Cleaning Business Life

CBL- EPISODE #80 Your Non 4 Profit Marketing Strategy for your Cleaning Business

• Shannon Miller and Jamie Runco • Season 2024 • Episode 80

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What if you could transform your cleaning business by giving back to your community? Join Shannon Miller and special guest Jamie Rumco, the owner and president of Above All Cleaning, as she shares her inspiring initiatives like offering free cleanings to the elderly and those in unique circumstances. Discover how Jamie’s heartfelt approach not only supports those in need but also strengthens community bonds. Shannon delves into the importance of setting boundaries to ensure these generous acts are sustainable and resentment-free, providing actionable insights on how to balance business and benevolence.

Explore the impact of community-focused programs like Allen's Day and learn strategic ways to market your cleaning services while supporting vulnerable individuals. From Jamie’s successful buy-one-get-one-free promotion to the significance of grassroots marketing, this episode is packed with tips on how to engage with your local community and expand your business footprint. Whether you’re contemplating donation-based models or looking to participate in silent auctions, this conversation offers a wealth of knowledge on making a meaningful difference through your cleaning business.

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Shannon Miller:

recording in progress. Welcome everyone. My name is shannon miller and I am your host of clean business life, and today I am joined by miss jimmy rumco I'm sure I'm probably butchering that this morning. I am um, I have joined a health coach and there is an am call and um. This is sign language for we're excited for you. So so I've now and now I've been programmed like a parrot and now I'm doing yay, and Jamie is the owner and president of Above All Cleaning in Northern California, so, and she has a very large service area and one day we're going to get her to talk all about that. But today we're going to talk about should you give free cleanings away, jamie? Have you ever given a free cleaning away?

Jamie-Runco:

I have. I have getting an engagement on in the beginning whenever, you know, we first started trying to get some traction, get our name out there. You know that we're an actual company. You know, I seen a lot of people, a lot of other companies doing the spin the wheel and you receive a free cleaning. Um, mine was geared towards, um, my elderly community and um, I just wanted somebody, uh, to pick somebody that they thought that um needed to have house cleaning. You know somebody that was older, so we do that sometimes. It's a special circumstance. A lot of these older people are on fixed incomes and you know're they're just one step away from going in a home or, you know, even if they can afford that, and you know, just, they lose their mobility. So I just, you know, pro bono, uh, give a free cleaning every now and again to somebody very deserving, and just that's where my heart's at sometimes.

Shannon Miller:

And there's a fine line between doing it pro bono because you want to, and being forced into it because so-and-so has decided not to pay. So I want to make sure that we have that line in the sand, that you understand that if you, as the cleaning business owner, decide that this is a circumstance beyond their control and that you were going to do something from the goodness of your heart, then commit, commit to it a thousand percent. If you cannot commit to the thousand percent, then don't do it, because then it becomes this whole resented hierarchy and it just eats away at you and it's just not worth the thought process in your head. So either commit to it or don't. You decide at all times.

Shannon Miller:

And there's several different opportunities where you can give a free cleaning away. If you're doing it for promotion, to get your name out there, if you're doing it just because it's community service, um, I have alan's day that we usually do in april. It's a small little subset of our area and basically alan was an old landlord who died in his home and no one found him for two whole weeks.

Shannon Miller:

Um, he'd been sitting there and his with the dog, you know, and the dog didn't eat him, thank goodness. We don't want to go there. But it's this whole dynamic of they. If they had called me, I would have happily have given over a weekly free cleaning or a bi-weekly free cleaning just to kind of help him maintain until the end. But he passed away all by himself and no one checked on him for two whole weeks Subsequently. That's how Allen's Day came into fruition and we cleaned this. Last year I believe it was 12 homes. It's on an application basis, only on a needed basis. It's not for the homeowner that has three homes and they don't want to pay, or they're asking for a discount for whatever reason, or they have nine cars and fifty nine cats and all of the stories we hear to get something for free. So make sure that you decide if you're going to do it or not. If you're not going to do it, it's totally OK. No one's going to pass judgment on you at all and it has to come from the heart.

