You have been running your window cleaning business for a few years now; you might even be way into the role of an employer. But you want to succeed further, right? You want to be EPIC!
You may even have that hungry fire deep down in your belly, the fire that screams out, “ Take over the World!” ..And that’s great. But how do you go from your gut instinct and desire to growing a large successful window cleaning, pressure washing or soft washing business?
One key element is SYSTEMS.
What is a SYSTEM?
A system is like a company’s reference point, a working corporate bible that guides all employees so that everybody conforms to your corporate standards, procedures and qualities. It is the tool that you use to teach new recruits with, the tool that keeps the company message uniformed.
But it is also much more than that. Systems can set out clearly how much a job should be charged out, for example. It would cover everything from your pricing structure, your customer service, how you clean a window right down to how you or your staff will answer the phone.
So, how do you start a SYSTEM?
It’s very easy once you get into the flow of it. Start by breaking your business down into chunks. So, window-cleaning activity, sales calls, customer service and so on, for example. Everything you do in your business you list. Then under every title in your list you think about how you want your business to carry out that task.
Let’s take ‘Sales’, you might list under Sales things like Sales Prospect Calls, Pricing Jobs (over the phone) and Up Selling. You would then analyse what you do with each of these jobs, and look at how you do it and what you want to set as your corporate standard. You then get this down into a written format so that everybody can relate to it. Make it clear, step by step instructions. Make it foolproof.
A system needs to be picked up by anyone, even new recruits, and from that staff should be able to deem how a ‘job’ should be done and in what manner and what is expected of them.
Of course it goes without saying that new staff will have one to one training and that this training will include your system, but it is also there for people to reach for, should they want to clarify a procedure that they are not sure about.
SYSTEMS will free you from your business ( more about this later).
This SYSTEM builds up into as many volumes as you see fit covering every aspect of your business. It then becomes the corporate framework readying you for that HUGE, EPIC growth… go get ’em Gazelle’s….
Window Cleaning Magazine will have more on Systems for your business from our carefully selected writers, such as Peter Artusa.