Starting a Janitorial Service from Home

An office cleaning service can be extremely profitable. It can be started part-time as a home-based business and built at your own pace. There are several basis steps you will need to make. Here are some 'tips' to help you overcome common start-up and expansion problem.

I.  Overview

What Can I Expect?

Commercial cleaning has built-in job security. Every occupied building in every city has to be cleaned by someone. Why can’t that someone be you? Even though large national and franchise operations are definite competitors, small, independent janitorial companies account for 70% of the cleaning contractors.

When starting a cleaning business, you can begin part time, working from home with a fairly small investment. Once you have your own contracts, the income is steady and the profits can be substantial. According to the Bureau of Labor Standards janitorial services is one of the fastest growing segments of the commercial market.

Some contractors set an initial goal of earning over $5,000 a month by the end of their first year. Keep in mind that the first three to six months can be spent in building the business before actual profits are earned. As some would say, “don’t give up your day job” until your income is established.

More businesses are outsourcing their cleaning needs than ever before. Cleaning services protect a customer’s assets including floor coverings, rest room fixtures, and general furnishings. A professional cleaning service meets a valuable need by extending the normal life of a facility and its contents.

Is it right for you?
Self employment is not for everyone. You should decide if you have the management and entrepreneurial skills to start and run your own business. Here are a few traits that are required of successful business owners:

1. Determination – You will need lots of drive to handle business demands including sales rejection, setbacks, and startup obstacles. 
2. Salesmanship - You need to master the art of closing deals. Also, be ready to promote your business everywhere you go. 
3. Organization - You must plan your work and work your plan. Landing new accounts requires constant attention. You must stay focused on your priorities and avoid distractions. 
4. Performance – You must ensure consistent results on a daily basis. You need a team that is detail oriented and disciplined. 
5. Astuteness – You must attain the business skills to accurately weigh the pros and cons affecting every decision.

If you are investigating the purchase of a cleaning franchise, make sure you can live with the monthly royalty that is deducted from your income. Check to see if you can terminate relations if you become dissatisfied with the franchise control and rules. Check out litigation filed against the franchise and demand a full disclosure.


An alternative to buying a franchise is starting your own business and learn as you grow. It is possible to learn from the experts how to avoid the common startup mistakes. For more information on starting your own business, go here.

Just Spend the Money! Invest the Time!

My wife and I stopped by a local restaurant the other night for a light meal. The cost? Just about $20.00. The food was good, the time spent together - "great": at the end of the evening the meal and the $20.00 were gone, but the investment in the experience of building our relationship remained.

That is true of so much of life: a $20.00 bill almost 'vanishes' from a wallet. A few groceries, very little gas for the car, a couple movie tickets (maybe), order some popcorn and drinks - extra.

Twenty bucks, gone in a flash without thinking; and yet to invest $20.00 in building a future? Impossible for some, the best money ever spent for others. One of my 1st subscribers, and possibly my first book buyer, recently contacted me regarding bidding on another account. Like my friend Gina, who makes an extra $30,000/year office cleaning (her story is here), my subscriber/buyer runs her janitorial service as a part-time endeavor. She and her daughter make an extra $1,000.00 per month. She's grown comfortable in the business and now wants to bid on an account that will double her income. 

She spent $20.00 on a book that taught her how to earn an extra $1,000.00 a month, and sees unlimited potential. See, the Twenty Dollars was a Low Cost expense; the High Price was the willingness to do it.

If you want, you can pick up a used bike fairly cheaply, but if you want to use it to get healthy, that takes hard work.

How about you? Check out the opportunities here. The cost is LOW, But the price you're willing to pay for economic freedom.........?

Getting Your 1st Client

How Do You Get Your 1^st Client When You Have A New Cleaning Business?

Often I get this question asked of me. One subscriber had a prospective ‘account’ manager that said, "I like what you seem to offer, but I don't know if I dare take a chance on a new company. If you could get a few clients first, then come back and I’ll take your proposal to the building owner.”