Jamie-Runco:

And if it doesn't feel good and it doesn't come from the heart, then don't do it and and you know my employees are on board with this Like they they give their time to and yeah, or, or you know, and yeah, or you know parents that are going through a hard. Some parents are going through chemo and they just need that help around, or they have a very sick child and just you know, the last thing they want to do is clean their house. So, yeah, I believe I agree with you totally, shannon. It's got to come from the heart and not just to do it and offer off.

Jamie-Runco:

Yeah, free cleans. Now, we don't do that, we. We do it on a case-by-case scenario, um it's discretionary, it's not. Yeah, you owe me yeah, no, no, we don't do uh free like that we don't we don't yeah and there's a there's a lot to it.

Shannon Miller:

There have been times, um way back, when you guys all know I come from a cleaning background. I cleaned for a long time, um, and there were times where we walked into a house and you, you just, you're just shocked that they're living in these conditions and you're like, oh my goodness, we really need to get you to a safe space, because the whole goal is to keep them in their homes as long as possible, because nobody wants to go in captivity, and what I'm referring for those of you in the health industry.

Shannon Miller:

I'm not trying to downplay what you guys do, but we all know that most of the time, 99% of the time, if you go into captivity you never come out. That's all I'm going to say about that. So you, you will walk into situations and you have to make a gut call whether this resonates with you. In some circumstances, um, like with Alan's day, it's predetermined Everyone volunteers or times. And then in other times, when you walk into living situations that are absolutely horrible, you're paying your employees to do that on your own dime, because it needs to be done. It's a community service and it's your way of getting back, and you're not doing it because you want to get in the paper. And it's not a photo op, it's a discrete cleaning that happens usually without notifying social media at all.

Jamie-Runco:

Yeah, it's done very discreetly.

Shannon Miller:

No one wants to be shamed, no one wants to be embarrassed. So make sure that you understand that you cannot use those types of situations as a promo for your business, for before and afters, unless you have gotten permission from the person Absolutely. It can be really heartbreaking, and we're not here to shame or belittle anybody. We're here as an extension, to keep people in their homes longer, an extension of our community, and you really don't hear a lot about it because we're all pretty quiet.

Jamie-Runco:

Yeah well, I just not out here trying to toot my own horn, you know I just if you go through my Facebook page, you're not going to see that you will see that I am a non judgmental cleaning business owner and we love helping people that have mental health issues, people that have mental health issues, and trying to keep people in their homes for as long as possible, reaching for that independence and gaining and just checking in on them. You know, checking in on people, you know some people have checked out and they just it's so much more than cleaning. A lot of times it really is. It's such an emotional, it is it's a lot of emotional baggage on you, but it's my heart's so into this. I mean, I just absolutely love it and if you're going to do something like this, make sure that your heart because there's nothing worse than whenever you're at somebody's house cleaning for free and just mad the whole time because you're you know so it has to come from love.

Shannon Miller:

Right, right, yeah, there's. You know, like I said, we've walked in and they're like I can't afford this and there's lots, there's lots of things going on. So, basically, I'm like, you know, we're just going to be cleaning for free today, and everyone's like. And then, you know, the cleaning tech, of course, immediately thinks of themselves like I'm not, don't worry, I'm going to, I'm going to make sure you get paid, everybody's all.

Shannon Miller:

I'll be. I'll be happy to do so. So make sure that you decide what it is that you're going to do to give away for free. Now there's a couple of other things that you can participate in, and we've all heard of cleaning for a reason, which we're going to have a whole podcast on all of the do's and don'ts with cleaning for a reason. And then there's also with the American house cleaners association, service heart, those are two organizations that you can pay to join and they will match you up to someone in your community who needs cleaning and that could be your first baby step and there's marketing behind that and there's positioning that can go with your company because you're doing a good thing. Those things you can promote with permission, obviously, and that can be a good thing for you and your business. But with these types of cleanings, these very discretionary, private cleanings, that's a whole different aspect of that. Have you? Are you still part of cleaning for a reason? I am not.

