Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: ian harper on July 06, 2014, 09:29:02 am
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Guys
A Large And Increasing Sales Volume Creates The Appearance Of Prosperity While Really Overheads Are Eating Up The Profit
Are you spending more than you really need to provide the level of carpet cleaning that you want? Are you working so hard that you can see that if you controlled your expenses you could work less and make more profit?
http://www.cleanonomics.cleaning-carpet.co.uk/how-you-can-make-more-profit-from-carpet-cleaning-part-1/
respects
Ian Harper
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Ian Ever heard the saying
"Dont poop where you eat
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Work less .... More profit.... Everyone knows there is no money in carpet cleaning .. Don't they?
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just double your prices. simples.
i know what your thinking? its hard to double your prices. no it isn't, just get a calculater, type in your price and then times it by 2. ;D
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Eh! Then sit around more Derek, surely.
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Ian over complicates things as usual. I would hate to see his monthly spending...
Doubling your prices sounds simple but then you'll have to spend more time and money to find more qualified customers. i.e. you'll need the phone to ring a lot more.
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why would you need the phone to ring more?
example
at the mo you spend x to make the phone ring 100 times
you turn 80% of your calls into jobs. each job is worth £50
therefore x = 80 x £50 so spend x to make £4k
double your prices
now you spend the same x to get the phone to ring 100 times yes???
you turn 40% of your calls into jobs, each job is worth £100
therefore x = 40 x£100 so spend x to make ??????? yep you guessed it. £4k and guess what?
your equipment is working at 50% capacity from last time so lasts longer, bonus.
you work at 50% capacity so you last longer. Bonus
you get home in time to watch countdown so you get to see rachael riley, double bonus
hey!!! thats what i did but i was pressured into it by these know it alls so don't blame me when it works, blame them idiots, you know who you are. ;D
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Sounds great Derek, so you reckon if i double my price from £5 per sq metre im going to get 40% hit rate. I reckon it would be much lower. Is anyone charging £10 per metre on here.
I'm liking the Rachel Riley bit though ;D
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Why doesn't someone try to double their prices for a month and see what the difference is and let us know!
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Derek you are spot on with the example you give and anyone who has an average job price of £50 would do well to follow your example.
But do you think the same formula would work if your average job price was £250?
Double your prices to £500 and you will lose 80% of your conversion rate with a result of an 80% reduction of customers returning and 80% reduction in recommended.
Your formula also relies on the fact that the marketing you use to attract the customers who are able and willing to spend £50 can afford to spend double that amount.
Also the marketing that works to bring in budget customers who have £50 does not work so well on attracting the higher spending customer, so your response is lower
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3 years ago I doubled my prices and then 2 years ago doubled them again. I earn more in a year than I did before, and have lots of loafing time.. ;D
To be fair I was working the very low end of the market 3 years ago, and now charge a premium for the benefit of quick drying and not flooding the carpets.. ;D
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Hector, do you quote over the phone or go out to the job and quote?
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Hector can you put a ££ figure to you comment
If you charge £10 a room and doubled it to£20 then to £40 it's not so impressive but if you started at £50 then hats of to you!!
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Derek you are spot on with the example you give and anyone who has an average job price of £50 would do well to follow your example.
But do you think the same formula would work if your average job price was £250?
Double your prices to £500 and you will lose 80% of your conversion rate with a result of an 80% reduction of customers returning and 80% reduction in recommended.
Your formula also relies on the fact that the marketing you use to attract the customers who are able and willing to spend £50 can afford to spend double that amount.
Also the marketing that works to bring in budget customers who have £50 does not work so well on attracting the higher spending customer, so your response is lower.
Mike has saved me typing! If your really cheap £20 a carpet for example then doubling is a no brainer. Can the same be said for £60 lounge clean? doubling it to £120, or even £100 is going to make you less competitive. Then you'll be able to watch This Morning, super market sweep, deal or no deal and all the other crap day time tv you want ;D personally I miss carol vorderman!
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Hector can you put a ££ figure to you comment
If you charge £10 a room and doubled it to£20 then to £40 it's not so impressive but if you started at £50 then hats of to you!!
Yes Mike
3 years ago £20 per lounge. Now charge £80 ;D ;D
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my example was for people trying to compete on price
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A Large And Increasing Sales Volume Creates The Appearance Of Prosperity While Really Overheads Are Eating Up The Profit
This guy says exactly the same thing...
http://www.bizmove.com/finance/m3k.htm
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If I remember hector used groupon and it nearly sent him nuttier and thought about throughing the keys in.
Hector is it £80 per carpet at any size?
Shaun
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my example was for people trying to compete on price
Right on Derek, most people can only double their price once.
Hector, you're not expensive, that where you should be. I did try telling you years ago you was dumbass cheap ;D
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That hardest part of everything said is getting the phone to ring 100 times. The rest is simple enough.
Mark
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No it's not :D
Find out what you did to make the phone rings once....... Then repeat that a 100 times
Or maybe better find out what made the phone ring 5 times then repeat that 20 times.
This is why asking every call ......" Where did you get our number" is important, if you don't track your calls you can't replicate any successful marketing
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Depends on what you did to get that phone to ring the first time , it might have taken 5000 leaflets so to get another 100 to ring you would have to do potentially another 500000 leaflets.
It's too simplistic to say just do that and this will happen otherwise everyone would be doing it.
Now if you want to talk about proper marketing then Im all for it but Just saying cut this and look how rich you can be is of course complete bollix..
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No you are wrong it is that simple, if you are running a successful business then replicating your successfull marketing is the key to keeping busy
The key words are 'successful marketing' if it took you 5000 leaflets to get one job then obviously that was not a example of 'successful marketing' so replicating it would be a bad idea.
