Cleaning Business LIVE Q&A

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:12][music] CT. I hit you on the track.

[00:00:14]>> Shut up.

[00:00:17][music] >> [music] [music] >> Hey, hey, hey.

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[00:01:20]Heat. Heat. N.

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[00:01:44][music] [music] Heat. Heat. N.

[00:02:18][music] >> [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat.

[00:02:47]>> [music] [music] >> Good job y'all. Welcome in. Welcome in.

[00:02:56]We are on the [music] way y'all. We going to start in a few minutes.

[00:02:59]Everybody drop your city and state in the chat. Let us know where y'all checking in from. We going to be on a couple minutes.

[00:03:06][music] >> [music] >> Hey. [music] [music] Hey. Hey.

[00:03:36]>> [music] >> Hey, hey, hey.

[00:04:03]>> [music] >> What's up y'all? I'm AJ Simmons, founder of the Clean Biz Network. And the reason why I started the 1010 program is because I get it. Starting a business can be scary. It can be risky, and you don't know what to do. You know what I mean? So, with the 1010 program, I decided, you know what? Let's guarantee you success. Let's put you together with a one-on-one mentor. Let's give you unlimited leads and let's guarantee you that you can get to at least 10 grand a month in contracts. So whether you're already in business or whether you haven't even got started yet, the 1010 program can work for you and assure you that you will grow at least by $10,000 per month in recurring commercial cleaning contracts. So if this sound like something that you want to do, click that button below and go ahead and book a call with me. And listen, this is not like a franchise opportunity. These will be your accounts that you actually own, not some franchise middlemaning you. This is actually a guarantee. These will be your actual contracts. This will be an actual business. Okay? So, click the button below and schedule your call and let's see if we're right fit for each other.

[00:05:16]What up? What up? What? What up y'all?

[00:05:18]Happy Friday. Welcome in. Welcome in. I am AJ Simmons. I'm founder of the Clean Biz Network. Some like to call me the cleaning business goat. And we here y'all. It's Friday. Hey, happy Friday to y'all. I got some help here. We want to let the people know who you are.

[00:05:31]>> What's up? What's up, fam? Happy Friday, man. I'm Tony Williams, former owner of Impact Cleaning Professionals, now CBN consultant, leadership development coach, and speaker. And hey, as always, man, I'm here to help.

[00:05:45]>> Let's get it. Let's get it, y'all. So, what we like to do is first off, before we get into it, y'all drop your city and state in the chat. Let us know where everybody checking in from. I got y'all open all a little bit all over the place. We on YouTube. we on. And by the way, so best buddies to follow, watch us on YouTube, AJ Simmons YouTube channel or uh I think it's on Sherman's channel as well. I forgot the name of his channel. Is it just Yeah, Sherman Andrew Lewis uh on YouTube as well. Uh but comment over there. If you comment on my Facebook page or if you comment on LinkedIn, I can't see it. So, there's that. But we on LinkedIn, we on Instagram. I'm checking Instagram as well today. So, comment your questions if you get some throughout this whole thing. But first off, drop your city and state in the chat. Let us know where you're checking in from so we can shout you out and also we get so we can get an idea in a post of who's actually checking in with us. And then also drop your questions like I said and we gonna get to those and we gonna talk about some good clean business stuff today y'all. We're going to chop it up, share some free game. We're here to help y'all just like we do every Friday at 1 p.m.

[00:06:44]Eastern time, y'all. So first thing first, actually I guess I should shout out Miss Cayenne Motion, I believe is how you say it. Uh became a YouTube member. Shout out to you for become a member to the channel. I appreciate you.

[00:06:55]I got to give you give you some noise for that. Thank you for joining the channel. I don't even promote that, but people just be doing it and I appreciate it when it happens. So, shout out to you.

[00:07:05]All right, who else we got? We got George. My guy George checking in again.

[00:07:10]Uh, hello from Pensacola. Shout out to Pensacola. The whole Florida. We both checking in from Florida as well, me and Tony. So, welcome to in as well. All right, cool. So, no questions yet. I don't see any other shout outs that we need to get. So, I guess we'll jump right into it. So before we came on, we were talking about, you know, time management and more importantly, I think we were talking more so about commitment and what it takes to thrive as an entrepreneur.

[00:07:33]Lot of people My bad, y'all. Let me turn that ring off. This phone never rings. I forgot about it.

[00:07:44]All right. But a lot of people get into entrepreneurship. Y'all think it's just going to be a cakewalk and y'all [clears throat] think you just going to do what what what's the what's the uh the buzz word these days? Uh remote cleaning business. You think you're going to do a remote cleaning business from day one? Just going to walk up in here, press a button, join a 1010 program and AJ and Tony and Brandon and Sherman, we all just gonna set it up for you and abracadabra. And I'm just going to tell y'all now, you're in for rude awakening if you think that's what it is. But Tone, just kind of give me some of your feedback. like what are you seeing with newer entrepreneurs that you think that maybe there might be a misunderstanding here?

[00:08:20]Um, you know, for one, man, I I I I applaud anybody that that chooses to go on an entrepreneur journey of of any sorts, you know. So, I want to start by saying that like that alone, making that decision is is big. But, um, especially with, you know, social media making everything look so sexy and so appealing and and stuff like that. And then with your channel, you've done a awesome job at being able to draw people in as far as the emotional aspect of it. Like, oh snap, I can do that. Like, you know what I'm saying? But what I see a lot of times is when that excitement or that emotional like, you know, high starts to wear off and the rubber really starts to meet the road, like a lot of times that's when um people like, you know, they get discouraged or whatever. You you know what I'm saying? And that's why I I go back to like always like you you dropped a video the other day talking about clarity.

[00:09:23]>> Yep.

[00:09:26]>> People sleep on that man. Like I was like now he talking. I was like [clears throat] talking right now cuz like people sleep on that. Like I think before you you you make the journey you know um clarity is important like um knowing what kind of lifestyle you want to live like how you want things to be like you can't just say I just want to be a boss CEO and I don't have to work and I don't do all this stuff like that man that's not a a like you know that can be a end goal but like what about all that space in the middle like [laughter] >> you know what about everything that has to happen in the middle of that for you to be able to to get to that area. Are you going to be able to sustain that?

[00:10:09]And ultimately, is what you're building going to um support the lifestyle you you really want to lead? And I'm not just talking from a financial standpoint, but from a servant standpoint, like from a family standpoint, from a purpose and mission standpoint, like you know, just being fully transparent, like for me, like that clarity as I transition to different stages in my life, like it came very clear to me. Like, as selfish as this may sound, like I've I've been in in leadership since I was 15 years old. Yeah.

[00:10:47]>> Like I started washing cars and cleaning buses and mowing grass and stuff when I was 13 or so. I used to cut hair when I was like little like like 13 years old.

[00:10:58]My mom brought me my first pair pair of clippers >> like you know. So I had always done stuff and then when I was 15 I started working at a bakery >> and I got my first like leadership role.

[00:11:08]I was the supervisor. It was only a team of four of us but you know I was the supervisor. I had to make sure in every job after that I was always in a leadership role >> and so like naturally you know I've always wanted to take care of my people.

[00:11:24]>> Yeah. like you know and oftent times putting them be before myself and so when I started my cleaning business my goal was like man I'mma get this huge business like all these people like that can't get jobs whether they they in the hood like they you know they done got a felony or so and they can't you know I got them like I'm about to build this thing for them >> and uh in a lot of ways like we were doing that >> and then life happened you you You know what I'm saying? Like I I I got a divorce.

[00:11:58]>> Yep.

[00:11:58]>> You know, and that that put me in a different mindset of what was really important because I went from providing and being able to be out in the field all the time to now I'm I'm full-time dad. Like I ain't missing nothing, >> right?

[00:12:12]>> Like you you know what I'm saying? Yeah.

[00:12:13]I prided myself on being able to drop my kids off at school, but and I didn't get to go to the practices and stuff like that. I had to make, you know, um, sacrifices as far as like time being able to be home and and eating with them and doing homework and stuff like that.

[00:12:28]And, man, after that, I said, "Heck no, never again."

[00:12:31]>> Yeah.

[00:12:32]>> So, now the direction that I'm building, it has nothing to do with a team. I don't want [laughter] >> I don't want nobody with me at all. I don't want to be responsible for nobody.

