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Michael: What kind of business are you in?

David: Commercial cleaning.

Michael: How long have you been in commercial cleaning?

David: A little over fifteen years now.

Michael: What is commercial cleaning?

David: Basically it’s office cleaning. You go in evenings and weekends when people have left their office space and simply clean it.

Michael: How did you get into it?

David: I got into it about fifteen years ago. I had a real bad setback with my back.

Michael: Were you working for somebody else before your back went out?

David: I was working as a photocopier technician. I fixed copiers and fax machines.

Michael: How long did you do that?

David: For about six years. That was my second job so I stuck with that, and then I hurt my back.

Michael: How did you hurt your back?

David: I lifted a copier and twisted it at the same time.

Michael: Did you hear it go out?

David: I felt it.

Michael: Did it put you in bed?

David: The first time it put me on my back. I was quite young at that point, then I injured it again a couple of weeks later.

Michael: Were you lifting something?

David: I had a really bad case of sciatica, which means I couldn’t work, or anything. This went on, I had a young family.

Michael: How old were your kids at that time?

David: I had two at that point; one was six and the other one was two.

Michael: Could you walk around?

David: Not really. I could not sit, walk, stand or anything.

Michael: I think about that too because I have a 2-1/2 year old, and I have another one on the way, and when there are heavy things to be lifted, I’ll say no. I’ll pay somebody else to do it because if I screw up my back I’m screwed.

David: You don’t know how it is until you do your back in and it puts you right out.

Michael: You had a young family, you were basically crippled, you couldn’t work, you couldn’t move around, you couldn’t really hug your kids or pick them up, so what did you do at that point? Were you going to chiropractors?

David: I was going to chiropractors, and I was getting spinal taps and CAT scans and everything like that.

Michael: Did anything help?

David: No. This is a slow progression of time. I was on all sorts of pain pills and muscle relaxants. If you have a hurt back I can certainly relate to it.

Michael: How long did that go on?

David: That went on for two years.

Michael: Oh, that’s terrible!

David: Can you imagine not being able to provide for your young family?

Michael: Was your wife working?

David: Yes, she was, but I felt useless.

Michael: You feel like a loser.

David: The point is that you want to do something but you can’t. Rather than absolutely going crazy, I decided, “I have to put my time to better use. I’m going to study and research fields and see what is out there in terms of business.” I knew as a younger man that I always wanted to get into business. I just never had time to give it much thought. I searched for a while looking at different options, different startup businesses, what it would cost to get into this endeavor or that endeavor, this line of business or that line of business, and I passed by the janitorial business so many times thinking that there has to be something better than that because I can’t see doing the work. How on earth are you going to make money out of that? The more I dug into other businesses; I kept running across commercial cleaning. The more knowledge I got, I started to see that this had a big profit margin. Mostly labor is your cost; your material costs are next to nothing. You can actually grab some cloth and some cleaning solution and a bucket, and away you go. It’s so cheap, so that was a real good prospect.

Michael: So when you say you passed by, was there a physical location that you kept driving by or when you were looking for business opportunities and looking at all the different ones, janitorial was one that was advertised and something for you to consider?

David: I was passing it by on the stuff that I was researching. I had nothing but time on my hands so I was researching probably 12 or 13 hours a day, seven days a week because I had nothing else to do; I couldn’t do anything else.

Michael: Where were you researching?

David: Libraries, I’d get my wife to get stuff from the library; I had a phone by my bed, and I’d do marketing research on the phone; anything I could.

Michael: Were you looking in Entrepreneur magazine?

David: Oh yes, I used to get Entrepreneur, Success, and Small Business.

Michael: And you’d see those ads “They Laughed When I Told Them I Cleaned Floors,” or those kinds of ads?

David: Exactly. It’s funny; that captured my attention. Small businesses had customers putting their ideas out in these entrepreneurial magazines, and Entrepreneur is quite an outstanding one. There are quite a few more now at this point. I thought I would give this a good going over, if I keep looking at it and everything that’s good about one business is even better with janitorial, and I thought that was easy enough and the start-up cost is good. Is it easy enough to multiply yourself and leverage so to speak? That was good too. A lot of housewives, people with jobs, they want part time so you put them in one or two days a week in the evening.

