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Are Your Cleaning Company Workers Employees or Subcontractors? Many small cleaning companies use sub-contractors to help them get the work done. But if you improperly classify a worker as an independent contractor when the IRS views them as an employee you could be liable for back taxes, penalties and interest! This article goes over some of the things you should watch for before subcontracting any of your cleaning jobs. Are Your Cleaning Customers Motivated by Quality or Price? You don't have to be running your own cleaning business for very long to find out that customers are different when it comes to what they expect out of a cleaning service. There are those customers who want the best, no matter what the cost. And then there are those who are more concerned with price. Checklist For Starting Your Janitorial Cleaning Business So you've decided you're ready to take the plunge and start your own janitorial cleaning business. You can succeed and have a profitable cleaning business if you take the time to plan out your business strategy before signing that first client. Communicating with Your Residential Cleaning Clients is Key As a residential cleaning contractor, you not only need to provide a good service, but you also need frequent communication with your client to ensure that both parties understand their responsibilities and that there are no misunderstandings. Develop a Stone Floor Care Program for Your Cleaning Business Office buildings have many types of flooring and growing in popularity are stone floors. Stone floors give buildings a classic and upscale image. Popular choices in flooring these days are natural surfaces including marble, slate, granite, and terrazzo. Learning the tricks of stone floor care can lead to extra income and profit for your cleaning company. Do You Have a Generation Gap at Your Cleaning Company? In today's workforce there is a new phenomenon happening - there are four distinct generations that are out there working together. What does this mean for your cleaning company? Each generation is unique, which means they bring different attitudes and opinions to their job. This affects you in everything from recruiting to solving conflicts to motivating your cleaning company employees. Do You Have What it Takes to Start Your Own Cleaning Business? Are you thinking about starting your own cleaning business? Running your own business offers many rewards and gives you the freedom of being your own boss. You can also achieve great personal satisfaction from starting with a just few cleaning clients and building a successful and thriving business. However, not everyone is cut out for the time and money commitment that it takes to run a cleaning Do You Need an Automated Timekeeping System for your Cleaning Business? Small cleaning businesses usually have their employees track time on a paper timesheet. But as your cleaning business grows, deciphering data and adding up hours from numerous time sheets can take time away from other profit-making activities as you burn up your time doing payroll. This article shows the benefits of automating your timekeeping system. Does Your Cleaning Business Have a Mission Statement? Why does your cleaning business need a mission statement? A mission statement is an important tool that will capture the spirit of your business and clarifies the goals and objectives of your cleaning company. In just a sentence or two, a mission statement will let your customers know why they should hire your cleaning business to take care of their buildings. Dusting For Health One of the biggest complaints building owners have with their cleaning services is poor dusting. Inadequate dusting can be one of the factors leading to poor indoor air quality. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lists poor indoor air quality as the fourth largest environmental threat to our country. This article offers tips for dusting for heath. Finance Your Cleaning Business by Bootstrapping New cleaning businesses tend to have few financial resources, so many rely on a technique called bootstrapping -- learning to do more with less. This article has 12 techniques that have helped cleaning businesses grow and and become successful. Finding Sales Leads For Your Cleaning Business To grow your cleaning business you need to expand your circle and gain new customers. Where do you look for potential clients? The following are practical ideas to find qualified leads. Five Dirt Cheap Ways to Increase Sales in Your Cleaning Business Whenever a person is starting a cleaning business or looking to grow their business certain questions usually come up. How can I do it inexpensively? What are the most effective methods? Since most janitorial work is done after hours this leaves daytime hours to work on your sales and sales techniques. Here are some proven methods to help you grow your business. Floor Stripper and Floor Finish Basics If you'd like to offer floor care services for resilient tile in your cleaning business, you need to know some of the terminology in order to understand how the chemicals work. It's also important to know the differences between floor strippers and floor finishes. Get Your Cleaning Business off to a Good Start by Avoiding These Common Mistakes As you get ready to start your own cleaning business there are literally hundreds of things you have to do - from buying supplies to figuring out your accounting system to finding customers. Your first year in business is full of excitement, but can also bring about a steep learning curve... Grow Your Cleaning Business By Creating a Referral Machine One of the fastest ways to grow your cleaning business is to get referrals from your current customers. There may be times when a customer will pass your