[terrymaloy]

Is it just me or is anybody else out there having a quiet time at the moment ?
As a rule, June / July are amongst my best months but the phones gone dead 

Could be the recent Bank Holidays and horrible wet weather we've been having.
Best get out dropping some leaflets.

[M.Acorn]

Just ticking over here at the moment, had a funny call last week, rental 3 story house around 900sq foot of carpet, plus 2 sets of stairs and landings.Called wanting me to come out and quote for her, asked if she had had any other quotes, oh yes £120..
About a third of what I would have charged, saved a journey at least 
July on the other hand is looking like it will be my best month to date, currently over 3.6k worth of bookings, going to be a busy month for me..

[garyhumphreys]

Definitely quieter than usual.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

A double bank holiday always squeezes the phone calls, my calls went down to 3 a day just before and none over that weekend which is unusual but back to normal now been getting quite a few end of tenancy which I haven't got the time of day for as they just want cheap, one woman wanted a bedroom carpet cleaned in a city centre flat 4th floor with keys to be picked up from letting agent and had been quoted £25 and was trying to get it done on a Sunday! No thanks.

Shaun

[The Carpet Cleaning Pro]

I was just thinking the same. I have only 13 jobs in this week and next is only 5. A few booked in towards the end of the month. I have been distributing leaflets locally for the last month and not had a single call from them yet.

[clinton]

Prob the double bank holiday that did it it for some and with half term too.

Same here had some jobs in this week and about 7 booked in  for next week so far..

It is quieter on the phone mind..

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

I have found business  good in the past few weeks and what has pleased me most is the quality of the calls, decent customers wanting a good job and prepared to pay a good price.

The double bank holiday meant I have had one very busy and one fairly quiet week, prior and post but overall about normal.

Probably be inundated with price shoppers tomorrow!

Cheers

Doug

[Jim_77]

Very busy at the moment but making up for time off due to stag holiday and machine down time.  Enquiries maybe not quite the amount I'd expect in June but having adopted a different marketing approach I'd expect that.  I think I've only spoken to about 10 price shoppers all year

[MAX Carpets]

Weather!

[alldon]

My dads got a better car than yours

[Simon Gerrard]

We are in a 'make hay while the sun shines,' business, but when the sun isn't shining you fill your diary with whatever you can get and be flexible with your prices according to the market, rather than doggedly sticking to your prices when your competitors have read the market better and responded. You also have to work hard to NOT to make money given the coppers it costs to clean a carpet, so to be looking at empty diary pages and turning your nose up at jobs because you charge three times that much is bonkers. That doesn't mean you should charge rock bottom prices during a quiet spell, but you do need to be flexible enough to keep the till ringing because you never know when, or if, things will pick up. What's the saying, 'Pride comes before a fall!'
Simon

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I stick with my prices throughout but that's my personal opinion of how I like to work, I'd be more interested in Jim's new marketing approach, I'm also guessing that Jim has very little web presence that's where the price shoppers can mainly come from.

Shaun

[Simon Gerrard]

We stick with our prices, but then we always seem to be busy, so can afford to. For less well established guys who don't have a huge following of loyal customers, all willing to pay your price, they need to be flexible. There are countless ways of justifying a reduction in price that can get you the work when you need it and still have the customer know your normal price is a lot higher, which is a lot better than sitting at home wondering when things are going to pick up.

Simon

[Craigp]

The problem with lowering prices is then you need more work.

Higher prices mean you need less work, eg. Let's say you had as little as 4 jobs in a week if they were £200 jobs you still got £800 - plenty to cover bills..

As opposed to doing £50 jobs your need 16 jobs to make the same.

[M.Acorn]

Exactly Craigp.
I have been busy selling tat on e bay, have a reasonable amount of contingency money and have been spending time in my garden getting all my veggies planted 
 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments but it comes down to how much you need the money also it can depend on how good you are at positioning yourself to sell at your highest price at the end of the day you have to believe that what you are selling is worth it.

The fast track guys may have a job average of £500 but they may only do 5 a week, my piddly job average means that if I did 5 jobs mrs.ashmore would get me a part time job at McDonalds to supplement my income.

Shaun

[Simon Gerrard]

The problem with lowering prices is then you need more work.

Higher prices mean you need less work, eg. Let's say you had as little as 4 jobs in a week if they were £200 jobs you still got £800 - plenty to cover bills..

As opposed to doing £50 jobs your need 16 jobs to make the same.

That's all fine provided you can get four £200 jobs, but what if you can't and find yourself in a prolonged quiet spell where you really need to convert every call into something?

Simon

[Paul Moss]

All this stuff just hurts my brain.

[Simon Gerrard]

Paul,
Can't be, you haven't got one

[Billy Russell]

Paul,
Can't be, you haven't got one

Stop picking on my mate Paul, He has got a Brain, trouble is, its smaller than my Blower!