CBL Episode #128 Why you need 80% RECURRING Clients to hit your revenue goals.

Are you constantly chasing your next cleaning job, feeling like you're on an endless hamster wheel of quotes, one-time cleanings, and unpredictable income? The secret to breaking this cycle lies in one powerful number: 80%.

Drawing from years of hard-won experience, we reveal why the most successful cleaning businesses maintain a crucial balance of 80% recurring revenue versus 20% one-time cleanings. This isn't just a random target—it's the foundation of sustainability, growth, and eventual freedom in your cleaning business.

While those lucrative move-out cleanings might seem like the path to prosperity, they create a precarious business model that leaves you vulnerable during slow seasons. We share candid stories of our own journey from $25/hour cleaners to business owners who've built systems that generate predictable income month after month.

You'll discover practical strategies for converting one-time clients to recurring customers, including smart follow-up techniques, welcome gifts that actually work, and pricing strategies that respect your time and expertise. We don't just share theories—we share what we've personally tested and proven in our own cleaning businesses.

Beyond the immediate financial benefits, recurring clients create opportunities for upselling, generate referrals, and ultimately build a business asset you can eventually sell or pass down. This episode provides both the motivation and the roadmap to transform your cleaning business from constant hustle to sustainable enterprise.

Move out cleaning Master class: https://klean-freaks-university.newzenler.com/courses/the-move-out-cleaning-master-class-copy

The Ron Papke Interview-Marketing Mastermind:

Up your cleaning game, join over 6000 Cleaning Business Owners most of whom are located here in the United States.  

It can be crowed when trying to figure out who you are going to learn from

Chapters

• 0:00 Tempo: 120.0

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:52

Want to make more money with your cleaning business. I'm launching a brand new subscription-based series showing you exactly how, starting with short-term rental cleanings, hosting and co-hosting. I've done it myself with my own proof of concept Vellum and Vine Hospitality Company right on Facebook and on the web, and now I'm sharing the playbook for just $7 a month. First episode lands in a week. Make sure you don't miss it. If your cleaning business is built mostly on one-time cleanings, you're constantly chasing your next paycheck. That's exhausting and it's risky. In this episode of Cleaning Business Life, we pull back the curtain on why reoccurring clients are the backbone of a sustainable and profitable cleaning business and why 80% of your total gross revenue should come from them. Stay tuned, oh my goodness. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to offer you some strategy today and we're going to talk about why 80% of your cleaning business revenue must be reoccurring to survive. What do you think about, Jamie?

Speaker 2: 2:05

Your reoccurring clients are your bread and butter. That is what makes this business, uh, business, sustain, that's what pays all my bills, that's what pays my employees. Um, and you know, before we, right before we came on here, I, I was like, oh you know, let me go look at, let me go look and see if I'm at about 80%. And I'm not. So I there's some, some pivoting that I need to do, because I'm at I believe it was 70 point and I just lost a couple reoccurring.

Speaker 2: 2:49

So ebbs and flows, ebbs and flows and there's no panic. I'm going gonna tell you guys that your phones, if you're marketing enough, your phone will continue to ring. Um, yeah, it'll continue to ring. Uh, people will continue to refer you. So just because I'm at 70.17 today, this week, doesn't mean that next week that won't change.

Speaker 1: 3:26

Right, sorry, I'm messing with my mic. For those of you who are watching me, it's always interesting, like for a long time I didn't know, like I just took one time cleanings, regular cleanings. I was just like I'm. I just want it all, like the reference of being a big whale, um, and it really does that. To sweeten the pie I believe I have my mic on now Um, to sweeten that pie, you need to have, you need to know the numbers, right. So we're talking about a strategy. So the goal and if you don't have it now, don't beat yourself up it's just a goal, a marker in the timeline. 80% is the sweet spot. You could have 50% and 50% one-time cleanings. And how this all came up was I was talking to somebody who only wanted to do just one-time cleanings. I said what are you going to do in the winter? How many people move in the wintertime when it's snowing and sleeting?

Speaker 2: 4:20

Zero unless you have to, Right, and those one-time cleanings. You know you do get stars in your eyes because it's a false. Honestly, it's a false narrative, right, because there are a lot of money.

