I have noticed a lot of interest recently by residential cleaning companies to seek more commercial opportunities. I have been in the industry for nearly 2 decades and have cleaned both the entire time. I know residential and I know commercial. I also stay connected with the top influencers in both residential and commercial cleaning. This gives me a unique voice to speak about what I see as the best opportunity that house cleaners have in commercial cleaning. In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, I dove into this topic in a way that is easy for the residential cleaner to receive. Plus, I believe that every house cleaner will get excited when they hear that there is a small niche in commercial cleaning that they can uniquely dominate!​Are you struggling with earning enough as a solo cleaner and you don’t want to hire any time soon? There is a solution. You can become an Optimized Solo Cleaner?! This is a business owner that knows their numbers, runs their business ultra efficiently, and is constantly earning more while working less as a solo. They have peace and freedom in their life. I have achieved this in 2 solo cleaning companies in 2 different states. It’s how I help our industry. The Solo Elite Membership is the only system for you to become the Optimized Solo Cleaning Specialist and not deal with the drama of employees! Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

Colette is my personal accountant and she closes out a 3-part interview series we did on the Smart Cleaning Tribe. Colette gets into the nitty gritty of what a valuable accountant can do for you.  First of all, she dives into business budgeting and how the business owner and accountant partner to help the business grow and plan for the unexpected. I took Colette's advice from the last episode "Hire Professionals on Day One" I hired an accountant in my second year when we had no money. I purchased insurance on day one. I found an attorney to work with in year two. However, I never had an accountant that does as much as Colette does for us. Beyond business budgeting, Colette explained what tax planning looks like. This is a huge value add your accountant can add for you. She shared some 2022 tax updates and how they may impact each of us at a high level to demonstrate how vital it is for us to have the right tax professional. Make sure to listen to Colette's checklist of what questions we should be asking our accountant when tax planning. Lastly, Colette gives us a checklist to us, the cleaners, on what we need to do on our end to help our accountant help us.

In part two of this 3-part interview with my accountant Colette on the Smart Cleaning Tribe, she dives deeper into the role of the accountant. In one question, she explains the benefits of hiring an all-in-one bookkeeper and accountant to help the business with tax planning and prep way before tax day. In another question, Colette surprised us all. "When should we hire an accountant?" Colette said that she is a big believer in hiring insurance, tax, and legal professionals in your business on Day One. Yes, it will cost you in the beginning. But the cost of fixing bad books or hiring a legal team after the fact or not having insurance coverage and an event happens is WAY more expensive. She is an advocate therefore of hiring these 3 professionals on Day One. Colette answers an interesting question about state versus federal tax laws. Plus, I share how Colette personally bills me for services. I think it's brilliant as I can budget accounting all year at the same price. It's a win for the cleaning business owner. From her side, she has reliable recurring income. That's a big win for her. I highly recommend an accountant that bills on a monthly retainer. As mentioned in episode 1, feel free to reach out to Colette with questions or to hire her for accounting services. You can find her at CMBA Solutions.

I asked my personal accountant Colette Melott (CMA, EA) to join the Smart Cleaning Tribe for an Expert Call to help cleaning company owners understand their numbers and who to hire in their specific case. Colette starts this interview with the accounting basics. Bookkeepers helps you track transactions with your money coming in and your money coming out. In most cases, a bookkeeper does not help you apply what those numbers mean to anything. They are putting your puzzle together, but they're not telling you what the picture on the puzzle is. There are not too many certifications for bookkeepers. However a Quickbooks Pro Advisor is a great designation to find especially if your business utilizes Quickbooks. These certified bookkeepers are proficient enough to adapt your business numbers appropriately and legally to Quickbooks.Accountants puts it all together for you. Bookkeeping is a task of accounting, but they don't stop there. They take those numbers and apply meaning to them to help you make business and tax decisions. There are several designations of accounting professionals.General Accounting - This is an accountant with a Bachelor's Degree in accounting that operates UNDER a CPA or CMA licence. For example, Colette used to work in two corporate positions where the company held the certified accounting license and Colette worked under it. This is exactly how I operated as an engineer. GE held the Professional Engineer's license and I was a general engineer under this certification.Certified Public Accountant (CPA) - This designation is granted at the state level. The accountant must pass a high-level exam to obtain their CPA license. Plus, they must maintain this high-level each year. There is a high standard. At the corporate level, they are qualified to take the numbers a publicly traded company provides and certify them to the public. They are on the company's external team. However, most CPAs operate out of smaller offices and work with small private companies. Certified Management Accountant (CMA) - This is an international accounting designation. Therefore, their training must keep them familiar with domestic and international accounting standards. At the corporate level, they are qualified to be the comptroller or CFO to help the company compile the numbers to present to the public. They are on the company's internal team. The CMA must also pass a high-level initial and annual exam process to obtain and keep their license. There is a high standard.Enrolled Agent (EA) - The IRS has 3-part tax proficiency exam and certification process to enroll accountants in the IRS code. This allows them to prepare tax returns The Enrolled Agent is one of 3 designations that can legally represent you on an IRS audit. The other two designations that can do this for you are the CPA and the tax attorney.Tax Attorneys are the only ones who can practice law. They help if you need representation in tax court. This is a high level professional that you need when you're in trouble! Therefore, study this episode and hire the right professional so you never NEED this pro!That's part one of my interview with my accountant Colette. These are accounting designations I wised I knew 20 years ago. I hope that Colette helped you understand the landscape of accounting professionals. Would you like to connect with my accountant? You can find her at CMBA Solutions.

