I’m Stacey from A Janitor’s Story here to give you 2 tips if you’re struggling to find your ideal cleaning customers just like I did.

Here’s what I want you to do.

#1. Ask yourself if the customers you’re pursuing profitable?  And #2.  Do they offer your business growth potential?

So, let’s talk about #1, the profitable equation. 

You might be surprised to find out how little you’re actually profiting from each cleaning job.

I want you to add all of your total monthly income.  Then calculate your total monthly labor cost with employer taxes, insurance, workers comp and any other fees along with all cleaning material and supplies and your mark-up costs which would include liability insurance, business taxes and transportation, licensing, advertising costs, education and any and all other business-related costs.

Once you’ve summed up your monthly expenses, subtract it from your income. 

Now, do you have 25% to 30% left over? That would be your profit.  

Every cleaning job should break down and leave you 25– 30% left over.  If not, something has to change with your pricing, your expense tracking, or the customers you’re attracting.

Now relax.  If you’re just starting your cleaning business, true enough, a lot of your profits will be reinvested back into your business.  But, if you’ve been cleaning for a while, your profit margin should get to about 25 -30%.  And 35% is even better!

Because what’s the point of being a business owner and never seeing a PROFIT from all of your hard work and effort.

There’s no point.

Let me add to this point because I am aware that in some parts of the world a 25-30% profit margin may cause you to charge rates outside of your market.

However, I still say that it’s important to keep an eye on your profit margin even breaking down your percentages per job because numbers don’t lie.

Simply stated, the best way to keep track of your profit margin is to develop your very own unique system.  

You’ll want YOUR unique system that is a perfect fit for you and that will give you the right results every time.

The second fact to keep mindful of your ideal cleaning customer is the growth potential for your business. 

When I say growth potential, I’m speaking in 2 different capacities.  The first is, how likely would your new customer purchase additional cleaning services from you.  You can easily find this out during the initial walk through by jotting down any deep or detail cleaning tasks outside of their basic cleaning package that you’re proposing. 

Just write down sort of an a la cart deep cleaning list with prices.  You’ll know soon enough if your new customer will ever purchase additional cleanings from you. 

Providing extra cleaning is the easiest way to make fast additional money with your business.

Another growth potential is when you get referrals from your current customers. 

Now this possibility may take a little time to find out, but it never hurts to leave a few referral cards at the right time of your business relationship.

So, to quickly recap, you’ll always want ask yourself 2 questions about each new cleaning customer.  Is the customer profitable and do they offer growth potential for my business?

I hope that helps you on your journey to attract the ideal cleaning customer for your business.  And again, I’m Stacey from A Janitor’s Story here to help you create your story.