[00:12:40]I want to be able to make enough where I can support my family. You know, I can, you know, contribute at church the way I want to. you know, I can be present with my family and present at church the way I want to and in my community and stuff like that. And that doesn't require me to have a huge team. And so, when I talk about clarity is is being very um very clear and understanding where it is you you want to go and how you're going to get there.

[00:13:09]>> Yeah. And if this is for real what you want to do, just understand that, man, unless you walking in with a duffel bag full of cash, like, you know what I'm saying? Or you got, you know, you got some family or you you got a good retirement or something like that where you can just pour a bunch of money into this, like, man, there's going to be some sweat >> that's going to be put into it. And and sometimes sweat is not literally sweat.

[00:13:36]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:13:36]>> Like, you know, people talk about sweat equity and they think that it means you just being in the field, >> man. Right from the jump, we was having people cleaning our accounts.

[00:13:45]>> Yeah.

[00:13:45]>> We was subcontracting right from the jump. I had some homeboys that had businesses already >> that were able to get people in in accounts before I had the the freedom to do it.

[00:13:54]>> Yeah.

[00:13:55]>> So, I was able to close accounts, but, you know, I had to put people in them right away.

[00:14:00]>> Yeah. So, like as far as like physical sweat equity is not, >> but that that sweat equity as far as the grind, that's what I I feel like people mean when they talk about sweat equity.

[00:14:11]Those daily activities you going to have to do, those cold calls you going to have to make that you don't feel like making. Remembering to follow up on the email, man. Delivering proposals quickly, like all that kind of stuff that is going to take that a lot of times is more mentally exhausting than it is physically exhausting.

[00:14:28]Like you know AJ, you done been out there in the field.

[00:14:31]>> Yeah.

[00:14:32]>> You can clean on autopilot.

[00:14:34]>> Like you get you get 10 20 accounts and you know you got to have them things clean by the end of the weekend. Like it's nothing, bro.

[00:14:41]>> Yeah.

[00:14:42]>> Like you know you know your people know they already know what's going on. They know that hey once Friday hit, we ain't hear from AJ until till probably Monday morning.

[00:14:51]>> Yep.

[00:14:53]>> You know you done been there.

[00:14:55]>> Y >> that's easy. You know that is easy, bro.

[00:14:59]>> Yeah.

[00:14:59]>> But what's the hard part and this is one of the things we were talking about is when you're not in that time and it's time to work on the things that are going to build your business and grow your business. Like how well are you protecting that time? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Hey bro, I need you to need you to pick little C cuz up, man.

[00:15:18]Like you got sick and I'm at I'm at work right now and uh I know you ain't got nothing going on. And and when we early on, what we say, AJ?

[00:15:27]Oh yeah, bro. I ain't doing I >> I got you. Yeah, it ain't I ain't doing nothing anyway.

[00:15:31]I'm good. You know, you know, I work for myself. I ain't doing nothing. No.

[00:15:36]>> But then now that that that 30 minute drive that you were supposed to take to pick little cous up. Hey, well, he ain't eat nothing. Can you stop him by McDonald's real quick?

[00:15:45]>> Yeah.

[00:15:45]>> And then, oh, can you drop drop him by his auntie house? Hey, cuz auntie ain't there.

[00:15:51]>> Oh, well, take him to such and such. And now this 30 minute drive done snatched three hours of your day and you look up and you ain't done none of the activity you was supposed to do.

[00:15:59]>> Look, they done sparked the Jay up on the way home from the from the one stop we supposed to now. Hey bro, can you stop me by the plasma center? Now we all at the damn plasma. You know I've been telling you I'm telling you [laughter] all type of stuff. Oh my cousin said she need a ride too, bro. We right here.

[00:16:16]Damn, we is right here. Let me go. You gotta say no.

[00:16:20]>> You gotta say no.

[00:16:22]you got to say no. So, so it it's just it's just those things, man, that I that I that I noticed, especially like when it comes to to newer um entrepreneurs is they lack clarity and they lack commitment. They lack time management and they all kind of come together because when you're clear on on where it is you're trying to go and what you're trying to do, it's easy to commit. And when you commit, then it's easier to put like tighter restraints on your time because, hey, I'm committed to this.

[00:16:52]Like, you know, I showed somebody my calendar and they was like, bro, that that looked crazy.

[00:16:56]>> Yeah.

[00:16:57]>> Like, yeah, but it's like, you know, it looked like Japanese to you, but to me, hey, this the only way it works.

[00:17:03]>> Yeah.

[00:17:04]>> You know, cuz I was there, bro. Like, I tell people all the time, like, you know, outside of my girls, if my mom or my sister call me for anything, the the answer is yes.

[00:17:14]You know what I'm saying? And I used to carry that that burden really heavily and I like they're not a burden. I I make that real clear. You know what I'm saying? Um but I used to car carry it so heavily like dang if I say no I'm going to be letting them down or whatever.

[00:17:30]Like this and that. But man, these are the two people in the world that want me to win more than anybody.

[00:17:36]And so you know when I start to get more disciplined, hey mom, well you know this how my day look. Cuz me and my mom, my sister, we talk every day, you know.

[00:17:45]Hey, hey, Antonio, how your day look today? Well, I got this going on. Got this going on. Got that going on.

[00:17:50]>> Yeah. You know, um, well, I was seeing if you could do such and such, but you know, I see you got a busy day, so it it can wait.

[00:17:58]>> Yeah.

[00:17:59]>> And like that started like blowing my mind cuz all these years I'm like thinking that I'mma let them down for saying no.

[00:18:07]>> And whole time they like, "Oh, cool.

[00:18:09]Well, we understand what you doing. We understand that you building. We understand where you going. So, it ain't no big deal. We'll figure it out or we can do it later.

[00:18:16]>> Yep.

[00:18:18]>> So, I'm done. That's that's my little rant. That was a a crazy opening rant, but my bad. But, um, let's let's introduce introduce our next >> Hey everybody. I heard someone say sweat equity and uh I thought I'd get in here pitch in on that one because let me tell you [laughter] hot down here in Florida if we're actually talking about sweating. Um that's a good topic though. Is this where we're going with today? Are we sticking with the clarity theme?

[00:18:50]>> I guess we've been on the theme of clarity all week which ironically what you got on that logo right there.

[00:18:55]>> Ironically that's my business name.

[00:18:58]>> Right. This was not conspired at all.

[00:19:00]That's funny. fired. [laughter] >> Oh, I'm gonna go ahead and put some of these comments up here.

[00:19:06]>> Cool.

[00:19:08]>> All right, we got a shout out from Michigan.

[00:19:14]>> Shout out to Hollis. Appreciate you checking in.

[00:19:18]I >> think we got a question here.

[00:19:20]>> Steve Jones, some people start a business on Monday and they think they will be rich by Friday. Business growth takes time. Facts. Freeze.

[00:19:35]I don't know how to say your name, hun.

[00:19:37]Sorry. But he he is preaching today.

[00:19:40]>> Yeah. Tony went off from from ground zero. Look, [laughter] >> because because seriously though, you know, you get into it and you I'm going through that right now. And not just in my business, in my life. It's like you really have to get very clear on who you be because you might be clear on those things about business like this is what I want for my business. But you can't sustain that level of growth if you're not right with yourself, >> right?

[00:20:09]>> And so that's what brings me back to rooms like this all the time because I think we all just grow together. And as long as you you keep that growth up and you stay in the room with everybody like you're you're going to be good. It's going to hurt a little bit. You probably gonna cry a little bit, but you got a team around you to help support you.

[00:20:27]>> Big fact. I think I I would have quit a long time ago if it weren't for CBN. If it won't for y'all to be here to let me know that I won't tripping or I won't crazy cuz you got outside of your entrepreneur friends and stuff. People, we don't make sense to most people the way we move and certain decisions we got to make and certain like it does not make sense. And most of the anybody that I knew like from back home or that's not in business or you know regular thinking people the common sense thing to do in a lot of cases that I've been through would have been cur your ass back to work go get a job you know what I mean or would have been to don't do that idea do something else right and so it's like but when you got these people around that's fighting that same battle that you fighting that's got them same goals that you have that make all of the difference in the world so I just wanted to hammer that home for real and that's why we definitely got I'm I'm going to do another conference For sure. We got to get another conference back cuz us linking up, [laughter] you know what I mean? It's it's definitely some magic to that. For sure. I'm with you on that.

[00:21:24]>> Can I piggyback off of that real quick?

