Nobody gets into cleaning because they find it thrilling. But somewhere along the way, a lot of owners start chasing the thrilling stuff anyway: the new service, the new software, the new marketing trick, or the rebrand.
Meanwhile, the boring business underneath is falling apart.
What “boring” actually means
A boring business is one where things happen the same way every time. Customers get the same clean whoever turns up. Invoices go out on the same day. Payments get chased without you remembering to do it. New starters get the same induction. The rota is sorted before Sunday night.
None of that makes a good Instagram post. All of it makes money.
Exciting businesses are expensive
Every time something depends on you remembering, improvising or firefighting, it costs you. You lose a customer because a cleaner didn’t know the key was under a different pot. You lose a week’s cash because you forgot to invoice. You lose a good member of staff because their first week was chaos.
These leaks rarely feel dramatic on their own. Added up across a year, they’re often the difference between a business that grows and one that just survives.
Where to start
Pick the one thing that goes wrong most often. Not the biggest thing, the most frequent thing. Write down exactly how it should happen, step by step, and make it the way it’s done from now on.
Next month, pick the next one.
After seventeen years running Mackies, I can tell you the most valuable things we built weren’t the clever ideas. They were the dull, repeatable systems that meant the business ran the same on a Tuesday in February as it did when I was watching.
Be boring. Get rich slowly. Stay in business.
Rhianna