Speaker 1: 4:37

The profit is great if you're pricing them right and you're not on the bottom of the tier. You're at the very top, getting paid what you deserve. It's lucrative like hand over fist. You're not leaving any money on the table. Jamie has given plenty of examples of ten thousand dollar job. She's done Right On one time cleanings and the profit. The profit is there but you do not want to read that's like gratis, it's that's on top, that's the frosting on your cake. Your cake the 80% and the frosting should be the 20%. That leaves room on your schedule for the one-time cleanings right now to get you know there.

Speaker 2: 5:16

there's some strategies too to make those one-time cleans into reoccurring, especially if to move in, move out clean, if you know that that house has sold and that that uh realtor sold the house. Sometimes in your closing you can put in that you want your home professionally cleaned. You want to. You kind of want to know like, hey, I clean this house, our company clean this house here. You know, here's our number. We have those little magnets that go on the refrigerator. Those are great marketing tools. And also, uh, sometimes, once in a great while, we will do a little gift certificate with um, I do little scrub daddies, a little little basket like welcome, and I have brochures I don't have any out here, it's brochures and, um, we leave all of our information right there so that in the future, once they have settled down and they moved in, they give us a call right, get on our strategy for for doing that and let's let's backtrack for for the brand new, spanking people, yes, who probably don't know what reoccurring cleaning is.

Speaker 1: 6:37

A reoccurring cleaning is A reoccurring cleaning is going to be a weekly, a bi-weekly or a monthly. It's not going to be every six weeks or every two months or every three weeks. Yes, those are reoccurring cleanings technically, but the longer space of time that you go in pushes it to almost be on the cusp of a one-time cleaning and should be priced subsequently higher. So, just so that we backtrack a little, in case you're brand spanking new, stumbled across the podcast and you're going what is a reoccurring cleaning? I want to make sure it's reoccurring, yeah right, I mean over and over.

Speaker 2: 7:13

It means that they are on your schedule with your company every other week, every week, just like what Shannon just said, right?

Speaker 1: 7:26

And your cash cow is really going to be the reoccurring cleanings when I we've I I'm quite transparent with a lot of things on my journey in the cleaning industry. Um, for a lot of you you know I started off as a merry made. I actually am a jewelry designer by trade. I'm a silversmith. Love, love, love that industry. But when the economy tanks, people aren't buying jewelry right what sells?

Speaker 1: 7:53

People always want services, always because they either can't do it or they don't want to do it. It's like with plumbing and the dentist right the dentist. People don't care, they want it fixed. With plumbing, people don't care, they want that done. Right. With cleaning, it's the same thing. They don't. You either want it or you need it. That's it too. So make sure that you are getting your profit margin there. So if you are going to focus on one-time cleanings because that's what you're getting initially, make sure you're pricing them accordingly. If you're frustrated because you're not making any money and we've all made the mistakes, you've heard me reference how I used to do move-out cleanings for $25 an hour. Yeah no, I can't think about it now.

Speaker 2: 8:39

I'm like it's just crazy for me to even think about, or even 50, I just the even 50, and I and, um, yeah you'll, you'll have to learn how to price and not by hour, especially on those and sometimes. I shoot myself in the foot like I super underbid at this job and I call people to come and help me because I can't. I'm on my 14th hour.

Speaker 1: 9:06

Right and we've done. We've all done it at least one time, and it only takes one time for you to remember going. You know that's not going to happen again.

Speaker 2: 9:14

Never again. Okay, I got you move out cleans. I got you you one time.

Speaker 1: 9:19

that's why there's terms and conditions in the move out cleaning contract, right, and you only have to do one house with no water, electricity and you're like it's never fucking happening, never never, it'll never fucking happen again.

Speaker 2: 9:31

Yeah well, while you're walking down to the river to get fill up a little water jugs right in the dark in the heat, while they're real estate sitting at home in the luxury of their air-conditioned home.

Speaker 1: 9:50

I can laugh about it now, but I was pretty.

