As a young community association manager I was responsible for the management of 14 community associations simultaneously. Subsequently, being organized was key to performing my job well because you had to know when each owner wanted to review their financials, remember the different contractors and vendors, and remember which association members were on each boards. So of course I just had to be the Queen of organization right??? WRONG! I was a mess. One day my boss came to my desk and asked a great question, “how do you find anything in there”, to which I answered, “I know where I put my things”. Well, I didn’t know where I put my things, or more accurately some of the items may have been moved due to the barrage of debris inhabiting my work space. Subsequently, this began my journey into putting everything “in it’s place”.

​Looking back on my youth I would say that my dear Aunt Myra first introduced me to organization, and I believe I took it for granted. She would often scold me about putting her comb back in its spot, or cleaning up the sink and moving items back to their designated locations as soon as I was completed. I did not really understand how important and how useful this process would be in my home and for my business. The ability to have a designated location creates a clean, less confusing space that increases our capacity to thrive.

Most times when you are tasked with cleaning, maybe a messy room after a party, or an especially cluttered kitchen after a holiday meal, one quickly becomes overwhelmed and unable to even know where to begin. On the contrary, if you have a clear plan for organizing your space even the grand task of cleaning can become as routine as preparing for your day. Furthermore, organizing doesn’t have to be an expensive process.

View our 5 common household items that you can use to organize your home.

1) Use Corkboards to hang earrings and jewlery – Or basically anything you can stick to the board. Corkboards, old nets and/or screens are great alternatives.  

2) Use your walls for extra shelving – Go to Lowes, Home Depot or maybe even Wal-mart and purchase shelf brackets for as little as $3 each. Then purchase a board for your shelf and you are good to go.  

​3) Shoe racks are not just for shoes – Those cloth, behind the door shoe racks are my absolute fav for storing my combs, brushes, and bric a brac. There are so many compartments that are perfect for holding a nice bit of materials.  ​

4) Candlestick holders work great for medals, bracelets, and necklaces – I find myself adding bracelets, anklets, my Black Girls Run Running Medals, chokers, watches, etc. around any candle stick holder I can find. Not only does it hold most of my jewlery, it also looks so darn cute!
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5) Be creative – There are a number of items that you can use to store things from empty cans of peanuts, water bottles, or empty spice containers. Use your old noggin. You can always come up with another use for your common household things. 
 

As a first time cleaning entrepreneur I thought the best way to kick-start my business was to run an ad with living social. The program stipulated that I offered up to a 50% discount for my cleaning services, but I could add certain other requirements that would justify that cost, like limiting the time to 2 hours. Subsequently, I worked with my Living Social Rep to come up with a fabulous cleaning ad which offered a two hour cleaning for a very low $55.00 (retail price $79.95). Although I would have to considerably reduce the amount I was paid for the service, I figured the chance to partner with Living social could increase my clientele substantially. Therefore, the profits from the coupon and new clients would justify the cost of the cleaning voucher. 

Consequently, although I was able to retain a few clients from the coupons, I wouldn’t say that it provided the number of leads I projected. However, it did generate a few, but very loyal and successful recurring client relationships, two of which lead to other profitable business partnerships. Subsequently, the amount I paid for the advertising was returned in the form of new business…which was the ultimate goal.


Today, my company has grown a bit larger and accordingly, so has my advertising budget. I found that as I attracted more clients and increased revenue, continuing that upward trend required me to obtain even more clients. On the other hand, I could not just throw all of my money into advertising costs (which could cost thousands) I had to create an advertising plan and budget. In an article featured in entrepreneur.com  the author Williams gives us a formula for calculating your advertising budget. You start by looking at 10-12% of your annual revenue, deduct for some expenses and other contingencies, and then you derive a number to focus your marketing expenditures for that period.

Therefore, once you have your advertising costs, my personal advice is to create a focus for your marketing efforts. After the living social campaign I joined social media groups to learn more about the cleaning business. I found out that some great options for advertising to a wide demographic was by posting ads on Facebook, Google, Yelp and other websites. Subsequently, I devoted a great deal to each of these platforms, marketing different services and products on different sites, unknowingly spending up to 30% of my annual revenue. Consequently, I had to regroup and refocus my marketing strategy so that it was very strategic and effective.

I started by looking at the search results for each of my campaigns to discover which ones were the most effective. I then decided on which marketing services that I wanted to concentrate. As a cleaner we can focus on residential or commercial, or both. Maybe Google for commercial and Facebook for residential services. Subsequently, we were able to reduce costs for advertising expenses that we deemed ineffective, and increased investment in more profitable ventures. This ultimately reduced advertising costs and increased revenue.

​All in all, I would say that the ROI on my marketing/advertising costs may not have been what I expected, but overall I would say it was necessary. Right now I can do a search of A Step Above Clean Janitorial, and you will see my company listed, maybe not first, but somewhere close to the top. However, sans any effective marketing efforts I cannot be sure that searching for my company would yield any results. Subsequently, although you may look at your P&L for the month and cringe at how much you paid Blue Book.com for your 1 page flyer, do a comparison of how many contracts you were able to pick up this year and do the math. If you are in the black keep going, if you are in the red maybe its time to reassess. However, don’t stop those efforts because without them you probably will not even remain in the game.  

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