[wynne jones]

David

The problem with most CC is not your closing ratio it's the number of leads you get from your various marketing avenues. Put yourself in front of a custy and I think on average anyone can get 70% hit rate.

95%? - you are too cheap.

[david@zap-clean]

David

The problem with most CC is not your closing ratio it's the number of leads you get from your various marketing avenues. Put yourself in front of a custy and I think on average anyone can get 70% hit rate.

95%? - you are too cheap.

Yep, marketing - I'm working on it...

Too cheap? I'm not sure what everyone else charges, but I did a fair bit of research and made my decisions on price, but I'm continually re-evaluating that, and I've changed it several times in recent weeks (upwards).

Nobody wants to give away their pricing structure - perhaps it would be better to ask what peoples expected annual turnover is?

As a complete numpty, with only a little knowledge, but some idea of what I want to get out of this business as a sole-trader, I originally worked out I'd need to be earning about £58 per hour, based on working (earning!) 35 hours per week, to run a man-and-a-van, and turn a tidy profit.  I'm not there yet, but it looks reasonable to me.

[JandS]

IMHO £58 per hour would be difficult to achieve
in this economic climate.
Especially for someone new.
Head down now as the bullets fly.

John

[SteveAllan]

My feeling David is you would do well to join TACCA if you haven't done already or go to one of Mossey's trainings. NCCA is a little too 'by the book'.

I've tried joining the TACCA, several times, and never had a response.  Though someone else said there is a requirement to have been trading for 2 years anyway. 

I will join the IICRC sometime next year, but they have a requirement to have done their basic technicians course.  I've done two of them already this year, so am reluctant to repeat it so soon.

I've tried to join too, no response either, what a joke. Very poor really, they're just playing at it.

[derek west]

sorry you feel that way steve, ive seen your app and all looks good, along with richard who complained, and david, again all looks good, unfortunately, i didn't realise just how popular its got, 200 vetted and 580 registered, there's a big back log and through the summer ive let my own business slip. so i've taken the decision to take my time with TACCA and concentrate on  my bread and butter, building my business back up to where it was. TACCA is still ticking over nicely and will be slowly adding new members especially in the new year where i will have time to get stuck in again. TACCA is also still doing well on google and Alloy are still tinkering with SEO and also have some great idea's that will also be implemented in the new year. hopefully 2013 will be a good year for TACCA and all its members. please remember that TACCA is free to join at present and is generating a little work for some of its members, hope this changes your mind about how poor TACCA is, if not then all i can do is apologise and hope you can hang on till i can get time to sort out this back log.

[Paul W Jones]

I always prefer being on site with a customer as I find it easier to close the deal.  You can judge the body language and, if necessary, adjust the quote accordingly. 

[AshWhite]

I've stated in the past that I've had more than one job frm my TACCA listing, so it's been worthwhile - and it's too easy to forget how much time, work, and money Derek has ploughed into TACCA, but you can't expect him to let his own business and income suffer in the meantime - unfortunately bank managers don't take TACCAs membership as mortgage payment!

I'm sure that if any of the ones doing the complaining feel like they can do a better job setting up a TACCA competitor then Derek wont complain!

[SteveAllan]

sorry you feel that way steve, ive seen your app and all looks good, along with richard who complained, and david, again all looks good, unfortunately, i didn't realise just how popular its got, 200 vetted and 580 registered, there's a big back log and through the summer ive let my own business slip. so i've taken the decision to take my time with TACCA and concentrate on  my bread and butter, building my business back up to where it was. TACCA is still ticking over nicely and will be slowly adding new members especially in the new year where i will have time to get stuck in again. TACCA is also still doing well on google and Alloy are still tinkering with SEO and also have some great idea's that will also be implemented in the new year. hopefully 2013 will be a good year for TACCA and all its members. please remember that TACCA is free to join at present and is generating a little work for some of its members, hope this changes your mind about how poor TACCA is, if not then all i can do is apologise and hope you can hang on till i can get time to sort out this back log.

Cheers Derek, thanks for that. That's fair enough mate, whenever you get the time, I thought my app had maybe gone astray.

[wynne jones]

Think the guys are only saying they got no response, which would annoy most people if true.

