Operating a Scaled Maid Service Enterprise

We started a house cleaning company in Denver five years ago with zero maid service customers and zero maid service employees. Denver Concierge has since grown to become one of the largest purely residential, independently-owned, maid service companies in the US. We avoided becoming mired in mediocrity, because we ignored the house cleaning industry's babble, and found our own way. In doing so, we dwarfed the gurus' own growth rates, and we spent loads of dough in developing systems. Last week, one fellow referred to us as "Cowboys." Yada, yada . . . I suppose, had we hailed from Boston, he would have used a different term. If you've already bought CD's telling you how to start or operate a maid service, then we congratulate you on your purchase. In fact, we likely agree with 80% of what is included in the package. But the difference between offering mediocre service and exceptional service is concealed in the 20% bit about which we disagree.

Over the next six-months, the House Cleaning Alliance will offer, mostly for free, its own details about how to operate a scaled maid service enterprise. Keep an eye out for the forms to appear in the Maid Service Co-Op Shop, over the next several weeks, at fantastically low prices. Until a complete package is made available, the following (along with Articles included in this site) will have to suffice to summarize our main points of dissent.

Your Father's Marketing Plan Any guru offering a marketing plan which doesn't mention web-based marketing is either headed for the bone yard, or has just arrived from the moon. Traditional marketing methods are passé. With a fully-developed web-based marketing plan, your next customer will seek and find you, and each new customer will cost you just pennies on the dollar, as compared to traditional methods proposed by the gurus. And you will add new customers at a rate which will astonish you.

Specifically, we don't agree with making door hangers the cornerstone of your marketing plan. Since the no-call lists have served to eliminate those dinner-time telemarketing calls, door hangers have taken their place as the new fly in home owner's ointment. Use door hangers sparingly, for operational reasons, and with discretion.

Mailings certainly have a place in your overall marketing scheme. They should be incredibly focused in terms of content and target, and we would never again have a third-party distribute them on our behalf, without independently verifying that they were indeed mailed.

Phone book and newspapers ads are passé. We don't intend to ever spend another nickel on either.

Mind Your Phone Manners The Gurus advise: End every sentence with, "So when's the In-Home Visit going to be then?" Such hard-sell techniques have no place in our industry. If a prospect phones your office, it would be remiss for you not to offer an In-Home Visit (or an hourly price over the phone, if the Prospect prefers), but to do so more than once would insult the Prospect's intelligence. If the Prospect has called for information, then give it freely over the phone. Selling house cleaning services requires instilling a sense of trust, and acting like a high-pressure used car salesmen is not going to give her that warm and fuzzy feeling she is seeking. Consumers are weary and wary of high-pressure sales techniques, so relax a little. The difference is subtle; it depends on adopting an attitude different from that of your mediocre competitors. Exude confidence, not desperation. You offer exceptional services, and your services are highly sought after. This Prospect is seeking your services. Be a facilitator. Invite her, don't scare her. Be the spider sitting back in your web, not the hawk swooping upon its prey.

When fielding calls from Prospects, you want them to finish the conversation thinking that you are polite and competent. Respect the Prospect's process, rather imposing your own. Your objective for each call from a Prospect should be to satisfy the inquiry, with a secondary objective being one of a number of possibilities: 1) the Prospect visiting your website for more information about your company and services; 2) the Prospect phoning back the next day (or next month) to inquire further; or just maybe 3) booking the In-Home Visit while the Prospect is on the phone.

In-Home Quotes: Leave your Plaid Jacket at Home The purpose of the In-Home Visit is firstly to describe those tailored services you are offering to this particular prospect. The process offers the chance for you to distinguish yourself from your competitors. Indeed, if it is a mediocre service that you are offering, then it might be altogether better for you to skip In-Home Visits and quote everything hourly over the phone. But if your service is exceptional, then it's going to be a natural sale. You can simply walk around, listen, and, with complete candor and confidence, make 20 promises to your Prospect about the baseboards, under the beds, cobwebs, etc. Collectively, the promises represent your sales pitch.

When you are done, and have established (and documented!) the scope based on your walk-through with the Prospect, then give her the prices. Hmmm . . . I have loads to say about how to arrive at the prices. It won't fit here. Suffice it to say, we go about it altogether differently than the gurus. If you want to chat about our pricing method sometime, I may be happy to do so. We are presently developing a statistical tool to help you price house cleaning assignments. It'll be ready this calendar year.

