10 Steps to Swine Flu Business Preparedness

Is the world facing a pandemic of Swine Flu? The details are not yet known. A new strain of a potentially deadly swine flu first reported two weeks ago in Mexico, where it has now infected roughly 2000 worldwide, and has taken the lives of over 50 people in Mexico and one person in the U.S. The flu is spreading around the world. Although in the U.S. roughly 36,000 people die from the typical flu each year, the swine flu is worrisome to the level of raising the public health alerts because it is a new strain that has mutated, and there is no vaccine at this time. Government officials do not want widespread panic, but instead a higher level of alertness about preventing the spread of disease. Up to date details can be found on the CDC's website (www.cdc.gov)

So, why am I writing about this? Because public health emergencies and alerts are likely to affect your business, your staff, and your clients. As I write this, more than 100 schools in the U.S. have been closed already, and these kinds of public policies may have rippling affects on your business. Preparing now could help you navigate the choppy waters that may be to come. Here are ten steps to get you prepared.


Review Your Safety Equipment - Do you have enough gloves, masks, hand sanitizer, etc.? If not buy it now because if a real health emergency does hit you will likely not be able to buy these things. Don't believe me? A couple of years ago in Seattle we had a power outage that lasted about 4 days and all of the grocery stores were stripped clean of batteries, firewood, propane and other emergency supplies...it was amazing.

Review Your Cleaning Supplies and Equipment - Take a look at your cleaning supplies and see if you need to make any adjustments. How many things do you share from home to home? During a health emergency the more disposable the better. You will need to proactively explain to clients how you WILL NOT be transferring germs from client to client. Disposable mop heads, washable dust rags, sanitization processes, etc. are the kinds of things you should think about. Be sure that you have a disinfecting cleaning product in case clients request it, or you decide to offer it. The CDC website gives a good description of the difference between cleaning agents, sanitizers and disinfectants http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa_Enviro_Manage.html#8 . You may also want to look at your equipment. Possibly a vacuum like Raycop UV-C Sterilization Vacuum (http://www.raycop.co.uk/) or others tout a bacteria killing feature that could really be a selling point to customers worried about disease prevention.

Prepare Your Commercial Clients - Contact your commercial clients and let them know how you are prepared to handle their needs. You may want to give them options for increasing their cleaning needs to decrease their risk of losing staff to illness, and maintain the healthiest work environment possible. Suggestions that you can make to your clients would be a supplemental disinfecting process where extra attention is paid to the high risk areas:

* Door knobs and handle area
* Sink faucets
* Toilet areas
* Kitchen surfaces
* Telephones
* Keyboards (recommend disposable keyboard covers)
* Highly used areas

Also, recommend the client stocks up on disposable hand wipes, hand sanitizer, disposable cups instead of dishes that collect in the kitchen and could pass germs. Your clients will be looking to you to recommend how they should handle their cleaning needs in a crisis.

Prepare Your Residential Clients - Don't scare your clients into thinking that they are bringing germ ridden strangers into their home with your cleaning service. Instead discuss the superior equipment, techniques and supplies that you use regularly (or are offering right now) for their "healthy home". Offer a disinfectant process that disinfects the high impact areas listed above in the commercial cleaning section. Discuss your illness policy requesting that when clients and staff are ill alternative plans need to be made. Be sure to only make honest claims that you can support.

Prepare Your Carpet Cleaning Clients - Check with your equipment vendor and your cleaning solvents for the bacteria killing effectiveness, and notify your customers. A health crisis could possibly be a business boost for your carpet cleaning business, because people are reminded that carpet cleaning can promote a healthier environment and is not just for beauty.

Prepare Your Green Cleaning Clients - If you are a green cleaning company a health epidemic could be a potential marketing mine field for your business. Clients and prospects may make assumptions about your company's abilities to really remove the germs. And, on the other hand some of your die hard clients may not understand why you might make recommendations for disinfectants and disposable options. As the pioneer of green cleaning companies I would recommend that you educate your customers on your non-cross contamination processes, and offer several disinfecting options that they could accept or reject. I would also refer to the need for these measures as temporary measures needed for the public health emergency. I truly believe that a green home is a balanced home; however, outside factors sometimes require different measures. (Factoid: I started my Seattle based green cleaning business as the first in the country that I knew of in 1991. People thought we were nuts - and now its all the rage).

