Let’s go way, way back in our ‘time machine’ to the 70’s or 80’s, when playing 18 holes of golf with the manager of a downtown building may have put you and your janitorial business on the fast track to landing a profitable new cleaning account.
Fast forward to today – how times have changed!
While networking to meet and build relationships will always be important, the shocking ‘ice cold splash of water in the face’ of what the business world is like today requires those hoping to be successful cleaning business owners – to see things as they are truly are!!
And how is that?
Well, just pick an industry. Automotive. Manufacturing. Industrial. Textile. Medical. Apparel.
Competition is fierce. Sales are tough. Profit margins are tight. Expenses are squeezed. And if they’ve already been squeezed once – they’re being squeezed again!
Now, back to our friend on the golf course;
Today, forget about missing a putt, our friend the property manager or building owner has a lot more to worry about than that and is under pressures like never before – to cut costs wherever and whenever possible.
What else is different today?
Well, for one thing, the players are
always changing. You’ve seen it.
Not only are the days when you could count on your favorite ball player staying with your favorite team for their career gone forever – so are the chances of your contact staying the same for very long at the building you would like to clean!
The result; you may end up one day soon, handing or emailing your cleaning bid or janitorial proposal in – to a total stranger (new contact) – leaving you stunned, realizing your longstanding relationship with the prior manager is gone… like a puff of smoke!
Ugh! Anything else?
Well, yes actually. The number of cleaning companies and level of price competition has never been greater.
Does the following sound familiar?
#1 Job loss in manufacturing, automotive and industrial jobs has created a rush of new eager, desperate, even reckless, competitors in the service industry – that’s right, including commercial office, as well as, residential cleaning.
#2 So, now your friend from the golf course, .may have 5 or 6 janitorial bids or cleaning quotes on his desk or in his email, rather then the 2 to 3 he used to get, plus his phone is NOW ringing twice as often with hungry new cleaning contractors asking to bid on the cleaning!!
Enough. Enough, you might say. Is there any light at the end of this dark tunnel?
Yes – it’s you.
That’s right – you may not be able to change the whole world, but you can change your world. We’ll talk about how you can change your cleaning business world for the better in the weeks to come.
You Can Do This, You Really Can!
Dan
Comments