The WHY and HOW of Using the Step Method in Goal Setting

Let's turn back the clock to nearly a decade ago. I had joined a gym and hired a trainer and lost about 30 to 40 pounds, and while I was very thankful for that, I knew I could do better. My trainer told me I could do better. Lissett (my wife) and I were working out together with this trainer and he told us that without added cardio to your weight training, you'll only plateau in weight. I took that to heart and Lissett and I created an ambitious goal. We will run a marathon! The only problem was that, the furthest distance we had ever run to date was to the refrigerator. 

The goal of the marathon seemed insurmountable. It seemed even more so when we booked our first 5K together on 1/1/2013. We were dismally slow at nearly 1 hour to go 3.1 miles. After that race we were so sore that we slept the rest of the day. Our dreams of a marathon seemed impossible to achieve. 

But we didn't give up! We booked another race and another and another. Lissett was always a few steps ahead of me and she was first to book a local 8K, then a 10K, then a half marathon and eventually a full. I was on her heals though and by 2016 I had run about 3 half marathons, 3-4 ten milers, and dozens of races at the 5K and 10K distances, including obstacle course racing with races like Tough Mudder and Spartan Race. And finally in October of 2016, I ran my first marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC. 

The journey seemed impossible on that first decision day with that 5K on 1/1/2013. But it was made possible with incremental steps.

Like with running, your cleaning business is the same. You need to come up with a SMART Goal and hang your proverbial hat on it. You'd want to create incremental step goals to get you to that bigger WHY. If you just started today in cleaning, I promise you won't hit a million dollar business tomorrow. But nothing is stopping you from becoming a million dollar business over the next 2-3-4-5 years. 

HOW? Let's say you want to grow by an additional $150,000 in new business income. You can win....

ONE $150K ($12,500/mo) client. That's a large office building. That's a large school. Maybe it's a large warehouse cleaning daily. Maybe it's a data center. There aren't that many other niches that will accomplish that goal. You won't win that with 1 daycare, or 1 church (typically), or one medical office, etc. It'd be bad to put all of your new eggs in one basket anyway.

TWO $75K/yr clients ($6,225/mo). That's a school working 5X/week. That's a medium office building. That's some large mega churches. That could be an apartment or condo building (100+ units, cleaning common areas). That can be a warehouse or manufacturing. That could be a very large gym. Could be a lot of things. It still isn't a small office, or small office building, or a medical office, and so on. But that is about 30-35K sqft cleaning daily.

FOUR $37,500/yr clients ($3125/mo). That's a medium school. That's a smaller office building. That could be a car dealership, That could be a large bank office cleaning daily. That might be a gym or a country club. That's not a daycare or preschool (usually). That's not a small medical office. That's not a restaurant if they have their own staff.  That's about 15-18K sqft cleaning nightly (5x).

SIX $25,000/yr clients ($2083/mo). That's a smaller school. That's the common areas only in a small office. That could be a car dealership working 3X/week. That is a large restaurant. That's a large office suite working daily. More options...

EIGHT $18,750/yr clients ($1563/mo). That could be a large daycare. That could be several churches in your area. That might be a car dealership, a small manufacturer, or small warehouse all cleaning part-time. This is basically any job working about 10-12 hours per week at under 10K sqft per facility.

TEN $15,000/yr clients ($1250/mo). That's under 10 hours per week at under 10K sqft in facilities. This is not a large office building. This is not a large church. This is not a large school. 

TWELVE $12,500/yr clients ($1042/mo). That can be larger medical offices, larger office suites (e.g. 12K sqft cleaning 2X). That's about 8 hours per week all together of cleaning. So many choices at this point. 

I'll stop there. I had shared this with a recent coaching client. He began to realized he doesn't need to go crazy with this. At 12 of these $1042/mo clients, he's pulling in $150K/yr in new business. If he does 1 walkthrough weekly of clients this size, a loses 3-4 of them due to price, but wins only 1 per month, he has a $150K/yr in new business. Not too shabby. 

Create a goal and create steps, like these, to get there. If you need any help, I'd be happy to do so. Just reach out to [email protected] and I'll do a quick walkthrough with you.

Oh...and Lissett? I'm still chasing her. She has run multiple marathons including the Miami Marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon, Disney/Dopey, and the Ottawa Marathon. Plus she has labeled herself as an ultra marathoner with both the 50K and 50-mile (finish pic below) distances.