That was pretty discouraging to my reader and he didn't know how to handle the situation. Without having any customers, he had no testimonials or letters of recommendation. What should a new business owner do?

Here is an approach I used when starting my business.

"No, I don't have any clients yet, so if you’ll give me the account I have to work harder than anyone else! I can’t afford to lose you as a client because I need your recommendation to get my next account. Here’s the best part; if you ever have a problem with the work being done, you call me, not some office manager or route supervisor.”

By-the-way – the statement that “If you ever have a problem with the account, you can call me.” still holds true today.  Yes, I have account managers and route supervisors, and most of the day-to-day communication occurs between them and the building owners/managers; but every building owner/manager has my phone# and email address.

Does this approach work? After nearly 2 decades in business, I still have my 1^st cleaning account, and our client retention rate is nearly 100% in an industry where client turnover is reported to be 40% annually. Yes, it works! 

For more ideas on starting your own business, go here.

Client Security Concerns for the Cleaning Service contractor

 I get lots of questions from my readers (many of these are addressed in the book Make Money Cleaning Offices - availalble below) but let me address some of them here-

One of my readers asks: I have a question. Each office has an alarm and key.

1. How do you organize everything so that you have all the codes at hand for the offices? 

2. Do you just write them down in a binder and carry it with you all the time? 

3. When you have employees that do the work for you, do you only ever have one copy of the entrance key or do you have a backup key?

My Answer: I always have duplicate keys; you never know when an emergency will rise. By the way, employees who are going to have a key must sign an acknowledgment that they have been given possession of the key and, should they quit or be let go, their final check will not be given to them until the key is returned. 

Alarm codes can be kept in a binder or on a mobile device, but they are ‘mislabeled’ so that if the binder or device is found access to the building will be denied. For example, I have an account where our contact person is named Eric. The code is filed under 'Eric's building' and has no relationship whatsoever to the corporate name of the building.

Sometimes, you have a situation where employees 'block open' a side door to take out trash, etc. In order to insure that your crew has not left a door unsecured, you may use an approach similar to this: We provide a security 'log' at the account. The log is on a clipboard in the Janitor's closet. Each night the crew leader will:

1. Physically verify that the door was secured and note that this was done,

2. Set the alarm when leaving and note that they intend to do so,

3. IF a company employee is still in the building, get a name and note it on the clipboard.

That should eliminate any possibility of your people leaving the door open.

These are all simple steps but:

a. never having a key labeled with an account's actual name can prevent major problems if it is lost or stolen, 

b. requiring an employee return a key before getting a final check, and

c. having a written security 'log' makes your client feel more secure.

Thanks for the questions!

For more information or to get your copy of Make Money Cleaning Offices, go here.

How I Overcome Discouragement in Selling

Reader 'C'  sent me this statement:

"I am so grateful for all the information; it encourages me to eradicate fear. Sometime when I give a bid, and it didn't go through I take it too hard. How do you get through situations like this?"

My answer: First of all, in order to succeed in your cleaning business, you need to believe in the value of your service. Can you possibly convince your prospective client of this if you don't believe in it yourself?

Keep these thoughts in mind-

Realize that people pick up on your anxiety and tentativeness. When you're doing calls to prospects and you're thinking to yourself that they probably don't want to be bothered, then they'll hear it in your voice and will end the conversation right away. However, if you change your belief to the idea that they really need what you're calling for, then they'll be more likely to listen and have a favorable response.

Think about the various services you offer. Do they have a benefit to your potential clients? Make sure you are able to deliver the benefits your prospects expect. After you can do this, you will believe in yourself and the value of the services you provide. If you're unsure of your ability to deliver, then you need to spend more time educating yourself on the niche you've chosen for your business. The more knowledgeable you are about your cleaning services, the more confident you'll become. When you have confidence, you'll believe in the services you can provide your clients.

Do you feel as if you need your clients more than they need you? Then you are 'selling' from an attitude of desperation. Realize that there are more than enough clients for you and the other ‘quality’ cleaning companies in your area. Then you'll be able to relax in the knowledge that your ‘share’ of clients will come. 

