This year we decided to run a Thanksgiving recipe contest for November’s Facebook contest. We thought it was a fun way to celebrate the season, and we got some great entries. Thanks to everyone who entered! It was a hard choice, but here is our winner:

Pumpkin Pie Cake

• 1 large can pumpkin purée
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 3 eggs slightly beaten
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cloves)
• 1/4 tsp salt

Mix above ingredients together and place in an ungreased 9×13 pan. Top with a yellow cake mix and 1 to 1 1/2 cubes of butter cut into cake mix. Or if you’re in a hurry cover the pumpkin mixture with the dry mix and drop the pieces of butter over the top. Sprinkle with 1/2 to 1 cup of nuts (we use walnuts but pecans would be great). Bake at 350F. Cook for 45-50 minutes until pumpkin is set and topping is golden.

Only one month (give or take) until back-to-school! Here is an easy one-chore-a-day check list to get your home, family and life organized for a smooth transition from lazy summer to hectic fall.

One month out

• Check in with kids on summer reading. If they are behind, help them calculate — and stick to — a pages-per-day reading rate.
• Prune kids’ clothing. Pass along hand-me downs before people go out shopping and make notes on what your kids need, so you can avoid overspending.
• Organize your kids’ homework stations; take inventory of supplies. Do it before downloading teachers’ recommended supply lists. You may be surprised at how much you already have in stock.
• If your kids are watching TV or tell you they are bored, hand them a pile of scratch paper and set them to work sorting, testing, and sharpening pencils, markers, and pens.
• If feeling ambitious (and/or frugal), organize a clothing and sporting equipment swap with friends and neighbors; let kids ‘shop’ for things they like so your space does not become occupied with things that never get worn.
• Check to see if kids’ physicals and vaccinations are up to date.
• Schedule doctor, dentist, eye, and other appointments for the coming 6-12 months — being early gives you a better chance of getting after-school, before-, or after-work time slots.
• Go through your unmatched sock pile (you know you have one!). If the mates have not turned up over the summer, they are never going to, so toss them.
• Do basic computer maintenance — organize and archive old files, defrag your hard drive, virus check, and remove spyware to maximize speed.
A couple of weeks out
• Get haircuts. No kid wants that just-cut look; beat the rush and do 2-3 weeks before first day of school.
• Inspect backpacks and lunch boxes. Zippers unstuck and in working order? No moldy food still hanging about last year? You are good to go.
• Try on and inspect sneakers, cleats, helmets and other sporting equipment.
• Make a date with each kid individually to shop for essentials. By focusing on one child at a time, you will shop more effectively and be less likely to overspend.
• Look online for important dates and make a schedule of sports and other activity signups.
• Clean and vacuum your car.
• Get your kids practicing math facts over breakfast and brushing up on basic skills (two great sites: http://www.khanacademy.org/ and http://www.ixl.com/)
• Purchase (or clean out) storage bins — one per child — to serve as catch alls for periodic backpack, folder, and binder purges.

A few days out

• Make a wake-up and daily ablutions schedule for your family — especially if kids will be throwing last year’s morning schedule off by changing schools.
• Set and discuss expectations for kids’ household chores during the school year.
• Scrounge up a couple of weeks’ worth of change and small bills (or load your kids’ lunch accounts online).
• Stock up on snacks and lunch supplies.
• Cook and freeze a few favorite, healthy meals.
• Plan one last day at the beach or an amusement park outing — a last hurrah!
• Call MaidPro to schedule a thorough cleaning of your home, your refrigerator, and/or oven (to take place a few days after the kids are no longer around messing up your house all day!)

MaidPro, the leader in the art and science of residential cleaning, recently conducted a poll on Facebook that revealed 60% spend three or more hours cleaning on a weekend; 30% spend up to two hours; and 10% said “Not enough. I never feel caught up!” To help homeowners reclaim their summer and outsource the dirty work; MaidPro is sharing the top six questions to ask before hiring a home cleaning service to keep your home and family safe.

“Our recent poll indicates that consumers spend a good portion of their weekends cleaning their homes, and many are frustrated by it,” said Melissa Homer, MaidPro’s Chief Cleaning Officer. “Hiring a professional cleaning company is the best way to spend more time enjoying the summer sun! However, many don’t think about who they are letting into their home. It is critical to ask the right questions before hiring a cleaning service, to avoid unexpected perils such as an uninsured company, illegal immigrants, and broken valuables.”

Homer, a cleaning expert, encourages homeowners to do their research before hiring a cleaning professional. She says that they are many underlying factors to consider that will keep your home and you safe. Here are the top questions to ask, and the answers you should hear, from any good, professional home cleaning service.

What to ask: Are you bonded and insured?

