Member Profile: Pam Clyde
| Name | Pam Clyde |
| Name of your business: | BritLin: Clean, Decorate, Organize |
| When did you open your business? | 2007 |
| What services do you offer? | We offer cleaning services as well as decorating and professional organizing services to include photo management and unpacking services. I am currently serving as NAPO Austin President and enjoying working closely with other organizers. |
| Why did you start the business? | I'd been helping people organize their photos since 1998. When the digital camera became the norm, people quit printing photos and wanting them organized. Now the photos were out of sight so out of mind. I had to reinvent myself in order to pay the bills. That's when I started organizing other areas of the home and offering cleaning services. |
| How many people are in your company? | 4 |
| What has been the biggest surprise, good or bad, since you started? | More people are willing to pay for cleaning services than organizing services. I prefer to organize and really don't like to clean but love the results. That's why I've been trying to keep a full cleaning staff at all times. Cleaning puts me in a bad mood. :) |
| What is the toughest part of running your business? | Finding good, reliable staff. Once I find them, I can keep them. |
| What is the best part of running your business? | Having satisfied customers and repeat clients. Also, I enjoy the managing role that I am now able to play rather than being in the homes personally. |
| Is there anything that you would have done differently? | I would have hired people earlier on. It's been a 4 year learning curve since I began interviewing and hiring people. If I had done that earlier on I could have grown faster. |
| What is the most important thing you will be adding, doing, changing in the next year for your business? | I will be constantly running ads and interviewing people so when I need them I already have them. I will also work to improve client communication so we can better manage their expectations. When they have a realistic understanding of the time it takes to clean or organize well upfront, they end up being happier and more satisfied clients in the end. As one of my staff said, people need to understand we aren't miracle workers. :) |
| Where do you see your business in 2 years, 5 years, and 10 years? | I envision a complete home care company. Kind of the one stop shop. If they need help with something in their home, we want to be the go to place utilizing subcontractors when necessary as well as having staff to take care of our clients needs. I also plan to have levels of management so I can actually leave town occasionally and feel confident that someone else is in charge and and handle anything that comes up. |
| What advice could you give others and please don't hold back! | Hire people from the very beginning. Don't let your clients "expect" you to be the one to show up and do the work. Once they have you, it's VERY hard for them to adjust to someone other than you yet you can't grow unless you are willing to duplicate yourself by hiring staff. Develop a training program, policy and procedure manual and be slow to hire and fast to fire. In some cases, I let some disciplinary action and insubordination go on too long simply because I didn't have anyone to replace them and desperately didn't want to be the one to have to go out and clean again. |
| How do you use MyHouseCleaningBiz.com to help you with your business? | It's a great "go to" place to get advice and share business frustrations. Before trying a backpack vacuum for example, I read the comments others had made, watch the video and even wrote in and asked specific questions before making the investment. |
| School - high school, college, technical school: | I attended college where I studied Business Administration. |
| what are some of your prior jobs or businesses? | While in college I was a Claims Supervisor for an insurance company. I later got my license to sell. |
| Is there a specific person or event in your life that made you decide to go into business for yourself? | I realized I'm not a person who enjoys working for other people. After being in direct sales for 9 years, when it was time to expand and offer other services, it was time I start my own business and do things my way. By this point, I had enough life experience and confidence in my abilities it was easy to do. |
| Web Site: | http://BritLinServices.com |
| Email Address: | [email protected] |
| Your Social Network links (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc): | @photosorganized https://www.facebook.com/ LinkedIn: Pam (Troell) Clyde |
