[jamesjames]

Hi all, can any one share any marketing strategies with me! I do the neighbour  letters as advised my Mat at Cleansmart, he also gave me the referal idea too but I'm not sure exactly what to do there yet! any ideas would be great.
Regards
James

[cleanability]

Rite here we go. Ads in yellow pages and thomson. Leaflets if u got the time. Reminder cards to previous customers about a year-18months after u visited them. Maybe calenders at xmas. Obviously business cards.
Forget about med centre appointment cards, they were a disaster 4me. Forget the red/pink emergency phone card thingys, waste of money.
 AND A VERY VERY VERY BIG BIT OF ADVICE........TAKE EVERYTHING THE EXPERTS  GIVE YOU ON HERE WITH A PINCH OF SALT. They are a wealth of knowledge but in the real world they can be way far of the mark on many things.

Chris

[Mike Halliday]

your right Chris because the 'experts' on here live in........... where exactly,

 la-la land?

the key is to know who the real 'experts' are and not the wannabees

James send reminder cards every 4-6 months, because unless you cleaned the full house they will have other carpets to clean or could just give the card to a friend or relative

Mike

[Damian]

Who are the experts then? 

[Fibreclean]

Rite here we go. Ads in yellow pages and thomson. Leaflets if u got the time. Reminder cards to previous customers about a year-18months after u visited them. Maybe calenders at xmas. Obviously business cards.
Forget about med centre appointment cards, they were a disaster 4me. Forget the red/pink emergency phone card thingys, waste of money.
 AND A VERY VERY VERY BIG BIT OF ADVICE........TAKE EVERYTHING THE EXPERTS  GIVE YOU ON HERE WITH A PINCH OF SALT. They are a wealth of knowledge but in the real world they can be way far of the mark on many things.

Chris

Forget this and forget that... blimy he'll have nothing left to do. What may not have worked for you may work well for him.

Your end comments are beyond belief......

[cleanability]

I'll tell you whats beyond belief. Ppl on this site supposedly charging £60 £70 £80 and hour and fully booked until October November. Must be millionaires by now. It just dont happen in the real world with a sole trader working from home.

Chris

[dave401uk]

Oh yes it does  ,,,,,,,,,,

Work at it, it wont come to you, you have to "throw the stones to break the windows"

[Ian Gourlay]

Chris,

If you think someone is not giving good information, you should speak up.

It gets more interesting when we have a good debate as long as it is kept polite.

[the red carpet]

I wouldnt disbelive that theres a good few on here getting £60 £70 £80 a hour, and booked up way in advance.

I think thats realistic after a couple years hard work. Actually i think thats quite easy if your established in your area.

Im getting £40 a hour and booked up a couple of weeks in advance, and i havent even reached the end of my first year yet.

[davep]

How many hours do you work Red Carpet? 

[craigp]

thats the point actual cleaning might only be from 1 hour to 4 hours a day, thats cleaning carpets theres driving on top plus that does not mean i only work 1 to 4 hours a day theres plenty of things to do, and delivering leaflets i get £0.00 an hour, so these high hourly rates should be taken in context.

£70 per hour does not mean £70 x 8 hour day x 5 days a week!!!

there are very very very few rich carpet cleaners!!

lets be realistic, to many newbies on here with pound signs in there eyes.

[calmore]

I wouldn't claim to be an expert, far from it. However, Iwouldn't discount any ideas that anyone comes up with either!

What works for me may not work for you. What works for you, might not work for someone around the corner etc, etc

The trick is to experiment and try ALL forms of marketing. If something works you can then refine it to make it work better. If a particular strategy fails you can forget it.

[Ian Gourlay]

I think what we have to remember there are people in this industry making a reasonable living  charging a lot less than £80 an hour.

I have just been looking at some early sales blurb I received and it illustrates   how you can make a reasonable living part time charging £25 a carpet and £49 for a suite.

Obviously we all want more than that but is it harder to use a hot water extraction  equipment than a vacuum cleaner?


As far as Marketing stratergies are concerned  there are loads of post on here in the past  to give you a starting point.

How many Rods you have in the water at a time is up to you, ie how many can you work at a time.

[the red carpet]

Davep,

I try to do 6hours cleaning a day, 4days a week. But im allways working with leaflets, quotes, and all the rest

[Lavinia]

i can earn £100 pound a hour on some jobs but then again i also get £40 on others. every job is differant and takes differant times to do. i don't say no to a job because of how much i will earn per hour, if i have nothing booked in and we agree a price then i do the job. I did an empty 4 bed house for £250 and it took 3 hours today i did a corner suite £160 and it took 3 hours im happy there happy differant hourly rate