GROWING A GREAT GREEN HOUSE CLEANING FRANCHISE: DURING THE GREAT RECESSION

We started Better Life Maids in the summer of 2008. Right before the first run up in the price of oil, and what was to be one of the largest economic crisis’ in US history. Even with a then strong economy, most people thought we were crazy to start a business at all. I had a successful career as an airline pilot, and in general we were doing well. My wife Angela did not work at the time, but she had previously worked in management and as a volunteer coordinator for several non for profits. Most of our family just did not understand why we would want to start any business, let alone a house cleaning business.

And if we were most people, I would have agreed. Starting a business from scratch is tough to begin with, and starting one during the Great Recession as this period is coming to be known, a period of economic uncertainty, was even more challenging. In the end we have created an extremely successful brand, I have been able to quit my job as a pilot, and we even built a franchise system based on our green house cleaning business model. So why did we succeed when so many others failed? I have included 5 of the most important reasons we have thrived, and if you look at the opposites of these reasons, why many other businesses have failed.

1. Keep A Positive Outlook: During a recession, it is hard not to get sucked into the negative. The media and it seems like everyone else seem to believe the sky is falling. In fact its just raining a little more than usual. In that care carry an umbrella. It helps if you just don’t watch the news every day. I am not saying that you should be unrealistic, or be unaware of what is going on in the world. But if you do maintain your positive outlook, keep your eyes open, and aren’t running for the hills you will see their are opportunities all around you. We saw several opportunities with Better Life Maids. The green segment was one such opportunity. We saw that consumers were looking for ways to make their homes safer and greener. We also realized that home cleaning services was a growing segment of the economy. We capitalized on two growing segments of the economy. Sometimes you are in the right place at the right time. But it doesn’t hurt to keep it positive.

2. Deliver Excellent Customer Service: Many companies talk about excellent customer service, but truthfully very few deliver. Better Life Maids is not about being perfect, but we do know that the reason we are in business is to regularly meet our clients expectations, and provide them fair value for a service offered. But meeting their expectations is just not enough. You have to consistently exceed those expectations. We talk about it as the “client experience”. All of our executive positions are based on that experience, Chief Experience Officer, all the way down. It’s just not enough to talk about the client experience, you have to own, feel it, live it every day. In today’s connected world you will know pretty soon if you are a 3 star business, or a 5 star business. So treat each client like you would want to be treated, like they are a 5 star client. And most importantly own your mistakes. You will make lots of them, so admit them, and fix them. To me, nothing speaks of customer service more than when a company realizes that its first attempt didn’t quite hit the mark, and goes out of its way to make it up. Sure it would be great if they had got it right the first time, but I truly believe that the true measure of a great company is how they own up to their shortcomings.

3. Give your clients real value: A lot of businesses went running for the hills when the recession hit. Mostly because when times are tough people seek out real value, and the businesses that don’t are the ones in trouble. Banks are a perfect example, for the most part I think of banks as moocher businesses. Banks are always trying to add fees, and extract more without giving more service. The same could be said for some of the missteps of Netflix in 2011. While value does reflect a fair price, it certainly does not have to mean cheap. If fact most people will pay more for something if they think the added value is worth the extra cost. For the most part Better Life Maids has always been one of the more expensive house cleaning services in the markets we serve. Yet we continue to outgrow our competition. One of our biggest added values is superior staffing. How we get there is our secret. But the rest just tends to fall in place, mostly because we are really good at hiring and retaining great people. Now that makes it sounds like you have to rely on great people to succeed. That is not the case. Our team members are still for the most part entry level employees, we are just focused on finding, training, and keeping the best entry employees available. This is a “system” to our business. All of our “systems” add to the client experience, and in turn provide added value.

4. Focus On Your Niche: If as a business owner, you don’t know what your niche is, you better find out quick. You really can’t be everything to everyone. For example, our niche is pretty specific. Cleaning covers a pretty broad range, but we knew what we wanted to focus on right away. Green, residential, primarily single family homes, willing to pay extra for superior staffing, and a better overall experience. We researched our target audience, and crafted our message and marketing to a very narrow target. The problem with targeting to “everyone” is that you will run out of money trying to hit your target. If you have a smaller segment you are trying to reach, you will find it easier to hit. This seems counter intuitive, but if you spread yourself too thin with your offerings, it is really hard to create a consistent message that your audience will be drawn to. When your prospects find your site, do they immediately know that you do what they are looking for? If you do have a broad range of products and services, determine what your niche is, and then position those other services ass added value to your main offering if possible. So many parts of your marketing become easier once you have identified what you do, and who your ideal audience is.

5. There’s More To Life Than Money: I am going to say something here that seems crazy. Your business is not about making money. It is about making your life better, more fulfilled, and abundant. If your only focus is to make money, than you will ultimately create a terrible business. Your business needs to give you more life, not just more money. It should do the same for your clients, and your most important clients, you and the people you choose to employ. I am not advocating that you not worry about the financials, I am merely saying that whatever you choose to do needs to be more than about the money, or it will show up to everyone around you, and ultimately your business will fail. Better Life Maids was about a lot of things beyond the money. We started Better Life Maids because we wanted to find a safer and better way to clean. We started Better Life Maids, because I was tired of being away from my family for 5 days a week as an airline pilot. We started Better Life Maids to make our clients lives better, and that ultimately has made our life better. One of the early programs of giving back we did was Cleaning For A Reason. Cleaning For A Reason is a program that donates free cleanings to women under going cancer treatment. The first clients we ever had were cancer patients from that program, I put on a cleaning apron and cleaned those houses side by side with my wife, and our first employees. My wife and business partner Angela is the heart and soul of Better Life Maids, and their is no way she could be involved in a business that didn’t share her values. The CORE VALUES of Better Life Maids were shaped by her early convictions of how our business should, and would be run. So even though it wasn’t about the money, these things all seemed to pay us back with ongoing success.

These are just a few of the things that got us to where we are today. And while we are happy with where we are, we are poised for another period success. We have franchised our concept, and are getting ready to share it with like minded business people from coast to coast. It is now our goal to work with Better Life to create the first co-branded, national name brand in green household cleaning products and green house cleaning services. The path will be difficult, and many more obstacles will present themselves, we still believe in what got us this far, and believe we are positioned well for continued success.

Matthew Ricketts

President/Chief Experience Officer