[00:21:27]>> Yeah, go for it.

[00:21:28]>> Um, not just the conference theme, but just thinking about growth in general.

[00:21:34]>> Yeah. a thing for me in the beginning when I very first started. I remember being in the businesses like cleaning late at night, pushing that that dust mop around with my earbuds in and I'd be listening to you on here bumping your gums [laughter] about everything. And I just fed my brain with it over and over. And I had I had this moment where I was like, damn, you know, I really want to get him as a coach, but I just I don't have the money for it right now. And I was stuck in that mindset of I really don't have that money for for it right now. And this is how broke I was back then. That's when CBN was $49 a month. Okay. [laughter] It was like, man, I really don't have the money for that right now. But what I want to my message I want to deliver to everybody is find a way to get that money. Jason Lee told me this at my first CBN conference. He said, "Find a way to get that money." And so he talked about how if you just subscribe anyway, it's going to force you into finding a way to figure it out, which I do believe in that too. Kind of put your foot on your own neck. Um, but the coaching, once I got into having coaching and having a community, my growth level just boom, boom, boom. From there, it was like, why didn't I do this so long ago?

[00:22:47]I was in my own way. I was my own bottleneck.

[00:22:50]>> And so that's the message I want to deliver is don't be your own bottleneck.

[00:22:56]>> Big fact. So, I love that. And shout out to Jason Lee, man. He spoke at was that 2023, I think, CBN conference. Got to get him back. I was talking to him the other day. Shout out to him. And shout out to Tone because I'm pretty sure he talked to you before he reached out to me. So, but shout out to both of y'all for that.

[00:23:12]>> Yeah. One of the things like with that too, um like what she was saying is is being in the right room, being in the right communities, you know, having um solid mentors, coaches, whatever it is.

[00:23:23]Uh I do believe in paid coaching, have one myself. Um, but one of the things is it's like um I think somebody described it one time as like a jump cut like so it's like you know having a coach can excel you or having a community you know having a network of people that have already done what you're trying to do can legitimately save you years >> off of like you know learning and how much time it's going to take to to get somewhere or to do something or anything like that, it can save you years of of time because they've already made the mistakes.

[00:24:02]>> Yeah.

[00:24:02]>> They they've already hit those roadblocks and and you know, overcame them. So, they can sometimes see, you know, what you're about to go through before you even knew it was a thing.

[00:24:17]>> Yeah.

[00:24:18]>> Like before you even knew that this was a thing. Like cuz they can tell you straight up, hey, brace yourself cuz this about to come up.

[00:24:24]>> Yeah. you know, but when this happens, I need you to be prepared in this way. You know, hey, I I see that point in in growth that you're experiencing right now, like, you know, you add two more accounts, things are going to start to feel a little differently >> because when you get around this much revenue, business starts to feel like this. So, I just want you to be prepared for that. But having people in front of you and around you that have already been there, like even like with like somebody like Angelica, they may be somebody that's watching that's considering, you know, moving. They want they want to get out of their hometown.

[00:24:59]They want to go somewhere else, but you know, they they don't want to give up on their dream or their business, but they feel stuck.

[00:25:06]>> Yeah.

[00:25:06]>> Because they don't they can't even think about how they would go and replant when they done done all of this work here and stuff like that. There's somebody already around that's done it. Yep.

[00:25:17]>> So, but again, finding that clarity, you know, making the commitment and then protecting that time and that energy, like it's important. It's super important. And part of that commitment is the community. Like, signing up for the 1010 program, signing up for CBN in general, pulling up to the conference, staying on these lives every Friday cuz some of y'all I see y'all names every Friday.

[00:25:41]Like, that kind of stuff matters. So I lay there >> and look and then you you here every Friday but you're not in CBN. How'd that work? And then you say I don't got the money, bro. $99.

[00:25:56]One contract. Did anybody has anybody ever got a contract that was less than $99 commercial contract? I don't think that is it. Actually, I had one. It was $75 and that's because of Jam Pro, right? And it was it was way back there.

[00:26:10]Y'all know I'm a dinosaur. rates were different. $75. I had to go out there once a month and go clean the vitamin shop windows.

[00:26:18]Took me 30 minutes to do. So, but one contract typically will cover that $99 a month. Now, if you want 1010, come on, get in there. 1010program.com. But at the minimum, you should at least be a CVN member. And like Angelica said, and I live by that model, too. If you want it bad enough, you gonna find a way to afford it. Just know I mean, you get to it and you'll it'll pay for itself.

[00:26:38]especially something like this was bringing more value to you to help you raise your revenue and your growth.

[00:26:44]Anyway, so >> yeah, there was so much stuff that when I started doing coaching, it was like I was like, man, this just saved me so many years off my life and so much stress from contracts and like the wording to put in um like to how do you even set this CRM up? Like how do you even collect a signature? you know, I have these pain points in business and I want to learn from them. But how do you do that? How do you turn that pain into your growth and move past that?

[00:27:16]>> Yeah. You know what? I'm gonna say this because Tony said something too where that good coaching to take, you know, years off of you trying to learn, go through this whole process. Somebody already been through it, right? So, somebody in 1010, I won't say their name, but somebody in the 1010 literally just yesterday reached out and they were asking for like their technical details to the back end to their website because they built it on the CBN platform, but they're trying to switch it over to WordPress because the reason why they wanted to do it was because they heard Big Bank say on his web on his uh interview that he built his website through WordPress, but he just recently connected it to our CRM for the certain tools that we have. And so he wanted to switch over from being built already on CBN's platform to building over to WordPress simply because he heard that and it's like well hell big banks doing a million. I'm about to do banks websites on WordPress.

[00:28:08]I'm going to do the WordPress. But I had to really like walk him through. Listen, there's nothing that WordPress can do that our website builder can't do. And our website builder is easier to manage.

[00:28:19]This person in particular is not even a technical person. I'm a technical person. We used to have our website hosted on WordPress until I heard about Gohigh Level. I didn't know about Gohigh Level at first. And so once I heard about that, I left WordPress because what people don't know in 2023, that conference, that same conference we were just speaking about, I actually broke the entire site because we stayed up all night and we turned up this and that.

[00:28:42]But I had promised the world that after a certain amount of time the next day, a particular sale was going to go down or something like that. And so I said, you know what? Instead of going to sleep, it was like 4 in the morning. I said, I'm going to go into my computer real quick, log in, and turn this sale off before I go to bed just to prove that I'm the ultimate hustler and no sleep until you get your your task done, even after that night of drinking, right?

[00:29:07]>> I went in, you remember this, right? I went in, hit the button. I don't know what I hit in WordPress because it's complicated.

[00:29:15]It wiped off everything. The whole was just gone. And I'm like, "Oh my god." [laughter] like what do I do? So, long story lo and behold and then here's the thing. I didn't I couldn't really hire anybody to fix it because I didn't know what to tell them that I what I didn't know what was going. It was so broken that I couldn't even explain what I didn't know where I did what I did. So, long story short, I was able to coach this person to show them like, listen, you're not even a technical person. I am, but I ain't that technical. So, it's like if I was not good over that, why would you go over that just because of that one little thing you heard somebody else say? is like that. Just stick to the plan. Focus on getting these contracts. That's what you need to be focused on. Right? So, but again, but if I wasn't there to step in, he was about to pay somebody else to go rebuild his whole website. Nothing wrong with his website. He just heard some, "Oh, they doing that. Let me go do this." And that's what a coach can save you from, too, is to help you stay on track, not get that shiny object syndrome, and keep you with that clarity, which apparently is the word all this week and apparently for the rest of the year. That's what I'm trying to make it. to keep you having that clarity so you're not just jumping. Oh, so and so did this. I need to do this.

[00:30:20]Oh, they getting money in postraction. I need to do post. Oh, they they doing Airbnbs. I need to do air. No, bro. Pick your lane. Stay with it. Let's get it.

[00:30:27]All right. I'mma shut up. What else we got?

[00:30:29]>> All right. I'm going to bounce to the next comment.

[00:30:34]Is the 1010 program good till the end of June? Yes.

[00:30:40]>> With a caveat.

[00:30:43]So with leads, we are ending that next Friday. So you got until June 5th. I won't put a date on it now. June 5th, that's going to be the last day we accepting anybody to sign up with leads included. After that, it'll just be the coaching involved accountability and coaching calls and all everything else, but just without leads.