 Second: I devoted an entire chapter of Make Money Cleaning Offices to writing a proposal that sells and the proper way to present that proposal. Are you professional in your approach?

 People do tend to judge a book by its cover, and your potential client will judge the quality of your cleaning service by their first impression of you. People like to deal with other successful people, so look as successful as possible. Dressing neatly in clean, professional looking clothes is essential.

 Check your grooming. If possible, stop into a restroom before the meeting to make sure you look presentable.

 Keep things neat and orderly. Whatever sales material you use should be neat and organized.

 Be professional. Be on time. In fact, give yourself a 10 minute head start. Be a little early. It is far better for you to be waiting for them than for them to be waiting for you.  Don't smoke and don't chew gum; you need an empty mouth to carry on a conversation.

 Stay positive. Be enthusiastic about life and your business. Do not allow negatives to enter the conversation. Don't boast about your company, but present its strengths in a positive manner. Set the stage for success. Be personable, smile, use a firm handshake, and give a pleasant greeting. Remember, the potential client is not your enemy—someone to be beaten into accepting your services—rather, both of you will be winners in this relationship.

 Learn to Close the Sale

 There are many good books that will help you develop skills in selling your company's services. The Art of Closing the Sale by Brian Tracy and Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar are highly recommended. Read them, use what you can, and for good measure pick up a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

Build Relationships

 Developing a successful list of clients has as much to do with relationships as it does with cleaning. Some relationships will be built immediately; you will get to bid and your bid will be accepted. Other relationships will be developed more slowly; you will be building a bridge to a future successful business relationship. Don't be disappointed when a presentation does not lead to a successful sale.

Your goal is to establish a bond with the prospect and offer yourself as an expert in the contract cleaning field. At some point in time they may grow dissatisfied with their present cleaning contractor and turn to you.

Want to Learn More? Get my FREE Weekly newsletter to help you decide if a Cleaning Business can help you earn extra money, pay off bills, and retire in style! Check it out here!

Don't Let Anyone Tell You, "You CAN'T'

“Someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality.” I don’t know much about Les Brown, but this quote ‘rings true’ for me.

My parents were teenagers during the Great Depression and lived through the turmoil of World War II. They married right after the war and life seemed to work against them. My mother suffered from health issues, my dad was crippled in an car accident; they saw life as unfair and unforgiving and predicted life would be the same for their sons.

Almost every one of us can remember someone who predicted that we would be a failure! Maybe it was a family member or the next door neighbor who told you that you would never be a success if you continued on as you were doing. People offer opinions about you for many reasons, and not all of those are fair and just. Some people are simply jealous of you, thinking that if you succeed it will show up their weaknesses or inadequacies. They try to hold us back with caring statements like, “I just don't want to see you get hurt when you fail.”

Beginning with our childhood, we are influenced by those around us in so many ways that limit our thinking. In order to become a successful adult, we need to examine these limits that we've accepted about ourselves, and eliminate the ones that don't apply. No matter how you were labeled as a child, you can acknowledge that, as an adult you actually have many positive attributes. Perhaps you are creative, focused, hard-working or adventurous. If you think about it long enough, you discover that you are smart, mature, strong, committed and knowledgeable enough to do whatever it is that you want to achieve in life. You are capable of believing in yourself and can accomplish whatever dreams you set as your goal.

The key is to know who to listen to. My life changed when I started listening to positive thinking CD’s and podcasts. I started reading Success Magazine to be motivated by the successes of others. If you are going to do big things in life, it means that there are some people who will not like it. Learn to tell the difference between someone who should be listened to, and those who ought to be ignored. A good idea, like a small potted plant, needs to be nurtured

Take your good idea, your big dream, and believe you can achieve it. Work on a plan to accomplish it. Oh, the plan may change and the outcome may be different than you anticipated. It may be far greater and far bigger than anything you ever imagined.

Learn How I turned my big dreams into reality here.

