What Services Should I Offer To Launch My Business?

Following are questions from a reader just starting up their business.  “We read your advice on office cleaning on CleanLink. We really appreciated the excellent advice.  My wife and I are starting a small cleaning company.  We are looking to do office, business, and residential.  We do the daily cleaning for a restaurant and we just landed a twice a month office cleaning job.  We want to be able to offer floor and carpet services but are overwhelmed by all of the different type of equipment and products.  What products would you recommend we have to be able to offer full service cleaning to our future clients?  Thanks for taking the time to consider our questions.”

My response follows:  Congratulations on an excellent start.  Following are a few general comments:

1.  If you can standardize your equipment brands and chemicals early on you will probably be in better shape than acquiring a collection of different equipment serviced by different vendors.

2.  I try not to endorse a particular brand of equipment or chemicals since it is the local support that is crucial at your stage of the game.

3.  I would caution you about trying to be good and everything since it can dilute your energy and focus in too many different areas.  Try to get good (or even great) at one thing at a time.  

4.  Have you conducted a market survey of the area to determine the types of facilities that you can approach?

5.  Are there any community colleges, bank chains, auto dealerships, hospitals/clinics, doctors’ offices, malls, schools, etc. that you can approach? 

6.  I recommend you focus on your strengths and acquire experience as you grow over time. 

7.  Some certifications can be beneficial in opening doors but do not consider them to be a cure all for your business.

8.  Promoting the fact that you are green friendly may help and is the right thing to do. 

9.  Although you should not turn down any opportunities, you should be careful of taking on more than you can handle with regards to payroll, equipment and other up front expenses.

Hope these general comments help.  Starting your own business can be both exciting and scary at the same time.  I will continue this conversation in a future article.  Does anyone have other suggestions?

Your comments and questions are important. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean…

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678.314.2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net.