company's name along without any prompting from you. However, to really get your clients to work for you, it's important to encourage referrals. Grow Your Cleaning Business with Strategic Alliances Developing strategic alliances is a smart way to help grow your cleaning business. Forming an alliance with other businesses will help you get more referrals and will benefit your customers by having a source they can turn to when they need services that your cleaning company does not provide. Health Care Facilities: A Profitable Niche for Your Cleaning Business A growing area that offers plenty of opportunity and potential profit for building service contractors is cleaning health care facilities. Becoming known as a medical facility cleaning specialist can open many doors and lead to higher profits. How Much Should I Charge For My Commercial Cleaning Services? You've bought all your cleaning supplies and equipment, told everyone you know that you have started a cleaning business and now you are ready to start bidding on jobs and getting down to work. After meeting with potential clients you might be thinking that your next step is just getting down to work. But before you actually start work you need to know how much to charge for your cleaning services How to Avoid Wintertime Slips and Falls In many parts of the country, winter brings with it wet and icy conditions. This is dangerous not only for driving, but also for walking! Thousands of injuries occur from people slipping and falling because of ice and snow. Reducing injuries is possible when your employees take a little extra time and taking a few precautions to avoid slips and falls. How to be a True Professional in Your Cleaning Business With the large number of cleaning businesses out there, how do you get your company to stand out? Being a professional in all aspects of your cleaning business will go a long way towards showing your customers and potential customers that you are serious about doing the best job that you can do How to Be An Effective Team Leader in Your Cleaning Business Whether your cleaning business has 2 employees or 20, it is important that your staff works together as a team. Working together as a team helps to create a more positive workforce, is valuable for sharing ideas and energy for problem solving, and provides more bodies to share the work and responsibilities. How to Clean Grout in Floors Restroom cleanliness is one of the most common complaints cleaning companies receive. When cleaning restrooms, keep in mind that they should not only look clean, but that they should feel and smell clean. An important part in maintaining a high level of cleanliness is making sure the floor grout is clean. How to Clean Marble Floors An area that causes some cleaning contractors to scratch their heads, is the best way to clean marble floors. Asking janitorial supply houses or stores that sell marble flooring will almost always lead to different answers. This article explains the right way to clean and protect marble floors. How to Create a Name for Your Cleaning Business Before you open the doors of your cleaning business you not only need equipment and supplies, you need a name for your business. This article offers creative tips on naming your cleaning business. How to Create a Procedures Manual For Your Cleaning Company You may have started your cleaning company part time and never felt you needed to have written documentation on how to do your job. With many different tasks pulling you in a thousand directions, writing down procedures has most likely never been a priority. But what happens if you get sick, injured or even if you just want to take some much needed time off from your cleaning business? How to Create an Advertisement to Promote Your Cleaning Business Even if you don't think of yourself as a marketing guru, advertising can help get your cleaning company noticed by potential customers. Finding the right niche for your cleaning company will help you to direct your advertising dollars to that area and be the most effective way of getting clients to call and requesting your cleaning services. How to Create Job Descriptions for Your Cleaning Business As your cleaning business grows, one of the first things you will need to do is hire employees. But before you put that ad in the paper or start interviewing prospective cleaning employees, you should have a written job description that specifies the duties of the position. How to Decide What to Pay Your Cleaning Employees As your cleaning business grows, one of the first things you will have to do is hire employees. Of course, this means that you must decide on how much you are going to pay before you start interviewing and hiring new cleaning staff. How to Evaluate and Care for Hard Wood Floors Hardwood floors can create a feeling of warmth and elegance in a home or business. However, hardwood floors can also be a nightmare for your cleaning company to keep looking good. Knowing what to do and when to do it will help you to keep hardwood floors in prime condition. How to Handle Customer Complaints in Your Cleaning Business No matter how large or how small your cleaning business is, there is going to come a time when you answer the phone and find a customer on the other end who has a complaint. How you handle that complaint can have either a positive or negative impact on your business. How to Hire Your First Cleaning Employee Is it time to hire your first employee for your cleaning business? This article gives tips on how to prepare yourself and your business for that first new employee. How to Improve Cash Flow in Your Cleaning Business Do you have trouble getting paid on time in your cleaning business? This article shows how you can increase your cash flow by getting paid quicker. How to Market your Cleaning Services on