Aside from arriving at the price, we disagree with the gurus' Living Room techniques. Better to assume your Prospect has an IQ of 150 and will appoint a house cleaning company precisely when she is ready, and not before. Make your offer, then describe your method for having arrived at the price (it's a function of the time you estimate it will take to clean the home, based on the agreed-upon scope).

The offer is followed by a pregnant pause, not by the obnoxiously insulting question, "So what's it going to be then, weekly or every two weeks?" At this point in the visit, you will have a good sense for whether or not you've won over the Prospect. The price might astonish her. That's OK, you've already described your premium services, and now you've given her your premium price. Maybe she needs a moment to digest it. Be calm and polite. Of course, you're ready to book it on the spot. But if she seems indecisive, I always say, "These quotes are good for one year. If you get three quotes from three companies, I will expect that ours will be the highest. It's not that we charge more per hour for our services, but rather that we spend more time in our clients' homes, and our prices reflect that. If you are uncertain, then choose one of our competitors for a lower price. Once you've tried them, you'll find that they either satisfy your needs, in which case you've saved money, or they disappoint you, in which case you will be more appreciative of our services, once you appoint us six weeks hence." The most common response: "Wow (what confidence!), why would I waste my time with the others? When can you start?" Of course, over time, this only works if you can actually deliver what you've promised.

The gurus track close rates. To them, a sale equals success. To us, a sale may very well represent the worst-case scenario, if it is based on a bad price. An orangutan dressed in a plaid jacket can sell premium maid services for a bad price. We monitor close rates, but we emphasize accuracy in pricing. The difference may seem subtle, but beware, the results can be remarkably different.

Let the Market Dictate Your Operating Profile The gurus say three person teams are "the Best." That's like saying a Cocker Spaniel is the best. The best for what? When it comes to Operations, think outside the box. Flexibility is the key to meeting customer demands and optimizing the big Scheduling Puzzle. One of the benefits of being an independent maid service company is that we don't have to abide by one of those pesky operational manuals, and we're not about to impose superficial operational rules on ourselves as a substitute.

We happily and intelligently run one-person, two-person, three-person, four-person teams, depending on the clients, the location, and the circumstances (maybe even five or six-person teams for special assignments). We do it to please our customers, optimize the schedule, minimize drive-time, facilitate training, and because we have the systems which enable us to do it.

The gurus, with their manual forms and pencil sharpeners, sacrifice flexibility in order to simplify and solve the Scheduling Puzzle. To them, "a Team" is a static concept. To us, it is dynamic. On Monday, Maria manages a two-person team. On Tuesday she manages a separate three-person team. On Wednesday she manages an altogether different four- person team, and so on and so forth. What's the difference? Well, to Maria's Monday clients, there is none. She has the same Monday team each Monday. But from an operations perspective, the difference is remarkable. Firstly, evaluations: every Cleaning Associate works with, and is evaluated by, multiple Team Leaders every two-weeks. Yes! Another relative performance parameter on which to base pay! Secondly, flexibility in matching the perfect personnel package to the perfect assignment. Thirdly, flexibility in solving the Scheduling Puzzle. Fourthly, camaraderie across teams, not just within them.

The gurus' specialization concept? Yech! Who wants to become a bathroom specialist? Why would anyone introduce yet one more constraint into the Scheduling Puzzle? Get real. Everybody does everything-the Team Leader trains everyone, and uses her discretion in assigning tasks. She mixes it up amongst the team so as to make their lives more bearably interesting. And it would be naïve to imagine that quality won't suffer from the gurus' undue emphasis on efficiency. Give your house cleaners some credit for being intelligent enough to work out efficiency among themselves, monitor quality carefully and continuously, and you may be surprised at the results. Rely on your pay schemes to reward your employees for a combination of efficiency and quality. What pay schemes, you ask? Well, that really is the million dollar question, isn't it? Please see the Forum.

Please check back to read about our plans to send a maid to the moon.

Janitorial Cleaning

Typically Janitorial Cleaning Service are for those who are in the blue collar job and want to start their own business and have small amount to invest. Many people are stepping into this field of career aspect in an alarming rate.

Once you have make up your mind regarding venturing into a business of janitorial cleaning service, you need to register you business name, and get the license from your local country or from the city hall.

There are majority who are wanting to start their business from home itself. After consulting your residential area's guide liner, you can carry out your business from home. Make sure that your janitorial cleaning services are bounded and insured.