I thought the previous episode “Audit to Optimize” was the final installment in the Numbers Matter Series until I wrapped up a Solo Elite Membership Call on July 2nd, 2024. On this call, I had the opportunity to teach Sunny how to apply everything in the Numbers Matter Series to complete her ISO Model Scorecard. I took a clip from this call and decided to share it with you, so I hope you enjoy it. Keep this in mind. I was sharing my screen, so Sunny and the other Solo Elite members were watching me in real time change Sunny’s business on paper to the business that Sunny defined as freedom for her family. It was so much fun. There may be points on this audio where you get confused. Hang in there and listen for the takeaways and signs of peace from Sunny as we optimize.This is the end of the Numbers Matter Series. My hope is that you reach this point and are excited about the possibilities for you and your future. I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

I hope you’ve been paying attention and taking lots of notes during this series on “Why Numbers Matter”. In my experience, I have observed that most people do not know their numbers. These same people spend too much money to run their business. This means they are not profitable. In this episode, I walk you through doing an audit of your profit & loss statement so you understand how important this accounting form is to your business. Then I explain the 3 areas of Optimizing and how to AUDIT your solo business in each area. Here’s the 3 areas.Lower your Expenses: We use the Profit & Loss to audit this area of optimizing.Increase your Prices: We use marketing and sales tracking and metrics to audit this area of optimizing.Decrease your Cleaning Time: We use time tracking to audit this area of your optimizing. The solo cleaner effective in zero of these areas is a frustrated solo that wants to quit. The solo effective in 1 area is frustrated and wants to quit. The solo effective in 2 areas is a happy solo. The solo effective in all 3 is the Optimized Solo that loves their business!I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

I have a few stories to tell you and I won't take much of your time because your time is worth a lot! The first one is about a little boy who desperately wanted time with his Daddy. The second is about a Daddy who desperately wanted time with his little boy. This second story lead to the creation of a metric I've used in my business for a decade. It's called the Work Day Value (WDV). What are you earning for a day away from your family? Or what are you earning per hour working away from your family nights and weekends as a side hustle. It's okay to make $25 - $30 per hour as a beginner with a plan to grow. But if your still there after a year, you're losing time that you'll never get back. What is your work day value? What is your time worth because you are trading it for time with your little boy. Some of you will feel that question more than others.The third story happened when I was pumping gas at Wawa. There was a problem at the pump and one of the workers came out to help a customer. At the end of the exchange, the employee said to the customer. "Sorry it took too long to get to you. The customer. It's okay. Hey I'm getting paid." The customer was on company time and had an hourly mindset. It doesn't matter how long it takes to wait at the gas station because he's getting paid by the hour. This man was in his sixties and had a lifetime of job mentality. There's nothing wrong with this at all. But it's limiting and scarce. Here's what I mean. As he stands around doing nothing at the pump for his $30, $40, or $100 per hour, he's fully satisfied. What if he thought differently? What if he valued his hour at $500 or $5,000? There are plenty of people that make that kind of money. He would no longer be satisfied at the level of income he's earning in one hour now. If he was getting paid by the job he'd be very unsettled because he realized he be wasting time. He'd want the Wawa employee to get him filled up and out of there faster. If he was getting $250 to get a job done, he'd rather have it done in 1 hour versus 10. Standing at that gas pump would drive him crazy. The mindset is totally different.How much do you value your time? How much is your day worth? I don't want to ever leave my family and exchange it for something that is not satisfactory for me. Some food for thought. This works for your compensation for your team and how you charge your customers. It applies to what you might do outside of cleaning. There's so many things you can offer others for other income. Don't ever settle and say you're getting paid as you're standing around doing nothing! Go make a difference and go add value to others and you'll get paid in direct proportion of the value that you serve other people. This was always the hardest part for me. I asked myself this question. How much is my family worth today? I didn't want to bring home peanuts when they were worth gold bars!Would you like more information on CBF and the potential of growing your residential cleaning business beyond 7 figures? Check out my interview with the CBF Founder, entitled "A Buffalo Charges the Storm with Debbie Sardone". Debbie is offering free consultations to listeners of this show through the Smart Cleaning School Resources Page to see if CBF could be the right solution for you.