Michael: So finding people to do the work wasn’t a problem?

David: No problem.

Michael: Pretty much anyone can do it if they can follow instructions.

David: Pretty much everyone wanted to make an extra $400 or $500 or $600 a month. That was never a concern, and never has been. So I thought to myself, “I am really going to take a look at this.” I narrowed it down between that and one other line and I eventually decided to buy this.

Michael: What was the other line?

David: The other one I thought about going into was actual storefront. But with an actual store operation you have the hassles and headaches of staffing and everything.

Michael: So out of all the research while you were lying in bed, all the businesses you looked into you narrowed it down to two things. It could have been a retail store or this cleaning janitorial type business.

David: Exactly.

Michael: And you went with the janitorial business.

David: Hands down, there is no comparison because you have absolutely no risk to get into the business.

Michael: Right, some entrepreneurs, or anyone considering a janitorial business may be considering one in the Entrepreneur magazine like a franchise. Aren’t some of these franchises expensive?

David: I had enough time, Michael, to actually research and find out “Here are the methods for cleaning, here are the solutions for cleaning and here is the marketing.” Then I started looking into the marketing, so I thought “Well I don’t need these guys. Why should I pay $13,000 to get into a large Jani-King operation plus give them royalties and then go in there and be one of the lowest prices out there?”

Michael: Do they control your marketing and advertising?

David: Oh yeah. You’re a glorified employee. Like I said I did enough research and marketing research to strike out on my own and I thought “Well I have nothing but time anyway so that’s what I’m going to do.” Rather than pay all the outrageous costs, basically for under $50 I had everything; I had sponges, mops, buckets, cleaning solutions, and you don’t need much, just a few quart bottles to start with. Why invest big?

Michael: This was 15 years ago, right?

David: That was 15 years ago.

Michael: So you got all your supplies for around $50, you pretty much didn’t have any money because you hadn’t been working because of your back injury. Was your back feeling good enough at that time or were you just planning on getting someone else to do the work?

David: I got someone else to do the work.

Michael: So you just started the business. Tell me, how did you get your first customer? After you got your supplies, what did you do?

David: This is what I’m really proud of, and I use this type of stuff to this day. The type of marketing that I developed is very personal and people love it. In this type of industry, people come in and usually provide a terrible service. Their customers are unhappy with them. If you can go in there, first make them comfortable that you are going to provide them with a good quality and here’s what you’re going to do. One of the ingenious ways that I’ve done it, among many, is actually to show them step by step what they would get and a sample of it as well. I had no problem getting customers. Then because I was offering them quality I’d tell them I’m offering my services for more than what the other guy did.

Michael: Okay, but how did you get that first customer? Tell me about your very first account. Do you remember it?

David: I did all of the marketing and research and thought “Okay what can I do right from here?” So I opened the phone book, developed a good little introductory script and I was really concerned if people were going to think I was telemarketing and hang up on me. Well you know something? In business if you tell them the simple little few liners that I have, who you are, etc., they’re more than happy to talk to you. And if you say that you’re going to call 50 a week and then you keep calling them back once a month with the same material that I’ve developed over the years eventually they know who you are, some of them will be friendly to you, and some of then won’t.

Michael: At that time, you knew almost nothing about marketing; you didn’t really know other more sophisticated ways to generate leads without doing telephone grunt work.

David: I was flying by the seat of my pants.

Michael: And you did the only thing you knew how; you opened the telephone book and started calling people and telling them about yourself, what you do, and your service. And you did pure telemarketing, and sometimes that’s what you have to do. I remember when I started my pen business, that’s what I did. I was on the phone for hours every day making cold calls. It’s the hardest kind of sales there are, but if you’re the type of person who could stick it out and your desire is there, you’re going to get sales. There’s a thing, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

David: That’s right. Also, Michael what I would do if I had 50 customers I would call them. All I did basically was check them off in the phone book and then the next week, I’d call a different 50 and then I would wait for another two weeks then I’d call back the first 50 again, so it would be a month. Then I’d call the next 50, and that was the first method I used that was just a “Hello, how are you? Here’s why we’re better than everybody else” type of a thing. “If you ever need us”, and through that I got more, then we started getting more and more and more contracts and as time went on and my back got better, I was able to pitch in and so was my wife and we got out there and got a little bit of field experience. It’s kind of nice. You think at the start “Well I don’t know if I want to do that.” But you know something? There’s no one around to bother you, you don’t have any bosses over top of you looking making sure you get something done; everything is up to you. You don’t have any hassles to worry about. Quite a few situations come up that might be unpleasant because of other people’s attitudes.

