[Deep Cleaning Solutions]

I rarely work for landlords and letting agents anymore even though I used to do most in my area. They have 0% loyalty, even if you do a great job and letting agents live in they're own bizarre little bubble, especially when it comes to payment!

[Danielson B]

Add other services that cost little or no money to carry out like garden tidy ups or deep cleans.

Very impressive story, mate. Thank you very much for your reality check.

What do you exactly mean by "deep cleans"? What areas of home interior should I focus on? How should I formulate my sales proposition?

Any clarification from you or anyone else will be most appreciated.

[Danielson B]

And what about offering general domestic cleaning services, some very basic carpet and upholstery cleaning inclusive? Could some cheap Aquarius be an asset to someone, who just wants to gross over £1,000 per month until he builds up his 250-ish window cleaning customer base?

[Danielson B]

Well, there are many very cheap shampoo, and maybe even dry foam, cleaning machines out here on the market. I know that shampoo cleaning or dry foam cleaning are inferior methods of carpet cleaning. They may be superficial and a lot of dirt stays in the carpet. But if I offer carpet and upholstery shampooing very cheap as an extra within my general domestic cleaning services - and at the same time carefully manage my customers' expectations - it may help get the pennies rolling in to me in the short time. Or am I wrong?

[Kinver_Clean]

Concentrate on one thing. Get that right and then maybe move on to carpets. You cannot easily set up ccing on a little money. Marketing will take most of your grand.
A few years ago a friend and I got 270 window cleaning customers in just over 2 months. It was a good earner as we only went to posh areas a little out of town.
Miles of walking pushing leaflets.

[Danielson B]

Concentrate on one thing. Get that right and then maybe move on to carpets. You cannot easily set up ccing on a little money. Marketing will take most of your grand.
A few years ago a friend and I got 270 window cleaning customers in just over 2 months. It was a good earner as we only went to posh areas a little out of town.
Miles of walking pushing leaflets.

It was a great achievement. But I only got 17 window cleaning customers in my first month. Miles of walking and pushing of leaflets. Yes, I may improve my way of canvassing, and I may even get few leads from my customers won by canvassing (last but not least, because I already promise them incentives for it). But I don't expect a rocket growth of my window cleaning customer base - if not for any other reason, then because the more customers I will have, the less time will remain for my canvassing.  To get to the point, when I easily earn over £1,000 every month, I need circa 200 - 250 customers. If I do nothing else than window cleaning and canvassing, it may theoretically take me up to 2 years. But practically, it will take less then a year to me to lose my van, get eviction from my landlord and get into a debt of up to £10,000.

[Simon Gerrard]

Landlords and letting agents can be a real pain to work for. They want top quality and super cheap prices and they take a cut off your invoice. So to tenants leaving properties at the end of their tenancy.
A guy near me cleaned an eot a few years ago and  soaked the carpets which then began to smell. In the end he had to replace them at a cost of about £1,500 because he wasn't insured, so insurance is important, so is training btw.
Nothing is quite as simple as it first appears.

Simon

[Danielson B]

Landlords and letting agents can be a real pain to work for. They want top quality and super cheap prices and they take a cut off your invoice. So to tenants leaving properties at the end of their tenancy.
A guy near me cleaned an eot a few years ago and  soaked the carpets which then began to smell. In the end he had to replace them at a cost of about £1,500 because he wasn't insured, so insurance is important, so is training btw.
Nothing is quite as simple as it first appears.

Simon

And OAPs plus working and lower middle class householders?

[Radek Jablonski]

Did you consider floor tile cleaning?
1000 will be enough to do it professionaly.
Wet vac new cost around 300-400, used cheaper, slow speed rotary used you will get for around 200. Rest you have to spend on pads, brushes etc.
Good to get training to be able to go for vinyl floors etc.
You will make easy 5 per sqm.

[*Hector*]

Not very often I agree with Radek....  but I have to in this case 

Any Tom, Dick and Harry sets up as a carpet cleaner, as they see it as a huge source of income for very little work.... Sorry to poo on the parade... but the days of spending half a day putting leaflets out, and then getting 7 or 8 jobs from them, are well and truly over........ these days for carpet cleaning you will be very lucky (even at the low end of the market..) to get a return of 1 job per 1000 leaflets... I used to aim at the low end when I was using HWE... and had more trouble there than the high end big money jobs...

