Ask a House Cleaner, Oversaturation, Savvy Cleaner

Oversaturation of the House Cleaning Business

Oversaturation. “There are too many house cleaners. I want to grow my cleaning business but the house cleaning market is over saturated.” Lots of house cleaners and maid services lament that “The market is too competitive.”

Today on Ask a House Cleaner we look at oversaturation and tips to grow your cleaning business in spite of it. Is oversaturation real? Angela Brown, The House Cleaning Guru says “Oversaturation is a concept, not a curse.” The house cleaner education she promotes allows you to clean from your creativity.

“How do we stay in business?” “There are more house cleaners than there are houses.” These silly ideas disappear once you know the secret to competitive business strategy.

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Hey there, I’m Angela Brown, and this is Ask a House Cleaner. This is a show where you get to ask a house cleaning question, and I get to help you find an answer.

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Question: How Do I Stay In Business? The Market is Over Saturated

 Today’s question represents 65 to 100 questions that I get every single day, about oversaturation.

People call me, and they text me, and they email me, and they instant message me, and they Facebook me. And they’re like, “Angela, the market is over saturated. There are too many house cleaners.  There are more house cleaners than there are houses. How am I supposed to stay in business? The market is over saturated.”

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Answer: Oversaturation is a Concept, Not a Curse

oversaturation is a concept not a curse

Okay, I got news for you, oversaturation is a concept it’s not a curse.

Now, if you just stop for just a second, we’ll take a step back and let me share with you this.

Right now you’re either reading a blog. Or you’re listening to me on a podcast that’s on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud. Or you’re watching this on YouTube.

Now if you look at all the available medias that are out there, they’re oversaturated, right? There are thousands upon thousands of podcasts. Millions of blogs. And billions of minutes of programming on YouTube. The media market is over saturated. And yet here you are consuming this content right now.  How did that happen?

Build it And They Will Come – More than  Cliché

Yes, there is oversaturation in the market but guess what? If you are specific about what you offer, you will attract a specific audience. That’s how oversaturation works. You don’t need to reach everyone, just a select few.

Now, I’m going to change the script again, because if you build it, they will come. All right, that’s kind of a cliché but build in a specific niche. This way you have a targeted audience and targeted advertising. Then they will come. Don’t try to be all things to everyone.

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Know Your Target 

Oversaturation - choose specific niche

Back to the YouTube video for a second, I have a specific show, it’s called Ask A House Cleaner. On this show you get to ask a house cleaning question, I get to help you find an answer, that’s a specific niche. I promise you that on this show, I will never teach you how to create salt water taffy. Why?

Because I cannot be all things to everyone. I have a precise set of information for a clear-cut audience. And here you are, partaking of this tailored group of ideas. So see, it works.

 That’s how you run your business. If you want to stay in business in an oversaturated marketplace, you have to drill down with a narrow focus.

Let’s Talk About the Arena

Phillipine Arena

Let’s suppose you’re going to a free concert at the arena. The arena is round with doors surrounding the entire building. Outside the arena, there’s a line of people waiting to get in. 

The line wraps around the side of the structure and all the way down the street.

The people in line are talking and chatting and checking their smartphones.

A few of the people wonder if the other doors are open. But since no one else is attempting to go through them, they don’t want to look silly. So they don’t check the doors. They just stand in line like everybody else. Waiting for whatever happens next.

Oversaturation: The Truth Will Set You Free

The spook self-sabotaging fact is that all the doors to the arena are open. Anyone and everyone is free to enter. 

This is a free concert. No one is taking tickets on the inside. There are no assigned seats. Anyone could go through any and all of the doors.

What’s keeping you from taking ten steps to the next set of doors?

The same concept applies in business. Why are you doing what everyone else is doing and expecting different results? Oversaturation in your market is just like the oversaturation of the people waiting in line for the free concert.

Carve a Niche For Yourself

Oversaturation, choose any arena seat

You already have everything you need to be successful in business. Why not give yourself permission to succeed? Give yourself permission to walk through the doors.  Once inside, you can roam wherever you want in the arena and find the perfect seat. The key is getting in the doors. 

Instead of creating the same flyer as all your competitors that states you do sixty-five different things.

“Oh, I do move-ins and move-outs, and I do bi-weekly cleaning and residential cleaning and all these things.” You don’t have to be like everyone else, you don’t have to stand and wait in the big line, that’s not necessary.

