How’s Your Business Doing?
By Hitman | October 1, 2008
I just got back from the Connections Convention in Vegas. It’s the biggest gathering of carpet cleaners and restoration companies each year.
The subject of the economy and “how busy are you” came up periodically. I was even asked this question about my cleaning company while I was on stage giving my presentation.
From the what I’ve heard, most cleaning businesses are doing well. I didn’t take an official poll, but I’d say 80% said there business was either the same or even slightly up from last year. Then the other 20% said they were slightly down.
Do I see the 80/20 rule being applied here?
So how is your business? Click below to give me your two cents. Let me know how long you’ve been in business and if you’re doing better, about the same, or worse than last years sales.
Topics: carpet cleaning business | 15 Comments »
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15 Responses to “How’s Your Business Doing?”
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October 1st, 2008 at 3:50 am
How’s business doing?
We are doing good. We have not really been affected by the so called “recession”. Our sales are healthy and the summer months were the highest I’ve ever had. I just did my highest $ residential today that I have ever had. The ticket was over $1200! (she was referred to us) 3 things that are keeping us busy right now are:
1. newspaper ads
2. referrals
3. val pak
Other than today’s record job, we are not near our higher monthly rev totals but I am thankful that we are doing good.
Cory
Please post, it will be good to see how others are doing.
October 1st, 2008 at 8:59 am
My numbers are right at where we were last year. We lost a large commerical account in January who started doing the cleaning inhouse so considering that we’re doing OK.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:48 am
Buisiness is down 12% through August compared with same time last year. I did a flyer/letter to 300 of my customers with a 2 room special which was 20% off my regular price starting the second week of Sept. sending 100 each week, have been real pleased with response and return. I have never done much marketing with this type of campaign but I see from the results I have been overlooking a real goldmine. I don’t have all the figures yet but it looks like close to $2000 return for about $150 and a couple hours of time.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:07 am
Although the phones seem to be a little quieter, the jobs are still coming in. We attribute referrals, our monthly newsletter to our existing customers and the relationships we are building with realtors in our area for the majority of our jobs. We focus on the thought of “What can we do to Help you with your problem?” Because we know that there are plenty of customers out there that really love a clean home or office and are willing to pay to let us help them. We just have to be creative, informative and savvy enough to get our name in front of them. Thank you John for the knowledge you have shared in helping us in this area.
October 1st, 2008 at 11:23 am
we are doing fine and do not see the slow down some have stated they have.
We use
Direct Mail
Referential program
News paper ads
networking
October 1st, 2008 at 1:10 pm
We have been doing real good here too. As a matter of fact i’m looking to hire a helper.
Have just about got rid of yellow page ads
Referrals from website have been good
And referrals from present clients
No newspaper ads
Just do quality work and network with people
October 1st, 2008 at 2:39 pm
We were unaware of the slow business for the Rug industry. We have grown another location and we are recieving rugs from all over the states. What get us going is the list of rugs bought a couple years ago from the Middle East. We are a 500 year old company in the Middle East, and the looms, and Bazaar gives us a list of what rugs sold and to where. We promise never to adverstise the lists, or try to sale rugs to them, just cleaning and repair.
Our referrals are up this is by the incredible work we do. We are the only one in the rug industry with a 2 year warranty on our cleaning.
Our work with the Museums are up, and the Museums are referring us to the very old rugs. To work with the Museums you have to have your bacholar degree or higher in the rug programs at University of Esfahan Arts, or University of Tehran.
One thing I have notice is the cheapy rugs as we call them. With the cheapy rugs we have not seen for a couple of years now.
We do not advertise at all.
October 1st, 2008 at 10:15 pm
I MOVED TO NORTH CAROLINA FROM FLORIDA IN JULY OF LAST YEAR SO I’M DOING MUCH BETTER THAN AT THIS TIME LAST YEAR. I HAVE BEEN DOING DECENT FOR A FEW MONTHS NOW WITH NO SIGN OF A SLOW-DOWN. I DO ALOT OF REFERRAL WORK WITH A COUPLE DIFFERENT REALTORS. AND I HAVE SOME YELLOW PAGE ADS WHICH SEEM TO WORK HALF WAY DECENT. I WOULD LIKE TO BE BUSIER BUT IF IT STAYS STAUS-QUO I’M HAPPY.
October 2nd, 2008 at 1:22 am
Business is pretty good. We’re not extremely up over last year, but I can’t complain. It looks like we are about 5% up over our total sales last year.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I’m slightly behind from last year but, so far, I’m not terribly concerned. I lost a couple of mid-size commercial accounts (shut down) and a bunch of residential customers this year (moved out of state), it’s the third year in a row that this happens, so, all in all, I can’t complain to be where i am right now but I’ll have to do something to generate more bussines before it’s too late.I’ve dropped all the YP ads at the beginning of this year, for the last couple of years they didn’t generate enough to even pay for themselves, the only thing going for me is the website ( it could do better), repeat and referrals.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Though I have been advertising like crazy through various sites such as CL, & Kijiji, I am not receiving any calls. I am in the Southern California area, and business seems to be bad. My business targets mostly an upscale clientele, that I believed would be recession proof, but wow was I wrong. I have a noticed that others in the carpet cleaning industry, have been experiencing the same downward trend in business.
Regarding my adveritising, on Kijiji they display a hit counter on you ad posted. One of my ads that I posted 2 days ago, has received more than 350 hits, but no phone calls. I can’t figure it out. Every day I post somewhere, which has help in my positioning on search engine pages. I am always on the first page, and my website shows many hits and adding to favorites, but no requests or calls. I don’t know what is going on.
My service is one of extreme quality and time consuming to ensure customer retention and word of mouth, and I can’t offer $99.00 for a whole house as others are doing at this point. I couldn’t justify performing my service for that price, and I don’t want to just do a fog and extract, it goes against my nature. If I can’t do it right, I’d rather not do it at all.
I’m really worried at this point at feeling the pinch. I wake up everyday hoping today will be better, but nothing changes. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
October 23rd, 2008 at 3:57 am
Cliff,
let John look at your ads. He can help you get a better response.
Cory
http://www.mycarpetcure.com
November 25th, 2008 at 2:55 am
up approx 33% over last year. New media, Local business networking, and getting existing customers to be better cheerleaders using surveys and thank you cards are responsible for increase.
December 13th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
Thanks for all your comments. Cliff, playing the internet marketing game by yourself is tough. It really takes having someone who knows internet marketing to hold your hand. I have a program set up for this. Email me if interested.
December 24th, 2008 at 3:19 am
Thanks to all who have responded. I’ve been receiving calls, but are expecting to pay at the most $75.00 to do a 2500 sq ft area.
All these undercutting low cost ads that other carpet cleaners are posting seem to have people convinced that is the going rate for a quality carpet cleaning.