Don't Just Work IN Your Business, Work ON it!

I do not know the source of this quote, but it goes something like this, “To plan is to bring the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.”

The idea behind this post is, Work ON your business, not IN it. There is a big difference between the two. No matter how enthusiastic you may be today about your new business, your enthusiasm or energy level will probably not stay the same. Old Man Time takes his toll of both our physical and emotional energy, as do the curve balls that life throws at us. For that reason, as entrepreneurs, we need to be thinking ahead…

Successful business people treat their business as a lifelong endeavor - thinking beyond balancing the books at the end of the month. They plan long-term, transitioning their role from being the developer of the business into becoming a rich business OWNER. You see, whether you are a brand-new rookie in the business field, or have some experience under your belt, the time to plan and execute is now, not next year, or five years from now, or when you have enough money to think beyond getting your next contract.

1. Choose one day per week to move beyond the day to day activities of your business. Block off a few hours to work on improving, systematizing, or implementing new strategies.

2. Focus on one target market at a time. You cannot be all things to all people. I started out by selecting small office buildings between 5000 and 20,000 sq. ft.; big enough to be profitable, but not so big I couldn't staff them. Do a good job and establish a solid reputation in the business community.

3. The idea is to get rich, not famous. You are not the ‘brand’. If you build your business all around you… your image, your personality, your expertise and experience… you'll have a hard time stepping away, or expanding because people will expect to work only with you. Build your company's reputation.

4. Alternate. Outsource. Delegate. If a task is hard for you, find someone for whom it is easy. I would never try to keep my company's books, or file the tax forms. I can pay an accountant to do that and use my time to solicit new accounts.

5. Let your current clients lead you to new clients. We all know that it is much cheaper to keep a current client happy than to solicit new accounts. Let the happy client become a referral generator. They are already in their business networks. Let them know you are looking for new accounts and offer incentives for referring new customers to you; perhaps a gift card for dinner at a local restaurant if they refer a prospective customer

Doing some of these things will allow your business to grow, and you can reap the benefits of time well spent.

For more information on business building , check this out.

Fight Back! Overcome the Resistance That is Holding YOU Back!

This post is about overcoming ‘resistance’. The word ‘resistance’ may conjure up a number of images in your mind:

 For example, some dictionary definitions include:

: refusal to accept something new or different,

: effort made to stop or to fight against someone or something,

: the ability to prevent something from having an effect.

For the purposes of this post I am going to refer to the book, the War of Art, by Stephen Pressfield.

In his book, Pressfield labels the enemy of creativity ‘resistance’, his all-encompassing term for a destructive force inside human nature that arises whenever we consider a tough, long-term course of action that might do for us or others something that is actually good.

I am going to give you a simpler definition: resistance is a thing that holds you back. Our daily lives are filled with evidence of resistance at work. Here are some examples:

• Have you ever brought home a treadmill, and then let it gather dust?
• Have you ever started a diet, and then quit?
• Did you grow up with a dream of doing something really spectacular or accomplishing something really great with your life, and then never even attempted such a thing?

Pressfield says that most of us have two lives. The life we live and the unlived life within us. What separates the two is resistance. Press field is writing to an audience largely made up of creative types, but resistance is active in the life of the entrepreneur.

Many of my blog readers, newsletter subscribers, and book purchasers are individuals that have often dreamed for years about starting their own businesses. Many things have kept them from doing so:

1. A perceived lack of start-up business capital
2. A fear of giving up their regular job
3. A perceived lack of a salable skill
4. No prior business experience.

How about you?

• Do you dream of being your own boss?
• Are you tired of waiting for the boss to decide what your raise will be this year?
• Would you like to invest your time and effort in building up a business that will be an asset when you retire, rather than spending 12 months a year building up your bosses’ business?

I started my business as an act of necessity. See my story here. But you? YOU have a choice. You can start your office cleaning business part-time, use it to generate extra income to pay off bills or put the kids through college. OR, build a full-time business with unlimited income potential.