[00:31:03]>> Shout out from Detroit.

[00:31:06]>> Yo, you're What up though, >> Miguel? Shout out from Los Angeles.

[00:31:13]Shout out Miguel also CBN uh veteran right here. He is active member right now. So shout out to you.

[00:31:23]>> Hey friend >> right [laughter] checking in. Literally just got off the call with him. 1010 client member as well. Welcome man. Appreciate you here taking notes.

[00:31:35]>> Okay. During interviews, many successful entrepreneurs are asked what they would do differently if they had to start over. A common response is that they would find a mentor much earlier in their journey.

[00:31:49]Gentlemen, >> good point.

[00:31:52]>> That's a great point.

[00:31:54]>> I'm g be honest. I can't say that though because I'm so hard-headed. I would have done it the same way because that's the only way I learn. I have to bust my damn head. Now that I bust my head enough times, I see the value in a mentor though. So now me, if I can go back with the knowledge I got now, absolutely I would do that. But if I had to go back without my knowledge, I probably it'll be the same. I got to bust my head every time.

[00:32:18]>> And for me, man, I I was trying to find a mentor like um you know, I had AJ who was my my mentor in the box. I know probably my first two years in CBN, I just was quiet. like I I just watched and you know I would see what somebody was doing and I would boom all right let me see if this worked for me nope didn't work all right next one see what somebody else doing all right that's a vibe let's let's do that >> um but you know I I had made the mistake of like trying to find local mentors you know and a lot of the local people I would find in cleaning business they weren't really no help cuz they like oh man no this this um this ain't what you want to do man, it's just hard work and stuff like that. But thankfully, man, the the guy at the janitorial store >> and he helped me a lot. Like he um he had a carpet cleaning business that he ran down in Fort Lauderdale for like 30 years and then he opened up a janitorial store. And talk about giving game, he gave me crazy game. He the one that told me, he was like, "Man, don't go to none of these workshops at at these janitorial stores." He was like, he said, "Because those workshops are 100% like built to make you think that you need their equipment."

[00:33:31]>> Yep.

[00:33:32]>> He He said, cuz I was like, "Oh, snap."

[00:33:34]And like I legit had just went to one and I remember leaving there like, "Bro, I I can't even do this business if I don't have none of this stuff." Like, [laughter] >> yeah, you know. Um, so it's just stuff like that. and then um you know getting deeper and like actually getting involved in in CBN and BSAI and ISSA and and the different you know organizations and stuff that are out there where people are doing what we're doing at a at a high level. Um like that that that helped me a lot. So, like I was trying to find a mentor, but like for me it was one of them things like I was just looking in the in the the wrong places um early on. But if I got to say my biggest thing that I would do differently if I if I started over, um, make sure your pocket's straight. Like, you know, I I would I would if I could start over again. Uh, I definitely would have done it in a manner that like, you know, and I appreciate like like AJ said, I appreciate every part of my journey cuz I I grinded it out like and we made something out of literally nothing.

[00:34:45]like, you know, it was just an idea pulled out of thin air, made it happen, >> you know. Um, but like looking back on it, man, shoot, if I would have had my personal credit straight, if I would have had some money in the bank, like, you know, um, before I got started, like, man, some dudes over in St. Pete just got a million dollars and they never did a cleaning business before.

[00:35:05][clears throat] >> Like, they had a million dollar loan.

[00:35:07]The heck, bro? Like, how much sense does that make? Like, >> yeah, >> you know what I'm saying? is mind-blowing, but it shows like, you know, the power of being set up and and stuff like that. It just it hit a little different and um with my grind and if I had some some strong financial backing, things would look way different.

[00:35:28]>> Yeah, >> I feel like if you just get in CBN and you're around people, you're going to naturally gravitate towards your mentor.

[00:35:37]Like if you're looking for one, there's so many mentors in there and not just in one area of life in in many areas of life.

[00:35:46]>> Big fact.

[00:35:49]>> Okay, I'm going to jump to the next one.

[00:35:53]Shout out to Carolina. My first contract was 6K a month.

[00:35:58]>> Hey, let's go.

[00:36:00]>> Shout out to you. Where's my uh hair?

[00:36:11]Okay, Steve Jones, if you want to know what the cleaning industry can do for you, just look at Dan from IFS in Dallas, Texas. His office space and his airplane are very inspiring.

[00:36:25]>> Shout out to Dan.

[00:36:26]>> Yeah. [clears throat] Shout shout out to Mr. Dan, man. Super super humble dude, too. Like, you know, had the pleasure of meeting him quite a few times. Yeah, he has.

[00:36:34]>> I have. It [clears throat] was in um whatchamacall it clean profits.

[00:36:40]>> Okay.

[00:36:42]>> Okay.

[00:36:43]>> I might have phone but I forgot that I even had his contact. I'm gonna reach back out to him. Definitely overdue for interview.

[00:36:49]>> Yeah, for sure. Um when we talk about people that that want to to master that that subcontractor model, >> bro, he's like the >> Yeah, me and him. had a nice good conversation about subcontracting and lead generation. And >> yeah, he he big big dog when it come to that. Like >> yeah, by the time I was done talking to him, he made me feel like just shut everything down and just go duplicate what he doing because I really got all the tools to go do it. But shout out to him, man. [laughter] >> All right, from Adrian. Y'all talking good. Shout out to my guy Tone.

[00:37:31]>> You here?

[00:37:31]>> Yo. Yo, what's up? Adrian >> Latro South Carolina here. Thank you. I need to hear that. I got my first commercial cleaning contract, but now I'm feeling stuck.

[00:37:45]>> All right. Hey, if you don't mind uh unpacking that a little bit, we can we can tackle that a little bit more um if we don't have too many questions. But keep rolling.

[00:37:56]>> All right.

[00:37:59]And I started just in case we got to go back.

[00:38:02]>> Cheap Cinema Indiana in the house.

[00:38:06]What's up, family?

[00:38:08]>> Welcome in. Welcome in.

[00:38:10]>> God bless family. Why are you letting the leads go?

[00:38:14]>> Here we go. [laughter] >> You knew it was coming. You knew it was coming.

[00:38:19]>> I explained very thoroughly in that last video, but man, I gotta pick a direction. That's a whole different type of company.

[00:38:27]We do a lot of different things here at CBN. And out of all the things that we do, that one in particular is the most strenuous, taxing, cost, ineffective thing that we have to offer. And so, while I love it because it's directly helping y'all, it's giving everybody what they need more than anything, which is leads. But get somebody else to do it. [laughter] Like, I'm just, man, I've been doing it for years. And when I look at the models, let's be clear, when I look at like what I really wanted to do for my life and the clarity of what I wanted and type of business that I want to run, it wasn't that. And there's another Dan. Shout out to that Dan. Ain't Dan with the uh damn I forgot his name. Um but anyway, he had a lead generation service years ago and he was nice enough to mentor me for free. Met him through a Facebook group randomly, >> right?

[00:39:18]>> And um Randy, that's who I'm thinking about. You know what I'm talking about.

[00:39:21]Shout out to Randy Martin. And um after that conversation with him, and I'm talking about this was the very beginning of my lead generation service.

[00:39:30]I already knew the lead generation was not a long-term play for me, but I kept doing it because of request and my heart for people. But at the end of the day, it is not a long-term game. I have watched people, and I'm not going to name names, but I have watched people come in this industry try to do it and shut down because it's just not feasible. Not at least not the model and the way that we've done it. Maybe somebody else can come along and figure out a way where it is feasible. But it's just not worth it for me in my case. I can't do it. But I got y'all until about the fifth. So if you gonna get them, y'all better get them. I did just finally raise the prices on the individual ones today because we want to slow it down on purpose and start easing that out. And then also, let me say this for my staff who is watching because I do got a big team. For my staff that's watching that's calling for us, don't be afraid. We have a plan B for y'all. We going to put you, we going to do our best to keep y'all at work, but y'all got to keep the numbers up, too, cuz if y'all ain't bringing no value, then there's that. But anyway, hopefully that helps.

[00:40:31]>> Mel will, hey y'all, I'm just starting.

[00:40:34]Do I need an LLC to start?

[00:40:38]>> I guess that's my department, right?