Jamie-Runco:

The last time that they ever had. We're very rural up here, right, so I don't even know if they realized they had a program. I think the last time that they said they had somebody for cleaning for a reason over here was back in 2008. And I don't know. I was just, I was going to promote it and I was like, well, I'll just promote my own thing.

Shannon Miller:

You know you decide, then yeah yeah, it was a little conglomerate, and make your own thing too.

Jamie-Runco:

Yeah, it was something like you know, you pay $25 a month and they'll match you with with somebody that's going through cancer, that has cancer and yeah, I think the last person that was from 2006, 2007, something like that. It was crazy. So I was like you know, I just so, I just kind of thought, you know, I don't want to just that specific, I want to open my own thing and do my own thing for all that are in need, Whether you have cancer, you're elderly, your, your child is sick, those types of things.

Shannon Miller:

So, yeah, that gives you a lot of freedom, those types of things. So, yeah, that gives you a lot of freedom. The great thing about and we're not going to go into too much detail because we're going to have a full podcast about this, about cleaning for a reason is that they vet actual cancer patients who are really genuinely sick. Sometimes there is, unfortunately, fraud in the free cleaning elements where they're trying to hustle for a free cleaning and on top of hustling for a free cleaning elements where they're trying to hustle for a free cleaning and on top of hustling for a free cleaning. They're difficult and they're demanding and that you know they're just. They're just takers. There's givers and takers.

Shannon Miller:

I think most of us, as cleaning business owners, are givers and you know we're all. We're all the little cleaning nerds who just love to see the house after it's all been sparkly clean. We love to see the before and afters. But when you join one of the associations which we're going to I'm hoping to have an interview with both organizations they have the thing to help manage that. There is a small cost but they're actually vetting people. They're asking for proof that this person is actually seeing an oncologist or they're going through chemo or some sort of proof to provide that they really are genuinely in need.

Shannon Miller:

And then when you do the other element, like what Jamie does and what I do occasionally because I'm not, I used to be part of cleaning for a reason as well, and my business model changed from W-2s to actually entirely 1099s. So it just works out better if I have just an Allen's Day or Allen's Days plural, as in more than one, and that works out better for my immediate community. As far as I know, I am the only cleaning business owner in Northern Arizona that actually gives back that way and it's a great way to say you know, when they go, I can I have a discount? I get a lot because I'm a senior based community. Can I have a discount? I'm like I'm really sorry, we don't give any discounts. What we do do is give $6,000 back to the community by giving out free cleanings for cancer patients or people's needs.

Shannon Miller:

That kind of qualms, it squishes it. What are they going to say? You still need to give me a discount. That's the workaround, right? Yeah, right.

Jamie-Runco:

So you actually put it like as a line item in your yes.

Shannon Miller:

Right, okay, certain amount, and the amount is obviously when I had my other business it was much larger that that portion of what we give away is a lot lower than it is now. I think we gave out a thousand dollars this year versus in the past. We've given out consistently $6,000 a year and that was just my commitment. I know of other cleaning business owners that give away, that they hit every single cancer patient in their area and that is just how they, that's just what they're known for and that's the way of giving back and that's what comes from them.

Shannon Miller:

But you can do something. If you don't want to get too involved in a larger organization, you can do your own thing and that's how I came out with Allen's Day, because there was a genuine need and it is an application basis. They have to send me an email and tell me why, and then I it's yay or nay, you know, and it's only the one time a year. So we like usually a weekend, you know I'll bring donuts, we'll have coffee, and I always forget to promo it. Like next year, I think we're gonna do t shirts versus we've not done anything. We've just shown up and clean and left it was yeah.

