How to run your cleaning business more efficiently

By Sonia Simpson

Business books and guides are filled with ideas and tips on how to run a successful business. Essentially, it all boils down to two things: planning and organisation. But those can be difficult to achieve if you are spending most of your time working in the business, and not on the business. Many business owners are hands-on when it comes to their own companies and not all can take the time to plan and organise – think of the times you have been short staffed and have had to cover one of your cleaning jobs. But there is a way to take the pressure off and help your business to run smoothly and get it ready to grow.

How can you make extra time?

There are only so many hours in the day and a good way to extend these hours is to delegate. Find the tasks you either don’t enjoy doing, but are essential, or those that take up too much of your time, because they’re outside of your skillset. One of the best things you can do as a business owner is outsource those jobs. None of us is expert at everything and once you recognise that, you will quickly find aspects you are happy to outsource.

Who can you outsource to?

Who you outsource to comes down to what you want to outsource. Some specialist areas, such as accounts and tax returns, need to be allocated to specific professionals. But most day-to-day and administrative jobs can be handed over to a virtual assistant (or VA), such as Smart PA, who are experienced, professional and able to handle a wide variety of business processes, including those of a cleaning company. You will be allocated a dedicated VA who can take over all the time-consuming but necessary jobs. For example:

• Call answering: switch your phone number to your VA and you’ll never miss a call or new enquiry. An easy way to cut down on lost revenue!
• Scheduling: from scheduling in new regular customers to accommodating one-off cleaning requests to creating and managing a client scheduling system from scratch.
• Invoicing: follow up every client’s job with an accurate and timely invoice and follow up any that are unpaid.
• New systems: allow your cleaning business to develop by putting in place robust invoicing, scheduling, marketing and CRM systems. Your VA can convert your existing data into time-saving and easy to manage new systems which could cost you as little as £60 a month.
• Manage the client journey: a VA can look after a new client from their initial enquiry, all the way through to booking them in as a regular repeat customer. All calls and enquiries are followed up and no potential new clients get lost in the system and overlooked.

These are just some examples of how a VA could help. Once you reach the decision to work with a VA, you will probably find all kinds of tasks you have been putting off or overlooking, simply because you didn’t have the time to give them the attention they needed.

The single most important aspect of using a VA, however, is the fact that it will allow you to spend time managing and developing the business. You can step away from the important but very time-consuming day-to-day running of your business and focus on long term growth plans. Proper downtime at the weekend too as you will no longer have to spend time trying to catch up with paperwork.

What about the cost?

Smart PA offers a range of time-based packages with no long tie-in contract so you can have as much or as little assistance as you need. We work with companies of all size and there a number of cleaning businesses we already assist. We would be delighted to have a call with you to see how we can help, so please call me on 01737 910 803 or message me at sonia.simpson@smartpasupport.com.

Utilising a VA does have a cost attached to it. But if you start adding up all the time you spend trying to juggle the admin, the potential revenue you lose to clients you can’t get back to, plus your off kilter work/life balance, and the cost of a VA suddenly becomes negligible.

Sonia Simpson