[Ian Gourlay]

I have just bought this book on Amazon on running a Cleaning Agency

I think the Book and back up is advertised on here for £67 but you can buy book for £17

Overall having skimmed read  it I think it is good and filled in some of my uncertainties regarding setting up such an operation

The Idea is you find Cleaners match them with clients who actually employ them and charge the client a quartley fee  for supplying and vetting cleaners on a quarterly basis. I think its based on the Selclene, Time for you model

My thought is great you get 13 weeks agencey fee up front. and the idea is you continue to build on this week by week providing you can find cleaners  90% of which you reject?

But once a cleaner is with the client and  the client is their employer is there going to be a problem in the client paying the 2nd quarter fees . Because a good cleaner may be happy at the clients and would not withdraw  if client failed to pay fee. and court cases are expensive  or perhaps it could be sorted in small claims court.

Anyone any thoughts

[Terry A McDonald]

Can see the staff turnover being huge! What happens if client pays in advance and you cant supply staff?

[Ian Gourlay]

this is where the chicken and egg come in. although its meant to be a white collar system it helps if you have a family member or yourself available while you get started.  If not you over recruit to start with and get the cleaners out marketing and you pay them the agreed rate for doing it, indeed some might prefer to stay on the promotional side and be relief cleaner ?

As i said I only skimmed but logic tells me you constantly need to be postcarding for clients and cleaners and eventually you will have figures for obtaining cleaners and clients.

Not forgetting Directories goggle Web site  Face book etc

[Neil Jones]

What happens if you can't find cleaners, because I tell you I have been looking for someone for three week now and nothing! When I say looking I mean advertising everywhere and it's impossible.

[Rob_Mac]

What's the pay. Apparently I'm going bust so need an income? (you've got mail mate)

Rob

[Ian Gourlay]

What happens if you can't find cleaners, because I tell you I have been looking for someone for three week now and nothing! When I say looking I mean advertising everywhere and it's impossible.

Neil aledgley outfits such as Bella Something Selclene n  Time for You find them OK. I think they constantly drop cards to recruit staff , say a 1000 a week

As people work for Client  the pay should be above your area rate  say £8 an hour and you charge about £2.5 agencey fee per hour.

When you advertise for clients you advertise rates from £9 an hour  ( This only applies if they book say 13 hours a week)   but it gives you a headline rate.

Ive no Idea if it works i am just reporting on the book and hope others will join in

[Terry A McDonald]

Are Selclene and Merry Maids etc all franchises? If so, in my experience there is only one that makes any real money and thats not the operators - at such low rates per job thats one hell of a lot of clients (and happy ones at that) to make anything like a living I would have thought.

[Ian Gourlay]

I was ill for two years but when I was bored I googled Selclene   In different towns some were limited companies so I checked them out with Companycheck for free. Claims appeared to hold up and some had a good amount in the Bank. when i have checked out Window Blind Companies I have been horrified to see how much they owe and cannot figure out how they can legally  carry on trading.

PS Im not limited

[Neil Jones]

I might be fussy, but if someone can't hold a conversation in person and talks like a scrote I won't employ them. They must be well presented and easy to communicate with, and where I'm from it's few and far and between.

I advertise from £9 per hr as you say Rob but for domestic my minimum is £12 NMW. The margins are so low it's untrue but I generally let Helen, an employee, manage that side of the business. We clean around 50 houses and 5 or 6 offices now and it turnovers a decent amount but profit is minimal, but enough to keep it going.

I let it build slowly, if someone cancels it doesn't make me panic and I hope that in 5 years to have a nice set of 200 cleans plus our one offs which is then when it becomes something that you could draw a good wage from.

One thing about domestic cleaning is you get a lot of complaints and phone calls, can we change the day, or has the cleaner moved something, or I'm away that week, or can we have three hours this week, please spend more time on the kitchen. Drives me nuts!

[Ian Gourlay]

But are you employing staff  getting involved in  holiday pay etc or is the client employing them

System I am on about   you do not employ just supply.
In this system you have a very high rejection rate of staff.

Could be you are advertising in wrong neighbourhood.  for stafv try playgroups etc.

But I repeat I am just telling you the theory in the book Neil you are doing it on a daily basis  so as far as I concerned you are the expert. All I would say is think about where you advertise do you postcard the nicer areas for staff or presume they do not want to do cleaning, do not forget people who have retired  also we are talking domestic cleaning in nice houses  hours around kids are at school etc none of this going out in evening or getting up early to go and clean some ones muck  Neil thanks for joining in

[Neil Jones]

Hi Ian, the area I live in isn't the most affluent at all, high unemployment and council estates dotted around plus a high ethnic minority.

Not a lot of people to choose from, the thing with advertising in nicer areas is that they are too far away, sometimes the cleaner will just have one job, by the time they drove to the office, collected the key, drove to the job and then done it all again when they've finished it isn't worth it. I even tell them that.

Honestly I can read through 100 applicants, narrow it down to 50-70 people, out of those people 20-30 won't supply the correct contact details, and 20-30 won't be able to drive. Then the ones that do are useless.

They just go through the motions at the job centre, they are told to apply for any job, I put in capitals on my add 'you must be able to drive and own your own car'
It's now the first question I ask, and it's so exciting when someone actually says yes I do.

I'm not saying your method is incorrect I just chose this route, tbh your method is tried and tested and works but I just didn't want to go that route, I could imagine it being even harder to find staff.

One of my old staff used to do this for a franchise, but she was paid minimum wage and wasn't supplied with cleaning equipment and had to use her own car, made me wonder why she didn't just work in tesco.

[Ian Gourlay]

Hi Neil

point is under this system you are paying above minimum wage. Also initially you may have to drive key cleaners to locations until you can recruit locally. 

No idea where you are but if you are doing domestic , could you not target the affluent areas for customers and target staff who live there.

I think our local Time for You franchise is 35 miles away but they still advertise localy. Its a bit like window cleaning  you have to build a round . I think a lot of us my self included  do not think big enough. I have read of several successful franchises where they do leaflet drops of over 100k. One guy even ended up forming a leaflrt distribution as a spin off from the Agency   I think we all put up Barriers walls excuses etc but some times we have to say as my Ex Hero Richard Branson says Screw it Do it anyway