Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Steve Rothwell on September 14, 2011, 05:40:43 pm
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Hey Mick is this you???
http://www.groupon.co.uk/deals/exeter/carpet-cleaning-pro/841485
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This guy is doing 2 rooms for £28 (£90 value) yet website states you pay what you want?
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It's his logo and new company name so I would say yes.
Shaun
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He's got 101 jobs to do for £17 each, commercial suicide in my view.
Simon
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Maybe this is a guy who is part of a new campaign to educate the public and stop them using rug doctors and inexperienced carpet cleaners :D
No wonder some good honest established cc'ing businesses now find it hard to make a living.
Unbelievable ::)
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Sounds like £28 is the groupon magic figure wonder why nobody has tried a higher figure? if marketed correctly I'm sure good money could be made.
Shaun
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They insist on 65% discount.
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Days are gone when you used to get a genuine 10-15% discount I wonder how long it will be before we get 101% discount!!
Shaun
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It is often small, inexperienced business people who go for this kind of thing, belieivng that some business is better than none. In reality you can only afford to do this type of work if you can assign a couple of days a week to it and take the losses, but be doing profitable jobs the rest of the time. 100 jobs is going to take a lot of time and apparently you don't get paid until you've completed them, so not only are you losing money on every job, you don't even get it in your hand till long after. Yes, you can upsell on some of them and recoup some of your losses, but the rest of the time you're dealing with people who only bought it because it was cheap. And, the other huge problem is the time it takes for a customer to need a re-clean, what's that, a year - two? So no repeats to earn from for a considerable time.
It will certainly be insteresting to see how Monty goes on with this, I wish him luck.
Simon
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Depends on the Thinking Behind It.
When I first Started I spent a Day a week Cleaning carpets FOC!!!!
I Marketed this to Big , High end properties, they were fully aware of the real cost going Forward.
10 Years Later I have taken thousands of pounds from about 50% of THEM. ;)
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I looked at one in the Glasgow area yesterday which suggested in the advertising that they'd been established in 2010 and intended adding carpet cleaning.................reading further I found the company had only been formed in July 2011..............and reading even further it transpired the web site was incomplete and full of " loren dipsums "
There were three named directors and I wonder if this might be a case of setting up a business to gain high volume sales ( they also claim their intention is to cover the entire UK ) by employing operators at minimum wage and quitting a couple of years later.
I haven't done the maths but it's been shown that the owners of such businesses can rake in many hundreds of thousands over a short time scale and move on when it gets too hot.
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It might work for those brazen enough to hard sell the extras, but it isn't business building, just short term gain.
Simon
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I know Mick has a good TM and set up , all paid for . He has just moved area , and so will end up doing around 70 of these jobs , gaining around 30 regulars , he will turnover around 3k on initial cleans with NO hard or pushy selling, if he has free time ,it is a wise business building decision.
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This seems ok if you need the work but who gets the £28 will the cleaner recieve all that or do groupon take some aswell and if you registered on here can you set your own discount price?
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I know Mick has a good TM and set up , all paid for . He has just moved area , and so will end up doing around 70 of these jobs , gaining around 30 regulars , he will turnover around 3k on initial cleans with NO hard or pushy selling, if he has free time ,it is a wise business building decision.
If he does £70 cleans he'll end up with £1960, less the 40% groupon keep. Where do get £3k from?
When does your groupon start, Jason?
Simon
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I know Mick has a good TM and set up , all paid for . He has just moved area , and so will end up doing around 70 of these jobs , gaining around 30 regulars , he will turnover around 3k on initial cleans with NO hard or pushy selling, if he has free time ,it is a wise business building decision.
If he does £70 cleans he'll end up with £1960, less the 40% groupon keep. Where do get £3k from?
When does your groupon start, Jason?
Simon
should of started in august, now september, i think i should get my tenner if it doesn't happen in september, and mr ashmore will owe me a tenner too, woohoo, i'm rich i tell ya, rich.