You can focus in and say, “I only clean garages. I am the garage cleaner for this neighborhood.” Guess what? Everyone in the whole neighborhood has a garage.

Okay, they may have other house cleaners, but they don’t have a garage cleaner. And chances are the maid service that they’ve hired doesn’t clean garages.

Now you have a narrow focus and you can go in through doors that were already unlocked but nobody’s going in.

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Narrow Niche Your Advertising to Fight Oversaturation

As you niche your audience, you’ll also narrow your advertising. 

Sure, anyone in the neighborhood could hire you. Because they all have garages. But most of them don’t have a “garage cleaner.”

Some of them may have a maid service – that doesn’t do garage cleaning. So they hire you as well. 

And then the neighbors see you cleaning a garage with your sign out front or your car magnet that says “Garage cleaning specialist”. 

And they think “Oh my goodness, I need a garage cleaner too.” Then as they hire you too.

When they get to know you, they can say, “Who knew! You clean houses as well? Well, you did such an amazing job on our garage, why don’t we just have you come be our house cleaner?”

Now that you’re inside that door and you go around to find a seat anywhere you want to sit. You can pick up that person as a regular house cleaning client.

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The House Cleaning Approach is the Long Line of Oversaturation

If you market your business just like everybody else – you will have to compete with everyone else for the good seats.

Just go through the other doors, there’s no sign that says, “Enter here.” There’s no sign, no one is standing there keeping guard, The unlocked doors are calling you. Just go in.

There are a bunch of different ways that you can target your niche.

Creativity is Your Secret Weapon to Oversaturation

Oversaturation - choose specific niche, lamaze class

There’s a group that does house cleaning for new moms. And you know how they advertise? They go to the Lamaze classes. They put out their brochures and their flyers. And they hang out after the thing is over. They get to know the moms, and they visit, and they introduce themselves, and they pick up a lot of business that way.

Yeah, it’s regular house cleaning. And it’s in a lot of neighborhoods where there are a lot of house cleaners already. But they targeted a specific niche of people who need that service.

Target Groups of People With Similar Life Situations

Here’s another one. School teachers, how about a back to school special where you pay for the ad in the school bulletin? Oversaturation, market house cleaning to school teachers

This is not scattered advertising all over the city that you live in. This is a targeted bulletin to school teachers. And you pay for a small ad. It’s going to cost you $10, $15 bucks or something like that. And offer a back to school special, because guess what? They’re all going back to school. 

They’ve all had the summer off. Now they’re all busy and they have homework and paperwork to grade every night, they need extra help at their house. It’s a perfect target niche.

Once you get inside their homes, they’re going to send you referrals of their other friends and their neighbors, and your business grows. But you’re getting inside a door through a door that no one is using.

Oversaturation – Is it Possible?

Yeah, it’s possible, but it’s a concept, not a curse. If you’re frustrated, because you’re spending a bunch of money on advertising, your niche is not narrow enough. 

  Embrace Oversaturation as an Opportunity

Oversaturation, the limitations are in your head

The masses would have you believe that business is scarce. There is not enough business to go around. That once the doors are open there won’t be enough seats – or any good ones left. 

I’m telling you there are plenty of good seats and if you’ll break away from the pack – you’ll get the best seats first.

Okay, so that’s my two cents for today, and until we meet again, leave the world a cleaner place than when you found it.

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Resources For This Episode

Economics 101: From Consumer Behavior to Competitive Markets–Everything You Need to Know About Economics – http://amzn.to/2x6Rh7o

Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics – http://amzn.to/2erHnXh

The Business Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained) – http://amzn.to/2wpIICc

The Economics Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained) – http://amzn.to/2wjQIX6

Success The Psychology of Achievement – http://amzn.to/2xzneTP

Improv Wisdom: Don’t Prepare, Just Show Up – http://amzn.to/2erIlCJ

Unthink: Rediscover Your Creative Genius – http://amzn.to/2vH4iRy

For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business – http://amzn.to/2vGxw2T

How to be resourceful in a down economy: Thinking outside the box – http://amzn.to/2wk4CIV

Instant Focus: How to Beat Procrastination, Skyrocket Your Productivity, and Double Your Output – 27 Small Tweaks to Do More In Less Time – http://amzn.to/2x7eOoF

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