This is a departure from cleaning, but …

We are now referring out the sub contractors we use for home renovation. Saul Cortez is one of the people we have relied on for the past couple of years. We are getting a network of people who do cost effective projects around the house.

Saul Cortez can be reached directly at 206-851-4853 or you can call us and we will relay the message. If you need more services, such as design, we are putting that network together also.

Over this next year we will be able to provide the work we do at a reasonable cost. My feeling is that we are all looking for work, we all have a thing we can do well, and those services can be promoted in one place.

Licensed, Bonded and Insured is a catch phrase used by all businesses you invite onto your property, or into your home. We had the opportunity today to work for one home owner who was using the phrases to an extreme. They wanted us to clean up after a contractor who had gotten dust through out the entire house. This is something we do, but they wanted the contractor to pay, and they were concerned about the lead content of the dust.

We passed on the work because of the liability issues involved. The contractor’s insurance company would have to be involved, and we might get stuck without payment for our work. Even if we collected up front that would become another liability to the situation.

Now here is where it gets tricky because the home owner invited the contractor into the home. Would this be a matter for the home owners policy or the contractors? You may think that the contractors insurance company would just have to pay, but these owners had already cleaned, the contractor had cleaned, the contractor contacted us to clean, and the home owner objected to us doing the work.

In an earlier post I had said most people blame the work people for damage first, before figuring out the true cause. We had a long time client claim we had broken a window. It was really impossible for us to have done that, and in all honesty the husband had a weight set that looked more like the culprit.

When I told my insurance agent about it he said they would fight it. Even if we had broken the window it was a matter for the insurance company because the price was well over my deductible. Taking the window out and replacing it was going to be two thousand dollars. In the process of replacing the window, it was on a second story, picture window, anything could have happened.

In hindsight the home owner was trying to get us to make them a concession while they shifted the liability to their insurance company. They would have had us work off the debt of replacing the window while they had their insurance company pay for the work. In thinking about todays home owner, they could have the insurance company pay to clean the house while they refused to pay the contractor.

Insurance is a great thing to have. You have to be careful and use it wisely. Most things you should just work off, or give, as a matter of keeping a good client. Other times you have to decide if it is worth the future expense of having you insurance company handle the situation.

There are a couple of things we do to advertise, and number one is the internet. On the week ends I check to see where our placement is, and how we can improve on that. We have been losing our ranking by other companies buying ad words, and online advertising called pay per click. This blog site is a part of our organic search placement.

The real point is that we keep track of other companies in our service area. Ten years ago there were about 4 pages of Google map search cleaning companies and today there were more than 27 pages of a list of 9 companies to a page. After the 27th page the lists go on, but they repeat names according to how many companies buy spaces. That adds up to about 243 cleaning companies in the Seattle area.

Another thing that we do is contact other cleaning companies to chat about the business. We like to know who we are competing against. We also like for other companies to know about us. Many, many of these companies are one person, or a couple, who clean for cheap. If they get over booked we encourage them to refer to us. We also refer business we can’t handle to companies that may be a better fit for some people. 

Today I was shocked by the number of new companies. It seems as though they have sprung up in a few short weeks. My thinking is that more companies are paying for Google ad placement as there is less business out there. Some people who have been good clients of ours for years can no longer afford our service. It seems as though the husbands are more inclined to be out of work than the spouses. So we end up getting some of those clients back as once a month.

My concern is going to be the number of people who hire a person, have a bad experience, and may never return to using a service again. As always if you have questions about your cleaner we are always available to answer e-mails, or call ins.

Some people say to work smart rather than working hard. House cleaning is a physically demanding  job. There are smart ways to clean, but when you hire some one it’s usually to do the hard stuff. Kitchens and baths are really hard work. Actually vacuuming can be a big chore. I know it looks easy, but there are no self propelling vacuums. Lastly there is the chemical exposure that makes for a very long day.

Now how many of you like cleaning and find it a great way to relax? If you raised your hand, please call me, we have openings in our cleaning company. For some people it really is a way to spend a Saturday afternoon; to clean the house. There are people who look forward to it all week. There are other people who clean as they go and nothing is out of place. Some people have severe anxiety about having a messy house and they cope well with cleaning.

For the rest of us house cleaning is a chore.

When I talk with people about cleaning, or the price of cleaning, I remind them that cleaning is the cheapest way to maintain a property. When we clean we are keeping grease and grit from harming our finishes. It’s also a warm feeling to come home to a clean house. To get the results, some one has to scrub, some one has to push that vacuum around the house. The next time you are on your knees, or pay some one to be on their knees, cleaning a tub, put it in your mind the labor it takes.

This is just a reminder and in a future post I’ll talk about ways to cut the labor of cleaning with some tricks of the trade.