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It is all done , most of the work complete and I have invoiced out the Groupon reciepts to a factor of x4 , that is where I get the 3k from .
It works as a promotional tool as well as any other , not amazing , but not a flop.
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Well done Jason for having the balls to have a go at where current marketing is heading. Once you've found out how to make it work I'm sure it will be like any other marketing tool.
Understanding it fully and knowing how to gain the most from it is critical.
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are you saying youve done the groupon deal jason?
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Jason,
what area did you do the deal?
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Guys... I find it interesting how you all knock the Groupon idea. All I can say is I owe anything to anybody and am very good with numbers... Oh and I do not live out of my means. I waste no money on advertising where previously failed. The groupon thing is a good move for me and I am having the South West... believe me... it will happen!!! Best move I ever made. The bit you lot have not seen is all the calls and bookings we have got from people who have seen the offer but are not Groupon customers. JUST FULL paying ones. We are now recieving recommendation bookings from the ones we clean (at least 3 per job). Guys do the maths... ITS FREE ADVERTISING and the best bit is your work is the advertising and groupon is coving the cost. We are making a mint out of it. ;D ;D ;D
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never knocked you Mick..........
just asked if it was you...
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Its not just me now. Reinforcments have now been drafted in.
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You got 102 deals yes?
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Groupon isn't for everyone cleaners with most to lose are sceptics if you can image building your business up over the last 10 years at 'higher prices' than groupon deals then being asked to lower them if you want a bulk order, IMO there's room for everyone there will be people that buy groupon and there will be people that like a more personal service and be more 'wined and dined' that's life Burger King lives just as tea and scones at the Savoy does.
Shaun
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How can you sell this groupon when your site states -
You tell us what you are going to pay, not us tell you how much we are going to charge.
???
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have you ever thought that if an offer is too low we may refuse the job... or even advise what is an ideal offer for the works requested. I put allot of thought into how I run MY business and it works for me. My advice to anyone in business is... run it in a way that works for YOU and DO NOT worry wot others are doing. ;)
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Maybe you should worry if trading standards come a knockin ::)
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when doing nothing wrong...why should a person worry. So over the past 30 mins how many customers you gained or are you just having a moan on here? :D
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Booked 2 in last Hr £175. Would take a day to do that the groupon way!
Also in mood for a moan ;)
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Some questions which may quell the masses
1. how long does it to clean an average job?
2. based on your figures how many recommends/referals are you hoping to get and at what price ie groupon or your list price?
3. what price will you upsell (if at all) for additional areas or protector?
The way I see it is that to make it work questions 2 and 3 are the profit No1 is the sale itself.
Shaun
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Guys... I find it interesting how you all knock the Groupon idea. All I can say is I owe anything to anybody and am very good with numbers... Oh and I do not live out of my means. I waste no money on advertising where previously failed. The groupon thing is a good move for me and I am having the South West... believe me... it will happen!!! Best move I ever made. The bit you lot have not seen is all the calls and bookings we have got from people who have seen the offer but are not Groupon customers. JUST FULL paying ones. We are now recieving recommendation bookings from the ones we clean (at least 3 per job). Guys do the maths... ITS FREE ADVERTISING and the best bit is your work is the advertising and groupon is coving the cost. We are making a mint out of it. ;D ;D ;D
How do they see the offer if they are not on Groupons email database? and if they do see/or are told of the offer elsewhere why would they pay you your normal rates ???
3 full paying "recommendation bookings" from every groupon job ;D ;D LOL
Two more question's... do you or someone you are connected with work for groupon :-\ or are you just pleased that you have a bit of work?
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the whole debate about groupon is whether or not you can make a profit on this . I can see the main defence grouponers are using is they want to build a customer base fair enough, will you get repeat work from it - i would say some but not many when you mention your real prices as they will expect coupon prices in the future, will you get recomen yes you will because its cheap.
groupon has its place but i would say its more for selling of spare or over stocked goods in the retail sector .
personally i hope it falls flat on its face because its de grading the whole service we are aiming to provide.
