So you’ve decided you’re ready to take the plunge and start your own janitorial cleaning business. You can succeed and have a profitable cleaning business if you take the time to plan out your business strategy before signing that first client.

The first step is to prepare a business plan. This does not have to be a long document, but should be fairly comprehensive and address the following points:

*The company name, address, phone number, owners/corporate officers and statement of purpose.

*Description of the business, products and services you intend to sell.

*The legal structure, business management, employees, support personnel, insurance and financial considerations.

*A look at your competition and your marketing plan.

*A three to five year financial plan with documentation including a cash flow worksheet, balance sheet, and income statement.

Put together a support team including an accountant, attorney and insurance agent. If you are not comfortable doing bookwork and administrative tasks you might want to also look for a part-time bookkeeper or virtual assistant who can help with these duties.

Other start up tasks include:

*After deciding on your business name do a trademark search and assumed name search to make sure the name is available. Most states have web sites that allow you to do an online search.

*Decide if you are going to work out of your home or lease office space.

*Apply for any necessary licenses, get your federal tax ID and file assumed name.

*Contact your local small business center and get a copy of your state’s small business start up guide. Each state has their own individual requirements and will have fact sheets or guidebooks that will indicate if there are specific licenses, permits or forms you need to file before starting your business.

*Open bank accounts in the business name.

*Obtain the appropriate insurances.

*If necessary, secure financing.

*Set up a system for accounting and payroll.

*Obtain business tools, computer, fax machine, and office supplies.

*Purchase cleaning equipment and supplies.

*Obtain a logo.

*Order or create your business stationary – business cards, letterhead and brochures.

*Have signage created.

*Create an operations and employee manual.

*Hire employees.

*Set a start date.

*Send out press releases.

*Join trade associations, the local chamber of commerce and local networking groups.

*Check on domain names and develop a website.

Begin marketing your business. Your business plan includes a marketing plan so use this as your guide. Your initial marketing may include direct mail pieces, ads in the local paper or radio, and perhaps a banner ad on a complimentary website. Think about developing alliances with other local businesses. Make sure that everyone you know realizes that you have a new business. Send out postcards or letters announcing your new business to friends, family and business acquaintances.

Have realistic goals for the first year of your business. Do not expect that clients will come knocking at your door. You have to convince prospective clients that you provide the services they need at an acceptable price. Once you have a few clients on board, get testimonials from them that you can use to convince other prospective clients that they need your services.

Starting your own cleaning business is a path you must be patient with, but can be extremely rewarding and profitable. Taking the time to plan, organize and understand your competition will help you to become aware of how your cleaning business can best serve the needs of businesses in the area. Taking the time to do things right before getting the first client on board will help to make sure your business is successful.

Variations in the spa business make it an interesting possible venture for a person looking to go into business for themselves. A spa can be a day spa, a resort type spa, a hot tub distributor and a spa attached to a hotel. The spa can include hair care, massage, nail care and body care. Your interest and the money you have available will be factors in choosing which business you should pursue. The Internet is an excellent source for finding what kind of businesses are for sale and where they are located. A potential buyer can also check out this same question with solid business brokers. By doing this, the buyer can quickly get a feel for what is available and the capital needed to complete the sale.

The other way to get into the business is to start a brand new business. This will cost somewhere near what you would pay for a similar type of spa business, except for the value of their existing clientele. The advantage to the existing business purchase versus the brand new start-up is the existing customer base and the immediate cash flow. There are many types of spa businesses and the cost of the one you would like to own will depend on the type you choose. A resort type spa for example will probably cost far more than a day spa or a distributor of spas. The services that you offer will also show up in the cost of the spa. Service usually means the need for employees to provide the service. Employees have an on going monthly cost that does not go away whether you are busy or not. Other services may be equipment dependent and therefore you have the equipment cost and the maintenance expense.

A distributorship will have its own unique costs and expenses. A show room is almost mandatory to run the business correctly. You cannot sell spas without demonstrating them. This will entail a building set up to do just this and a different set of employees to pull off this type of business. Salesmen and people persons are going to be important factors in all of these businesses. Solid sales people are a necessity in selling spas to the public. This is a luxury item, not a necessity of life.

