[john martin]

I might as well wade in-  Please don't think I am being nasty.

Your web site is too 'busy'. It has far too much on the first page.
You need to be able to read the first page of each section in 10 seconds, otherwise people will not be bothered. Further pages can have more detail.

Get someone who can spell and punctuate to proof read your site- there are commas and full stops missing, apostrophes where should not be and capital letters missing.

Different pages must follow a theme- some of them are so different in appearance they look as if they are from another site.

Don't be disheartened- there are customers out there who will pay good prices. You just have to have the confidence and a bit of cheek to ask for the right money.
I have always had this problem. When I started £25 for a 3 pce was good money!

I have made the home page a bit more user friendly and to the point do you think it's better ?

I would redesign/simplify  your 'business card ' type banner to stretch the whole way across  ...  add a large pic of a high end home interior and perhaps a couple of cliche ' child or dog on carpet ' type pics ...  and add some customer testimonials ...
Perhaps a close up pic of yourself and an brief introduction ...
I would leave the before and after pics and method details to another page ...

[Mike Halliday]

Forget fannying about with your website, that the point i was making, you want to sit on your ar£se in front of your computer, that won't solve your problems

Get on your feet on the M55 slip road with a big cardboard sign saying....

'will clean for food'

Either that or put out some leaflets

[Max Campbell]

Get someone who can spell and punctuate to proof read your site- there are commas and full stops missing, apostrophes where should not be and capital letters missing.

+1 - if I was a customer, I wouldn't read past the first page.

Yes, put prices up, not down.

Yes, get some (well written / spelled) leaflets out - without cheapo offers.

[garry22]

Yes, it's important that leaflets go out but are you running a cleaning business or you a leafletter?

Firstly you need a leaflet that has been tested and works.

If you deliver them yourself, you are doing the lowest paid job in your business.

That's fine if you have no money but sooner or later you will be working and then the leaflets will stop going out and you will be back to square one with no work.

Why not pay an active pensioner to deliver them to the RIGHT sort of households? That way you will ensure that they will be going out.

[Tony Rowley]

Phil

I think part of you is looking for some solidarity on here with your plight, after the best January in 4 years I have had the worst Feb and March (due to the weather), clocks changed and weather is getting better and  a stream of enquiries start to appear (for me anyway).

If you have been going for five years and have managed to get by so far it would be a shame to jack it in now, besides I hear that despite the government telling us there are lots of jobs in the private sector, trying to find one that pays a decent living wage or does not have another 500 applicants along with you are few and far between.

For a bit of quick marketing have you tried bulk  text messages, I use text tank (but there are loads on the web) much cheaper than royal mail and your pretty much assured that the customer has read your text as they cannot resist opening the message, Text every customer from last year with a special offer: Spring special offer, any 2 rooms £79, any 3 rooms £99, book before May 31st. I cant guarantee you will get any return but its another avenue.

Hope this helps

Tony

[Paul Moss]

Things are tight, jack it in  and can all the cleaners by me do the same please

[Mike Halliday]

Yes, it's important that leaflets go out but are you running a cleaning business or you a leafletter?

Firstly you need a leaflet that has been tested and works.

If you deliver them yourself, you are doing the lowest paid job in your business.

That's fine if you have no money but sooner or later you will be working and then the leaflets will stop going out and you will be back to square one with no work.

Why not pay an active pensioner to deliver them to the RIGHT sort of households? That way you will ensure that they will be going out.

We have a different piont of view, ....

I don't do the 'lowest paid job' I do 'the most important job' I did 2.5 hours today my leafleter(Dale)  did 3 hrs, my son did £380 of cleaning

The last 3 weeks we have been fully booked with work,  I still  do 90 mins a day so does my son with the 3 hours Dale did that's 6hrs a day. Being busy with work does not stop leafleting as leafleting is part of the work.

