[homenclean]

I have been cleaning carpets for 16 years and have never known a week like it
it is now Thursday and only had 3 enquiries from add`s (luckily booked all 3).

Dont get me wrong i am not stuck for work due to the commercial  jobs and ringing regular customers. but on average i normall receive around 15 new enquiries per week, not including regular customers.

Are people apprehensive about spending money with the uncertain mortgage rates!

Stunned by the good weather!

Or do i just put it down to one of those weeks.


John

Based in Leeds

[fletch]

I think People are just enjoying the weather for now. spending more time on their Patios drinking beer instead of looking at their grubby carpets & sofas. Wait until the weather turns crap 
                                Regards,
                                   Fletch.

[Kev Loomes]

Well, in our Luton Thomson local there is usually about 2 or 3 pages of carpet cleaners and the one delivered a couple of weeks ago, now has just one page 

All the big boys (Chemdry, Rainbow, Servicemaster) are not in it. I havent seen the Rainbow guy for a while - think he might have moved? Have people packed it in? or have they just decided for what ever reason not to advertise at present...who knows.

[matt jones]

homenclean, may i ask you how you manage to bring in 15 inquiries a week. Things for me have been quite since i set up but its down to me trying to build my business up slow but steadily, but i am looking at ways to get more work in so your response would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks matt

[homenclean]

I have placed small adds in a lot of publications. Around us there are a lot of market towns and we have a publication that is royal mail delivered into these locations. The add`s are cheap around £25/ per add and i go into four publications per month, because the adds are cheap i can offer a discount to each customer giving me an edge over other advertisers.

I also place small adds into yellow pages and thomsons and vary my trading name to acheive a good position, for instance in yellow pages my business name is A Home `N` Clean. In my opinion position is everythig having a large add is less beneficial.

Once  you have the customer it is important that you maximise their potentioal by keeping in regular contact with the customer by mail shot or a quick friendly phone call explaining that it is 12 months since you did some work for them and would you they like anything done this year, explain every service you offer as they may not know you clean upholstery or curtains etc.

Encourage your customers to refer you to their friends and family leave a few business cards and ask them to pass them on.

leaflet drop into middle class areas with special offers and incentives, never quote prices, play on their curiosity. It`s tempting to do the large houses  but over the years i have found the best response from moderate households.

But remember as a relatively new starter it takes time to establish your customer base. I have spent a lot of money and time over the years on pointless adds in publications and booklets that just dont work.

For every carpet cleaner different things work it depends on the area, your confidence and quite often luck.

The one point i cant stress enough is dont spend your whole addvertising budget in one place, the big yellow pages add at several thousand pounds wont bring in the work their rep tells you it will. Lots of small precise adds placed on a regular basis has worked for me, untill this week, when it has been quite on the domestic front.

Although commercial is steady, booked a health club in for the week after next for £950.00 yesterday. I like my domestic jobs to flow though as this keeps the cash flow going.

I hope this has been of some help.

John.

[matt jones]

Thanks John that has been a great help.
matt

[Mike Halliday]

15 inquiries a week is the minimum we should all get, which on a 5 day week is 3 jobs a day, that's is if we book every enquiry.

I get about 25 enquires and book about 18-20 of them ( working a 7 day week)

as a guess 18 come from leaflets, the other 7 are Y/Ps & existing customers.

last week the leaflet distributor ran out of leaflets and forgot to ring me so I've seen a drop in call this week, next week he is doing double.

weather, holidays, global warming, interest rates..etc..etc..etc has nothing to do with the phone not ringing

mike

[Paul_Ashworth]

Hi Mike,
How many leaflets do you need to put out per week to get such a response from leaflets ?? My leaflets work ok but i never do anything fantastic with them, what response do you get per 1000 leaflets ??

Do you put any special offers on your leaflets ??

My leaflets are a bit out of date from when i started as i now have a T.M  and are due for updating but i had them printed on a 250 gsm paper which i do find people tend to keep as i've had calls from leaflets that had been put out months before. Do you find this works for you ??

