Recession

« **on:** February 19, 2012, 10:55:45 am »

Hi Guys

I have spoken to a few CC's over the past few weeks who are really struggling.

How are you coping?

Cheers

Doug

« **Reply #1 on:** February 19, 2012, 11:52:55 am »

I Never had to mins to myself in January even working the first two weekends of the year so it was up on year. February been slower but always it is till march and the cold weather clears slightly in Scotland.

Volume of calls down this year so far.

Barry

« **Reply #2 on:** February 19, 2012, 11:59:18 am »

Hi Doug I had one £80 private job on friday and a £180 commercial on the saturday so the only upside is i did a quote for a large block of flats through a company i usually get the work from if i quote.It was half term though and as i had a kidney infection anyway i wasnt too concerned.Regards Alan

« **Reply #3 on:** February 19, 2012, 12:00:04 pm »

Same as barry with the busy jan as usually steady but found it busy than normal..

The phones did go quiet at the begining of feb but picked up a bit last week thankfully..

« **Reply #4 on:** February 19, 2012, 12:02:52 pm »

Its slow...But i guess some people are are still paying for Christmas!
Plus there will always be a firm in your area prepared to quote a cheaper price just to grab the work... i know because their name is mentioned every time a custy calls me!

« **Reply #5 on:** February 19, 2012, 12:12:01 pm »

Really quiet January, but on looking back over previous years its no worse than those.
Phone started ringing again as soon as we hit Feb so can only assume people were waiting to be paid again after xmas.
On a plus the jobs we are getting this year are higher ticket price ones and the year as a whole is way UP on last year.

« **Reply #6 on:** February 19, 2012, 12:18:02 pm »

Looking back over my records, February is always worse than January, no matter how hard I've tried to change the trend. Towards the end of last month I picked up a lot of EOT work, so it was my best January so far.

I have done direct mail (email) shot special offers this month and the general consensus is that now, they'd may as well wait until spring has well and truly arrived.... Which shouldn't be long...

« **Reply #7 on:** February 19, 2012, 03:50:51 pm »

January was better than normal but some of that was jobs i did not get round to before xmas . February has been up and down but just about ok .

But have quite a lot booked in for march so looking ok at the moment.

Volume of calls is down but average price per job is up so evens itself out.

hoping the weather will warm up and the sun comes out so i can play golf i mean work

« **Reply #8 on:** February 19, 2012, 04:21:01 pm »

no effect due to diversification AND turn over is up by 40% with 2 months till year end, been sort of not trying doing much in the way off site work for around 2 months building the new place interior from shack to something, we are talking walls knocked down and rooms built in some really big 10ft x 10ft been put in etc etc , its been a real eye opener to say the least and ive learnt so much from these early days of this place, working with eng desingers and welders etc etc. cant belive ive project managed the build from start to, well.......... soon as possible allowing for tweeks and stayed in budget

ready in hopefully a week

« **Reply #9 on:** February 19, 2012, 06:03:42 pm »

Quote from: Ricky M on February 19, 2012, 04:21:01 pm

no effect due to diversification AND turn over is up by 40% with 2 months till year end, been sort of not trying doing much in the way off site work for around 2 months building the new place interior from shack to something, we are talking walls knocked down and rooms built in some really big 10ft x 10ft been put in etc etc , its been a real eye opener to say the least and ive learnt so much from these early days of this place, working with eng desingers and welders etc etc. cant belive ive project managed the build from start to, well.......... soon as possible allowing for tweeks and stayed in budget
ready in hopefully a week

What are you building Ricky a rug plant or something?

« **Reply #10 on:** February 19, 2012, 07:02:16 pm »

January was very bad for us

& February is the same as January..Looks like its getting worse in our area..Leaflet drop most of January...Recession hitting hard & customers who do ring say can you do it any cheaper?...Our lounge is only £25

Richard & Tara

« **Reply #11 on:** February 19, 2012, 07:40:06 pm »

Hard to tell, Jan was good, Feb is always tough, although still working 2/3 jobs every day, it goes up to 3/4 jobs 6 days a week from June onwards (normally). BUT, how busy would we be without the recession??

« **Reply #12 on:** February 19, 2012, 07:52:50 pm »

Quote from: Carpet2Clean on February 19, 2012, 07:02:16 pm

January was very bad for us & February is the same as January..Looks like its getting worse in our area..Leaflet drop most of January...Recession hitting hard & customers who do ring say can you do it any cheaper?...Our lounge is only £25

Richard & Tara

Richard, this might sound like an arrogant reply - but look at changing your target market so that you are not dependent on the type of client you have just described.

