[richy27]

Any other newbies finding it slow this jan

Been marketing my company as best i can do ads in papers, ads in advertisers free mags leaflets etc and lots of direct mailing to businesss etc but nothin movin i knew jan was goin to be quiet but its like alaska. anyone else in the same boat

[Joe H]

I found Jan 08 was much better then previous years. Why I dont know.
This year it has gone back to being pretty quiet. Started off ok but phone has gone dead.

Did get a call on Friday teatime. Lady wanted the 1st and 2nd floor carpets cleaned in modern 3 stiry house.
She said would I like to come and see. Yes I said.
Before I put you to the trouble could you give me a guide line price.
Gave her an estimate, and she was shocked it was so expensive.

After selling my service some more she said she appreciated what I explained and understood my charges.
Then she said  the price is ok but it is too soon after xmas, will give you a call in couple of months.

So maybe witht e recession, many have spent the money on the lead up to xmas (I had a good December) and now need to recoup a bit.
It will come to you but may take few weeks or more.

[Jim_77]

I've been pleasingly busy this month, and already have over a grand's worth of work booked in for next.  This is either side of a short holiday spanning the turn of the month too!

I feel guilty for saying this, but I haven't done any marketing for weeks!  The first marketing I've done this year was today when I delivered two lots of neighbour nudgers around the jobs I did.

Lots of repeats, and some nice referrals.  I guess it's just a case of riding the storm through your first few years and doing your utmost to make them want you back again.

Chin up, and keep up the highest possible standards.  If you're worth it your customers will use you again and recommend you.

P.S. STOP wasting money on newspaper and magazine adverts!!  Cut all advertising out of your marketing mix and focus on direct marketing.  Touch people directly with leaflets & flyers on a regular basis and keep writing to your database.  Start your newspaper adverts again when you are driving a Merc and you have money to burn before the tax man gets hold of it.  You're just making your local media firms richer whilst you remain poor.

[gmccleaning]

this has been my best start to the year sofar (im a part time c/c) ,have always wanted to go full time if it keeps up looking good,im sitting with about £1200 worth of work to do in the next 4 weeks and im quoting for a caravan site on monday(5 caravans + 3 lodges every sat morning holiday cleans)

              george gmccleaning

[clinton]

Joe

I aslo had about 6 price shopers last week.

Got one of the jobs mind you :

Thankfully i have a lot of regulars so doing a top job for them and also the same for my recs too

It has been much busier than i thought too was thinking it was going to be quiet.

Picked up a large commercial job near me to do in the newx week or so and that will help 

Got leaflets going out next week not thousands but some so see how they go.

Jims right i would not waste money on local paper adverts etc as me to thinks it will deliver very little return

[sherco]

As im new to carpet cleaning, and i need too earn £200 per day to run my buisness, im just glad i have my tiling work at the moment as im booked up for 6 weeks doing that and i only have one £90.00 cc job for next week, i think cc will come when weather gets a bit better. 

[M.Acorn]

Been rubbish for me,3 jobs this last week ! 2 of them are 28 days for payment,usually do a £750 com job in jan but did that in Nov as she had vip`s in,and another £350 house i do every jan has had new carpets throughout  too quiet.
Starting to worry a lot about my outstanding £1200 for the rest of my tax bill.
Got 1 job booked for Feb and a couple of people to call Monday

[derek west]

local paper adverts have served me well, there cheap and i get work from them which leads to referals, pound for pound they make me money, i'll admit i'm getting nothing off them since new year but they will start working again.
if your funds are tight then i would say ditch them for a month or two cos like sherco says, the work should start trickling in when the weather picks up. i'm gonna keep up my paper adds and i'll let you know when i start getting work from them again, no advertising at the moment is bringing work in, if you read some of the threads on here, its all repeats and referals. even leaflets arnt doing it for me right now but i'll try again mid feb.
like jim says, we have to ride the storm for a few years till we are in a position to get by on repeats and referals when the need arises. but if you can afford it, keep up the advertising that works, (even though it may not in jan) every job is a referal for the future.


personally i'm doing nothing this month, which is ok with me as my wife is back in hospital and my 2 year old was sick all last night and this morning so ive got other worries, i think the majority of newbies will be in the same boat so don't get paranoid, your doing nothing wrong and things should be back to normal quite soon,
hope this eases your worries.