If people are considering to start their own business with janitorial service, they are bagging a lucrative deal. By doing proper estimation of the price which you charge for the janitorial services, you can remarkably maximize your profit margin to an extent. This way you can make your earning potential huge.

You need to decipher on the matter in relation to start up cost that is required in the janitorial cleaning business. According to janitorial expert, one should have no less than $500 - $5000 to start the janitorial cleaning business as this service involves buying of the basic equipment that is needed to make the things dirt free.

Some of the Equipment includes: Hard hat, Dust mask, Safety goggles, Heat resistant Gloves and Heat resistant Apron and slip resistant, steel toe shoes.

There is excess demand for this service and so there are lots of companies who are hiring small cleaning companies to accomplish their cleaning task efficiently. For example, if the organization has thrown a party, they entail a dire need of cleaners before and after the party to make the things spic & span, and immaculately turned out.

Janitorial services includes cleaning of the commercial buildings such as businesses, hospitals, schools, retail stores, warehouses, manufacturing facilities and even parking lots. Usually services like: sweeping, dusting, emptying wastebaskets, refilling soap and paper dispensers and buffing and/or vacuuming the floors includes in the janitorial services.

Getting listed in the yellow pages under all of the main services that you are offering is the best option to get the beehive of the customers knocking at your door for the cleaning services. Than sending the professional-looking brochure is the next best alternative to make your business run in the brisk. No doubt, all this will require few bucks but once you get the hold of the customers, you can make your money to be covered up.

This article has been provided courtesy of Areal Building Services Inc, http://www.areal.ca a janitorial cleaning service company specializing in contract cleaning services in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto for more than 20 years.

How Much Does Carpet Cleaning Cost? (And How to Find the World's Best Carpet Cleaners)

How Much Does Carpet Cleaning Cost? Really.

This question is about as easy to answer as asking "how much does a house cost?" The short answer is, that depends. The longer answer is the following.

Every job is different, so there is no one-size-fits-all price however, carpet cleaners should be able to give you a ball-park estimate over the phone, but may need to inspect your carpet in person to firm up the quote. There are two common ways to price carpet cleaning services - per room rates or per square foot rates.

Per room rates are designed to make it easier to price cleaning services over the phone without having to send a technician out to your home to measure each room. You may find advertised prices as low as $20 or $25 per room, but beware of the lowest rate as you usually get what you pay for. There are many ways a carpet cleaner can cut costs to lower their price, but none of them will benefit the customer.

The per room rate is usually limited to a maximum size and/or larger rooms are charged as two rooms. The rates are calculated to average out over many jobs to an acceptable net rate for the company to remain profitable. Customers with smaller rooms often pay a premium, while customers with larger than average rooms may get a break.

Per square foot rates are designed so that companies can custom tailor each job price more closely to the actual value of the service. If you have smaller areas to be cleaned, you will pay less and if you have a larger than average sized rooms you will understandably pay a little more. This method allows the company to make their required margins on each job, however it also requires them to make a special trip to your home to provide a quote which may add to the cost.

The rate per square foot charged may also vary depending on the size of the job, smaller jobs will likely be charged a higher rate while larger jobs may be charged a lower rate due to the fixed costs of travel and equipment set up, etc.

The average net rate for quality carpet cleaning services varies considerably region by region, and depends on many factors, but on average, at the time of this writing, you should expect to pay approximately $0.30 - $0.45 per square foot. Whatever the rate, it should include all cleaning solutions, materials, and labour required to complete the job to IICRC standards of care.

Usually (well hopefully) you'll get what you pay for so, just as with any other major purchase decision, it's buyer beware. When you do your homework you'll find all carpet cleaning companies are not created equal.

Beware of additional charges or surcharges for fuel, disposal of waste, environmental fees, use of spotting solutions, or any other hidden or surprise charges. Prices quoted prior to the start of the job should be inclusive of all these costs.

Of course every cleaning situation is different, and there are valid business reasons for charging higher cleaning rates for extraordinary circumstances, and additional charges for additional services that are not included in the cleaning rates should be expected. Services such as carpet protection treatments, pet odour removal, and extreme spotting or stain removal processes are not generally included in regular cleaning rates.

Beware of the lowest quote, cheap per room rates, or huge discount offers. These may be warning signs that the company may not be entirely "above board". There are, unfortunately, many carpet cleaners operating with less than impeccable ethical business practices.