What to listen for: Most companies are bonded, which simply means they will follow rules and standard practices for the safety of the client. But they need to be insured for employee accidents, crime, and liability, too. Make sure you ask for proof of insurance. If a company can’t quickly and easily send you proof of insurance via email or fax, there’s probably something fishy going on.

What to ask: Do you perform criminal background checks on all of your employees?

What to listen for: These people will be coming into your home, using your keys, and storing your credit card. Ask them for the name of the company they use to background check their employees. If they can’t name their background checking vendor off the top of their head, they probably aren’t really running checks. You should also ask them about their hiring process to ensure that background checks are run on every single employee, not just once in a while.

What to ask: What happens if something breaks?

What to listen for: This should be covered by insurance in most cases, which is why it’s important to have proof that the company is insured. Ask them to specify what is covered by insurance if something breaks in your home, and make sure they have a simple, systematic claims process in place for these instances.

What to ask: How do you keep my key safe?
What to listen for: Keys should not be tied to any specific address when they are kept by a cleaning service. They should tell you that all keys are coded, locked in a safe, and only the house cleaner cleaning your home will have access to your key.

What to ask: How do you keep my credit card information safe?

What to listen for: Companies that keep a client’s credit card on file have to be just as safe as Visa or MasterCard with customer information. Make sure the company stores your card number in a secure software program that uses data encryption and only displays the last four numbers of your card to employees.

What to ask: Do you have a service guarantee if I’m not happy with the job you did?

What to listen for: Every home cleaning service should offer this. You don’t want to be up a creek with a messy tub! Make sure they will come back and re-clean anything that was missed, free of charge.

About MaidPro
MaidPro is the fastest growing residential cleaning franchise in North America with more than 100 offices servicing 28 states and the District of Columbia. A Boston-based franchisor, MaidPro elevates household cleaning to a new level of customized and scientific care through its 49-Point Checklist TM and its exceptional customer service. All MaidPro franchisees are graduates of MaidPro University where they have been trained on MaidPro’s 49-Point Checklist and tested methodologies. The company, franchising since 1997, takes pride in its strong owner community and cutting-edge technology. MaidPro has been honored with the Franchise Business Review’s Four-Star Rating and Franchise 50 awards in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011 for owner satisfaction. The company is a proud member of the International Franchise Association and the New England Franchise Association. MaidPro can be found online at http://www.maidpro.com.

MaidPro has adopted hosted infrastructure and applications across its 120 SMB franchises to speed up training, minimize internal IT needs, enable owners to manage remotely, and to keep fuel costs in check. The firm’s CEO explains why they did it and what to look for in a good vendor. Read the rest of the article here.

Franchise Hound

By Kristi Del Grande

July 11, 2011

As many businesses and franchises struggled through the recession Boston-based residential cleaning service franchise MaidPro has come out ahead. Thanks to newly instituted efficiency programs, the company has seen significant improvements in several aspects of their business from a decrease in miles driven to an increase in productivity.

The Franchise Hound speaks with MaidPro Founder and CEO Mark Kushinsky about his company and how some little changes can make a huge impact.

Franchise Hound: Why start a cleaning company? It seems like there are so many of them available today.

Mark Kushinsky: I had been managing a retail store but wanted to have my own business. I was always looking at new opportunities. After hiring a residential cleaning company that did a terrible job at my house I started jotting notes down on the back of a napkin. It really seemed like the right business to get into.

I opened MaidPro with the intent of not having it in a few years, so I really wasn’t thinking about franchising. At a networking event I met a few franchisees of other residential cleaning companies. We were discussing some of the training videos and software that MaidPro had developed and I realized that we had far better systems than some of these national franchisors were giving to their franchisees. I figured that we could franchise and probably do it better. We started franchising in 1997.

FH: What challenges did you encounter when you initially opened MaidPro?

MK: I already had experience managing people so that wasn’t as difficult as it could have otherwise been. And getting the customers wasn’t an issue because there seemed to be a big need for cleaning services where we were located. My challenge was juggling all the details of running a growing business and clientele. When you’re dealing with 200-300 recurring clients all with different needs and schedules it becomes nearly impossible to organize without some type of software. So, we developed software to handle our needs.

FH: I understand that you have instituted some new cost-saving as well as environmentally-friendly ideas into the business.

MK: We have. And it’s amazing how a few small changes can have such a large trickle-down effect on the rest of our business. Initially we wanted to address rising gas prices. We knew that just by purchasing more efficient cars we wouldn’t be impacting things that dramatically, so we focused on reducing the number of miles driven.

We developed a software application (called GreenRouting) that would scan new clients to find the closest neighbor. If someone in your development was getting their home cleaned on a Thursday then we would offer you a Thursday cleaning as well. Customers seemed very receptive to it and we dramatically decreased the distance from cleaning to cleaning. On the day of cleaning we were also able to route cleanings to shorten drive times.

