Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Phil @ Extreme Clean on January 04, 2013, 04:47:29 pm
-
Hi all, you all know by now that i only use Dry Fusion which is good for large commercial could you give me any advice on how to approach or who to approach and how you find large office areas etc or who to contact with regards to me subbying off them. I don't mind travelling out of town for larger size work i just need help on how to gain regular contract work i'm sick of just plodding on with limited funds so i can't spend £££££ on advertising, My website is a free one and i go in my local gazette now and then. This will be my 3rd year of plodding on not a single job in the book i just want to be working everyday i thought maybe stupidly it would be easy aslong as i have the gear to do the job but i think the work is the easy bit and getting it is the hardest. If i could earn £100 profit a day i'd be more than happy i know alot of you want alot more but i would be comfortable with that i'm thinking of keeping going till march and see were i'm at then just can't keep thinking it will come good in the end when maybe it wont :(
-
Try offering a free clean demo
Take price list off site so you get more calls
-
I've offered free demos before no takes it up
-
It's a numbers and repetition game mate..
Go round to all the offices time and time again, keep offering a free demo. If they say no, then go back in 4-6 months and try again..
Go to every office you can find...
and more than anything else... keep doing it, especially on the days you have no work...
-
with your setup you should be knocking on commercial doors, learning the art of commercial quoting and talking them into have there carpets maintained, lot of knock backs (and i mean a lot of knock backs) but if you aint got the kitty to dip into then needs must.
ps, i couldn't do it but lots do.
-
Phil,
Not sure what you mean by 'large commercial?' I think you'll find most professional carpet cleaners have a wide mix of different sizes of jobs and I think it is that 'mix' that you should be setting your sights on. I know I've said this to you before, but just having the DF system and nothing else is the thing that is holding you back, simply because its applications are limited and while you might try to use it in every circumstance, (because you have no other choice) the results won't be worthy of customer loyalty and that IMO is your second problem because what you are describing, having work everyday, is the result of of good business building, which in turn is based totally on quality.
Simon
-
Phil
Have you done any sales or marketing cources or any commercial carpet cleaning training other than DF
and why do you only use dry fusion
Jim
-
Its all I've ever used jim was helpin a mate then went my own way after buyin a setup from him
-
Phil
I have been in this business about the same time as you and have read most of your posts and the replys you have had
most have been very good advice like the post on this thread from simon you need to invest to get on in my first year I
worked in a factory 3 to 4 days a week and for myself the rest of the week after a year I changed to 1 day per week this
allowed me to invest what I made. My advice to you is to do the same get some training on hwe and a machine contact
business gateway and do a sales and marketing cource look at other companys websites and get ideas how to improve
yours I am not knocking dry fusion and am thinking of getting one this year and pushing commercial
hope this helps
Jim
-
I started from nothing - borrowing a machine part time. Gradually getting jobs on however I could, but mostly domestic. Bought a second hand machine from earnings, then upgraded to a new one after a few years. 20 years on we went through the VAT barrier and now run 2 truck mounts. Never borrowed money.
I'd repeat some of the advice
- Don't stick just to Dry Fusion - borrow or buy a cheap extraction porty
- Don't just go after commercials
- Spend all the time you're not working doing something towards getting jobs on (walking out leaflets; knocking on doors; finding cheap parish mags to advertise in)
- Put quality first - or rather what your customers will perceive as quality
And I'd say get another income stream - although I'm sure many will disagree - it was not having to rely on CC profits in the early days that allowed me to grow it.
-
Hi
Sounds to me like funds are tight and we can all appreciate that, I started cc about fifteen years ago and had a fairly stable domestic business and more or less worked every day often all day. sold the portable bought the t/m and my earnings steadily increased - but truthfully I was bored working on my own and the marketing seemed relatively easy as the work was coming in, so I started another business which immediately earn't me a lot more so I lost interest in the cc and concentrated on my other business (i did hold on to a few contracts and domestic customers ) but kept all my equipment - just in case.
Well, six months ago the other business went pear shaped, so I thought no problem, I'll just take things a bit easier and return to cc - WOW it is tough out there! In my area it seems there are so many more cc's so much more wood flooring and all the other changes in the last 7 years that have made this a much more difficult business to run, personally I think first base is build a domestic business, better cash flow, feels less speculative and to do that I would sell/swap that df machine for a hwe machine (assuming funds are tight) and get leafleting and if by July (you should be bombing along by then) it is still not happening for you find a job in a factory work shifts, and do cc on your days off.