Some carpet cleaning companies, probably most, pay their technicians a commission based on the total dollar amount of the jobs they do. This naturally motivates them in two ways: to up-sell as much as possible, extracting as much money from your wallet as they can, and to rush through jobs to get as much work completed, or more precisely, collect as much revenue in a day as they can. This can lead to sloppy workmanship, high pressure sales tactics from the technician for you to pay for additional services, and poor service attitudes from technicians who may feel they are not being compensated properly if you decline the extras or if your job situation requires more time than average. Make sure the company you deal with has strict quality standards in place that they will adhere to regardless of the size of the job.

Here are of few unethical marketing practices to watch out for:

Bait and switch selling. Some unscrupulous carpet cleaners will quote a super low price per room over the phone or in an advertisement (the bait) only to change the price when they get to your home (the switch) when the technician pressures you to pay more, claiming that the original quote didn't include the cleaning solutions or the processes required to do a good job for your situation.

Bait and switch selling is illegal in Canada and the United States. You can report offenders to the Competition Bureau of Canada or to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Continually running deep discount offers. Some companies advertise huge discounts, 30%, 35%, even 50% off, week after week after week. Of course, discounts that sound too good to be true usually are. If a company offers deep discounts on a continual basis, you may wonder, when does anyone ever pay the regular price? It may be that the "discount" isn't a discount at all, and perhaps their original prices are inflated to allow for the continually offered "sale prices".

The Competition Act of Canada prohibits this practice. You can read the "Advertising Dos and Don'ts" section at the Competition Bureau of Canada website and judge for yourself.

The FTC in the United States has similar standards for truthfulness in advertising to protect consumers, which can be found on their website.

Telemarketing. The best advice here is never to book an appointment or give any personal information to a telemarketer and ask them to remove you from their list. While some companies using this marketing strategy may be reputable, the overwhelming majority are not. Get the name of the company calling you then do your homework. If they check out, you can always call them back to book an appointment.

You can add your phone numbers to the Do Not Call List in Canada and the United States if you want to stop telemarketers from calling you.

Here are some helpful tips to finding a quality, reputable carpet cleaner in your area.

The carpet cleaning industry is largely self regulated and only a small percentage of technicians receive any formal training at all.

1. Check with the IICRC at www.iicrc.org for a list of Certified Firms near you. Certified firms are required to have a certified technician on every job. Unfortunately that doesn't always happen. Even certified firms have been known to send technicians to homes that have no formal training. When discussing your cleaning project with prospective firms, insist that they send a certified technician to your home, one that is certified in the area of expertise that you require. Which leads us to important tip #2...

2. Conduct a brief, informal interview of your technician before he (or she) starts. Confirm that they are IICRC certified specifically for the type of service you require. If he is, he will be happy to produce his certification card for your inspection. Also make sure that your technician has at least three months of full time experience working along side a more experienced certified technician. He should be able to confidently answer basic questions about carpet cleaning, routine maintenance, spot removal and other questions about your carpet.

Note: For upholstery cleaning or more technically challenging jobs such as cleaning wool carpet, make sure your technician has several years of experience and many IICRC certifications to ensure your dealing with a top professional.

3. Get a quote in writing before committing to the job. Make sure the quote includes everything necessary for a complete job and top quality workmanship to the IICRC standards of care. Then get at least one other quote for comparison.

4. Review a written copy of their guarantee to ensure that if you are not satisfied with the cleaning results, they will stand behind their work and happily re-clean any unsatisfactory areas. Also check that they are insured so that you are fully protected in the event that something were to go wrong. Ask what will happen if something gets damaged during the cleaning process.

5. Get more quotes if you're not comfortable making a decision with what you heard from the first two.

Here are some helpful tips that might help you minimize the costs of carpet cleaning.

While professional carpet care is not inexpensive, consider the substantial investment you have in your carpet. An average home has thousands of dollars worth of carpet installed and proper maintenance will extend the life of the carpet for years, avoiding the high cost of premature replacement. Not to mention keeping all that used carpet out of our landfills.

Clean for health. Regularly cleaned carpet contributes positively to the quality of the air your home by filtering out and capturing harmful particles that would otherwise be floating around the air for you and your family to breath in. Healthy carpets help create healthy home environments.

Regularly and frequently cleaning your carpet has so many benefits beyond mere aesthetics, improved indoor air quality, and the economic and environmental benefits. Well, actually that may be about it, but these are all really good reasons for you to feel better about the cost of keeping them clean.

But who doesn't want to save a few dollars when you can, so here are some tips to help keep the costs down...

