[Spot On cleaning]

Yes Red

Stick with your name. People remember it. I thought about changing but decided against it. How long you been trading?

Dave.

[Shaun_Ashmore]

In the real world the more you pay the more privelidged position you should get, like at the opera if you want gallery seats you have to pay a premium.

Watch out in the next YP books as you can advertise how cheap you are by putting prices in!!

Carpet cleaning £1.25 a house

Shaun

[the red carpet]

done my first job 14th sep so just over 5 months
funny enough done my books last night and im £5000 behind
so a word of warning to newcomers make sure you have a couple quid in the bank as the first couple months are tough (very tough)
but thankfully the last 2 months iv turned a profit so things are looking up
and by the end of my first year i will be turning over a decent wage

[the red carpet]

Shaun
i have to agree
dont thompsons work like this?

[BRSL]

done my first job 14th sep so just over 5 months
funny enough done my books last night and im £5000 behind
so a word of warning to newcomers make sure you have a couple quid in the bank as the first couple months are tough (very tough)
but thankfully the last 2 months iv turned a profit so things are looking up
and by the end of my first year i will be turning over a decent wage 

Hi Dan you sound a bit like the same as me 

James

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Tompson's do but try not to advertise in it if you want to save some money.

I think I'll give YP another year and then it's going, my database keeps me going well and the odd advert in a local rag will probably keep me in the forefront of local peoples minds.

If you are focussed you can pick work up as you walk and talk.

Shaun

PS I don't mean like Don Atkinson neither, ah good old Don where is he ?

[the red carpet]

shaun
my plan is to do anything and everything that at least pays for itself and turns a small profit for the first year or so and then slowly cut it down.

within a few years i hope to just live of regulary marketing my database of existing customers
and only really market if i want to employ staff or expand
i think after 3 years i will be able to look after myself just from repeats and referalls

james
im nothing like you mate
you have a big van a big t/m and earn fortunes
im just a humble cc scraping a living

[BRSL]

Hi Dan why do you think im running a bit behind 

Well good luck mate I know how hard it is 

James

[Shaun_Ashmore]

Red why don't you hand deliver leaflets door to door?

You will meet and greet customers you will get a greater response as you can designate to where they go to and they will be solus as this will give you the best response.

Also it'll cost you next to nowt, print leaflets from your computer a hunred at a time, as you talk to your customers you then get an idea of what they are looking for (be prepared to listen NOT you telling the story) then adapt the leaflet and let it evolve so you get even greater response so you get more work and less leaflet delivery.

Shaun

[the red carpet]

you to James
i think you and me both have come to the point where we have no choice but to sucseed in this venture
plenty come and go in this buisness
but i do personally think me and you are hear to stay
if your gonna go its gonna be in the first couple months and from what i gather most do
youve either got it or you aint
once you get over the first couple months it can only get better
after that you come to a point were you have invested so much time effort and money into it you have no choice but to carry on
i am now turning a small profit and the repeats and the referralls are starting to creep through so i know im in for the long haul
hope your in the same position
heres to many years of cc'ing and collecting that money

dan

[the red carpet]

Shaun
to date about 50,000 done myself solus
1000 yesterday
plus about 15-20 thousand through distribution firms, though in my opinion most have ended up in a lake or on a skip
all my work to date has been leaflets

prob is
when your working you cant deliver
and everytime i get someone else to deliver my response rate drops bigtime
without a doubt this is the best form of advertising but i need to get about 5000 out a week and it just dont seem possible
thats were the y/p comes in

[John Kelly]

Shaun

Regarding putting prices in YP. can't you do that now. In ours which came out last July there isn't anyone in the cleaners section but in the drain cleaning theres a couple advertising drain cleaning for £25.