My book will show you how I started with just a few dollars, teach you how to bid an account, present the proposal and get the job. Learn as you earn. Fight the resistance that is holding you back!

Find it here and get the house cleaning guide for FREE!

Listen for Your Success

There are many people in life that are looking for success. yet success is not often something that you find, but it can be something you listen for!

 

Some people in the cleaning service business are amazed that, in an industry with a 40% client turnover rate, we keep our clients year after year; 10, 12, 15 years and more. Many people ask what the secret is, thinking that we must have some gimmick that causes such a high rate of customer retention.

 

We DO have a secret, one that costs us no more than a few minutes of time; we listen to our prospects and our customers. You see, the world is full of noise, much of it demanding our attention; how often do you find someone that wants to listen to you? Our clients are no different. They have needs and concerns, and they want someone to care about those things. Early in our business efforts, we made a point of making regular visits to each of our clients. It wasn't easy to do, we would have rather spent the time doing other things to 'grow' the business; but we learned rather quickly that it takes much less effort to keep a current client than to go out and recruit another.

 

Let me share with you just a few tips to enable you to become a really good listener:

 

1. Focus on the speaker - as if nothing in the world is more important to you than what that individual is saying. Give them your complete attention, it will be recognized and appreciated.

 

2. Wait before replying - allow a short silence to occur before you respond. Three great things happen when you do this:

 

• You keep from interrupting the other person if they are not finished speaking, but are merely pausing to organize their thoughts before continuing.
• You let the individual know that what they said was important and that you are taking time to consider it. 
• A short pause allows you to consider what the individual said and what they meant.

 

3. Clarify if necessary - language is a strange thing. Don't assume you know exactly what an individual meant what they said something. Don't be afraid to ask, "So what you're really saying is.......?"

 

4. Feed it back - rephrase what the individual said. That lets them know that you really are paying attention. When they are done, allow a moment and say something like, "I understand that you really would like five nights a week service, but the corporate office doesn't believe you need more than three, correct?"

 

 

Dave Ramsey, in EntreLeadership, says we all tend to trust people and connect with people who understand how we tick.  To do that, you have to Listen.

 

 

These are very simple but surefire ways for building rapport with anyone and can pay big dividends in a business relationship!

 

 

For more great business ideas go here.

Learning from my 2 biggest business FAILURES!

Dumb! Dumb! Dumb!  There is no other way to say it!

It is very tempting to ignore failures you have in life. Whether they are in business or in personal relationships, there is usually a lot of pain associated with them.

But, if we are going to be honest in our dealings with other people, we have to be open about our failures as well as our successes. In this post I'm going to share my two biggest business blunders. I survived both of them, but at great emotional and financial cost.

My first foray into the business world was going in with two buddies and starting a carpet cleaning company. This was no little endeavor; none of this grab a Rug Doctor type carpet cleaning machine and throw it into the trunk of my car. No, this was a big deal: with full size vans and professional truck mounted carpet cleaning equipment; tens of thousands of dollars went into each rig.

Next, we established a 'phone room', with two 13 'man' crews of phone salespeople; operating from 9 AM to 9 PM each day, five days a week. Each truck had a crew of two carpet cleaning technicians, and our trucks were on the road from 8 AM to 8 PM six days a week. We cleaned carpets in over 3600 homes a year, many of them on a 'repeat' basis.

To be honest, there wasn't a lot of profit with all of the start-up costs involved. But we figured the profits would come once the business was established. What came however, was the recession of 1982. During the recession people tightened their belts, quit cleaning their carpets altogether, or rented some cheap ineffective carpet cleaning machine from the local hardware store.

We tried to survive: we let all but one or two of the phone salespeople go (they concentrated on calling our previous customers, trying desperately to drum up some work); and then, one by one, we disposed of each of the truck-mounted rigs.

LESSON ONE: avoid starting a business which requires a great deal of capital investment.