Speaker 2: 9:52

Yeah, it happened yeah, and the moment it is, you are just. You got the lip curled up and your teeth are grinding and you're like just I like did I just make the hugest mistake of my life and I don't want to do this no more.

Speaker 1: 10:10

Right and you don't know what you don't know. And that's how we learn. And I see it a lot with a remote model. They typically cut it, with the margins being really narrow, and then they end up coming running to me and they're like, well, I'm not making any money. And I'm like, well, let's look at your P&L. And they're like, why should I show you? I'm like, hey, I was just offering free advice, you can do whatever you want. It's your business. I don't. I'm just here. Again, reiterate, I'm here I because I want to push the industry where I wanted I, where I think I want to see it to go.

Speaker 2: 10:47

Um, I don't want to. Just, it's not about me, me, me. It's about me pushing you because I want to see all of us. I see this is I want. That's why I'm doing this too is I would. I started it started off as I hope that the people that are in my industry or in my area, in my industry would charge the, especially the ones that I seek around that they're charging top dollar, like I am. Um, because if they say that they can't get that amount, obviously it you can. You can because I am living proof. I started off as a solo cleaner. Shannon started off as a solo cleaner and just we built, you know, built upon that. But yeah, uh, I it today, whenever we I was looking at the episode and the show notes, I'm like, go over here and look at my reoccurrence and, like you said, it ebbs and flows. There are times, whenever I've seen it at 87%, of reoccurring my bread and butter that floats. This whole thing was at 87% at one time.

Speaker 1: 11:58

So it will change from month to month. I just looked at mine. Mine was at 92% so far on track for this month, but last month I was down at like I had lost a couple. We had some people who passed away, we had others who went into homes and then we had others who moved away, who moved in with their children because they were too old to live by themselves anymore. So it's attrition. You have to always try to compensate for attrition and if you don't know what that means, it's like it shrinks. So you're always trying to compensate for the shrinkage that's going to happen.

Speaker 2: 12:28

And it happens in every industry, like Vegas Well, and there's also people that I've kicked off my schedule, Like you're no longer. I did not get into this anymore, the way I stand proud on this that I'm not I am doing this for money to pay for my bills. I do have a heart, but at the end of the day, it's a business, and that took such a long time for me because I have a lot of empathy and, you know, a heart, a heart. But now it's like these people are no longer benefiting. It's like why are we doing this clean for this amount? Why are we doing this clean for this amount? And your neighbor is doing the same clean, smaller place for way more. It made no sense. So I had to do a lot of readjusting, so that and that's a transition.

Speaker 1: 13:34

Yeah, and it has to be done slowly. You don't want to do a transition all at once. Don't come running to me. Oh my God, I just lost 27 clients, unless, of course, that's your intention, right? Yeah, nobody wants to be without income. It's a transition. You want to make sure that you're steady and slow with those types of things, and then the 80% rule typically is non-negotiable. So once you get up there, you want to try to always look at your. Look at your if you're doing your books, pull out your P&L, look to see where your reoccurring revenue is versus one-time cleanings. It should be two categories. Mine used to be MOs for move outs and then regular reoccurring clients. I don't remember what they're categorized at, but it's two lines and it'll tell you the percentage of bulk of income pulled in minus your expenses, and it spits it all out.

Speaker 2: 14:44

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:44

And then you just that's your goal and don't beat yourself up if you're not. So if you have a $10,000 a month, 8,000 of that should be reoccurring.

Speaker 2: 14:53

8,000 of that should be reoccurring Basic math, right, right and, and yeah, yeah, that's, that's it too.

Speaker 1: 15:00

There's. There's dangers for one-time job dependency as well. Yeah, you're constantly marketing, constantly You're, you're always, you're always grinding, always looking, always looking, always looking, always looking, and you're, and you're always quoting, which is what you do anyway, because you're going to automate those processes eventually, just to replace the lost income where, if you have regular reoccurring than when you have one-time cleanings, it costs more to attract one-time cleaning than it does reoccurring, and that actually varies, too, depending on which avenue you choose digitally to advertise with. I mean, obviously, in the dream world I would still like in-person referrals, but the I think that time has passed.

