How to Conduct a Growth Audit for Your Residential Cleaning Company

You've built your residential cleaning company to a point where you're so busy you can't see straight. The time seems right to grow. You've considered the personal ramifications of scaling and you're still ready to dive in. You've been thinking about expansion for a while and have a solid growth strategy in place. Now what?

How to conduct a growth audit for your residential cleaning company

It's time to determine the health of your business by conducting a growth audit.

This detailed examination of processes and records will uncover any weaknesses that must be shored up before you can switch full-force into growth mode

Scaling a business requires a rock-solid foundation in the five core pillars of a company, say Jeff Hoffman (co-founder of Priceline.com) and David Finkel in their book, “Scale: Seven Proven Principles to Grow Your Business and Get Your Life Back.” Those pillars are Sales and Marketing, Operations, Human Resources, Executive Leadership, and Finance.

It's important to evaluate how well you're currently doing in each pillar, and then regularly reassess each as you grow. Hoffman and Finkel suggest using a scorecard to measure key indicators within each pillar.

Go through this exercise before you begin scaling to establish a baseline (and to look for problems that need to be immediately addressed). Then, repeat the process each quarter to make sure you're seeing incremental improvements.

Take a look at Hoffman and Finkel's scorecard list below. Rank your company's performance in each area on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the strongest.

Sales and Marketing

1. Lead Generation
2. Lead Conversion
3. Lead Management
4. Sales/Marketing “Linkages”
5. Client Repeat Purchases
6. Client Upsell Business
7. Brand Strength
8. Current Revenue Growth Potential (Next 90-180 days)
9. Future Revenue Growth Potential (1-3 years out)

Are you consistently and reliably generating new leads? Are you converting enough into buyers? Are you good at keeping track of and equally distributing leads to the sales team? Is there a clear process for client onboarding and accounts receivable setup? Are you retaining customers and upselling to increase sales? Do people know and like your brand? How great are your realistic revenue opportunities in the coming months and years?

Operations

1. General Administrative Function
2. Performance of Client Work or fulfillment of Client Orders
3. Client Rating of Your Company's Performance
4. Cost Controls for Operation of Your Business
5. Managing Your Core Business Infrastructure
6. Scalability of your core product or service

How efficient is your business at basic administrative tasks? How well does your company deliver services? How would your clients rate your service? Are you controlling costs well or is there a lot of waste? Are you managing your office, website, databases, and other infrastructure well? How well will your service grow?

Financial

1. Accounting & Reporting
2. Accounts Receivable (aka: “Collections”)
3. Accounts Payable
4. Budgeting and Forecasting
5. Financial Controls
6. Cash Flow Management
7. Tax Planning
8. Debt Management
9. Managing by Margins
10. Strategic Financial Decisions

How frequent and accurate is your bookkeeping? Are you manually winging collections and payables or do you have a formal process? Do you have and use budgets to track and anticipate costs? Do you have a system to watch for fraud and a clear audit trail? Do you scramble to pay bills or do you have a reliable cash flow? Do you think about and plan for taxes year round or only at tax time? Have you thought about future cash needs or do you wait to find credit last minute? Do you know your margins and do you use the metrics to inform day-to-day decisions?

Human Resources

1. Having the Right Team
2. Having Your Team in the Right Positions
3. Hiring and Onboarding
4. Systems for Training and Reviewing Team Members
5. Employee Retention
6. Clear understanding of Job Function
7. Legal Compliance
8. Benefits Administration
9. Communication Systems for Team to Work Together

Are your employees top performers and are they in the right roles to provide maximum value? Is your hiring, training, and employee review systems clearly outlined and effective? Is your turnover rate low? Do your employees know their roles and how it plays into the company's big picture? Are you adhering to all labor laws? Are you doing a good job of managing employee benefits? Does your team communicate well?

Leadership

1. Team Member Clarity on Big Picture
2. Your Current Business Strategy
3. Review Process for Company Performance, Strategy, and Plan of Action
4. Troubleshooting of Major Challenges As Needed
5. Leadership Development
6. Company Culture and Tradition

Do employees know your mission, values, and goals? Do you have an intentional strategy for reaching your big-picture goals? Do you have a formal process for reviewing your management team? Does the leadership team handle emergencies well? Are you purposefully grooming future leaders? Is your company culture good and is your team living it?

Core Pillar Rating for Your Cleaning Company

After rating your company's core pillars, what are the things you need to work on? Which one thing would have the greatest impact on your ability to grow? What three concrete steps can you take in the next 90 days to improve the score of that one area?

Hoffman and Finkel say the key to successful scaling is continually repeating this process. Assessing the key pillars each quarter and then creating bite-size, doable goals. Sticking with it quarter after quarter, they say, will help your business enjoy compounded growth in the next few years.