We love seeing our clients, (and everyone in the janitorial industry) succeed in their businesses, and a big part of that success is healthy growth. To help facilitate that growth, we’ve decided to dedicate this upcoming year to publishing content that delivers valuable insights, advice, and guides to help you find that success. Look forward to many eBooks, webinars, toolkits, and more in the coming months! Why let hindsight be the ONLY thing you see in 2020?

With that in mind, we present you with the first in a series of growth-driven content. And because we want this value in your hands sooner than later, we are putting out each chapter as they release, with a downloadable eBook available for free once all chapters are published. So without further ado…

You’ve been wanting to work on your commercial cleaning company’s business plan, but finding the time is like finding a winning lottery ticket. In simple terms…difficult. We feel you, and want you to know, you aren’t alone. So we assembled a crack-team of industry growth experts to help us compile this convenient step-by-step tool, that’s the perfect jumping-off point to start thinking about your overall business goals and strategy. It’s not overwhelming, it’s not too long, and we’ll walk you through how to use this tool one chapter at a time. At the end of the journey, you’ll have completed your very own in-depth analysis of your janitorial business. From there the next steps on how to grow and improve your company will be more clear than ever before. 

So, what is it?

It’s called a S.W.O.T. Analysis, and it’s a very valuable tool that’s used across a variety of industries, in companies big and small, and — it doesn’t cost anything! S.W.O.T. Analysis stands for:

S – Strengths

W – Weakness

O – Opportunities 

T – Threats

Fun Fact: No one really knows for sure who invented the S.W.O.T Analysis! It is credited by some to Albert Humphrey who used the technique in the ‘60s and ‘70s at Stanford University to analyze Fortune 500 companies.

Why use it? 

The S.W.O.T Analysis is often referred to as a “strategic planning technique” but that’s just a fancy way of saying tool to help grow your business. The end goal is to run your cleaning company better. Running through the exercise of the analysis gets you thinking about both what you’re doing well, and what you could be doing better. It’s self-reflective — which is vital to changing your business in a positive way. We’re recommending this tool because it will help you identify areas where there are growth opportunities, where to increase efficiencies, and, hopefully, how to eliminate pain points and fix problems.  

S – Strengths 

This chapter will focus on identifying your company’s strengths within a S.W.OT. Analysis. It’s important here that we understand the difference between strengths and opportunities, which we’ll be identifying in the next chapter. So, let’s quickly look at both.

What is “a strength”?

A strength is something that your company does well, an aspect of your company that can be used to its advantage over the competition, or as leverage in getting new clients.

For example, does your company have high employee morale? If it does, that is a heck of a strength. The commercial janitorial industry has the highest employee turnover rate of any industry in the world…. And by a crazy high amount…as much as 300%. To give some perspective, the second-highest turnover rate is 13% (in  Software development)

So, if you have enthusiastic cleaners who love their jobs, and are excited to work for your company, that’s a major strength. Why? Because it means that you’ll have lower employee turnover, which in turn means spending less time and money on recruitment and training, plus you offer a more consistent service to your clients due to not being short-staffed.

What is “an opportunity”? 

An opportunity is something that has potential to help your company, but you haven’t yet tapped into it. Strengths and opportunities can definitely overlap. Let’s revisit high employee morale once again. That also presents an opportunity for your cleaning company. Why? Because you could start an employee referral program, in which your happy cleaners are helping you to recruit other hard-working cleaners. There’s an opportunity to tap into high employee morale and design this program, but you haven’t done it yet. Listing your opportunities can be a great way to brainstorm ideas for taking your business to the next level. More on that in chapter two! 

Back to strengths. Let’s get started on identifying yours.

Answering the following questions can help you to identify your cleaning company’s strengths:

1. What are we good at as a company?

2. What do our clients compliment us on?

3. What do our cleaners like about working with us?

4. Are we part of a franchise that offers any kind of support?

5. Who supports us?

6. What are we proud of?

Another great question: Have you already turned around any of your pain-points into strengths? 

If your company uses janitorial software like Swept, that would definitely be a strength since it improves efficiencies in so many areas and eliminates pain-points for commercial cleaning companies. 

Fun Fact 2: This tool is sometimes also known as a S.W.O.T. Matrix.

Download a copy of the SWOT template right here!

Example: My Commercial Cleaning Company’s S.W.O.T. Analysis 

We hope you enjoyed chapter 1. Subscribe to our blog, or follow us on social media to be the first to know when we publish new content, and to keep up to date on all the news and trends in the janitorial industry.

Swept is dedicated to highlighting stories that touch everyone in the janitorial industry. Having started as a commercial cleaning company ourselves, our hearts go well beyond the janitorial software we offer. Learn more about Swept’s cleaning company software here. 

Want more useful tools for growing your business? Well, we’ve got lots! Check out our existing tools and guides page for free eBooks, webinars, courses, and case studies filled with everything you need to grow your business, hire and retain employees, and make the best possible choices.

To be continued in Chapter 2…