Which spa business is for you and how to find them

As stated above the Internet is a great way to start looking for businesses that are up for sale. This will give you a good idea of the difficulty in finding one that is in the area of the spa business that catches your fancy. These listings will also let you know if there are businesses in your local. Talk with spa owners and business brokers to get an idea of the opportunities that are available in the spa business. Visit day spas and resort spas to see how they are run and the services they offer to their clients. Ask them if they know of any businesses for sale. You never know where you will get a solid lead. The business broker will have answers for some of your questions and will know where to find the answers he does not know off of the top of his head. An experienced broker may have already helped with the sale of the type of spa business that you are favoring. This part of the discovery process is like being a good detective. Let the facts and the leads get you where you can see the answers to your growing question list. Spending the needed time on this part of business buying will help in many ways. You will become better versed on what is available and the prices that different businesses command. You will also soon discover whether you can buy an existing business or have to start one from the ground up. This will help to determine the money needed and how you can come up with the purchase price or start-up price.

I have the money or I can get it

You have to be able to say the above in order to buy an existing business or start one up. The cost in this niche business will depend on the selected area of the spa business. Once you have selected the spa business you wish to own, then you must find one for sale or start one up. Both of these will have prices that you can afford or can get financing for. Raising the total price may take some creative financing on your part. The current owner may be willing to accept terms to enable the purchase. Other areas that may loan you the money you need are the bank, relatives, loan from a business lender and a loan on assets you own.

One way or another you will need to come up with the total price. If the current owner is involved, be prepared to pay a premium for the business. Most owners have a cash price and a higher terms price. The problem with this is can you afford the business and still have enough capital to run the business. If the answer is yes, then all is okay. If this is not the case, maybe the potential buyer may need to pass for the time being. Knowing when to pass by an opportunity may be just as important as making the decision to buy.

Maybe in this business, you can select a less costly avenue to get into the spa business. You have several ways to go and if one road is closed then there may be another way to go. The point of this is do not strap yourself financially to buy a business and make success more difficult or impossible to obtain. A buyer must make realistic judgments. Viewing these decisions through rose-colored glasses can be a serious error.

Conclusions

The multi-faceted spa world offers several types of businesses to consider owning and running. Some take a large capital commitment and some are far more reasonable in their money requirement. The choice is yours based on your interest and the money you can bring to the table.

An area not previously mentioned is the franchise spa company. This area should be looked at as a possibility. There are some advantages to being connected to a spa company with a nationwide reputation and advertising campaign.

Financing in this business category is not much different than what is needed in other business purchases or start-up cost. Some versions are capital intensive and some do not take anywhere the same money commitment. Finding the right business for you in the correct segment of the industry will take study and comparing the chances of a successful ownership.

The suggestion is to talk with business brokers to see what they have for sale and the money needed to make the purchase. They are a great source of good information and current trends or developments. The experience they have and the sources they can call upon will be of help in getting answers to your questions. Knowing answers will help you make far better decisions and thoughtful changes in your plans.

A trademark is a distinctive image, word or other thing that associates with a product or service. So, can you trademark your business name?

Most people think trademarks are logo oriented. In some ways, this is true. The Nike Swoosh is clearly a logo trademark that stands out in peoples minds. When you see it, you immediately think of Nike and its products. While logos can clearly be trademarked, what about a business name? The answer is both yes and no.

A trademark is a consumer oriented thing. While it protects the intellectual property of businesses, it is a legal step designed to protect consumers. The basic idea is a trademark should point to a particular product or service and only be used by the company backing those items. This helps consumers in two ways. First, it represents an assurance of a particular type of quality associated with the products or services provided by the company. Second, it precludes other companies from causing consumer confusion by infringing on that mark.

When it comes to your business name, you can trademark it if certain requirements are met. I am going to avoid the legal mumbo jumbo that confuses people, and stick with a general rule of thumb. If you use your business name in advertising or on the product or service, you can trademark it. A classic example is “Google”. Google is both a company name and used on the service itself. When you go to the home page of Google, you see “Google” prominently displayed. As a result, this business name can be trademarked.

