[from edge2edge]

Matt Sorry to hear you are calling it a day if you have any  commercial work my friend could be interested in making you an offer or discussing an arrangement with yourself.Feel free to ring me on 07878601150 and discuss it.Regards Alan Turner(swindon)

[Ian Gourlay]

Matt my mate has access(looked through their office window in a block he does of offices) and the chart said they pulled in over £20k in one week.He works in Portsmouth too and is just getting scraps at the moment and maybe this is the reason for your poor return of late(he has done 2 jobs recently where they had these chancers in a got ripped off previously   this outfit are here to stay i think.Regards Alan(swindon)

I take it you are referring to Enterprise

You're right, £20k a week sounds pretty accurate. They were doing a similar amount last year as well.

Whatever anyone thinks about their bait and switch sales techniques it works wonders for them and they are going from strength to strength despite the Watchdog programme and the bad reputation they are getting.

Sure, nobody would use them twice, but they don't need repeat business such is the size of their sales team. There isn't a carpet cleaning company in the area that can compete with that.




How are Enterprise finding their customers?

Are people just replying to £9.99 leaflets

Do they have a team of knockers
It is for this reason (and a couple of others) that I have decided to call it a day. There were already a lot of carpet cleaners around here even before Enterprise showed up and there simply isn't enough work. The more established guys should be ok due to their already established customer base, but for the newbies it's becoming harder and harder to get any kind of work.

Throw in a recession, VAT increase, job cuts and everything else and it's a very bad time to be trying to compete with the likes of Enterprise.

[wynne jones]

There still is and always will be lots of money in carpet cleaning. If you are just starting it's very hard and there will be people starting up now with a little portable who in 3 years time will be ordering their first truckmount.

Never blame someone other than yourself if it's not going well, the problem is not the competition it's between your ears. Sure there are easier ways to make money but nothing stays easy for long, so why not get stuck in and get on with it.

[seamus campbell]

Thats the spirit, There is an advantage in this type of business over many others, its low ticket value, It(can be} easily marketed,{word of mouth} you can pretty much go out and approach any potential customer. Lots of business have to sit back and wait for people to come through the door before they can sell to them. Its not easy but nothing worthwhile is . the grass always looks greener but every business {legal} is a struggle at one time or another.

[cannon]

Thats the spirit, There is an advantage in this type of business over many others, its low ticket value, It(can be} easily marketed,{word of mouth} you can pretty much go out and approach any potential customer. Lots of business have to sit back and wait for people to come through the door before they can sell to them. Its not easy but nothing worthwhile is . the grass always looks greener but every business {legal} is a struggle at one time or another.

Second time ive heard that today and its very true.

Im finding things tough at the moment (1 job this week) but im very optomistic. Using the quiet times to hopfully lay the foundations to a brighter future.

Im out leafleting, using facebook and talking to people getting my name about. And today ive started walking into any premises where theres a carpet be it a shop an office whatever, and ill keep doing so. Maybe need to work on my approach and patter a bit but ill get there.

[Matt Seymour]

Matt my mate has access(looked through their office window in a block he does of offices) and the chart said they pulled in over £20k in one week.He works in Portsmouth too and is just getting scraps at the moment and maybe this is the reason for your poor return of late(he has done 2 jobs recently where they had these chancers in a got ripped off previously   this outfit are here to stay i think.Regards Alan(swindon)

I take it you are referring to Enterprise

You're right, £20k a week sounds pretty accurate. They were doing a similar amount last year as well.

Whatever anyone thinks about their bait and switch sales techniques it works wonders for them and they are going from strength to strength despite the Watchdog programme and the bad reputation they are getting.

Sure, nobody would use them twice, but they don't need repeat business such is the size of their sales team. There isn't a carpet cleaning company in the area that can compete with that.




How are Enterprise finding their customers?

Are people just replying to £9.99 leaflets

Do they have a team of knockers
It is for this reason (and a couple of others) that I have decided to call it a day. There were already a lot of carpet cleaners around here even before Enterprise showed up and there simply isn't enough work. The more established guys should be ok due to their already established customer base, but for the newbies it's becoming harder and harder to get any kind of work.

Throw in a recession, VAT increase, job cuts and everything else and it's a very bad time to be trying to compete with the likes of Enterprise.

Enterprise predominantly use telesales and have a large team. I believe they also leaflet, but the vast majority of their business comes from the telesales.

Each of their cowboys has as many as 5 appointments a day generated that way. The company is turning over some £20k a week and that is a whole lot of money and carpets being cleaned around here.

[Matt Seymour]

There still is and always will be lots of money in carpet cleaning. If you are just starting it's very hard and there will be people starting up now with a little portable who in 3 years time will be ordering their first truckmount.

Never blame someone other than yourself if it's not going well, the problem is not the competition it's between your ears. Sure there are easier ways to make money but nothing stays easy for long, so why not get stuck in and get on with it.

I hear what you're saying, but Enterprise are causing problems for a lot of carpet cleaners in this area. There was already quite a lot of competition as it was, but now it's very hot.