1. Carpet manufacturers and industry experts recommend that you clean your carpets annually, yet the average homeowner cleans their carpets only every 5 years, if at all. By waiting until carpets are visibly soiled before cleaning, they are generally considered overdue for professional attention. If you have your carpets cleaned frequently and regularly most carpet cleaning companies will reward you with a discount as the cleaning job will require less time and effort to restore them to their original clean condition.

2. More is less. The more areas you have cleaned during the same visit, the better rate per square foot you will likely get. For every cleaning job there is a fixed amount of time required to drive to your home, set up the equipment, and pack up the equipment. These fixed costs must be factored in to each job so you can expect the square foot rate will be higher for smaller jobs.

3. More, more is less. Most carpet cleaning companies offer a range of additional services such as upholstery cleaning and tile cleaning. Have more services done during the same visit and benefit from better rates for the same reasons as mentioned above.

4. Prepare the work area or empty rooms of furniture. A well prepared work area makes the cleaning job easier and faster for the technician and by clearing the furniture out of a room, many companies offer discounts or special empty room rates. You can also save by cleaning only the main traffic areas in lower use areas.

Copyright © NuvoClean 2010. All Rights Reserved.

Dave Marryatt has more than 25 years experience in the cleaning and restoration industry, several years as a trainer, currently operating NuvoClean, a home services business in Vancouver Canada, which specializes in eco-friendly carpet and rug cleaning, upholstery cleaning, leather restoration, and tile & grout cleaning.

If you are fortunate enough to live in the Vancouver BC area, you can take advantage of our expert services for your home. Give us a call 1-800-681-4592 or visit us on-line http://www.nuvoclean.com

How to Charge Correctly For Your House Cleaning Business

A home cleaning business can be very profitable if set up and run properly. Knowing how to charge correctly for your house cleaning business is one of the most important steps to ensure you make money at your venture.

Setting the price of your house cleaning has many variables and factors. The first thing you must do is look at your competition in the area. Determine how they charge, square foot, hour, or flat rate. If they all charge by the hour, you can opt to charge a flat rate in order to market yourself.

Next, determine what your cost would be to clean a house. Remember items like gas and travel time. Once you have a total, you must then determine the amount of profit you can live with. Factor in your salary and the amount of cash you wish to put back into the business.

Lastly, compare the price you calculated with those of your competitors. If you are significantly lower, try to determine possible costs you may have left out. If you are significantly higher, did you factor in an unrealistic profit?

Marketing will be an expense that will be ongoing throughout the life of your business. If you've ever heard of the old adage, "it takes money to make money", this is where marketing comes into play. Plan on sending out flyers to attract new business. Also, you can offer discounts or coupons to first time customers to generate new business.

With a little planning and determination, your home cleaning business can thrive. If you have difficulties setting everything up, there are consultants that can help you.

As an author for Online PhD Degree, the author reviews cutting-edge universities and PhD degrees such as Kaplan Doctoral Programs and Kaplan PhD Programs.

Apartment Cleaning

Even people who have apartments, have cleaning companies. It doesn't have to be just the wealthy people with huge homes that have people come to their homes and clean, anymore. Because cleaning has become more affordable and more mainstream, it's less likely that people will be thought of as 'snooty' if they have a housekeeper. A lot of people avoided having one in the past because they were concerned about what others would think. Since that's less of an issue now, more apartment dwellers are getting their residences cleaned. When you get an apartment cleaned you get the same basic services that you would get when you have a larger home cleaned - it just generally takes less time, and therefore costs less, because most apartments are smaller. If you live in a very large apartment, you can expect a cleaning service to charge about the same rate that they would for a house, so you'll want to ask them how they figure their price. It is usually either by square footage or by the hour, but some places will visit your apartment, take a look around, and quote you a total, fixed price.

 

If you aren't sure that you're comfortable with a price quote that's given to you by one of the Redmond apartment cleaning companies, you can certainly get other quotes. There are a lot of companies out there who provide this service. There are also private individuals, but most of them aren't licensed, insured, or bonded, so you'll need to be very careful if you hire these people. They might do a great job cleaning, but if they steal something, break something, or get injured while they're cleaning for you it could be a serious problem, and there might not be much that you can do about it. Hiring a reliable Redmond cleaning service is very important so that you can have peace of mind and know that your apartment will be cleaned the right way and nothing will go missing or be damaged. If you're really busy and don't have a lot of time you owe it to yourself to have your apartment cleaned for you.