J. Paul Getty was the wealthiest person in the world for 3 decades from the 1950's to the 1970's! His list of accomplishments are mind-blowing. At the end of his life, it's estimated that his net worth would be worth $27 billion is today's dollars.  He was very wealthy. I heard this quote when I was a new business owner in the Amway business in 2002 and it has stuck with me for 20 years. “I'd rather have 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of my own effort.” - J. Paul Getty At the time I heard this, I was an engineer working full time and earning $50,000 per year off 100% of my own effort. I saw Amway business owners with teams of 100+ people earned 1-4% off the production of each team member and earning $500,000 per year. This quote hit me right between the eyes. However, I went another route as a solo cleaning specialist after my days as an engineer and multi-level marketer. I decided it was best for me to optimize what I could produce. In other words, how much could I make in how little time could I produce off 100% of my own effort? In my first solo cleaning business, the results were strong. I earned $55,000 and $70,000 per year profit off 2 days cleaning per week in each business respectively. Both provided a decent engineer level lifestyle so I could enjoy time with my family. However, it would never create freedom and lifestyle money. It would never create time, money, and location freedom. This is what I desired.I'm in a different position now where I am growing a cleaning business and I'm learning a lot about myself. This is an episode for the solo cleaner who is thinking about scaling and has fear or would never scale and has arrogance about it like I used to. Let's break down some numbers. The average cleaning technician can create $50,000 of annual revenue for a cleaning company. If you're a solo, that's $50,000 for you. Applying J. Paul Getty's advice, the numbers are totally different. A cleaning team of 100 people would produce $5M in revenue. If you only earned the 1% that Getty quoted, you'd earn $50,000 per year without having to clean.  But the reality is much better. A $5M company ought to pay out 15% to the owner. This is $750,000 per year income for the owner and they don't have to clean.  Let's play a game of Would You Rather.Would you rather work solo and optimize your business on 100% of your effort  working 2-3 days per week for $75,000 per year income? Or would you rather build a company and team to $5 million revenue, lead, and earn $750,000 per year income working on your business to lead your team? In the first example, you have no pressure of employees. You do all the work and have a simple life. You just better make sure to stay healthy, travel for short stints of a few days at a time, and budget really, really good. In the second example, you build a massive company, earn more than you can imagine, and live a life of total freedom. They each have their pros and cons. This episode isn't looking to persuade you, rather get you thinking.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

I recently revealed the "The 4 ISO Model Fundamentals " as Financial, Strategic, Mindset, and People. It doesn't matter whether you own a solo cleaning business or a catering company. If you want to grow your company to create the life you've dreamed of, you'll need to master these fundamentals. I am not a caterer... obviously. I can't coach caterers. I can't coach photographers or digital agencies or doctors. I'm a 16-year solo cleaner that has optimized 2 solo cleaning companies to over $50,000 profit per year on 2 cleaning days per week without employees, subs, or drama. I've successfully sold one solo cleaning business for $80,000 and I've successfully scaled another solo cleaning business to allow my family to go to Florida for the month of February the past two years. I have mastered these 4 fundamentals for winning with a solo cleaning business and therefore, I am highly qualified to be your coach if you're looking to master your solo cleaning company.In that podcast episode, I stated that I wanted to lay out the 4 fundamentals in simple terms first. Then, I promised to follow-up with episodes adding more depth to each. Today, we start with the first one called FINANCIAL. There are thousands of cleaning business owners in Facebook cleaning groups. I have interacted with hundreds and personally coached dozens over the years. The ones I've coached have been side-hustlers, startups, solos, and striving to 7-figures. I have enough data to make this bold statement.Of the 4 fundamentals of a successful solo cleaning company or any cleaning company, the most lacking skill is Financial Fluency. In my experience (and the combined experience of other reputable coaches in the industry), over 95% of cleaning business owners do NOT know their numbers. They are Financially Illiterate. This is scary as these cleaning business owners go year-to-year making jokes about "sucking at math" or "not knowing where they are". It's not funny. It's sad. 95% of you RIGHT NOW are literally treading water and about to drown. You are one bad wave or rip current from financial bankruptcy and you don't even know it. 90% of you are anxious, stressed, and overwhelmed because you don't know where you stand. When you are Financially Illiterate, you are standing on sinking and shifting sand. You have literally nothing firm to build on. So what do you do? You continue to work harder and harder and hope that the money works out. Enter geniuses like Mike Michaelowicz and his book "Profit First". Mike was Financially Illiterate until he took the first step. He went from not-knowing his numbers to knowing his numbers. This didn't make the business any better. But it did allow Mike to place his feet on something firm and something he could build from. His stated mission is to help the millions of us in the same place and to eradicate entrepreneurial poverty.My friend Ellen was once in this position. She ran a successful cleaning company with 20 team members and close to a half-million in revenue. She did not know her numbers at all and she was the first to admit it. I helped her set goals to over a 3-month period to learn her business through a Profit and Loss Statement or a P&L. Once she understood her P&L, she was able to set financial goals and track her business through a financial dashboard. Ellen has grown quite a bit since this major change. There are thousands of Ellens' out there, so don't feel bad if that's you. We will address all 4 fundamentals over time.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

