Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: Shaun_Ashmore on May 05, 2008, 09:00:24 pm
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If you had to draw a circle of your service area how far do you go?
Me I'd say 20 miles, what's yours?
Shaun
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85% is within 3 miles, the other 12% is within 5miles. the other 2% in a town 10miles away but it's 10miles along an easy straight road (takes 10mins to get there)
but 1/2 mile away from my house is Hull which is a big town, I did about 10 jobs there in the whole of last year, it takes longer to get into town than drive 30 miles across country.
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In Nottingham on Wednesday - 45 miles from home
Cambridge in June for 3 weeks - 133 miles
Basingstoke the other week - 170 miles
Stoke yesterday - 17 miles
Not sure what to class as local any more!!!
;D
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Andy why so far away?
Shaun
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been to bury st edmonds 160mile round trip.........
charged £100 for the travel :o.....job was worth £300.......... ;D
but on average 5 miles........most of the work within 3
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Shaun you started another topic on the future of the internet, both these topics are linked, if you want to only work in a small area then you can't rely on the internet to gain business.
the internet is open to the world, although you can use certain words to limit the areas you'll never get it down to within 6 miles of your home because the amount of internet users is relatively small, you need to cast your net wide to gain maximum benefit.
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Not linked on purpose but I can see what you're thinking. I see the internet as a cheap advertising medium but I envy the way that Doug and Spencer get most of their business from it.
Leaflets can localise your work if you have a good distributor that goes to all of the areas you want at an affordable price I have 1 company that will do them for £17 plus vat per 1000 and teh other won't flinch from £30 plus vat which would do the other half of my area.
YP is a dinosaur now and although I get enquiries from the net I feel that they are programmed into buying cheap just like they would price match on kelkoo.
Shaun
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Hi Shaun
All pressure washing jobs when I go far afield, carpet cleaning is generally much closer - 25 miles radius I guess.
Andy
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Depends on the size of job or ticket price. Most jobs locally within 10 miles otherwise travelling costs added. If they're happy to pay I'll travel.
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20 Miles but same as Jason will travel for right price, but rarely have to.
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From my base in North Worcestershire (about 3 miles South of the B'ham border), most of my work is within a 10 mile radius.
However, this year I've worked in Barking Essex and Torquay Devon.
Today I travelled to Kenilworth, about a 40mile round trip, for a voucher I put into a cancer charity auction. On top of the £150 voucher, I also had an extra £71 of work so it even covered my costs. Madam also owns an upmarket hotel in Leamington Spa, so good contact made. Hopefully neighbour referals to follow too.
I feel that it's important to have your "bread and butter" in a compact area, but need to be flexible depending on your location. Although I live in a large shire's village with a population of only 3,500, my catchment area of about 10 miles radius must give me a catchment approaching 1 million people. Many others though will only have a catchment of, say 100,000 within a 40 mile radius :(
We're not all singing from the same hymn sheet on this one.
Safe and happy cleaning :)
Ken
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From mine to Westminster is 11 miles in a straight line .........work to left of that route, in SW London but not really into SE London though ::)
Have some good customers in Hampstead area so i would have to say 20 miles is normal maximum radius.
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If you optimise your website for the targeted areas you can be no#1, near of far, it makes no difference.
Regards
S
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Hi Guys
I have worked in Essex, London, Kent, Herts, Cambs and Suffolk this year but only travel if enough money in it, just passed on a small job in Dagenham, approx 30 miles because not cost effective.
Cheers
Doug
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unless you live in the highlands of Scotland, some areas of the lake or Peak district, and work more than 10 miles from you home on a regular basis then you are doing something wrong, more than likely the problem is your marketing.
most of my work is in Beverley & villages an area of 30,000 homes.
2 Chemdrys, 1 Servicemaster, 1 rainbow and 3-4 independants also target this area. I don't know about the others but I do very well out out of this area.
if your preferred type of customer lives near your home then why travel miles away to serve what lives on your doorstep?, its just daft.
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Can travel to Hampstead and do a job 2 or 3 times the size of a majority of my local ones ;)
Travelling to certain areas with higher concentrations of larger homes, wealthy residents or prestige offices, has to make sense ;D
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your right Chris, the only reason to travel is if your desired customer does not live on your doorstep.
if you live on a crappy druggie invested council estate, don't look for customers on your own doorstep, travel to the better areas,
unless you target (the often overlooked) crackhouse market :D :D
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I tend to travel more than most on here put together. As Mike has said, if your market is close to home then why travel.
Its just that my preferred market or clients are all over this country and a few other countries as well.
In the states where I had more choice of where I worked geographically I pretty much worked in about a 20 mile radius area. Although this area was about 15 miles away to get to.
But I still go back there to work sometimes so if that counts then I work 6000 miles away.
