps, taking in account general expenses and industy price guidelines. You can choose to use the recommended price or you can customize the worksheet to fit your company. As you can see below, I choose to customize the worksheet by making changes to the Production Rate from 3000 sq ft per hour to 3500 sq ft per hour which gave a new price of $1250.18.

Step 4 Bid Proposal/Reports

Select your Bid Proposal/Reports for print

Your Professional Bid Proposal

Click here for a sample proposal

Along with our customized NCA BiddingPro system you get a Client/Employee Management system that will help you:

* Manage Clients, Prospects and Past Bids
* Upload Client/Employee Files
* Manage Employees
* Generate Work Orders
* And much more….

And spend less time on administrative tasks so you can spend more time doing what you love!

It doesn’t matter whether you’re just now starting your business, still in the planning phase, or an old pro in the industry, the shortcuts and insider techniques you’ll learn from NCA would take you a lifetime to put together on your own.

Forgotten tactic

Online marketing is one of the forgotten tactics that house cleaning business fail to comprehend, and consequently, fail to integrate in their own marketing and advertising strategies. This is a fatal mistake that your company has probably committed as well and which is probably costing your firm profit. By utilizing internet marketing, you are essentially opening the market place for your product. The result? You get more customers.

Article marketing

Ask any online marketing expert the most important element in internet marketing, and the result can only be one – web content. The internet was primarily established as a way for information to be exchanged at great distances with cost efficiency and speed. Until today, the most useful function behind the internet is information exchange. Through article marketing, you are providing your potential clients with information about your field of expertise – such as the house cleaning industry – which in turn will allow you to make contacts with people who will likely use your services in the future. Keep in mind that house cleaning is a hardy industry that will be utilized by people for as long as the law of thermodynamics applies – that all things eventually experience entropy, or disintegrate. Because you can count on houses going from clean to dirty, you can rest assured that each contact made on the World Wide Web is an investment in the future.

Business web pages

Still haven’t got your business established in the internet through a web page? This can now be considered a crime when the internet now offers web pages at low costs and great design options. In fact, there are many online sites that offer web pages for free. With just a click of a button, you can start typing in your own URL and placing your services and product catalogue on the internet. This means that you are essentially opening up your business to the entire scope which the internet can reach. If you think about it, in the United States this means that you essentially open the possibility that each household connected to the internet – and frankly, who isn’t – can contact you

There are many ways to avail of the internet for promoting any business. Among the many industries today, the house cleaning cannot be left behind. Look for cheap and accessible solutions to your online marketing needs, and apply them. After, all you have nothing to lose but bad profit.

“Put Your Marketing On Autopilot & Spend Your
Time With Prospects Who Want You to Bid
on their Business”

So You Can Earn More Money In Less Time

NCA has established relationships with some of the leading business to business (B2B) appointment setting firms so you can spend your time with qualified, interested prospects who are ready to hire your company!

Whether you’re expanding to a new territory or just growing your janitorial business, our professional lead generation service will allow you to spend your time doing what only you can do-explaining to interested prospects the value you deliver and why they should switch to your Cleaning Service firm today!

These prospects are contacted by our professional telemarketers using a script we’ve tested and refined over thousands of calls. (Of course, you can write your own or customize ours).

You’re never charged for any cancelled or ‘no show’ appointments!

Here’s a sample call log you’ll receive every day:

See how our sample log looks, Click Here

Imagine…a few weeks from now your schedule is booked solid with prospects begging for you to come and help them transition to a new janitorial service provider. Your biggest problem will be deciding how much you want to work!

Leverage our relationships for more profits in less time!

Call NCA today at 877.881.9523.

In cleaning business, there are two major segments, the individual consumers and commercial organizations. The consumer service group comprises of the following services. Supply of residential maid services, carpet, window, and general house cleaning services, and other infrequent miscellaneous services such as lawn mowing, garden maintenance, bush cutting, etc. The commercial and industrial arena cleaning services are totally different. These are generally termed as janitorial services. Starting a successful janitorial service will require either direct experience in the janitorial service industry or thorough knowledge of the types of services that will be expected from a janitorial cleaning business company. The initial investment in this segment will also be much higher than the investment required for consumer segment.

If you wish to run a profitable cleaning business in the commercial segment, then you should understand that this business can be operated either from the home or from a commercial location, depending on the number of clients that you wish to have. However, the working hours can be quite tough, because most of the commercial organizations will require the cleaning of their premises only after office hours. Hence, your work might start after 5-00 pm and last until the early hours. You and your team of workers should be prepared physically and mentally for this kind of working hours.

Many commercial organizations will require variety of services like carpet, floor, window, and staircases cleaning, cleaning of the furniture, cleaning of the kitchen and/or dining area, if any, including removal of residual garbage, removal of general office garbage and even regular stocking of the cleaning materials that will be required for that particular business. Certain special industries like hotels, restaurants, and hospitals might need their bed linen, table clothes and even the clothes of their customers to be cleaned on a regular basis. As such, you should first decide which niche segment of the commercial janitor service will suit your particular talents, resources and investment budget.

Another major precaution that you should take if you want to start a cleaning business is the selection of the staff. Whether you employ men or maids, thorough checking of their background is highly important, since several burglaries and thefts had been reported due to the unfaithful employees in the cleaning business industry. Trust is the most important criterion in this business. You will also be required to insure them properly so that any untoward incident in the working site does not result in a substantial loss to you.

Further, you will need to buy the necessary latest cleaning equipment, cleaning materials, and other items involved in cleaning business and ensure that you always have adequate stock to meet the requirements of your clients. Starting with a few clients and building up the business slowly is the best way to develop a successful cleaning business.

For more information go to contact@nationalcleaningassociation.com