[00:40:40][laughter] >> No, you don't. No, you don't need LLC to start. But I always like to say just go and get out the way. don't cost that much in most states. Just go ahead and do it. But if you need it, if you're asking, do you need LLC to join CBN? No, because even in the starter course, it's going to tell you how to go get it anyway. But if you want to go ahead and get it beforehand, and you're free to do it. But however you what order, it really don't make a difference.

[00:41:08]>> Shout out to Aquaman. He said, "Hey CBN fam, just left the walkth through."

[00:41:13]>> Christian, what up?

[00:41:15]>> Hold on. Let me I'mma call you as I get off this lap.

[00:41:22]>> All right.

[00:41:25]>> He said, "Thanks, AJ. Still playing my beats for your intros. Love the CBN family."

[00:41:30]>> Yes, sir. I appreciate you donating that gracious donation for me.

[00:41:39]>> A lot of comments, >> right? Shout out Tennessee Clean checking in. Tennessee Clean team.

[00:41:46]Who is that? Floyd Mayweather's burner account. [laughter] Shout out to you.

[00:41:51]>> You read that a lot faster than me.

[00:41:53][laughter] >> I've been doing it for a while.

[00:41:57]>> Aquaman says, "Cleaning has changed my life following these two men. They do not disappoint."

[00:42:03]This is true.

[00:42:07]>> Tim Baker, that's one of the reasons I'm joining CBN is to get my feet wet. Who is that we can go through?

[00:42:15]So right now still us, but you don't have to be a member of clean biz network to get our leads. So that's number one.

[00:42:21]So while they're there, you can go to cleanbizle leads.com and do that. But in clean business network, once you become a member, you get the cleaner business starter course included. In that starter course, I show you how to get leads.

[00:42:37]I'm trying to say what I want to say next without saying it in a way that might come across wrong. I'mma say it like this. Um, look at the lead generation as we doing it for you. We getting leads for you, but in the course it's going to show you how to do it yourself. And really, that's what you want. I know a lot of y'all don't want that. Y'all want us to do it for you because you quite frankly too lazy to do it. So, but I don't want y'all being lazy because laziness is not going to get you successful in business, period. So, I mean, yeah, you can do that. It's more efficient to buy leads.

[00:43:13]That is absolutely true. It's definitely way more efficient. But if you can learn how to generate them on your own, especially if you get something like the automation program, a good 1010 program where we can show you exactly what I'm doing to generate those leads and you just do it yourself. You'll save a lot more by doing it anyway that way. So, but yeah, don't let that be the reason that only reason you join CBN. But even if it is, we'll just show you how to generate them on your own. So, Mel will says, "Can I join?"

[00:43:47]>> You can go to cleanbusnetwork.app www.clebusetwork.app and you'll see the very first option up there at the top is join. Click on join.

[00:43:56]It's going to come with a starter course. It's $99 to get started.

[00:44:05]>> Aquaman says Tennessee clean team. Reach out to me. I cover Tennessee. All right.

[00:44:11]I love the networking. This is this is how you really get to do something. You meet all these people in here and connect. Just shout out your state and try to connect with those individuals.

[00:44:23]>> Definitely reach out Tennessee Clean Team. Heat the plug. Telling you. Can't wait to unleash what he got cooking over there. Shout out to uh Kristen. All right. And then you he came back and he said we gonna go back to that star one too. But before we do, you did. I know.

[00:44:38]My bad. I asked for a moderator. They don't let you moderate. Right. My bad.

[00:44:42][laughter] I'mma click it. I'mma click. All right.

[00:44:44]But um Okay. But you did say you're not going away. I did want to circle back to this and I appreciate you and we look forward to having you in the in the community. I did want to say this though. So you said earlier you was like, "Do I recommend anybody else?" I can name some lead generation companies out there. I know uh y'all can if y'all got any, y'all share those, too. But um I think what I'll pro I don't know Belle who runs my lead generation service, she might open her own again if I shut mine down. So she will be I'll let you know if she opens that back up and then what is it? Uh I don't know them. Y'all know them. Y'all can share. [laughter] >> I ain't gonna vouch for nobody, man. Um the only people that I I think I would um you know and that's if they if they still doing it. I know they was running solid for a little while there. And that's um Amir and Ola up there with Mirola. I know they had they had started a a lead generation service at one point. Um so like if they're still in business, if you not shopping with CBN or you not working with Bell, you know, it would only be right if y'all y'all shot with my boys there. They solid.

[00:45:51]They know the game plan. They know how to do it. Like >> CBN alumni as well. Shout out to them.

[00:45:59]Uh, you ain't got none. Uh, Angelica, >> I was trying to figure out how to put the link in the chat. I'm still learning the program. [laughter] Can you do that while I while I >> can? Yep. Who is it?

[00:46:13]>> Oh, which link? My link.

[00:46:15]>> Yeah, drop the link for the star course that Mel will asking about that.

[00:46:21]>> Okay, coinbiz.com.

[00:46:24]I'll put that one in there. And then I also put uh the regular cleaners network membership.

[00:46:34]See if we can drop yours in there, then you can drop the with your affiliate link in there and that would be even wonderful. We gonna get you straight.

[00:46:41]All right. Cool. Bam.

[00:46:44]Oh I messed up y'all. Okay, I'm still here. I thought I exed out my whole page. All right. All right. Cool.

[00:46:52]All right. All right, I'm going to go back to this star comment that we said we might unpack later since nobody else commented. All right, Latre was talking about how they got their first contract, but they kind of stuck now to getting that first contract. I'm gonna jump into this and I know Tony probably gonna have some good stuff for it, too. I know based just based off of that little bit of information, I would say this. Well, what did you do to get the first one?

[00:47:16]Just go do that. Now, a lot of times what people do to get their first one is they get lucky. So, they'll put out a bunch of flyers, give out a bunch of business cards, just networking, and then somebody randomly calls you or you randomly come across a conversation like, "Oh, yeah. Well, we you can come out of the office and they pretty much already made up their mind and they was going to hire you anyway, right? So, you fell into a lucky situation." So, if that's how you got it, you can still do more of that. Networking always helps.

[00:47:40]But I would definitely get consistent.

[00:47:43]If you want to grow your company and you want to get more commercial contracts, literally make a decision. And back to the stuff that me and Tony were talking about in the beginning about blocking out your time on your calendar, just set I always say an hour minimum. A lot of y'all got way more time than that, especially y'all that quit y'all jobs already, but an hour minimum. Just set an hour a day. Cold call Monday through Friday or door to door Monday through Friday. Get out there and just say, "Hey, I'm gonna hit up 10 businesses a day, five days a week. That's 50 businesses a week, 200 businesses a month." Try to get at least 200 walkthroughs out of that two out of I mean two walkthroughs out of that 200.

[00:48:20]Close at least one of those two. There you go. There's no there's no way to be stuck if you can literally just go make it happen. You literally can go get your own money when you're What you got?

[00:48:32]>> I take a little different approach on that, man. Um, I would just say use that time wisely. Like especially if you're if you're the one cleaning in that um account. Like um that's one of the things that I can say that like from my early accounts that I got the most value. I wasn't getting paid a lot for them because like my pricing structure was trash. But man, I used my time in my accounts to learn. Um, I throw the the headphones on, throw on audible like because you know you can clean on autopilot pretty much like especially after you done it a couple times and you use that time to learn like me. Um, I was talking to one of my subcontractors the other day and he was like, "Bro, like you know, you say you used to get this building clean this fast. Like, bro, how?"

[00:49:18]>> And I said, "Well, for me it was all about efficiency. like when when I was like peing, you know, I would do nine 10 buildings in one night.

[00:49:28]>> Like, you know, I might start at 5:00, but you know, I'm coming home at 7:00 a.m., >> you know, and we done got them all done.

[00:49:34]And so, like using that time to figure out better ways to do stuff. All right.

[00:49:40]Me, just I guess it's the athlete in me, I would I would put everything on the clock. Like every task that I did was on the clock. Like, okay, if I'm if I'm pulling trash, boom, yesterday it took me 20 minutes to pull all the trash.

[00:49:55]Boom, today I'm trying to beat 20 minutes. And I just keep doing that until I get to a time that's just like unreasonable. All right, so 15 minutes is the the like absolute fastest I can do this without being in a full out sprint in this place. You You know what I'm saying? So now I'm I'm able to okay almost predict everything that I'm doing like and then that helped me later because all right I know everybody not going to move as fast as me so let me just add you know maybe 10 or 20 minutes to every task so when I put somebody else in here like they can do that like so I I used like my early accounts like I used that time to learn a lot like I was on podcast I was figuring out the best ways to clean I was figuring out how to get the best results with the the you know in the most efficient way like well with the lowest effort like if that makes any sense. So, you know, every account shouldn't be hard to clean.