Neil Eric Body

[neil 47]

sherco

Do you think that maybe your tiling work will hold you back from your cc side ever getting bigger that it is,

This could be due to the fact that every time you have time to work on your cc business you do tiling.

If you look on this forum the vast majority of cc that are really successful only do one thing and stick to that .

The ones that are up and down seem to have other side lines.

Just a thought




Neil

Ps   £200 per day x 5 day week  £4000 every 20 days   =  over £14000
 

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

It is often forgotten that it takes a long time to establish a CC business, you guys are luckier than us oldies who had to learn everything by trial and error, you have this forum !

I had many Jans where I hated my useless, quiet CC business but I decided to change that and I have , mainly through perseverance and hard work.

My internet prescence is so strong now, that I get lots of enquiries and once youv'e done it , maintaining is simple and quick.

All other advertising is largely transitory, the internet isn't.

Cheers

Doug

[Mike Halliday]

Doug I asked this question on another topic but you might not have seen it.

are you so successful with the internet because you have 120 sites which are all linking to each other so keeping you high in the free listing of google etc?

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Mike

I did answer.

I am successful for lots of reasons , far more than I have the time to type with two fingers !

Links are important , so are url names, so are key words, so is age of site etc.

Linking to other sites is how all the SEO 'experts' get good rankings.

Cheers

Doug

[Mike Halliday]

sorry mate must have missed your answer.

the reason I ask is I'm now entering the modern world and getting a website

but to be truthful I don't want to be putting up post asking for people for links to get my website up to the top of search engines, I was wondering if there was another way.

(this is a statement not a question so don't be using your 2 finger to give a lengthy reply )

[clinton]

Hi doug

I have noticed since i took one of your sites am also no1 on google for my cheshire site is that to do with your links as am sure it is

[Aquakleen Restoration Services]

Well up on last year but ive hardly been killing myself. Was let down by my leafleter so have now gone with Amaro a pro NE based leaflet firm who are starting to deliver my leaflets this week. Been doing about 200 a day which takes me about an hour to do. Not a sniff as of yet but saying that ive only done about 400!! haha Got a quote at a college tomorrow which could be worth around a grand so fingers crossed.

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

Mike , I'm afraid you either have to get links or pay someone else to link in.

For example you could give me 50K and I will link all my sites to yours   

Clinton, probably a coincidence , depends on what linking you have done.

Cheers

Doug

[sherco]

sherco

Do you think that maybe your tiling work will hold you back from your cc side ever getting bigger that it is,

This could be due to the fact that every time you have time to work on your cc business you do tiling.

If you look on this forum the vast majority of cc that are really successful only do one thing and stick to that .

The ones that are up and down seem to have other side lines.

Just a thought




Neil

Ps   £200 per day x 5 day week  £4000 every 20 days   =  over £14000
 

I know what you mean, but if i turned my tiling work away at the moment, i would be broke waiting for cc jobs to come in. Even guys who have been in the job years are struggling cc at the moment.

[Mike Halliday]

I'm finding it the same as I always do slow, still working every day but sometimes home for dinner.

just getting some reminder cards printed, normally i rely on leaflet to remind existing customer but looking through my diary there are a few recommend who don't live in my leaflet area so I'm going to send them a card.

this is the proof I've made a few alterations but the look is the same

[derek west]

mike
i like it alot.
permission to use in future and alter accordingly. please
neil eric body

[Mike Halliday]

I had a professional cartoon artist draw that about 5yrs ago, if you can find a use for the picture feel free to use

I've had 5000 of them printed for £124 by DP design (any less and you hardly save any money) they have the mastercopy.

Mrk told me its one of his best sellers and is constantly re-ordered by the carpet cleaners who use it, so it must work (even though I think it looks a bit cheesy)

ps; I corrected the spelling mistakes before ordering