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Well said
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i have actually used groupon bought two plants for the garden the other day . why did i get them because they were CHEAP. would i of paid the full price NOPE . would i go back to that company i bought them from yes i would but would want things cheap again .
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Marketing is the key to any business. I chose my methods you choose yours. You do it to earn a living...well that is already taken care of by other entities i have. You want to run your business... I create a brand...this one I am keeping. One of my other brands sold for many doggy bisciuts. The secret to making money is not how much you can earn, but how slow or little you spend. You have your way... my way works. THE END.
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Marketing is the key to any business. I chose my methods you choose yours. You do it to earn a living...well that is already taken care of by other entities i have. You want to run your business... I create a brand...this one I am keeping. One of my other brands sold for many doggy bisciuts. The secret to making money is not how much you can earn, but how slow or little you spend. You have your way... my way works. THE END.
Ok you carry on working for peanuts. IMO you are a man that is very desperate for work, or you wouldnt be marketing a business that is "service industry" with groupon.
Just glad that you live a long way from me, although your silly conception of running a business is like a virus and it has/will spread to other very naive people.
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Don't work for peanuts mate... just doggy bisciuts... THOUSANDS OF THEM. My dog Monty loves me. ;D ;D ;D. Weather I earn 1 or 10,000 of them... there all mine. Got no finance , no debts, everything I own is payed for, kids all grown up. ;D ;D ;D
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Jason,
What area did you do Groupon in?
Simon
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I'm thinking about doing this as i'm quiet at the mo and i'd rather be out earning £10 profit then be at home earning nothing people are slating groupon but if it makes you a few quid then go for it then when the offers up your stil in peoples minds for repeat work at a higher price as i'd stress this is a limited offer on price but not on your workmanship.
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Having looked at Mick's sites and read his posts I believe he knows what he's doing and has worked out how to best make use of the Groupon type of organisation and there are already a few more of these appearing.
Well done Mick and Jason for taking the initiative.
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Phillip,
I'd be careful about taking too much account of some of the unsubstantiated and more than likely inflated claims of profit and success with Groupon that some have posted on here. I take them with a pinch of salt if I were you and certainly wouldn't use them as a basis for making a decision to where or not to do Groupon.
Simon
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Jason,
What area did you do Groupon in?
Simon
I have said all I am saying about the subject I have had a goo return and success with Groupon and will do it again in other areas , the link for my Groupon has appeared on this forum, and was heavily picked apart and critiscised by you Simon ,so if you think I am giving you more information think again. I answer Private messages if I want to .
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Ha - that's just typical of you, Jason, you make all your big claims backed up by exaggerated figures and then duck out of giving any detail which probably means you haven't done it but want us to think that despite all of sceptiscm you've made a resounding success of it. Your full of it, IMO.
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Funny that , I was in one of your ex -customers houses the other day , she said that you were arrogant rude and walked out of her house .
There is much more to being a carpet cleaner , than being a carpet cleaner.
I replied earlier in this thread , saying what kind of return Mick would get , based on my returns . I am not giving you the name , address and telephone number on a spreadsheet of every customer. Nor will I give out the specifics, for reasons already given. It was a success , not a "resounding success" just a success. The figures are here on this thread if you care to look.
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An ex-customer of mine, name her?
Simon
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I am not getting into personal attacks , and stoop as low as you , ill just stick to the facts .
OH , and she is now my customer ;D So i wont name her.
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Typical, Jason, yet another bold claim you're not prepared to substantiate. It just turns everything you say into a joke whichbisna shame because when you're not trying to pull the wool, over our eyes you do have some constructive things to say.
Simon
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ive cleaned for one of simons customers, he had nothing but praise for simon but as it was only a couple of rooms and domestic he went for me as i was more local. simon does his commercial place up "T" north. i did try and talk him into letting me do his commercial but he was happy with simon, all though i did get the rest of his house and his neighbour, really nice bloke. not simon, his customer ;D
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careful Simon or they'll chuck you in the sin bin again for 7 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;D ;D
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Jason,
You could at least give the customers name and town and thereby gain some sort of credibility for your statement about me, otherwise it's just the same old Lawal and Hardy rubbish that you spout.
