7 Ways to Increase Efficiency In Your Home Cleaning Business

Steve Hanson

Since the fall of the economy in 2008, it's becoming more and more evident that home cleaning business owners need to increase the efficiency of their operation if they want to survive. When you increase efficiency you stop wasting time, which saves money.

Most companies don't even realize the waste that occurs in their own business. These are the things that you need to be aware of and change if you want to continue adding profit to the bottom line.

How do you get started?

1.    Talk to your employees to identify redundancy in all areas of your business. Redundancy means overlapping responsibilities, which wastes time and money. One example of a redundancy is having multiple people responsible for ordering supplies. Perhaps the team leaders should be keeping the cleaning supplies stocked. But if they don't stay on top of it, employees may call the office to report that toilet bowl cleaner is low and the bookkeeper goes ahead and places an order. By defining responsibilities and streamlining the process, you'll improve efficiency.

2.    Next, ask your employees what you should START doing, what you should STOP doing, and what you should CONTINUE doing. If you can identify these areas, you'll exponentially increase efficiency.

3.    Use industry specific software and technology as soon as you can afford to do so. You will be able to do many things you can't do with standard bookkeeping software or manual checklists. Examples of industry specific software for residential cleaning companies are MaidEasy Software and Service CEO.

4.    Delegate more effectively. For example, have your team leaders and managers ask, "can you repeat that back to me so I know you understand what I need you to do?" This will save a lot of time and money caused by miscommunication, which often leads to re-doing tasks.

5.    Do a "daily huddle" either by phone or in person with your team leaders and/or managers. Make it a short call where you discuss:

        1) yesterday's accomplishments (start with the positive)

        2) today's to-do lists

        3) each person's priorities

        4) what each person needs from someone else on the call. If they don't do #4, they'll waste time during the day calling each other.

6.    Reduce daily office interruptions by having weekly meetings with the office staff. Daily interruptions can become disruptive to you and your team leaders and managers, so the weekly meetings will help to eliminate some of that.

7.    Improve your hiring and training systems to reduce turnover, and groom your best employees for a career in your company. By using systems, you'll increase efficiency when hiring and training new employees. In addition, when you identify employees with potential for a supervisory position, take them under your wing and help them to succeed.

This list is just a start, but once you start identifying areas needing improvement, follow through and make the needed changes. When you increase efficiency, you'll improve your bottom line.

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Steve Hanson helps owners of residential cleaning companies build a more profitable and successful cleaning business through his online community at MyHouseCleaningBiz.com. Read inspirational cleaning success stories at http://www.cleaning-success.com, and sign up for House Cleaning Profit Tips at http://www.MyHouseCleaningBiz.com.