I was having a pre-driving talk with my 15-year-old son and shared my example when I was 16. I wanted to drive a car, but my mom couldn't put me on her policy. I bought my car for $1,300. Then my monthly expenses of car insurance, maintenance, and gas cost a ton. I needed this car to get to my job at the mall, but really I wanted the car to look cool driving to high school. I felt like I was treading water and not going anywhere. Why? I was going to school all day and then working at night. My weekly paycheck after taxes was just enough to pay my car expenses. I was in an ironic situation where I was working just to drive and driving just to go to work. I could have quit the job and hitched a ride to school from my neighbor and spent my time doing something I wanted to do. It took me a few years until I learned how to earn more income with the jobs I took. I was no longer working to drive as I had extra. Thank goodness or I would not have been able to afford taking my girlfriend Teresa anywhere. I could and won her over. I told Kenny. "And now she's your mom."I then told Kenny another example of this irony, relating to moms. The stay-at-home mom wants to earn more income for the family. She goes out and finds a job. Let's say the job pays her $3,000 per month after tax. That sounds great, except one thing. She needs to hire a daycare service to watch her kids. She needs more maintenance and gas for her car. She needs more money for lunches and coffees and clothes for work. There are so many moms that accept the job before calculating the cost to have the job. Many times they are in the same place as the 16-year-old driver. They are literally working for daycare and putting the kids in daycare so she can work. It's ironic and very sad. Moms have so much on their plates and this puts them into a downward spiral and hurts many families. Aside from the zero profit, the mom is also taking her kids out of the home and getting them around other kids in daycare. Kids in daycare are always sick, so now this mom's kids are sick and it affects the whole family. Maybe the dad gets sick and has to call out of his work or business. This is detrimental.The lesson here is simple and Jesus says it best. "For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it —  lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?" That's from the Book of Luke, chapter 14 and verses 28-30. The 16-year-old driver and the stay-at-home mom MUST count the cost of the undertaking before embarking on the plan. In my son's case, he is already making money by cleaning and he get's paid way better than I did at his age. He was afford a car, but he is evaluating the best way to do it. What about the stay-at-home mom? Okay, there are tons of ways to achieve the goal. If she would adopt the "How Can I" mindset, she might decide to look for other options. One such option could be a solo cleaning business. Maybe that's why you're listening to this podcast right now? You may be a mom wanting to make more money and don't want to enter the full-time workforce. Cleaning houses and offices is an excellent opportunity. In fact, I've already spoken to this in the podcast, "How to Start a Solo Cleaning Business" and "The Pros of Solo Cleaning". You can design a flexible schedule, earn excellent income, and help others with a skill you already possess. Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

You MUST know your numbers to survive and thrive in your solo cleaning company. Numbers Matter. I was asked WHY in a recent Solo Elite Membership Call. After answering the question, I realized that I needed to start a new MEGA-series on all-things-numbers.  In this episode, I answer the basic question of why. It’s humorous as I poke and prod at the majority of solo cleaners that I get on phone calls with. They don’t know their numbers… like NONE of them. This is so foundational that it’s one of the 4 Fundamentals of the ISO Model. By the end of this episode, you will be ready for me to pile on the rest of the MEGA-series. Here is what you can expect.​Numbers Matter II: Count the Cost – You need to know your numbers in order to complete the project. It’s biblical!Numbers Matter III: Are You Financially Fluent – This one will hurt if you don’t know the language of numbers. But it will help!Numbers Matter IV: Would you Rather have 100% or 1%? – Now that you are gaining a foundation of understanding WHY numbers are important, this episode will allow you to see the benefits of strategic planning with your numbers. Numbers Matter V: What is Your Hour Worth – Have you ever stopped to consider if the work that you’re doing is worth it? This episode will force you to measure your productivity and                  assess.Numbers Matter VI: Audit to Optimize  – In this final episode of the series, I am putting it all together. I break down  the 3 areas a solo cleaner needs to master in order to optimize. They will need to understand their numbers to conduct a proper audit of each area. The solo that is efficient in ALL 3 is the Optimized Solo that loves their business! Accounting Basics I: Accounting Basics – Where the heck do we start with accounting and bookkeeping? What’s the difference? Colette Mellott is my accountant. She breaks it all down so it is easy to understand.Accounting Basics II: Hire Professionals on Day One – Stop trying to DIY your bookkeeping and accounting. Colette teaches us a valuable insight into how hiring a professional saves us money and time.Accounting Basics III: Keep Clean Records – How do you prepare your numbers to effectively work with an accounting professional? Colette explains the basics.Once I have proven numbers are important and shown you how to track them, I’ll start the third numbers series on Investing in Your Business. I’m so excited to walk you through all-things-numbers this summer. I hope you stay tuned. I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, the conversation focused on commercial cleaning. I made one statement about the price per hour decreasing with increasing building size. This does not compute to the Solo Optimizer’s mindset. Why would you charge less as it gets bigger? You would lose a lot of profit. This is absolutely true through the lens of the Solo Optimizer’s Mindset where success is measured by the best trade of profit you can  make for the time you decide to leave your family each day. In the ISO Model Course, this metric is called the Workday Value (WDV). With the Solo Optimizer’s Mindset of trading, there is no way a solo could charge less per hour for a larger building. Larger janitorial companies will come in at half the price and win every time. Solos cannot compete. This is why I heavily endorse a solo’s commercial niche to be under 10,000 square foot buildings. The Scaling or Entrepreneur’s Mindset is totally different. They are not trading their personal time. They have built reproducible systems through a team of employees. Therefore, they are selling manhours like the electric company sells kilowatt hours. In the scaling mindset, they are willing to drop the hourly cost of manhours to get larger buildings. This earns them a lot more volume and ultimately, a lot more profit. I shared in this clip that the Solo Optimizer can max out at $100- $150 per hour cleaning by themselves. This is amazing. It’s what I did and it’s what I teach in the ISO Model and the Solo Elite Membership. There is tremendous freedom possible in this career path with the Solo Optimizer’s Mindset. Just realize that there is another level beyond this that you can only accomplish through duplication. J. Paul Getty is famous for this quote.“Would you rather have 100% of the effort off of you or 1% of the effort off of 100 people?” This is the central question between these two mindsets. The Solo Optimizer will maximize the 100% off the 1, while the Scaling Mindset seeks to maximize the number of 1% checks. You can earn a level of freedom as an Entrepreneur far beyond the freedom of the Solo Optimizer. It’s a matter of choice.The end of this mindset and the question of which final career path to choose lies at the end of the Solo Elite Roadmap. Optimize first to freedom. Then you can either STAY, SELL, or SCALE to obtain further freedom. That’s why we do this membership.I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Make sure to check out all 3 ways to access the ISO Model and Solo Elite with prices ranging from $57 to $197/month at smartcleaningschool.com.