Business number two was a discount grocery store offering slightly dated or about to go out of date grocery items at a 30 to 50% lower cost than retail. While there was some capital investment such as shelving, grocery carts, cash registers, etc., the building was rented. There were two problems with this business:

1. keeping the shelves stocked ( it was hard to find a consistently good supplier),

2. the bigger problem was that this was a passive business. on a day to day basis, we did not know if we would be busy or bored. On a really good days we would make enough money to cover overhead and show a nice profit. Then we might have two or three days with nobody coming in the store.

It is no wonder that most new retail businesses fail. We kept the store 'alive' for three years, mostly to keep our hard-working employees getting a paycheck.

LESSON TWO: never start a business where you wait for your clients to come in the door.

The upshot of all this was that my next business venture was a commercial office cleaning business. With this business I have avoided both the pitfalls:

1. The start-up costs are low,

2. You acquire the clients, and having done so, provide a quality service and they will continue to generate revenue for years.

John Maxwell, in his book Failing Forward, says that failure is a natural thing. We all fail - the question is whether or not we will learn from our failures.

I've leaned a great deal from mine and now enjoy a six figure income. How about you? Are there some failures in your past? What can you learn from them?

Interested in learning more about being successful in business? Start here and get 52 weeks of practical small business advice.

Ready for YOUR Palace?

Can a simple decision to make money by cleaning offices change your life?

A few years ago a biologist and researcher came up with a term he called “the adjacent possible".  It’s a complex theory but here’s a simple way to look at it.  Think of being in a house that magically expands with every door you open.  You walk into a room and see three more doors leading out.  Once you open one of those doors you enter another room with another three doors leading to yet new rooms.  Keep opening doors and eventually you’ll realize you’re in an expanding palace.

When I decided to make money cleaning offices, I had no idea how many doors that would open up for me. Yes, I still have a commercial cleaning business, but over the last several years I have added landscaping, house cleaning, window washing, and at one time had a commercial carpet cleaning firm with over 3600 residential customers.

A palace? Maybe yes, maybe no. But from that simple decision to make money cleaning offices, a whole new world of opportunity and income level possibilities opened up to me.

Ready to do the same?

For more information: http://cleanup4profits.com/

Start your own lawn care business!

I am so excited! I have had a number of subscribers ask me if we had ever provided business services other than office cleaning or residential house cleaning. The good news is that we have developed a number of side businesses: including providing lawn care service to both residential and commercial customers.

Providing lawn care service is a great way to enter the world of self-employment and to provide financial security. I had never intended to get into the lawn care business, but one of our commercial customers requested a quote for the weekly mowing of the lawns in their office park. I was able to jump right into the commercial lawn care business because I already owned a pickup, a 16 foot trailer, a trimmer, and both a riding lawnmower and a push lawnmower.

You don't have to start out on such a grand scale. If you own a push lawnmower and a weed eater, plus a way to haul them around; I can show you how to start your own lawn care business. Start small, purchase additional equipment as you need it, and develop your own part-time or full-time lawn care business.

Why introduce a lawn care business guide now? Yes, it is Fall as I do this, but I'm bringing it up now for two reasons:

1. Lawn Care is more than mowing. Fall and early Winter seasons don't bring a total end in cash flow for lawn care businesses. In fact, Fall and Winter opens the door for soil preparation, leaf and snow clearing, which can bring in lots of extra cash. In snow country, in fact, you can seed a lawn by spreading seed on top of the snow.

2. You need time to develop the business properly. When does your mowing season start? It will vary, depending on where you live and also upon what the customer wants done. Does your customer want Spring lawn cleanup? That's when their mowing season begins. Each customer is different, but if you're going to advertise do so on month or two before the official lawn care season starts.

Here are some of the reasons to consider a lawn care business:

Tax Breaks:

When you work a normal job, your employer pays you your salary on your paycheck. When tax time comes, you may have a few deductions you can make but there is not much leeway. However, when you are self-employed, you can avoid paying many taxes. There are many ‘write-offs’ so you can reduce what you pay in taxes.

