Cleaning carpet in a high-traffic area is never an easy task, especially if you don’t have the right equipment.  It’s tempting to purchase used equipment, because the carpet cleaners you purchase will be less expensive.  Before you get too wrapped up in that scenario, you must remember that carpet cleaning is one of the most important tasks you’ll have when you visit your clients. The floors are the first thing to look dirty and used, and a janitorial service that can keep everything looking new and bright will stand out above the crowd.  With new, efficient cleaning equipment, you can make that happen.

Sometimes you have to shell out more money than you originally thought to get the job done.  It’s important to consider the costs of your equipment and products when you’re making your purchases.  Remember that sometimes things are more expensive simply because they’re more efficient or productive.  If you can purchase carpet cleaning equipment that gets the job done in half the time, you’ll be able to fit more work into each day.  It won’t take long for you to make up the extra money that you had to spend on the equipment and products, and then everything after that will be profit.

The most efficient cleaning equipment for carpet cleaning will often be something that incorporates brushes and cleaning solutions.  Steam cleaners are the most effective, and they can be used quickly, too.  You should seek out different styles and prices before you make a decision for your company.  You may find that the steam cleaners are your best bet, because these can be used on other flooring types, too.  With one cleaner, you can clean, remove stains, revitalize carpet fibers, and disinfect.  It’s hard to find another piece of equipment that can do so much in such a short amount of time.

Want to motivate your sales team to success while reducing overhead and employee turnover? What is the right way to compensate them for their efforts – salary or commission?

Let’s start by looking at the two styles of compensation:

Salary – A fixed rate per pay period for your sales team. Provides them with steady income and some measure of loyalty. Doesn’t really provide motivation for reaching and achieving stretch sales goals. Doesn’t require any sales to obtain. A fixed cost your firm has to pay regardless of sales level.

Commission – A fixed rate per sale. Ultimately that means their pay is dependent upon making sales or they don’t receive a paycheck. Strong motivation to make sales and achieve stretch goals. This is a variable cost for your business and amounts can get very large based on sales volume. The good news is the variable cost is directly tied to sales in your business. However unreliable income could lead to employee turnover and increased training costs and sales ramp-up period.

There are big pros and cons to compensating your employees by salary or commission. So what is a janitorial business owner to do to fairly compensate sales professionals without breaking the bank and causing constant employee turnover?

The solution is actually a blend of the two. Provide your sales team with a marginal standard base wage or salary. This is critically important with new employees without industry contacts or an established customer base. It also helps with business seasonality and in economic downturns - like right now. You will see your sales team employee retention increase leading to lower turnover and training cost.

Balance the small standard salary with a commission opportunity based on sales goals. It could be a bonus structure for achieving certain sales goals or a scale that increases with the number of sales obtained. This will motivate your sales team to aggressively achieve sales and it will directly reward desired sales levels. The commission will also be paid out of sales, so the impact to your business will be based upon money coming in.

So as you can see, the answer to the age long question of how to fairly compensate your sales team is a blend of both salary and commission. It leads to happier and more stable employees that are motivated to drive sales, exceed quota and take your janitorial business to its next level of success.

If you’ve been in the cleaning industry for any length of time, you know more and more companies are going green.

Most government contracts have a green clause in their requests-for-proposals, many larger companies require some type of green certification, and many individuals are more environmentally conscious.

Some cleaning companies may see this as another obstacle or hassle, but smart business owners see the opportunity.

Go green, make green

As business becomes more competitive in general, contracts are being awarded to commercial cleaning companies who demonstrate better qualifications, higher standards, and more employee training than their competitors.

By presenting your green credentials - for yourself, other employees, and/or company-wide - you’ll put yourself ahead of your rivals and show your clients that you’re more prepared overall for their business.

Another financial benefit to going green is the opportunity to bid on jobs and contracts which require some type of green certification. By already having completed the training and certification, you can confidently bid on the job without worrying about how closely the reviewers will scrutinize your qualifications.

A third benefit is being ahead of the curve. The green movement isn’t a fad which will soon die out. Sustainable practices and eco-sensitive practices are gaining momentum and it’s not something any business can afford to ignore - especially janitorial services firms. By becoming green certified now, you’ll be ahead of the game as your competitors struggle to keep up with the new requirements more and more companies will be adhering to.

