Are you ready to retire from house cleaning? It could be you want to close your cleaning business and try something new. Or maybe you just want to quit your cleaning job. The real question is when is the right time to retire from house cleaning?
A house cleaning FAQ is “what is involved when you retire from house cleaning?” And “How do you say goodbye to your clients?” Also “How do you sell your cleaning business?”
Listen: The Right Time to Retire from House Cleaning
Watch: The Right Time to Retire from House Cleaning
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.
How Do You Know When to Retire from House Cleaning?
How do you know it’s time to get out of the house cleaning business? This is a question from a woman who’s been in the house cleaning business for dozens of years. She’s getting ready to fade out of the housecleaning business. And she wants to know is what is the moment where you go, “Aha, it’s time for me to get out of the house cleaning business“?
Well, that aha moment has actually already happened, thus the question, right? If you weren’t thinking about that, you would not ask that question. When you wake up one day and you decide that, “Hey, I’m too old to be doing this anymore. There are other exciting things I would like to pursue in my life“, that might be a moment where you say, “Okay, how do I get from here to there?”
Now, when you start a business, you get this aha moment. Like, “Hey, I should start a housecleaning business.” Then the day will come when you will have an aha moment and you will decide to get out of the house cleaning business, okay? By the same token that you got in it, now you have to get out.
Retiring is Different from Starting a Business
The rules and regulations are different. When you get into the house cleaning business, you’re setting up the business. When you get out of the house cleaning business, you’re unraveling it and taking it down. So you have a couple of options.
You can either sell your business if it’s worth anything, or you can pass on your accounts to other house cleaners. Or you can send your customers a letter and say, “Guys, I’m calling it quits. I’m outta here.” But do it professionally because you don’t want to burn any of those bridges.
I have known lots of house cleaners that got out of the business for whatever reason. And then, for some reason or another, something changed in their personal life and they decided to go back into it. If you go back into the house cleaning business, you can always call up your old customers and say, “Hey! I’m back“, and if they liked you, they might hire you back. But it’s a great way to pick up a whole bunch of business if you made a mistake and you decide you’re back.
Most House Cleaners Will Quit More Than Once
Now, every house cleaner gets out of the business about five or six times. You get really discouraged. You’re like, “I hate this job. Why am I doing this?”
And you leave the business and then you realize how much freedom you had as a small business owner. Or you realize how much flexibility you had, or you realize how much money you were making, for whatever reason, and then you get back in the business.
So there will be about five or six times during the course of a lengthy career where you’re like, “This is so not for me“, and that’s okay. That’s natural. When that happens, give yourself a good kick in the seat of the pants and have a good laugh over it. Get out of the business, and when it’s time to come back, come back with open arms. Don’t beat yourself up for your choices either way.
When You Decide to Finally Retire
When you decide to finally get out, like, “Hey, I’m wrapping up. This is the end of my career,” what are you going to do? And that’s an important question. Don’t leave the house cleaning business and walk away with no plans, because you’ll get discouraged and depressed.
You will lose the purpose of every day going and changing and making the lives of other people better. And so there has to be a purpose, and so if you’re going to get out of the house cleaning business, what is your purpose?
And so, if you have a purpose and something that drives you and something that motivates you, it’s still going to get you out of bed every morning.
House Cleaners Stay Very Active
The worst thing that I’ve seen from house cleaners who are active people because house cleaners are super active. If you wear a Fitbit on a regular day, you clock twenty to forty thousand steps on a regular day.
You’re moving and you’re hustling and you’re cleaning and you’re doing all these things, and then to go from that to nothing freaks your body out. And then not only that but all the exercise and movement also affects your head.
And so now you’re at home and you’re retired without a purpose, without activity, and that messes with your head, and then you get discouraged. What happens is now there’s no movement and activity, but you’re eating the same amount of food and your body isn’t prepared.
Some House Cleaners Get Depressed When They Retire
So, you start gaining weight, you get depressed, you get discouraged, there’s no purpose, and you hit rock bottom.
If you want to get out of the cleaning business, it needs to be because you’re going somewhere else that’s better. You need to be leaving one place for a better place.
Make a Game Plan When it is Time to Retire
If you are getting out of the business, my suggestion is that you make a retirement game plan. Figure out what the purpose is, figure out what your diet is going to be. Figure out when you’re going to fit in your workouts because if you’re an active person, you want to continue that activity.
You also need a strategy to say goodbye to your customers, because you worked in their homes. You’ve been intimate with these families, you know their children, their pets, and their house. To disappear is weird, and you want to stay in touch. So figure out a way that you can leave on good terms and say, “Hey, I’m getting out of the business. I’d love to keep you posted on what I’m up to,” and then every once in a while, send them a note on Facebook, or send them a tweet or send them an email.
Keep in Touch with Customers When You Retire
Keep in touch, because you never know what’s going to happen. It’s important that we don’t abandon the people that have believed in us and were our cheerleaders. Because you never know as you into your next whatever it is that has your purpose, they might have all the right connections to help you make that happen.
So if you stay in touch with those people, and you’ve already blessed their life, now is a chance for them to bless yours.
Pick a Day to Wrap Up Your Career
Pick a day that you’re going to wrap up, have a party for yourself, and invite all your housecleaning people over. Send a letter and say, “On this day, this will be your last cleaning.” Whatever your decision is, but make it official and then when you walk away, walk away. Walk away to your next job, or your next part of your journey with the confidence of knowing that, “Hey, I gave this job everything I had. It was really fun, it was excellent. I made some awesome friends, and now I’m moving on.”
Enjoy what this provided you, but if you stay in the business longer than when you want to leave, your work will diminish and so will your attitude. You’ll start getting sloppy. So if you get this idea in your head that it’s time for you to leave, it’s probably time for you to leave.
*** Resources From This Episode ***
101 Fun Things to do in Retirement: An Irreverent, Outrageous & Funny Guide to Life After Work – https://amzn.to/2uMCCw2
What You Don’t Know About Retirement: A Funny Retirement Quiz – https://amzn.to/2mCqpWg
Purposeful Retirement: How to Bring Happiness and Meaning to Your Retirement – https://amzn.to/2JKK7bH
The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed, and Overworked – https://amzn.to/2Lmzhyo
The Joy of Retirement: Finding Happiness, Freedom, and the Life You’ve Always Wanted – https://amzn.to/2LvJMP2
Shifting Gears to Your Life & Work After Retirement: A Boomer’s Roadmap to Transform Retirement into the Best Time of Your Life – https://amzn.to/2LyKJWA
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