Profitable use of time:

When you are self-employed, one of the benefits is that your time spent is your time spent. You don’t have to work 8 hours, you just have to get your tasks done. You get straight to it and don’t mess around. Therefore your time is spent much more efficiently. Also, you can combine your personal errands with your work errands.

Set Your Own Hours:

You don't have to come in at a certain time to start your job or leave at a certain time. You can set your own business hours. If you have a part-time business it is possible to schedule your lawn care business around another job.

Vacation when you want:

You don't have to wait for your boss to approve your vacation, you schedule it as business allows. Plan ahead, pace yourself, and schedule the vacation that you desire.

Be Your Own Boss:

You don't have to answer to anyone but yourself (and your scheduled customers). If a customer is difficult to work with, discontinue your service. You choose who you work for.

You Control of Your Income:

The more effort you put into building your business, the more you'll get out of it. This is the best business growth motivator I know! At a J-O-B, you will most likely get paid your salary or hourly wage regardless of how hard you work. Oh, there may be raises and promotions, but there are limits as to how big these will be. And the reality is you have to wait for someone to offer these to you. When you work for yourself, the opportunities are limitless.

If you're interested, I'll be offering this 50 page business guide within the next week or so. 

Find it here as well as many more self-employment ideas.

Earn A Great Part Time Income as you Make Money Cleaning Offices

We all need a few extra dollars to spend now and then, but taking on another job, even if it’s part-time can really cut into your family life. 

If this is your problem then you may want to learn how to make money cleaning offices or other commercial buildings in your spare time. This is a great way to build financial security, pay off debt, pr send the kids to college without student loans.

First: One of the benefits of creating your part-time job and earning the extra income you need. Is that you get to set you own hours!  If you can work on Monday and Tuesday nights and not Wednesday through Friday because you have plans with your family, then you could schedule yourself to only work two nights a week. Locate several small offices that would need your services once a week and still have free time on the nights that you need for your family. By setting up your schedule like this you can generate some office cleaning income and still have some flexibility with your work hours.

Second: You can also plan on how much money you want to make each week, making sure your customers (cleaning accounts) meet those needs. When you decide you need more income you can simply add more customers to your list. Do a good job, build up a reputation and you can easily increase your office cleaning  clients. Growing slowly, maintaining a balance with your new business and other responsibilities is one thing you need to do if you are serious about learning how to make money office cleaning and be a success at it.

Third: You will need to decide what kind of service you will offer such as light commercial office cleaning. Work from a proposal and a check list. You list what you will and will not do, such as not cleaning carpet, or not dusting people’s desk that have important papers on them (but you will dust their desks if they move everything to the center of the desk). Make sure your list to includes only those tasks that you are willing and able to provide. This way everything is clearly explained between you and your clients.

Fourth:  Always keep your word and don't make promises to your clients that you can't keep. If you can't show up for your appointed time be sure and let them know and arrange another time to do the job. Most clients will be okay with this as long as you let them know what happening.

For more info:  http://makemoneycleaningoffices.com

Some Financial Security Advice in today's faltering economy.

There are many people today that are unhappy with life. Many would like to leave the the insecurity and the boredom of the jobs they have. Even those individuals who have relatively secure jobs often find they are unhappy with the work they are doing. Unfortunately, many of them feel trapped, locked into the routine of the 8-5, day after day.

Their greatest fear is that they will run out of money; be unable to put the kids through college, be unable to retire in comfort.  They read magazines, investment guides, etc.; looking for the best investments, hoping the 'market' will be UP when they need to sell.

There are many people who would prefer instead to choose their own path, enjoy the rewards of their own effort, building a business for themselves instead of developing someone else’s.

 There are many reasons for choosing self-employment: 

1. Some people have the goal of increasing their earnings;

2. Others desire to have more time with their families,

3. Some want time for their other interests in life.

These goals are achievable to anyone who is willing to invest time and effort in a commercial cleaning business to make money by cleaning office buildings and other facilities. The start up costs can be low - just a few hundred dollars, and the potential is unlimited.

That is Financial Security Advice that works.