Shannon Miller:

I didn't take advantage of the opportunity Like, hey, this is our great thing that we're doing. So I'm not promoting myself, but I was just focused on the task at hand and getting things done. And you know, we had a babysitter that day for everybody who had kids. They played at the park with the babysitter and they had someone to donate lunch while we were all out cleaning that day. I mean, there was a lot of behind the scenes work that happened. So there's those types of free cleanings and then there's the. You know, hey, I'm new and my friends and family want to get free cleanings. Should you do that?

Jamie-Runco:

No, and I've been asked, I've been asked, I've been asked you, I just or, um, uh, you charge how much an hour, right? Yeah, oh wait, and it just oh, come on, it's just clean.

Shannon Miller:

You just have to broom it.

Jamie-Runco:

It's not that it's a quick wipe down. I don't see any anytime. It's always oh, it's just a quick wipe down, especially move in, move out. It's always a quick wipe down and um no, I've learned my lesson it's always a shit show, really, really.

Shannon Miller:

Yeah, they always say it's a quick wipe down, it's a shit show. How about um giving free cleanings away for raffles or silent auctions? What's your thought about that?

Jamie-Runco:

I never have. I haven't raffled. Oh wait, yes, I have. I have raffled off my chamber. Whenever I got a 2023 Green of the year award. Um, part of a silent auction, I auctioned off a free bathroom, kitchen, deep clean only. Um, I made sure that it was specific to just those areas. If they wanted to add on the inside of the oven, they could do so. We charge a hundred dollars. In an oven or in the inside of a fridge, we do 125. You know, but we raffled off that and it brought in $350. Yeah, so yeah, we do on bigger things like that. Whenever we go to these chamber meetings and out there networking, we bring in some of the some cleaners that we use and, um, we raffle stuff like that off. So, yeah, that's awesome.

Shannon Miller:

I um have raffled items off when I've insisted that I am part of a package, like a gift basket, like a gift basket, or I have not participated in silent auctions and unless it's like bunched together, I really try to stay away from silent auctions. Only because someone wins, because you know five people show up to the silent auction and someone wins $5 for $5, they won $1,000 package and it's not really benefiting the whole thing. Again, I reiterate, you have to be able to get from your heart freely. So I have an issue with it personally because I don't see the value in it. But with raffle tickets, if you're getting enough movement with raffle tickets, it does benefit the organization that they're trying to raise money for, whether it's your chamber or whatever non-for-profit they're raising for, trying to raise money for, whether it's your chamber or whatever non-for-profit they're raising for. And you have to be very specific with the price and you can put an expiration date on it, should you choose to do so. I've actually learned the hard way that if you don't put an expiration date on it, they'll lose it and find it and go. Can I still redeem it and you can just add on whatever your rates are and then that usually gets them in the door and gets them on regular service. It's just they lost and found it.

Shannon Miller:

Um, and then what about if you're giving away, like gift certificates? Have you, have you given away gift certificates to get a free cleaning? That, uh, I okay. So I.

Jamie-Runco:

I did something in order to uh buy my house. I uh for my down payment.

Jamie-Runco:

I needed to come up with a lot of money within the ground running. And um, what I did was I for? Um, and current clients I put you know, have I gone crazy? I'm doing buy one, get one free. I've done it like that. Now, that was a whole different story. But a lot of people your community when they see something like that, they're like okay, what is she up to? And your current clients are like there's something going on here, what so they took me on what? Are you trying to get a down payment for a car? What's going on? But sign me up, I'm for all for it. And um, I did. I came up with $15,000 in a matter of 30 days.

Shannon Miller:

You know all the bills, all the bills still come in, and life does not stop so that's the rare exception that was 15 grand on top of all her expenses that she was able to finagle in 30 days or less.

