New year resolution !

What's your new year resolution for your business if any ? And what's your plan to implement them ?

Haven't come up with one yet really, but I'll post here if I do.

How bout you, DP?

I'm seriously thinking to update my website and add some direct online scheduling to it, I definitely need a professional help in this, if anyone knows a good web design company that's good and reasonable in rates, I would appreciate their info.
I also want to improve in cleaning efficiency for my crew which to be honest not even close to my expectations, my expectation is not to my level ( I can clean 2000 sq ft / hour with a tech working together ) and when they work without me, their efficiency is only 1000 sq ft / hr or even less than that. My goal is to get close to 1500 sq ft / hr for 2 guys in the truck.

Sounds like a typical 'employee' problem. ;(

Sounds like too many employees.

I've found that if it takes 1 tech an hour to do the job, adding a second tech will cause the job time to double instead of decreasing it....too much conversation and goofing off.

I like to use a single tech working alongside me to prevent the slow down. Surprisingly, wearing some hearing protection with a built-in radio speeds things up by at least 30%. Even with me, that radio speeds me up. The key is that at least one person needs to be able to hear the machine as you clean.

I only have 1 full timer and 2 part timers, the great thing is I can trust them with my life and if I work with each and every one of them, their efficiency is good, part of it is because I'm a hybrid, I see the things that each of them excel and I let them do just that while I do something else, the problem is not necessarily goofing off, they just haven't been able to work wholly as a team and what I mean by that is acknowledging and utilizing ones strength and let the other guys do something else that they're better and faster at, I don't know if that makes sense or not.
For example, if I work with one of them that cleans carpets and upholstery as fast as I do, I let him do that while I talk to customer, give estimates, pre spray, make pre spray for the next job, write invoice up while pulling the hoses for the working tech, move furnitures, put tabs under furnitures, input the next job's address in the gps, call the next customer up, etc.
And when I work with another tech, the role is reversed because I'm faster in cleaning, I wish they can see that and determine who's best in doing what.
I have to say that I like working with each and every one of them, we're not just boss - employee, we're also close friends and I told them that when we work together there's no boss - employee relationship, there's only worker and co-worker, although there are lines not to be crossed like if customer is paying with checks, they usually ask me first if they can accept checks cause I don't take checks unless from a repeat customers that use us a couple of times.
I know it takes time to click, it's almost like marriage, you have to learn about your partner, what he / she is strong at and you let him / her handle that role. I'm just being impatient

I know it takes time to click, it's almost like marriage, you have to learn about your partner, what he / she is strong at and you let him / her handle that role. I'm just being impatient

You just described my marriage.....and you also just described why it didn't work.

The trick might be to create more rounded employees. Train them up so they are more equal in skill across the board instead of just going with their strengths.

Easier said than done, but if I had a guy that was a little slow, I would change that attribute instead of reassigning his/ her duties.

Then again, if I did go that route....I would probably have to fire me first for jabbering too long with the customer instead of just taking the money.

LOL, it's weird because I actually don't mind my tech talking to customers a little longer cause that creates a little more trusts and bonds, which is in my opinion is very important in creating that urge to find us next time they need their carpets cleaned, of course not everyone is chatty but the ones that do usually are the ones who call us back again.
That brings another question, what are your retaining customers rate ? mine is around 20 - 30 %, LA is such a metropolitan areas, there are a lot of move in and out and when they move out to other county or state, then that's the end of the line.

I've had to fire myself a few times, it's hell when you're a one man operation!

dp1 wrote:LOL, it's weird because I actually don't mind my tech talking to customers a little longer cause that creates a little more trusts and bonds, which is in my opinion is very important in creating that urge to find us next time they need their carpets cleaned, of course not everyone is chatty but the ones that do usually are the ones who call us back again.
That brings another question, what are your retaining customers rate ? mine is around 20 - 30 %, LA is such a metropolitan areas, there are a lot of move in and out and when they move out to other county or state, then that's the end of the line.

It wouldn't be fair for me to compare as I do mostly commercial and operate in several small towns, so my residential rate is actually extremely high. If I had to take a stab at it, I would say around 85% in fact. Again, my residential clients came looking for me instead of the other way around, so it is pretty different. In fact, I got more Christmas cards from my clients than they received from me this year (that reminds me, I better not make that a habit).

Being from this area, all my residential customers either know my family or at least know some of the same people as I interact with on a daily basis. So, the retention is naturally very high as there already exists a certain level of comfort. My retention rate in the large city on the outskirts of my area is probably less than 8% as I am normally a last minute fill-in when they can't find someone else in that city.

Well, there's a reason why I don't do new year's resolution, cause I never keep up with them, lol.
I still haven't done the online scheduling and what made it worse is I lost one of my main website ( yes I have multiple websites for SEO purposes ), and the company that took that in was a Chinese company that purposely bought expired domain and resell them, they want $ 400 for it and I'm not paying that since that particular website even though my main one does not help with my SEO at all, a friend of mine that's really good at this stuffs told me to just wait a few months and he thinks that the company will let it go if I didn't buy it cause it cost them money to retain the website for long period of time.
Anyway, what's your new year's resolution ?

My business resolutions are just 2:

1. Be as busy as humanly possible
2. Find a heated shop to lease by Sept.

That is admittedly very vague, but I don't want to go through another winter like this one. I feel like the Maytag repairman these days despite having a decent start to December.

I want to end September of 2017 with winter reserves and a heated shop....then I can focus on the finer touches to my business. Right now, it will just be a blunt trauma approach to business.

Covert my customer data base to a CRM from the old fashion excel

Getting more n more business. Motto for new year, TSG (Total Satisfaction Guaranteed)

Happy New Years everyone !
Here's to a great 2017
Hopefully I don't make too many mistakes on dating my checkbook the first few weeks of 2017

Off to a good start....I was able to get all my laundry done last night.

Happy New Year to my buds the Lounge. Wishing you all good health and a prosperous new year

1. Be nicer to my body. This will require learning to have more patience with the employee skill development process and hiring one more employee who is willing to be in a backfill status.

2. Buy and implement CRM stuff. Leaning towards SendJim and The Customer Factor.

3. Expand my area from Homer to Fairbanks (600 miles/970 kilometers). My two kids and my grandson are at Fairbanks, that is why I will implement some sort of a rotation in the spring. I jump started the process yesterday by doing a carpet job with some window cleaning and grout dust removal in an eye glass shop in a town 80 miles away.

4. More later!

My experience with SendJim was a negative one. They were not sending out all the cards, and they were VERY behind sending them out.

All of the thank you cards I sent, never were received after asking those clients a month later if they had gotten the cards.

The promo cards I sent to neighborhoods, were not sent timely at all.

I think House call and service monster, include cards in their service plans. You may be better off with them, though I have not used them.

Thanks for the review of SendJim. I will research House call and servicemonster.

House Call would be a better fit....Service Monster is more for multiple truck fleets. I liked House Call although business at the time didn't allow me to take advantage of it enough to continue it into my winter season.

I do plan on returning to HC in the Spring though.