Michael: Let’s talk about this. When you land a contract, let’s talk about money. It costs you peanuts for your supplies, you do some low-cost lead generating and you get a customer, let’s talk about an average customer. What’s it worth? What’s it going to put in your pocket?

David: This is where you’re going to jump up and down and think “Why isn’t everybody in commercial cleaning?” The average contract that we have is $457.

Michael: What does that mean? Is that what you make on an average contract?

David: That’s the total take on the contract. They are one day a week, a couple of days a week, three days a week, you know?

Michael: Okay, so a contract may be one, two or three days a week.

David: It could be five too. You don’t even need to go into that, so you get one, two or three days a week contracts and you have accounts say $450 on the average.

Michael: So you’re going to make $450 minus whatever your costs are?

David: Well here’s the nice part, and if we had a drum roll here you’d be just amazed. I want to get you into helping me do this, get the word out, and this is why. What other business can you get in that you can get forty percent for yourself after you pay the staff?

Michael: That is nice.

David: Forty percent of $400 is $180, it’s $180 in your pocket each month for that guy’s job and multiply that by 1,000 contracts. The money is just phenomenal.

Michael: A guy thinking about getting into the business, at first he can’t think of 1,000 contracts. He’s got to start thinking “Well how many contracts can I do part time when I get started?” And let’s say realistically without fail, being very conservative, if he just followed your instructions and actually did something and lifted a finger, would you say they could get ten contracts for the month?

David: Oh, yeah, there are so many unsatisfied people; you can get at least that. With the methods I’ve developed through the years, you can’t lose. And it’s not just telemarketing, I have other ways. It all depends on what you’re comfortable with.

Michael: Dave, ten average contracts, let’s say it’s $500; ten average contracts a month are going to bring $5,000 a month and you’re making about forty percent of that net?

David: That’s correct.

Michael: That’s almost like an average job like some people.

David: Oh I know; you’d be so far past your average job in no time at all.

Michael: Now you as the owner are you going out there cleaning or are other people doing this?

David: Other people are doing it.

Michael: So you’re not doing anything except scheduling and running the business.

David: Let me tell you what I’m doing. Here it is, it’s 10:55, I’m lying on the couch and talking to you. I have to go meet a chap for lunch now at 12:00 in the city, and I’m in a little town outside the city, and my wife’s out shopping, I have managers managing the accounts and all you do with the managers – we pay fifty percent of a contract to a regular person who just wants to go out there and clean, and then if you have it managed it’s sixty percent so all of our contracts are managed out.

Michael: For instance, let’s say you get an office building and you have a contract to clean it five nights a week. The guy you hire and bring in to clean it you offer them to manage the account and handle the appointments, handle all the problems, handle the scheduling and everything where they don’t bother you for an extra ten percent?

David: Well if they’re managing other accounts for me; that’s what I mean. You can make, there are some accounts that go through $25 is the minimum an hour. Now you have to think making $25 an hour profit.

Michael: What do mean? Now I’m lost. What are you saying is $25 an hour?

David: Okay let’s say that they go in a clean a place, an office.

Michael: The person you hired to manage it?

David: Right. Maybe I should back up here a bit. The sixty percent that you’re talking about, they normally get paid fifty percent if I just give them the contract and want them to clean it, but I give sixty percent if you’re going to watch over other contracts and hire other people to do other of our contracts, so you could have ten people working for you doing 20 contracts and making ten percent off each one of them, say $50 off the average contract times ten.

Michael: Okay, then you become a manger.

David: Or what they call a subcontractor.

Michael: And that’s how you handle the growth of the business.

David: Exactly.