Jamie-Runco:

Yeah, we're talking. We're probably $10,000 in bills a month. So it was. It was probably one of the best months I ever had, and I believe that also, if you're in a smaller town, like I am, people see you whenever you're out there pounding the pavement like that and just screaming and shouting out that you are over here, I am here, I am an actual company, I am, you know, I am doing this and people kind of embrace that and want to help.

Shannon Miller:

So community is so in collaboration. I cannot emphasize that enough If you guys are not involved in your community. Jamie, actually her um her work vehicle is at Starbucks, so everybody everybody.

Jamie-Runco:

There's a reason behind that madness, because you know, my car is not fully wrapped but the back windshield, everybody knows me as I got the hot pink tennis shoes, the hot pink shirts and black, and whenever they call, they always see me at Starbucks because I can do a lot of work there. Wi-fi, Wi-Fi. And it just dawned on me that, hey, this is a great marketing place. There's so many people, there's a Walgreens there and our community is so small that whenever I get those phone calls, how did you find me? Well, you're Jamie, you're always at Starbucks. Oh, okay, it just dawned on me. It was like so okay, that's, that's a good idea. So I just took it and ran with it.

Shannon Miller:

I think that's awesome. It's, it's, it's a double-edged sword right. You get free Wi-Fi and you get free advertisement, just for parking there and utilizing the facility. There's a lot of things that go on with free cleaning, so let's talk about should you give them the regular onboarding paperwork? So when you're doing a free cleaning, you've decided that you're going to do it and it's not on the fly. It's been a pre-prescribed either raffle or however they've come to get the free cleaning. Are you making your free cleaning sign onboarding paperwork?

Jamie-Runco:

Yes, yep, all right, you got to. You got you absolutely. Every person needs to know your boundaries Right and that, just that just quits all the questioning, or? You know it answers a lot of questions, for for them too, you know. Oh, okay, yeah, well, see, you signed right here. You know, if you wanted to add on the oven, my prices are on there. If I'm busting out a drill or one of my cleaning techs is busting out a drill, that's an extra charge. Some people don't know, never had a housekeeper, so they don't know what to do with all their stuff. And we make sure that they know that. You know, pick up all your stuff so that we can concentrate on the cleaning, because if there's more than 60, 70% clutter on there, my cleaning techs have the right to choose to go over, because it's just up, down, up, down, up, down, wipe, wipe, wipe. All their little trinkets, all the little things that they have, you know. So, yeah, I think so it has to. You have to set those boundaries right off the bat, right off the door.

Shannon Miller:

And the other thing about setting the boundaries is that it primes the pump for tipping, and I know tipping has been exasperated. Last I don't know year and a half, there's been a lot of weird things going on. Everybody's asking for a tip and you've been tipping. Well, at least for us, tipping is just part of the process. With cleaning services, you can either tip or not tip. There's no pressure to do so. But most people don't know that they can tip the cleaning techs, that they can tip. You know those types of elements and that it's an idea.

Shannon Miller:

It's like your server, right, you're tipping your cleaning tech because they've worked really hard for you, and so in the paperwork, the onboarding paperwork, it mentions you know tipping is greatly appreciated but not required.

Shannon Miller:

A good range of tipping is, you know, you know, 20% or 10% or 8%, whatever it is that you decide, because you know 8% of 400 bucks can be a lot for some people. That go, well, what's going on here? And it says you know, we, we. And it also says we prefer that you tip in cash. That way we're not involved in the process, which is better and less paperwork, right, yeah, tax them on it. And I know that there's someone who's running for president, who has no tax on tips which I hope that actually comes into fruition, because I don't think that you should tip on those types of things but make sure that it's mentioned in your onboarding paperwork. Make sure that your people who are getting great cleanings understand that a tip is greatly appreciated and you're going to give them the same service. It just primes the pump for the opportunity, should they choose to do so, to give out one, wouldn't you agree?

