Introduction

Hello, and welcome to Make Money Cleaning 101.

My name is Jeff Parker. I’ve been in the Janitorial industry now for over thirty-five years. During this time I’ve come to know what works and what doesn’t. And what works for starting a cleaning business is oftentimes surprisingly cheaper than what doesn’t.

This doesn’t mean that an expensive approach won’t work for you. If your pockets are that flush with cash and you want to be a janitor, by all means, go for it. But if you’re like so many who have plenty of ambition yet lives month to month on a restrictive bankroll, as I once did, then this manual and its inexpensive yet successful approach is for you.

There are several janitorial how-to books, manuals, as well as online tutorials for sale by other writers providing sound education to any individual seeking to start or expand a janitorial business. But the education they offer can be quite pricey.

This manual however, is free of charge and will provide the same education in an easy to understand format, but more importantly, one that gets you that first account at a cost that attempts to stay within a $100 budget.

Plus, after you get you’re first account, this manual will teach you cost-effective cleaning procedures, supply and equipment selections, and the one skill every janitor needs to know – vinyl tiled floor care (stripping, refinishing, polishing). From there we’ll discuss employee options, one of the most difficult situations, next to raising children, you’ll ever encounter.

I was only a teenager when my cleaning career began as a part-time grade school custodian. Okay, so it wasn’t my dream to think that this low-paying job would be my continued goal in life. But shortly thereafter I was quickly recruited by my girlfriend’s father who, having recently purchased a small janitorial business with a handful of accounts, needed my skills at running a floor buffer, a skill I had acquired as the aforementioned school custodian.

Using a few simple marketing steps, this company grew quite quickly. So lucrative was the potential that I started my own company.

But did I employ the same simple marketing steps to quickly advance my own company to riches? No, I did not! I so thoroughly complicated the steps, so completely emptied my wallet on expensive marketing and advertising techniques, that, by the time I actually acquired my first accounts, I was so deep in a financial hole that I couldn’t afford to pay both my bills plus employees. It was one or the other. And so the available money went towards paying my employees. When my phone became disconnected and my accounts caught wind of it, my credibility went out the window and these accounts, concerned for their own safety, canceled my services and went elsewhere.

After a year or so of licking my wounds and regaining my enthusiasm, I returned to the simple yet effective marketing approach that I had learned in the beginning. Within a year’s span, my company had $50,000 in annual sales (1980 dollars), and grew exponentially from there. And I started it all without going over $100.

It is my intention to teach you the same techniques as the effectiveness works just as well now as it did back then. And it will steer you away from the mistakes that I once made, and that other beginners still do.


Chapter 1__Three Easy Steps