[John Kelly]

Think you are finding that people who buy on price have no loyalty and will just move on to the next cheapest. Running a business on cheap prices whether a cleaner or supplier is folly and you will forever be chasing customers or go tits up.
People who are willing to pay decent rates AND get a really good job in return will usually become regular customers and will tend to refer more.
 I fell into this trap myself when I started 20 years ago. I didn't know what people charged and just went off what people were advertising in the local paper. I advertised 12 quid a carpet and got no work so thought I was too expensive and reduced it too 8 and still got no work. Then I met Paul Dyson who used to be the local Chemspec distributor and he called me an a rse hole. I saw the error of my ways and put my price up to £35 and the phone never stopped from there on. I gradually increased them year on year untill I was earning a very good living no more than 5 miles from my door usually.
Its hard to get over that mental block on pricing but believe me its the only way to progress and survive. You don't have to be expensive but you have to be sensible. Working at the rates you are will not even provide enough to renew your gear when the time comes never mind give you an income.
By the way putting out leaflets yourself isn't a waste of time as long as you choose the right areas to do it. Calling into commercials such as dentists, doctors and esttate agents etc whilst your at it can bring in much needed extra work.

[Simon Gerrard]

Phil,
I re-wrote your homepage for you, why have you changed it - again?
Btw your upholstery tool is in the post.

[garry22]

I did not say pushing leaflets through doors was not important because it clearly is. I said the job of pushing them through the doors was (almost certainly) the lowest paid in the organisation.

Wonder how many Virgin leaflets get personally delivered by Richard Branson? 

[Paul Moss]

Ive seen him delivering up by us 

[Simon Gerrard]

Phil,
Your core problem with marketing is that the things you think are important selling points are not as important to a customer. Your homepage should create interest, not boredom. Clearly you think that telling people exactly how you clean a carpet is interesting to the customer and will persuade them to ring you, trust me it is not.
'Our unique multi stage cleaning process' implies a depth of clean that may well be unique to you and covers all of your steps in a few words and if a prospective customer wants to know the details of it, guess what, they have to ring you.

The words, professional -quality -guaranteed - experience - value for money - fully insured; are all reassuring words that helps get the customer at least to the point of being interested enough to give you call.

If you're making the same basic mistake with all your other marketing material it is little wonder the phone ain't ringing.
Your belief that you can't get a certain price in an area is also mistake, perhaps driven by your mistaken belief that you aren't worth anymore than you currently charge. Or, you mistakenly believe that the phone isn't ringing because your prices are too high, but perhaps it is because they are too low.

You can come over one day and we'll take you out on a few jobs and then spend some time with you to try and set you on the right path.

Simon

[Mike Halliday]

Garry I read an article about Richard Branson tasting the meals served on his planes, was that a waste of his time?  he could have been doing more profitable business elsewhere. food tasters can't be that expensive, so why did he do it personally?

You need a more holistic approach to business rather than look at the individual parts think of it as a synergy of ingredient all coming together to create a final outcome......each ingredient no less important than the next.

[Paul Moss]

Mike your looking at it wrong, its the PR, the top man took time out to taste and ensure the food on his planes is of the qualty required... P R  

[Mike Halliday]

Don't be so cynical..... He did it because he cares about his passengers

[Shaun_Ashmore]

What beer do you drink?

Is it Carling, Stella or Asda's own?

The best selling one is Carling but Asda's is cheaper and I bet Stella is 2nd.

Shaun

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Perhaps he was hungry.

Shaun

[Carpet Dawg]

Well he didn't do a good job!! Their food is pants.

You cant beat british airways long haul, first or business class. Or Emirates. I was lucky enough to fly back from New York last year business class, and was able to use the first class lounges at both JK airport and terminal 5 and OMG!! its deffo the way to travel!  

[jim mca]

Phil

Why don't you give Simon a ring and take up his offer and how many hours per week do you work in your business if you want to earn £s then you need to put in the hours and the effort and Richard Branson would deliver leaflets if he had little money and wanted business

[Craigp]

My advice is to print off John Kellys advice.

Look when you charge cheap prices what does that say about you? what message are you giving? What does it say about you?

I would say the subconscious message is, I value my service so low i'm willing to give it away.

NOTHING OF VALUE IS CHEAP.