[john martin]

 I think the S-bend twin jet 12 is a combersome beast for tight areas ...
 Think u would be better with a straight 10  ...  or even the little lightweight 9" for certain areas

http://www.carpet-cleaning-equipment.co.uk/single-jet-wand-10-inch-25-cm-wide-cleaning-head-including-grab-handle-p-286.html

[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

It is too simple to say a 95% conversion rate means you are too cheap, there are lots of reasons behind it.My phone rate conversion always hovers around 85/95%, and i am certainly not one of the cheapest around in my area, but i must admit it has been a lot harder over the last couple of months, more like 75/80%.

[wynne jones]

It is too simple to say a 95% conversion rate means you are too cheap, there are lots of reasons behind it.My phone rate conversion always hovers around 85/95%, and i am certainly not one of the cheapest around in my area, but i must admit it has been a lot harder over the last couple of months, more like 75/80%.

You may not be one of the cheapest but if you are getting anywhere near 95% and on the phone too, then that says to me you are selling yourself short. If you kept putting your prices up till you hit 80% you would make a lot more money in the long run.

Of course as you improve your closing skills further the ratio would go up, and you can do the same again.

Also ratios are highly influenced by the source and quality of the leads, not just your sales skills.

As said before though. The hard thing is how many calls you get. When you have more calls than you can deal with you can give a price and do no selling at all and strangley you still get a high percentage conversions.

It's when you get 1 or 2 calls a day you've got problems even with the best patter in the world.

[mark_roberts]

Yes been on Pauls course and its was a good course with plenty of theory over practice but thats what you need as a start up to understand the fundamentals.  Prochem is much better for practical but they sell their way of doing it.

£58 an hour x 35 hours a week is £2030.  Not impossible to hit but your a few years from doing it week in week out but you seem to understand the need to not aim for £20 an hour which is good.

Just imagine at those prices, once you get better and faster that job will have been £116 per hour

Mark

[Mike Halliday]

[As a complete numpty, with only a little knowledge, but some idea of what I want to get out of this business as a sole-trader, I originally worked out I'd need to be earning about £58 per hour, based on working (earning!) 35 hours per week, to run a man-and-a-van, and turn a tidy profit.  I'm not there yet, but it looks reasonable to me.
[/quote]

Are you saying that you need to earn £1800 a week?  You must have some massive overheads and living expenses

If I was starting up I would be happy earning half that to begin

[david@zap-clean]

Are you saying that you need to earn £1800 a week?  You must have some massive overheads and living expenses
If I was starting up I would be happy earning half that to begin

Not at all... That's my figure for employing someone to do the work for me and still make money at this game.
The cost per hour includes all overheads: van, equipment, salary etc... and me getting something out of it.

It's not easy to achieve, but that's the reality, as I see it, in expanding beyond an owner-operator business model.

[Susan Dean (1stclean)]

hang on you come on here moaning about how long this and that

then on it to a rant about how well your doing bah bah bah   why ask for help in the first place ? 

[wynne jones]

hang on you come on here moaning about how long this and that

then on it to a rant about how well your doing bah bah bah   why ask for help in the first place ? 

I may have misunderstood David, but I think this £58 and hr 35hrs a week is an ambitious goal he has set himself FOR THE FUTURE which covers the cost of coming off the job to work on the business. He admits he is somewhere off the mark currently but is doing well all things considered. 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

You'll never get 35 hours of cleaning out of an employee there's travelling time to consider between jobs and also an employee won't have the same concentration level as its not the most endearing job for someone on an hourly rate.

You need to look at how much an employee is going to cost you with wages etc etc etc etc and then look at how many cleaning hours there are in a week allowing for peak and off peak seasons and then you can formulate from there.

Shaun

[Adrian Marsh]

My feeling David is you would do well to join TACCA if you haven't done already or go to one of Mossey's trainings. NCCA is a little too 'by the book'.

I've tried joining the TACCA, several times, and never had a response.  Though someone else said there is a requirement to have been trading for 2 years anyway.  

I will join the IICRC sometime next year, but they have a requirement to have done their basic technicians course.  I've done two of them already this year, so am reluctant to repeat it so soon.

I've tried to join too, no response either, what a joke. Very poor really, they're just playing at it.





Sometimes we need to think before we type. Gift horse and mouth spring to mind. How many of us would a) Devote our time to get this up & running & b) Devote our time to keep it running?

Good on you though Steve to acknowledge your mistake.

[*Hector*]

TACCA must be good....

#They wont let me in