[00:50:51]Like, if every account you doing is is like hard and it's taxing and it's beating you up, like maybe this not them not the kind of accounts you want to clean or maybe you just flat out doing it wrong. Like like so, you know, that's what I did. And what it starts doing is is as you're learning, you start getting more ideas, you know, like I used to get so many good ideas while I was cleaning.

[00:51:16]Like, and so I would just go the next day and execute. And so I would think about accounts that I would want to clean. I would think about people that I cross paths with. Oh man, that lady that go to my church, she actually works at such and such. I'mma just talk to her on Sunday and and and see if there's any, you know, so you start thinking about, but if you just, you know, you you you got your trap on and you just just trying to get through the account, like I feel like that's kind of just a you not you're not getting that maximum use out of that time. So for me, that one account, use that time better and figure out ways to get unstuck. like listening to stuff like this, listening to old videos, listening to other podcasts, listening to audio books, like just spending some quiet time and just thinking like you know that stuff is all extremely effective um in those earlier stages when you you you still the one out there getting getting [clears throat] to it.

[00:52:16]>> Okay, guys, we got another one of our coaches tapping in with us.

[00:52:23]Hey Sherman.

[00:52:25]>> Hey. What's going on, guys? Man, I apologize.

[00:52:34]>> I'm sure y'all you guys are about to close out, but I just wanted to speak and say, "Hey, I'm here. I was listening, but I was working, trying to grind. I'm doing the same thing everybody else that's getting in the 1010 program and all that other stuff doing. I'm still getting accounts. I'm still on the grind. and I'm still out there cleaning when I have to or cleaning to prepare some of my accounts for subcontractors to come in. So, I'm doing the same thing that you guys are doing. So, we can definitely help you.

[00:53:01]Definitely come into the 1010 program.

[00:53:04]Um, it's living the dream. You just got to be motivated. You got to be dedicated and you got to be focused. All right, that's all I got.

[00:53:12]>> Straight up. Straight up. Well, I appreciate that.

[00:53:15]>> I'm going to AJ. Yeah. So, I'm gonna start with the ones on Instagram first because I completely ne neglected them and I think only I can see it right now unless I somebody log into it, but so I'm going to answer those and then I'll come back over here and I'll let you give us the ones from YouTube, too.

[00:53:33]>> Okay.

[00:53:34]>> All right. So, let's start at the top.

[00:53:37]We got Bam. So, Hi-Tech Cleaning Services says, "Hello, everyone. I'm headed out to clean to a cleaning. Can someone explain the 1010 for me? I'm sorry. Trying to get dressed." Okay, I got you. Hopefully, you still here. So 1010 program is basically a one-on-one coaching program. So y'all know we got Clean B network. That's our group coaching program slash software and all that good stuff. But 1010 program is designed to be an actual one-on-one coaching program. So we assign you with one of our coaches here, whether it be Sherman who's here, whether it be Tony who's here, whether it be Brandon who's out in the like getting to it right now.

[00:54:10]And then I also start off coaching you as well for your first couple of meetings. But we coach you oneonone. We meet with you usually every two weeks and then uh we set goals for you and basically coach you to get to that 10 grand mark per month. So that's what that first 10 stands for. The second 10 stands for within 10 months.

[00:54:28]We have kind of changed that language since then because it depends on how you decide to buy in because some people just don't have the time to dedicate to hit it within 10 months. But we make sure we get you to the 10K whether it take you 10 months, a year, two years, whatever the case may be. But the go the goal is designed to get you to that point. So, if you are interested, make sure you go to 1010program.com and see how we can help you better with that.

[00:54:48]All right. Uh, next one. Hi also says, "That's just how I feel. I have one and now I do. Now, how do I get another?"

[00:54:56]Right? So, we kind of answer her question with the other person who just asked on YouTube about you got one lucky contract, but now how do you get some more? You got to dedicate the time. Cold call doortodoor, buy leads while you can. Cleanbiz.com and then anywhere else on the internet where you can find a way to buy leads. get out here, join your chamber of commerce. Uh Brandon was talking about that a lot last week. Uh but do just do what you got to do. You got to put yourself out there, promote yourself. All right. And then I think this is uh we got a couple more. All right. So, Preferred Touch Cleaning says, "I was told that an LLC is not the way to go as a sole proprietor. You should do CC Corp, especially when you are trying for funding if your personal credit is bad." What do you think? I think that we should verify who you got that information from. I also think that you should know that I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice, but here's my opinion. Um, and I'm not a tax person either. None of that.

[00:55:50]>> Say you forgot. [laughter] >> So, let me make that clear.

[00:55:57]>> I'm not a CPA. All right. But I will say my opinion on this. So, I thought about this for a long time and I Yeah. So anyway, but um I do think LLC would be in your best interest if you are an individual owner. So you can be a single member LLC. I highly recommend it over a C corp. The reason why I recommend it over a C corp is because with a C corp you have to it's more complicated and it's also double taxed. So when you when you're in a C corp, if you put yourself on salary, then when you pull your salary out, you're going to get taxed at that level. And then when the company is also going to have to file it own taxes, then that's going to get taxed, too. So they both provide the same protections.

[00:56:41]They both separate as long as you don't coingle funds or anything like that with your LLC and your personal. But a LLC is a pass through entity. So you'll still be operating as a sole proprietor, but you won't you will be respected.

[00:56:53]Your company will still be respected outside of you in case you get sued or anything like that. Now the taxes themselves will still be one and the same if you're a single member LLC, which you automatically will be until you file a form, which I forgot the name of the form, but you file that form to elect to be taxed as a sole proprietor.

[00:57:11]Excuse me, not so, but as a S corp. Then once you get taxed as an escort, now the LLC will be separate, but it won't still have to be taxed. You'll still be taxed, but it'll it'll help you save on taxes.

[00:57:23]I don't want to go too much deeper in that. I'm a little bit rusty since I studied this stuff, but I don't think the CE corp is what you need to start with. But again, and also got to know more things that you did about funding.

[00:57:33]Well, if your credit is bad, first off, you know what? Let's get into that.

[00:57:37]First of all, I don't even want you thinking about funding if you don't know how to get no damn if you don't know how to get to the money yet. Let's just focus on getting money first before you think about anything else because what you got to understand is this. When you get funding, funding is debt. Okay? And then if it ain't debt, then it's giving up equity because now you got investors.

[00:57:58]We don't want to do any one of those in the beginning. Not me. I want to get matter of fact there's a there's a very viral clip out there from Mark Cuban that says anybody that starts business on a anybody that starts their business on debt is a That's a billionaire saying that. Not me.

[00:58:14]And I'll be honest with you, I started my business on debt. My last cleaning company that I had that's still running to this day, NA Solutions. Shout out to my brother. But I started that on debt.

[00:58:25]I got three loans. One from Navy Federal, one from One Main Financial, and another one from Spring Leaf. I don't even think spring leave exists anymore. I got that loan and I just got it. I was like, "Oh, I'm going to do this. I'm gonna I don't know what I'm do." I thought I was gonna go into real estate. Then eventually what ended up happening was the money dwindled down. I had to invest some money into a rental property I had. Blah blah blah. Long story short, the last of the money that I had left in the loan I took and I invested in a cleaning company. Guess what?

[00:58:51]Businesses take a while to actually generate money. After a while, I couldn't keep up with those payments and I defaulted on those damn loans. All three of them.

[00:59:00]So, I would highly not recommend starting a business on a loan. But can you? Yes. Did I? Yes. I didn't pay them back. Seven years went by. They disappeared off my credit. The end.

[00:59:10]Luckily, I was young.

[00:59:13]So, there's that. But I'm just saying I highly recommend again starting on credit. I recommend you learn how to get to the bag first. Then when you do go to borrow business and just come with somebody that got hundreds of thousands in business credit, might be millions at this point. I haven't added it all up, but I got a lot of business credit in my life. And I didn't have to have a CP to get it. And I also make sure I knew how to get some money first because whenever you go bring into some additional funds, those funds should be used to get more funds. It should never just be used to get started or fund what's already going on because all you doing is adding extra bill with no way to create more revenue. Hopefully, I didn't overdo that. All right, let me check over here.