Update Your Marketing Materials - You may want to make a memo or article for your clients or prospects to be included in your welcome kit, mailed to your clients, downloaded from your website, etc. where your healthy cleaning practices are discussed. You may want to mention in the description the effectiveness of your methods against bacteria and disease like "Staph, MRSA, Swine Flu", etc. but be cautious about putting those kinds of scare tactics in the title or headlines. Another marketing practice that you could implement is to create a little card with the extra "disinfecting process" that you are doing during this time period, and have the staff check off the items on the list and leave for the customer as an extra assurance that their health is being considered.

Meet with the Staff - Plan a meeting where you go over the plans for this and other health emergency alert times. (1) Do not come to work sick. Post the typical symptoms of the health alert and give everyone the responsibility to keep themselves home when ill. Of course, this is a great time to go over the call in procedure for illness. (2) Discuss the cleaning procedure changes, (3) Insist on all safety procedures being followed. (4) Reassure the staff with how you are protecting them by also prohibiting the cleaning of sick clients, providing masks and gloves, etc.

Stockpile Cash - If a pandemic does hit your area it is likely schools, work places, transportation, etc. will be closed for one to two weeks or even longer. Short staff, cancelling clients and public health policies may keep you from being able to perform work as usual during this time, so start stock piling some cash now so that a short term closure does not hurt you badly financially. In addition, if and when these changes occur instead of cancelling clients reschedule them so that you can resume with gang busters when you can.

False Alarm or Media Hype - If it turns out that the pandemic threat is a false alarm or media hype then all of these procedures are still very valuable since you will be prepared for any future threat. MRSA is a huge threat that is also as deadly and lurking out there. And, keep in mind that in the US we are exiting the flu season, and officials warn that this illness may slowly spread, and then re-emerge in the fall. Being prepared is never wasted energy.

OK, so get prepared, and stay on top of your local public health notices. Send me your questions and comments because I always love to hear them.

For more business articles and updates on the swine flu...

A Big Tax Bill??? This Year the IRS has a Heart

Today, April 15, 2009, is tax day, and if you have not scrambled to file a return or extension yet, better hop to it. This has been a tough year for many, and faced with the possibility of a big bill you may be wondering what you should do. Let me clear it up... you should FILE! I'm no expert, but apparently not filing your return is a different and much bigger offense than not paying your tax bill. So even if you do not have the money experts recommend that you file. Payment plans can be worked out for the unpaid balance,and filing without payment will help you avoid fees. Another reason to file is that the IRS has stated that this year it has compassion for your recession related financial difficulties. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said in January that this year agents are being given new authority to waive penalties, negotiate new payment plans, postpone seizures and asset sales, for those that make good faith efforts to settle their tax debts. So, get that monkey off of your back and file your taxes or an extension. For individuals if you file an extension that gives you until August to get your ducks in a row.

Estimated Taxes Made Easy

One of the biggest things that entrepreneurs report to me keep them up at night is a hard and fast deadline where a big tax bill, an extra payroll, a hefty insurance down payment, or other big bill is due, and there is NOT ENOUGH CASH FLOW to cover it and have to borrow from credit cards or loans to make up the difference. In fact, I would say that over 50% of business owners that I talk with run into this problem regularly. One tip I have is for you is to open an additional savings account at your business bank, and physically move over a prorated amount of the bill/s that will someday soon become due, every week, or every other week. Figure out your estimates for what needs to be transferred each time, and then deposit that amount every time.
For example:

Bi-Weekly Deposits to Savings Account

Monthly 941 depositer = (average monthly deposit) / (2.165)
Large Quantity Supplies bought twice a year = (Supply cost) / (13)
Quarterly Insurance = (Insurance Cost) / (7.5)
Bi-Weekly Payroll 3 Pay Month = (average payroll plus taxes) / (13)
Quarterly Sales Tax = all of the money calculated in the QuickBooks Sales Liability account for 2 weeks.

I know this is easier said than done, but try this for just one month and you will be surprised how great it will make you feel - In control feels great! Even if you are worried that you may need that money, go ahead and transfer it, because if worst comes to worst you can always transfer it back, and if there is a money crunch, you will realize earlier that you need to make some changes

A Client Screamed a Four-Letter Word At Me Today!