This episode is a follow up to "The Messy Middle" There was a place in between your initial goal to start your cleaning business and the place that you defined as success where things got messy. It got really hard to stay motivated. You weren't sure if you made the right decision. Your doubts and fears and condemnation crept in to try to steal your dream. This is the messy middle. I shared this truth about setting big goals and starting something new. "It always gets messier after you start!" I want to turn your attention to another destructive habit that can steal your dream. It's called anger. This will not apply to many of you, but for the ones that it does, please listen. I have personally listened to a lot of podcasts and many on cleaning and entrepreneurship. I have never heard one on anger.I was in the Messy Middle in our first New York solo cleaning business from 2007 - 2015 and from 2019 - 2020 in our second Pennsylvania solo business. I know what that feels like. If you've never heard me speak or share my story before, here's the nutshell. It took me a long time to develop my ISO Model for solo cleaners. In fact, it was the 8 years in the Messy New York Middle that I figured most of it out. This ISO Model allowed me to duplicate our first solo business in a fraction of the time. I want to dive into my 8 years in the valley, the mess, the pit. I was working so hard, going where ever I had to go to clean and make money. I was cleaning around the clock on many days. I injured myself by tearing tendons, meniscus, and even contracted Lyme Disease. I was often tired. I was often filled with doubt. I was often sad. And I was often very angry. Thankfully, I was walking with Jesus through this time to help me keep my peace. But even I'm no where close to perfect. I would lose my cool and freak out. I'd be late leaving the house and miss my shower. I'd have a foot of snow and ice on my car at 7am and 5 below. I'd get stuck in morning rush hour traffic and be even later to my first house. I'd trudge through the snow into the house. I'd bump into a piece of furniture with my cleaning gear or smack my knee or hip against a sharp wooden door or railing. I'd set down my gear and spill it all over the customer's floor because the duffle bad was torn from use in 3 places. I'd be vacuuming and suck up a carpet fiber that wrapped around the beater bar until the vacuum seized. I'd suck up a penny and seize it too. I'd crack my head on the shower metal or on a low doorway. I'd turn on the shower while cleaning and get soaked in the middle of winter. I'd break something in a house by accident. I'd be cleaning with spray bottles in each pant pocket when one would unscrew and dump a whole 32-oz bottle of cleaner on the customer's floor. All of these things seemed to happen to me when I was already struggling and mad. They would take me from mad to angry and many time angry to wrathful. I would literally leave the house and start screaming outside. I may even take my seized vacuum piece and either smash it on the ground or toss it in the bushes. Yes, it's dumb, but haven't you ever been angry?! It's irrational. I'm irrational when it happens. I would waste time, lose money, and lose belief that I was doing the right thing. Meanwhile, my friends from high school and college were all growing in their jobs, buying nice cars, having kids, buying them nice things, and living in nice houses. And we were driving old beaters and living in rented houses. I'd question myself all the time. I was angry again and again and again. Over the years, I learned my triggers and managed my emotions better. It wasn't easy, but I did it.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

