Banking and Finance  » 15 Ways to Save Money in Your Cleaning Business

15 Ways to Save Money in Your Cleaning Business

1. Hire part-time workers vs. full-time workers. This can save

money on benefits, higher wages, and paid breaks.

2. If you have full-time employees, consider combining two

15-minute breaks into one half-hour break. Studies show that

this will save approximately 20 minutes of productive time. Why?

The national average for a 15 minute break is actually 27

minutes!

3. Take control of absenteeism. For example, develop a perfect

attendance bonus per pay period, or don't pay sick leave for the

first day of absence. Be sure to check with your state laws on

attendance policies first.

4. Hire "floaters" or "project teams". Floaters will fill in for

absent employees and handle any special projects and detail

cleaning.

5. Only use overtime for emergencies and unplanned events.

6. Avoid lawsuits by documenting disciplinary action and

accurate performance evaluations. Avoid using phrases like "he

typical 90-day probationary period before hiring an employee as...

has a bad attitude". Bad attitudes are difficult to prove.

Rather, give examples of specific poor performance.

7. Do not hire borderline probationary employees. If you have a

typical 90-day probationary period before hiring an employee as

a regular employee, be sure to give constructive feedback

throughout the probationary period so that if you need to let

them go, it won't be a surprise.

8. Provide the proper tools for the job: wide-path vacuums for

large hallways and open areas; back-pack vacuums with

attachments for detail work; auto-scrubbers for large-area hard

floor care.

9. Use a three and one system for carpet care. Use a surface

brightening system like bonnet cleaning the first three times,

and on the fourth time, extract the carpet.

10. Save chemical costs by using dilution control stations.

11. Save on restroom paper costs by using double-roll tissue

dispensers and roll towel paper dispensers.

12. Remove obsolete products such as ammonia, bleach, scouring

powder, and aerosols.

13. Make it your company policy to dust only cleared desktops,

and include this in your bid.

14. Consider route cleaning for smaller buildings. Have a

supervisor or group leader drive a group of 3 or 4 people to

each building.

15. Provide three types of training: orientation, on-the-job,

and classroom. Hold regular meetings with employees and cover

training and safety topics.

About the author:

Steve Hanson is co-founding member of The Janitorial Store (TM),

an online community for owners and managers of cleaning

companies who want to build a more profitable and successful

cleaning business. Sign up for Trash Talk: Tip of the Week at

http://www.TheJanitorialStore.com and receive a Free Gift!