We strive to keep the teams in certain zones by marketing to neighborhoods one at a time. That would keep our new client calls closer together and would keep our territory structured. Where our offices are located within a territory also plays a big role in distance driven. With all of our changes we were able to reduce the number of miles driven by 50%.

From making all of the efficiency improvements a lot of other things happened that we weren’t expecting. Our employees could do an extra job a day from shrinking drive time. So we were able to pay them more. It has reduced employee turnover by 20%. Our staff is less frustrated with less windshield time (time behind the wheel). And our job satisfaction started improving. On the business end of things we’ve been able to increase the number of cleanings we can do. It resulted in a big “A-ha” moment for us: The more efficient and environmentally-friendly that you could make the business the more ways it will help other elements of your business in the long-run.

FH: What are your long-term goals for MaidPro?

MK: We want to help clean as many people’s home s in North America as we can and do it through our franchising network.

FH: Who is the ideal MaidPro franchisee?

MK: Very few of our franchisees have run a cleaning service in the past. In fact, less than 10% have had prior cleaning experience. We have a lot of professionals who have come to us to open a business. We’ve taken care of most of the organizational aspects with our software and technologies, so I would say the most important characteristic needed in a MaidPro franchisee is someone that manages others well – someone that can manage employees and has a genuine concern about helping others.

FH: There are a lot of cleaning services in existence. What puts MaidPro ahead of the competition?

MK: Our technical prowess; it has allowed us to attract the most entrepreneurial franchisees. We try to be very franchisee-friendly and allow them to keep their entrepreneurial spirit. We don’t restrict as much as others franchises might. And because we’re so franchisee-friendly, we tend to get a more entrepreneurial franchisee that enjoys the business more which, in turn, helps us to be more successful.

And, I like to say that the proof is in the pudding. MaidPro is the only large residential cleaning service franchisor to grow through all the years of the recession. All of our financials are audited and made public – so when you look at 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 you can see that we’re the only residential cleaning service to grow in all four years.

FH: What are the average start-up costs for a MaidPro franchise?

MK: A Select market costs between $18,700 and $38,200 including the franchise fee. An Enterprise market costs between $71,600 and $103,900. The difference is the size of the market and the aggressiveness in which you’re planning to tackle the territory.

FH: What advice would you give to someone looking to open a franchise?

MK: Know from the start whether or not you would make a good franchisee. Are you going to follow the systems of the franchise? If you’re going to do your due diligence and put all of the work into opening a franchise then you should be ready to follow the system into which you buy. Many people buy into a franchise to create their own business. They don’t take the time to sit back and really consider if they would fit into the system in the first place.

You can read the original post at Franchise Hound

There is something going on that will increasingly complicate the lives of the analysts, investors, regulators, and lawyers whose lives depend on a tidy classification of companies by industry.

As the research in my upcoming book indicates, the most competitive companies today do not try to fit themselves into standard industry lines. They know exactly who they are and what they are good at, but these things are no longer dictated by standard industry codes set by the Interpretations Committee (SIC).

Is Google an advertising, software, online-service, payments, or mobile phone business? Is Apple a computer, software, design, or digital entertainment company?

Last week in Boston, I visited a company that precisely illustrates this trend. MaidPro runs one of the U.S.’s largest maid service franchises. Its more than 100 franchisees run independent businesses composed of teams of maids who travel to clean clients’ homes. They currently conduct more than a half-million cleanings per year and generate nearly $50M in revenue.

Read the rest here: http://www.fastcompany.com/1765375/the-technologist-in-maids-clothing

The importance of reducing your utility usage goes beyond keeping more greenbacks in your wallet. We all share the common goal and responsibility of preserving our environment. The below tips can help you conserve energy this summer, while putting some extra cash in your pocket:

• · Purchasing a new A/C? Check www.energystar.gov. Your unit may be eligible for a tax credit.
• · Make sure your house is leak-free. To test your home for areas where air conditioning might escape, search for a local auditor on the Energy Star Online Directory. Looking for a DIY fix? Feel around baseboards, windows, doors, light switches and electrical sockets for air leaks. Walk around your house with incense to see if smoke blows in when you pass windows.
• · Clean your air conditioner filters once a month
• · Have A/C checked once a year for minor fixes to avoid unit replacement
• · Use a programmable thermostat to automatically allow temperatures to rise when no one is home during the day (can yield an annual savings of up to 30%!)
• · Cook with an outdoor grill or toaster oven rather than the traditional oven or stovetop putting less strain on your A/C unit.
• · Close blinds on the sunnier side of your home to keep your home cool or plant trees and shrubs on this side for additional shade.
• · Replace bulbs with fluorescents to reduce heat generation and electricity usage
• · Purchasing a new TV? Look for an Energy Star rating (uses 1/3 less energy than regular TV sets)
• · Replace ‘energy vampire’ power strips with a ‘Smart Strip’. These strips will cut power from devices when not in use.
• · Turn off your PC, nightly.
• · Dry your clothes in the sun instead of the dryer (less shrinkage too!)
• · Place a soda bottle filled with sand or water into the back of your toilet in order to use less water with every flush.
• · Shut off water while brushing your teeth or shaving.
• · Install a water conserving showerhead.

