cleaning

Along with a business plan, a mission statement is an important tool that will capture the spirit of your business. A mission statement helps to clarify the goals and objectives of your company. In just a sentence or two, the mission statement for your cleaning business will set your business goals, your underlying philosophy, and what special benefits you have to offer to your customers. A good mission statement will reflect that special niche that your cleaning business is catering to and provide a long-range vision for you to build on.

Following is a sample mission statement:

“ABC Cleaning Company is committed to delivering the exact services our commercial cleaning customers want, listening closely to their expectations, taking a pro-active approach in defining their needs, and building the best partnering relationship possible. We are also committed to acting with honesty and integrity at all times in all aspects of our business, to being professional in doing our job, and to delivering a consistent, high level quality of work.”

A well thought out mission statement will take more than just a few minutes to develop - it takes careful thought and planning. Spending time developing those few sentences that define your business can be just as valuable as the final statement. Going through the process of evaluating your cleaning business, and then defining your customers and your services will help you to look at your cleaning business from your customers’ perspective. Don’t get bogged down with technical jargon. Focus on defining your company’s strengths and why those strengths benefit your customers.

When you are ready to begin, sit down in an area with no distractions. To come up with the statements that will sum up what your cleaning business is all about, consider the following:

- What specific need does your business satisfy?

- What are the principles and values that guide you in the everyday operation of your business?

- Who are your customers?

- What level of service will you provide?

- What image would you like your business to portray to your customers?

To write an effective mission statement, sit down with those who are closest to your business and jot down notes to answer the above questions. Look at mission statements from other businesses and start brainstorming. Once you have a couple of key ideas draft those thoughts into complete sentences.

Once you have formalized your mission statement use it in your promotional materials. The statement will be a quick and easy way for your customers and potential customers to learn about your cleaning business. Keep your mission statement visible and live up to it everyday. This will show your employees and customers that you practice what you preach.

Copyright 2006 The Janitorial Store

Steve Hanson is co-founder of TheJanitorialStore.com, an online community for owners of cleaning companies. Sign up for Trash Talk:Tip of the Week at http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com Read success stories at http://www.cleaning-success.com

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Whether your cleaning business has 2 employees or 20, it is important that your staff works together as a team. Working together as a team helps to create a more positive workforce, is valuable for sharing ideas and energy for problem solving, and provides more bodies to share the work and responsibilities. Even though your employees may have specific jobs and responsibilities, they realize they are contributing to the overall success of the business by being a team player. Being part of a team helps your employees feel they are a part of the “big picture” and not just there for the paycheck.

In order to have a successful team, you need to start with an effective team leader. Your role as leader is to make sure the team has the means to get the job done. The means can be supplies, training, equipment or just general support so the team members can perform the tasks they need to. As team leader you need to:

Help each team member reach his or her potential Develop each team member’s talents through proper training Have trust that each team member will do their best Feel comfortable delegating assignments and trusting in the decisions made by the team members Break down any barriers that exist between individuals becoming effective team members Effectively communicate with the team members

How do you hire employees that will make good team members? When hiring employees look for character traits that suggest the individual has good interpersonal skills. Individuals should be willing to fulfill their team responsibilities and not get hung up on individual contributions to the team effort.

How do you build your team? A team is a group of people who are working together as a group. Use team-building techniques to improve how the group of employees work together. To build your team you need to:

* Set goals and priorities

* Create a task list and decide the best way to assign those tasks

* Examine how the team should work together to carry out assigned tasks

* Look at the relationships between the people who are on the team

Holding team building workshops or training exercises can promote better cooperation among employees, increase communication skills, and help to remove conflicts.

The team leader plays an important role in keeping the team motivated and on track. Coaching is an important part of the team leader’s role. Your employees will contribute more to the overall team effort if you coach them to make the best use of their strengths. Use the following principles when coaching employees:

* It is important to know the skills and strengths of each employee on the team.

* Employees should be coached, not told what to do. Coaching helps them to develop their abilities and helps them to understand how to analyze and solve problems.

* Provide specific feedback, be supportive and encouraging.

* When coaching, ask questions that encourage employees to find the answers such as, “What problem are you trying to solve?”

* Let the individuals on the team know that you have high expectations.

How do you motivate your team? Once you have your employees working together it is important to motivate your team to achieve team goals and not individual goals. As teams learn each individual’s skills and weaknesses they will discover ways to do tasks faster, which leads to cost savings. These savings can then be passed along to team members in the forms of rewards or bonuses.

Give rewards such as pay raises, bonuses, and recognition, to individuals that engage fully as team members. Examples of effective team behaviors include: training others on the team, sharing information, working to resolve problems and issues as they arise, and mastering new skills to help the teamwork more efficiently.

Once you have your team in place your employees will share a sense of camaraderie. Being part of a successful team is a satisfying experience and helps all the individuals on the team feel like they are an important part of your business. Grow your business and your profits by making sure that all of your employees feel like they are a part of your “team”.

Copyright 2006 The Janitorial Store

Steve Hanson is co-founding member of TheJanitorialStore.com, an online community for owners and managers of cleaning companies who want to build a more profitable and successful cleaning business. Sign up for Trash Talk: Tip of the Week at http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com and receive a Free Gift. Read cleaning success stories from owners of cleaning companies at http://www.cleaning-success.com/

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Marketing your cleaning business is something that you will already have an idea about when you start your business plan. Nothing is better for an emerging cleaning business than a really good marketing strategy. This is when all of your research will work to your advantage. Cleaning business or any other type of service business cannot survive without a proven marketing plan, In order to build a good marketing strategy you must first:

1- Correctly assess your competition and what they are doing to market their businesses. You have to offer your clients something that is fresh and different if you want to get their attention.( You can offer free information on keeping your clients area clean - this will show your clients that you are an expert in your field).

2-Survey your potential market beforehand so that you can establish what your clients are missing in their current needs as consumers. You will want to know what they want and give it to them.( may be they need special cleaning product or prefer more special services)

3-Learn what types of advertisements work best in your business’ locale. Sometimes commercials are best whereas other area get a better response by utilizing the local newspaper or pennysaver.( how about direct response marketing? )

4-Begin your promotion before you plan to start your cleaning business so that you can garner an interest in your services before you even start. Building up some interest ahead of time can help to ensure good contract. If some consumers are not satisfied with their current cleaning service they could be waiting for any opportunity to switch to a different cleaning company.

5-Promotions and discounts are a necessity to running a successful residential or commercial cleaning business. You must make sure that you are in a position to compete in this manner. Your business start-up will run a lot better if you begin with a special promotion.

6-The key to successful marketing will be your ability to meet the basic supply and demand of your community. Be sure to stay on top of this because these things are always changing. You can offer extra services that are not supplied by most of your competitors.

7-You should be able to keep up with market changes and try to anticipate them beforehand because it keeps you a step ahead of the average consumer. This will prove invaluable to you later. by following the news about the cleaning field.

About The Author

Khali S,

http://www.office-cleaning-business.com

How to start & run an office cleaning business.

Cleaning Business StartUp Free Mini-Course.

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