How to become green certified

The process to become green certified is relatively straight-forward. The first step is to decide on a third-party, verifiable certification company. You can start by simply searching on the internet. Search results of potentially reputable companies include Green Clean Certified (www.greencleancertified.com), Green Clean Institute Certification (www.greencleaninstitute.com), and Green Seal (www.greenseal.org).

After deciding on the certification you want to pursue, you have to decide on which level you want to be certified. Most have individual levels in addition to company levels, dependent on the company size. Review the requirements carefully, as some individual certifications are not allowed to be presented in an official bid or quote as proof of green certification.

Individual certifications are usually just under $1,000. Company-level certifications are usually $2,500 up to $10,000 or so.

Don’t look at the certification as a cost. Consider it an investment in employee training, in improved marketing, and in better odds at landing contracts.

It’s true - going green makes green.

Many janitorial service businesses purposefully stay small as a single owner-operator or a mom-and-pop operation. But if you want to create a great income that isn’t totally dependent on your own health, you’ll need a great team of people.

But in an industry where employee turnover is sometimes 300%, how do you do it? Here are just a few tips that can go a long way in creating an all-star team.

“Team”

The word is “team” - not “staff,” “employees,” or (heaven forbid) “the help.”

If you treat your people as if they’re temporary solutions and they’re going to leave at the first chance they get - that’s exactly who you’ll have. This centuries old management style of you-against-them just doesn’t work anymore. It’s too easy to go get another minimum-wage job than to put up with you.

There’s a very true saying: “People don’t quit their jobs - they quit their managers.” If your people absolutely love you and love their jobs, they’ll be willing to put up with a lot of negatives to stay in an environment they enjoy being in.

“An Ounce of Prevention . . .”

“. . . is worth a pound of cure.” It’s much easier to learn about someone’s background before you hire than afterwards. It doesn’t matter that commercial cleaning isn’t a glamorous, high-paying job - you need to only hire quality people.

Make applicants give you references, even if they don’t have an employment history. Talk to their former high school teachers or their family members to get a good feel for the applicant. Take the applicant out to lunch and talk about what you expect (and what they expect). By screening prospective team members, you’ll have a much better team all around.

“You Scratch My Back . . .”

“. . .and I’ll scratch yours,” as the saying goes. Employment is a two-way street. Your team members owe you their best effort if you’re giving them your best effort. If you give your team less than your best - by cutting corners on their paychecks, by neglecting safety, by demanding they work hours they never agreed to - don’t be surprised when they give you less than their best.

But if you look out for your team members - by not allowing clients to make derogatory remarks, by making sure their checks are accurate, and by keeping your word - you’ll be amazed at much loyalty you instill in your team.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and your janitorial service business won’t be built overnight. However, that’s not to say you can’t make money when you start out.

Many entrepreneurs hear about small businesses not turning a profit for their first year or their first five years. Forget that. Use these tips to avoid the hurdles to profitability.

Time is Money

If a client contracts you to perform a cleaning job and you estimate it will take 3 hours, you base your proposal on 3 hours of work, right?

Wrong. Think about how the time you took to talk with the client, inspect the facility, go over the details, and prepare an estimate. A lot of time goes into the sales process - not to mention the time for bookkeeping, equipment repair, and everything else that goes with a business.

If you’re  just starting out, consider sub-contracting to another cleaning service. Although you’ll be paid less, you’re saving the time it takes to chase after new clients. Plus, you can start making money right away, which you can invest in your business.

Flexible Costs vs. Fixed Costs

“A penny saved is a penny earned,” right? Profitability has two sides - income and expenses. If all you focus on is the income, like getting new sales, you’re missing half of the equation. You have to focus on the expenses too if you want to achieve profitability.

At the start of your business, don’t lock yourself into contracts and monthly payments (“fixed costs”). Try to stay as flexible as possible. Since you’re new, you don’t really know how stable your sales and income will be. If you lease a building or take out a loan for equipment, you have to make those payments every month - whether you’ve made a sale or not.

Don’t do the work and wait until the end of the month to figure out whether you’re making money or not. Try to make each project pay for itself completely. That way, when business is slow, you get to keep the money you would have spent on monthly payments.

Projects vs. Contracts

What would you do if someone handed you a blank résumé and said, “I don’t have much experience, but hire me for a guaranteed 40 hours a week and I’ll work hard.”

You’re putting your prospects in the same situation when you ask them to sign a monthly contract with your brand-new cleaning business. You’re asking them to pay you every month, and you haven’t really proven what you can do.