Speaker 2: 15:59

It had. I, yeah, yeah, the marketing alone would just, I mean you'd have to constantly, you'd have to constantly grab people's attention. It would be a constant. You'd have to constantly grab people's attention. It would be a constant. That would be exhausting. That would be exhausting for sure.

Speaker 1: 16:20

Yes, and then you would have staff turnover if you had W-2s, because you wouldn't be able to provide them a schedule. If you only cater to one-time cleanings Unless it's just you, and that's your thing and that's okay.

Speaker 2: 16:35

That's totally yes. If you're just a solo cleaner and and that's as far as you want to take it, um, that's fine too. Uh, you, you can do all the move out claims, but whenever you are ready to scale and the only way that you're going to scale is if you hire, and not be afraid to hire, um it's a big step, oh it's a big step and let me tell you, I have walked through many of hiring and firing and it takes a lot of practice to find the right.

Speaker 1: 17:11

Jamie has walked through fire.

Speaker 2: 17:16

Now she's coming a little bit more. She talks about those goals, so now we're coming a little bit more, but it's the way that I wanted to structure my business, and you know we'll talk about that some other time aligning with my core values.

Speaker 1: 17:45

Definitely, it obviously is going to produce unstable cash flow, which is going to give you problems paying vendors or buying assets or expanding into other areas or spending on marketing, I mean, and it makes it challenging, if not impossible, when you don't have steady income coming in right, we all know how much jobber costs, right? If you don't have that steady income coming in right, if you don't have that steady income coming in, then you're like oh, here, comes that bill 374 boom, right, yeah, excuse me 374.

Speaker 2: 18:10

I cannot live without. It's a reoccurring bill that I cannot live without. This is that's the same way that people for cleaning. They can't live without us. I I still have. I have some that have been with me for what?

Speaker 1: 18:27

four, almost five, four years I think four years gosh and jamie has tried every, every platform out there.

Speaker 2: 18:40

Oh, I didn't know any difference, so I tried them all. Definitely.

Speaker 1: 18:46

She's got expertise. If you and we've mentioned this before she is, you should almost be considered an expert on their team. I have more experience with Jabra than I do, that's for sure. This student has surpassed the teacher.

Speaker 2: 19:04

They, I think. I think they just sent me a jot form for something I don't know. I'll have to share it with you. I screenshotted it.

Speaker 1: 19:12

And then reoccurring clients create freedom and growth. And the whole point and you'll hear me say this many times on my soapbox the whole point of doing all this craziness is so that you can create a legacy that you can sell at a later date or gift to family and get you know, be an absentee owner and get a paycheck every quarter, every month or depending on the dynamics of how you work that out and how you're structured tax-wise. So steady cash flow means that you can plan for hiring, you can plan for marketing, you can plan for expansion. You can also have easier scheduling because you're building a predictable route. You can have your cleaning techs hang out because you're able to give them more hours if you're paying by the hour. It just depends on how you work that out. You also will have a better client relationship, which will also lead to upsells, referrals and trust.

Speaker 1: 20:03

I'm reading my notes here and it's not a one and done type thing. So what happens is you get used to Mrs Smith gets used to you coming, and then every like, either quarter or biannual you can say hey, I have room on the schedule for a deep clean. If you'd like to hit those baseboards, we can wet, wipe them for you. We can add that on your service this time. Or we can come and do your windows. You know Thanksgiving's coming. Are you having the family over? These are all up charges that you can add. Or you can partner with a window person if you don't want the responsibility and don't want to deal with the insurance, and take a small cut, or they could refer you business back. It's all about collaboration. So these are all things that you can do to help yourself grow, versus if you just have a one-time cleaning, and I love and Jamie, this is a great idea and thank you for reminding me leaving a to-go package at the property that you just cleaned.

Speaker 1: 20:57

I did it a little bit differently. I love the little gift basket, which is great. I love the little gift basket, which is great. The thing I have seen and this has happened to me and I'm sure this has not happened to you is you leave a little gift basket and you leave it a little too early and they're still doing I don't want to say shenanigans they're still doing like viewings and showings or whatever, and there's a lot of like people coming and going and then the gift basket walks away and then you have to replace it. I've had that happen and then the gift basket walks away and then you have to replace it.

