Day in the life of a Cleaning Franchise Partner at The Local Guys

Okay, so a typical day for us. Get the kids ready. They're all upstairs getting ready now so we'll just get breakfast. Shane's gonna start the coffees because we can't get through the day without our coffee. And just having a small family, it's pretty hectic before we get going.

Yes. So before we got into the cleaning industry, Kelly and I we had a retail toll business. So about 20 years I think we own that for. So just with the ongoing overheads and that it was just decided to sell up and we wanted to go into another industry and we just thought cleaning, you know, our service based industry was going to really be ideal for us being that we've got a small family now growing up and looking into us at work. Life balance, wasn't it?

Yeah, that's what appealed to us the most.

So it just gave us that flexibility. You know we had need to finish early for 12, 1 o' clock to see a school play or whatever. You know, just gave us that, that really, that flexibility that we didn't have prior to what we were doing. So yeah, it's been a, well it's been a no brainer for us. Yeah, Kelly and I just you know, lighten things up through the week. Every Friday we pick a, pick a restaurant or pub to go to and say yeah, Friday is our lunch sort of date, you know, so we can work our schedule around that. Again it just gives us that work life balance. That's right. So the biggest appeal for us getting into a service based industry, especially cleaning was the fact that there was no qualifications needed to, you know, to go into this sort of business. So being training on the job, being late in life, it just really suited us, you know, to be able to hit the ground running straight away with the minimum amount of training.

So we're just about to start our day now. Just have a quick coffee and have a look at our work schedule, what's coming up.

Yes, as soon as we finished our coffee we'll head down, get all our equipment packed up, any chemicals we need topping up and hit the road to start our first job.

Okay, so we're just setting up for the day. I'm about to go out on my first job. I'm able to fit everything in the boot. We've got the chemicals that we need for cleaning our kit, mop, mop buckets, I've got some microfiber cloths, vacuum cleaner, got all the mop sticks, everything we need. It all fits in neatly. I also have the, just some advertising material that we might need and most importantly the chemical safety data sheets are in here as well should we need that on a job. And then every morning before we start the job I just go through, make sure all the chemicals have been topped up for the day. We're ready to go. Quick, quick, get your shoes on. Every morning we can't find the shoes. There you go, right here buddy.

See you kids.

Okay, so I've just dropped the kids off to school and I'm about to head off to my first job. What I'm doing today is just a domestic clean. It's probably spent about two, two and a half hours at this clean every week. So it's a lady I know that I've cleaning her house for probably the last two years now. The great thing about this clean is that it is a weekly clean. So we just know that it's a continual work. When things quieten down, we've always got that job every week. So it's that income coming in. So for this clean it's a systemised clean. Pretty much do the same thing with most domestic cleaning. I go straight in, start in the bathrooms first, work my way from the bathroom. The kitchens, they're the areas that people will notice immediately and then from there just work through the house. Do the bedrooms, all the living areas. Finish off with your, with your floors. A domestic clean is often just a surface clean, a general clean of the house. It's not as in depth as say a bond clean would be. Okay, so now that I've completed the clean, I'm just leaving behind the service report for the client so that they can have a checklist of everything that's been completed including any communication notes we leave behind for her.

Okay, just heading off to my first job this morning so going over to do well basically start a bond clean really. So it's a three bedroom, two bathroom unit, single garage. Should take us the best part of the day to get that done. So I'm going to make a start. My wife Kelly, she's done the school drop off, she'll head over to two to three hour domestic clean. Should be done by about lunchtime. After that she'll come over to the bond clean to give me a hand. So yeah, should have that done by about 4 o' clock this afternoon. So doing this type of work especially bon clean's, my wife and I really enjoy it. We can sort of just both work together, listen to a podcast throughout the day or listen to music and then at the end of the job just to see the results that we've created and the satisfaction knowing that we've got a property up to standard that can then go on to another tenant to go to rent after that. It's really a satisfying job that we do. So coming to work for myself, being out of a wage based job that I was in before, I just can't believe once I got into it how good the profit margins actually are in the cleaning business. What we do in a day, you know, I, I'd have to nearly work two or three days in a wage based industry for that same amount of money. And the beauty of this industry as well, we work from home, store all our chemicals at home and we work basically work our office from home. So the overheads are really, really low. I'm just going to pull over for a tick. I've just checked my phone and it's just come through that. I'll leave that come through from the support center. So looks like this one's a two hour commercial clean that's going to be done every fortnight. Yeah. Typical client for us, you know, really is a broad range from, from a major corporation or you know, an airport hanger. So we even do twice a week to just a general domestic clean. So the, the demand is always there for the cleaning industry. There's always something that people need doing or being in that service based industry. So it's, it's just a great industry to be in. Some of the cool things we're seeing is just the high end builders cleans, remember that job.