The other day a new client screamed at me with disgust a four-letter word! Can you believe it? Here's the whole story. Deep in financial trouble a new client came to me last week and explained all of the details of how he was struggling with trying to grow his business. He's working round the clock, clients are cancelling at the same pace as they are signing up, employees have him running ragged, the taxman wants money that he doesn't have, and his cash flow is in the toilet. "How can I fix this?", he asks. Careful in thought I say "We have to start with a good PLAN". "SH%!" he exclaims. "Do know how many times I have heard that?" "This is nothing new... every year I try a new plan...and every year I end up right here...what makes you think your plan will work any better?" He talked about the PLAN as if it was the dirty four letter word. He has a point - Best-laid plans have done him wrong before, how does he know this one will work? After ten years of helping businesses achieve their goals if I have learned nothing else, it is that "PLAN" is not the dirty four-letter word, but it can be if it is the wrong plan, or one that sets you up for failure. The more times you embark on a plan and fail, the more evidence you have for yourself that plans don't work. So, how do you set up a winning plan? Let me give you some tips so you can not only succeed, but put into place a plan that will begin changing your life starting RIGHT NOW!

1. Make a One-Page Plan. No wonder people think "PLAN" is a dirty four-letter word, because most believe that a plan needs to take reams of paper, and months to create. Why not try a one page business plan? All on one sheet mark out the basic details of how your plan will play out. What will your sales be? How many staff will that include? What steps will you need to take to get there? My favorite way of doing this is to make an Excel spreadsheet where numbers can be calculated and graphs can be made, and instead of long winded paragraphs, state the milestones. This ensures that your goals are measurable. Here's a QUICK TIP - Right click on the Excel cell that you have added a number to in order to write a comment for that cell. This way you can keep tidy notes on each of your numbers without taking up much room, or cluttering your plan with endless writing.

2. Focus Your Plan on a Specific Benefit. This may be one of my best tips for you for planning! In order for a plan to work you must implement it. And, in order for you to really focus on implementing the plan, you must remember from moment to moment exactly "why" you are doing it, or else life will get in the way and you will not accomplish your goals. What EXACTLY will you gain from doing this plan? How will your life change? Will you have enough money to pay your bills, buy a new home, work a shorter work day and be there for your kids during the day, pay off your debts, etc. THIS IS SERIOUSLY IMPORTANT! Your plan must be focused around the "why". Let me go through some examples so you can see how powerful this is. Let's say you were $26,000 in debt? An idea would be to set a plan to earn another $500 a week for one year, and put all of the extra money towards paying off the debt. For cleaning business owners that is only 20 new recurring clients. A few thousand door hangers, a few networking meetings, follow-up marketing to your whole list, and answering calls into the evening a few nights a week, and paying your debt off could be a snap. Or, let's say that you want to be available for your kids during the day to attend soccer games, etc. (they aren't getting any younger, you know!). In order to be available during the day you will have to have help in the office for at least 4 hours to take care of daily operations. By picking up 13 new clients you can nail that goal into action! Now you have a reason to do the marketing necessary to pick 13 new clients.

3. Break the Plan Out into Accountability Steps. Determine how often you will update your plan and make accountability steps - monthly, weekly, quarterly? You need a chance to take your actual numbers and match them up against the projected numbers to see how you are doing. The more frequently you do this, the more time you have to adjust your actions to avoid problems, and deliver the results you are looking for. For my clients this year we have weekly sales goals that include the number of holidays, seasonal changes, etc. so they waste no time knowing exactly what to expect in each week's deposits.

4. Make Your Plan Visual. Make your updates visual when possible. Looking at a listing of numbers will never tell you the full story of trends as well as looking at a graph with sharp changes. Pie charts to show profitability, Line graphs to show month over month sales, Two-Level Bar graphs to show client gains and losses, etc. will really give you a visual of how you are meeting your plan's goals.

5. Do Your Homework. When creating your plan start with real facts, and really think through problems and contingencies. For example, if you want to open another office by spring of next year then you will need to research where is the best place to put your office, how much will it cost, how will you man it, what are the best systems that you should be getting into place before opening another office, etc. Find out the real facts and put them into your plan.

6. Systematically be Accountable. Make accountability automatic, by working with a coach, setting up meetings with your spouse to go over your plans and results, or use good discipline tools with yourself like posting your results on the wall so that it will be obvious when you are ignoring your goals. If you make this accountability as automatic as possible you will not be able to put off to tomorrow what you want to do today. Go forth, PLAN and prosper!