Posted by u/spread_too_thin
Why is my crew always driving and never cleaning?
Answered by Ask a Shop Owner ·
Two crews, 6 houses a day each, but we drive 90 minutes between jobs. What am I missing?
u/askashopowner Owner-business owner advisor
Top answer
Route density. This is the single biggest lever in residential cleaning economics. A crew doing 6 houses in a 3-mile radius makes 2x the profit of a crew doing 6 houses across 20 miles.
Fix by geography: assign each crew to a zip code cluster and only sell in that cluster (or reprice out-of-zone jobs 25% to 40% higher). Turn away work outside the zone politely. It feels wrong. It fixes profitability inside a quarter.
New client acquisition should be geographic, not general. Door hangers in the neighborhoods where you already have 5+ clients, not general online ads.
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