Saturday, January 14, 2017

WHERE DO YOU FIT?

I recently was given a 2014 report from the US economic census that provided some really interesting statistics on the BSC industry. While I was aware of much of the information, I was again taken back by some of the numbers. For instance, DID YOU KNOW? 

---There are 54,663 cleaning companies in the United States.

---Over 75% of the companies have under 10 employees, 60% have less than 5 employees.

---Only 1,297 firms have over 100 employees.

---46% of the entire industry is controlled by 294 firms.

---Our industry employs right at 1 million employees.

Think about those numbers. Where do you fall? If you employ 100 0r more people you are in the upper 2% of the companies in size in the United States. 

In most areas the largest accounts are generally serviced by a large regional or national BSCs. They like to focus on those large accounts to make it "cost effective" to operate. Think of all the business that leaves for the rest of us. The reality of business is that there are thousands of more smaller prospects than larger ones in the marketplace. 

I had firsthand experience dealing with this issue. In one of the large metropolitan areas where I operated (Phoenix), I had two well known national competitors. Well, let me clarify that. I saw them as competitors, they saw me as just a guy to be nice too. One of the companies had a policy not to service any account under $20,000 per month and the other one had a lower threshold of $10,000 per month. 

 Do you know how many $8,000 and $9,000 a month potential customers there were (are) in the Phoenix market? I didn't know either because there were so many I didn't get to all of them. I enjoyed advertising that we were the company that could service them because the well known name brand companies didn't take anything that "small". We were able to secure several very nice, profitable $8,000 per month accounts. My competitors did me a huge favor. 

So, where do you fit? Let me suggest you find your slot, develop a sales strategy and "go for it". As usual, Consultants In Cleaning, LLC stands ready to help in any way we can. We offer a personal service as well as a myriad of training materials on a variety of subjects. The clients that work with us on a personal weekly or every other week basis are enjoying nice double digit sales increases AND profit increases. Just click www.consultantsincleaning.com, then click the "ask a question" icon and we'll get back with you promptly. Also, while you are on the site, check out all of the training material available. By the way, VERY SOON we will be announcing a new training package that will be a great addition to your training library. Watch this space as well as our weekly Kleancast at www.kleancast.com.

More details to follow soon.  HAPPY NEW YEAR. Till next time.

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