[Dan Walker]

Hi All

As I'm sure a lot of people are finding it a struggle with our line of work.

Would appreciate some advise of getting new work, most of my contracts are from letting agents and this time of year it has really dried up.

Any advice would be great.

Thanks guys

[david@zap-clean]

What have you tried, and how much work are you trying to get?

[Dan Walker]

Leaflet drops and approaching new letting agents but it seems everyone is owned by someone else. Nightmare speaking to the right people.

With regards to amount of work in a simple answer as much as possible 

[Simon Gerrard]

Have you got a website?

Simon

[Dan Walker]

Yes I have website www.profreshcleaning.co.uk

Don't get a great deal of traffic and not clued up about improving google listings

[Simon Gerrard]

How you doing in the google search listings?

[Dan Walker]

How do I find this out?

[John Kelly]

You don't show up for carpet cleaning Buxted Dan. Plenty of your competitors on page one. At least get yourself on google maps.

[wayne zabel]

I notice you dont have an address or a landline number on your website.

I often get told that clients wont use tradesmen without these.

That might get you more response.

[feldon]

Dan

You have no contact telephone number on your home page, people can be impatient and don't want to go searching for it on your contact page.

[Dan Walker]

Thank you for the comments will act on these straight away. Having a little one of only 5 months I have looked over the most basic things.

Thanks guys

[david@zap-clean]

Yes I have website www.profreshcleaning.co.uk

Don't get a great deal of traffic and not clued up about improving google listings

Dan - I tried viewing your website this morning (7:30) and I got an error message 'problem loading page'.  This may be a one-off, but keep checking for yourself, and move ISP is you repeatedly get this problem.

[Mike Halliday]

most of the comments so far have revolved around your website, although this will help i can't see this kickstarting your workload.

to take a more pro active approach to getting work......

1) i would get out the Y/ps and send a letter to all the letting agents with a voucher of a free room of cleaning for any member of staff.

2)Get ready to send  an xmas card to all your past clients with a 'thank you voucher' inclosed.

3)Design a reminder card and send them out to all your customers.

[Simon Gerrard]

With respect, neither will sending out a load of cards.


Dan,
You've got to thnk of your marketing like the spokes in a wheel. All the spokes lead to the central hub - sales. If you've only got a couple of spokes you're going to have a wobbly wheel and little sales. What you need to do is add spokes to your wheel. Yellow Pages Ads, improve your website, get on Google Maps, Leaflets, telesales, door knocking, local newspaper, parish magazine. Yell.com, so that you end up getting sales from a number of sources and not just one or two.

Simon

[tony harrison]

Very good analogy Simon

[david@zap-clean]

Simon:
Yell.com?  Do you mean the free listing, or do you think it's worthwhile paying for a sponsored ad?

...I've been trialling ThompsonLocal - and I can't say I'm impressed.  I've heard a lot of negativity about Yell/Thompsons from friends and acquaintances in other (similar) trades.

[Simon Gerrard]

David,
Another analogy, marketing is like going fishing, the more rods you have in various ponds, the more likely you are to catch a fish, or a customer in our case.
Yell and Thomson are by no means as effective as they once were but when you're trying to establish a business you have to go fishing wherever you can.  The people doing yell and Thomson must be getting something from it or wouldn't be doing it.

Simon

[david@zap-clean]

Dan,

FYI, I started thinking about setting up my business in April 2012.  Since then I've worked 10-12 hour days 6 days a week (~70 hrs per week).  I launched about 3 months ago.  I'm still doing 10-12hr days but only going 'paid-work' on about 10 hrs a week (varies weekly). 

You may ask what I'm doing with the other 60 hrs - well, a lot of it is marketing.  I do some leaflet dropping, but I don't have time for much (maybe 10 hrs a week)... I expect my marketing efforts today to pay off over the coming weeks/months/years.  I keep my ears and eyes open all the time for opportunities, and there are many out there, if you can just spot them.

Due to my efforts this business is currently afloat, just.

[Mike Halliday]

I find when people ask about finding more work they want work this week and most marketing at best will find work next week or the week after or even in a months time.

I think the only way to get work immediately is get on the phone to past customers, email customers with a 'this week only' special offer, directly canvas businesses' or maybe AdWords.

everything else is reliant on the customer taking action and they tend not to be in a rush

[Victoria Hutchinso]

It would be good to read a few things about SEO and how to promote you business on google. This should help your business to be more productive.