Jamie-Runco:

Yes, absolutely, don't you agree? Yes, absolutely. And I have a lot of people that always one monthly clean. Every month. They call me and, hey, jamie, is it okay if I tip your employees? What? Yes, yes, I prefer that they do cash Again. I don't want to be involved in it. It's like, oh man, they do cash again. I don't want to be involved in it. It's like oh man, because then then, um, not only did I run your credit card and I just got taxed on it. Then I have to give the amount to the cleaning tech and then they get taxed on it.

Jamie-Runco:

So it's a double taxation, yeah, it, and it does um. So, yeah, if you do tip, tipping cash please, but you should be, you should, you should be charging enough to where you know a lot of the times they're like or they'll make it, um, you know, if, if you're charging, I don $190, they'll be like making it even $200, you know $10. I get a lot of those.

Shannon Miller:

Right. So make sure that there's always that opportunity for your cleaning tech to be tipped and, like I said, it says in the paperwork while we appreciate you tipping, we prefer gosh.

Shannon Miller:

That way you don't have to do an extra step, or your back office or whoever's handling that stuff doesn't have to take the extra step to. You know, to lighten your load Right, because we need to lighten our loads because we have a lot of hats that we wear with that. So those are some of the free cleanings that you should do or consider. When you have a cleaning business business, there are going to be people who constantly sorry, I thought they put this on airplane mode who constantly will ask for free items. And there are givers and there are takers in our industry and if you allow your clients to take advantage of you, they will.

Shannon Miller:

I've had many people say to me you're very firm and you're you know you're you're just very like on the dot, on the dot, on the dot. And it's taken years to get things to run smoothly. Like when I have people come in from other cleaning companies or they're just now stepping their toe and doing their own thing. They're like I'm amazed I hear it all the time Everything just runs really smooth and I'm like, yeah, it takes practice. Make it easy on yourself that you have your free cleanings, sign paperwork.

Shannon Miller:

I also require that the free cleanings leave a credit card on file. And if they need to cancel I don't ding them like I would a normal client, but they don't get to have the free cleaning Then they have to decide it Like normal client. But they don't get to have the free cleaning, then they have to decide it Like I've done, where they don't get to have the free cleaning at all, or I've reduced it in half and they have to pay the difference. So it's reciprocity, right, you're giving a little back.

Shannon Miller:

They understand that there's a consequence for canceling and sometimes, especially with cancer patients, they just had a really bad chemo session, right. So then at that point you have to decide whether you're going to ding them or not or you're just going to excuse it. I mean, nobody says, hey, I want to go through chemo, right. You have to decide where that line is for you and your crew, and if you can afford it in your schedule and you don't got a lot going on that day, then maybe you can afford to forgive them because they don't feel well from chemo. It's entirely up to you. Remember that you decide how it's going to go down, not the cleaning person who is asking for the service, right?

Jamie-Runco:

Right, this is your business and you're going to start oiling it up and get it running like a fine machine and just, yeah, get those policies in place, get those contracts. I don't call them contracts, I don't know. I steer away from contracts, agreements.

Shannon Miller:

Or welcome to the family Welcome aboard.

Jamie-Runco:

That's a welcoming packet, right, and that's just my welcoming packet, is just my boundaries of what we will do and not do and what my employees will do and not do, right.

Shannon Miller:

So that there's no weird gray area of you know. Hey, can you do this versus this? Yeah, I think I've covered all of the free cleanings, is there? Maybe did I forget one. I think I got it all.

Jamie-Runco:

We did raffles, we did silent auctions. Yeah, no, I think we're golden doodles, golden doodles, golden doodles, golden doodles.

Shannon Miller:

Well, this concludes our podcast on free cleanings. We look forward to your questions. You can actually send us a text message on our hosting website, which is Buzzsprout. We're on all of the major distributors of podcasts. You don't always have to go to Buzzsprout If you like us download our stuff, and then, of course, we always love reviews. So thank you so much for your time and thank you for joining us. Thank you, Jamie.

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Jamie Runco

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Shannon Miller

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