Clean It Up
UK Floor Cleaning Forum => Carpet Cleaning Forum => Topic started by: derek west on October 24, 2008, 08:54:41 pm
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we are officially entering a recession, and was wondering if you guys are worried or rubbing your hands.
i personally am rubbing my hands, the theory i have is people will not be able to afford to replace carpets and certainly won't sit in a house with filthy carpets, theyve got 2 options, clean them themselves or have a professional to clean them.
to me that means 2 options not 3. so in theory carpet cleaning should go up by 33%.
anyway thats my view, i could be wrong but then i always see the glass as half full.
yours votes and comments please gentlemen.
derek
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Derek,
I think you are spot on with what you are thinking, i think the only problem will be more price shoppers.
Mark
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Keep it positive Derek ;)
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Same here derek am still busy and up on last year.
Just going to give the clients a good value service and do a little extra for them :)
Just as mark said more price shopers..
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Derek,
I think you are spot on with what you are thinking, i think the only problem will be more price shoppers.
Mark
Had more than the average Price Shopper lately, they even used to try and hide the fact, but this week we've had a few with, "I'm just ringing around to find the cheapest"
In return I don't even waste my breath and time now with "You get what you pay for"
I spend time explaining to those who care but those who want cheap can have cheap off the £20 merchants.
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Derek
I dont think.
I know your talking crap !.
I have operated my business through a recession and I know that your philosphy is wrong. People don't even give having their carpet cleaned a minutes thought (on average ) . Although I survived the turndown and probably a few more it's never easy.You have to be the best. And firmly believe in being the best. But simply tossing aside the current scenario to do with the downturn as if it isn't there will do no one no good. Believe me.
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mark p
think you might be right with the price shoppers but there will still be the quality shoppers as well, like i said, no ones gonna invite aunt fanny from america for xmas and show her there filthy carpets.
mark s
keep the faith mate that 318 is gonna be flat out over xmas.
clinton
good thinking with a little extra and glad to see your doing well, gott my best week ever booked in next week, and still got thursday off, fingers crossed i'll fill that too.
glass is half full guys.
derek
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Im up this month from last year. Ive had two customers this month specifically telling me they were going to buy new suites but decided to enquire about cleaning their existing ones instead. The way I see it, house proud folk will still be house proud "recession" or not. At the end of the day people are still going to spend on necessities and neccessities are subjective. Im still going to buy the best red wine whether we are in a "recession" or not.
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Just as soon as the news and press start banding the word Recession around, which they have done for the last two weeks. You should have felt a negative slow down on your business.
From now till April 2009 you will still be able to trade ok but things will be tough. April 2009 will be Recession proper and most business including ours will come to a grinding halt, not even the trusty rug enquiry’s will come through.
At the moment you should be stopping or massively reducing advertising, work hard to obtain commercial maintenance arrangements for regular cleaning work, making cut backs on business spending and looking for ways to invest and put away for what’s about to hit. You need to be bombarding your existing customers with letters and offers. Your existing customers will understand and be sympathetic to the current situation and if they like you as a person, value the service you provide and hope your business prospers they will support you as much as possible, they are the people who will carry you through a recession.
Peter
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I think that there'll be just as many losses as there are gains.
Only those bold enough to spend more on marketing are going to grow or at least stay static. The ones who stop spending on marketing will feel the pinch.
The thing is, when times get a little easier, those who've learned how to keep their businesses afloat during the bad times will get even stronger in the good times.
Despite this, I voted "bad" because in the short term I think it will be.... bad for my hair line :(
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guys
just remember that you will need to message to market match in all your marketing. by giving offers that are linked to value and give the reason to the slow down then people will think that its worth spending the money.
its no good just thinking that you get the work because people will not replace carpets. you still have to work hard for the jobs.
I also think that you will see a slow down with Internet work. the reason is that people will not go out looking for our services. and its these offers linked to an exp date that will convince them that its worth cleaning now.
We are now started to use manual marketing again as this is where we can top up our work. we still will use the Internet but not expect the levels that we have had.
as JP always goes on about the more marketing you do the bigger your chances. i am reviewing everything i do to see if i have got lazy with my marketing.
good luck
Ian Harper
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Who knows, but only a fool would ignore it. I have built my business on special offers and now people ring a just say " what special offers do you have this month " I think as from Feb next year some drastic offers will be needed!
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how can there be an increase in business , will more people think about carpet cleaning? i don't think so, this will only happen if the thought is put into their minds by our marketing
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Some are going to feel the reccession more than others. Those that lose their jobs are going to be the hardest hit. The rest will, as now be paying more for power, gas, fuel (It will soon be back up, after the OPEC decision) etc.
The more established customers you have, that will feel it the least, the better you will do. I personally never felt the last reccession, in that, I was busy right the way through it, and I wasnt advertising at all, not even in contact with my regulars. I just waited for the phone to ring, and it did. I dont think it is going to be the time to be relying on a whole lot of new customers giving you a call, so I would think the new and recent start ups are in for a rough ride.
Dave.
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how can there be an increase in business , will more people think about carpet cleaning? i don't think so, this will only happen if the thought is put into their minds by our marketing
They may decide to have them cleaned rather than replace? just a thought ;)
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Just been to my local out of town shopping complex and I dont think anyones told people to expect a recession!!! 15 minutes to get a parking spot!!