Could you use an extra $100?

Have you had an exciting, touching or funny experience with MaidPro that you’d like to share with us?

If the answer to both of these questions is YES, please read the instructions below and tell us your story!  If your storyline is included in our book of inspiration, we’ll send you a check for $100 in the mail!

Instructions:

1.  When writing your story, please write in the first person and be sure to introduce the character(s).

2.  Tell your story in a way that will make the reader cry, laugh or get goosebumps (good ones!)  Don’t leave anything out — how did you feel?

3.  The story should start with action; it should include a problem, issue, situation and any dialogue.  The person’s feelings should be told through the conflict or situation.  It should end in some result, such as a learned lesson, positive change or pay-off.

4.  Stories should be non-fiction and range in length from 300-1200 words.

5.  Please submit only stories that have not been previously published.

6.  Understand that stories will be edited and formatted before publishing.

7.  Send your story, full name, email address, mailing address, phone number and signed release form (click here for form) to marketing@maidpro.com.  Incomplete submissions will not be considered for publication.

With all of the new and cool gadgets available this year, how can you decide who will enjoy what?  See our recommendations below for everyone on your list.

For the …

• Verocious reader. E-books.  You may be thinking - why would I buy someone an e-book when I could buy an iPad or a gadget that has more utility and color?  E-readers(non-color) utilize E-Ink technology that simulates the experience of reading a printed piece of paper, while rival color display screens are back-lit (i.e. computers and the iPad) and strain the eyes.  These readers also allow for the on-demand purchasing of books and their compact size provide ease for storage and travel.
• Always-connected commuter and/or traveler. For those wanting to do more than check or send emails in-transit, an iPad or similar mobile internet device provides the versatility and screen size for easier internet browsing, video play-back and heavier computing than the smartphone.  Although laptops provide similar versatility, the battery life and cumbersome form factor does not bode well for the frequent traveler.
• Music lover. Let’s face it, this person already has their music play-back device of choice, feverishly downloads their favorite tunes from the internet and sets their alarms/calendars to purchase the concert tickets of his or her favorite bands as soon as they can.  What this person may NOT have is a state-of-the-art set of headphones.  ‘Beats by Dr. Dre’ seem to be the hot item for music lovers this holiday season, although there are many great options available.
• Grandma and Grandpa. Notorious for enjoying and sharing photos of their grandkids, a connected digital photo frame may be just the gift!  Although the elderly are quite capable of using new technology, often times they may find themselves fearful and frustrated by it.  Many photo frames connected to a wi-fi network come with their own email address, allowing you to send photos remotely without the hassle of memory cards or USB cords.

When you search for the right home cleaning service, it’s easy to get caught up in service details: What’s the best frequency? What rooms will and won’t be cleaned? Which parts of rooms will be cleaned? Who will be in my home? Will it always be the same person? When will it happen? What’s the price?

But, when you consider that,

• Your home is probably the single largest investment you will ever make,
• Between one and three quarters of your personal net worth is likely tied up in home equity and the possessions in your home, and
• Your home shelters your only truly invaluable assets (yourself, your family, pets),

It’s important to see yourself-not as a consumer shopping for a service-but, rather, as the CEO of a small business, searching for the right supplier or service provider.

When businesses evaluate potential suppliers or service providers, they look at the big picture: knowledge, experience, cultural traits, quality performance and reputation for innovation.  They consider the short- and long-term risks of entering into a business relationship. They ask themselves questions like:

• Is this service provider reliable?
• Is there a process to address performance issues?
• What is our exit strategy if we’re not satisfied?

Businesses also consider total costs-not just prices or hourly rates-associated with working with a service provider. Are there hidden costs? Are there things we value that might make it worth paying a premium? What are the liability and tax implications of entering into this business relationship? And how much could a bad decision end up costing us?

What follows is a handy reference guide for evaluating potential home-cleaning service providers from the same perspective a savvy business executive would use:

The bottom line: Contrary to popular belief, home cleaning services are not commodities. Executing  a thorough and well planned evaluation process will guarantee that you get the best clean, the highest level of personal satisfaction, the least amount of financial risk, the lowest total cost and the highest possible return on your investment.

As the CEO in charge of managing your family’s greatest assets, that has to feel good!