[00:59:56]Yeah, I'mma keep it rolling. I'll keep it rolling. All right, but um I think I got one more on Instagram real quick. Uh thank you for appreciate. Good. I'm glad you were here for that. Uh shout out to I don't know how to say it, but shout out to the Bay Area, California. And then my bad, I forgot to check. Okay, that's me. And then San Francisco Bay Area as well. All right, shout out to California checking in heavy from Instagram. All right, I'm done.

[01:00:18]Angelica, what we got?

[01:00:22]Okay, let me go find my two comments. We had two really good ones on here. Um, the first one here.

[01:00:33]Shout out to Biz. We're just going to call you Biz. Come coming out of the franchise about five years. Which route to choose? 1010 or automation program? I was doing the majority of the work. The budget given wasn't the best.

[01:00:55]I'm [snorts] thinking about it, right?

[01:00:56]Because >> can I answer this question?

[01:00:58]>> Go for it. I gota go for >> I'm not a coach. Okay. But I've I understand the way the programs work here. And I would say it depends on your learning style and how much time you have to dedicate to it. For me, I need somebody to hold my hand. I need someone to hold my hand and walk me through things. I can implement whatever I'm being coached on. I'm very coachable, but sitting down and going through a program on my own. I have a I have a hard time holding myself as accountable as I would if I had like a coach. So, for me, I prefer in-person coaching.

[01:01:33]And, you know, all my all my coaches are paid for, too. And so, that's what worked with me. Uh, both programs are really good, though. They have they each have their own lessons in it. But um if you do 1010, you're automatically going to learn about the automation program because they teach you that in there as well.

[01:01:54]>> You pretty much said what I was going to say. Yeah, [laughter] if you know that's your style where you need that more handh holding and more on your back approach, I would highly recommend 1010.

[01:02:04]And on top of that, typically franchise people and I'm guilty as charged. I had three before I finally learned that is on me. us franchise people, we typically chose that route because we got a little bit of laziness in us and we wanted that guarantee of a return. So if you know you that type of person, 1010 probably for you and then Sherman and I are automation. If you come through 1010 just you work with us anyway. So yeah, that's my thoughts on that. 1010en.com [laughter] tentprogram.com.

[01:02:34]All right, what else we got?

[01:02:36]>> I'm just going to give you your flowers real quick.

[01:02:39]>> Oh, thanks. says, "I was going to do this years ago and AJ, you persevered after all these years. God bless you for sharing your journey, brother."

[01:02:48]>> Thank you.

[01:02:49]>> Appreciate that.

[01:02:51]>> Okay. Hold on.

[01:02:54][laughter] >> All right. And this was another good question I seen. Miguel says, "For entrepreneurs in the early stage of business, would you consider sales to be the most critical skill to develop and master?"

[01:03:14]>> Yeah.

[01:03:17]>> Um I would say secondary um number one is communication.

[01:03:23]Communication drives right into sales.

[01:03:25]Communication drives right into being able to lead a team. like communication, you know, drives all of that. So, I would say uh evaluate your your level of communication because that's going to um translate directly into how well you sell um directly into how effectively you're able to build your team. Um so, I would say sales is a a um it's a product a byproduct of of developing strong communication skills.

[01:03:59]So, I would say anybody that's starting business like should work on their communication skills cuz no matter what kind of business you doing, you dealing with people.

[01:04:09]>> Yeah, I agree with that. I changed my mind. [laughter] Communication carried me a long ways before I knew what I was doing with cleaning, with leadership, with a lot of things, with sales. But since I knew how to communicate effectively, it carried me through a lot of those times. So, yeah, for sure.

[01:04:28]All right, I guess this is a good one.

[01:04:31]Aquaman says, "Okay, I got a question.

[01:04:34]What if you have two new contracts, but you don't have the cash roll cash flow for payroll or supplies? What would you guys do?"

[01:04:44]>> Find the money or get creative. Like, no. Oh, but that that goes back to what I was talking about in the beginning as far as like what I would do differently um if I were to start over was to be able to be like I I just wish I was in a position to go to the bank and say, "Hey, I need you know $100,000 line of credit like because um there were simply some accounts that we just couldn't take that we had one like that we just couldn't take cuz you know it's $50,000 a month you know but you know we not getting paid.

[01:05:17]until 60 days, 90 days later, like, and we just didn't have it in the bank to be able to effectively do that. Even if we subcontracted it out, we still were going to have to pay a subcontractor and just hope that they had it in the bank to be able to take care of payroll, equipment, and things like that. So, um, you know, um, for me, you know, in those situations, you either got to get really creative, and that's where those relationships come in, you know. Um, we had some that really stretched us out like we we started an account and it was like 35,000 a month. We didn't have that like you know so but we were able to have a solid enough relationship with our janitorial store that we were able to get you know our equipment you know we were able to get supplies and stuff like that to get into the account and um you know we were able to get creative when it came to labor. And so for for me that meant me not getting paid, you know, and it happens like that sometimes, you know, and I know people probably dog on putting big thumbs down right now because they always say, "Hey, in business, make sure you always get paid first." But I had a team of people that were out there executing the work and just the way that this situation was going. Like it was like, "Hey, I just couldn't I couldn't get paid right then.

[01:06:37]I got paid once we started getting paid, but right then I wasn't I wasn't able to. So, I had to get creative as far as my my personal finances and and things like that. So, um either you [clears throat] find the money or you you get creative. Um then use your network. There there may be somebody in your network that you can tell, hey, I got this going on right now, you know?

[01:07:01]Um can you can you help me out? Like cuz whether it's them putting you with their vendor where they able to get you the equipment and put it on their bill, done had that done before where somebody else done bought like technically brought the equipment for me on a net 30 and instead of having to pay for it right then you swing that jump back to them you know a little bit later like you know so you you in business man like um that's why I feel like you know I I don't consider myself a creative person but u I feel like entrepreneurs We're we're all creatives in in some sense because you know it takes creativity to be able to stay in business.

[01:07:44]>> Thousand%. Anybody else want to jump in there? I got a longwinded answer.

[01:07:48][laughter] All right, cool. I know you said something, Angelica. You want to say that one that you put in the uh Yeah, >> stay in my over here moderating.

[01:07:58][laughter] Um, so you can go on chat GPT and prompt it to look for grants, but be very specific about the type of grants. There are womenowned ones, there are minority own ones, there are all types of grants that you can get. Some of them are free to apply for, some of them cost to apply for. So, be very specific when you type that in. Uh, when you type it in in pro chat, it it should pull up a list for you. But there's people out here that really get them. They might not be much, but I mean, hey, I'll take $1,000. I don't know about you guys, but >> I I need that. Payroll is payroll.

[01:08:36]Period.

[01:08:38]>> Yeah. I love it. And you know what? I'm starting to see every time we approaching towards the end, all of a sudden the numbers go up. And I'm starting to think maybe we got to accept that they want us to stream like the streaming streamers. They want us to do like two hours and So, I don't know. I might see if we can work something out. But anyway, all right.

[01:08:55]long window.

[01:08:56]>> Hey AJ, they better start hitting that donation button.

[01:08:59]>> There you go. Hey, send that super and do something right now. [laughter] I'm just I'm just man.

[01:09:06]>> Look, I would drive it up now. But no.

[01:09:09]All right, great question by uh Christian by the way. So, bunch of answers. I'mma start here.

[01:09:16]First off, shout out to Tony because I completely forgot about um getting the supplies on net 32. That's I used to do that all the time. So, shout out to you for reminding me of that one.

[01:09:26]Uh, then something else you just said, I just want to get this out the way about because there is a rule they say always pay yourself first. What I learned was, and shout out to Dame Dash who taught me not in entrepreneurship. That's personal finance advice and business finance, you always get paid last. So, bosses always get paid. We pay our people first. We pay for supplies first. We pay for everything, vendors, all that. Then we get paid after the business. And then guess who get paid last? IRS. That's the one good thing about being entrepreneurship. So, you do pay yourself first, but that mean first before the IRS, but not before everything else. We get paid last. So, that's something else. All right. Bam.

[01:10:02]Let's go into this direct answer for the question that you asked. Two new contracts and you ain't really got the money to cover payroll yet or the supplies to clean those contracts. So, the first answer would be if your good credit is good enough, you can possibly go to a bank, tell them the situation, and they will loan to you against the invoices, the future invoices. So, that's one thing. Next thing, I always breeze past that one because that's usually not an option for most people.

