Today I bid to clean about 2800 square feet of new construction that was really pretty immaculate. It needs a lot of dusting. Another company bid $600. They are billing at $50 per hour per person, and work in teams of three which is fine, but they pushed the envelope with the time. They have a 4 hour minimum.

On a place I bid about a month ago another company quoted $42 per hour, but wanted a total of 10 man hours. There was nothing there, the place had been empty for about four months, and was cleaned, obviously, at one time, the place was just looking tired.

Now to be fair, there is a higher rate for one time cleanings, $36 to $42 per hour has been a going rate for some time. Going to $50 per hour in hard economic times is a stretch. We know that the cleaner’s wages haven’t gone up that much. What I’m more surprised about is the time.

In my opinion, I have a better sense about bidding than most companies that use a formula. I can pretty accurately figure out what a task will take. Refrigerators, bathrooms, whole house vacuuming , all take about one person an hour. Dusting, organizing, kitchen counter tops, and cleaning floors are more variable.  

I’m going to speculate that it is harder to find cleaners who are fast, and good in today’s market place because there are so many independents. Most companies who have large over head need to pay for offices, cars, equipment, insurance, and taxes. It’s made being an individual, or husband, and wife team much more attractive for the workers.

So it’s kind of odd, the times we are in, right now, that companies are raising rates, and independents are, in some cases, the better cleaning choice.

At the end, and beginning of the school year there is a shift. It’s a busy time of year for households, and cleaners. Especially here in Seattle people are also moving inside for the winter in September, or outside for the summer in June. The University has us cleaning out a spare bedroom, or cleaning a new dorm room, it’s the same for June.

Then you have the people who are selling a home, or deciding to keep it for another year. People moving into new homes, or out of homes they have sold are another reason for cleaners to be busy.

This article is about how you can get the best out of a cleaner in these times of the year. Some cleaners take on too many jobs. One of the purposes of this blog is to build a network we can refer to. So if you know you have a life changing event coming up it helps to book some cleaner time early. It’s also good to confirm your time as it gets closer.

The most important thing is for you to be flexible. Many companies are paying bills at these times of year. Taxes are due, the company employees, or contractors, also have kids, so we all want to help each other. It will all get done, it’s just a busy time of year.

This past week, after over twenty years in this business, it came to me that what we sell is trust. Anyone can clean well, or badly, but when you invite people into your home, give them a key, you are trusting them. I know it sounds like I’m completely stupid for just realizing this, but it has always seemed natural that people would give me the keys to their home.

To be fair to myself, most of our clients have come to us by referral. Some have found us in the local paper, but usually we have a common bond in the neighborhood. We are a small company with a limited service area. Today people look us up online, and we do have a good internet presence, so that helps.

I’m thinking, that is why so many people go with large companies. They trust the brand name, and that the brand name is thorough in back ground checks, and they know what they are doing. That is very true. Large, national companies do have procedures for getting people in your home you can trust. In another post I’ll explore the dynamic of large companies, but in the trust department many have excellent references.

What started me thinking about this is that we just discovered Angie’s List. Actually they discovered us. We got a good review, and they contacted us. As I researched the company, one of the things they are selling is a way to trust a service provider. After all these years of being in business it just struck me, that what all business people do is sell trust. In the business world it’s even called Blue Sky, there’s a term for it.

Now, I can’t tell you how to trust some one, or a cleaner in particular, but when you hire some one that is a big part of the equation. I guess in a future post I will give you a check list of what to ask for from a cleaner, and maybe that will help. In the mean time hire some one you are comfortable with, and you can put the person to a location you can trust.

One of our clients today made the comment for us to “have fun.” It struck me as an odd comment because his wife told us we were having too much fun the last time we were there. She is referring, of course, to our chatter, laughing, and making funny faces while we clean. Not all houses are as fun, but we like these people, have been cleaning there for seven years, and they have eclectic stuff. It’s a whimsical kind of place.

We all speak Spanish, so it is confusing for some clients to understand. Most of the time, with my team, they are making fun of my bad Spanish. However it helps in a day to have some fun.

In my opinion one of the greatest things, and this can help you if you chose to do your own cleaning, is having everything in one place at one time. We have a bucket of cleaning supplies, and a bag of rags. We have the two vacuums to be able to get everywhere. I also have my special ramiento to do high dusting. It’s a duster on a pole. You can get one at Ace Hardware for between $15 to $20.

The other great thing is working in teams of three. We have the option of rotating tasks. The fact we rotate gives us the ability to make fun of each others methods. I get it all the time. There again I also notice that some people forget the same things, or hum a tune, or do things different from me.

Our team has been together for about two years now. We do have a rhythm, and having some fun, making some games out of the cleaning, helps get the job done. I think it gets done better our way.

Here in the Seattle area we know just about all the players in the House Cleaning business. You may think we compete for clients, but really we all fill niches that rarely over lap. One thing I noticed yesterday was that one of the single person house keepers that works for a neighbor of a client now works with two other people. She had been cleaning by herself for ten years that I know of, and this year she added more clients, so she needed more help.

That started me thinking about a lot of things that make up a good cleaning company. We struggle with keeping track of the people who work with us. We put systems in place then a day can just get away from us. Even when you work alone some things get forgotten. So how does some one decide one day to start hiring people?

From what I understand of the woman I saw she is training her cousin to take over some clients. The other person is a friend who needs work. What it finally comes down to is that people are out of work. We lose clients that way, but in the world of laborers it’s also true. People need jobs, and house cleaning is one of the things many people think they can do.