Best of luck - Paul
-
Some good posts for you above phill.
Seems your waiting for your business to take off and have been waiting a while.
Do you think things will get better ???
Thought you had got yourself a hwe machine a while ago.
Its always good to have a choice to clean a carpet for your clients rather than just a df machine.
I do use my df in some domestic situations and also for my commercial work that i have.
good luck
-
I think the lack of activity in the housing market has had an impact on this industry.
-
I would contact all the contract cleaners & facilities management companies in your area and ask them if they clean the carpets in the buildings they do the general cleaning or do they subcontract it.
Tell them you can offer an affordable alternative, offer to be thier ' carpet cleaning expert ' always on call to handle the jobs thier semiskilled staff can't cope with.
I honestly believe people fail because they sit In the house not doing anything because they tell themselves that won't work no matter what marketing ideas they read or hear about they just have the negative view of..... that won't work. i could list 20 marketing ideas that work (some not too well & some brilliantly) but they only work if you do them.
Here's 1 idea.... Delete your membership to this forum, commit to spending the 90 mins every day you spend reading the mostly chit chat on here to searching google for business that have carpets and send them emails Or if they don.t have an email address showing use thier contact page, have the text typed out in MS word and just cut & paste into the box.
I bet you can do 20 an hour that's 30 a day. Commit to Doing this for a month
-
Thanks for all the advice guys i will take on board and Clinton i did aquire a scorpion but i didnt get into using it so sold it the funds helped at the time allthough i wish i had it now. I even added guttering to my setup made the money back what i spent on setting up but thats more seasonal work, My aim is to aquire a cheap but decent Porty then i will have a good setup i could use the DF to agitate with brush then HWE then dry pad with heat that to me is a good clean the only problem is people are not willing to pay much i have struggled at £20 a room for DF people just don't have the money or would rather spend on other things :(
-
i have struggled at £20 a room for DF people just don't have the money or would rather spend on other things :(
I get treble that on crap benifit ridden council estates, it's not people who are your problem it's you believing people won't pay £20 per room, let's be honest you are the reason you are failing not the equipment you own, unless you have a serious attitude change you will be gone in 6 months
-
that is very harsh Mike..............
But true...
I only LM and must say mate, I work the hours and days that I choose..
I used to charge £20 a room and struggled to get business... When I upped the price to £50 per room I got loads of enquiries.. and work, and it is not about the selling... I have mentioned on here before I hate sales work....
Market your DF as a specialist clean as I do... emphasise the fact that you do NOT pour gallons of water into the carpet as they TM and HWE people do... and the fact that the carpets are dry within hours and not days..
As Mike said the price factor is in YOUR mind and not the customers...
Try it.... what have you got to lose??
-
Hector, I thought you was a cheap jack, are you saying you seen the error of your ways and are charging more now?
-
Yes mate.....
I was struggling to make ends meet at the low prices.... Tried upping the price and hey presto work again...
-
Like I said earlier take prices off site too
-
Yes mate.....
I was struggling to make ends meet at the low prices.... Tried upping the price and hey presto work again...
same here, I was cheap at the start, I never realised the low price puts people off, except the ones I don't want anyway 8)
-
My replies did seem a bit harsh and too soften it abut I will mention the..... price is in the mind?.... problem is the biggest obstacle carpet cleaners have.....especially new starters.
Hopefully Paul Mckiegh won't mind me using him as an example, he came to work with us for a day before Xmas, 4 jobs all hitting the £100/hr price, living rooms being cleaned for £85....... Every time we talked about pricing he could not accept he could charge high prices and kept referring to a half price leaflet he had received, his response to any piont was this leaflet and that's what people expect to pay. In his mind people won't pay more that £25.
another reason he believed this is he got his carpet cleaned all downstairs for £60 so if he would only pay £60 then so would every body else.
Unless he overcomes his own mental limitations he will be starting post like this in a few months
-
Prices taken off site from now on gonna quote all individually and price accordingly if i get the job good if not then i'm no worse off than i am now also anybody have a survey form i could use if i'm going to charge more then i need to be more professional when viewing and not quick look it's x amount lol.
