Smart Cleaning School

The Smart Cleaning School Podcast helps cleaning business owners from start-up to the struggling solo to the striving seven-figure get SMARTER in their businesses, reshape their mindset, increase productivity, clear the overwhelm, and get clarity through SMART goal-setting & personal accountability. Ken Carfagno is a lifetime learner and teacher. His mission is to help visionaries make the impact they were meant to make.

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Smart Cleaning School

3 Steps of Optimizing

July 14, 2025 • Ken Carfagno • Episode 495

We are getting closer to the end of season 1 of the Smart Cleaning School Podcast. We are in the middle of a series on the 3 S’s, which stands for Stay, Scale, or Sell and represent FREEDOM for the solo cleaner. In the last episode, I shared a clip from a Solo Elite Membership Call from late 2024 focusing on creating margin.

Margin is vital. We need margin to make more choices. We need more choices to have more balance and freedom. This episode shares another clip from Solo Elite. This one shows you what to do once you’ve created margin. You optimize!

Optimizing gives you the balance you want. There are 3 steps to optimizing.

Get Faster at Cleaning - As you implement the Optimizer Tools of the ISO Model, you get faster at each house or office. This allows you clean more in less time.
Charge More Over Time - As you clean longer and develop your systems, trust, and expertise, you will increase the perceived value of your “product”. Charge more over time.
Increase Profitability of the Business - You especially need to know your numbers for this one. Print out your Profit & Loss (P&L) and study it. Solo cleaners range in profitability from 60-95%. Optimizers are over 85%.

In the next episode, I’ll pull it all together with the big picture roadmap from an overwhelmed solo to an optimized one.