[01:10:26]Second thing is sweat equity. So depending on the size of these contracts, you can go in there, you if it's small enough, just you and clean it for a month or two and don't spend that money. Put it up in the bank so you got the cash reserves. If it's bigger, you your girlfriend or your baby mama or whoever you're with, know what I mean?

[01:10:46]And then you and your partner and if you got kids old enough or somebody around you and your team, your homeboys, y'all go in there, steamroll that. Somebody that ain't going to cost you a whole lot. If it's somebody that live in the house with you where y'all share bills, y'all got shared goals, great. Now we can all go in there and knock this out and it's all going towards our household bills anyway. So that'll be second way you do what I said. Just clean it for a month or two.

[01:11:07]Don't spend the money. Put it up in the bank. Bam. That's cash. So you can have that money in the bank. All right. The third thing you could do uh is try to get paid up front. So, I don't know if you already closed the deal already, but see if you can put it in terms and just explain to them. Shout out to >> DJ the Boss.

[01:11:28]>> DJ the Boss.

[01:11:29]>> DJ the Boss. He was the first one that know I mean like it's a no net 30s, right? His whole campaign. Shout out DJ the Boss. And uh but he like he straight up just like listen we a growing company. we can afford to operate, you know, on that 30 terms. So, we we would need to get paid up front so that way I can have the payroll to staff my team and the customers will be understanding in that and in some cases. So, you try that approach and then at the very same time as you getting trying to speed up the payments to you also delay the payments out to your people. So, one thing that I used to do was I got paid on net 60 as a franchise owner. It said net 30, but it really fell in that 60.

[01:12:09]So, what I would do is I pay them when I get paid. you're a subcontractor, too.

[01:12:12]And that was one of the reasons, too, why I liked hiring subcontractors because we got more flexibility when the company negotiating and stuff. So, if they pay me in 30 days, you get paid in 30 days. So, that helps take care of the payroll portion of it. And then if you apply that in conjunction with what Tony was saying about also getting the supplies on net terms, well, now you got the supplies a day. You ain't got to pay them to the next 30 days. And then you also hopefully you can get paid up front from the contract. And then you got that. And if you can't get paid from the contract, then go in there and just see, you know, you had to sweat equity or clean it yourself for a little while till you get the money. And then one more thing, networking.

[01:12:50]Networking because you got people's out here. You got people who've been doing this longer and they doing it bigger that will loan to you. Shout out to Tony. I mean, he he in the industry, so I'm always shouting out Tony. He talked to these these bigger guys. But some people out here that will loan to you because they know what how it is. And so if they got a bigger company, they loan to you with a little small interest rate in return. You pay them back and then they'll cover that for you. So that's a bunch of options for you. Hopefully something able to work for you. I see Sherman about to uh hop in there. What you got?

[01:13:20]>> Oh no, I was muting my um my thing because the train was going by. But no, um everything you guys say absolutely correct. Um you can definitely you you can apply them either way. I've applied the sweat equ sweat equity where I would just get into the account and first if it was a net 60 I would say okay I'll do net 60 but I'm I'm going to bill you the first of the month so in essence it ends up being net 30 >> right because a lot of times we end up billing in the end of the month and then net 60 from that is ridiculous so I said okay fine here's here's the here's the fix action for me if I go net 60 then I'll bill you in the beginning of the month, which ends up only being net 30 for me. Then I work it. After I [clears throat] work it, in addition to working it, excuse me, I get subcontractors and I pay them monthly and it's in my subcontractor agreement.

[01:14:16]I like what AJ said. I don't know. I've never tried it. I don't know if there's a lot of people that would do it, but apparently there is. If you've done it >> and you say, "When I get paid, they get paid."

[01:14:27]>> That's good. I've never tried that one.

[01:14:29]Um but I tell them, hey, you get paid um the ne the following month on I think it was the 10th. Yeah, the 10th. By the 10th, my my people get paid for the month before, right? So by that time, I normally have that flow because it was a cash flow thing with me. I was doing weekly at one point, I was doing uh bi-weekly, and I'm [clears throat] doing payroll all the time, and I'm not trying to catch it catch up with it. I'm like, man, I can't do this. So, I just trade changed everything to um uh monthly. And then my W2s are bi-weekly. Um, so those are there are different ways you can do it. You just got to figure out what works best for you and your team. That's all I got.

[01:15:10]>> Love that. Love that. Definitely value added there. All right, I think it's time for us to be kicked off here because we keep going and going and going. Angelica, [laughter] you keep us you keeping us on track. She fussing out.

[01:15:22]>> Me doing the kicking. Um, all right.

[01:15:25]We're going to do one more and then we're going to go ahead and hop off. Um, from Hollis, do I have to pay for the 1010 program all upfront or can I do it monthly?

[01:15:38]>> So, it is actually automatically monthly terms and we prefer it that way so that way it can cover the ongoing expenses to run the program. So, it is a upfront fee and then after the upfront fee you pay monthly. So, if you need more information about it, just book an information call. with us 1010program.com and go book your 101. And then be mindful again, reminder everybody, next Friday, we not we're not doing any more plans with leads included in it. So if you want to get in with leads included, make sure you do it before next Friday.

[01:16:07]All right, that'll be June 5th.

[01:16:12]Okay, guys. So we're going to wrap up for today. Thank you to everybody who joined us. I like that we have we've got a nice number of people on here. Thanks for everybody tapping in and appreciate all the coaches as always for taking the time out of their day on a Friday to just sit with us and help us grow and learn together. Gentlemen, you want to close out? Tell everybody where we can find you, where we can connect outside of the 1010 program.

[01:16:39]>> I mean, you can just find me online, Tony Williams official. Uh, I'm here every Friday. I try to be um you know I'm I'm pretty accessible. So um just find me. I'll help you how I can.

[01:16:55]>> All right. You can reach me at Sherman Lewis official on YouTube or you can go to my website Sherman Lewisofficial.com and you can reach me there. But the best way to reach me is to get into CBN.

[01:17:07]Whether it be CBN membership, the 1010 program automation, get into CBN, you can have access. That's all I got. You guys have a great weekend.

[01:17:17]>> Thank you, brother.

[01:17:19]>> All right.

[01:17:20]>> I am AJ Simmons, founder of the Clean Biz Network. You can catch me at AJ Simmons online. Follow me on Instagram.

[01:17:26]Inbox me on Instagram if you got questions. I might get back to you, but I'm gonna get back to you as soon as I can. Uh yeah, join us in CBN. You can go to cleanbusnetwork.app app or if you want a one-on-one coach, you know, you need that accountability and you want to get to 10K per month and help one I help to get you that, then go to 1010program.com and sign up there.

[01:17:51]>> Thank you guys as always. Uh be sure to tap in with us next week 1 PM Eastern time. You guys have a good one. All >> right. Thank you.

[01:18:06]I was trying to see if he wanted if he was gonna [laughter] >> I'm testing you.

[01:18:12]>> You think you got it? Let's see.

[01:18:14]>> I don't think so. We still on.

[01:18:17]>> Put it on.

[01:18:19]>> Okay. [laughter] All right. Y'all think [music] now I got a wife, got kids on property.

[01:18:30]Bubble eye beans. It look like that be watching me. Okay, I lied [music] about the beans, but that was hard though. I'm still in that black act, but she's char.

[01:18:42]I'm on my grind, not [music] fashion.

[01:18:45]>> What's up y'all? I'm AJ Simmons, founder of the Clean Biz Network. And the reason why I started the 1010 program is because I get it. Starting a business can be scary. It can be risky and you don't know what to do. You know what I mean? So, with the 1010 program, I decided, you know what? Let's guarantee you success. Let's put you together with a one-on-one mentor. Let's give you unlimited leads, and let's guarantee you that you can get to at least 10 grand a month in contracts. So, whether you're already in business or whether you haven't even got started yet, the 1010 program can work for you and assure you that you will grow at least by $10,000 per month in recurring commercial cleaning contracts. So, if this sound like something that you want to do, click that button below and go ahead and book a call with me. And listen, this is not like a franchise opportunity. These will be your accounts that you actually own, not some franchise middlemaning you. This is actually a guarantee. These will be your actual contracts. This will be your actual business. Okay? So, click the button below and schedule your call and let's see if we're right fit for each other.