This again goes back to tracking your marketing, finding out what works, then keep doing it.
And everyone who is successful is doing it
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How can it be wrong I was using your own and others example, it's simple get one customer and 5 gazillions will follow. I know it was complete rubbish just like the original post is but hey if I'm wrong I ready to hear how it's done.
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Sorry it's not wrong just complete 'bollixs'
If you are ready to see how it's done then read my reply above, or are you saying replicating successful marketing does not work?
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Well that's what I said in the first place.
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Sorry hilton edited my post while you were posting
Any chance you could elaborate why it's bollixs?
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and apologies as I have only just seen your reply;
What 'ever' form of marketing you do your phone will ring once, so was it successful?
Anyone reading the above may be led to believe that if this happens then it must be so, so it must be replicated because eventually you will break through and the phone will be ringing off the hook but once it does then stop the phone ringing by cherry picking the work you want to do by doubling your prices ::)roll
Thats why I was saying it is complete bollix especially when in your first years of struggling to get the phone to ring in the first place to fill your week with work while building your data base. I believe its misleading to say the above and if followed and it does not happen, as it surely won't early on, its soul destroying and probably leads to many placing their kit up for sale because of 'other' business commitments, when we all know in reality they just can not make it work.
Your success has been built on many years of 'trialing' and building marketing formulae that works for you and you would have carried out some marketing that was a complete donkey so you dropped it so of course you will replicate what 'now' works but even then it must be updated and old systems dropped that are no longer relevant.
What irked me on all this was the its so simple, phone rings repeat that and hey presto champagne by the pool in the South of France every year. Oh and by the way don't forget to double your prices every year. ::)roll
Sometimes we just all need a bit of balance and a reality check it will take a long time to find what works for you in your geographical area and the target market you are aiming at, then of course I am fully on board that replicating and updating is a must for a successfull business.
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and apologies as I have only just seen your reply;
What 'ever' form of marketing you do your phone will ring once, so was it successful?
Anyone reading the above may be led to believe that if this happens then it must be so, so it must be replicated because eventually you will break through and the phone will be ringing off the hook but once it does then stop the phone ringing by cherry picking the work you want to do by doubling your prices ::)roll
Thats why I was saying it is complete bollix especially when in your first years of struggling to get the phone to ring in the first place to fill your week with work while building your data base. I believe its misleading to say the above and if followed and it does not happen, as it surely won't early on, its soul destroying and probably leads to many placing their kit up for sale because of 'other' business commitments, when we all know in reality they just can not make it work.
Your success has been built on many years of 'trialing' and building marketing formulae that works for you and you would have carried out some marketing that was a complete donkey so you dropped it so of course you will replicate what 'now' works but even then it must be updated and old systems dropped that are no longer relevant.
What irked me on all this was the its so simple, phone rings repeat that and hey presto champagne by the pool in the South of France every year. Oh and by the way don't forget to double your prices every year. ::)roll
Sometimes we just all need a bit of balance and a reality check it will take a long time to find what works for you in your geographical area and the target market you are aiming at, then of course I am fully on board that replicating and updating is a must for a successfull business.
isnt that what mike said, find out what works and spend more money on it? or did i read mikes post wrong.
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Ive got a local customer i clean for been doing there carpets for years they run a tree surgeon buisness probably one of the biggest in the country they are minted i was talking to her about advertising she said every customer that phones them when they ask them how did you here about us 70% said they seen one of your vans.
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i might not have the best signage in the world but i've only ever received three jobs in two years directly from the signage. :'(
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Ive got a local customer i clean for been doing there carpets for years they run a tree surgeon buisness probably one of the biggest in the country they are minted i was talking to her about advertising she said every customer that phones them when they ask them how did you here about us 70% said they seen one of your vans.
70% if true is astounding, critical mass territory now wonder they are so wealthy.
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Thy must have at least 6 or 7 vans and been going for over 30 years.
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I only agree with replicating what works to a point .
In the example above for example " 70% of work from vans " so what should they do buy more vans and drive them around?
if you get lots of work off 4 websites should you get 40 more ?
Of course not . At some point each method will become saturated and returns will diminish.
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If you get lots of work from 4 websites? Then have you not replicated 1 website 4 times?
'Www.Carpet cleaning Sheffield' worked well so you made 'carpet cleaning doncaster' then you replicated that to 'carpet cleaning Rotherham' ........you keep going to cover all areas that you work in. Allkare have done this.
If you get all your work from 7 vans then haven't you replicated from the 1 van you started with
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Hang on a second, why are some of you so he'll bent on spending money by replicating what gets the phone ringing? If your a successful business then people respond to whatever advertising you do and you gain customers. From there on you multiply your customers by having them use you again and recommend you to others, all of which is free, that is how a carpet cleaning business grows. The whole idea is to spend as little on paid for marketing and grow on the back of the quality and service that allows you to multiply your customer, which is how you make your business more profitable, as there is no marketing cost to gaining those extra customers.
The only reason I can see for needing to replicate your marketing is if you can't retain your customers and being forced to throw ever more money at getting the phone to ring, which suggests and entirely different problem.
Simon
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what about of you take on staff and need to keep them working or even if you start working as a 2 man team so work quicker or do as Derek suggest and double your prices so lose half your customers so need new higher paying customers to fill in the spaces.
Lots of reason to market for new customers.
The biggest reason is if the phone is ringing constantly you can charge higher prices without the fear of losing work as you will always have other calls to fill the spaces
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Thy must have at least 6 or 7 vans and been going for over 30 years.
well there's your answer right there. 30 years in business, their work will be coming from repeats and recommendations. Plus the fact their vans and other marketing efforts over the space of 30 years have crept in to peoples subconscious.
I don't think its possible for 70% of there NEW business comes from signage.