In my "January 2022 Freedom Update with Coach Josh", I inferred that we qualified for the trip to Florida that we booked after "A New Freedom Vision". I had just onboarded my fifth and final cleaner to cover our tenth and final building. The other 4 C3 Team Members were all doing well and Florida was inevitable. We had fought hard for several months and especially over the past 60 days to make this dream a reality. However, there was still 10 days to go... We were due to leave for Florida on Sunday, February 6th at 4am. Let's go back to Sunday, January 23rd. I met the newest C3 Team Member at our biggest client to start training. Our van wasn't acting right either, so I knew it would need a drop at the shop to make sure it was okay for our big trip. The day of training went outstanding. I'm keeping the team member's name anonymous, but they were performing extremely well. I felt confident that I could train this Sunday and the next to get the excellence score over 8 so we could leave for Florida. After 7 hours and no lunch break, I asked if they were hungry. I had asked before and felt bad. I offered to go get food. They decided to take a 30 minute break to grab food, return, and finish the training job. "I'll be back. I promise." That was a weird thing to say. I was sitting in the waiting room of this vet hospital doing some work on my laptop. 15 minutes. 30 minutes. 35 minutes. Nothing. I started to wonder. A text came in at 40 minutes. "I had to take care of an emergency. Thank you for training me, but this job isn't going to work for me." My heart sank. I just sat there. I had been working around the clock since Christmas onboarding  5 new customers, ordering supplies, stocking offices, building out my systems in Swept, hiring & training 5 C3 Team Members. I was managing multiple cleaners at multiple sites at the same time all month. I cleaned houses during the week and offices nights and weekends. Just 45 minutes prior I was so thankful to reach the end of our massive goal to delegate our 10 buildings through 5 trained team members. I was ready to finish this vet, go home, and tell the family we were definitely going to Florida. But now my heart sank into the couch I was sitting. I literally didn't know what to do, but I had a choice in that moment. I could be positive and solution-oriented or I could be negative and accept defeat. I called my wife and shared exactly what happened. We prayed together. She said the obvious. "Well, you better get cleaning so you can come home." I then proceeded to clean the remaining parts of the hospital with my wife on the phone. We talked through everything and made a proclamation. We would not rest until this goal was achieved. We were not going to be denied. We would evaluate our calendar and literally clear everything that wasn't an absolute priority for our family at that time. I got home and told the kids. They got behind mom and dad as well. We prayed as a family.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

I was listening to the Tim Ferriss Podcast recently as he interviewed the one and only Seth Godin. Between comments, Tim uttered the metaphor of the duck does all of its work under the surface. I literally had to pause the episode and write out this one! In my last episode, Mission 20/20 Accomplished, I painted a picture of team cleaning companies growing through insurmountable odds and I shared my success in 2020. I don't want anyone to think that we had it easy or growing our cleaning businesses come easy to us. Let's learn from the duck and then come back with the goal of encouraging you and giving you truth! The duck appears to always be in control as it glides across the water. It is cool, calm, and collect without a care in the world. Yet, it gets to where it's trying to go. It does change direction and sometimes glides in circles, but it always gets to where it's trying to go. It's easy to see the duck from the side of the lake and say. "Why can't my life be as easy as the duck? They just find the pond or lake that suits them and simply glide across the surface, stick their head under water for a bite to eat, and chill!" Or what if you're thinking this. "I'm watching and listening to Ken build his second solo cleaning business and it seems like he's a duck. He just magically with total calm gets to his destination. He tripled his profits in 2020 during a pandemic. I guess Ken is just a duck!"You were sitting on the side of the pond looking across the water at the duck. It does look easy from that perspective. My son recently bought the GoPro camera and he can stick it under water and capture incredible video. If your lens is looking at the duck, you see what you see. But if you take a GoPro and point it under the water at the same duck, you will see a different image. You won't recognize the duck. It is far from cool, calm, and collect. You see a duck's bottom and a flurry of webbed feet. That creature looks like he is fighting for his life. His legs are kicking and paddling like crazy. Sometimes the leg paddles forward, sometimes backward, and sometimes stops. But most the time it's swirling and kicking and paddling like crazy. If your perspective of the duck was from the GoPro lens, you would think that life is so hard for the duck. How can ducks  even survive at all!? How will he ever get to where he's going?The lens from the side of the pond is the lens that others see you from, while the lens underwater is the one that you see you through. It goes back to the episode I did on "The Four Windows". The lens from the side of the pond is the first window and the underwater lens is the second window. Let's bring this back to my business growth success in 2020. You've been listening to my podcast and watching me from the side of the pond. I've tried to be vulnerable and transparent so you could get a look from underwater, but it's hard. I am living it and I know just how hard I've been kicking this year. Nothing has come easy. My little webbed feet have been fluttering away for 10 months, many times having no idea which way my legs were taking me. I relied on my faith and worked like it was up to me and prayed like it was up to God. I've been in mastermind and coaching environments where I've been beaten and bruised. My webbed feet have hurt all along the way, yet you've seen me glide from $30,000 to $80,000 in revenue in 10 months of a pandemic, riots, wild fires, political unrest, family issues, illness, and deaths in the family. Are you starting to see yet?Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

