Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: RAM Cleaning on September 19, 2007, 02:39:14 pm
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Hi all,
i was wondering what advice you have for people starting out, i have been running my own carpet cleaning business since xmas now and it started off well but seems to be dying on its feet, i have lots of advertising going, local community mags, yellow pages, estate agents etc, the only thing i think left is leafleting, but im not sure about doing this as i know how much i hate leaflets dropping through my own door. Do you have any advice or tips to drum up any new business??
Cheers
Richard
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ive been going three years, a lot is to do with time of year and money in pockets, just keep going with the advertising and it will go nuts up to christmas, good luck
Matt
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Hi Richard,
I am in a similar position. I am new to carpet cleaning and am currently using local magazines (these have previously worked well for my domestic cleaning business) and local press. However, things are very quiet in York.
I will let you know how I get on when I start leafleting.
Mike
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Leaflets are the greatest thing since sliced bread. Honest ;D
Do it, its well worth it.
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Richard
Does Ilfracoombe have a high OAP level of residence?
Pete
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Bizness is tough and when you get busy is tougher ... you need to keep your marketing going like dripping taps try everything you can afford and test it but it takes time.. ithink leaflets are good for me not as good as perhaps 5 years ago...call on dry cleaners vets doctors carpet retailers pubs clubs but dont give up and make sure you get out the door early and have an aim....500 leaflets today 5 retailers called on etc....aim your marketing at the right customer look smart all the time keep your van cl;ean smile and force yourself to smile price upwards dont go cheap youll get cheap give good service do xtras ask for refferaals.......work your butt off and if it hasent happend in a year get outv and try something else....best Simon
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if you look in your local roundswell community mag, you will see there are no fewer than five carpet cleaning companies advertising in it,you being one of them, this mag only has a circulation of 5000, it started with one, now they have all tried to jump in thinking there is enough work to go round, sadly thats not the case, i would get used to your hard times if i were you, seems to be a familiar story in sunny devon!
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Leaflets are a good way of obtaining work, however it needs to be a planned campaign rather than just putting a few thousand here and a few thousand there.
Say you have an estate with a couple of hundred houses on it. You put leaflets out and you should expect to recieve 1 job. This is because carpet cleaning isn't a business which makes people buy on impulse. That 1 person was probably thinking of having their carpets cleaned, your leaflet arrived, bingo.
2 Months later you put another hundred leaflets on the same estate, another person who was thinking of having their carpets cleaned gives you a ring and books you. You now have 2 customers on that estate and maybe a couple of referrals from them. Also all the other people on the estate keep seeing your leaflet when it pops through the door. Some will have put it to one side and will ring when they want cleaning.
If you leaflet this estate over a 2 year period you could potentially end up with between 12 and 20 customers. Thats a lot from 1 estate. You then have to make dam sure they remain your customers and the addition of an active referral scheme will go a long way to obtaining a decent customer base.
Lots of ifs and buts as with any business but regular leafleting is the only way to make them succeed rather than a waste of money.
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the problem is most people ask for advise too late, usually they are too skint to start an effective marketing campaign.
forget about serving North Devon serve an area 10 miles around your home ( hopefully this will hold 25-30k quality homes) then sell yourself as the 'local carpet cleaner' start 5,000 leaflets a week rotated every 4 weeks, offer a local person discount & a 10% discount for retired persons.
it will take 3 months to become totally effective but keep it up for the first 3 months then you will be on the carpet cleaning gravy train.
Mike
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or be skint like me,or is that because I'm married? ???
I've had a fantastic year, I stole her credit card ;D
Shaun
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yeah but Shaun, she is on the board of google she told me (pillow talk & all that ;D)
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bored with google more like, all I get is 'are you on that bloody computer again?, you love that more than you love me!' :-X
Shaun
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ditto, there was no way I was gonna let her in on the wags thread, She would have said something like " you bunch of sad $$^%^&U% %%£$£$ %%$££ get a life you peo%&$£*£" and do some resl real work. %$£*%^&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She's a classy bird (grew up on the Old Kent Road)
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Shuan
Has she still got the dry cleaners, if so time to buy another one that should keep her out of the shops.
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Wow, there is some really great advice there,
Pete (ex lands) Ilfracombe does have a high concentrate of OAP's yes, but it also has the other side with a high percentage of young and unemployed.
melanie rowe. Where are you based, im guessing North Devon, yes i know what you mean about the roundswell mag, i wasn't actually going to advertise in there due to there being so many others, but i got a good deal for advertising my two businesses the other business being bouncy castle hire, which is currently the only listing for that industry in that magazine. Im also in the combe directory, although i haven't got a great deal of jobs from either i have got more than i expected from them.
mike_halliday i understand what you mean about serving 10 miles around your home, which that is our main concentration of customers, but we do have the odd job a little further a field, north devon is quite rural, i live within a small town, anyone whos been to ilfracombe will know and unfortunetly all the housing estates with people who actually have a job lol live around 15 miles away in Barnstaple.
On the topic of leaflets, do you advertise some sort of discount on your leaflets to entice people or are your leaflets just a bigger version of your business card so to speak. I do like the OAP discount idea, and definetly local people, with that idea i could always produce 2 leaflets, 1 for within ilfracombe stating a discount for those living within the area and one for outside i.e barnstaple.
Thanks for all the tips guys you have mind working overtime now
Richard
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Richard,
OAPs love a discount that is specific to them. Mike is your man on leaflets. I learnt alot from him. Also Jason Hedges gets alot of work from doing linage ads in the local papers with specific OAP discounts. Very cheap advertising and the elderly tend to read their local papers to death to they will see your linage ads. Worth a punt for the small investment.
Pete
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Whats your cut Steve
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I jus get emails from them all the time asking me to do their marketing course
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Mike ! I do a bit of carpet cleaning for a contract cleaning company in north yorkshire , they are looking for someone to take care of one of there clients propeties in Hull to clean on a three monthly maintenace clean, would you be interested ? its low profile carpet
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I have sent you an e-mail hope the information helps. sure it will.
Mark ;)
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The best form of advertising is word of mouth.
Today asked customer where she got my number she was in her shop(florist) looking through yellow pages and a customer of hers asked what she was looking for she said she needed her carpets cleaned.Her customer told her
"Gunns are the best but not the cheapest" :-[ I was not in her yellow pages as its in Sunderland but she found me on the net.So 2 ways there word of mouth and the net.Did the job custy over the moon took some of my cards for her shop and me likewise for her business.