Michael: You’ve been doing this 15 years and anyone who is listening to this probably is interested in it obviously. Can you share whatever you’re comfortable with? Can you share with us the success of your business? Tell us what’s going on in your business. Can you give us any numbers?

David: First of all, we grew this business to be very successful and then I diversified into another industry, which was cost reduction and expense control. Now in that, I almost lost my shirt because people were not ready for it here up in Canada. It went over quite well in the States. That’s where you go in and you cut office expenses, utility expenses and that sort of thing.

Michael: Okay, let’s stick with the janitorial stuff though.

David: Okay, so basically at that point, that was four years ago, we almost lost it all because I tried to diversify. We managed to hold on to the house, the vehicles and that’s about it. We had to start from scratch. So here we go with my knowledge. The first year, actually it wasn’t a full year, but we can count it as a full year. The first year, we shot up to $77,000.

Michael: In sales, or contracts?

David: In contracts.

Michael: Were you guys managing them all yourself?

David: Yes.

Michael: That was the very first year of business.

David: The very first. The second year, we were just under $200,000.

Michael: Wow!

David: The third year was $376,000. And you know something? We are coasting.

Michael: You’re taking it easy.

David: Yes, like I said I’m at home talking to you; I’m going to lunch. My wife’s out shopping. We’re enjoying life. I get up in the morning whenever I want. I’m not exaggerating in the least.

Michael: I understand. I got up this morning, the nanny was here, and I said to my wife “Honey, I’m going running,” and I went down to the Bay. I’m in San Diego and it was like 65°, absolutely gorgeous, and I got my run over with in the morning. I hate doing it, but I make myself get out and do it. But it’s wonderful, and I stop at Starbuck’s on the way back and grab a coffee. It’s no pressure. Working for yourself, the lifestyle you lead, it’s almost like you have to pinch yourself, you have to be reminded how lucky you are.

David: Oh, I know it! You have all the time in the world for the kids. We go with the kids to Disneyland, the whole family. We go to Cuba in the winter, Disneyland in the summer. We get to take two good full vacations a year. This is all what this has been able to afford me.

Michael: Anyone listening to this I did another great interview with a guy named Art Hamel and he’s up on my website at hardtofindseminars.com on the audio clip page, and this guy is the master at how to buy a business and he talks a lot about how you’ve got to be crazy working for somebody. It’s a very interesting audio clip if anyone is interested in listening to it. It think it’s audio clip #35. Okay, you gave us some numbers about the first, second and third years in business. Are we talking about your very first years 15 years ago or since you recovered from your problems?

David: We had a bankruptcy. We started from ground zero. We had no money, nothing. Plus we had three kids.

Michael: Before anyone gets into this, what advice could you give them? You made a big mistake. What did you learn from that mistake? What would you share with someone who does get into this business, what not to do? How not to do what you did? Did you get too big for your britches? You thought you could do anything because you had some big success in this or what?

David: Yeah, that’s part of it to be honest with you, Mike. But the other thing is too that I already had a system that was working and I should have stuck with it.

Michael: You got bored.

David: Right. I said “Okay I’ve done this; I’ve figured this out; I’m on to the next. I’m going to get bigger and better.” The more you realize, when my wife and I were building it back up again, there really isn’t anything better than this. It’s worth it. Where can you go, you land a contract once, you have it for years, and it keeps generating a couple hundred bucks a month every month.

Michael: It’s a residual.

David: Oh, it’s perfect! Then you have add-on sales that I’m just starting to learn about. Actually another good system that I have is a referral system where your leads are free from your customers. Then you can go out and charge even more for your services from the people that he knows.

Michael: So before we get into more of the techniques, let me ask you this question as it comes into my mind. You talk about getting a contract. Now I’m thinking that if I’m going to get into this business, does that mean that if I land the contract over the phone I’ve got to go schlep out and go meet with these people and sit down and have lunch with them and sign paperwork or can this stuff be done through the phone and fax machine?

David: You physically have to go out and meet with them.

Michael: I guess you would because you have to see the place that you’re cleaning.

David: That gives them also a chance to meet you, and you introduce the company.