Speaker 1: 21:24

I've had that happen, oh my God. Typically, we'll wait until we know that they have closed and then we'll actually bring it over. Hey, we cleaned your house. I just wanted to make sure that everything met your expectation. It takes like five minutes. You present them with the gift basket.

Speaker 2: 21:40

Oh, we do all sorts of yeah, we make sure the sign is out in the front that this home is being serviced by you know that's wrong cleaning service.

Speaker 1: 21:52

Yeah, if you guys have not listened to that interview, listen all the neighbors get to see it.

Speaker 2: 21:56

It's in the nice neighborhood. Um, all of our windshield back windshields are are, uh, all done up, with my phone number blasted everywhere on it and um, yeah, so and then you can also leave if you don't want to do because you don't want to have.

Speaker 1: 22:17

Some of us are a little shy. You don't want to have the face-to-face contact with someone that you kind of know but not really. Um, we both, Jamie and I both live in a small town, so it's no big deal to us, but for you it might be a little different. And depending on where you're servicing, you can always you can get a nice folder presentation slide in a, a flyer, a nice colored flyer with your business card, and leave it in one of the utility drawers and they'll open it up and go. Oh, it says your house was serviced by blah blah blah. When you're ready for regular service and you've got yourself situated, here is a 20% off coupon on blah blah, blah, blah blah, and that's a great way to get them your foot back in the door.

Speaker 1: 22:56

And then I would do a, you know, an email campaign. If you are savvy enough to get their email campaign, sometimes you can get it, Sometimes they don't. Sometimes you know are savvy enough to get their email campaign. Sometimes you can get it, sometimes they don't. Sometimes, you know, there's a transition from going from the city to the country, country. They don't they typically don't want to give you their email. They want, what do you want? There's a whole like weird dynamic.

Speaker 2: 23:15

Jamie's laughing because she knows well, and it's mostly our elderly-based clients and they just, sometimes they just think that you're like what is this? What's this going on? You want my email, like you're like the government coming in to take over their home or something. You know, I'm just offering cleaning services, need email addresses? Yeah, so you'll, you'll. You could possibly run into that too, but not usually if you're in the city. I noticed that the city I mean, I live five hours away from San Francisco and so I get to visit down there every once in a while and I don't know that they have that same problem that we do up here, because everything I mean, they have cars that drive themselves. I had to take a picture of it.

Speaker 2: 24:16

I was like we have all these, uh all these everything on it. They had twirly things uh cameras on like waymo cars or something. We see them all the time when we go to phoenix it's so crazy to me so and everybody's down looking at their phone, not enjoying the beautiful rupture of different perspectives.

Speaker 1: 24:43

Different perspectives yeah I, I do.

Speaker 2: 24:45

I I respect it because I don't get to go there that often.

Speaker 1: 24:48

So it's different for me. There's a lot of dynamics, so when you start to present yourself because we're getting to the second half of the year, so you should have some sort of goal. If you didn't make any goals at the beginning of the year, you should reassess your goals that you currently have. You should be getting ready for Black Friday. If you didn't make any goals at the beginning of the year, you should reassess your goals that you currently have. You should be getting ready for Black Friday. If you have not done so, the Black Friday Bonanza will probably go on sale here pretty soon. I don't think it's available on the website, but it will be shortly and I actually know of a couple of businesses that were at the 40% reoccurring and then actually hit the 90% reoccurring that technically doubled their revenue. So they were in a sweet spot when they hit the end of the year.

Speaker 1: 25:29

And then what happens is what they have to do and this is a strategy again is they call up Mrs Smith and they say, hey, I'm getting ready to set the schedule. Does Wednesday at 8 am still work for you? And they'll say yay or or nay, and then you just schedule them on your digital calendar system boom, boom, boom, boom, and that means you've locked them in. They're not going to go with another cleaning service because you've already confirmed that they're going to stay at Wednesdays at 8 am. So these are just small, little incremental steps that you can make to yourself presentable and to be known so that you can carry on business. It shouldn't be. We'll. Well, I'll think about it and let you know. Or, when you're doing a one-time cleaning, hey, would you like to be put on our schedule on a more permanent basis? Well, you know, you hear it, I got to talk to my husband about it, or blah, blah, blah, blah, and that's fine too.