The niche of hard floor cleaning may just get you some money, but not as much as target leafleting an area for window cleaning, and then knock the doors within 2 days of the leaflets...
Do that and you could be getting 5 - 8 new customers per night, within 4 months a round is up and running.
With carpets and hard floors, each customer may come back in a year... but more likely 3 years...

For what it is worth... I think you should concentrate on 1 facet of cleaning and not try to be a jack of all trades... the money will come in quicker that way, and the outgoings will not be nearly as high...

[Danielson B]

Did you consider floor tile cleaning?
1000 will be enough to do it professionaly.
Wet vac new cost around 300-400, used cheaper, slow speed rotary used you will get for around 200. Rest you have to spend on pads, brushes etc.
Good to get training to be able to go for vinyl floors etc.
You will make easy 5 per sqm.

Great idea, Radek!

[Danielson B]

Not very often I agree with Radek....  but I have to in this case 

Any Tom, Dick and Harry sets up as a carpet cleaner, as they see it as a huge source of income for very little work.... Sorry to poo on the parade... but the days of spending half a day putting leaflets out, and then getting 7 or 8 jobs from them, are well and truly over........ these days for carpet cleaning you will be very lucky (even at the low end of the market..) to get a return of 1 job per 1000 leaflets... I used to aim at the low end when I was using HWE... and had more trouble there than the high end big money jobs...

The niche of hard floor cleaning may just get you some money, but not as much as target leafleting an area for window cleaning, and then knock the doors within 2 days of the leaflets...
Do that and you could be getting 5 - 8 new customers per night, within 4 months a round is up and running.
With carpets and hard floors, each customer may come back in a year... but more likely 3 years...

For what it is worth... I think you should concentrate on 1 facet of cleaning and not try to be a jack of all trades... the money will come in quicker that way, and the outgoings will not be nearly as high...

Very valuable points, Hector. Thank you for them. So I may put the hard floor cleaning, along with - say - general deep cleaning of household, on my leaflet as well...

[Simon Gerrard]

Hector,
What about me, you haven't agreed with me for ages

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Hi Danielson B

I'm going to stick my oar in if you don't mind.

I don't know much about you apart from you  being in the South West and not having too much money behind you. I also cannot comment as others have done about building businesses as I constructed mine in a totally different fashion and which isn't really relevant to you. So do think about what the others are saying. But I can see you are doing that already.....

What I would comment on though is that you appear from your posts to be keen, realistic and polite. Your posts are well constructed and easy to read as well so I'm guessing you find it fairly easy to communicate/talk to people/write in "proper English".

That being the case and you are also brave enough and dogged enough to knock on doors then you will have an advantage over other tradespeople.

In any interaction with the public be polite, dress well, turn up on time and ALWAYS carry out what you say you are going to do so that expectations are managed. (Ie under promise and over achieve.)

If you have the right temperament then you should be able to get away from competing purely on price. By listening to clients/prospective clients you will be able to find out what they consider important (and to be able to rank these considerations). After a little while you can start to control conversations, ask the prospective client what they want, and then be able to deliver it so that pricing doesn't become the be all and end all of whether you get the job.

For example for some clients aspects which are more important than price can include:

     turning up on time
    completing the job quickly (whilst not cutting corners)
    undertaking the job at a time that is most suitable for the client (even if that time is inconvenient for you) (You did want that      profitable job didn't you!)
    explaining what the job involves (so that the client gets a better appreciation of why you price the job the way that you do)
    breaking down an overall price so that the client understands how you came to the final figure)
   etc etc

Anyway, best of luck and I hope you reach critical mass of work, by whichever methods you choose to you before your money runs out.

Rog

[*Hector*]

Hector,
What about me, you haven't agreed with me for ages

myth off Simon...

 

[Danielson B]

Hi Danielson B

I'm going to stick my oar in if you don't mind.

I don't know much about you apart from you  being in the South West and not having too much money behind you. I also cannot comment as others have done about building businesses as I constructed mine in a totally different fashion and which isn't really relevant to you. So do think about what the others are saying. But I can see you are doing that already.....

What I would comment on though is that you appear from your posts to be keen, realistic and polite. Your posts are well constructed and easy to read as well so I'm guessing you find it fairly easy to communicate/talk to people/write in "proper English".