Michael: All right, so you go out and introduce the company, you go look at the facility, they tell you what their needs are as far as cleaning. What do you clean? When you hire somebody, what’s the general process of business? Let’s say in my office if I hired you, what are you going to come in and do for me?

David: Okay, we come in with cloths and sponges and mops and buckets, if you have tile floors, and they wipe down the desks, empty the garbage, vacuum the carpets, wipe a few frames and then they’re out.

Michael: So it’s a general dusting.

David: Dusting, cleaning and wiping.

Michael: These offices probably don’t get that dirty do they?

David: Well no. There is some stain and such in there.

Michael: Do you wipe down the computer screens?

David: We wipe down the computers, we even wipe down the keyboards if they don’t mind us doing that, and most people don’t.

Michael: So you could be in and out of there within an hour?

David: Well it all depends on how big the office is. A lot of the contracts that we have, one or two people can do it in an hour, an hour and a half, or two hours.

Michael: Do you have to do the bathrooms?

David: Yep.

Michael: The toilets?

David: Yep.

Michael: The windows?

David: You bet!

Michael: What’s the worst part of it? What’s the worst stuff to clean? Or you may go into places that are absolutely filthy and you may choose not to do a job, right? Does that ever happen?

David: Well no, I guess it hasn’t.

Michael: Okay, so it’s just general light cleaning. Is that what the market wants someone to come behind and do some general cleaning?

David: Yeah, but it’s not just a general cleaning. We offer services that are heads and shoulders above everyone else basically so we charge a premium for that and the system we have, you can be in and out of an office but have everything done, it’s a system.

Michael: And you’ve learned that over 15 years.

David: Right, we’ve developed this over 15 years. You can clean an office whistle clean in 5 minutes where someone else could mess it up running back and forth for 10 minutes and do half as good a job as you can.

Michael: Give me reasons why I should choose your service over this other service that may be ten or twenty percent cheaper.

David: For one if you’re always switching a service, which is what happens in the industry, it causes the management headaches to find them. They always interview three companies. They’re having people walk through their building; they’re showing them what needs to be cleaned.

Michael: Who do you make the appointment with? Who is usually taking you around? The secretary or what?

David: It can be the secretary or the actual owner of the company.

Michael: Okay, go ahead.

David: For every time this happens, they have problems before it happens, of course. They’ve tried to phone the company because this wasn’t cleaned or that wasn’t cleaned, can you fix this? Can you fix that? So instead of running their own business they’re worrying about the cleaning needs. With us, we can provide a higher quality cleaning for something, it’s something they actually pass on as referrals to you in the future and I’ll show you how that works. Our service is a better quality. If you want to run your own business and let us worry about the cleaning, that’s why you hired us.

Michael: What makes it better than the other guy specifically? Do you use non-toxic cleaners?

David: Yes we do.

Michael: So a lot of the others may use harsh chemicals that may destroy their furniture?

David: That’s right?

Michael: Are your vacuum cleaners well maintained?

David: For the most part, yes. They belong to the subcontractors, but we have a series of checks and balances. The subcontractors own their own vacuum cleaners so if you get somebody to do X, Y and Z accounts, he has his own vacuum and it has to be of a certain quality.

Michael: Okay, so the cleaners have a checklist of requirements before you even bring them on.

David: Exactly.

Michael: Are there background checks performed on your cleaners?

David: Yes, we do background checks.

Michael: What kind of check do you do?

David: They’re basically criminal checks.

Michael: You check their criminal background and make sure they’ve never been to jail?

David: That’s right, we see if they’ve had any criminal charges before.

Michael: Okay and you call references?

David: Oh yes.

Michael: So your screening of your subcontractors who do the cleaning is pretty rigorous.

David: It is, but let’s back up just a second, because when you hire a manager or managers, you should always have a male and a female to manage a number of contracts for you, that becomes their job and they just report to you “I have Joe and Jane Smith to do X, Y and Z accounts. Here is their security clearance and here are their reference checks.” I say “Thank you very much,” smile and go along merrily.

Michael: You developed this system. Let’s talk about your system. If I’m a janitorial business and you’ve got 15 years of experience, how can you help me? I’m doing things that you may see as archaic or that are inefficient. What are you going to teach me with your system, and I understand you have something where I may be able to license your system where I pay a certain fee every month to use your ideas?

