Home Cleaning Business Plan
Until about 10 years ago, business advice
gurus used to say that the best business to be in was the one you knew
most about!
That statement is disputable. And,
even if it were true then, it certainly is not true today! Here's why:
No matter what skills you have or what
trade or profession you are in, the amount of money you can earn is severely
limited by the number of hours in the day you can work. Aha!
So now we can say:
A better business is one in which you can
recruit and train others to do what you can do. This leaves you free to
manage and grow the business,
Even so, we still can t say that it is
best business to be in. We can t say it because some trades and professions
have much higher billable hourly rates than others.
Copywriting, and especially direct-response
copywriting, is undoubtedly one of the highest paid professions in the
world!
Copywriters tend to be pretty smart. A
copywriter and an attorney are discussing fees:
Lawyer: My fees start at $150 an
hour.
Copywriter: I charge from $1 a word.
Lawyer: Wow! I can't think of any
word worth a $1.Gimme an example?
Copywriter: Gimme a $1.
Lawyer: Okay. Here's your $1.
Copywriter: THANKS!
So, is copywriting the world s best business
to be in?
I say NO!
I say Info-Marketing on the Internet is
undoubtedly the world s best business to be in!
It doesn t necessarily have to be an e-book
that reveals copywriting
secrets and a list of words that sell.
Although that would sell well to a
business-2-business market. But it does
have to be an info-product that s designed to satisfy the needs and wants
of a specific niche market.
Simple, huh?
Well, not exactly. If it were that simple,
everybody with a how-to info-book and a direct-response website would be
rich.
As I see it, only about 5% of Internet
sites make millions. The remaining bunch of hopefuls is still struggling.
Jeff Walker, Product Launch a leading Internet
marketing expert, says:
Everyone has heard the story of the
Internet being paved with gold... but only a precious few are bringing
home that gold. There are thousands of websites that won't even break even.
Most of those sites are moribund... sitting there with products that don't
sell. They will wither away, and then get blown off the Internet like some
dried-up piece of tumbleweed.
Internet marketing expert, Cody Maya, Private
Label Books, says,
The average cost of a copywriting
project is $5,000--and that s just for one sales letter. You need three
things to succeed on the Internet:
#1. You need a great product.
#2. You need to be able to get traffic
to your site.
#3. You need to be able to convert
those prospects into customers.
Internet marketing is great. It is not
cheap. It is not easy and the learning curve for the average Joe Schmoe
is mind-boggling.
It takes a high degree of sophistication,
and a lot of money to buy the kind of tools that will enable you to put
your business on Auto-Pilot, while you lie on the beach in Hawaii
with your laptop and make a ton of money even while you sleep.
Yanik Silver, one of the top guns in Internet
Marketing told me he spent nearly $50,000 (a ton of money) on new products
and doing research last year!
So, I need to qualify what I said earlier
about selling an info-product on the Internet. Here s my revised statement:
Selling an info-product on the Internet
to a well-defined niche market is the world s best business to be in--for
those who know what they are doing and have the money to do it.
So, you can t just fly into flying.
You think big but you start small!
You have to learn to walk before you can
learn to run!
Some 30 years ago, self-made multi-millionaire
Joe Karbo stated a very simple truth:
Most people are too busy working
to make
a living to ever make more than just a
living.
In his book, How to Be Rich,
the late billionaire J. Paul Getty said that the only way to get rich is
to start your own business and work at making yourself rich, rather than
your employer!
For over 20 years I have been searching
to find an idiot proof business that could be launched by the
average Jack or Jill--and with no previous business experience and little
or no capital to invest.
I managed to identify seven businesses
that fit that bill.
Here s my list--not necessarily in order
of merit or profitability:
1. Home and Office
Cleaning
2. Handy Person Service
3. Window Washing Service
4. Publishing a Local
Ad Magazine
5. Computer Instruction
and Repairs
6. Painting and Decorating
7. Leaflet Distribution
8. Mobile Haircutting
and Beauty Service
9. Lawn Cutting and Yard
Maintenance
10. Taking Care of Snowbird
Vacation Homes
I have written a how-to business instruction
plan for each of the above.
Here s what I have to say about the Home
and Office Cleaning Biz:
You could be your own boss--starting today!
"10 Powerful Reasons Why Home and Office
Cleaning
is One of the World's Best Businesses
to Be In"
1. Low start-up cost.
2. You can work part-time or full time.
Keep your day job if you have one. Work
evenings and weekends. Don t quit your day job until you are sure you can
make more working for yourself than your employer.
3. No Hard Selling Involved
The service virtually sells itself because
98% of housewives hate housework so much they jump at the chance of having
a maid come in to the do all the dirty work.
4. Unlimited Demand For the Service
Today, as more and more women go out to
work, they have less and less time to do housework and look after a husband
and a family. If they can afford it, they jump at the chance of hiring
a trustworthy and reliable home cleaner.
5. High Hourly Rates
The standard minimum age is a miserly
$5.15 an hour. The average hourly rate for cleaners is $25 an hour. That
s more than four times the minimum wage. Average means that some cleaners
charge a low of $20 an hour and others charge a high of $30 an hour.
6. No Special Skills or Training Required
Either you know what to do or the house
owner tells you what she wants done.
7. The Target Market is Local and Very
Easy to Contact
8. Hot Prospects are Easy to Identify
People who can afford to hire a cleaning
maid live busy lives. They own large homes with two or more garages. They
reside in up-market suburban areas.
9. Very Simple and Inexpensive Marketing
Plan
The three best ways to get new customers
as regulars are:
One: Referrals from existing customers.
Two: Leaflet Distribution.
Three: Using a tested and proven telephone
script designed not to sell the service, but to make an appointment to
call and give a free estimate. Done right, the level of acceptance is a
high 86%.
10. Unlimited Growth Potential
While you can make $1,000 a week doing
two, four-hour jobs a day for
five days a week, the way to make really
big money is not to do any of
the work yourself!
The trick is to hire others to do all the
cleaning work.
This leaves you free to concentrate on
managing and growing the business.
As the Holly Noble, owner of a San Diego
based cleaning business, says,
You can t be soliciting new customers
when you are cleaning a toilet.
John s Home Cleaning Business Plan
is a fact-packed, step-by-step,
do-it-by-the-numbers guide that tells
you all you need to know about starting up and succeeding in a home-based
business of your own.
While it includes a lot of his own advice
on how to promote and manage
the business, the real value of the Plan
is that it contains in-depth interviews with nine successful cleaning business
owners who revealed their most closely guarded trade secrets.
Author-Bio: John O'Callaghan is CEO of
Entrepreneur's Network, Inc. John specailizes in business plans for home-based
businesses that can be launched with little or no money. Get 20 Start-up
Tips Free. johnoc29@aol.com |