Instead of trying to land monthly contracts, consider going after projects instead. Projects could include being a sub-contractor for other cleaning services (as mentioned above), but more likely it would be going after smaller special events. For example, if your local Chamber of Commerce is throwing a gala, perhaps you can bid on cleaning up after that event. It’s a lot easier to convince someone to use you once than it is for them to agree to a recurring contract.

Another type of event is a disaster or an emergency. Think of fires, commercial realtors who need a property cleaned and ready to show, or apartment managers who evict a renter and want to rent the unit again as soon as possible.

The possibilities with a janitorial cleaning service are almost unlimited - and so are the ways to make, and keep, profit.

Why Green Chemicals Are A Must For Industrial Cleaning

If you look at the range of cleaning solutions available today, you can find two types of products: green chemicals and chemical detergents. Green chemicals are derived from plants and vegetables, while chemical detergents are synthetically manufactured. Green chemicals have the following advantages over the conventional chemical detergents:

1.They do not have any harmful effects on human beings or on the surfaces to which they are applied.
2.They easily and quickly biodegrade without causing any harm to the environment.
3.Contrary to the popular belief, they can be even more effective than chemical detergents.

Some Myths about Green Chemicals

Many people consider green cleaning products as ideal only for home and small-scale commercial cleaning jobs. They believe that chemical detergents are much stronger and therefore necessary for cleaning industrial products.
Their argument goes like this green cleaners lack the ultra efficiency of synthetic detergents. Since these products do not cause any environmental or health problems and are completely safe, they do not eliminate the dirt and impurities completely either. Therefore, one needs efficient artificial chemicals for carrying out large-scale cleaning jobs. However, this argument is no longer valid.
Why Such Myths are Easily Accepted

The reason for this belief is the modest performance of the earlier green chemicals.

These products were introduced about three decades back, when the scientific research strongly proposed the fact that the use of chemical detergents posed dangerous threats to users, the surface, and the environment as a whole. Researchers showed that chemical detergents did a fine job in removing and eliminating the stain, dirt, and other impurities from the surface. However, they can cause many health problems, ranging from deadly diseases like cancer to mild problems such as skin irritation.

Green chemicals were launched into the market because people needed an alternative to chemical detergents. However, earlier products were not as efficient as the latest green products. Many people who first used these products were not entirely satisfied with the performance, and still believe that today.

Busting the Myths
< 1000 br /> Utilizing advanced green chemistry and colloidal technology, today's green chemicals can actually perform better than chemical detergents, while posing no harm to the users or the environment.
As already mentioned, these products are sourced from plants and vegetables. They contain nano-sized particles that can filter into any surface. They break the bonding between the surface and the dirt or grease molecules. This process ensures that green chemicals are capable of breaking even deeply bonded stains and dirt residue.

The Need for Green Chemicals in Industrial Cleaning

The use of harmful chemical agents increases the presence of toxic substances in the work place, thus increasing the risk for employees to contract harmful diseases or worsen underlying illnesses.. If chemical detergents are used to clean the factory building and heavy equipment, the workers may be exposed to toxic residue left behind by these chemicals.

This problem can be solved by using green chemicals. In the long run, these are more cost-effective than chemical detergents, as they reduce the costs associated with disposal of hazardous agents. In addition, green chemicals ensure a long life for all the parties concerned: the equipment, the workers, and the environment.
Description:
The use of harmful chemical agents increases the presence of toxic substances in the work place, thus increasing the risk for employees to contract harmful diseases or worsen underlying illnesses

By: kanha

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

The Author is well aware of Green Chemical products and is an avid writer of blogs and articles. These green cleaning are used in Steam cleaners,carpet cleaners, Auto detailing and Pressure washers. For information regarding green chemical products visit daimer.com

There is a ready market for cleaning services in your area.  The business has had tremendous growth in the recent past.  Everywhere you look businesses and institutions are outsourcing their cleaning services.  This also happens to be your field of operation.  You know you have entrepreneurial skills that you can put into practice.  You would like to own a business and run it with your cleaning skills in mind.  The only thing stopping you is the fact that you don't want to hang out your shingle as a totally unknown person.  You want to remove the uncertainty of striking out completely on your own but at the same time, you'd like to own the business.

Make sure that you get a deep cleaning of the carpet

as often as it is needed.  To achieve a clean carpet,

you'll need to have it cleaned by a professional or

you'll need to use a deep cleaning machine.  There

are advantages and disadvantages to this method,

although a thorough cleaning is needed every six

months or so.