David: It’s ideal. What I’m thinking of doing, and I was trying to incorporate your help with this was if someone was ever to come up to you and say “Look, I can make you $1,000, $2,000, $3,000 or $10,000 a month. I’ll show you how to do it; I’ll do it. I’ll give you the system for it and all I want is $200 a month.”

Michael: Sounds like a good deal!

David: And I don’t want anything until you make something – how does that sound?

Michael: Without any risk? I’d be a fool to say no.

David: As a matter of fact, until money comes into your pockets, don’t pay me anything. You know what really excites me a lot is that so many people are sitting on the fence wanting to get into something that’s very low risk. They have a family or they have a job but they’re not making that much money or they’d like to be making more, and they want to get into something. This is what it is. Sure, I’d like to license this to all of the janitorial companies out there and say “Okay here’s what you can do to increase your sales.”

Michael: But this is a real business opportunity for anyone!

David: Well this is the exciting part. I think there are literally tens of thousands of people out there if they had a shoe to slip into; so to speak, a form to fit them that they could just go along and follow in the steps, bang, bang, bang and it is so simple.

Michael: Well, Dave with your direction and 15 years of experience you could direct them exactly step by step how to get into this business.

David: That’s what I’m looking to do. That’s why actually I wanted to talk to you.

Michael: Well let me ask you this. What would you tell someone, how do you overcome the stigma, let’s say I got into this business, and here’s something…

David: I have a problem with that too.

Michael: You’ve got to tell your friends that you are basically a maid. That’s embarrassing to a lot of people. What would you tell somebody about how to overcome that?

David: Well a maid is a residential thing, but a commercial thing is a janitor, but I get your concept.

Michael: I’m just saying that if somebody is listening to this but they need to make money, obviously their ego is going to get in the way.

David: Sometimes it can, yes.

Michael: What would you tell them about how to overcome that thinking that cleaning office buildings is beneath them?

David: That’s real simple. Basically when you’re in there cleaning that office building you’re making more than most people in that building themselves. And as you get going in it, and there’s an old ad out there somewhere I’ve seen in the past that said “They all laughed when I said I was going to clean carpets” or something like that. But then their smiles were turned into gaping wonder.

Michael: Right, they laughed when I told them I played the piano but when I started to play, or something like that.

David: Right, well it became Mozart or something like that. This is what this string of events is. Everything has a cost; you give up time, you give up life, you give up prestige, you give up something. There’s nothing for nothing out there. If you are concerned about that and you’re worried about what your friends think well now, I don’t mean to brag or anything, but people really look up to me. I’m a respected member of the community. People say “Hello Mr. Reynolds. How are you today?” It’s like they know, we live in a beautiful home, we built a two-story brick house that’s just gorgeous. It’s almost the nicest, if not the nicest one in the town we live in.

Michael: You’re a big shot in the town.

David: Well, getting there, yeah!

Michael: That feels good, and you did it from commercial cleaning. You did it on your own steam in your own business. That is something to be proud of.

David: So when you’re in these offices when you first start out if that’s a little bit of a stigma for you, that’s tough. Everything comes with a price.

Michael: Right. Keep your eye on the ball. It’s the lifestyle you’re generating for your family.

David: Exactly. With my family now instead of talking it out, with my brother and my mother actually were saying “You’ll never make this work. This isn’t the right thing for you. You’re more professional.” But I knew in my head that they were wrong and I was right.

Michael: You knew in your heart too.

David: I did, and I knew that what I had to do was put this into practice and now I’m the most successful in the whole family. You have to give up whatever at the start but you know, you either pay now or you pay later, and I’d rather get the paying out of the way in terms of prestige or whatever, and when you get down the road a bit you can look back and laugh.

Michael: How old are you.

David: I’m forty-one.

Michael: You’re a young guy. And you have this business rolling and you’ve gotten to the point in this business where you’re making good money and now you want, it’s almost like you’ve gotten so much out of it now you want to give back to other people and show them how they can do the same thing.

