Expanding Your Horizons If you’re thinking of making the jump from commercial to residential cleaning, keep these tips in mind. By: Teresa Ward W Teresa Ward, president of Teresa’s Family Cleaning and New York State’s Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year, is often considered Long Island’s foremost authority on cleaning homes and businesses to create a cleaner and healthier environment for all. Our highly sought after, award-winning weekly newslet-ter provides timely cleaning tips and other important Long Island information and charitable events for homeowners, businesses and not-for-profits. Visit us at www.TeresasFamilyCleaning.com to sign up and receive your copy today. Sussing Out The Shift The first thing a commercial company needs to assess when making the leap to residential clean-ing is the question of staffing. Often, there is a reason people prefer a night or weekend job over a day-shift job; as an employer, you’ll need to understand that they haven’t cho-sen this lightly. There are numerous reasons — family needs, educational schedules, etc. — why a staff mem-ber may be unable to add additional hours to their schedule. If you find that this is the case with your staff, you’ll have to hire additional team members to cover your newly offered hours of operation. So, before making the leap, talk to your staff, for more info Visit www.cmmonline.com and type in search keyword: Contract Cleaning . For more information on related products, visit www.cmmonline.com , select SUPPLIER SEARCH from the main navigation bar, and enter keyword: Residential Cleaning . Although the building is different, some of the same equipment used for commercial cleaning can be employed in residential settings. 34 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • March 2011 Image courtesy of Prochem When looking to increase revenue, making the jump from commercial to residential cleaning — or vice versa — can seem like a ready-made solution. You already have the equipment you need and the know-how to use it — or do you? There are some fundamental differences between commercial and residential cleaning companies and, when making the jump from one to the other, they are the most important things you’ll need to consider before expanding out of your established market. Commercial cleaning companies are largely off-hours operations. Working at nights and on weekends, they come in when office staff are gone and busi-nesses are closed. Commercial cleaning staffs have to cover a tremendous amount of space in a limited time. While the square footage in a commercial cleaning setting can be enormous, there are fewer nooks and crannies to hit than there are in a residential setting; there is a lot less content with which to contend. feel them out and see how many of them would be willing to make the transition. Having existing staff members involved in your newly expanded hours can help ease the transi-tion for you as a manager, as they will be familiar with your company’s policies and expectations and can help to communicate that information to any new staff you need to hire. The second difference between commercial and residential cleaning is centered on training. Residential cleaning is a much more personal operation than commercial cleaning. Don’t forget, while people may spend a tre-mendous amount of time in the office, very few of those people consider it their personal space. When performing residential cleaning, your staff is being invited into your client’s home.
CMM – Archives Mar 2011: 34