If you do not use your business name in a direct communication to consumers, you cannot trademark it. Why? Well, there is nothing distinct about it that reminds consumers of the connect. TJMaxx is a well-known discount retail store. Most people have at least heard of the name. The company behind the name, however, is actually TJCos. Nobody has heard of “TJCos” and certainly do not associate it with a store. As a result, this business name would be difficult to trademark, if not impossible.

If your name is going to be a fundamental part of your marketing effort, you should consider trademarking it. If it is not, then your probably should save your money. Obviously, each situation is different, so make sure you speak with legal counsel in your area.

Dropshipping is like any business and the most important thing when starting out on any venture is to do your market research FIRST…

When you open a store in your town, you wouldn’t open it without doing your market research first. The same thing applies if you are going to sell something on the internet as a dropshipper. Not only are there billions of web pages out there that could be selling competitive products, the net changes so fast that you are obsolete as soon as you have gotten started.

If you are going to set up a dropshipping business you want make sure that the product that you choose can be easily sold. And you want to know how many competitors you have. And you want to stay as up to date as possible. Selling products on the Internet is easy. Hundreds of thousands of people do it every day online on auction sites such as eBay. The most difficult part of internet sales is getting the products delivered to the customer, otherwise known as order fulfillment.

You must have an efficient fulfillment system. One of the reasons that brick-and-mortar stores are so slow on the uptake when it comes to online business, is that supplying retail stores is done with pallet-sized orders usually. But internet sales requires an entirely different kind of fulfillment system. Selling on the internet is essentially mail order, with shipments going out in small parcels to end users.

Few brick-and-mortar retailers have a thriving mail order business to draw from. An inefficient fulfillment system can lose for you the advantages in good customer service that holding the inventory gained for you. And running a fulfillment system is a full time and trying job.

One of the simplest order fulfillment models to use is the drop ship model. Drop shipping does have its advantages and disadvantages. The most important being you don’t have to pay for anything until after you sell it.

You also don’t have inventory costs. Having to purchase inventory to ship to your customers can be expensive not to mention risky. In addition to the out-of-pocket costs, you need a place to store the inventory.

Finally you have to pick, pull, pack, and ship the products once the order is placed. Having the distributor or manufacturer take all these costs and responsibilities lifts a real burden off your shoulders.

Ideally a drop-shipper should be transparent. With most of your drop shippers, especially those with whom you do a regular business, you can send them labels and forms so their package looks like it is from you. Your customer probably won’t know that your hands never touched the product. The customer will think that you have a warehouse.

You can sell many more products than you could if you had to buy and store them yourself. Drop shippers give you a wide choice of products so you can sell a lot more.On the Internet some categories of products are very price-sensitive. If you are selling computer hardware, for example, and using the drop shipping model, you may find it hard to be competitive price-wise and still make a profit. The difference between making money and losing it may be only a few percent. So be sure to pick a product that makes sense to drop ship.

You will be using third party customer service so you will not have full control. Drop shipping is really outsourcing your order fulfillment services to a third party. You will be dependent on your drop shipper to have the products in stock, to deliver on time, and to properly pack and ship your products. So pick your drop shipper carefully.

At the end of the day, however, drop shipping exists because it works. And the largest catalog companies and web sites use it. And savvy small web sites and auction site sellers use it. Drop shipping is simply an arrangement between you and the manufacturer or distributor of the product you sell whereby the manufacturer or distributor — NOT YOU — ships the product to your customers.

There are a few huge advantages to this model. First, it SAVES YOU THE COST of building your own inventory. If you’re like most people starting a small business, you don’t have much capital with which to play with. The last thing you want to do is tie up your cash in inventory that you may or may not be able to sell.

Not having inventory also means no leftovers. If the product you sell suddenly becomes outdated, obsolete, or just plain un-trendy, you aren’t the one with a house full of stock that nobody will buy. Many online retailers find themselves having to offer deep discounts — and taking huge losses — on old products just to get them out of their homes to make room for more inventory!

You’ll also don’t have to deal with shipping your products. Unless you’ve already set up a shipping account with someone like FedEx or UPS, you’ll be heading down to the post office every day to buy stamps and mail out your products. And you’ll be able to ADD NEW PRODUCTS ALMOST INSTANTLY. Since you don’t have to worry about ordering inventory, you can add products to your web site within a few hours.

