[mike roberts]

Curious most guys / girls on site appear to be owners / operators (1 'man' bands)

In general how far ahead are you booked  

Be Nice  

[edward coller]

17 working days ahead...

[The Carpet Cleaning Pro]

We have repeat 6 month and yearly repeat bookings... so I supose I could say "forever"

[Andy Hogarth]

I tend to be pretty much booked solid for a week, patchy the week after and a few scattered jobs about the week after that 

It's weird though in this game though how a quite 3 day week turns into chaotic 7 days!

[derek west]

depends what you mean by booked up? do you mean when is the next available slot for someone if they ring or do you mean, what is your last job in your diary.
first scenario, if i had to i could fit a small job in monday
second scenario, september the 13th

[mike roberts]

thks for replies... prob I am having ... we supply other cleaning services booked for around 4 wks little scope to fit in extra jobs... at peak was upto 8 wks.
most enquiries new potential customers want carpets cleaned within a few wks max apart from referals who are prepared to wait.
Hence losing work / passing to another local guy only does cc has scope to fit work in. due to short term work not pratical taking on extra staff.

Almost giving up building this side of company , as it seems other cc can supply services far quicker... as Derek has highlighted.

Mayb answering this myself but one answer to cross train existing staff - having confidence in staff... er

Usual prob owner of company running around like a headless chick..

[markpowell]

I always leave fridays free, then if a "Must be this week job" comes in i dont loose it.
At the min im booked one week in front.
Mark

[Steve Rothwell]

Fully booked, and I mean full up, until 23rd Sept.

then off for a 2 week holiday.....

[davep]

What's fully booked? 8am till 7pm 6 jobs or 10 till 3 with 3 jobs?

Think everyone's idea of fully booked are different.

[Mike Halliday]

never usually booked more than a week in advance and even then i always have room to fit in a rush job.

you earn the same whether you are booked a day or a month  in advance. 

[Paul W Jones]

Well I'm working in the morning.  Does that count?

[clive ware]

Mike,
That is exactly what I was saying the other day on truckmounters. I have never had so many phone calls in on month during August and am very booked up but at the end of the day, I can only do so many jobs per day so dont really earn any more money by having all these enquiries.

[Ricky M]

Domestic work pre booked in every month ( 24 - 46 jobs per month ) booked in for the next 3 years till I update CP's

waiting for the phone to ring is not for me.

[Ian Rochester]

As long as tomorrow is booked up I'm always happy 

[Mike Halliday]

the way i see if you are booked up weeks in advance then you are a slave to your business, what freedom do you have?  I want to be flexible to do as I please.

I can see why being fully booked for 2-3 weeks is very comforting but if it was me I would stop my marketing and let my self catch up, If I was booked up for 3 weeks I would let down a lot of my regular customers who want it this week or early next week, even though they always use me they would  phone another carpet cleaner if I said 2-3 weeks.



 

[mike roberts]

I can see why being fully booked for 2-3 weeks is very comforting but if it was me I would stop my marketing and let my self catch up, If I was booked up for 3 weeks I would let down a lot of my regular customers who want it this week or early next week, even though they always use me they would  phone another carpet cleaner if I said 2-3 weeks.
  

Not sure how you carry out your marketing   but for me not a simple matter  of stopping in order to catch up (wont happen immediately) the way we market hopefully our actions have impact for 3 to even 6 mths ahead. It probably is the 'approach' as ours is more online rather than direct flyers etc  

But do agree with your other comments ref customers - thats the catch.

However   that said I do like having security of 3-4 wks work - but again depends on personal circumstances

Late nite last nite really need sleeeeeeeeep

[Mike Halliday]

Mike, I'm away next week so stopped my leaflets and paused my Adwords last week this has had the effect of stopping 75%(ish) of my new enquiries, so most of the calls I had this week that normally i would have booked into next week were existing customers who don't mind a small wait while i get back.

I have arranged a 10k leaflet drop  2 days after I return which will kick start my phone.

most of my work from new and existing customers comes via my leaflets..... so in some way it is very controllable,

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

I like to be about a week ahead, anymore makes it difficult to fit in the emergency type jobs which are often more profitable and interesting.

With heavy advertising and discounting no doubt we could be weeks ahead but I would rather have 10 well paid jobs in the diary than a hundred cheap ones.

Cheers

Doug

[mike roberts]

yer as I said its our marketing thats different, we dont use adwords have a company that manage seo for long term results, try to avoid using leafelt drops.

Other areas of buisness provide cushion for work load with well paid jobs  
- thats what has created our prob of 'fitting' in CC.

As is being highlighted, my prob is other ccs have flexibility to fit in work with relatively short pre-bookings. Somehow thats what I need to correct.
Please realise not having a pop just interesting to see how other companies manage work load

[bennymon]

this year july was awfull august was busy and now i dont have any jobs booked in.  you never know whats round the corner in this game.