When I was 13, I got a job with the Movie Exchange. It was the company owned bye buy step-grandparents Monty and Shelly Tibbitts, whom I've talked about in prior episodes. They were the only entrepreneurs in my teen years, but I never had the courage to ask them real questions on business mindset. I wish that I had! However, I did learn a ton from them by watching the way the they lived and the way others treated them. First of all, they had money! There were always two Jags in the driveway. They owned a private plane, a boat, a beach house, wave runners. Secondly, they had beautiful decor and they entertained first rate. Check out "Eat with your Eyes First". The Tibbitts' were all about serving and mingling family with business. They made their business deals and built relationships with employees and their families at the dinner table in their home. Their imprint is definitely on me as an adult entrepreneur. I just didn't recognize it until Pop-Pop Monty passed away a few years ago. I worked for the Movie Exchange for 2 summers. In this podcast, I'd like to share a fun story about swatting flies that connects deeply to how solo cleaners speed up their cleaning. This episode will be a great companion to "Optimizing is More Mental than Physical". During one of these summers, Grandma Shelly sent me into an unused, overflow office area. During the 90's, the Movie Exchange was rapidly growing a pre-viewed VHS division. They would sell acquire grocery store real estate sell these movies for under $10 and they sold very well. The movies had to be inspected, shrink-wrapped, price labeled, and distributed to their display cases in various outlets. In fact, my step-dad Paul was a lead salesman for this division of his parent's business. As a side note, I got to work in the shrink-wrap & labeling side the summer after this story takes place. Now that you understand the business model a little more, Grandma Shelly took me out to the empty office areas and showed me a full room of movie jackets (covers). She wanted me to organize these movie jackets alphabetically, so that they could easily match the VHS movies from the warehouse to the correct jacket faster. This work felt like busy work; a way to teach a teenager humility and work ethic. But no... I confirmed with Grandma Shellie recently and she assured me this was an important step in the process in 1990. She showed me where the box cutters, tape, and empty boxes were located and told me to stop by her office with any questions. That's all of the direction she gave me!I remember this job distinctly 30 years later. There was a large central room approximately 40 feet by 30 feet and few side rooms. One of those side rooms was empty and the other was stocked floor to ceiling with movie jacket boxes. In 1990, I was a HUGE Beatles fan and was already wearing out the cassette tape of the Beatles Greatest Hits 1962-1966 on my Sony Walkman. I was ready to play this over-and-over while sorting through boxes all day... and I did! The Movie Exchange was paying me minimum wage of $3.85 per hour. I worked through July and August for 5 hours per day. It was awesome earning that biweekly paycheck as a teenager.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

I used to get nasty poison ivy as a kid. It would bubble up and itch like crazy. The worst case I ever got was on my face. My eyes were puffed nearly shut in the heat and humidity of July. It was torture. Thankfully, the doctor gave me a steroid to help heal it. You get the point. Now my son gets it bad. Last summer, he attended a survival action camp for Royal Rangers and in that camp learned something amazing. Jewelweed is a natural remedy for the poison ivy infection. The best part is that God placed the Jewelweed next to the Poison Ivy! The cure was with the poison. This is amazing and frustrating at the same time, as I never knew this and had to endure harsh Poison Ivy every summer. Napoleon Hill says this in "Think and Grow Rich". "Every adversity has with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit." The Poison Ivy is the adversity and the Jewelweed is the seed of an equal of greater benefit. COVID-19 has been the most recent and impactful adversity. What seeds have you discovered of equal of greater benefit? I've shared mine several times. I dug into the science on how to kill Coronavirus and in that research, I built my "9 Mistakes in Disinfecting" presentation to serve my community. This has already lead to cleaning business growth and actual dollars, many of which are recurring profits!

I've been in the cleaning business for 17 years. I was a solo cleaner for 15 of those 17 years. As I was first exploring the cleaning groups in 2016, I got the impression that solo was viewed as "so low". We are just trunk slammers that buy our cleaning supplies at Walmart and advertise our services on the laundry mat tack board. We are amateurs without any real knowledge of how to run a business. In fact, we aren't real businesses at all. We have cleaning jobs and yet we say that we own a company. A solo cleaner is thus a lowly title to many. If this is you, you're not alone. There are over 50,000 new cleaning companies entering the industry each year right now. In all likelihood, probably 40,000 or 80% are new solos. There are definitely companies that start with the intention to build teams from the onset as well. My point is that we are an army and for the most part feel like we're alone and the minority. We really feel like we're below the other companies. We are SO LOW cleaners. Do you relate? I know you do because I surveyed over 100 solo cleaners in 2019. I found the top struggles then to be #1 lack of money & time, #2 loneliness, and #3 feeling so low.This was tough for me too. I was a highly educated mechanical engineer and part of the corporate leadership team at one of the biggest companies in the world from 2000-2005. I seemed to have it all from the outside. But I wasn't happy. I felt so low there. This caused mild depression and ultimately lead us to start our first side-gig businesses. A few years later, I was fired from my engineering job and fought each day to put scraps on the table and drops in the gas tank to survive through a new job of cleaning houses for a profession. I was embarrassed. I felt so low and I was. My friends from high school and college were buying houses and I was barely able to afford rent. My friends were becoming managers in their companies and I was cleaning toilets. I even ran into old work colleagues looking for house cleaners. I felt so low. Why would I go through this? Why would I sacrifice the prestige of the corporate life for the so low life?The answer is simple. I wanted freedom. If you're listening to this podcast and you feel like I did. You have a really good job by the world standards. Your family is proud of you, just like my grandparents and parents would brag about their son and grandson working for GE in his big time job. But if you're also like me with all of that status and accomplishment you feel trapped. You don't know what you want to do, but it's not what you're doing now. That was me. I never knew I would ever in a million years end up in the cleaning industry. But I did. I went from an engineer to a solo cleaner. There wasn't a lot of money in the solo cleaning business in the beginning. I tried to go back to my engineering degree a couple times with no success. Even though my income was about half as much as my corporate job, I had something I didn't have before. Choices. My children were young and I didn't have to go to work at 8:00, 5 days a week, bring my laptop home and do more at home. I didn't have to think about the job on nights and weekends. I didn't have to ask for time off. I called the shots. I made my own choices as to when I wanted to work and which jobs I wanted to take. I traded income and status for a small dose of freedom. Was it really so low? Not at all. As I started gaining more choices and freedom and income, I started feeling more hope and excitement on the potential of this solo business that wasn't so low anymore. I stopped caring what others in my family thought of what I was doing for income after nearly completing a masters degree in mechanical engineering.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

