After working in the corporate world for a few years, she was laid off after the events of 9/11.
Having an 8-month-old son, Gosia chose not to go back to the corporate world but to open her own business. She had the desire of helping people; in the corporate world helping others was not the priority.
In November 2001, Helping Hands was born.
Today, Helping Hands is stronger than ever, employing over 50 cleaning technicians that includes 5 office staff, and 3 field supervisors servicing residential and commercial clients in the Chicagoland area. She also is a cofounder/partner of PCT Janitorial Services, with the primary focus on disinfecting large facilities throughout the country and a cofounder with RJ Patel of Cleaning Business Coaching, helping residential business owners learn how to add commercial cleaning to existing residential business. Her hobbies are cooking, reading and traveling. Owning her own business allows her to spend time with family, go on at least 4 vacations a year and travel to coach other businesses while her business is successfully running in Chicago.
Time Stamps:
๐[5:10]Marketing: Gosia's origination story about guerilla marketing
๐[8:13]Marketing: The transition from flyers to yellow pages to google ads
๐[8:38]Transitioning from Traditional Marketing to Internal Marketing in a labor crisis
๐[10:32]Marketing: the value of blog posting. Gosia does 2 blog posts per week and is averaging 200 leads per month
๐[12:49]Gosia's Marketing Plan Transformation: paper marketing, google ads, seo to blog posts....
๐[14:09]Here is an example Gosia's blog post from January: https://helpinghandscleaningservices.com/how-to-remove.../
๐[15:07]Quarterly strategic planning... Revenue goals, client needs, staffing needs, revenue per employee, etc.
๐[16:34]Cueing up a waiting list. She enters every single lead in her database even though she's at capacity
๐[19:38]Reorganizaiton of her company structure shifting from teams to solo cleaners. She's trying to squeeze in more jobs by optimizing her jobs based on where the cleaners live.
๐[22:19]The transition from corporate america to self-employment
๐[23:36]What Gosia brought from a large law firm to her small business through job titles and descriptions.
๐[24:29]Being able to own your role...
๐[27:12]She started another branch in Texas because she loved the city and she had a key staff member there. She started that branch last spring but has put it on pause
๐[27:33]How Gosia runs remote staff with her sales person living several states away
๐[30:15]Fun story how martha lost her kids canvassing neighborhoods with flyers in the early days and developed her first pay for performance system on her children
๐[32:13]How Gosia does her weekly stat meetings on Wednesdays. She has a full agenda that is prepared the day before. 1. Share a positive thought from the week 2. Review mission, vision and values 3. Review goals from past week 4. Review each team members weekly score cards
๐[34:00]Renee O'Brien meets with every department every other week
๐[34:15]Management staff is on a profit sharing program
๐[35:03]Everyone has a job that has to work together (sales, recruiting, production, quality control, etc).
๐[35:24]The leadership team are bonused based on growth
๐[36:30]She wants to grow 45%. They come up with special treats for hitting goals (spa, dinner, weekend getaway, etc)
๐[37:49]Last year her goal was 20% and they hit 27% and they earned a spa day
๐[38:47]https://qualitydrivensoftware.com/2022-conference/
๐[40:35]Marketing Homework: Review your marketing budget to see if you can do a lower spend and still get results...
๐[43:54]Finance Homework: Review how many clients you need to hit your goal and if there's a more creative way to get to your goal differently than how you've done it before
๐[44:37]System Homework: Review your labor efficiency. Can you minimize your drive time by doing things a bit differently? And increase your capacity with what you have
๐ [46:22]People Homework: Get creative with your management incentives... Have a regular weekly management meeting with goals and incentives and incorporate in the reward (even if you're a management team of one).
๐[47:16]Gosia Homework: Look at your numbers....
๐[48:56]Using your numbers to review growth and inspire future growth
๐[50:32]Reach out to gosia. Her phone number is 630-967-4999 or find here at Helping Hands Cleaning Services Elmhurst
๐[51:02]"In life change is inevitable, in business change is vital."
Resources:
Gosia Baran : https://helpinghandscleaningservices.com/how-to-remove.../ ,
Tay Meroni (Marketing) with Pure Pressure Washing
Meaghan Likes (Finances) with Bookkeeping Academy Online, Likes Accounting Company & Jeff Likes Clean Windows & Gutters
Michelle Myers (Systems) with Pink Callers
Martha Woodward (People) with The Pay for Performance Expert, Quality Driven Software & Dusting Divas
]https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/641604.Purple_Cow
https://qualitydrivensoftware.com/2022-conference/