The summer months have started. For teachers or anyone with school age kids this means that normal life is on hold until school starts again in the fall. In the house cleaning industry, this often means consumer demand takes a dip. This can be a good time to recharge our batteries. Many of us look at this as an opportunity to take some time off or go on vacation. A break may certainly be deserved and well earned.
But I’ve found that this time of year can also be the best time to work on your business. When we are stretched to the max during the busy months, it is difficult to think about anything not directly related to urgent matters and dealing with that day’s crisis. Things like performance appraisals and rate increase letters tend to slip to the back burner. Now might be the best time to get this important but not urgent work done.
This time of year can also be your best chance to take on projects like installing new software or updating important policies and procedures. If you are thinking about adding to your support staff, now may be the best time, especially if you are looking for entry level positions. There are new graduates on the job market, and you have time to train them before you get busy in the fall and through the holidays.
Finally, use this as an opportunity to refine your personal development plan. Identify both local and national events that could help you grow your company into the business you want it to be and commit to them now so you can plan and make the most of the opportunity. To be clear, it is important to anticipate potential slowdowns in demand and take measures to keep any downturn in revenue to a minimum, but if you have some extra time on your hands make sure you make the most of the opportunity. Here’s to having a productive summer!
Tom Stewart and his wife, Janice Stewart, are co-owners of Castle-Keepers, the 1st company to achieve CIMS certification. Tom is a nationally-recognized leader & innovator in the house cleaning industry. He is co-founder and Publisher of Cleaning Business Today.
FAQs
A: Owner dependence, weak managers, inconsistent systems, insufficient staffing, poor pricing, limited cash, unclear metrics, and failure to adapt to the market commonly create growth ceilings.
A: Document recurring work, delegate decisions with clear limits, develop managers, review performance through metrics, and reserve owner time for strategy and capability building.
A: Scalable companies need repeatable systems for sales, onboarding, scheduling, service delivery, quality, payroll, billing, recruiting, training, customer care, and management reporting.
A: Review capacity and performance across demand, staffing, management, cash, technology, quality, and customer retention, then address the constraint that limits the entire system.
A: The practices that work with a small team often fail at a larger scale because communication, supervision, planning, and decision-making must become more structured.