That being the case and you are also brave enough and dogged enough to knock on doors then you will have an advantage over other tradespeople.

In any interaction with the public be polite, dress well, turn up on time and ALWAYS carry out what you say you are going to do so that expectations are managed. (Ie under promise and over achieve.)

If you have the right temperament then you should be able to get away from competing purely on price. By listening to clients/prospective clients you will be able to find out what they consider important (and to be able to rank these considerations). After a little while you can start to control conversations, ask the prospective client what they want, and then be able to deliver it so that pricing doesn't become the be all and end all of whether you get the job.

For example for some clients aspects which are more important than price can include:

     turning up on time
    completing the job quickly (whilst not cutting corners)
    undertaking the job at a time that is most suitable for the client (even if that time is inconvenient for you) (You did want that      profitable job didn't you!)
    explaining what the job involves (so that the client gets a better appreciation of why you price the job the way that you do)
    breaking down an overall price so that the client understands how you came to the final figure)
   etc etc

Anyway, best of luck and I hope you reach critical mass of work, by whichever methods you choose to you before your money runs out.

Rog

Dear Rog

You can really boost one's confidence. I especially appreciate your remark about my English. But I've also got a strong East-European accent, which I consider a significant drawback in my canvassing efforts. It might be also a strong reason for me to do my best to be able to offer as many services as possible to anyone willing to talk to me over 20 sec 

Thanks for your encouragement anyway.

[Simon Gerrard]

Why don't you think of cleaning, upvc gutters, conservatories,  facicias drives,  paths and patios.

Simon

[Robin Ray]

There are canvasing services out there which will build a round for you if worry about canvassing. Having said that from my experience of eastern Europeans in general they seem a lot harder working than many English so I personally wouldn't view it as an obstacle.

[Danielson B]

Why don't you think of cleaning, upvc gutters, conservatories,  facicias drives,  paths and patios.

Simon

Of course I do. But within my first month of canvassing, I've been shown only one conservatory.

[Tadgh O Shea]

Hi Danielson B

I'm going to stick my oar in if you don't mind.

I don't know much about you apart from you  being in the South West and not having too much money behind you. I also cannot comment as others have done about building businesses as I constructed mine in a totally different fashion and which isn't really relevant to you. So do think about what the others are saying. But I can see you are doing that already.....

What I would comment on though is that you appear from your posts to be keen, realistic and polite. Your posts are well constructed and easy to read as well so I'm guessing you find it fairly easy to communicate/talk to people/write in "proper English".

That being the case and you are also brave enough and dogged enough to knock on doors then you will have an advantage over other tradespeople.

In any interaction with the public be polite, dress well, turn up on time and ALWAYS carry out what you say you are going to do so that expectations are managed. (Ie under promise and over achieve.)

If you have the right temperament then you should be able to get away from competing purely on price. By listening to clients/prospective clients you will be able to find out what they consider important (and to be able to rank these considerations). After a little while you can start to control conversations, ask the prospective client what they want, and then be able to deliver it so that pricing doesn't become the be all and end all of whether you get the job.

For example for some clients aspects which are more important than price can include:

     turning up on time
    completing the job quickly (whilst not cutting corners)
    undertaking the job at a time that is most suitable for the client (even if that time is inconvenient for you) (You did want that      profitable job didn't you!)
    explaining what the job involves (so that the client gets a better appreciation of why you price the job the way that you do)
    breaking down an overall price so that the client understands how you came to the final figure)
   etc etc

Anyway, best of luck and I hope you reach critical mass of work, by whichever methods you choose to you before your money runs out.

Rog

Dear Rog

You can really boost one's confidence. I especially appreciate your remark about my English. But I've also got a strong East-European accent, which I consider a significant drawback in my canvassing efforts. It might be also a strong reason for me to do my best to be able to offer as many services as possible to anyone willing to talk to me over 20 sec 

Thanks for your encouragement anyway.

Hi Danielson B,  yes you do seem to have the right attitude to go far in this industry, if your looking to offer as many services as possible which is a good idea, you don't require big budgets to earn good money in this industry trust me, send me an email to info@jskcleaning.ie and i will send you information under no obligation on ways of making good money from offering different types of cleaning services to your customers.  Tadgh