[paul wright]

this is the calm before the storm !!  come back to this post in months time

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

The glass is half full

No Jim

Neither is the glass half-empty. We've all just got the wrong sized glass to start with!

Roger

[bennymon]

hi folks im having my best year ever so far  but this week has been slow and next week ive not got a single job booked in

[Shaun_Ashmore]

John,

They won't take shillings at the bank anymore but you should be OK as the Government are guaranteeing all of that money in the bank you have got.

Shame about Iceland they are going bust so try and get some frozen stuff before they do!

Shaun

[clinton]

Am sure there was a post in around march this year on when we all went quiet

Least we know its most of us that are quiet period before the run up to xmas and it will pick up for us all

[Barry Livingstone]

no one ever tells the truth about being busy on this thing and they never have done over the years

The post was asking if anyone else slowed down and most say as per normal on this no way busy as ever......yeah rite you cant fool all the people all the time ....
 

[Jim_77]

  The posts I've read seem to be mostly people agreeing that it's a little slow at the moment.

Of course there are always one or two who say they're rushed off their feet 24/7, 365 days a year and barely have time to scratch their arse.  Maybe they are, maybe they're not, I don't know :

[Shaun_Ashmore]

I have been busy all year, this is the quietist the phone has been but today it picked up and Monday was good but it is quieter but I am still busy apart from 1 slot on Friday that won't fill for love nor money, may even do my Mum's lounge carpet as the slot is at dinnertime and you know what that means!

Shaun

[Dave_Lee]

Busiest week of the year by far last week, quiet in comparrison this week.
Dave.

[suffolkclean]

I've noticed a big difference in the last 10 days, hardly any phonecalls. It was like this last October started to get a bit worried then in November it picked up and was flat out til Christmas.

I definetely think people are thinking 'oh lets wait til nearer christmas'. Although things may pick up with interest rate cuts few pound less on the mortgage??

Barbara

[carlton care]

Just lost one of the few commercial clients I'd kept on..................Singers and Friedlander, I didn't realise they were part of an Icelandic Bank.

Ah, well, it's the only city centre office I had left and the only place I've had parking tickets in recent years.

robert m

[kinder clean]

Question for Jim Neal, Mark Powell and Doctor Carpet

What internet presence do you guys have? do you have websites or advertise with yell.com?

I can't compare to you guys who are all well established but just wanted to say as a relativly new business, I do get a good response from the internet, been fully booked this week.

Also I'm sure something else that makes a difference is the radius your willing to cover, I'm personally willing to travel and by appearing "local" to all these more distant areas with your marketing your net will become larger thus increasing your call rate, only 3 of the jobs booked in for this week are within 5 miles of my home.

Paul

[Jim_77]

I have a website and also have used advertising with yell.com in the last couple of years.

I have a ServiceMaster franchise, and supposedly the national website ( www.servicemaster.co.uk ) was being pushed a year or two ago but basically I think they hired the Chuckle Brothers to do the SEO, it's nowhere.  I get naff all from it, don't know about other SM franchisees.

I threw up a one-page website of my own about 3½ years ago and haven't done diddly squat with it since!  It still gets me work, believe it or not.  It's got a favicon though!!!!

Up until very recently, I was the only business round here who bothered to list himself on google maps, which did occasionally get me a call or two.... but now I think they've all caught on, so obviously my market share's gone down on that front.

Unlike some other areas, I'm convinced that my target market in my area aren't as switched over to the net as in some other places.  I do still get a decent return on my directory ads (YP & Thomson) unlike others who've stopped them because they've become unprofitable.... whether that's because they've been running huge full colour ads or whether they've had no calls from their ads I don't know, but my ads are monochrome and not big and they return many times their value so I'm happy with that.

Yell.com is a bit of a funny one, it is extremely variable.  Last June I bought a single 12 month priority listing based on my home postcode, it cost me 180 bucks and returned a respectable percentage.  This year they've put it up to £240 but I wanted to place myself in the two other main towns I cover, so I've added on two more additional listings using postcodes of two flooring suppliers I work for, one in each town.  The additional listings cost me £85 each so my total spend is £410.

I'm getting a few calls, but the quality isn't great.  I'll only review it after 12 months, it's been running only three so I won't pass judgement either way yet.

I do most of my work within a fairly small radius as my franchise licence is territory-based.  I live towards the south-east corner of my area though, so some of my jobs are a 20-30 minute drive in morning traffic.  The ones furthest away are in the most affluent area though so it does make up for it.  Myself and the previous two franchisees have all been based in the same place, literally within 500 yards of each other, so local business is very strong, I do many jobs within literally a 2 minute drive of my house.

[ianharper]

Guys

With respect

what are you doing to protect you and your family if there is a down turn? get creative think of new CHEAP ways to bring in work. what can you do that you don't do now to get a job?

lets not forget that the experts say if its happens it will not last forever. I for one want to come out the other side.

In times like these we need to take on cleaning contacts. business will be looking to save money its your chance to show them some value.

Business what to be more competitive and attractive. having a clean building will help more than a dirty one.

People want value for money. by giving them more than others will get you the job when the phone rings.

Its the law of the jungle.

Respect and good luck

Ian Harper

[Gary Webber]

I agree with Ian,

every situation creates opportunities, its wether you can see them. Domestic clients need to hear how cleaning thie carpets will SAVE them having to replace them and commercial clients the same thing with a twist on image (work on clean building etc).

Sometimes it takes working in your business rather than waiting for the phone to ring!

Gary

[maxcarpets]

This is very true I added a slogan along these lines to my advertising and this made a big difference

[markpowell]

Question for Jim Neal, Mark Powell and Doctor Carpet

What internet presence do you guys have? do you have websites or advertise with yell.com?

I can't compare to you guys who are all well established but just wanted to say as a relativly new business, I do get a good response from the internet, been fully booked this week.

Also I'm sure something else that makes a difference is the radius your willing to cover, I'm personally willing to travel and by appearing "local" to all these more distant areas with your marketing your net will become larger thus increasing your call rate, only 3 of the jobs booked in for this week are within 5 miles of my home.

Hi Paul,
I dont have a website, i have had no need for one. however next year i will be jumping in with both feet and spending half of our marketing budget on them.
I have used Yell.com up until July this year, a complete waste of money. I also used 118247 Yells directory service never had 1 call from that neither.
I do use the YP though and will continue to i do get around 30% of all work from this.
We get approx 30% of work from local parish magazines and leaflets, then the rest from repeat custom and referrals. I try to keep all jobs within a 10 mile radius if possible.
Mark


Paul