[david_m]

   hi there all

 i do the yp every year makes a small profit every year

 just wondering do any of you get discount from them
 i keep asking them but keep getting told that they are not allowed to
 any tips on getting discount would be great.

   davy

[the red carpet]

John, no one does in mine (prices)
but saying that the first offer in at least 3 years has come out in this issue (get one carpet cleaned and the second half price)
rubbish ad though thankfully
if i had of known you could print offers i would have taken a big pro looking half page ad and out pulled everyone
thers no beating a pro ad with offers its the best of both worlds

[Spot On cleaning]

Red

Try this mate. Post leaflets for 2 days, say Mon,Tues. Work Wed,Thus,Frithen Mon,Tues of next week.

Post Wed,Thu,   Work Fri,Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu and so on. This way you are posting for 2 days in seven. It works for me.

If you posted the same two days every week, you couldn't satisfy the customer who is off on certain week days only. In other words if a custy wants work done on a wed and its your posting day, tell her wed of the following week. She will probably think you are busy and this is what you sometimes want.

If you work weekends as well, change this system. In 2 days on the right housing estate, you could get 2000 leaflets out, x 2 people. This what my wife and i do.

It took me three years with an Extracta Excel, to buy a new truck mout and fairrly new van, and if you really want it go and get it son.

When i was made redundant in 2002 after 12 years, i was lucky having 5 kids with the working tax. Other people are lucky cos their wives work. The less i earn, the more working tax, hence a truck mount.

Stick at it

Dave

[the red carpet]

Dave, trouble is
to be content i want £1000 a week on a 5 day week, £200 a day wich i do get when im working
trouble is its taking 5000 leaflets to achive that
and theres no way i can do a 5 day week and 5000 leaflets
i will get there its just finding reliable leaflet distrubutors (hardest part of this buisness) imo
so i just do the leaflets when i can, i find it best not to mess customers about if they want it done on a particualer day theres usually a reason ie. day of work, so i just work with them and leaflet in my spare time
plus i would rather do half a day on the tools and half a day doing leaflets, as a whole day doing leaflets kills me its the worst job in the world.
saying that a whole day cleaning kills me
i guess im just lazy

i have a team of semi retired gentlemen doing my leaflets for me, with 3 or 4 others
cheap but slow, not as good response as solo but worth the money £12.50-£20.00 a thousand depending on area

[Spot On cleaning]

Red

We found that if we didn't religiously leaflet, our worked dipped, so why do a job for say £30 when you could be leafleting. In other words forgo the money.

The biggest problem for me was old customers. In 3 and a half years, iv'e had about 900 customers, and they come back expecting the price to be relatively the same. I walk away now whereas in the past i wanted the money so i took the money.

The less you charge, the more customers you need. I thought you lived in a nice exclusive area. Many people may think i am paranoid sometimes on this forum about the observers, and i would ask you this question.

Do you know who your opposition are, do you collect leaflets from other ccs from customers like i did, do you know their equipment and what their costs are?
This information is very important. You need to know your strengths and weaknesses before you can put a strategy together.

Dave

[the red carpet]

i live in prob one of the best ares you could find
but i market my services as top quality services that are value for money i dont feel comftable charging the earth, as i know at my prices i can earn £200-£300 a day with a portable
and still come in cheaper than a lot of competitors, which to be honest im happy with
if and when i get to a stage that i have enough work to satisfy myself
i will think about upgrading my equipment and or taking on staff

i would say i come in the mid range price bracket in my area, theres allways gonna be the franchises and the fasttrackers charging the earth and theres allways gonna be the splash and dash £10 a room, i cater for everyone in between wich in my opinion is the biggest market.
and probably the market wich generates the most repeats and referalls
 

[Spot On cleaning]

Do you have a good leaflet?

[the red carpet]

i would like to think so
very good quality but i suppose its what you print that matters
have never put the same design out twice, i allways monitor response and try to make changes and improve
they have got better everytime bar one (funny enough the one with a picture of me on it)
i think the latest one is the best yet only put out 1000 so far yesterday
booked in one job £68 lounge and stairs, and beat this i posted a leaflet through a house were my pal happened to be working decorating (he lives about 5 miles away) and he had just spilled half a tin of emulsion in his car so i ended up sucking that up for half hour for nothing