« **Reply #13 on:** February 19, 2012, 08:04:20 pm »

This Jan almost £ for £ the same as 2011, mind you this one was saved by a Royal visit to one of our sites, otherwise we would have been down.
Feb seems to be going Ok but again that will be boosted by an unexpected call from a gas supplier who wanted 15 houses cleaned up after their contractors had walked through them following a gas explosion.
Leather cleans, repairs and recolourings have been popular the last couple of weeks too.
Put it this way. It could be worse but not as good as others are experiencing. Leaflets are producing the average return whilst a call on Friday was from a leaflet delivered about 3 weeks ago

« **Reply #14 on:** February 19, 2012, 08:08:22 pm »

I had a good January and like others have said feb has been slow to start but still working every day and worked this weekend.

like Niel I'm seeing an increase in leather and furniture repairs, which i pass onto my mate on a commission basis

« **Reply #15 on:** February 19, 2012, 09:23:33 pm »

Hi Steve..Thats ok

We have tried to do the up target but the phone didnt ring (Leaflet drop top end houses) with good looking leaflets.

Richard & Tara

« **Reply #16 on:** February 19, 2012, 09:44:48 pm »

Richard & Tara
When you say you leafleted these high end properties how "high" do you mean. Those at the top end rarely buy from leaflets. What you should be targetting is the mid market- nice middle class estates. The leafleting has got to be an ongoing campaign targetting the same properties over and over again.
I'm afraid the £25 market is over subscribed and the people who buy at that price tend to be price conscious and will flit from cheap cleaner to cheap cleaner.
I speak from experience as I made the same mistakes when I started and was gobsmacked when I trebled my prices and started to get work.
We are in a so called depressed area in the North East but there are cleaners here with 65-80-90 quid minmum charges with multiple vans on the road.
This work is there but you need to go out and get it and it doesn't happen overnight but takes a good few years.

« **Reply #17 on:** February 19, 2012, 09:56:24 pm »

Quote from: John Kelly on February 19, 2012, 09:44:48 pm

Richard & Tara
When you say you leafleted these high end properties how "high" do you mean. Those at the top end rarely buy from leaflets. What you should be targetting is the mid market- nice middle class estates. The leafleting has got to be an ongoing campaign targetting the same properties over and over again.
I'm afraid the £25 market is over subscribed and the people who buy at that price tend to be price conscious and will flit from cheap cleaner to cheap cleaner.
I speak from experience as I made the same mistakes when I started and was gobsmacked when I trebled my prices and started to get work.
We are in a so called depressed area in the North East but there are cleaners here with 65-80-90 quid minmum charges with multiple vans on the road.
This work is there but you need to go out and get it and it doesn't happen overnight but takes a good few years.

Good post John - we need a "like" button on this forum

« **Reply #18 on:** February 19, 2012, 09:59:11 pm »

Lettings/End of tenancy is still a growth area here , you have to knock on doors , not wait for them to approach you , this is a constant flow of people moving in and out of cream carpeted crappy flats .

« **Reply #19 on:** February 19, 2012, 10:00:48 pm »

Hi Guys

Interesting results showing the market is tough but CC's are a reslient bunch and are fighting hard.

It is important to keep prices up, going cheap usually leads to disaster as almost no job becomes worth much money and you are left scratching for scraps, far better to target better priced work where one or two good jobs a week can boost the bank balance.

In the early nineties I survived a very tough recession by calling on Nursing homes, offices etc.

Good luck

Doug

« **Reply #20 on:** February 19, 2012, 10:28:45 pm »

January better than last year but that was my second year so i would expect it to be a bit better, on the whole its been enough to get by but have noticed that i have been messed about by a few, one cancelled after i arrived at his house, waited outside for 30 minutes to then get a phonecall saying he had to cancel

A few others i have had to chase for payment, they are ex customers now.

« **Reply #21 on:** February 19, 2012, 11:36:13 pm »

Quote

Has the Recession bitten you?

"Oh for F**** Sake!"

« **Reply #22 on:** February 19, 2012, 11:44:13 pm »

Still a slightly upward trend in the last couple of years for me. Peoples' buying habits are changing though. I don't aim at the price shopping market but I'm finding customers keener than ever to get more value for their money. My special offers take advantage of this so I'm actually getting people to spend a bit more money than they might, even though I'm giving away extra carpet cleaning for free.

I would strongly advise anyone to get some promo own-label spotters and give one to every single customer you want to keep. After using them for just over a year now I'm finding they do help "superglue" customers to your business.

« **Reply #23 on:** February 20, 2012, 09:00:38 am »

A nice tip there jim with the own spotters and a free top up whenever you clean for them..

« **Reply #24 on:** February 20, 2012, 09:07:02 am »

Ditto Alan(swindon)

« **Reply #25 on:** February 20, 2012, 09:30:10 am »

are we in a recession??

everytime i go to the local retail parks are shopping centres or supermarkets the car parks are rammed....dont be fooled .. still a lot of lot of people out there prepared to part with their cash..

re the post - struggled after xmas till about jan week 2 then a few dribs n drabs therefafter..picked up another weekly contract to add to my existing one so already ive over doubled my guaranteed monthly income so happy with that (its not mega bucks but its there) the last week in jan first few weeks in feb ive been busy and last week was one of my best weeks since a started in the game (last april)...so that has giving me some confidence that its out there and id love to get to the point where every week was like last week then happy days...but i know ive a long long long way to go...