Simon
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Billy,
It should be Jason being chucked in the sin bin for making unsubstantiated slurs against a fellow member ::)
See you in a week ;D
Simon
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Chill out you guys, if you think groupon is suicide thats fine, be glad your competition is topping themselves
If you think its great, good for you.
I did living social, didn't rate it, but can see the idea.Because every morning KGB Living social and Group send me mails and I generally read them so there defiantly something there, I think its like Facebook love it or hate hit it's here to stay.
p.s off for a groupon meal tonight !It'll probably be pants but worth a punt.
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the link for my Groupon has appeared on this forum,
Did I miss that? Because I've searched the internet through and through and can't find even any history of groupon for any of your websites.
I found numerous others including Monty's......You're not one and the same are you?
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Neil, it has appeared on this site and was pulled apart as a really bad idea/deal/senseless/etc.
I am of a different opinion .
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So what area did you do it in?
I remember the discussion but I can't find your groupon advert anywhere.
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I am not saying , for reasons stated already . It is irrelevant , I do not wish to reveal my trading partner too.
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What Jason means is that he likes to make big claims to try and impress us all but hasn't got the balls to substantiate them. Probably because he can't and when tested then trys to hide behind some flimsy excuse for why he can't come clean about the very same things he was oh so keen to tell us all. >:(
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I have a confession
:o
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Come on Hector, you know you want to tell us. So come on, just say it, you'll feel better for it ;D
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well
:o
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Come on man, get on with it ;D
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I moved recently, and was bored at home, Bt buggered up the phone and internet system, and I had no work, and bills to pay, and after Jason said he was going to try groupon out thought I may try it.....
I must say I was unprepard for the overwhelming response, I was live 4 weeks ago, and it sold 401...
I asked them to cap it at 250.
out of the £29 for the deal I get £11.60
I have managed to upsell on the phone before going round to about 1/4 of them.
I have had a promise of more work from about 1/10 of them, and actually had more work from 1
My immediate money problems are now sorted, just.
I am knackered.
The sort of people that I envisaged buying the deal were low income people, however the ones who actually bought the deal are the very very wealthy, who wanted a bargain, also with halls the size of the grain barn at the end of my drive (and that is huge).
So all in all I would not do it again unless I had immediate financial problems.
Phew feels better now it is out.
Got me skid lid and flak jacket
8) 8) 8)
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Nah, I'm not having that one :'(
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fair enough
;D ;D
I would not recomend it though unless someone really needed money, but not that quick, it takes 5 working days from submitting the redemption codes to actually get the money.
It got me out of a hole, but I really would not do it again.
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What area, Hector?
Now you've 'come out' you might as well tell us your real name ;)
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Bless ya Hector!!
How long did it take you to do 401 jobs? did you do all of them?
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got 5 weeks more to do...
as for area...........................
erm
Southampton
:-X
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Southamptoncarpetcleaner.com?
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no mate
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There a groupon going in Southampton, we've been getting his calls. So you're not in Southampton then?
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more the Romsey area.
that is why I said I would meet you and show you how I pad clean
you have email
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simon@gerrardscarpetcleaners.co.uk
I wouldn't mind seeing some padding in action.
Simon
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Don't work for peanuts mate... just doggy bisciuts... THOUSANDS OF THEM. My dog Monty loves me. ;D ;D ;D. Weather I earn 1 or 10,000 of them... there all mine. Got no finance , no debts, everything I own is payed for, kids all grown up. ;D ;D ;D
Hang on fella, the groupon link is plain to see by all, your are working/cleaning carpets for peanuts. I think maybe the doggy thing is coming from a previous thread? mine has done the "business" twice this month, hence the reason why I dont have to clean carpets at yours and some others ridiculous rates ;)
;D Duh..... Like you everything I own is paid for :D The stuff on finance isnt owned until it is paid for :o