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# 1: Automate your time by blocking it off in your Maid Service calendar
Do you have a hard time getting your to-do’s crossed off?
Often find that things keep getting moved over to the next day and the next month?
Try ‘time-blocking’.
This is basically the idea of scheduling in time to do the things on your to-do list. Create spaces of time in which you can steadily work on these tasks that don’t overload you each day.
Whether it is that note to switch to new software to improve your Maid Service’s automation or maybe you need to write a blog post on your website, section off time to do these things.
This is the only way to be sure they are done, is once they are in the calendar and you have already made time for it in the day.
Tasks should also be batched together. Making phone calls, emails, and handling online banking are all monotonous tasks that really could all be taken care of in 1-2 hours max most of the time.
So put the block in your calendar and make time for these things in your schedule.
‘What gets scheduled gets done.” – Michael Hyatt
# 2: Automate your Maid Service hiring and onboarding
The people you surround yourself with are often a reflection of the way you intend your life to be.
This is especially true when it comes to your home cleaning business, so be sure to automatically hire those who are in line with the values and vision of your Maid Service.
The job description should be written accurately, of course, but there is more to be done in order to be sure you have a good hire. Create an application that describes the position fully, includes a reference request, and what you will need in order to bring them onto your growing Maid Service business.
When it comes to your interviews, you can hold one-on-ones, group interviews, or even a team interview to see how the applicant gets along with others at your cleaning company.
The potential cleaner should buy into your overall vision and show a positive attitude toward the position. It can be a better deal overall to hire for attitude over skill. People with a positive attitude often care more about doing well and improving than those who come with experience alone.
Hiring can be a difficult thing to navigate because the obvious choice may not be what you need in the long term to grow your Maid Service.
Skills are also important of course, but it’s the attitude of an applicant that really helps a person be a good long-term fit.
Automate onboarding methods so that you can track the system and keep it on point, generating new, great hires for your home cleaning company.
# 3: Automate your daily cleaning company tasks by delegating
Please please don’t be afraid to delegate. We totally get wanting to have full control over every part of something you are investing so much into, but you’ve gotta let loose of some things in order to grow your Maid Service.
Part of being a good owner is being willing to automate systems and knowing how to utilize your resources, i.e. your cleaners and cleaning staff. When you do everything yourself it can cause ‘bottlenecking’, which is when productivity for your Maid Service is stunted because all matters must be run by you before they can move forward.
One way to choose how to delegate is to start with giving away tasks that you have and don’t like doing or don’t feel you are good at doing. Whichever ones get you wanting to procrastinate, these are the things you should hand over first.
Create a document with a step by step process for how you like something done so that it is replicable. You can include these documents in your automated training programs as well if they apply to your cleaning staff or cleaners.
Then have the person taking on this task include you in on the first few times they perform it so that you can offer feedback. Allow them to complete the task with their own flow and use the collaboration from the new take on the task to possibly improve the way it is done.
Now that you have a little more time, you can focus on the more creative parts of growing your Maid Service.
# 4: Automatically Setting Standards
Ideally, you want to grow your Maid Service beyond yourself if you haven’t already.
In order to do this, you need systems and documentation of how your cleaning business is growing as well as how you measure its growth. Create a folder for your policies, procedures, standards, templates, etc. in order to have access to them automatically, whenever you need it.
You can even have a document with all of the cleaning supplies and appliances that you use at your home cleaning company so that you can keep track and know when to upgrade products.
This helps you to measure quality control and further encourage the growth of your Maid Service.
# 5: Follow up with cleaning clients automatically
The simplest thing to do (and to not do) is follow-up with potential cleaning clients. This is how you close sales. Typically a cleaning client is not going to book with you on their first time seeing your company’s name, so you have to reach back out again and follow up.
A cool thing about follow-up though, is that they can be automated.
Not only do you want to be in the rhythm of touching base with those who have contacted your business, set up retargeting methods and do quality checks on received services. This will show your cleaning clients that you care and that you listened to what they needed.
For example: If you clean for a client on one occasion, but you tell them you will focus more on baseboards the following visit, put a note in your system. This will allow the next cleaner to be aware of the request.
Then, you can follow up automatically with the cleaning client after the job is performed and ask how the baseboards are looking. This is what it means to be following up and following through with what you say, creating trust with the cleaning client.
# 6: Set up your schedule and automate your business
Again, it all boils down to “what gets scheduled gets done.”
When you organize your calendar, set schedules, and follow through with completing tasks you will grow your Maid Service automatically. Set up reminders and alarms to notify you when different events happen or when you are supposed to run an errand.
This can help with your general mental health and brain capacity. After all, no one can expect to remember all of that when trying to grow a Maid Service.
This article is based on a talk by Melissa Maker that she presented live at the 2019 Maid Summit, which was hosted and organized by ZenMaid.
About the presenter
Melissa Maker is the founder the Maid Service Clean My Space, which also has its own very popular YouTube channel.
When she was 24 years old she decided to quit her job in commercial banking and live her dream of becoming an entrepreneur. She’s now had her own successful business for 13 years.
After Clean My Space was 5 years up and running, Melissa started with YouTube videos. That was in 2011, she now has 1.2 million subscribers and her videos have over 170 million views!
With all of this success, Melissa is pretty busy, she is a Maid Service owner, the owner of a microfiber business and she continues to put out YouTube videos regularly.
With three businesses as well as several little side projects, you are probably asking yourself – how does she get all of that done and have a life? Well, Melissa has some time-saving automation techniques that she uses to organize her businesses and keep getting things done.
This talk first aired at the 2019 Maid Service Success Summit.
The Maid Summit is an annual online event that brings together the most successful leaders in the cleaning industry, like Debbie Sardone, Angela Brown, Courtney Wisely, Amy Caris, Chris Schwab and more. Get free access to masterclasses and workshops that will help you to grow, scale and automate your cleaning business so you can get more leads and create more profit. Make sure you’re on our email list to find out how to get free tickets to the next event.