« **Reply #26 on:** February 20, 2012, 10:43:37 am »

January for us was very good, Feb has been reasonable with only a lull
for a couple of days when phone was quiet.
Starting to clean 14 holiday cottages today, followed by carpet cleans as req.

Have targeted a lot of comercials since last Nov, pushed the fact that replacement
is much more expensive than clean and restore.
Also have a couple of builders cleans and a wooden floor to clean.

Had about 5 staff 2 years ago, now have 14 and still require some bank staff
for busy periods come easter.

Cant complain really, however i still keep a keen eye on our costs.

Andrew

« **Reply #27 on:** February 20, 2012, 10:43:49 am »

I had a decent January,better than last year which was my 1st Jan in business.

February has been slow though,but still managing to work everyday with at least one job.

Ive been messed about with cancelations and time waster no end this month too.

Im lucky in that my wife has a decent job so I can survive in these slow times.I dont know how I would manage if I was the main bread winner.

« **Reply #28 on:** February 20, 2012, 06:18:12 pm »

Wayne we took in a lodger, and that took an enormous amount of pressure of starting the business.

« **Reply #29 on:** February 20, 2012, 06:35:49 pm »

Quite Jan for me but picking up in Feb. Never tried leaflets but now giving it serious thought to try and target better prices.

Peter
Beta Clean

« **Reply #30 on:** February 21, 2012, 04:26:09 pm »

We had a great January with the mailings done before Christmas to promote that. February has been harder work, we find the snow just kills the phone and it stuck around for some time here, which is very unusual.

I've always believed the domestic carpet cleaning market is a little recession proof, we just work for different people on the social scale. Those who might have had cleaned and can't afford so don't, but those who never had things cleaned and always just bought new are also feeling the pinch and having them cleaned instead of replacing.

Everyone wants a deal though!

Al.

« **Reply #31 on:** February 21, 2012, 05:36:15 pm »

Quote from: wynne jones on February 19, 2012, 06:03:42 pm

Quote from: Ricky M on February 19, 2012, 04:21:01 pm
no effect due to diversification AND turn over is up by 40% with 2 months till year end, been sort of not trying doing much in the way off site work for around 2 months building the new place interior from shack to something, we are talking walls knocked down and rooms built in some really big 10ft x 10ft been put in etc etc , its been a real eye opener to say the least and ive learnt so much from these early days of this place, working with eng desingers and welders etc etc. cant belive ive project managed the build from start to, well.......... soon as possible allowing for tweeks and stayed in budget
ready in hopefully a week

What are you building Ricky a rug plant or something?

@ 1st yes but now its evolved in to a whole more, welding station going in 3 weeks, craft area for my other little hush hush biz , a living area for when im on 24 hr call out duty big enough for 4 ( and its got all mod cons designer kitchen etc ) suround sound through out, and high end bespoke flooring done by a pro fitter with a flair for interior design and a training room with projectors etc etc.

its been blody hard work but ya nowt for nowt nower days pet

« **Reply #32 on:** February 28, 2012, 07:32:14 pm »

just done a check and am up on last Jan and feb

my website hits are up over the same time 60%+ so i could say am doing ok!

goolge analytics got its uses, you can compare year on year

« **Reply #33 on:** February 28, 2012, 08:15:54 pm »

Jan & Feb this year is up 75% compared to last year,
and 18 % up on 2010.
I would say this is due to the weather we had the last 2 winters.

Very mild for time of year and does put people in a better spending frame of mind.

We targeted businesses before xmas and it is definately paying off, plus a lot
are closed or quiet around here and getting cleaned up for the tourist season.

Last 3 weeks has been flat out, with staff working 10-12 hr days.

Andrew

« **Reply #34 on:** February 28, 2012, 08:37:17 pm »

Hi Andrew.
That`s a lot of staff!
Do you do general cleaning as well or are they all out cleaning carpets?

« **Reply #35 on:** February 28, 2012, 09:44:35 pm »

Clive, we are contract cleaners too,
the figures i was quoting at top of post are for carpet cleaning.

We have now 14 staff doing offices and other cleans,
I wish i had 14 carpet cleaning 10-12 hrs a day !!!!

Andrew

« **Reply #36 on:** February 29, 2012, 08:19:45 pm »

Carpet side little quieter than last year but window cleaning taken off big style, charging more for cleaning windows than some cc's charging for cleaning carpets even suites :

Conservatory cleaning also a good little earner most only want roof doing

« **Reply #37 on:** February 29, 2012, 08:44:47 pm »

There was a thing on the news this morning about how nail bars are booming in the 'recession'.

Small amounts that lift the spirits, but because they are regular add up to a lot over a year. People still have money to spend, our job is to prise it from them and be happier for it.

Poll

Has the Recession bitten you?