This makes for opportunities to some of the people who hire a house keeper, but we get more of our clients from people who prefer our approach after an independent experience. People who clean alone need to be extremely self motivated. Usually they take on one, or two, clients a day, and charge about $75 or $80 for about 3 or 4 hrs. The problem is that an independent gets tired in a day, after day routine.

Company workers also get tired, but we all have good, and bad days. In a team, or company setting, one person can be up when another is down. There is also some one, who is looking for new business, while servicing the clients they have. There’s less likelihood that some one will lose clients, and be out of the business. A team, or company, gives more security in that way.

Speaking of that security, we hear that an independent person is like a part of the family. They like the idea they know who the person is, and can trust them. Companies can be hiring people off the street, and even with a back ground check you just never know. That is a two way street because it’s hard to get rid of a member of the family when something comes up.  

We see a need for both house keepers, some one who can come in every day, and companies. We have experimented with both. Some companies only do house keeper placement. This year house keepers ar doing very well. We chose the team approach for the reasons I’ve outlined, but as I said, we all fill niche.

A quick and easy way to build a cleaning business is by approaching property managers. You will get work almost immediately. Your phone will ring, and a breathless person will ask if you can clean an apartment in the next few hours. Renters are moving in. When you get there be prepared for the shock of a life time. Obviously the regular cleaner has declined to do the work.

Your second shock will be that the property manager expects the place to be cleaned for half your normal rate. Last, but not least, is that you will have to wait until the end of the month when the “bookkeeper” writes the checks to the vendors. Of course, I have given you the worst scenario, you can chose two of the three above for a more accurate picture.

Most cleaning companies work their way out of property management business, while there are a few that thrive. You need to be ready to respond. Ever day a place is without a renter is a day without income. This can work to your advantage because your price can reflect your cooperation in getting a property rent ready. Let me also make a distinction that rent ready is a deeper cleaning. You can charge a premium for your time, in some cases.

The second part is your flexibility on payment. It is true that a property manager has several accounts. You will need to be paid from the proper account, and it may take some time. There is a way to build on accounts receivable. If you are careful you can have an income each month by setting up vendor accounts. Many property managers will appreciate that, and have a hard time getting rid of you.

Property managers report to property owners. If you make them look good it goes a long way to them keeping an account. A good cleaner can have a stellar reputation among property managers. If you show up, on time, get the work done in a professional manner, and look good to the renters, you may have a career for a very long time.

My cleaning career started by cleaning apartments for property management companies. Over the course of 40 years there are several opinions that I, personally, have formed. When I first started it was before the Land Lord Tenant Act of Washington State. There were abuses on both sides. One of the main reasons that I never held onto a bunch of rental property is because of what I saw, as a young man, cleaning up after renters.

The situation has improved greatly since since the 1990s gave more people the idea of home ownership. It seems like there was much more give, and take cooperation. That may also be that we are now very selective in the jobs we do. We no longer work for property management companies. We do clean for renters who are moving out on a selective basis. In some cases it’s kind of pointless to do anything more than sweep a property of debris.

The Land Lord Tenant Act has a clause that says a property must be returned in the same condition a renter found the property in. There is a disclaimer for normal wear, and tear. There are some things that will be hard to get back to original condition. A self cleaning stove, for example, will never go back to looking new. Some staining is a catch 22 because if you clean it there is a risk of damaging the painted surface.

So there is a fine line between what a renter can do with a property and what the Land Lord does to get a property “rent ready.” A Land Lord can paint, or change stoves, or use whatever chemicals they see fit to make a place shine. A good example of that is a Land Lord who uses a wax, or oil on the floors. They can do that, but a renter may be damaging the floors by leaving a residue.

We do our best to look at a move out judiciously. It seems unfair to me that some Land Lords expect a renter to “improve” a property in a move out. One example for us was a renter who was breaking the lease because of a mold alergy. We were called in after the renter had cleaned, and the Land Lord rejected the condition of the property. Our cleaning was also reject because of rust stains on the appliances, mildew on the garden window that when we tried to clean the paint began peeling off, and a fireplace front that obviously was stained beyond any repair.

We try to compromise on what is fair for the renter to pay. Other companies charge a high premium for move out cleanings. We may join those ranks this year. More properties are changing hands as people find cheaper rents. Land Lords seem to be a bit more on edge in the face of falling rental income.

One of the things our company has avoided is the initial cleaning in setting up a regularly scheduled cleaning client. My thinking is we will get to the entire house over the course of time. Moving things around and getting the dust flying will only lead to disappointment as the dust settles.

One of the things that is important in our business is our reputation. Being referred by clients to their friends and relatives is the best way to build a customer base. The first cleaning is a way of seeing what we can do. It’s our time to make a good first impression.

One of the things I hear when meeting new clients who have had other companies clean for them is that the first cleaning was great, then the service went down hill from there. I have always attributed that to the initial cleaning business model. Many companies have a one time cleaning team that does the first initial clean then a regular cleaning staff to maintain the home. It’s two different approaches to cleaning.

So there are trade offs between meeting initial expectations, and maintaining a client over time. My compromise is to keep the pricing the same for the regularly scheduled cleaning then allow for extra time the first few visits. My thinking is that that investment will pay off over the course of time.

In a later post we will explore one time cleanings, more of the type for move outs, but I wanted to get a post out about the approaches to setting up a cleaning service.

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.