If you find that your customers are eager to buy a certain product, you can have that item up on your site in almost no time. Finally spend time researching different kinds of products that you might want to sell. The products you choose should be in demand but not widely available online. As usual, I highly recommend targeting a niche market rather than trying to find a product that EVERYONE wants to buy.

Once you’ve found a product that you think may be the right one for your business, you’ll need to do a little “competitive analysis.” This simply means finding out what potential competitors are charging for the products you want to sell and calculating how much of a profit you’ll be able to make. When it comes down to it…its all about ‘Testing, Testing, Testing!’

Good luck!

This morning, I read about a company using on-line auctions to defraud customers. Last week, I consulted on an ethics complaint where a business coach betrayed a client’s confidentiality. And, recently a Physician was convicted of insider trading based on information from a patient, a violation of both business ethics and her professional ethics.

Business ethics are the key to profits. If clients and customers don’t trust you, and your business ethics, they will not do business with you. Would you buy from a company you didn’t trust? Of course not!

Business ethics have become a hot-button topic. There are often ethical conflicts between making money, and doing what is right. There can be dilemmas about doing what is best for your employer, what’s best for your own career, and what’s best for the customer. Business ethics is about negotiating these mine-fields. Here are my Top 10 Principles for Positive Business Ethics:

1. Business Ethics are built on Personal Ethics. There is no real separation between doing what is right in business, and playing fair, telling the truth and being ethical in your personal life.

2. Business Ethics are based on Fairness. Would a dis-interested observer agree that both sides are being treated fairly? Are both sides negotiating in good faith? Does each transaction take place on a “level playing field”? If so, the basic principles of ethics are being met.

3. Business Ethics require Integrity. Integrity refers to whole-ness, reliability and consistency. Ethical businesses treat people with respect, honesty and integrity. They back up their promises, and they keep their commitments.

4. Business Ethics require Truth-telling. The days when a business could sell a defective product and hide behind the “buyer beware” defense are long gone. You can sell products or services that have limitations, defects or are out-dated, but not as first-class, new merchandise. Truth in advertising is not only the law, business ethics require it.

5. Business Ethics require Dependability. If your company is new, unstable, about to be sold, or going out of business, ethics requires that you let clients and customers know this. Ethical businesses can be relied upon to be available to solve problems, answer questions and provide support.

6. Business Ethics require a Business Plan. A company’s ethics are built on its image of itself and its vision of the future and its role in the community. Business ethics do not happen in a vacuum. The clearer the company’s plan for growth, stability, profits and service, the stronger its commitment to ethical business practices.

7. Business Ethics apply Internally and Externally. Ethical businesses treat both customers and employees with respect and fairness. Ethics is about respect in the conference room, negotiating in good faith, keeping promises and meeting obligations to staff, employers, vendors and customers. The scope is universal.

8. Business Ethics require a Profit. Ethical businesses are well-run, well-managed, have effective internal controls, and clear expectations of growth. Ethics is about how we live in the present to prepare for the future, and a business without profits (or a plan to create them) is not meeting its ethical obligations to prepare for the future well-being of the company, its employees and customers.

9. Business Ethics are values-based. The law, and professional organizations, must produce written standards that are inflexible and universal. While they may talk about “ethics”, these documents are usually prescriptive and refer to minimal standards. Ethics are about values, ideals and aspirations. Ethical businesses may not always live up to their ideals, but they are clear about their intent.

10. Business Ethics come from the Boss. Leadership sets the tone, in every area of a business. Ethics are either central to the way a company functions, or they are not. The executives and managers either lead the way, or they communicate that cutting corners, deception and dis-respect are acceptable. Line staff will always rise, or sink, to the level of performance they see modeled above them. Business ethics starts at the top.

Ethics is about the quality of our lives, the quality of our service, and ultimately, about the bottom line. An unhappy customer complains to an average of 16 people. Treating employees, customers, vendors and the public in an ethical, fair and open way is not only the right thing, in the long run, it’s the only way to stay in business.