Are you constantly rolling tasks over on your to-do list from one day to the next? Do you run out of hours in the day and feel like you are meeting yourself coming backwards?

It may be Time to Hire…Here are 3 Signs it’s time to hire in your cleaning business.

When your cleaning business starts to grow, you will begin to run out of hours in the day to get everything done. You cannot quote, do the admin, collect the stock, train cleaners and even clear yourself as your client list gets bigger.  How do you know when to hire an employee for your cleaning business… will it be at 5 clients? 10? When the moon turns blue? How will you know that you are ready?

Read on to learn about the 3 signs it’s time to hire in your cleaning business.

1. You are starting to turn down offers of work or quotes with new clients.

You are only human, and you only have 24 hours a day, during which time you need to sleep, eat and relax in between running your cleaning business. If you cannot keep up with the demand for work, or if you still clear yourself, you cannot squeeze in another clean – it may be time to hire a staff member for your cleaning business.

If you cannot keep up with the demand for cleans or quotes and work crazy hours daily, you must hire or let something go. If you are not ready to hire and don’t let something go or slow down your pace, you will end up very sick, rocking yourself in a corner, or potentially both!

DO: Start thinking about what duties you could give to someone else within your business if you hire an employee for your cleaning business. What duties or tasks would ease the pressure on you daily? What sort of help is it that you need? Do you need admin help and support, or do you need another cleaner? What would make the most significant difference for you?

** Before taking on an employee, I advise you to check your finances and cash flow to ensure that you can afford to pay your new team member and supply them with a uniform, cleaning kit and cloths, as you won’t recoup that money until your new employee is working and generating an income stream **

2. Are you constantly being asked for a service you don’t provide in your cleaning business?

For example, if you provide domestic cleaning, do you often get asked if you clean commercially too?

If you are always asked about a particular add-on or service that you think would be financially worth your while, it may be time to consider hiring someone with those specific skill sets to take on that work. I would advise doing market research and seeing a) Is there a demand for that service in your area? b) Who already offers this service and does it well? c) What are the typical charge rates for that service, and how much profit is there?

If the service you are constantly asked about, like oven cleaning, comes with a large financial outlay and training costs even to get up and running, you could still offer it to clients by building alliances with other service providers local to you.

I would recommend buddying up with another cleaning or service provider in your local area whose business does offer that service and who you think is an excellent business to be associated with. If you refer business to your peers in the local area, it is good karma for you. The referrals will help you build business relationships and have you known as a generous business leader (plus, they are more likely to refer business back your way). After all, the best compliment you can give another business is a referral.

You could also think about sub-contracting in another cleaning business or service, but be careful with how you do this – I used to subcontract carpet and oven cleaners into my deep cleans. The clients would pay me for everything on one invoice, and I would then pay the other contractors. This method raised my turnover but made my profit margins look weak. I would recommend being the ‘project manager’ and coordinating the other services (and charging a rate for being the orchestrator) but supplying all invoices separately to the client for each service.

DO: Consider what other services would work well with your cleaning business. Reach out to other local businesses and offer to refer them to your clients if they do the same with you – carry each other’s business cards and refer them whenever asked bout a particular service.

3. Are you getting bad client feedback? Yikes!

If your clients are starting to complain, expectations are not being met, and something is going wrong somewhere along the line.

If you are a sole owner-operator, you are probably doing EVERYTHING yourself; the cleaning, the banking, the invoicing, the product order, the marketing, the sales, the accounts, and the million other small jobs in between… (breathe)

Could you be spreading yourself too thin by trying to do everything? Are you so busy that although you try to do everything, you can’t seem to manage it or keep up? Do you feel like you are living at a million miles an hour?

If you do, you have three choices:1)  scale back your business to a manageable level, 2) hire an employee for your cleaning business, or 3) or outsource your weakest business areas/tasks to save time (and sanity).

For example, if you do your bookkeeping and you suck at it (be honest, you know you do), plus it takes you daaaaayyyyyysssss to get it done – my advice would be to outsource it to a bookkeeper who can do this task correctly and in less time than you can.

It would take a qualified bookkeeper a fraction of the time it takes you to do your bookkeeping, AND you can spend the time you usually would on your accounts making money for your business instead! Result!

DO: Take the time to look at all your tasks and duties within your business. Highlight your weakest and most time-consuming areas – how much time and money could you save by giving these tasks to someone else?

Take a look at sites like Fiverr, Upwork, Freelancer, and PeoplePerHour for outsourcing options (Pst! It doesn’t cost as much as you think) 

Here is the vlog from the Maid In Business YouTube Channel – 3 Signs It’s Time To Hire In Your Cleaning Business