As a result a lot of companies are dropping their prices which is generally driving prices down for everyone. There are several companies doing living rooms for as little as £20. At that kind of money you'd have to be fully booked to make even a modest profit and I don't want to be running around for peanuts.

There are also a lot of people starting up in this business too, which doesn't help. It's only going to get worse if you ask me.

I also really don't enjoy it anymore to be honest. I can't see myself still doing this in several years time, so I will move on to pastures new now before I lose anymore money.

[Matt Seymour]

Matt Sorry to hear you are calling it a day if you have any  commercial work my friend could be interested in making you an offer or discussing an arrangement with yourself.Feel free to ring me on 07878601150 and discuss it.Regards Alan Turner(swindon)

I wish I did have some commercial work to pass on but I don't. I generally found commercial jobs pretty hard to come by and only ever did a small amount as most people seemed to be tied into contracts.

[Neil Williams]

Matt, you're clearly in the epicentre of where this bunch of crooks work which is ruining yours and others businesses. I would say go after commercial (because that crock of s-hite won't go there) but with the economy as it is that's not going to be easy either.
As you have the kit why not keep it and diversify with leather work or pressure washing. You'll still get some carpet cleaning on the back of that and just see out the next few years until things pick up.
Either way I hope you find a suitable solution.

[wynne jones]

Matt

What you say concerns me. You have to 'see' yourself coming out of this the other side and better off for it. That's what people do who get through it because apart from raising their spirits it gets the brain searching for opportunies and taking action.

What about you setting yourself up as the Anti-Cowboy Cruisader LOL Get your mug in the paper and tell people how they can avoid the cowboys. Couldn't do it? Won't do it? When you're desperate sometimes it pushes you out of your natural comfort zone because the pain of the altrenative is even worse! 

[MAX Carpets]

Matt

I also wish you luck. How long have you been a CC, what will you do instead?

Justin

[MAX Carpets]

Idea! Why dont we all agree to put the same wording on all of our websites, something like

"We do not use bait and switch tactics in such a way that was shown recently on BBC's rogue traders by another local company, Enterprise Cleaning Ltd. Please see BBC for further deatails"

Not those exact words, but if we came up with wording that we all agree to use, it would help to spread the word. I really think we should consider something along these lines, they are hitting us hard.

Justin   

[MAX Carpets]

Remember this, if they are not in your area yet, they soon will be!

[Matt Seymour]

Matt, you're clearly in the epicentre of where this bunch of crooks work which is ruining yours and others businesses. I would say go after commercial (because that crock of s-hite won't go there) but with the economy as it is that's not going to be easy either.
As you have the kit why not keep it and diversify with leather work or pressure washing. You'll still get some carpet cleaning on the back of that and just see out the next few years until things pick up.
Either way I hope you find a suitable solution.

I can't compete with this bunch of crooks and I don't want to to be honest.

I need to sell the kit to pursue some other ideas so keeping it and diversifying isn't an option. Truth is I don't enjoy carpet cleaning anyway and due to all the competition it's a whole lot of hard work for very little reward.

[wynne jones]

Good luck Matt.

[jasonl]

Enterprise turnover far more than 20k a week ,, 50 vans at 1500 average each .

[Matt Seymour]

£20k is the Portsmouth branch. You're quite right, the Bournemouth branch must be doing a lot more than that.

I think at the time the Wachdog programme went to air they claimed to have had over 23,000 customers. Given what they charge they must have made millions.

[Linds Russell]

I wonder if anyone uses their business tactics apart from the dodgy bait and switch stuff. Oh and trained, uniformed, insured operators.

[Matt Seymour]

Idea! Why dont we all agree to put the same wording on all of our websites, something like

"We do not use bait and switch tactics in such a way that was shown recently on BBC's rogue traders by another local company, Enterprise Cleaning Ltd. Please see BBC for further deatails"

Not those exact words, but if we came up with wording that we all agree to use, it would help to spread the word. I really think we should consider something along these lines, they are hitting us hard.

Justin   

Before the Watchdog show was aired I was talking to a guy from BBC South and was going to appear on an Inside Out documentary about Enterprise Cleaning.

Unfortunately, it got canned after the Watchdog programme was shown.

I did think about putting something on my website as you suggest, but decided I was spending far too much time thinking about Enterprise as it was and decided to just focus on my own business.

I'm sure they will get what is coming to them eventually.

[ryan mca]

Enterprise are aiming for impulsive buyers and are working in a different market to standard marketing
if you look over the last year most of the businesses that have went bust have been low end the travel
industry being the best example enterprise are not low end but very high end and are converting low
end price shoppers and custy who would not normally bother to high prices get your marketing right and
you could be quids in but dont go cheap set a proper price list tell people why they should use you if
you look on the cheapcarpetcleanersleaflets website they have sample leaflets one of mark powells
has rates on that are a good guide to start with a very large unlike our compeditors ' what you see is what
you pay' also remember in 3 months time there custys carpets will be have more dirt than before they were
cleaned so will need a proper clean.