Hi there Steve,
I have a one truck company with zero employees and I am very proud of it. I don’t want (or even need) to do 5 or more jobs a day. And I don’t want to work more than 5 days a week. (I’ve got three little boys under the age of ten in the house!)
I have been thinking of attending SFS but don’t see how it would apply to my situation. I just don’t want to “get big” with all the headaches that come attached. I just want to make enough to be comfortable, take care of my family and introduce them to the joys of travel! So what would SFS do for me in this situation?
Florida Cleaner/ Family Man
Dear Florida,
First, Florida, congratulation on having defined your priorities AND for sticking to your guns. I see far too many cleaners sort of limping through life, unsure of where they want to go OR how they are going to get there! And yes, I agree that family always trumps business!
BUT last time I checked, growing families like to eat/ buy clothes/ have a roof over their head and even maybe go to college down the road. All this takes money and a lot of it coming in consistently. And while I know you are violently “anti-rich” as an owner-operator you are in a precarious position with all these pending obligations.
No matter what your personal definition of success is- at SFS we teach concepts that will set you apart from virtually all other cleaners. Implementing this approach will make a big difference in how your customer perceives the value you provide AND therefore let you charge more! (Charging more is a good thing!)
My favorite SFS concept is that of the “Cheerleader Customer”. SFS teaches you the true lifetime value of a lifetime Customer Cheerleader. (Hint: It is well into five figures!) We also teach HOW to Make the Cheerleader and give you a written, systematic infrastructure to developing these delighted clients. The result? A perpetual stream of repeat and new referral business with virtually ZERO money invested in marketing!
Frankly, Florida, the “Make the Cheerleader” philosophy is ideal for the owner operator. It allows you to drastically decrease advertising expenditures thus putting more money in your pocket. (You will also be able to free more time up for travel!)
But wait- there’s more! Setting yourself apart allows you to charge more as well. Why? Because Cheerleaders are delighted to pay you “more than the going rate”. Plus people referred by Cheerleader also expect to pay a premium price- so let them!
So Florida, even if you have NO intention of growing larger, SFS will help you do a better job, have much better customer relations, and create a much, much better and enjoyable work experience for you and your customers.
If after attending SFS you choose to stay small that is great. In fact, quite a few of our SFS graduates make a conscious decision to stay small. They use what they learned at SFS to dramatically raise their prices and take-home profit. Works for me!
Steve Toburen
PS If you do decide to stay small it is even more important that you learn how to deliver Value Added Service so you can command premium prices to fund that comfy retirement!