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funny thing on the news, women saying how she really needs to cut back on spending, she was moaning about everything going up, blah blah blah, then the camera panned out and there she was, in the trafford center with about 20 bags of desighner shopping, don't think people know how to cut back nowadays.
derek
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Is only a recession if you have no money. People have never been as well off as they are now. There are a lot of people inheriting their parents houses and ending up with a chunk of anything from 100k for an ex council house up to a million plus.
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Look at the past recessions and 'physical' industry was in trouble like Coal and Steel, this time it's more invisible, shares and loans etc I think people will hold on to their jobs and probably their money but I think the media have made the most of it.
The worst thing that will happen is that carpet cleaners will put their prices down and fuel etc will go up making us less profitable.
Shaun
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Yeah but wasn't the 1930s depression caused by a breakdown of the financial infrastructure, i only hope its just a recession like the early 1990s.
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Think if you keep your overheads down etc and do some forward thinking will help some of us to get through it.
I was established just a year or two when we had the 90s recession and a year later a few c cleaners i new had gone to the wall...
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Carpet cleaning is a business like any other. People who can run a good business will succeed. Those who can't won't. Nothing to do with recession its always been like that.
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This "recession" is fuelled every day by the media. If you fall into the mindset that you will fail...you will. If you think positive you will succeed. There is plenty of money sloshing about about out there you just have to make some of it yours! I live in a town which is always being hit by job losses , way before this new financial trouble, if my phone stopped ringing I put more leaflets out, which is what im doing now and im fully booked for the next week and a half, and just delivered 5000 more leaflets this week. My uncle ran a business through the early 90s recession and he told me it was the people who didnt panic and carried on with a positive mindset that did well. He ran a music shop and still sold brand new gibson guitars worth over £2000 in a small town while people were being chucked out of their repossesed homes.
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I have got a nearly full diary of work this week :)
Next week looks good as well so fingers crossed :)
Any one else noticed an upturn in work ???
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meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
my first 1k week, woooohooooooooo
and 250 lined up for monday,
derek
ps, stella artois for me this week clinton.
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well done derek sounds like your getting into gear mate :)
Being a good friend am sure a case of the finest will be winging its way up the m6 to me for xmas ;D
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Yep I've been having a few more calls in the last week or so after a worryingly quiet spell..
I've had 5 from leaflets I've done on my own on quiet days, glad I pushed myself :)
A couple of jobs from my referrals scheme, plus some "regular" recommends.
The usual price shoppers, quick phone quote, "I'll get back to you...." ::)
But not very many old customers, normally this time of year is strong for repeat business. But admittedly that's totally my fault, I haven't got my act together with a mailout to my database for a little while.
I had to go and buy a cooker today, I was smirking to myself as the salesman was blundering his way through explaining to a prospect how one of those domestic carpet washers worked. But then I stopped smirking and started to think..
How many people are avoiding replacement and cleaning instead... but buying their own machine to do it? It might be more than we think. Just because people are wanting to clean rather than replace, it doesn't automatically mean they will come to us.
My next leaflet design might focus on the perils of DiY carpet cleaning!
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Derek
Congratulations! I can remember that feeling so well.
Next target £1500 in a week and when you hit £2000 in a week, well......
Confidence breeds confidence.
Roger
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roger
its £950 actually, but shhhhh, don't tell anyone, pretend its a grand.
jim
on mypink leaflet i touch a little on the cleaning it yourself scenario.
it reads....
In these trying times we have to look after what we have, no one wants dirty carpets but at the same time its costly to get them replaced, cleaning them yourself is not the best option as results are minimal and the risk of shrinkage, over wetting and colour run are all to common. Finding a good honest carpet cleaner is a hard process as not all carpet cleaners give good honest results. That is where we come in.
what ya think
derek
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PMA not PMT that's what you need, everyone is talking doom and gloom because of the media wanting a good story but what happens when people get fed up with recession just like they have had enough of global warming?
You don't hear about global warming much nowadays do you?
What we need is a positive story to fill the papers and TV for a month to make everyone feel good.
I hear Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand have had a go ;D
Shaun
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Jim
Interesting you should mention that.
Had a phone call yesterday (turned into a very long one, actually.) from a lady who had found me on the NCCA website. She lived some 20+ miles down the road. Single, 3 kids plain light coloured loop-pile carpets. Had damaged the pile trying to remove a mark.
The long discussion involved detailed explanations of what I did including repairing damage that she had caused. She explained that with her circumstances and job meant she couldn't afford a professional clean every year (.....especially my prices :o what!)
She told me she had been researching Vaxes, Bissels etc on the net but wanted me to come along anyway. So equipped with prints off the net of such machines I was ready to go along and discuss, for this was the first time I had really looked at DIY equipment. Well I was shocked :o
Thought I would get the job no problem but worried that she may turn me down anyway. And of course that was even more likely as it was going to be a long round trip.
Thankfully she cancelled me. (Hooray). Said I was too expensive. (Perhaps, perhaps not, but in hind site would almost certainly have either been a waste of time or a nightmare customer.)
But it was interesting to look at the DIY machines. A real eye-opener!
Now I shall be better armed to overcome that possible objection.
I shall be interested in your thoughts/seeing your new flyer.
Doc
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I spoke top a lady a few years ago who did Vax her carpet and got it to feel dry with 30 mins but again it depends on level of soiling etc etc etc but I wonder what kind of clean she was doing??
Shaun
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maybe we should be pushing dry cleaning and fast drying techniques to differentiate between professional and diy cleaning
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Shaun
Perhaps she had forgotten to turn the machine on...or even put any fluid in it!
As you say she may have had the professionally cleaned the day before!