Throughout my life and career, I have often wondered what causes some to emerge victorious no matter the scenario. It's easy to win when the conditions for winning are easy. In contrast, it's easy to quit when the conditions to quit are easy. What is the ingredient in the human character that causes someone to win when the conditions to quit are easy? What causes someone to persevere when it makes no sense? What causes a man or woman to strive a little longer when every adversity is against them? The answer is a key to success that few possess. It's called grit.  Webster defines grit as follows: "firmness of mind or spirit : unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger "​Growing a cleaning company to any level of success is hard. You will face obstacles, hardship, and who knows... danger. Will you develop the grit you will need to survive and thrive? That's up to you. You may ask....what could come against me growing a cleaning company? The answers are endless. The biggest obstacle is other people. People will try to steal your dream. They will tell you that it won't work. Why would you waste your college education? They will criticize you. The hardest part is that they will likely be the people closest to you. Will you survive this onslaught? You will get rejected by potential customers... a lot. Can you handle that? You will work so hard to serve clients for months and even years and they will cancel service with no warning. How will you handle that? What if you lose your biggest client as we just did this week? Will you fold it up and quit? If you ever hire employees, oh my! There are so many obstacles there.My Pop-Pop used to say when I was a kid. "Kenny, are you a winner?" I'd respond. "Yes, Pop-Pop." He'd simple say. "Good. Winners never quit and quitters never win." I heard this enough and actually believed him. I was programmed with grit as boy. Others were programmed the opposite way. "You'll never win. You can't do it, why even try. No one in our family ever makes it." My Pop-Pop helped me develop a winner's mindset early on.There is a profound difference in a winner's mindset and a loser's mindset. Before I explain the difference, let me ask you a question. Where does failure belong? Is it part of winning or losing? This is definitely a trick question. It's both. Failure is neutral. You will fail at many things you try. The best hitters in baseball fail 70% of the time. You will encounter failure. The person with a winner's mindset will embrace the failure, learn from it, grow forward, and keep going until they reach success. The person with a loser's mindset will quit when failure strikes... and it will.   What is the opposite of winning? It's not failing or losing. It's quitting. Once you quit, you lose the opportunity to win. Someone losing and not quitting has the potential to turn it around to win. Failure is not fatal unless it's final. That's the impact of quitting. It's what my Pop-Pop taught me years ago and I'm so grateful.I make it sound easy. It's not easy to be losing and failing again and again. It's not easy to lose loved ones, lose property, overcome addiction or abuse. I firmly believe that anyone can overcome anything if they had enough grit. Think of something gritty like sandpaper. What does it do? It smoothes the object rubbed against it. When we become gritty, we too can smooth circumstances around us.How do you develop grit? Can you read about it and just do it?  To be honest, I don't know for sure. But I do know this. You have to start somewhere. Overcome a hardship once and you will add grit to your character. Each hardship you embrace and overcome will add another layer.Read the rest of this article at the Smart Cleaning School website

There are thousands of solo cleaners in the free cleaning groups. They all want to grow. Yet, many are not succeeding. Why is that? I believe it comes down to one word: Mindset. Too many are looking for the easy way or the short-term fix. But that's not how the successful, succeed. What does it take? I'm glad I asked!  Last month, I taught a short lesson to the Solo Elite Membership to highlight these success principles. I called the lesson, "Membership Mindset".  Regardless of where you are in your business, I want to encourage you to listen to this with an open mind.Listen to the "4 Characteristics of Coachability", which are humility, curiosity, proper growth mindset, and taking action. How do you stack up? Then, listen to the "4 Fundamentals of the ISO Model" which are knowing your numbers, mindset, strategy, and people skills. Again, how do you stack up? Enjoy this lesson!I want to formally invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures  without the drama of employees! Or if you want to earn full time income through part time cleaning without employees. Get access to this game-changing training for only $97 per month or $997 per year in the Solo Elite Membership at smartcleaningschool.com. Members get access to the full ISO Model Course to optimize your solo business, live Q&A community calls, access to the Solo Elite Community, bonus podcast content, access to private coaching and more!