Running a cleaning business never starts off easy, and it can continue to be a struggle without the right tools. Not only that, but you want to avoid breaking even and improve your business’ income as much as possible. One of the most important questions to ask, but often overlooked, is: Are there numerous unnecessary costs in your cleaning business? Here are 5 ways you can reduce the costs in your cleaning business so you can bring in more profit, maximize productivity, and optimize efficiency.
1: Planning
A word you probably hear far too often, but is never properly adhered to, is planning. Any business that plans efficiently will noticeably improve its gross profit and productivity. This is the first step toward a successful business, especially with how time flies by.
Consider the following methods of planning and effective time strategy:
- Precise scheduling (predetermine meetings, activities, & specific agendas for employees)
- Setting expectations & appropriate time brackets
- Utilizing free apps for seamless strategizing (e.g., Google Sheets)
2: Optimize Marketing Strategy
Marketing is one of the highest costs in any business, including a cleaning business. If you don’t get the word out, who will know about it? Not to mention that cleaning services are in a highly competitive field.
You won’t necessarily be able to completely avoid paid advertising, but there are many other ways you can market your business.
- Referral Programs – encourage existing clients to share & recommend your business for a reward, such as a discount.
- Lead-Capturing via Social Media – utilize Facebook or even YouTube to showcase the results of your service through consistent content.
- Build Relationships – networking is a key aspect of any business to form lasting relationships with clients and improve growth.
3: Automation
Minimizing the subtle hassles involved in running a cleaning business through automation tools can significantly reduce costs while assisting with daily operations.
ServiceWorks, for example, is a field service management software for all service businesses, including cleaning. Our clients have found that our innovative automation software increases productivity by an astonishing 30% with the various features, including:
- Automated customer communication
- Automated invoicing & payments
- Recurring jobs
Here you can also see just how powerful this type of software can be when it comes to increasing your gross profit. For ServiceWorks the most used medium package is no more than $1,200 a year. With that much cost you get 36.50% increase in ROI.
4: Clever Supply Decisions
When it comes to operating a cleaning business, reducing your supply expenses is an essential way to cut costs and increase profit. Cleaning businesses require a lot of supplies to function properly and provide excellent service to their customers. By simply reducing this alone, you’ll see major improvements in your business’ turnover.
To help reduce supply expenses, you can:
- Browse & compare prices of supplies
- Think outside of the box – instead of traditional costly vendors, browse other suppliers such as Amazon Business
- Keep track of the supplies you have & what you need in alignment with your number of clients
5: Employee Delegation
Knowing your employees adequately will ensure how effectively you can delegate certain tasks and therefore maximize the efficiency of your cleaning business. Do you have current employees that could be better suited to a different role? Do they have enough training for fast and effective results? Are they slacking on the job?
Employees are the other major cost of running a business. Be sure you know exactly what they are capable of and their skillset for their position so they can help keep your business growing too!