-
Phil you live in one best areas in the country for potential work, i know one carpet cleaner who lives down the road from you and is in constant work and i know of a guy near me who regularly travels a 45 minute trek to Blackpool to do commercial work, so the work is there in your area. I would not worry about the £20 pr at the moment, just get the work in and when you are constantly booked a week in advance start easing up your prices. The advice Mike gave about contacting contract cleaners & facilities management is a very good one, it's a tactic i have used and once you have a rapport you will get loads of work from it. I would also contact small cleaning companies, domestic cleaners are always turning carpet cleaning work away. I have about 10 good contacts for commercial work in the North West and about 5 good local domestic cleaner contacts all passing on constant work. The first thing i would do is hire your self a helper for 2 or 3 days and drive from your town down then beach front right down to st annes and blitz every pub, b&b, amusment arcade, industrial park and business you can see with flyers or postcards, do this 2 or 3 times and if you are confident enough follow this by going into the same business yourself and start selling, this is the perfect time to start and promote the fact that they will have all the work done before the busy summer season. I would not bother selling your DryFusion, they don't sell for what they did on Ebay, i would get yourself a cheap second hand hwe machine for a few hundred quid off Ebay for now, you can always run your DryFusion over after any really bad carpets if you are not entirely happy after extraction, just get the work in first, spend as much budget as you can afford on marketing and invest in better equipment as you go on. I see so many carpet cleaners spending 4/5 grand on equipment and getting a brand new van on tick and then complain they have no work and no money to market, doing it the wrong way round if you ask me. I have about 10 ideas that could transform your business, i will email them to you when i have time.
-
Here's 1 idea.... Delete your membership to this forum, commit to spending the 90 mins every day you spend reading the mostly chit chat on here to searching google for business that have carpets and send them emails Or if they don.t have an email address showing use thier contact page, have the text typed out in MS word and just cut & paste into the box.
I bet you can do 20 an hour that's 30 a day. Commit to Doing this for a month
Spot on Mike thats what I did back in October last yr deleted my account- transferred the time to Facebook, now use that as an online ' Photo album' for customers (mainly for the other side of our buisness) works a treat. Having re joined this forum starting to come to same conclusion, its great at times but time is valuable
-
Thankyou sounds good advice and that email would be good allthough funds for hwe machine are nill when i only have 12p in my business account lol i am trying to sell my gutter setup to purchase a hwe but unsold at the minute
-
Try rewrite your site
If I was looking for a tradesman and read "are prices may not suit everyone" I don't think I would read further?
-
Phil
I have been in this business about the same time as you and have read most of your posts and the replys you have had
most have been very good advice like the post on this thread from simon you need to invest to get on in my first year I
worked in a factory 3 to 4 days a week and for myself the rest of the week after a year I changed to 1 day per week this
allowed me to invest what I made. My advice to you is to do the same get some training on hwe and a machine contact
business gateway and do a sales and marketing cource look at other companys websites and get ideas how to improve
yours I am not knocking dry fusion and am thinking of getting one this year and pushing commercial
hope this helps
Jim
Hi jim i've been looking for a part time job but theres nothing around i think that may be the way.
-
hi deep cleaning solutions could you possibly e mail me your 10 ideas as well . much appreciated if u can :)
dan
-
Phil,
Don't get a job, just end every spare minute you have emailing potential clients, then leaflet, leaflet, leaflet, the results will bring you far more money than a part time job. The problem you have got is you bought your setup from a friend and just went with what you got. You will never break this cycle of poor sales, equalling no money to invest in the development of your business and if you don't do something about that you will be in the same position in a years time. There is lots of work out there but you have to go and find it and when you get it, the results have to be good enough so that you keep the majority of those customers, but with the df system I think you will struggle with that. But if you had more sales you could use the money to invest in more equipment and better results so that you begin to build a loyal customer base, which is the whole grail when building a successful carpet cleaning business.
Simon
-
I agree with the comments regarding your pricing. You're providing a professional service so your charge should be more than it would cost the home owner to hire a rug doctor and do it themselves.
For example; Rug Doctor hire with chems for around 3-4 rooms is about £45 - you're currently charging £20 per room, ok a little more than rug doctor hire for 3-4 rooms but not enough for the average home owner to not feel the pricing is comparatively too cheap.
Price really is key to your customer proposition which is the main driving factor behind a successful business. How about offering a 3 rooms for £99 (as an example) it looks like a more believable price to the consumer and still offers excellent value-for-money, you'd most likely get people taking up hsl as well for an extra charge - or set your prices per 2 bed house, 3 bed house etc.
The other issue with your current price is by the time you've factored in tax, ni, materials, fuel etc you're not making enough for £20 per room to really be worthwhile.
Whatever happens keep going, don't let your confidence in your own abilities waiver, you will make it in business if you keep on trying.