“I know it all but I’m broke.” It’s the mystery weighing on the minds of many business owners in the house cleaning industry.
Why do some businesses suffer financial loss when they’re doing everything right?
What if you have the skills needed to run a business and all the right strategies in place but still fail? What makes a cleaning company successful?
Find your success and check out the reasons why entrepreneurs are going broke in the new era of cleaning.
Listen: I Know it All But I’m Broke
Watch: I Know it All But I’m Broke
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. You can find this and 400 other answered questions in this series on our YouTube channel.
I Know it All But I’m Broke
“I know it all, but I’m broke.” It’s a confession I heard three times this last week, and I’m going to share it with you today because I don’t want it to happen to you.
There were three different scenarios this last week that are right on the top of my mind. And I want to share them with you because they all come down to this concept that I know it all, but yet I’m broke.
The First Scenario is a Guy Who Does Consulting
The first one is a guy who came to me. He does a lot of consulting, but the challenge he has is that what he’s been doing in the past does not equal the same results.
So, as we tried to uncover some new suggestions, new ideas and new ways for his company to pivot, he’s like, “Oh, that will never work.” And he kept batting these ideas down because he knows it all and he is not teachable.
COVID Has Changed House Cleaning Forever
Right now we’re in an era that I’ve never seen before in three decades of business. COVID, it changed the world of housecleaning forever. The way that customers perceive house cleaning, the need for sanitization, and disinfecting services has changed. The need for personal protective equipment has changed. The availability of products on our supermarket shelves has changed.
So, whether or not you have a system that was working in the past, it is time you must pivot if you’re going to stay in business. And so just knowing the information does not make you rich. You have to pivot and be willing to be teachable in order to navigate these changing times.
The Second Scenario is a Guy Who Has Paid for Consulting
The second scenario is a little bit different because a gentleman has paid for consulting and he’s paid for our courses. And he hopes miraculously by osmosis, he’s going to be smart and rich. It does not work that way. It’s like if you buy a gym membership and then you say, “Well, I’m ripped.”
Well, no, you’re not. You have to get up every morning and get into your car. You have to put your gym clothes on, go down to the gym and go to the equipment. Then, you have to work out and do the reps every single day.
It’s the repetition of the system that makes you ripped, not owning membership. The membership is never going to make you ripped. It is the information that gets you there. It is what allows you to go in and get ripped, but you have to actually do the work yourself. So, if you don’t do the work, you’re not going to get the results. You have to use the knowledge you gain.
The Third Scenario is I Know it All But I Haven’t Done Something
So the third scenario is another one of these I know it all and yet I’m broke because I haven’t done something. I hope that because someone else has leveraged their time, that I too will leverage my time. Well, it doesn’t work that way either. Just because someone else is successful does not mean that you have leveraged your time.
So, if you are a business owner, you must pay your dues. You must create your own systems and set the systems up in place. You must template those systems and train other people to run those systems.
You must outsource those systems because until you do, you cannot leverage your time. And so, there are people that are frustrated, and they say, “Well, I know all this stuff. But unless we actually put the work in, it cannot pay us back.”
You Can’t Make Money on a Book You Haven’t Written
It’s like expecting that you’re going to make royalties on a book you have not written yet. News flash, it’s not going to happen. You have to sit down, pay the dues and write the book. Once you write the book, then you can market it and then you can work less. After that you earn money that you’ve leveraged over and over again.
You don’t have to keep rewriting the book because you’ve leveraged that. But it’s just like the systems you create in your business. You’re never going to get to a four-hour workweek just because somebody wrote a book called The 4-Hour Workweek. Because they did it doesn’t mean you did it.
You still have to go through your own process, create your own systems, leverage those systems to enjoy those systems.
Something is Not Working in Your Business
So, if you have all the information and you know it all, but yet you’re broke, something is not working in your business.
And so as it would be great to say, “Oh, there’s a quick fix here.” There’s not a quick fix. There are no quick fixes in business, you actually have to put the work in.
So even though you may know it all, you’re not going to benefit from it all until you put the action behind the knowledge.
Resources
These good karma links connect you to Amazon.com and affiliated sites that offer products or services that relate to today’s show.
When you click on the links and buy the items you pay the exact same prices or less than if you found the links on your own elsewhere. The difference is that we make a small commission here at the show for sharing these links with you.
What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful – http://amzn.to/2vjBBht
Moving the Needle: Get Clear, Get Free, and Get Going in Your Career, Business, and Life! – http://amzn.to/2AgIr95
Money Is Everything: Personal Finance for The Brave New Economy – http://amzn.to/2htXe5L
50 Mistakes Business Owners Make – https://amzn.to/2TCFLuX
Smart Business, Stupid Business: What School Never Taught You – https://amzn.to/3etJnrG
Permissions To Share
You Have Our Permission To Share This Episode
Show Sponsor
Savvy Cleaner Training – House Cleaner Training and Certification
My Cleaning Connection – Your hub for all things cleaning.
HouseCleaning360 – A hub connecting homeowners with house cleaners
Savvy Perks – Employee benefits for your employees.
Turnover Cleaning Tips – for Vacation Rental and Airbnb Hosts
