It is hard to believe that it is August already.  There are two good things about approaching this time of the year.  First, sales are always great when the kids start going back to school and second, holiday sales are right behind those.  There is no better time to increase your repeat client count, your overall gross sales numbers and add a couple of permanent full time cleaners to your staff.
In preparation for this hectic time of the year I have spent the past 30 days researching, writing and adapting topics to the residential cleaning arena to which cleaning staffs can relate.  The one thing that I am learning, or remembering, is how long it takes to prepare a 30 minute presentation.  From the 3rd to the 15th year of owning my residential cleaning company I had full staff meetings every other week.  I presented some major topic at each one of those meetings.  I sure wish I would have written them all out and kept them.  I KNOW this is the reason we had such low turnover in our cleaning staff during those years which, in turn, made all of our other numbers strong.  Our quality cancellation rate was extremely low, our professionalism in front of clients was extremely high, our referral rate was off the charts and the end result was a $2M/year company.  It all starts with the cleaners, the geese that lay your golden eggs.
There is one law that is always true in this world.  What you put into something or someone is directly correlated with what you get out of something or someone.  How much time are you putting into the career development of your cleaning staff?  These are the folks who lay your golden eggs.  Perhaps, however, the better question would be how much time do you have to put into the development of your cleaning staff?  It does take a lot of time.  I know a lot of us feel that we are spending a lot of time with our cleaners because we probably are.  We are spending hours in our office or in the field listening to them complain about their personal lives, their hardships, their excuses for not coming to work, the problems they are having with their partners or their clients, or just plain listening to them whine about anything they can think of to whine about.  This is not time spent developing your cleaning staff, however.  As a matter of fact, this time spent doesn't really accomplish anything.  How many times have you spent over an hour listening to one of your cleaners whining only to have them not show up for work the very next day? 
Statistics show that 67% of employees leave their jobs due to a lack of career development or boredom.  Not because their bosses don't seem to pay any attention to them or listen to their problems.  When all is said and done they are looking for career advancement just like we are.  They want to feel like they are learning just like we do.  Listening to them whine in your office does not accomplish this.  Good, solid continuing education does.  That is the reason that I have been writing for the past 30 days.  Short meetings on things like The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, which I have adapted to the cleaning arena by making it the 7 Habits of Highly Successful Cleaners, is what will make your cleaning staff feel like they are developing in their career and keep them from getting bored with their cleaning job.  It will also give your employees a professional polish that will truly help your company grow.  Your clients will be impressed with the level of professionalism of your cleaning staff.  It will allow you to empower your employees with things that you are having to handle now.  You will have less problems fall on your desk because your cleaners have handled them correctly in the first place.  It will reduce your turnover which is your largest single time, money and energy robber. 
At Rags to Riches we have, or are, developing all of the necessary tools to keep your cleaning staff trained, motivated, educated, professional and with you.  I truly wish I would have had the C.O.R.E. training DVD set and recorded educational/motivational webinars at my fingertips when I was running my company.  They are recorded so they are easy to use at any time.  Our unlimited access plan allows you to have your full staff at one meeting or have several small meetings.  If someone is absent they can watch it later.  There are a variety of topics and they will always be available.  As you hire new people they can go back and watch all of the seminars that your other people have already watched.  And what is best of all, they are in English and Spanish.  You can have two rooms going on at the same time and you know exactly what your people saw because they are exact duplicates, just in different languages.
Feeding the geese that lay your golden eggs is the most important thing that you do at your company.  Why not do what most Americans do and buy their food ready made?  Order our Unlimited Access Plan today and start feeding your geese nutritional food on a regular basis.  You'll be shocked at how many more eggs they will lay and how fewer geese will fly away.  

 

Plan for your Profit! With Maideasy Software, you can easy see your schedule one week to 13 weeks! When do you need work? What days are you over booked?  Take the headaches out of your business! Know you numbers with MaidEasy Software! FREE Offer and FREE Support/Training visit www.maideasysoftware.com for details.