the World Wide Web Did you know that there are millions of people searching the internet every day for products and services? With that many people out there searching, no business should be without a website. Being on the world wide web is one thing, but how to you get potential customers to your website? How to Raise the Prices You Charge to Your Cleaning Customers Are you finding that the prices you charge your cleaning customers are not high enough to cover your costs and make a profit? It's never an easy decision, but it might be time to raise the price of your cleaning services. So how do you raise your prices and not lose customers? How to Retain Janitorial Workers Due to the nature of the cleaning business it can be hard to keep good employees. Your good employees may be lured away by competitors, leave for a "regular" 8 to 5 job, or leave to take a job in another field that pays more. So how do you keep your good employees? This article shares some tips on how to keep your good employees working at your cleaning company. How to Sell Your Cleaning Services With a Marketing Kit Even though a brochure is a convenient marketing piece and might be a good way to first approach new cleaning clients, a complete marketing kit is a much better way to let your prospective clients know who you are, what you do and what you have to offer. How to Squeeze More Profit and Cash Flow Out of Your Cleaning Business When an entrepreneur takes the plunge and starts his or her own cleaning company, the first concern is how to get clients. Once up and running, the day-to-day tasks take over and the goal of owning a business - making a profit - is sometimes lost. But your cleaning business cannot survive and grow unless there is more money coming in than going out. How to Start a Cleaning Business on a Shoestring Budget No matter where you live, there is always a need for cleaning services. After all, life is messy! By taking the right steps at the beginning, you can start your cleaning business with very low up-front costs, and, unlike many small businesses, you can actually clear a profit in your first year of operation! How to Write a Press Release to Promote Your Cleaning Business A press release is a great way to create publicity for your cleaning business. Don't miss out on this free form of publicity! With a little time and effort you can be turning out press releases that can generate interest in your cleaning business. Increase Profits by Bundling Your Cleaning Services Packaging your cleaning services and products together can be a powerful marketing technique that allows you to sell more, and at the same time gives your customers added value. Increase Your Profits by Switching to Daytime Cleaning Traditionally, janitorial staffs clean buildings after business hours. But some businesses are realizing a substantial cost savings by allowing cleaning staff to work during daytime hours. This article shows the benefits of daytime cleaning. Low or No Cost Ways to Market Your Cleaning Business It doesn't matter what a fantastic service your cleaning business provides if no one knows that you exist. If you are clever and motivated there are numerous ways to promote your business that don't have to cost a bundle. Here are just a few. Making the Most of Your Time When Cleaning Homes There is really no wrong way for you to clean a home. But as with any business, time in your cleaning business is valuable. The more cleaning jobs you can fit into a day, the more potential profit you earn. If you can complete the basics faster, then you have more time to offer specialized services or to move on to cleaning the next home. Networking for Cleaning Companies: How to Plan Ahead Networking is a great way to market your cleaning business, and in order to do it effectively, you need to plan ahead so you know what you want to accomplish at each event. You also need to grow and nurture your network to keep it fresh! Networking Tips for Cleaning Companies Many people cringe at the thought of having to "network" to gain business for their cleaning company. But networking is one of the best ways to meet people and build relationships, and as you know, building relationships is the cornerstone of building a successful cleaning business. This article offers tips for effective networking for your cleaning business. New Generation of Carpet Care -- Encapsulation Carpet is no doubt a common floor covering in most of the buildings that your company cleans. However, if not properly taken care of carpet can be almost impossible to keep clean and can give a negative impression of the cleaning staff. This article explains encapsulation carpet cleaning and why it's so important. Preparing Your Cleaning Business for a Disaster You spend years building up a successful cleaning business. And, unfortunately, in just a matter of minutes it can be wiped out by a disaster - fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and chemical spills are just a few of the things that can wipe out your business in a matter of minutes. How you prepare ahead of time can determine if your business succeeds or fails after a disaster happens. Professional Carpet Cleaning Methods Besides general cleaning, having their carpets professionally cleaned is one of the services your cleaning customers will probably ask for most often. There are four primary cleaning methods that you should know about: absorbent compound method; bonnet cleaning method; hot water extraction method; and dry foam cleaning method. [1] [2]	Publish for Free Sign Up For Free Learn More Authors and Writers Submit Articles Submission Guidelines Link to Us Member Login Publishers Article RSS Feeds Link to Us Contact Us Article Aids U Publish Store Article Directories Word Count Utility

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