Smart Cleaning School

Colette is my personal accountant and she closes out a 3-part interview series we did on the Smart Cleaning Tribe . Colette gets into the nitty gritty of what a valuable accountant can do for you.  First of all, she dives into business budgeting and how the business owner and accountant partner to help the business grow and plan for the unexpected. I took Colette's advice from the last episod...

In part two of this 3-part interview with my accountant Colette on the Smart Cleaning Tribe , she dives deeper into the role of the accountant. In one question, she explains the benefits of hiring an all-in-one bookkeeper and accountant to help the business with tax planning and prep way before tax day. In another question, Colette surprised us all. "When should we hire an accountant?" C...

I asked my personal accountant Colette Melott (CMA, EA) to join the Smart Cleaning Tribe for an Expert Call to help cleaning company owners understand their numbers and who to hire in their specific case. Colette starts this interview with the accounting basics.  Bookkeepers helps you track transactions with your money coming in and your money coming out. In most cases, a bookkeeper does not help...

I thought the previous episode “ Audit to Optimize ” was the final installment in the Numbers Matter Series until I wrapped up a Solo Elite Membership Call on July 2nd, 2024. On this call, I had the opportunity to teach Sunny how to apply everything in the Numbers Matter Series to complete her ISO Model Scorecard. I took a clip from this call and decided to share it with you, so I hope you enjoy i...

I hope you’ve been paying attention and taking lots of notes during this series on “Why Numbers Matter”. In my experience, I have observed that most people do not know their numbers. These same people spend too much money to run their business. This means they are not profitable.  In this episode, I walk you through doing an audit of your profit & loss statement so you understand how important...

I have a few stories to tell you and I won't take much of your time because your time is worth a lot! The first one is about a little boy who desperately wanted time with his Daddy. The second is about a Daddy who desperately wanted time with his little boy. This second story lead to the creation of a metric I've used in my business for a decade. It's called the Work Day Value (WDV)...

 J. Paul Getty was the wealthiest person in the world for 3 decades from the 1950's to the 1970's! His list of accomplishments are mind-blowing. At the end of his life, it's estimated that his net worth would be worth $27 billion is today's dollars.  He was very wealthy. I heard this quote when I was a new business owner in the Amway business in 2002 and it has stuck with me fo...

 I recently revealed the " The 4 ISO Model Fundamentals " as Financial, Strategic, Mindset, and People. It doesn't matter whether you own a solo cleaning business or a catering company. If you want to grow your company to create the life you've dreamed of, you'll need to master these fundamentals. I am not a caterer... obviously. I can't coach caterers. I can't c...

 I was having a pre-driving talk with my 15-year-old son and shared my example when I was 16. I wanted to drive a car, but my mom couldn't put me on her policy. I bought my car for $1,300. Then my monthly expenses of car insurance, maintenance, and gas cost a ton. I needed this car to get to my job at the mall, but really I wanted the car to look cool driving to high school. I felt like I was...

 You MUST know your numbers to survive and thrive in your solo cleaning company. Numbers Matter. I was asked WHY in a recent Solo Elite Membership Call. After answering the question, I realized that I needed to start a new MEGA-series on all-things-numbers.  In this episode, I answer the basic question of why. It’s humorous as I poke and prod at the majority of solo cleaners that I get on phone ca...

 In a recent Solo Elite Membership Call, the conversation focused on commercial cleaning. I made one statement about the price per hour decreasing with increasing building size. This does not compute to the Solo Optimizer’s mindset. Why would you charge less as it gets bigger? You would lose a lot of profit.  This is absolutely true through the lens of the Solo Optimizer’s Mindset where success is...

This episode is a follow up to " The Messy Middle " There was a place in between your initial goal to start your cleaning business and the place that you defined as success where things got messy. It got really hard to stay motivated. You weren't sure if you made the right decision. Your doubts and fears and condemnation crept in to try to steal your dream. This is the messy middle....