David: That’s true. If I could just say to 1,000 people across Canada and the United States, “Hey look, don’t even believe what we say. Just do the system. If it works for you pay us. If it doesn’t don’t pay us. Try it.”

Michael: Let’s say that this recording got in the hands of someone who is interested in the business, and let’s say that person is me. I’m thinking about the business, Dave, it sounds really good. What’s it going to cost me, what do I have to do to get going? Give me the details if I want to get going this week. What do I need to do?

David: I haven’t worked out the exact format yet. That’s why I called you, but in a nutshell, I’d give you a small list of supplies, a little, little starter kit, how to get clients and tell you what to say.

Michael: Proven scripts of exactly what to say?

David: Exactly.

Michael: Just exactly what you do.

David: Exactly. If you want some business there it is. Once you get a few and the few start profiting that is an extra $800.00 a month for you. Do you know what I can do with an extra $800 a month? You try to give me an $800 a month raise.

Michael: Can you give us a sneak peek of what you say to the business when you call them? Or give me some ideas of how I’m going to get leads to the business.

David: You mean right off the start?

Michael: Yeah, right off the start. Let’s just say I wanted to start today, who would you tell me to call on first?

David: I would give you a choice of probably three. I’m just guessing here, that’s another thing I’d like to get some help from you on, but probably a choice of the three methods that have all worked and you can pick if telephone isn’t the right one how would you like to send a fax? Another way could be actually going right in and saying “Hi Mr. Smith.” So those are three different methods right there. Are you comfortable with one or with all three of them?

Michael: What’s your favorite method of getting a new client?

David: To be honest with you I have two of them. One is sending out the fax.

Michael: Because it’s non-confrontational?

David: Yes, and when they call they are interested.

Michael: Absolutely. Will you supply me with all of the artwork you put on the fax?

David: Sure, I’ll tell you exactly, go can go word by word.

Michael: Will you send me copies of the ones you use so I can model them?

David: Sure, and I’ll tell you what to change in them too if you want. The other thing that I have almost one hundred percent with is let’s say this chap is making an extra $800 or $1500 a month, and he says, “Wow look what I can do with that!” He's been doing them now for three months or whatever, and he goes in and says, “You know, Bill I’ve been doing this for three months, and I understand you’re happy that I phoned." I’m glad to see that. I’m a new business just trying to start out. Can you supply me with…”? Then I have a system, like two weeks ago I got one customer to supply us with 350 names of all the businesses they deal with.

Michael: That’s brilliant!

David: Let me just come over to this file and open this up…

Michael: I can see the businesses that are dealing with other local businesses and they’re going to refer you.

David: And the thing is that once you get into them, okay you do A, B and C, that’s great.

Michael: Instant credibility!

David: That’s it. And listen to this, “Tuesday, May 28, 2002,” this is just not too long ago, we’re only on June 4 th now. “To Whom It May Concern. Re: Janitorial Services, Crystal Clean. Four and a half years ago we started using Crystal Clean Janitorial to clean our offices, employee lunchroom, locker room and bathrooms. We went to Crystal Clean after having bad experiences with a family-run service and a franchise janitorial company.” So they’ve tried both of them and had bad luck. “When Dave Reynolds first approached me I was quite skeptical as to what he could do that would set him apart from his competitors. Dave offered a preventative maintenance approach to cleaning, something his competition didn’t. I liked the idea and decided to give Dave a try. When Dave first toured our facility he asked me (and I’ll tell you what to do when you tour a facility as well) what my expectations were. He then provided a cleaning plan that was executable and easy to manage. To date I can say that I’ve had nothing but a good experience in dealing with Dave and the high level of service that he has been able to deliver. We meet a couple of times a year or as necessary to schedule cleaning assignments that are seasonal in nature such as window washing, stripping and sealing tile surfaces, etc. Otherwise I do not have to concern myself with cleaning and that’s a good thing. If you are considering a new janitorial service I strongly suggest giving Crystal Clean a call. You wouldn’t be disappointed but you would be pleasantly surprised.” He then also faxed me all of the companies he does business with and the names of the people to contact.

Michael: That’s wonderful. So you send that out in a letter.

David: Exactly.

Michael: Okay. That’s great.

