This has made for very interesting reading this morning
I am only at the point of putting together my business plan at the moment and find many of the points valid in the thread and many others for that matter, however all businesses have to start somewhere. I have decided to start in 'Domestic Cleaning', however I don't claim to be a 'Domestic Goddess', I am just a professional person and I have the belief in myself that I won't be disappearing
I am not prepared to do cleaning for people at rates below what I am worth and if people don't want to pay those rates, they are happy to go and find someone who will do a lower quality job at the price they want to pay.....knowing that lower quality is exactly what they will get!
It depends what you want to earn etc, I have a very similar plan to Martin in relation the domestic side in terms of earnings as myself and my Husband have both had good careers in Management, stressed ourselves out and realised that is not what we want from life as it didn't give us the quality time we have with our Daughter and as a family. It was nice to have already put similar figures to Martin together with the same amount of staff etc as he already has experience before reading this thread, only I based on £14 per hour. I am toying between £12 - £14 at the moment, it depends on researching my area really. I have no doubts this will also bring me times of stress, however I will build at a pace that suits me and ensures quality is kept to the highest of standards.
I have been researching everyday now from dropping my Daughter off to School until 10pm at night and won't go into anything built on dreamy ideas of this type of business. I am prepared to put in hardwork to get where I want to be, I think sometimes, people don't take that seriously enough. I know of so many people disatisfied with the cleaning services they receive and they need to be re-educated into realising you get what you pay for! An example was an ad I saw in a local shop window, lady advertising her cleaning services, it was written on a scruffy piece of paper, torn from a notepad with just her name and number....these details were scrawled across the page
If you can't be bothered to use quality in your advertising, then how can you expect anybody to believe that you will provide a quality job.....I am sure she is charging peanuts.....what a fool. I would never call anyone to clean my home from an ad like that, as if that is the standard of advertising, the cleaning is bound to be of just as low a standard if not worse, probably the latter. This is an extreme example but something that is quite common and even other better ads I have seen have not been what would draw me to call never mind executive clients!
I am lucky to have time on my hands to get things right, I already have my good friend wanting to work for me and I will be paying her well, with benefits to make her feel appreciated and motivated to perform to a high standard. My friend is very house proud and actually enjoys cleaning, what a bonus eh
She has experience of cleaning too and when she cleaned her local snooker hall to make some extra money as the previous cleaner had done such an appalling job, they could not believe how well she had done the job, as she was bright enough to realise the legs of the snooker tables actually need a good polish being just one of the points. For me having myself and my friend on board is already a great position to be in as staffing seems to often be the issue within this line of business. I also have good management and people skills aswell as interviewing skills from my previous career which I feel will all help me to ensure I only recruit quality staff.
Another thing on my side is I have friends and family mixing in the right circles
A lot of our friends are big earners and my Husband is sure many of them would love me to clean for them. Also my Husbands friend is a huge earner working in the Management of properties so long term I would look to expanding my cleaning services in this area and am literally guaranteed he would use me as he not only works for a large organisation in a top position but also has is own business running alongside in this area. All this adds to my confidence in reaching my goals.
I don't want to be mega rich, just have a happy fulfilling life, only growing at a pace that allows me to continue in that way, however I expect to be paid for the quality of work I can provide. We all want different things I suppose.....
Just wanted to try and give you a bit of background to me, I don't want as a newbie to be seen on the MB as another fly by night. I actually agree with most of the advice I have read that may not be so good for the receivers, however I find they are sometimes put over a little harsh
at times. I do have to admit Gary for one does make me chuckle with his blunt responses when he disagrees with a post and is probably right to disagree but some people may be sensitive to that response unlike myself
It is easy once you are well established and doing really well to put down others and their dreams and ideas.....the advice is great but please give me the opportunity to prove to you that I mean business before assuming anything about this newbie eh
Anyway back to my research I go, currently looking at steaming equipment, cleaning equipment, uniforms, etc, etc.
Sarah