 In my " January 2022 Freedom Update with Coach Josh ", I inferred that we qualified for the trip to Florida that we booked after " A New Freedom Vision ". I had just onboarded my fifth and final cleaner to cover our tenth and final building. The other 4 C3 Team Members were all doing well and Florida was inevitable. We had fought hard for several months and especially over the...

 I was listening to the Tim Ferriss Podcast recently as he interviewed the one and only Seth Godin. Between comments, Tim uttered the metaphor of the duck does all of its work under the surface. I literally had to pause the episode and write out this one! In my last episode, Mission 20/20 Accomplished , I painted a picture of team cleaning companies growing through insurmountable odds and I shared...

 When I was 13, I got a job with the Movie Exchange. It was the company owned bye buy step-grandparents Monty and Shelly Tibbitts, whom I've talked about in prior episodes. They were the only entrepreneurs in my teen years, but I never had the courage to ask them real questions on business mindset. I wish that I had! However, I did learn a ton from them by watching the way the they lived and...

 I used to get nasty poison ivy as a kid. It would bubble up and itch like crazy. The worst case I ever got was on my face. My eyes were puffed nearly shut in the heat and humidity of July. It was torture. Thankfully, the doctor gave me a steroid to help heal it. You get the point. Now my son gets it bad. Last summer, he attended a survival action camp for Royal Rangers and in that camp learned so...

 I've been in the cleaning business for 17 years. I was a solo cleaner for 15 of those 17 years. As I was first exploring the cleaning groups in 2016, I got the impression that solo was viewed as " so low ". We are just trunk slammers that buy our cleaning supplies at Walmart and advertise our services on the laundry mat tack board. We are amateurs without any real knowledge of how...

 Throughout my life and career, I have often wondered what causes some to emerge victorious no matter the scenario. It's easy to win when the conditions for winning are easy. In contrast, it's easy to quit when the conditions to quit are easy. What is the ingredient in the human character that causes someone to win when the conditions to quit are easy? What causes someone to persevere wh...

 There are thousands of solo cleaners in the free cleaning groups. They all want to grow. Yet, many are not succeeding. Why is that? I believe it comes down to one word: Mindset. Too many are looking for the easy way or the short-term fix. But that's not how the successful, succeed. What does it take? I'm glad I asked!  Last month, I taught a short lesson to the Solo Elite Membership to...

In this part 5 episode, I sum up the cost and value concepts with an excerpt from the Solo Elite Membership. It's a clip from a membership call that allows you understand the mindset needed to price effectively. I want to invite you to join the Solo Elite Membership. What is it? It's the only system for solo cleaners to optimize your solo cleaning business to earn six figures  without th...

 The first lesson of Blueberry Pie covers the 3 types of Buyers: Those that want your product or service and value it enough to pay what it's worth. Those that want your product or service and do not value it enough to pay what it's worth. Those that don't want nor value your product or service. The sooner you can learn to accept this and focus on finding Buyer #1's, the sooner...

 I was talking with Robert Pierce from my Solo Cleaning School Elite Membership . He's doing amazing. Robert works as a manager at Target and it's been in retail for 25 years. He found me on the Side Hustle Nation Podcast and decided to start a solo cleaning business. Robert understood the value of investing into his new business as he wanted to shortcut years of trying to figure it out...

 There are thousands of questions asked every day across the cleaning communities worldwide. I can say experientially that the two most frequently asked questions deal with how to clean and pricing. This is no surprise as both of these questions are asked by newer people and the answers come with actual experience in cleaning and making pricing mistakes over time. I didn't have social media c...

 ​I shared this exact post in a free Facebook cleaning group and thought it valuable enough to include on the podcast. Here's the post. I'm new to this group but not to cleaning. I love this industry and helping newbies. I see pricing posts all the time and wanted to share some insights that I just shared with another member on her private question. The question goes something like this....

 In early 2020, I was a brand new podcaster and member of my local chamber of commerce. My solo cleaning business was not making us much money and the pandemic was mere weeks away. That all changed with one breakfast with Ken Byler when he taught me the mindset to " Get a Name for Doing ". I highly recommend listening to this original 2020 podcast to get a sense of where I was mentally a...