Best, Dave.
P.S. Missed your post Mike. Dont knock crack houses, they are very lucrative to clean.
Hard to get, but you can get a fortune for cleaning them and re-odorise them.
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My areas outer limit is 10 miles to the East of Sheffield. ;)
Dave.
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I work anywhere from North London (going to Islington on Thursday) down to Bognor Regis - but obviously only if it is financially viable to do so.
My office used to be 25 miles from where I lived, so travelling has never been an issue.
Steve
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The lengths people go to just to get out of Epsom for a day :o ;D
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we go 50 miles from base everyday ! and more if we have too thank god for cooking oil ;)
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You better put your prices up for a 50 mile trip ;D ;)
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You better put your prices up for a 50 mile trip ;D ;)
i do ;) because i would rather not go there but some still book in ! its the only time we get over 60 pounds for a suite
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Wherever they want me to go as long as the money is right normally 30 mile radius Shotley bridge today Darlington last week
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We are spreading out further and further, I would say we go out about 70 miles now, however generally our main catchment is about a 25 mile radius of home, mainly north and west of us, with the odd jobs to the south (it's just sea to the east!)
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so how much do you charge to travel? if you charge £60 to clean a L/R and it takes 30mins to get their (1hr round trip) you must be doubling your price to cover the travel time, I can't believe any customer will accept a charge of £120 for a L/R so you'll proberbly be putting an extra £10 on the price, no way will this cover the time it takes to get there.
'I charge extra to travel' is a cop-out, ;) ;)
but i soppose if you're not busy its only petrol money you need to make up, but if you can fit another job into the time you spend traveling to that far away job you are missing out.
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Hi Guys
I get a lot of enquiries from my www.leatherclean.co.uk site and it is for these that I usually travel, where the customer is looking for an 'expert' and I do use that term lightly.
Cheers
Doug
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Hi Guys
I get a lot of enquiries from my www.leatherclean.co.uk site and it is for these that I usually travel, where the customer is looking for an 'expert' and I do use that term lightly.
Cheers
Doug
Doug can anyone be added to your leatherclean site seeing Mr Ashmore on there?
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you have to part with money or body parts.
Shaun
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you have to part with money or body parts.
Shaun
What body part did you give up ??? ???
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Toe nails
Shaun
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12 miles !
Van now 18 months old, not done 10,000 miles on it yet and getting 45 mpg most months when I fill up. (each month!)
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Islington, North London @ 8am
Worcester Park @ 10am
Leatherhead @11am
Milford @ 12pm
Epsom @ 1pm
Just got in - driven 110 miles !
Steve
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Was this just a scenic tour Steve or did you clean some carpets on the way?
One hour gaps between Leatherhead - Milford - and then all the way back to Epsom would give you make 20 mins cleaning time each. How many carpets & of what size would you be cleaning in that time ???
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Inverness to Durness and back.....220 mile round trip !
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Was this just a scenic tour Steve or did you clean some carpets on the way?
One hour gaps between Leatherhead - Milford - and then all the way back to Epsom would give you make 20 mins cleaning time each. How many carpets & of what size would you be cleaning in that time ???
No mate, all quotes - one supply and fit, the rest cleaning. Had one accepted already, doing that on Monday.
Steve
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Norway, Sweden, London
It's hell being a international carpet cleaner of mystery!
How far do you go? - all the way !
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Battersea to Isle of Wight once .......... long story :o ::) ;D
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"All the way!!!
Right upto the skirting board!!
At least that's my response when asked how far I will go. :) :)
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I did a red wine stain once in Perth.
Is there a prize for the furthest travelled ???
Safe and happy cleaning :)
Ken
PS Oh, that's Perth Australia. I got paid in Air Miles 8)
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I did a red wine stain once in Perth.
Is there a prize for the furthest travelled ???
Safe and happy cleaning :)
Ken
Another plus for the porty...you'd never get the TM on as overhead baggage.
PS Oh, that's Perth Australia. I got paid in Air Miles 8)
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25 miles around Harrogate, but have been further a couple of times.
Dave
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Turney, point taken but what if you have truck mounts in different countries?
Still beats a portable.....
Best, Dave.
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Got porty in San Pedro dose that count? Think of getting one in Crossville TN TM that is! ;D but on refection mainly rugs so hose pipe and rotary, Georgia must be the Mecca for rugs ???
Ken
You were on holiday and had to show the Aussies how to do it professionally CD want he ;D ;)
Len
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I'm far too embarrassed to tell you how far I have been to clean carpets and you'd all think I was bragging, so I'll keep shtum and say Bognor Regis.
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Simon dont tell us you didnt get off the ship in time when cleaning and ended up shareing with the ships cat all the way to Barbados :o :-[
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Mmm, something like that but there was no girl thingy involved.
Simon