[richywilts]

just wondering if yuo guy budget for marketing an advertising or just do ans spend a bit here n there

and does canvassing come under these

[formb]

Advertising for us is flyers. When we are cleaning a house we flyer the rest of the street. We have done it this way for 20 years. It works well. I hate the idea of canvassing. I will never do it.

Very little to budget for. Paper, ink, and time.

The only other things are a yellow pages ad and the website.  

[richywilts]

i dont bother with yellow pages no more, got an advert on yell.com, not gonna bother anymore with adverts in publications bar the local ones that go out in a5 brochure

im not gonna bother with canvassers anymore think there too desperate and sign anyone up, i will do it myself or get lads to on wet days or weekends

we flyer quite a lot to be fair want to increase it tho coz it drives people to our website too numbers always increase after large leaflet campaigns, just wondering how much to set aside

[Ian101]

you need to think as a % of turnover then as turnover increases so does your marketing budget ... snowball effect

[Carl2009]

I started in April 2009 after being made redundant and to wish to be self-employed. I had some 3000 (I think) leaflets printed which I still use ( I give them out with a business card to new custies). I had a website built www.nice-clean-windows.co.uk which costs me £90 per year hosting (a friend built it for me) and I spent £10 in a parish mag (result - 1 regular job), because a custie recomended it to me and I didn't want to appear ungrateful for her advice. The van is signwritten (by FAR the best advertising) - cost £250.

As you see most of these are startup costs. Since then I spend nothing on advertising. I have a (free) Facebook page which I don't update too often i'm afraid. I also fill in those free listings things like this one:
http://www.freeindex.co.uk/profile(red-dragon-window-cleaning)_177153.htm They are time consuming to do but that's what wet days are for.

An analysis of my business show that roughly 30% of my business has come from canvassing, 30% from word of mouth referrals, 30% approached whilst working. About 8% came from my website and the rest is a mix of leaflets left when canvassing, directories like Free Index and a pavement side I had before it got run over.

I should say that I canvassed for the first 3 or 4 months and haven't done any canvassing since, thus the canvassing % was higher in say 2010, but will gardually reduce as people pass away, move or dump me.

[richywilts]

I started in April 2009 after being made redundant and to wish to be self-employed. I had some 3000 (I think) leaflets printed which I still use ( I give them out with a business card to new custies). I had a website built www.nice-clean-windows.co.uk which costs me £90 per year hosting (a friend built it for me) and I spent £10 in a parish mag (result - 1 regular job), because a custie recomended it to me and I didn't want to appear ungrateful for her advice. The van is signwritten (by FAR the best advertising) - cost £250.

As you see most of these are startup costs. Since then I spend nothing on advertising. I have a (free) Facebook page which I don't update too often i'm afraid. I also fill in those free listings things like this one:
http://www.freeindex.co.uk/profile(red-dragon-window-cleaning)_177153.htm They are time consuming to do but that's what wet days are for.

An analysis of my business show that roughly 30% of my business has come from canvassing, 30% from word of mouth referrals, 30% approached whilst working. About 8% came from my website and the rest is a mix of leaflets left when canvassing, directories like Free Index and a pavement side I had before it got run over.

I should say that I canvassed for the first 3 or 4 months and haven't done any canvassing since, thus the canvassing % was higher in say 2010, but will gardually reduce as people pass away, move or dump me.

i have been advised to monitor and analyse how our new customer are brought in do you have a system how you monitor it i could take a look at.

i put out thousands of leaflets each month not sure on numbers as it varies

i am on all the free listing in our area, done pretty much everything you have i push a lot on facebook and it works for me

[Carl2009]

I use Roundtracker to organise my work. One function that it has is that you can designate a source for advertising method used, such as canvassing, approached whilst working etc. This is then automatically colllated to give a bar graph. The axis of the graph are number of customers on the Y axis and the advertising method used on the X. It's a simple job to read across.

In my opinion having a smart appearance, a clean, signwritten van and doing the best job you can for every custie builds the best business, but to gain new custies fast I just wouldn't bother with leafletting or employing canvassers. If I wanted more custies i'd just get out and knock doors on a Saturday between 10 and 4. Saying this I am a confident door knocker - I know it's not for everyone.

[richywilts]

i have no problem carl getting customers carl we have over 900 now but im trying to run my business this year to budgets for certain areas so im not overspending in on area then having to cut short in another

i would like to double in size this year by compacting the areas we already have which will prob have to be a mixture of leaflets and canvassing

[formb]

i have no problem carl getting customers carl we have over 900 now but im trying to run my business this year to budgets for certain areas so im not overspending in on area then having to cut short in another

i would like to double in size this year by compacting the areas we already have which will prob have to be a mixture of leaflets and canvassing

Leaflets have worked very well for us. We have lots of customers, reasonably well compacted. As they were never 'sold' our service (by that I mean that they contacted us, we never persuaded them when perhaps they were not bothered either way) we would have to do something seriously wrong before losing/not having enough customers became an issue.

If you just leaflet the streets you already do it takes very little extra time to do and you will end up with a very nicely compacted round. It is perhaps not the speediest process but for me it has worked a treat.

[richywilts]

yeah always get better prices to when someone comtacts you as you know theyre definately interested

how many customers do you have now

[formb]

We are sat at 3000. Have been for a couple of years now.

Not really in any rush to grow at the minute, we have other areas of our business which we are developing at the moment.

[richywilts]

jesus is there not many other companies up your way then to have 3000 what size area do you cover

[formb]

http://www.souterwindowcleaning.co.uk/index.aspx?pid=8

[jamie bennett]

3000 custies, how many men do you have working for you and also how many vans?

That is definately a customer base

[formb]

I have 9 window cleaners, 1 mechanic, 1 apprentice mechanic and me.

We have 5 kitted out Land Rovers. Number 6 should be on the road next week.

[richywilts]

how come you dont clean the coast line do they get rotten!!

[formb]

In Scotland we have to get licences from the council. We are licensed for Aberdeenshire central only. If we wanted to cover other areas we would need to apply to their councils for a license to clean in that area. Each person needs a license for each area, costs vary but somewhere around the £150 mark.

The coast covers 3 areas, Aberdeenshire North and south. And Aberdeen city.

That's £150 X 9 = £1350 X 3 = £4050.

[richywilts]

do you think thats why you have done so well getting so many customers coz it cuts out the tax dodgers working i

[roundbuilder]

3000 customers a month. I bet thats hard to manage. Fair play to you though.. A lot of effort has payed off.
Are you saying you have but up 3000 customers solely from leaflets?? If so how long has that took.

Cheers.

[formb]

do you think thats why you have done so well getting so many customers coz it cuts out the tax dodgers working

I don't think it has wiped the problem out completely. It is a difficult law to enforce. It has probably helped though.

3000 customers a month. I bet thats hard to manage. Fair play to you though.. A lot of effort has payed off.
Are you saying you have but up 3000 customers solely from leaflets?? If so how long has that took.

My dad started in 1992. When I started in 1999 there were around 600-700 customers.

It is difficult to give exact figures but if I was pushed I'd say about 85% have come solely from leaflets/being seen on the street. The rest is word of mouth and the website.

Also not all my customers get cleaned every month. Some are 4 weekly some 8 weekly.