Speaker 2: 26:16

It's totally okay, we'll circle back around this. Okay, we'll circle back around this. You talk to your husband but yeah, and usually summers are are really you're really a lot in this industry we are hit really hard with one-time cleans. That's because it's the realtors that you know they're selling houses and getting it market ready and a lot of people are traveling. So a lot of Airbnb, which could be kind of seasonal depending on where you're living at and kids are out of school. You know just a lot of stuff. You know the overwhelmed mom that is like I can't do this anymore. So those are the ones that you want to get in with. Right, those are the, the overwhelmed families that are like, hey, we got sports, we got this, we got that. Um, those one-time cleans can turn into reoccurring cleans. So I need what can make a package and make a package up for them and make it.

Speaker 1: 27:32

Or you can. Just, if you don't have a package, don't put a lot of pressure on yourself. The whole point is to ask. So if you are having anxiety about the whole thing because I can see how it could be like a little right, so you don't know unless you ask so, hey, would you like me to put you on your schedule on a more permanent basis? Oh well, that might be nice.

Speaker 1: 27:52

What do you think it would cost for me to get bi-weekly cleaning? Well, I think it'd be $185.27 or some random number. Oh well, that doesn't sound too terrible. Well, do you have room on Tuesdays? We normally have our last girl cleaned on Tuesdays and you pull up your phone, you look at your digital yeah, I got room on Tuesdays. Do you want to still use your same credit card or would you like a different credit card? It's just part of the process. But if you're brand new to this and you don't have that all set up and you've not met the new owner face-face, just slide your card in there or bring them a little gift basket, say hey, I just wanted to pop back by and make sure the cleaning was up to your expectations. I know you're super busy and here's a little welcome back it.

Speaker 2: 28:31

It don't even have to be. It could be, uh, if you sign up with us now, uh, a package, a gift package could be an oven clean, right? Uh, your your skills, you know, use your skills. Uh, be monitored, yeah. Or or inside of your fridge, or if you don't offer uh baseboards because some people don't, uh say, hey, I'll hit these baseboards in one room, or or give this room a deep clean, that could be your package as well. It don't have to be anything of monetary value from you, just in case it's not in the budget.

Speaker 2: 29:10

Yeah, and you'll learn this as you all go along. These are just some good ideas that we've learned along the way and offering, offering to you guys.

Speaker 1: 29:25

Yeah, and we do it ourselves. We don't, we don't give anything out that we haven't tried ourselves. I'm very much into doing it first, before I say you know, hey, you can try this, it's going to work. I'm not one of those individuals that says that does the concept and brainstorms the whole thing and this is oh, here you go and then I'm like well, have you done it? No, I'm not done it, I actually will do it. No, you do it.

Speaker 2: 29:50

You tell me if it works, you crash and burn. No, I couldn't see doing that. I, I, many, many people. There's people out there? I imagine there's people out there and that's scary to me. No, we are tried and true. We've done it for you, we've done all the hard work for you. You're the guinea pigs, so yeah.

Speaker 1: 30:22

So, if you want your business to run without constant panic, get serious about reoccurring revenue and hit that 80% mark. That's the goal and that way you'll have a safety net, steady paycheck and room to grow. Sprinkle that sparkle. Don't forget to subscribe and review our podcast. That pushes the algorithm up where it needs to go so that more people can see the podcast.

Speaker 2: 30:47

And yeah, more cleaners, cleaning companies and cleaners can get if you're getting any value of the out of this more this will reach more people, and that's what we really truly want. So also, we have the Mates Network. It's a Facebook group. If you go there, answer all the questions and me or Shannon will let you in, and there's a lot of golden nuggets in there and there's people that are just like you. There's files. You can just do all the research there, and we'd love to see you there.

Speaker 1: 31:32

And that's all offered for free. So we look forward to hearing your responses. Thank you for tuning in. We appreciate and love you. Goodbye.