Most cleaning company owners are saying either:

1. Business is down due to the economy, or
2. Business is great! Sales are on the rise!

So how can it be that some cleaning companies are struggling and some are thriving? Watch and find out!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lately it seems I'm hearing one of two things from cleaning business owners. 1) Business is down due to the economy, or 2) Business is great! Sales are on the rise! So how can it be that some companies are struggling and some are thriving?

For most, the difference is in how they've responded to the troubled economy. It's so easy to blame the economy when the phone stops wringing -- that's what a lot of people do without even realizing it -- they simply accept that times are hard and do nothing about it. When I've talked to people whose businesses are thriving, it's obvious to me that they're not listening to the nay sayers. Instead, they're being proactive and creative rather than complaining about sales and profits being down.

So if you're in the group that is struggling, the first thing I want you to do is ask yourself - what is working right now? How did you get your last clients? How did your most recent prospects find you? Was it your web site? If so, then work on improving your search engine optimization or adding more content so that more prospects will find you. Was it a networking group you belong to? If so, then make sure you attend every event and do more networking. Was it a postcard you sent out? If so, send up follow up mailings to the same group and start targeting another group of prospects with that same postcard. Was it your newsletter? If so, get more people signed up for your newsletter.

Ok, are you starting to get the idea? Whatever has been working for you, do more of THAT! You don't need to constantly reinvent the wheel when it comes to marketing. Simply do more of what you do well, and continually tweak it to make it even better. Let me give you a couple examples of cleaning business owners that are doing more of what is working for them.

We have a member at MyHouseCleaningBiz.com that bought a one year subscription to Better Home Living Newsletter, which she started sending out to clients and prospects last fall. She committed to  sending the newsletter out once a month, and immediately started getting positive feedback from her clients. She got to thinking that she could improve on the newsletter by inserting a flyer with every mailing. Sometimes she uses it to promote another business in the community, and other times she uses it for advertising her own business. After only a few issues of sending the newsletter, she's deepened the relationship she has with current clients and increased sales and referral business.

Here is another example. Two cleaning business owners (one doing commercial cleaning and the other doing residential cleaning), both decided to concentrate on increasing traffic to their website. They've each committed to spending about 15 minutes a day adding content to their website. After about a month or so of doing this, traffic is increasing and their phone is ringing off the hook! One of them said his traffic has increased from about 20 visitors a month to 500 visitors a month! Obviously, the more visitors you can get to your website every month, the more people you have a chance to convert to clients.

So whatever it is for YOU, it's time to take action and make a commitment to stop blaming the economy and start being proactive and creative with your marketing, and see what a difference you can make. By the way, if you'd like more information on the two examples I shared, look below the video at CleaningBiz.tv for more information on how you can do the same.