I work at/from home, and because of that my routine varies from that of the typical office or factory worker. I usually start my workday at 9 AM. By 8:59 I have finished breakfast, spent 30 to 45 minutes reading business articles in my favorite magazines, and now it is time to go to work. I go to the kitchen, pour another cup of coffee, and walk down the stairs to my basement office. Total commute time: 31 seconds. I run what some people call a micro-business. Daniel Pink, in

This is a re-post of one of my most referred to articles. Many of the companies have undergone several lawsuits. Google any of them with the companies' name and the words 'lawsuits', 'scams', etc., to see the latest information That was the title in a May, 2011 issue of Entrepreneur magazine. The author listed the top 10 and their franchise start-up costs: Here is the list: 1. Vanguard Cleaning Systems Startup costs: $8,200 - $38,100 2. Jan-Pro Franchising International Inc.

I have two children, a 23-year-old daughter and a 19-year-old son. All of their lives I’ve had the enjoyment of having them work with me in our family-owned office cleaning and lawn care business. Here are 5 great benefits to having your children involved in your business. They will learn adult skills. There are lots of smart kids in this country, but there are also a lot of intellectually challenged ones; ones that aren’t able to string together two sentences or clearly comm

A recently got an email from one of my readers: Hi Rod, I love the website. I'm sitting on the fence to fully exploring cleaning offices due to one main issue that keeps coming up. How does one take a vacation when clients are depending on their offices being cleaned? I prefer not to hire people but rather to use this business to provide financially for our family but also teach my children the invaluable lessons of work. So the obvious answer of having my employee(s) cl

Newsletter subscribers and some of my book readers are often overwhelmed by the variety of options available to them. Questions arise: “How fast can I grow this business?” Or, “How much money can I make?” So, I am going to start a new feature: taking questions and turning them into short blog posts. In this post I’m going to answer the two above questions. I always suggest that you start as a small janitorial business. The advantage of this is that you do not need to have a l

A farmer had a dog that used to sit by the roadside waiting for vehicles to come around. As soon as one came he would run down the road, barking and trying to overtake it. One day a neighbor asked the farmer “Do you think your dog is ever going to catch a car?” The farmer replied, “That is not what bothers me. What bothers me is what he would do if he ever caught one.” We all know the answer: The dog is engaged in meaningless activity; he’ll never accomplish anything, even if

Pamela Slim, in Escape From Cubicle Nation likens being in the wrong job or profession to wearing an ill-fitting shoe. The shoe may look great, but it causes great pain when you wear it. According to Pamela Slim, "for some people the message to quit doing what they’re doing comes to their bodies". Symptoms include: Extreme fatigue and lethargy. One day, it feels impossible to get out of bed even on a weekend energy levels are extremely low, and it is often all you can do to m

When I first started my commercial cleaning business, I read everything I could on how to start a business. My goal was to grow it into something bigger over time. I’m pretty certain the majority of small business owners would agree that they want to see their business prosper and grow. After all, so the thinking goes, “If it’s not growing, what’s the point of being in business?” To be honest, bigger does not always mean better. After being in the cleaning industry for over

One of the traits of being an entrepreneur is having the patience, ability and proper organization to work around the schedules of your customers and your employees. It is up to you to establish schedules, and work around the schedules of others. It is a complicated and a usually unavoidable process. Especially as a start-up, and often home-based business, you’ll do anything to get a job done. But what happens, when you as the entrepreneur want (or need) to take a vacation? P

Some days it is hard to get moving. Maybe you stagger out of bed, take a shower, drink a gallon of coffee, and you STILL feel as though you’re barely moving at a snail’s pace. Life is often like that, especially when you want to start your own business. You wonder, “What do I do first?’ “How do I begin?” Many time you feel as though you are in a rut so deep you can’t get out. You’re not alone, we’ve all felt that way! In this post, I’m going to give you Part 1 of 6 Steps To S