[Cowan]

Hello All

www.drivewaycleaningedinburgh.co.uk

I just started this business in May and after a good 1st 2 months work is lacking!  I have started part time keeping my full time job with the intention on making my business my full time job.

If you have a spare 5 minutes to have a look over my home made website and give any feedback (positive and especially negative) that would be amazing!

Also it would be extremely helpful if someone would be willing to offer me some helpful general advice/possibly mentoring.  It would be appreciated if a similar business, not too close so there is not a conflict of intertest, so that i can call if i get stuck for advice on sealers, weedkiller etc.

I realise this is a huge ask and any help no matter how small would be great.

Thanks in advance

Gavin.

[Jay Cleverley]

website looks ok mate, well done!  Like the way you get visitors to look at your gallery, clever.

To get a better ranking in google and other search engines get links from other sites back to yours.  Don't pay for anything, just find out about submitting to directories, making blog comments and forum signature links, and also make sure all the words you want to be found for are actually in the text of your website somewhere.

Jay

[neil kellett]

Its a tough one to sell in the current climate, its like the oven cleaning market, gone to the dogs. All of the drive ways are going to bits, everyone can see it. Theres gonna be huge work there if theres an up turn. (not that there is gonna be ) .
Its a summer gig too, you gotta push in feb march to get the calls coming in during the summer, the block pavings gotta be bone dry before you apply the sand and sealer.
Sand it first then spray on the first coat ( this locks in the sand)and then roll on the second coat, north south east west. Don't push the weed killer part to the custy, there is a well known phraze "I fought the weeds and the weeds won".
The weeds will come back, tell the custy this and don't attempt to over sell it.
Its a good add on if you have the windows already but it is gonna be a slow burner. There is a full package for sale in the equipment section including an FLC. Thats what can happen if you go in half cocked and don't research the marked, the gear ends up on the second hand market in twelve months time.

I gather youv'e been on the pressure washing coach website. Also try lowes /videos driveway sealing.

[johnny bravo]

very good detailed web site,    get flyers in shops    on gumtree and all free classified websites.      paper adverts a rip of.      where did you get pressure washer and equipment from . good price,   what spec,   keep driving van slowly  on weekends or leave in     main  supermarket carpark  on sunday,   get noticed. good luck,   very slow to get established,      let local authorities know of your services, you have a good gallery on show.  builders merchants for sand..

[APWS]

nice site mate,
one bit of advice try to talk your custy's out of sealing (unless it's p.i.c) more hassel than it's worth if not done properly, convince them washing & sanding once a year is better and cheaper.

[first impressions]

yes its hard i started 6 years ago with drives but at to add other services , so keep pushing drives and when u have spare money add other services take alook and c what u could add on hope this helps and all the best

[Cowan]

Thanks a lot Jay, Neil, Johnny, APWS & First Impressions.

Really appreciate all your comments and advice, know how busy everyones lifes can be so thanks for taking 10 minutes out to pass on your comments.

Its all taken onboard and will try to keep everyone up to date with the business as it hopefully grows.

Gavin.

[Alan McTernan]

I started out part time in 06. Went full time begining of 07. So know how you feel.

If ever you want any advice just give me a call 07739 535648. If no answer leave a message and i will get back as soon as!!!

Regards
Alan

[BDCS]

I'm full time but ideally would like to be part time

[Alan McTernan]

I'm full time but ideally would like to be part time

I'm currently part time cleaning, full time running around like a headless chicken 

[Cliff Horne]

Gavin,

The best way I've found to drum up work is by building a database of potential customers that you can send out letters to, I have done this for tennis court owners, I have around 500 owners on mine, I send out letters (via mail merge) to all approx every 3 months, so far it has kept me averaging about £650 per week (two to three days) since Feb when I started this business, not enough yet but hopefully with other forms of advertising and additional services I can build up from this, building a database took me most of two months research and typing.

I will be adding gutter vac in Sept and I,m also in negotiations with a national tennis court builder to clean there customers courts in the South West.

It makes sense to set yourself targets (business plan) my target for next year is four days per week averaging £250 per day 40 weeks per year, 40k pa gross, not to ambitious I hope, I would be happy with 20k plus for wages as I'm knocking on 59 with no mortgage.

Regards
Cliff

[Rick Ward]

Gavin I'd forget the pressure washing and go into doing websites, very impressed how much do you charge

[drive surgeon]

cliff you can make more than 250 per day especially if your doing tennis courts. the court and surrounding area is over 400 m2 so at even £1 a sq metre thats 400 quid at least. but you could do them for 350 if you need the work.

[Cliff Horne]

DS

I charge from £375 (have charged as much as £950) per court (552m2 to 648m2) I can do a court in as little as 6 hours, most take a full day but I only work from 9am till 4pm on site, dont like to do them in one day tho as client thinks your ripping them off, if there not there I dont hang about.

Regards
Cliff

[drive surgeon]

cool!   yeah we did 16 tennis courts in a month charging over £500 for each one as they were full of moss. the most we have charged was £1200 as it was heavily soiled. some people are too cheap with their prices it just epends on how desperate they are.

[Cowan]

Alan - Thanks for the offer of your phone number and the offer of any advice that i may need.  I will no doubt take you up on this generous offer.

Cliff - That is great advice and something that I will certainly look into.  I would love to find out more on how you managed to build up your data base of tennis court owners.  If you could PM me any wee bits of advice on how to track down tennis court owners local to me that would be amazing.  Thanks again.

Rich - Until i started this businss i had no previous experience building websites.  I used a web hosting company, 1 and 1.  Bought the domain name and used one of their web templates and adjusted it to suit.  Took about 2 days to built and adjust it.  If you need any help or advice just give me a shout, would be happy to help.

Thanks all

[Cliff Horne]

Gavin

Email sent

Cliff

[Cowan]

Cheers Cliff

As i said to you before you have been more than helpful, much appreciated mate

[Kingnewport]

Hi, I'm thinking of "dipping" my toes into driveway cleaning, but trying to read as much as I can into it first. I just wondered how much insurence is and what weed killer do you use befor cleaning drives. Cheers ( sorry if I'm hijacking your thread)

[Alan McTernan]

Hi, I'm thinking of "dipping" my toes into driveway cleaning, but trying to read as much as I can into it first. I just wondered how much insurence is and what weed killer do you use befor cleaning drives. Cheers ( sorry if I'm hijacking your thread)

Make sure the water is nice and warm otherwise i find my toe gets cold