[homenclean]

The figure i quoted is for new enquiries only not existing customers or commercial.

john

[Mike Halliday]

paul, 4000 a week EVERY WEEK!! for the past 8yrs to put this into context every home in my area has received 92 of my leaflets over the last 8yrs, I Would say 90% of my work is in a 3-4mile radius so even my existing customers get one of my leaflets every 4 weeks

my leaflet is the same as my YP ad, i posted it a few weeks ago

[matt jones]

crikey mike 4000 a week wish icould get that many out i would be loaded lol. So how do you go about getting so many out may i ask this is what i am trying to accomplish.
Regards
matt

[Mike Halliday]

find a reliable company!!! but this is like looking for rocking horse Poo,

or 4000 leaflets will take 24hrs to deliver @ 1000/6hrs, so minimum wage for 24hrs is £120 so take on an OAP (or2)  to work part time. and get them to deliver your leaflet, doing them solus will bring in a better return than I get.

do this for 1 month you will be snowed under with work, but it requires you to spend money!! which no one will do because everyone want the work, but they don't want to put their hand in there pockets

everyone moans about how slow it is and how they never known it sooo bad : : : blaming everything else for their own lack of success, its all sh*te.

Mike

I used to have a couple of illegal immigrants do it, but that's another story

[steve k]

agree with you there Mike...spending money on advertising is a bi stumbling blok for many small businesses because it is always a gamble...
...have I got a reiable, trustworthy leaflet distributor...?
...is my ad good enough...?
...am I pricing enough...?
...am I dropping leaflets in the right areas...?

the ONLY way to find out is to spend the money and gauge the results...but it represents a big outlay for what may be a small response...this puts many people off.

BUT...I believe a good leafet dropped consistently in your desired working areas isthe only way to keep the work coming in...
It takes bottle to spend...but we really need to if we want the work

[jimmy tarbuck]

4/5000 a week is about right for an owner operator, only if you have a list of previous customers as long as the m4, to suggest a newcomer like matt spend near on £800 per month for solus advertising, is nothing short of suicide for him, my opinion is he has come into the carpet cleaning game rather late, there are only so many customers out there, most of these already have cleaners they trust and will not choose matt just because his flyer lands on their doorstep, poor advice for a newby in  this current climate, there are far cheaper ways to grow your bussiness, safer ways to. Ten years ago i would of agreed with mike's comments, and maybe gone a step further, with a bite off more than you can chew and chew like hell attitude, but now, with so many trying to break into this game, i would be very cautious Matt, grow your bussiness slowly and surely within your budget and capabilities, not everyone gets such a great response from these flyers as mike, he is obviousely very fortunate in his particular area.

[steve k]

there is not much more a newbie can do...there is only so many customers and if, as you say, they already have a cleaner they trust, then how can a newbie get their custom?

I would not advise a yellow pages ad in the first year of trading.
Leaflets are the cheapest way to get the start of a database in place.

Where I live, I have never received a flyer for carpet cleaning in 16 years...

Go for the leaflets...get a good distributor and expect 1% response///each 1000 leaflets should give you about 10 enquiries...hopefully.
Turn these into jobs and you are building a database of customers.

NOT bad advise at all...

[matt jones]

Hi guys, Thanks for the replys. Jimmy may i ask where the £800 a month comes from? Jimmy may i also ask you what these other ways of growing my business would be? and why you are keeping all your info disclosed if your local to me why not get in touch can't see how i would be such a threat to your business sorry for all the questions lol
matt

[Mike Halliday]

1% : : yea in fairyland!! you should be lucky to get 3 per 1000, that's why you need to be putting out 4-5000. If i got 1% I'd get 40 customers a week

Jimmy why is it suicide to spend £800, is everyone that skint that £800 is there life savings.

but that's the problem, no one will spend that £800 they would prefer to moan about how quite it is,

 Mike

[matt jones]

Am i missing something here guys where is £800 coming from?
matt

[calmore]

£800 per month sounds too cheap if you are doing 4-5,000 solus leaflets per week.

[Mike Halliday]

Matt I think the £800/mth is coming from my 'employ an OAP for £125 a week' plus cost of 20,000  lealfets  although it works out about £650 a month.

Mike