All of our articles are originals, if you liked this, check out Redmond Commercial Cleaning for similar information. If you need a professional Housecleaning Company, Executive Green Clean can help!

Starting a Cleaning Business Means Low Start Up Costs & Big Profits

Are you thinking of starting a cleaning business? Good for you! This home based business opportunity has one of the lowest start up costs of any business you could choose. If you don't mind getting a little dirty, a cleaning business is an easy and profitable home business.

Whether you choose house cleaning, commercial cleaning or both, there are some things you need to consider before starting a cleaning business. A good business plan is a must! What does a business plan consist of?

You need to write out a plan, and include what your start up costs will be (which are very minimal in this business), what hours you will work, transportation you will use, marketing plan, etc. One VERY important thing you must do - check out your competition! Knowing their prices and what services they provide will help you compete and gain more clients.

Starting a cleaning business is really easy. If you are contemplating a commercial service, you will need contracts for your clients. These contracts will include services you will perform, rates, etc. You and your client should be clear on prices and what services are to be included in your price.

A home cleaning business is a little different, in that you don't usually need a contract. Most of the time you can clean houses during regular daytime hours, and get paid at the time of the cleaning. Some people will want to pay you on a monthly basis, if you clean for them every week.

There are a few other things you need to know about starting a cleaning business, especially if this is your first venture into this type of business. If you do your research, get a good marketing plan together and make sure you know what you are doing before you start, a cleaning business can be your ticket to freedom from the 9 to 5 - AND your ticket to a great income!

Starting a cleaning business is an easy way to make HUGE profits, with very little start up cost. To find out all you need to know about starting your own house or commercial cleaning business, visit http://www.simplymakemoneyfromhome.com - Sign up for our FREE newsletter!

Foreclosure Cleaning Business - Why You Should Never Discuss Rates Or Prices Over the Phone

If you own a business cleaning foreclosures, or are thinking about starting one, one thing you should know going in is that you will get call after call from subcontractors and wanna-be business owners asking for guidance on how to price jobs and/or how much they can make in this business. They'll call asking questions and make comments like:

"I own a landscaping company and want to pitch my services to foreclosure cleanup companies. I just need a little guidance on how you go about pricing your services;"

OR

"I am thinking of going into the foreclosure trashout business. I wanted to know about how much I can expect to make on a house -- just a rough estimate is all I need, eg, for just doing the cleaning and trashout;"

OR

"I own a general contracting business and want to get into cleaning foreclosures. How do you decide what to charge for things like making repairs, painting, etc.?"

These are actual calls one foreclosure cleaning business owner says she receives on a daily basis.

Don't get sucked into answering these types of questions. It's not that you don't want to share trade secrets or anything, or that you don't want to be helpful to others. Rather, it's for the following very practical reasons.

Foreclosure Cleanup Business Owners: 3 Reasons NOT to Talk Rate/Pricing w/Others

Time: If you're actively running a foreclosure cleaning business, you probably won't have the time to answer these types of questions. As foreclosures are a hot topic in the news now, many are interested in starting this type of business. And you could be fielding 5, 10 or 15 calls a day like this - from all over the country - and beyond.

These calls can take anywhere from 10 or 15 minutes, on up to a half hour or more, which brings us to the next reason not to take these types of calls . . .

You're Not a Consultant: Many times, the callers will start out with one or two questions, but it rarely stops there. One question leads to the next, which leads to the next and on and on and on.

You're not a foreclosure cleaning business consultant, you're a foreclosure cleaning business owner. And if you start answering questions for every caller, it won't be the last call you'll get. Many will continue to call as they run into problems.

A lot of what needs to be learned in this business can only be learned by trial and error, as anyone in the business can tell you.

It's Impossible to Answer Correctly: Prices and job rates depend on so many variables - location, size of house, work to be done, contractors to be hired, turnaround time, equipment to be rented, etc. that it's practically impossible to answer correctly anyway. So, don't even try.

Cleaning foreclosures - like any other business - takes time and commitment. And those who are serious about it will take it upon themselves to learn what they need to know to succeed.

May be reprinted with the following, in full: Foreclosure cleanup businesses present a sizzling opportunity to make money in the current economic climate -- and beyond. Visit Start-a-Foreclosure-Cleanup-Business.com for 200 pages of info that tells you everything you need to know to start a business cleaning foreclosures. View the news video featuring the owner of a leading foreclosure company in Atlanta, GA on the site as well.