David: You take this in with you to the place where he referred you. You call them first and say “Even if you’re not looking for now can I come by and see you sometime?” And they usually say “Sure just pop in.” You’re a professional talking to another professional and they know you’re providing good quality.

Michael: Okay so I’m interested in this license. For me to get going on it, what is it going to cost me? Let’s just pretend that you have everything ready, you’ve got your course, you’ve got sample faxes that you’re going to show me what to send out, you have script in your kit of exactly what I need to say, you show me how to send the faxes out, what companies to use to send the faxes out, where if I don’t want any confrontation I can do it all by faxing and just answering the phone with someone ready for my services. You show me how to set up a manager. You show me how to do the bookwork and all those details. You show me how to get set up as a business. I’ve probably got to file a fictitious business name, and the details like all that are in the kit, right?

David: I could easily put all that in the kit. What it would cost you, and see now,

this is such a fresh idea and I want to take a certain number of people and say, “Bang, bang, bang, bang, here’s what you do and I can’t wait for the results.” But it would only cost them; first of all, I wouldn’t even charge them except for maybe a shipping and handling charge to ship the material to them. I would give them a list of simple cleaning solutions to use at rock-bottom minimum price.

Michael: By cleaning solutions, you mean chemical solutions?

David: Right, the cleaning products you would use, a bottle of this and a bottle of that.

Michael: Would they buy them from you or do you just tell them where to get them?

David: I just tell them where to get them at the best prices. So they get some cleaning cloths, a couple of bottles of solution, maybe a vacuum cleaner that they have or whatever to take along and away they go. Then they get a contract, all of a sudden, they get one that’s maybe for $600, the next one is maybe for $200.

Michael: Are you going to provide them or me with the actual contract that I sign?

David: Sure.

Michael: Okay, you have all the forms I need and everything?

David: Yep.

Michael: I just customize them.

David: Yep, you just change the top of the letterhead and away you go.

Michael: So you’re going to give me all that information, all I have to do is pay for material to get it to me. Then what’s the agreement? If I use your system and I start generating business, I’m going to pay you a certain amount per month just for the use of your ideas?

David: Right. Let me put it really straight. I could make you $800, $1,000, $2,000, $10,000 or $20,000 a month. Would you pay me $200 a month?

Michael: Okay, I don’t see why anyone would refuse that.

David: Well, no not only that, but when you make money before you actually pay or you just pay the shipping charge to get the material. You have no risk.

Michael: Let me ask you, for anyone listening to this, how can they reach you if they are interested in getting going on this? Can you provide your phone numbers or your mailing address or any contact information?

David: Well I don’t even have any of this set up yet! That’s why I called you, Mike. I was hoping that maybe you’d want to help me with this. Like I said at this point I haven’t packaged it together yet.

Michael: All right, I can certainly help you do that. Let’s do this. Let’s assume that you have everything packaged and someone was listening to this and you’re ready to ship your…you have all the information, you just haven’t organized it, but that’s not going to take long to do.

David: I think what I would do to start is I would just give you “Okay here are the pre-marketing methods – choose one. Here’s how to register the business. Here’s what cleaning solutions you need.” That’s simple, it’s not confusing, they don’t have to wade through pounds of stuff. They can get right out today.

Michael: All right, I want to say to anyone listening to this who wants to get into a very low-cost business very inexpensively, very easily and you’re willing to do a little bit of work or a little telephone work, I think they’ve got incredible opportunities. Dave has 15 years of experience behind him, he’s done it, and you’ve heard the figures that he’s done year after year after year. It’s all about lifestyle. So what if you’re cleaning office buildings? It’s very respectable; everyone has to have it done, and the biggest thing is there is a residual income. It is monthly, over and over and over again, and you can set this business up with management where you don’t actually have to life a finger. Is that right?

David: Oh, absolutely.

Michael: Okay, Dave I want to thank you for sharing all of this information with me and with any of the listeners and I urge anyone who wants to explore this a little bit more, you can email me at hardtofindseminars.com and I’ll put you in contact with Dave and thanks for listening.

I want to thank you for listening. This is Michael Senoff with hardtofindseminars.com. If you want to get in touch with any of the people we interview, please email me .