I don't disagree with what you are doing. But Harper makes an excellent point. Take what you know about gaining a client and put that into gaining a quality cleaner. Sure you'll find some that will work for your 50%. But I do have a few questions.
Since the cleaners are working under your name, do you claim all responsibility for what they may do,(ruin a carpet, break a piece of content, ect) or do you hold them financially responsible ?
At the end of the day it's their company doing it. I do have insurance and they will as well. What that covers is minimal really. Ethically it will be up to both of us to take a loss if something is damaged.
Out of the 50% you're receiving how much of that is really going towards gaining new clients, and or client retention ?
I am at the point where I am spending more time than money advertising...but I still have advertising costs of course. I also pay a sales guy in the Sac area (my brother) a % for what he does. It's abot 30% to 40% depending on time of year off the first truck and then comes down a bit on each one I can keep running.
You're making clone copies of your business in different parts of the U.S. - Why have you chose do it this route, rather than just selling franchises ? Is there a greater benefit to doing it this way ?
If an area gets too big for me to handle then I will consider franchising and I have. A very good friend of my owns Cybertary and she is selling franchises all over the country. She has spoke with me about it. I have talked to a few of my more "marketing" type Carpet Cleaners about getting on board the business side of it with me and I have spoke with them about taking over entire areas whether it be on a sub contractor basis or franchise.
Do you still have policies/procedures and processes that your subs have to follow, or do you just drum up the work and let them have at it ?
I have tolet them have at it because of laws deciding whether or not they are a sub or employee. If they do bad work, I don't use them anymore.
What are doing to attract new subs, and what are you doing for marketing to educate your clients on your services -
Service Monster Direct Mailing ? I would think you would put a lot of effort into this, as the cleaners would benefit more from YOU educating the client. It would cut down on their chat time of having to do more explainations, keeping them more productive; a win/win.
Attracting new subs isn't as important as getting the customers....with work comes workers. I educate customers over the phone, I do let the ads do the talking for attracting them to that point. Chat time between the sub and customer is important. I give as much info over the phone as I can but the sub will make the better job ticket by spending his/her own time with the customer.
I utilize
Service Monster to it's full potential. Customer retention is easier with that program. Click it and its done.