It's a different world to what we live in. So it was interesting to see. But those builders cleans, they've got the swimming pool inside the house and yeah places like that, like a 50 meter.

Pool, couldn't believe the size of it.

Yeah.

And then again you know just after a builder's clean just to see the finished product. But those high ends, it just, it's really cool to see.

We haven't built a house before so that was a learning even just to know from that point of view that you have to have the two cleans.

Exactly.

You've got to come back and do it again. And you don't sort of know everything that goes on because we don't go into the building side. That didn't really happen until we started cleaning.

That coming right at the end of the building process. So yeah it's satisfying when you get a client. Can't believe the difference we've made to a job. You know from a small two bedroom house to a two million dollar Mansion. It just gives you that satisfaction that you know, we've done a great job so to know that we've helped them because a lot of times especially end of lease cleaning people are moving and they just haven't got the time to do the cleaning themselves.

Such a stressful time.

Stressful, yeah. And they rely on us to, to do that for them thoroughly and efficiently. So and then rather themselves, the client or the real estate to give us a call and say, oh guys, you know, you've done an absolutely wonderful job. It's very satisfying. There was a client just before Christmas this last year that she bought a two million dollar house up on the range here and it was a, you know, a bit grubby and basically we weren't there for nearly two days and after she just blown away, couldn't believe, you know, she thought, you know, actually commented that the house probably worth two and a half million dollars now. So just, just little things like that.

I think having the aged care contract, we enjoy being able to work with elderly people as well, going into their homes and while you're cleaning, while you're working you're having a bit of a chat with them and you just giving them that support as well and feel like it's not just a job then, it's you being part of the community as well.

Yeah, yeah, sense of that community, especially that particular contract. Just helping their communities. Really satisfying.

Okay, so just finished for the day, just picked the kids up from school, they're all settled now so I'm just going to go online here and finish up for the day. Just wrap up probably about 15 minutes just doing some invoices and ordering some stock so we'll get that done.

So I'm just heading to my final job of the day. So it is an office clean so I should get there about quarter past five just for the, the guys at the office to pack up and leave. So I do this job once, once a month. I really do enjoy it. It's, it's, you can sort of just get in there, no one's sort of in your way, get the job done. The best thing about it, it's just repe saying before with those commercial contracts. So yeah, I can stick my earphones in, just chill out, get the work done and then yeah, head home. It's just in time for a bit of a late tea. So with commercial jobs as well, it's not always a 9 to 5 sort of situation. Sometimes it can be after hours which I personally don't mind. You can sort of just get in there, get the job done. And also being an after hours, you can charge at a higher rate, which is more profitable as well. So it's got some really big benefits, that commercial sector, that's for sure.

Well, the good thing about being in a franchise that we've found, as opposed to say a small independent cleaning, is just the support we get and the tips and knowledge.

Tips we can bounce off from, from or learning from the head office.

Yes. That we didn't know ourselves.

For instance, we know of another cleaning company that there was antique furniture they had brought in actually from the United States and I think one of their staff members used an incorrect chemical to polish up the furniture, took all the varnish off. So just little hints like that in tips that we get through our support centre just makes a world of difference. And just knowing you've got that knowledge and we've done that training behind us.

It gives you the confidence, gives you.

The confidence straight from day one, basically just go and do the job and know we're doing it correctly and following the correct procedures. Do you remember when we first started trying to clean a shower screen? It took us half a day just to clean a shower screen.

Well, we didn't know anything about any sort of professional chemicals, only just what we were buying in the shop. Just what was on sale or something from the shop.

Local supermarket.

Yeah. And you soon worked out the just you get what you pay for. Like anything, I suppose as well, but not that.

But just doing the right chemical, you know, the right situation.

Yep. The right.

And leaving and leaving the. The solution on. On a surface, the right amount of time is.

Well, it does all the hard work for you, doesn't it?

Does the hard work.

You don't have to, you know, less.

Work stress on the shoulders, you know, so.

And being able to bring it into the home as well.

Exactly. It's made housework a lot.

It has.

Not that I do any Kel.

Exactly.